The Baa Baa Bar

New project 🙌

I’ve been working on an exciting new collaboration recently, to create a premium alcohol-free drinks experience for FERAL Fest.

I wanted to find the balance between their values, message and brand, and my own style - having the freedom to do what I do best.. being free to be the absolute feral creative being that I am 😂 Experimenting with the bold & beautiful, weird & wonderful and somehow merging it all into something magical ✨

My aim was to create a story where the drinks moved with the festival, changing in flavour, mood and experience as the day unfolded.

Morning into afternoon started fresh and functional, using ingredients including fresh ginger, Lion’s Mane, nettle and elderflower. As the day moved on, so did the menu becoming brighter and more playful with Untamed - a playful charred pineapple, raspberry, coconut & lime creation.

Evening changed the mood. I wanted to leave a little mystery with ‘After Dark’ a moody mix of bergamot & blackberry, finished with signature foam and edible festival branding, while ‘Afterglow’ ended the night with comfort, warm, autumn-spiced cloudy apple.

Alongside the drinks came bespoke menus, in-house garnishes, infusions and foams, edible branded prints and small interactive details, all designed around the FERAL identity.

The aim was to exceed guest expectations (because an alcohol-free festival doesn’t automatically scream exciting drinks), create memorable moments and, most importantly, add value and engagement for the client through an often-overlooked part of event experiences.

Getting to watch people discover it, enjoy my weird & wonderful creations and leave with smiles on their faces was a pretty lovely bonus ✨🤍

Ripples

A glimpse into what we’ve been up to this week..
A stunning location, a perfect opportunity to get creative spent with the most beautiful bunch of people 🤍

One of the best parts about running my own business is (for the most part) getting to choose the hours I work, which is amazing after years spent working for other people, finally getting to find a little work life balance.

I’m lucky to work next to some lovely people on the industrial estate who for the most part work a 9 - 5 (ish) they see me swanning in late in the afternoon to start what they call the ‘vampire shift’ 😂 but it suits me, if it’s a nice day me & the gremlin get to go off exploring, do some work remotely and unit work can fit in to suit.

And the unit is actually a pretty cool place to hang out, I think it looks pretty magical in the evenings ✨🥰

A little glimpse into todays work, and some of the prep that goes in behind the events… ✨

This weddings brief includes a couple of brand new cocktail creations (my favourite kind of work 😍) bespoke menus to match the wedding theme and an unusual challenge which is actually a first for me…

The Brief - To create a custom cocktail with all our usual flavour & creativity, that contains as little sugar as possible 👀

This is a challenge I actually gave myself 😅 because I strongly believe that all clients should be able to enjoy our creations, just because cocktails are usually off limits in this clients life, doesn’t mean they have to be, if we can create something that makes a client feel more included and the day more memorable, then we will find a way!

This is the beginnings of ‘Trouble in Paradise’ when a Margarita meets a tropical storm.. 🍍🌪️

Just over a week ago we had a very last minute SOS from the loveliest couple who were feeling more than a bit anxious over the drinks aspect of their upcoming big day.

After a call guided by their legendary planner, Alex together, we managed to get to the bottom of their anxieties and put them at ease reassuring them that we could provide everything they wanted 🤍

As well as a full bar service & on draught for Andrew, Carley had a very special request -

A Mojito toast (her Mums favourite cocktail) so that she and all of their friends and family could have a moment to raise a glass in her Mum’s memory 🤍

As suppliers, that’s our job, to take the stress away from the clients, make ideas like this come to life, and execute them in the best, most beautiful and fitting way we can. Especially when it’s something as important as this - one size does not fit all, and why should it? Which is why even at a week’s notice, we were more than happy to take this on.

Huge congratulations to Carley & Andrew 🤍
We had the best day with them at the most beautiful venue 🤍

Part Two.

I secured a grant to help bring my vision for expansion and new ideas to life. More on that in Part 3.

Then swanned off on a solo trip to Sweden that had been on my bucket list for the last couple of years. I wanted to get completely out of any comfort zone on purpose because I was ready for some adventure!

The past few months had taught me some valuable lessons, and I’d had to make some tough decisions, to leave situations, opportunities and people, which may have looked good on paper, but ultimately didn’t align with my values, and had left me drained, uninspired & disappointed that despite what’s promised, not everyone shares the same values. On the flip side learning what doesn’t work for me, taught me how important it is to find what does.

This trip, the amazing people I met & what I learned about myself through it, taught me that I don’t need to change or play it small to fit in anymore, that I can be my authentic quirky self, be brave enough to follow my own path, live life in a way that not everyone understands but makes me happy, and most importantly -

I don’t have to keep my dreams and ideas small, just because they make other people feel uncomfortable.

F**k that.

Those other people, are not my people. And I’m ok with that. ❤️