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Our final guest of Season 3 is the fantastic Rachel Atkinson, the founder of & actually a Daughter of a Shepherd. I hope you enjoy this warm & festive episode as much as I enjoyed recording it (you can expect quite a lot of laughter!

Rachel shares the story behind her wool company Daughter of a Shepherd where she creates limited edition yarns. She focuses on natural colours of British fleece grown, gathered, and spun with 100% traceability (It’s celebrating its 10th anniversary this year 🥳). She grew up in Yorkshire where her Dad took on Shepherding as a hobby. Having always had a love for knitting & after her Dad received a 94p cheque from the British Wool Board for 450 fleeces, Rachel wanted to showcase wool’s provenance - bringing renewed value to it and shining a light on all of its qualities 🐑🧶.

When building Daughter of Shepherd at its core was supporting local manufacturing in the process, including scourers in Keighley & mills in Yorkshire/Devon. We talk about how important these crafts are & how supporting them is critical to ensure those skills are passed on.

Featured is Rachel’s beloved terrier, DeeDee. We also have a very special guest Bryan who will always bring Rachel a sheep themed mug with tea at work, alongside learning that there is a company doing tea rounds to your house (Ringtons Round) that visits towns/villages in Yorkshire & up North (and yes you can request it to visit your house!) with their tea van filled with choice - THE STUFF OF DREAMS ☁️✨

Here are the mugs talked about, if you’d like to follow along and see:

1. The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) sheep mug - ‘look at this absolute unit’
2. Emma Bridgewater Bettys x Fat Rascal mug collaboration
3. Pip Hartle mug (for coffee!)
4. Russell Kingston (+ a bonus espresso mug)
5. Terry’s Chocolate mug from charity shop

Some of her quick fire favourites:

☕️Yellow bourbon coffee roasters, Ringtons tea

☕️🍪 Tea Pairings: plain digestives, chocolate hobnob, Tunnocks caramel wafer

🩰 Ballets: Swan Lake, Song of the Earth, Wolf Works

🧶🐏 Her favourite wool: Heritage DK - natural black

🏝️Desert Island people: Nick Offerman, Seamus Heaney, Jemma (Harding) Wilkinson

🐾 Dee Dees favourite things: sausages 🌭 & the warmth 🔥

We always love to hear what you think so please let us know ☕️💗

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This month’s guest is the wonderful Alice Bugeja (@Aliceroserunner on instagram). Alice is the founder of mileoff, a running wear brand on a mission! To make the best performance wear for women in the world & to dare women to dream bigger. mileoff may well take over the world - and I can’t wait 👟☁️

Alice developed her brand over two years around her 9-5 before taking the leap in March this year and hasn’t looked back since. A viral video led their iconic vest becoming a highly coveted item, with creators & runners alike showcasing mileoff. Alice & mileoff’s collections sell out in minutes.

Alice shares an honest view as a solo founder, the source of her inspiration & how women are the driving force behind mileoff & every design (we need pockets!!): from being barred from marathons just 60 years ago to the lack of funding for female-owned brands there is still so much progress to be made.

What may come as a surprise to you in this episode, is that Alice doesn’t drink coffee, and not that much tea (living in Dubai & a hot climate is not really conducive to wanting a hot drink!) but she does have a mug which has been a big part of her story.

The one & ONLY:

1.Alice’s Dyson mug - a leaving gift from her colleagues

Some of her quick fire favourites!

👟Marathon destinations: Spain (Ibiza), Tokyo, New York

☕️🍪Favourite pairing: custard creams

🤝 💍Dream brand partner for mileoff - D Louise jewellery

🏝️ Desert Island people: Grace Beverley, Phil Knight, Jamie Oliver

🎙️Working Hard - Grace Beverley , Aspire with Emma Grede, Ladies who Launch - Rochelle Humes, Sweat Equity - Alex Garcia & Brian Blum, How to Fail - Elizabeth Day , Mel Robbins, Diary of a CEO - Stephen Bartlett

Available on all platforms now to listen (Spotify/Apple podcasts) or watch (Spotify/YouTube).

We always love to hear what you think so please let us know ☕️💗

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This month’s guest is the amazing Chemmy Alcott. Chemmy is a 4 x Winter Olympian, presenter (Ski Sunday, Olympics) & speaker who is always seeking her next adventure or challenge ⛷️🗻

Chemmy takes us behind the scenes of a Winter Olympics, talks about how proud she is of her skiing injuries as a reminder of going all out 100%, how having the courage to try regardless of results fuelled her & is what she passes on in coaching and with schools, as well as the story behind her real name. Also why if lost in a supermarket, she may be found browsing the tea aisles admiring the packaging ☕️

The sheer determination & love during her career for the sport & in what she does shines through ✨

Here are the mugs talked about. If you’d like to follow along and see, you can see pictures of all the mugs on @amugslifepod instagram:

1. Chemmy’s Christening mug
2. Lillehammer Winter Olympics 1994 mug
3. Argentinian Mate mug
4. Powderhound snowsports mug released ahead of the 2022 Beijing Olympics

Some of her quick fire favourites!

🏝️Desert Island picks - Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Madonna, Mother Teresa, Alberto Tomba, Mum
🍪☕️ Pairings - hobnob or digestive with tea, rocky road with coffee
☕️ Coffee Shop - The Coffee Pot, Thames Ditton
🏅Olympic sport if Chemmy had been in the Summer Olympics - tennis/padel🎾
☕️🍫 Best skiing hot chocolate - one with Grand Marnier/rum
📺 Favourite TV show - Ski Sunday of course!! ⛷️

Available on all platforms now to listen (Spotify/Apple podcasts) or watch (Spotify/YouTube)

We always love to hear what you think so please let us know ☕️💗

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