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This month’s guest is the brilliant @emmapuddickpottery. Emma creates colourful creations inspired by pop culture, tattoo iconography & vintage styles. She’s also a top 0.0001% worldwide** Dolly Parton fan (**unverified 😂)

Emma runs her own ceramics business, centred around monthly shop drops! These often sell out in minutes so you have to be quick ⏰ Her following & success really started to grow in 2022. At this time, the art director of The Great Pottery Throwdown spotted her mugs & the judges used them on the show in deliberation section when they decide who’s potter of the week & who’s going home

For those who’ve followed A Mug’s Life for a while you may have seen Emma’s mugs as they’re in many of my posts & stories. Her weather mugs are my personal mug favourites & also my most complimented mugs ☀️⛅️⚡️☔️. Her designs are simply incredible & so creative!

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

1. The start of Emma Puddick Pottery - purple leopard print mug
2. Dolly Parton mug by Jake Ford Ceramics
3. A photo mug of Emma & friends in Schitt’s Creek fancy dress
4. Keith Brymer Jones mug - made during lockdown from his studio
5. Adam Frew ceramics porcelain mug

Some of her quick fire favourites!

☕️ Tea: Yorkshire tea Biscuit Brew 🍪 & Whittards Dreamtime

☕️ Coffee: Wogan coffee roastery

📺 Hacks & Sort your life out with Stacey Solomon

🎙️Blindboy podcast & Dolly Parton’s America

📚 Thursday Murder Club, The Avocado Hotel, The Satsuma Complex

Available on all platforms now to listen (Spotify/Apple podcasts) or watch (Spotify/YouTube). Also linked in my bio 💫

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

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This month’s guest is my wonderful teacher, mentor & friend - Mary Doherty (the best 🥹) and it means a lot to have her on the pod

Mary played Bonnie in the original West End cast of Come From Away and as part of that run, they won Best New Musical at the 2019 Olivier Awards

She’s also performed in musicals including Les Miserables, Avenue Q, Grease, Our House & Merry Wives (alongside Dame Judi Dench)

Mary has toured with the RSC & performed at the Globe, with her favourite role being Queen Margaret in the Henry VI trilogy

In 2012, she saw a space to help young actors on their journey to becoming professional actors & started the @theactorsclass which gets unanimous praise (having attended myself, all of it is deserved and much more - Mary creates an environment like no other 🪄✨)

Personally there have been challenges, with a difficult journey to motherhood but ending in an IVF miracle. Mary is a proud Mum of Annie!

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

1. Tring Park School for the Performing Arts 50th anniversary mug
2. ‘The best holiday of my life’ family collage mug made by her nephew of her family holiday in the Algarve, Portugal for her Dad’s birthday
3. Superman mug - press night gift from husband Chris (one of many superman themed gifts 🦸🏻‍♂️)
4. Come From Away The Musical mug
5. Emma Bridgewater Mummy mug

Some of Mary's quick fire favourites!

☕️ Peppermint tea

🎬 Ordinary People

📺 Shrinking

🎙️Mel Robbins

🏝️ Holiday - Maldives (been) & Thailand (wants to visit)

🎭 Bull - Mike Bartlett

🎭🎶 West Side Story

TW// Discussion about infertility & miscarriage

Available on all platforms now to listen (Spotify/Apple podcasts) or watch (Spotify/YouTube). Also linked in my bio 💫

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

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We’re back with S3 and I’m delighted to welcome our first guest:

Ella has her own ceramics business based just outside Edinburgh @Ellafletcherdesigns. Her mission is ‘bringing joy to the everyday with colourful, handmade ceramics’ and she embodies this in what she creates 🌷💐🎨

⏰Her new website where you’ll be able to buy a whole range of products will be launching Friday 25th April ‼️

That joy & feeling when you choose a favourite mug from the cupboard. I’ve been a fan of her work for a while and it was such a pleasure to chat in Edinburgh 🪄

We cover all the key questions: Ella’s perfect brew, why the colour of the inside of the mug is so important & the art of mug handles ☕️

We also chat about getting inspiration from the Scottish landscape, travel & collaborations with female-owned local Scottish businesses as well as a new contract this year with the National Trust for Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

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

1. The first mug Ella ever made (taught by Chris Donnelly)

2. The first mug Ella made by herself (THE ORIGINAL)

3. By Jodie, MADE & MATTER CERAMICS, WALES (Made_and_matter ceramics)

4. Bought in Ithaca, Greece from the maker at a gallery (Reminders of a 4 week Greek Island family trip last Summer

5. Laura Grainger F*ck the Tories mug

Collaborations & partnerships with local Scottish businesses:

💡Amanda Wells Lighting

🕯️Luna Candles

🕯️Tyninghame Candles

💗 It’s Good to Give charity - supporting young Cancer patients & their families in Scotland

Quick fire favourites!

📚The Bee Sting - Paul Murray 🐝

📺 Big Boys, Day of the Jackal, Hacks

🎧 Self Esteem

🗺️Greece & Scottish Highlands

🎙️My therapist ghosted me & The rest is entertainment

✨Will it make the boat go faster? Ben Hunt-Davis

Available on all platforms now to listen (Spotify/Apple podcasts) or watch (Spotify/YouTube). Also linked in my bio 💫

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

Edited by Megan Tuck Audio

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It’s Valentine’s Day and what a good reminder it is to be kind to yourself, not put yourself under too much pressure and most importantly to have fun! 🪩💌

Today we’re back with another chatty New Year’s episode with a twist as before recording Claudia & I spent the afternoon with card & magazines to put together mood boards for our 2025 intentions & beyond

We talk through our mood boards and why we were drawn to the things we chose. We discuss it all from finding calm, being more present, to not packing your schedule too full so you can find joy in the spontaneity of deciding what do to do on the day (like seeing it’s snowing and buying sledges 🛷 ❄️)

We’ve also moved to full video episodes so you can watch on YouTube & Spotify 📺 🥳 Video editing for the first time with a new software was an experience 😁 so bear with this first episode!

If you do watch it, spot my Valentine’s themed socks 💗 (which were entirely unintentional as we didn’t know when the episode was going out!)

We would love to hear about your 2025 intentions! 🎉

Available on all platforms now to listen or watch!

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:57 Setting up our 2025 moodboard intentions
02:04 Sharing our moodboards
05:34 Finding calm & being present
11:07 Plans, balance & prioritisation
17:57 Relationships & prioritisation
22:48 Allowing yourself moments of calm
32:16 Bringing play & joyfulness into life - have fun!
36:37 Comparison & letting go
41:07 The abundance of choice/information overload
43:16 What we're looking forward to this year
49:15 Our words of the year
54:00 Conclusion & Recommendations (TV series/book)

Claudia - Book - Absolutely & Forever (Rose Tremain)

Juliet - TV show - Blue Lights - BBC iPlayer

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It’s the final episode of season 2 and I am delighted to have my friend Jasmine Faulkner as a guest 🥹I’ve known Jasmine since primary school, and I’m so very proud of everything she does and the person she is.

She’s a soprano singer who fuses classical, cinematic & electronic sounds, having performed at some of the biggest venues/events including: Mens & Women’s FA Cup finals at Wembley Stadium, London Fashion Week for Annie’s Ibiza, Windsor Castle for Royalty & Houses of Parliament.

She has campaigned for the rights of women in Iran & is someone who lifts up & supports everyone up around her. I am so lucky to have her as my friend. You’re in for a treat!

For the first time I’ve also added a blooper reel at the end of the episode so I hope you enjoy that too 😂

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

1. Pink clear mug - ‘a really studious’ mug

2. ‘It takes a big heart to shape a little mind’ mug - gift from a students’ parent

3. See you later alligator mug @oliverbonas - a gift when she left her 9-5 job

Other things mentioned:

☕️ ‘Big hand huggy cosy’ @emmapuddickpottery weather mug

☕️ @teapigs - peppermint tea

☕️ Gummy bear tea

☕️ @yogitea - messages

☕️ @birdandblendtea - Baby spice

💃 @ecstaticdance.uk UK

We always love to hear what you think so please let us know and follow/leave a comment or a review if you enjoy 💗

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This month’s guest is the incredible Jazmin Sawyers. She’s a European gold medallist 🥇& 2 x Olympian but also does so many other things! It was a JOY to have her as a guest

We talk about everything from her accidentally becoming a dinosaur mug influencer, some very special mugs from friends, how much family & friends support means in sport to how having multiple interests helped her when her journey to the Paris Olympics ended when she ruptured her achilles in April

It’s not everyday you get to sit down & chat all about tea, coffee and mugs with someone that has inspired you with their mindset & journey 🥹

She’s also a mug enthusiast & collector, so tricky choices were made about which mugs to bring on.

A most wonderful selection of mugs from those wrapped in nostalgic memories, to unexpected collaborations & handmade treasures:

1. 3D Dinosaur mug - Llandudno Pier (North Wales family holidays)
2. Istanbul European Indoor Championships 2023 mug (Gold medal and 7m (!) jump)
3. Handmade mug made by & gifted by Dina Asher-Smith
4. JCB teacup & saucer - gift from Ben Williams

Other things mentioned:

☕️ ⏰ Joy Resolve - Barisieur tea & coffee alarm clock
☕️ AeroPress coffee maker
☕️ Assembly coffee
☕️Celestial Seasonings - Bengal Spice tea
☕️Yorkshire tea biscuit brew
📚Gold Rush - Olivia Petter
📺 The OA
🎙️ Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Available on Spotify, Apple & Amazon

We always love to hear what you think so please let us know and leave a review if you like 💫

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This month’s guest is the brilliant @james_stead_ceramics 🎨 James is a ceramics teacher (who taught me at school!), a potter and more recently a finalist on series 6 of @potterythrow 🏺

For more context on some of the things discussed from @potterythrow , you can watch all the series on @channel4 , and James also has some reels on a few of his creations

It was so great to chat all about the pottery world, and to get a completely different perspective into mugs & the intricacies of how they’re made

Every item talked about is quite astonishing in its craft so I’d highly recommend following along with the pictures as you listen for the full experience:

1. Ray Gridley large blue mug

2. @richmillerpots wood-fired orange mug

3. Drip down mug (slip trailing) - pottery circle swap at Potfest

4. A gift from @roynon_ceramics - red and white Voronoi mug

5. @danielboyleceramics black & blue salt-fired mug

6. Bonus item ✨ @clarewakefieldceramics bowl

Other things mentioned:

☕️ @potfest.co.uk

☕️ International ceramics festival - Aberystwyth

✨Takeshi Yasuda

🎙️ For Flux Sake

🎙️ @pottymouth_pottery_podcast

🪴 Baslow Pottery near Bakewell, Derbyshire (Ray Gridley’s pottery)

🪴 @whichfordpottery

☕️ @whittardofchelsea1886

Available on Spotify, Apple & Amazon

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