Hi Kiddos

I wanted to talk to you about my memory books and how I got into making them.

My old school friend's dad died quite a few years ago. This was all really sad as it was so sudden and she used to talk about him all the time, she was so close to him, it hit her really badly. One thing that gave her some comfort after he died was that during his 60th year, he had kept a diary that was to be shared around the close family for them to read. It held all his memories of that year.

When she told me this, my first thought was, what a great idea and how comforting that must be for my friend. It took her ages to read it, mainly because she is a slow reader but I think she wanted it to last as long as possible and to savour every moment, it kept his memory alive.

Now, the notebook side of my business firmly comes from my love of stationery, notebooks, pens and all that jazz.. from an early age it was a guilty pleasure I had. New exercise books, a new coloured pen (a green pen was considered wild when I was 10), and paperclips, bulldog clips and clipboards and generally all things stationery.

However, the concept of memory books come from my friend's dad.... Thanks Kenny by the way, and Claire for sharing it with me.

I wanted the memory books to be personalised, and as I always want to offer, 'a little more', than my competitors, I come up with the idea of a character image of the recipient of that book.

My collection of the adult memory book was born and was closely followed by the kids one. My best seller to this day remains to be the memory book for a 10th birthday girl. My own personal memories of this time are so special and I would love to see some written notes of any fun times and days around that time. Pictures are great, but words say so much more.

Only this Christmas my son and daughter surprised me with a record player. I was like a kid in a sweetshop when I got my records out from years ago. One of them was an old record of The Pointer Sisters which belonged to my mum. My friends and I used to dance and dance to this album when they would come round for tea, and we especially liked the track 'Jump', to which we would jump from the table. All of these memories came rushing back.. there were no pictures, only feelings of nostalgia.

Just proof really, that memories are so much more than a snap on a camera.