One quiet day I was clearly avoiding housework and thought 'I will build me a cottage out of felt and surround it with blooms in the prettiest shades'.

I thought it would be good to build my felt cottage round a solid base, and had nothing close by except a matchbox which had recently been used, after a long hunt in every kitchen drawer and cupboard, to light birthday candles. Being too lazy to get up and fetch something else, I built my cottage round the matchbox. Then, just as I was about to sew the bottom, I had a lightbulb moment of such intensity I had to fetch my sunglasses...

'Leave the bottom open, for it is a matchbox cosy, and you will never again hunt in vain for your matches, or light rolled up bits of paper in the gas flame at birthday celebrations!' said a voice inside my head. And so the matchbox cosy, the invention I was born to create, came into being!