The design wall is a sea of colour, the 40 squeezy bottle of thickened dye are ready, the COVID safe screens are back in place and the ‘brew’ area is stocked with a variety of teas, coffees, individually wrapped choccy biscuits and mini-Haribou packs ……… Yes, after a gap of 6 months my studio will open tomorrow! And I am so relieved, happy, nervous and slightly tearful.

I can only teach students who live locally as restrictions will remain in place on travel and hotels until mid-May at the earliest but it is a step in the right direction. Tomorrow I will be teaching Colour Your Palette to four lovely ladies who have all been in the studio before. The workshop is based on my latest book and this will be the first time I have taught it …. and so I am very grateful to my four guinea-pigs. Hopefully the pleasure of learning in person will make up for any blunders on my part!

It feels like we are in a better place than we were when I opened last summer. Most of us ‘older’ people have had at least on jab, social distancing and hand hygiene have become normal behaviour and I can use lateral flow tests every few days to give that extra bit of reassurance. I know that some other studios are opening up from tomorrow and I wish them all well - it has been a long winter!

Bye for now, Leah x