Chilly Winds and Trade Fairs

Back to work today. Just as well, as the wind has changed to the East and is blowing chilly air off the North Sea. We sent four large orders out this morning, and I thought we were pretty much up to date, with some time to draw breath, build stock and prepare for the Trade_Fair which is looming ahead, when another order arrived. Ah well, shouldn't complain. This was a special card made a day or two ago for a 40th birthday.

And today, I made up this little order for a new baby boy - a keepsake box and a personalised card for the new parents and one for the grandparents. The keepsake box is a popular gift idea which we sell in the workshop, with designs suitable for babies, weddings and anniversaries. We don't make them ourselves but hand paint the lettering on them to personalise them. They will be on the website in a day or two, along with some other personalised items which are new.

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.