What's This?

TWO posts in 24 hours? What AM I up to, do you think?
Well not a lot, to be honest. Apart from work. And you know what they say - all work and no play makes for boring blogs.
I'm just feeling a bit other worldly and lightheaded this afternoon. Combination of lack of sleep and this horrible weather. Although to be fair it has brightened up, and we had a brief afternoon break in the garden for some fresh air, only to be confronted with the sight of all my cornflowers flattened by the rain, and the (horrible beast of a ) cat devouring a pigeon chick.
Now I'm thinking about the evening meal - usual mild panic until I find a tub of something leftover in the freezer and add it to pasta or rice. But the days when inspiration fails are a problem, although I do believe there's one decent butcher's beefburger needing to be used up in the fridge which will do the man, and I'll have a Weighwatchers thing. Good. Decision made. Our spuds in the garden are quite delicious too, so maybe those with the burger will be healthier than chips.
Then back to work (sigh).

This is the working man hard at work painting our most successful design of the moment.

And this is his production line for today (so far) standing to attention while they dry. Once we've had our meal break they'll be dry enough to move off the  table ready for the next batch. Then they will be bagged before breakfast and whizzing off to their destinations by lunchtime tomorrow.

And while I write this another order has come in.

Bye for now - I have a date with a beefburger.

A Bit of a Boast

If I've not been around here lately there is a good reason. We've been a bit busy of late. First there was the Highland Show, which coincided with a sudden surge of wholesale orders from our stockists and suddenly it's summer, which heralds the start of the "busy" half of our working year. Except this year has been busy since January.
OK, that does sound a bit boastful but it's true. My other half ( who I'm sure you know is already in receipt of his teacher's pension, being a certain age) is waiting for the time when he can take it easier, indulge in hobbies, put his feet up etc etc, but that horizon is becoming more and more distant!
The poor old soul has just finished a straight thirteen hour day of work, with more of the same tomorrow, and the next day, and the next....
Phew.

We're both succumbing to various RSI complaints, due to the amount of work, and it's getting quite competitive - who has the sorest thumb or wrist or even eyes!!

So yes, the Highland Show was good. The weather proved to be better than expected. if not exactly sunny, at least it didn't rain and we ended up slightly better than last year.

Pretty much the same layout of stand as the recent Gardening Show and perhaps looking slightly tired in this photo as it was taken on the Sunday after four busy days.

A tender moment for our feet behind the stand! I'm not sure what the a nasty stain on my shoe is but I suspect it's coffee dribbled from the flask.

This juicy selection of clothes for little ones was on the stand opposite us. Up until now I probably wouldn't really have paid much attention to childrens' clothes, but more on that later...

I always mean to have a lot of photos of the other stands at these big events, but usually bottle it when it comes to actually taking them. It seems somehow suspicious if you just snap away without permission - you might be wanting to pinch ideas for example - and then if you try to explain why you're taking photos it doesn't always come out right. Not everyone knows what a blog is, as I found out!

Anyway, I did get permission to show you the stand next door to me

mainly because I treated myself to a beautiful pearl bracelet in a delicate shade of silver grey from this friendly young couple. Lillymac jewellery is based in Fife too, in Rosyth and create handcrafted bespoke jewellery using the finest gemstones and freshwater pearls.
On the other side of us was Scottish Fairies , an enchanting range of hand-crafted fairy characters.

Sorry Lucy, my photography skills (or lack of them) just didn't do them justice. But they enchanted lots of little girls all weekend.

We got home on Sunday night, via the the fish and chip shop, and discovered just how many orders had actually come through. Something of a record for us, I believe. So many of our stockists had chosen that very weekend to decide they needed a large top up of card stocks fast, like seriously fast. As in " Please treat this order as more than urgent" (quote) and another " The cards are flying of the rack - getting into the danger zone of near sell out".
Agghhh - can't have that - quick, send reinforcements - forget sleep - work, work, work!!!
Well, we did have a part day off on Wednesday when we had a working trip over to Edinburgh to check stocks at Jenners. We chose to travel by train for a change, and where else but Fife can you have a view like this from the train window

We managed a spot of lunch in town and a little bit of retail therapy too.
Now, back to the boasting bit, and also that increased interest in childrens' clothes....
Today Laura had her 20 week scan. Everything is looking spot on and perfect. She's well, healthy and blooming and what about this

Introducing little MASTER Mysak, who according to his Mum and Dad has been captured picking his nose, although I think he's sucking his thumb. And yes, there is no doubt he is a "he". The evidence is there in one of the other photos!
It's very exciting as I'm sure all grannies will agree, but be patient with me please, it's my first time.
So I'll disappear again now for a while. We have another event coming up the weekend after this at Perth Craft Market and more orders than we can keep up with.
Today was our all time record for the number of boxes of orders to go out in one day, but there are just as many waiting to be finished tomorrow. I'm just picking up the late night weather forecast for tomorrow as I type this and we're heading for a day of heavy rain, no wait, three or four days of heavy rain..AND thunder and lightning - so nothing for it but to batten down the hatches and get on with the work.
See ya.