Hello, I'm Bonny Snowdon, ex-corporate person and mother turned successful artist entrepreneur. It wasn't that long ago though that I lacked the confidence, vision, and support network to focus on growing my dream business. Fast forward past many life curve balls, waves of self-doubt, and so many lessons learned. And you'll see Ignite my thriving online coloured pencil artist community, a community that changes members' lives for the better,
and gives me freedom to live abundantly whilst doing what I love and spending quality time with my beloved family and dogs, all whilst creating my best artwork with coloured pencils and mentoring others to do the same. But this life wasn't always how it was for me. It used to only exist in my imagination. I've created the, It's A Bonny Old Life podcast to help increase people's confidence, share mine and my community's experience, and hope through fascinating personal stories, champion the other amazing humans in my personal, professional, and membership community, and create another channel through which I can support others to realize their dreams. If you're a passionate coloured pencil artist or an aspiring one who's looking to create their best work and a joyful life you love, you are in the right place. Grab a cuppa and a custard cream. Let's get cracking.
Welcome to another Roundup. Sit back with your cup of tea. Whilst I recall what I've been up to in October. From a new Art Club subject to an exciting week away in Nashville, obstacle courses, axe throwing and people loving my accent, it's all here in this podcast episode. Enjoy.
Well, oh, end of, oh, end of October. I'm doing this at the kitchen table, and I've, I've got Dora kind of half on, half off the table, so that, that sort of sums up my life. A minute half on half, half this month has been a little bit unusual in that I have been away.
It's, it's a trip that I've been really, really looking forward to for a very long time. And so I'm gonna tell you all about that. And quite honestly, I can't remember anything else I've done this month, which is a bit strange because I've, I'm doing a, I've bought Mind Valley, I dunno whether anybody else uses Mind Valley, but I've,
I've bought it and I'm going through some of the, the quests and some of the lessons, and I'm learning a new form of meditation and I'm learning how to better my memory. Clearly I need to do more learning because I can't, still can't remember a thing. And this is the thing. This is, this is what the guy has been telling us.
He's called Jim Quick. And, and I remembered that and I've made sure that I've remembered that. And he says that, you know, as with everything in life, and it's something that I teach all of the time anyway, if you say you can't do something, then you're programming your brain not to do it. So I've got to stop saying I can't remember stuff and,
oh, my memory's bad. And oh, you know what I've got to say is, you know, I'm somebody who can remember things, but I'm still working on it. So he's got a few, a few really, really good quotes that, that I really love. One of them really stood out. I'm just gonna grab it. Oops. It's got my note pad here.
This one really, really stood out to me. And it's, if you argue for your limits, you get to keep them. And I flipping love that quote. You know, if you argue that you are, I am this sort of person, I have these kind of limits, you get to keep them. And I think we've all got to remember that actually we're limitless.
We can do whatever we want to do. We just have to put our minds to it, and we just have to believe that we can. So I believe I can be better at memory. So let's see, art-wise, we started our new project within Art Club, and that's our gorgeous Highland cow. We've done a bit of a horn and a bit of an ear and some background so far,
but it's really, really relaxing. Backgrounds I find really relaxing because it's just your pencil going round and round, just adding colour, smoothing it, blending it, and it's a really relaxing exercise. And actually, it's funny, I'm, you know, there's me sort of sitting there teaching it thinking, oh gosh, everybody's gonna be so bored. And actually everybody really loves it because it's very,
very relaxing. So we've started the Highland Cow. I am in discussions with a local photographer and I've got some gorgeous photos that he's going to allow me to use from somewhere local to me, which, which is gonna be really, really special. And that is going to be one of my next tutorials. I've also got a fabulous, it's a, it's a black and white that we're gonna be doing,
really concentrating on values. So I've done quite a lot of value work before. We've got quite a few tutorials that are just around the values 'cause they are incredibly important. This one that I've chosen and I've got permission to use is a human face. It's a child's face, but it's very sort of close up. I haven't quite decided what surface we're gonna do it on yet.
Could be that we do it on drafting film, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. So I'm just kind of deciding that the, the, the other photograph, again, I'm not sure, I might do it on hot press or like Lightfast paper or something like that. I'm not sure yet. I just need to have a look to, to see what I've got and what the lesson would be best taught on.
So that's kind of what I've been doing this, this month. Not a huge amount of drawing. I've got a couple of commissions that I've done, lovely Grey Horse, and I'm, I'm on with a lovely cat at the moment, which the photograph is, it's the, it's the, my client's favourite photograph, but it is not a very good photograph,
but they absolutely love it. So we've used it and I, before I went away, I'd done the face and I was really enjoying it because there's no details there. It's, I'm only purely concentrating on, on values. And yesterday I managed to get a whole day's drawing in and, and I've nearly finished it, which is, which is amazing.
I had a really, really good day's drawing yesterday. So after I'd, I haven't really been jet lagged or anything like that. I've come back from America, so I haven't really been jet lagged. It wasn't such a long flight. The, the issue was when I got back to London, that was where the issue started. Anyway, so a week ago,
a week ago, just over a week ago, we traveled, Vicki and I traveled to Nashville from London. So I traveled down the Wednesday to London, met Vicki at King's Cross, and then we went to Heathrow. We stayed overnight in Heathrow and then we got a flight over to Nashville direct about eight hours. So it wasn't too bad and it was a really good flight.
I watched three films on the flight, didn't go to sleep, watched a hilarious film called Paint. I dunno whether it is watched, it, it's got Owen Wilson in it. And it's basically, it's not Bob Ross, but it is Bob Ross, but it's not Bob Ross. And it's quite funny. So I recommend that one. And we were going to Nashville for a two day mastermind conference with my mentor,
I suppose, Stu McLaren. And it's something that I've had planned for quite a long time. Something that I've wanted to do for quite a long time. I've only been in his mastermind since the beginning of this year. And as soon as those dates came out, I was, I was like that. That's it. I'm going, we're going, we're,
we're off to Nashville. No, nothing's gonna stop me. So we landed in Nashville and the hotel we were staying in was unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. It's called The Graduate in Nashville. I think they've got them all over the world. And it was a Dolly Parton themed hotel. Oh, my, it was just amazing. It was absolutely amazing. The lobby,
the hotel lobby was huge. And it had so many different seating areas. So we'd come down for breakfast and we'd just sit and we'd have like a leisurely breakfast, which then kind of grew into a leisurely lunch. And it was just the most fantastic place to be. Lots of different people there. Just the most amazing, amazing, amazing hotel. So we arrived on the Thursday,
Friday, we met up with a, a friend of mine, Michelle Lloyd, and she has United Art Space, teaches people how to basically sell their work. And met up with Michelle. She was on the same plane as us. So we, we all kind of went to the hotel together. And then on the Friday morning we met up with another friend of mine from Australia.
So love from Mim, she makes stickers. And we just had the most amazing time. It was so funny. We all had met Michelle before, but I haven't met Mim and went off, we went to sort of downtown Nashville. And the, the music starts the, the, the, the nightlife starts at 10 o'clock in the morning. So we're there,
we're walking down, there's like cowboy boot shops, there's cowboy hat shops, there's every other, every other building was a bar. And every bar had its windows wide open and they were playing live music and it was absolutely incredible. So we started off in the 1230 club, which is Justin Timberlakes Bar. And we had a really nice meal and the music was incredible and more singing and everything,
and it was just fantastic. And then we went boot shopping for Mim, didn't find anything on that day. And then on the Saturday we, I met up with I think about 20 of my Academy members from, well, not from the Nashville area, actually from all over the states. I think the, the furthest somebody driven was 12 hours, which was just un unbelievable.
And I'm so, so grateful for everybody who joined me. We had such a lovely time. We had such a lovely time. We had a, a meal together, we spent the afternoon together and it was just, it was just amazing. It was absolutely amazing, you know, to get people who you've been chatting to on screen for so long,
actually get to meet them in person and give them a big hug. It, we was just brilliant. It was really, really brilliant. So we met them on the Saturday and then Saturday night we managed to get tickets for the Grand Old Opry. And it was a tribute concert to Keith Whitley, an artist I, I, I've never heard of to be honest.
But I did recognize some of the songs and there were different people coming on and different singers. And then at the end, Garth Brooks. So we managed to see Garth Brooks just, you know, completely out of the blue. Amazing atmosphere, absolutely amazing atmosphere. I had the most incredible time. It was just brilliant. And then Sunday, what have we done?
So oh, Sunday off we went around Nashville again, in a golf cart, in a golf buggy to look at all of the murals and the art and everything around Nashville, which was really, really good fun. We ended up in a whiskey distillery. I don't really, I don't really drink. We ended up in a whiskey distillery with, and it's like free tasting basically.
And you get a bar mat with all of the different whiskeys you can taste and you get five shot glasses and you just put the shot glasses on the, the whiskey that you want to taste. And then the barman comes and tells you about the whiskey and then pours you a shot. So I had things like white chocolate, coffee, salted caramel, you know,
this sort of stuff. Vicki, she's on the 85% moonshine. She's like, well like, knock yours back, you can't sip it. You can't sip it, knock it back. Oh goodness, it was so funny. So we had the most hilarious day on the Sunday. And then the Sunday evening we met up with all the rest of the masterminds who were coming to Nashville for this two day convention.
So we had a meal with them. I got to meet some incredible people who'd never met before. You know, you see people on the, on the, the Zoom calls, but just recently there's been sort of like some new members joining. So a a lot of artists, which was just brilliant for me. Absolutely brilliant for me. So there was the lovely Alan Pickard,
there was lovely Ali Kay, really, really inspiring artists, not coloured pencil, acrylic and pastel. And just incredibly inspiring because they're doing exactly the same thing as me. They're getting people back, being creative, and they've got these amazing memberships. And it was just so fantastic to talk to somebody who does the same sort of thing as, as as I do.
Just really, really inspiring. And then on the Monday o off we go, well not off we go. 'cause it was in the hotel. We started with our two days with Stu McLaren. And it was just, it was just amazing to get to meet somebody who has inspired me, who I've admired for since 2021, to actually get to meet him in person and to get to sit there with a room full of incredibly passionate and incredibly successful business owners,
regardless of what they were doing. Because we were all kind of doing the same thing as in a membership, but all doing very different stuff. So, you know, there might be somebody working with autistic children. There might be somebody who creates things for primary school teachers. There might be somebody who is doing art. There might be somebody who's teaching art.
There might be somebody who is teaching people to dress, you know, to their best possibility. Just whatever you can think of you can make a membership out of. And these people were in this room altogether and it was just inspiring. It was amazing listening to all these people's stories, listening to how they'd built their business, how they were doing in their business.
It, it was just brilliant. And we had, we had two days where we had guest speakers coming in. We had speakers within the mastermind talking about different things that they were doing. And I've got so, so many different ideas for, for my business, for how I'm running my business. And it was just the most amazing thing. And it's a community.
It's all about community. And this community that Stu's created is fantastic. It's full of people who are highly successful but are really happy to share. Nobody holds anything close to their chest. They just want to share. And I love being part of something like that. I absolutely love being part of it. And it was amazing. Monday night we all went off on a trip so they wouldn't tell us anything about it.
Anyway, those of you in the UK you might recognize if I say go ape, we've got one near us and it's basically an obstacle course in the trees. Okay? And it, there's me who can hardly walk. And I'm like, no. So there's this huge obstacle course in the trees where you had to climb up rote, loud ladders. You had to go down,
you had to do the, I can't remember what they are now. So my training's not going very well. Is it the, the, the slidey things just zipwire, that's what it was. And so quite a few people went and did this and there were quite a few people who sat around the fire. And we did an alternative exercise, which was throwing axes.
So I got the first ax in the wood and I think I got the first bullseye, which was very exciting. And the bullseye kept on coming after that. Very much about technique, very much about how you're standing very much, how about how you are sort of holding the axe, all of that kind of stuff and how you are throwing it, whether it's one handed or two handed.
And that was incredibly fun. Again, very much about building relationships with the people who I'd, I'd kind of seen on a zoom screen, but I'd never actually met in person. So building relationships with incredible people. Just amazing people and just having a laugh. And my marshmallow set on fire when we were around the fire. So I'm there with this marshmallow and then Shauna going,
don't flick it, don't flick it. I'm like, oh my god. So I had kind of pull it out and blowing on it. You can't flick it. 'cause obviously it might flick off and land in somebody's face, I don't know. So yeah, so that, that was really, really amazing. And then back on the Tuesday to do more incredible stuff,
talking around our businesses, all of that kind of stuff. So a huge amount out of it, not only those two days, but just spending time with incredibly inspiring people. And that's something that I, I feel really strongly about. So I have a, a couple of groups, couple of Facebook groups, and one of them is a, is just a free group for coloured pencils.
The other is my membership group. And I get a lot of people joining it and saying, oh, hang on a second. I can't possibly post my stuff in here. The work's too good. I'd feel really ashamed, or I can't possibly put my work in because I'm just such a beginner. I think I need to find a, a group that doesn't have,
you know, doesn't have the, the, the standard of work this. And the thing is, that's not just my group. That's, every single group will end up like that because people develop, people start as a beginner and then they become passionate about what they're doing and then they develop and they get better and better. And my answer is always surround yourself with amazing people doing what you want to do.
And you will, their amazingness will brush off on you and you will become even more amazing as well. You are gonna pick up on the amazingness of that group. And that is always, always my answer. It's never, oh yes, go go and find a group that you know where you can sort of be with people. Your standard No, no,
be in a group who's really happy to have you and really happy to help you and learn from people who are better than you. That is the best way I think of continuing your learning and your self-development. Just be with people who are miles better than you. You wouldn't, you wouldn't select somebody to teach you something new who was rubbish, would you?
Well you might do, but you know, you wouldn't select somebody who was like, you know, at your standard to teach you. You wouldn't do that. You'd teach somebody who I really inspire to be like that person. So I'm really, I'm gonna learn from them. And it's the same when you join a community and I'm really, really passionate about that.
And that's something that comes up quite a lot. And that's always the answer that I give people. So we spent the rest of the, the rest of the week sort of chatting and down in, in downtown Nashville on Broadway. And we had the most amazing, amazing trip back to the, back to the airport on Thursday evening. Great flight home,
I think it was about seven and a half hours, something like that. Really great flight home. Then we realized that London trains are all in turmoil and this isn't working and that's not working. And, and then I'm sitting there to get my train home. And the night before my train was cancelled, so I booked another train. So of course we have this storm,
whatever it was called. And then my next train was cancelled. And I was like, oh my goodness. And then we're getting through all of this information about flooding everywhere and, and I was like, I just want to get home. I just want to get home. And the trains, I I'm not sure whether we're work, we're running, this was on the Friday,
I am not sure whether the train started running properly on the Saturday because the flooding was quite bad. Tried to get a hotel and couldn't find a hotel where, where I was tried to look at flights, so could I fly back to somewhere near where I live. Anyway, in the end I just thought, do you know what, I just wanna get home.
So I got a taxi back from London, which sounds incredibly indulgent, but when you think about the train tickets that I was buying, one train ticket cost me something like hundred 80 pounds one way. It's like, what if I'd had to get a hotel in London? Probably would've cost me a couple of hundred pounds. Might have had to stay a couple of nights.
So actually getting a taxi home wasn't that indulgent because it probably would've cost me that to stay in London. And I had this mo, this lovely taxi driver who drove me all the way back to Yorkshire, which sounds crazy, but you know, when you just wanna be home. I just wanted to be with my family. I just wanted to be with my dogs.
And the weather was so flipping horrible. Anyway, we, we, we got back Friday night about half past nine in the evening and I was just so happy to be home. I was so, so happy to be home. And so I've just been sort of sleeping a lot and yesterday spent a lot of time drawing. Went to see my mum and dad on Saturday and just trying to sort of get him back into the swing of things really.
It it's quite, it's amazing going away, but it can be quite disruptive to routine, especially if you've got quite a strict routine. And I'm trying to change my routine at the moment. Tried to do a meditation this morning and of course couldn't 'cause the cat was running around all over the place and making noises and the dogs were, and it's, and I have to have like a really,
not necessarily really quiet space, but somewhere where I'm not gonna be interrupted. So I've sort of stopped my meditation this morning. I think I'm gonna have to do it much earlier. Probably have to get up earlier and do a meditation then, so that it actually works. Because otherwise I get into, you get into the swing of the day and all of that kind of stuff and it's,
you know, you you, it's just harder to do it really. So I'm, I'm trying to get a bit more meditation in go through the Mind valley. I'm doing the silver method of meditation, which is dynamic meditation, which I really like the sound of and get back to my swimming. And I've got a walking pad as well, which I need to do some more walking.
'cause of course we're off to Sweden in February and I need to be able to be a little bit fitter for then. So it's been a whirlwind, a whirlwind month November coming up. We've got the amazing art party. I've got a trip to Bristol to see another one of my sort of idols, another of my mentors, Denise Duffield Thomas. I'm going to Bristol second week,
second weekend in November for a two day workshop conference thing, which I'm really excited about. I'm actually flying down there. Would you believe It's so much cheap. And this is crazy because we talk about the environment all the time. This is crazy. To fly down to Bristol cost me 24 pounds to take the train down to Bristol cost me about 200 pounds.
How can that be? Right? Come on, Britain sort your blooming public transport out. It is madness, utter madness. Anyway, I'm flying down to Bristol. I'm really, really looking forward to that. So, so yeah, so that's what my month has looked like. Crazy busy again. And this fantastic trip to Nashville. Nashville was amazing.
The people were so lovely. Everybody was so kind, loved Vicki and my accents. There was one time, there was one time we were in the lift going up and this, there was me and Vicky and then there was this, this chap and this chap said something and the girl went, oh my goodness, where are you from? And he was like,
oh, I'm from Scotland in a, in a Scottish accent of course, which I'm not going to do. And she said, oh, where in Scotland? He said, oh, Glasgow. And then she said to me, are you from Scotland? I was like, no, I'm from England. Are you from Scotland? No, I'm from England.
And then this guy said something else and she went, oh my goodness, you sound just like Shrek. Oh my god, he got out. Poor man. And then this lady started talking to us. She's like, oh, I love your accent, blah, blah, blah, London, la la la. Got out of the, got out of the lift and she went,
oh, long live the king. And it was the funniest thing. Anyway, so I'm gonna stop there. We had a, a fabulous time. Really, really super, super weak. Nashville was amazing. And yeah, lots more, lots more trips planned. So sending lots of love, hope you're all drawing. Make sure you surround yourself with amazing people. That's my tip for this month and I'll see you all soon.
I really hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of my It's A Bonny Old Life podcast. If you did, I'd be so grateful to you for emailing me or texting a link to the show or sharing it on social media with those you know who might like it too. My mission with this podcast is all about sharing mine and my community's experience and hope by telling your fascinating personal stories,
championing the other amazing humans in my personal, professional, and membership community. And to create another channel through which I can support you to realize your coloured pencil and life dreams. If you haven't done so yet, please help me on my mission to spread positivity and joy throughout the Coloured pencil world by following me on my socials at Bonny Snowdon Academy or by getting on my list at bonnysnowdonacademy.com.
And remember, I truly believe if I can live the life of my dreams doing what I love, then you can too. We just need to keep championing and supporting each other along the way in order to make it happen. Till next time,
