Busy days...and nights

Here we are nearly at the end of January..where did it go? I managed to leave all the designing of new cards to TWO DAYS before the Trade Fair, which made for one very elastic sort of day. It started about 8am, and continued through till almost the same time the next day. But I managed to create, from the pile of "stuff" in the pic above, and the many bits and pieces in the pics below, a reasonable selection of new card designs .

You need a mess to be creative, I say, and it's funny that the amount of mess I make is gradually distilled into a card measuring 6" x 4".

Anyway, I think I managed to make up 15 -20 new designs that day, discarded one or two on the way, and ended by photographing them for the trade brochure, which had to be compiled, printed and stapled the next day. Still, as always, we did it.

A quick tour around the shop part of the workshop in the next few pics.

It can be quite colourful, with Barbara's patchwork cushions on display .

Just a tiny glimpse of the view across the fields. We get deer coming right up to the fence sometimes.

There are still some Christmas textiles, decorations and cards in the sale, but not for much longer. A lot has already gone, and hopefully there will be a last minute rush to clear the shelves to make room for all the fresh new ideas I have (!)

A glimpse behind the shop part to the workshop and you see the "creative mess" again.

Finally, order out of chaos. What it was all for - the Trade Fair. What can I say - it was well worth it. We had a good three days meeting our trade customers from all over Scotland, the US, Canada, Australia and now Japan!

There was a good buzz about the show, and a lot of business was done, flying in the face of the doom and gloom merchants in the media.

The new designs went down well, and all will go into production. So that means more days and nights ahead making up the orders, but I'm certainly not complaining - it's what it's all about.

Once I get properly unpacked from the Show, the new cards will go on our website, I promise.

Morning walk, then work.

It was a lovely winter day today. The sun shone, the air was calm and crisp, and we had a number of visitors to the workshop. The half price sale of Christmas cards is proving popular.

I'm working on a range of new Scottish designs for the Trade Fair in a couple of weeks. Nothing on paper yet, it's all milling around in the lentil soup I call my brain, but I want to have an injection of fresh ideas across the full range of cards. They are previewed at the Trade Fair, and judging by the response are put into production immediately after. They will go on to the website at the same time.

Our day starts with a walk along the beach, summer and winter. We are lucky to live so near the sea. The sun rises over the water just as we are setting out at this time of year and the colours are amazing.

Last of the Christmas Images

Well, it's all over for another year. I hope your Christmas holidays were as enjoyable as ours. We ground to a halt as far as the business was concerned, around the 22nd. Family arrived en masse on Christmas Eve and we battened down the hatches to concentrate on good food ( the farm Shop turkey was delicious), bad food ( too many boxes of chox), drink (good and bad) and lots of board games, played inexpertly but with lots of laughs. The weather was kind on the Saturday after Christmas, so we all set off on a walk along the beach to Elie and back. Quite a stroll, but there was the warmth of the bar at the Crusoe Hotel to look forward to, and their famous fish and chips.

Everyone has gone home now, and here is one last image of the tree before it is consigned to the dump. Such a shame really because this year it was a beautiful one which held tight to its needles right to the end.

Husband is off to the football now and I am going out to the Workshop to get it all set for the January sale - which has already started on the website, by the way.

Happy New Year!!