Lovely customers

As I'm home based and don't get to see my customers face to face my only feedback is through Feefo (notonthehighstreet feedback system) or emails people kindly send me. I'm always thrilled when anyone does leave feedback but even more so if they write a comment. I had a lovely comment from a customer the other day.

"Absolutely loved this idea! Gave it to my Dad who appreciates things that are just a bit different and he loved it (I believe the bunting is now adorning his desk at work!). It was a lovely touch and great alternative to a birthday card. Thanks!"

Autumn Walk/Scoot/Skate

It was such a lovely day last Sunday that after lunch my mum, the boys and I had to get out and enjoy the sunshine and warm Autumn day. We could have had a lovely relaxing walk alongside the rolling fields, letting the dog off the lead and sauntering along farm tracks.

But no ... the boys insisted on taking a skateboard and scooter on the "walk" so we had to go on the road. Oscar in fact did very very little walking and spent most of the time getting pulled along by Granny.

Whilst Archie got the poor dog to pull him along.

But it was still a lovely walk.

And we all enjoyed it.

Quite nice to hold the hand of your 11 and 10 year old even if it is only because they want you to pull them along ... such a rare occurrence these days .... still lovely.

I'm not a flower arranger

Blogging Your Way homework seemed so simple. Go out and buy some flowers.

Then simply arrange them to look beautifully styled ...

Why do I have the feeling that my fellow students will have done a lot better than me? Perhaps I should have got my flowers from the market or at least Waitrose instead of Tesco!

Another excuse for a mood board

So perhaps I was just looking for an excuse to do another one or perhaps I really thought it might be interesting? Either way I decided to do a mood board about how I came up with my favourite product at the moment, which also happens to be my best seller (funny that it should be my favourite), the Personalised Gift Tags. 

Most of the pictures can be linked back via here and here. The others were taken from an old Country Living magazine in a diy feature.

So that is where I got my ideas from to come up with this.

Teasing with a Teasel

Every day I have to drive Oscar up the road to be dropped off and every day I drive past not one but two patches of teasels. Every single morning I think to myself "tomorrow I'll bring the camera and take a photo of them and then I'll pick them". Every single morning I think this and then promptly forget. So it has been a bit like my own personal ground-hog day, day after day after day.

I did finally remember though much to the huge annoyance of my passenger, Oscar.

Conversation between us went like this, Me: "I'm going to stop and pick some teasels, do you want to help" Him: "Why on earth would I want to do that?" Me: "Well I was just asking" Him:"Well don't ask."

Ah the joys of an 11 year old towards the end of their first half term at secondary school.

The reason I wanted to pick them was so I could spray-paint them silver. I saw this blog post by Snapdragon (I know they are seedheads but if you look through this blog you'll see why it reminded me) and also because I remembered my mum doing this. So I feel it is a bit retro 70s and before any of my sisters say it, yes I do feel it's as pointless as when mum did it and I will save them for Christmas.

Garden in October

Chilly, chilly and so I'll be spending even less time in the garden. I did venture outside though as it looked invitingly sunny but alas it was cold and my fingers and feet are frozen now.

There are still some glimpses of yellow and we've got masses of grapes this year. What do I do with them?

And there is lots of red of course all very autumnal.

Blogging Your Way

I'm an avid reader of http://decor8blog.com/ and http://acreativemint.typepad.com/ and after hearing some really good things about the Blogging Your Way e-course they run I decided to sign up.

I've just completed the first week and I am really enjoying it and am feeling very inspired. I can't promise that my blog will suddenly become slick, professional and have beautiful photography but I hope that it will improve a little bit?

This is part of my extended homework .... inspiration board.

The e-course has certainly made me think about why I like the blogs I like and why I'm blogging and how I would like to blog in the future.


I really enjoyed the mood board task and have decided they are slightly addictive. Good job really as I've got to do it all again today if I want to keep it because Archie inadvertently knocked it and ooops it landed all over the floor. He did pick all the bits up but didn't quite put everything back where it should be! I'll stick it down this time.


Update: This is the revised, stuck down version!

Cider Day

Did you all say Cider Day in a Somerset accent? I can't help myself ....

Sunday was Cider Day at Great Slamseys Farm. This is becoming a regular event in the family diary and we all gathered at my sister's to help with the cutting, pulverising and juicing of their apples. If we take some of our own apples and a container we even get to have some juice to take home.

There seemed to be more of us this year and it was done in double quick time and then we  all sat down with a glass of last year's cider and enjoyed delicious casserole. I rather feel that the amount of effort that the boys and I put in didn't quite warrant the returns we received as we had a lovely afternoon and a scrummy tea and we've enjoyed the apple juice every morning. Not tried the cider yet - saving it for a special occasion or at least for a night in with X Factor.

{At this point I was going to put in a lovely picture of said bottle of cider but ... incandescent with rage ... it has disappeared! Apparently drunk in solitary company but a certain husband - I'm very cross - I didn't even get to try it grrrrrrr.}

Book Club - September 2011

Our book for September was Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant. As I had read this way back in August (on holiday) and really enjoyed it I volunteered to "lead" the discussion and what an easy task it was this month. For the first time ever we had a unanimous like from every Book Club member.

The story is set in a convent following the story of the young Seraphina sent to the convent under duress and Zuana who has been in the convent for a number of years. To start with the story and descriptions are a bit slow but after a while I loved the detail and complexity of the relationships and politics of convent life.

If you haven't read it but decide to, then really do stick with it as it does take a while "to get going" but by the end you won't be able to turn the pages quick enough. Oh and if you are put off by the potential religious nature of the book - don't be because in a funny way it's not actually that religious even though it's about nuns!

Only minor disagreement we had at Book Club was that some liked the ending some not.

I was very glad that we have a member who studies Italian to tell us how to correctly pronounce all the names - and what beautiful names -  Seraphina, Zuana, Magdalena, Chiara (by the way if you know how to say chianti then you know how to pronouce Chiara).

So a resounding success. I'd really like to go back and read it again one day.

For anyone who is interested here are my questions for the evening although I hardly needed to lead the discussion because we all had so much to talk about (not always the case):

Did we like it?
Would you prefer to go into a convent or be married off?
Do you think convents are that political?
Did you like the ending?
Did you think Zuana should have kept the secret?
Did you feel sorry for the Abbess?
Did you get much sense that it was set in 1570 or was it timeless?
Was it a shame that Zuana was there - would she have been happier "outside"?

Christmas Advent Calendar

Busy busy busy.

My personalised boxed advent calendar bunting is in the Notonthehighstreet winter catalogue which came out at the end of last week. I wonder if you've seen the catalogue? There are some lovely things in it. If you'd like to see the virtual catalogue click here - page 32 bottom left!

Have this awful feeling that by the time 25th December comes I'll be Christmassed out. Hope it won't happen though because I do rather like Christmas ....

Conkers

If you are a ten year old boy then going conker hunting is not just a treat it is an absolute life necessity. You're not really that interested in your mum telling you how beautiful they are, or holding them in your hand admiring them and appreciating the gloss and shine.



 No, you just want to get as many as you possibly can, get that hole drilled and string attached. Then you want to stuff them in your pockets and go get the opposition ...

It is a constant disappointment to me that conkers don't retain their glossy shininess.

I own a colour called Daisyley Blue!

It's not often you can say you own a colour but I do and it's called Daisyley Blue!

Unicef and Dulux have created this wonderful website where you can buy your own colour for a donation to Unicef. In my eyes it's a win win situation, I get a colour I can call Daisyley Blue and I get to donate to Unicef .... what is there not to like?

Have you bought a colour? Please let me know what it is ...

Happy Halloween

Yet again, and yes I know this is a regular refrain of mine, a lovely customer from notonthehighstreet has suggested a new product and so I've added a Happy Hallowe'en bunting.

She really is the perfect customer. She loved the Trick or Treat bunting I sent her, asked for Happy Halloween bunting and said she'd be back for some Christmas bunting.

She wrote me a lovely note too: "Thank you SO much again for making this for me. I am so pleased :) So much so, that I have 'liked' it, or whatever the term is!, on my Facebook page. Very best wishes and a Happy Hallowe'en!". To be honest I wasn't sure what she meant about the 'liked' it bit but then someone on twitter drew my attention to the Like button on the product page. Very pleased to note that the Happy Halloween bunting has 16 likes.