Geeks united

Those who know me are aware of my love of children's picture books (so much so, I have my own personal collection - step away kids!) and my highly geeky collection and customisation of vinyl toys.

Some of my customised vinyl toys

I've talked about the 'power of Twitter' in previous posts, as it has allowed me to grab a sneaky peek into the lives of some of my favourite authors, artists and illustrators. I've even had the pleasure of meeting some of them.

Left: With Laura Dockrill, author extraordinaire  Right:Sarah McIntyre, Illustrating genius 

The pinnacle came when I collaborated with Davina McCall on a custom vinyl toy which we auctioned for Comic Relief, after she tweeted that she "loved" my toys.

Davina signs my 'Davina Dudette' for a Comic Relief auction

I'm always in awe of the sheer power and reach of Twitter, but yesterday it blew my mind. I've seen a name pop up regularly over the last few months, that of The Book Sniffer. 

We clearly had some of the same followers and followed a similar audience so I decided to find out more about this intriguing character and within hours of mutually following each other, we discovered our love of children's picture books and vinyl geekery. 

Although, it has to be said that The Book Sniffer definitely trumps my collection of geeky toys.

I spotted lots of my faves in this fab collection

Check out this beast of a showcase!

Not sure I'd be able to persuade my mob to let me have a customised stand to show mine off. 

I was so giddy to find another like-minded soul who 'gets' the whole toy collecting thing and who also loves picture books. So we batted a few tweets back and forth and the freakish similarities kept emerging.

I'm usually on my own with my love of vinyl and it's one of those things you either 'get' or you don't!

My long suffering hubby humours my inner geek and has bought me a few bits to add to my collection, but I think he secretly hopes it will subside one day.

Just a few of my Sonny Angel collection

And as if this freak meeting wasn't enough, I then find out that the person behind The Book Sniffer is only the Marketing Manager at Templar Publishing, where I had an interview for an Internship a few months back!

I sincerely hope there will be more to add to this fab story and I'm so pleased to have found a fellow freak. (I mean that in the nicest possible sense of the word Book Sniffer!)