In November 2015 after a long 5 months of travelling around the UK whilst working for AB Europe, (sheep breeding season) James took me for a road trip down to Wales, to spend some quality time together! He claimed we would be visiting a customer who had bought some sheep from Castle Crawford. (How romantic!)
 
But little did I know that James also had planned a surprise puppy!
 
ALFIE
 
There he was. Gorgeous as ever. A tiny little pup, black & tanned with a distinctive white paw, chocolate brown eyes, and immediately we felt like he had a story to tell us. From the word go he was full of mischief! An instant hit with all of our family and friends and my grandad for one, had an instantaneous love for him.
'Well Alfie what have you been up to today?' He always asks. 
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Which is exactly where Alfie's Adventure books came to light.
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My grandad says that when he first met Alfie, straight away it was like he came strutting through the door saying, 'Hi, I'm Alfie and today I've been busy doing....'
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'You should write some story books Claire, get Alfies adventures heard!'
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What a fantastic idea it was. But after hours in the 'children's book' sections in most local Libraries, I soon cottoned on that there are already many books featuring peoples pets or animals going on adventures and telling stories. 
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My heart sunk a little, but it was still set on the idea that my grandad had created. In order to make Alfie and his books unique, I knew I had to think of something that gave him a little edge over others. Through some of my Social Media posts of James & I out on the farm, I received lots of questions asking what we were doing that day on the farm and why. This helped me conjure up the plan that Alfies Books were not just a story book, but an educational one.
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My dream is for people from the town to read my books to their children and not only the children learning, but the adults too. It's for the farming community to also feel proud of books that reflects what they also do, day in and day out. Having them share it with their friends and families also.
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Having been a professional 'artist' since 2016, I am so fortunate to have been kept immensely busy through commission work and like many other artists I have always wanted to bring out my own home and giftware ranges. However I feel like back in 2017 when Alfie's Books came to life in my head, the feeling of pride, passion and drive towards the idea of having my own little children's books just over took everything. My biggest enemy in life is the clock. There's never enough hours in the day and I always under estimate how long something will take me.
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Now it goes without saying, an idea like this takes a WHOLE LOTTA planning. I've done extensive research on writing, illustrating and self publishing my own book, from speaking to the 'correct people',  to drawing up contracts, all in all it's one BIG giant hurdle that I'm climbing in order to make my dream a reality...and I'm not even half way up yet!
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It's amazing what sheer determination can do and if you want something bad enough you go get it, which is one thing I already taught myself back in 2016. When having your own business, the only way to strive to success is to become fearless, work HARD and then ANYTHING is possible.
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Still lots to be done and by no means am I anywhere near publishing stage, but all I do know is no matter how long this process is taking, I'm absolutely 
loving every single second of the journey and learning so much along the way. 
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Stay tuned into 'Claire Wilson Art' over on Social Media for up to date posts on Alfie's books!
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