It's Snowing in Blogland

I've just found this little snow widget for the blog, so I thought I should have a couple of snow scenes to show it off to full effect. This was our walk through the golf course yesterday morning.

And this is the low winter sun just getting above the Firth of Forth.

And here's a peek into our cosy living room from the outside looking in.

Merry Christmas from Blacketyside.

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.