Wednesday 31 October 2012

BOO



Happy Halloween everyone. Have to admit that this is not my favourite event of the year (too American for my taste) but I quite like seeing everyone dressed up in scary costumes. I find the whole banging of doors to get sweets a bit weird and I'm so glad I don't live in a street where there are trick or treaters and glad my boys are no longer of an age where I feel they are missing out if I don't take them ... thankfully. 

I remember the year we were in Australia for Halloween going trick or treating with their cousins and how shocked I was that the boys quickly cottoned on to how easy it was to get sweets from strangers ... umm it really is weird.

I wonder what the equivalent of Bah Humbug is for Halloween perhaps Boo Cauldron will do!

Monday 29 October 2012

No New Clothes Challenge - Month 9


You would imagine that at this stage of the year, coming to the end of the challenge I might be starting to fantasise about going clothes shopping ... but I'm not. I still tentatively open clothes catalogues that come through the post with eyes half scrunched up hoping nothing catches my eye but thankfully nothing has this month. Another advantage of this whole not buying new clothes thing means I've become tidier because I quickly flick through the catalogues, breathe a sigh of relief that I don't yearn for anything and they go straight in the recycling. Before they'd probably sit around in piles for a couple of weeks whilst I made up my mind if I was going to buy anything.

I do have one slight problem in that my two pairs of jeans (worn pretty much every day for the past year) are showing signs of wear and tear but nothing that can't be mended to last another couple of months.

I suppose I am already mentally writing a very small list of things I might buy come the day I end the challenge (jeans, new longline jumper, going out trousers) but I'm pretty confident that there isn't going to be some huge splurge in fact a huge splurge feels more and more obscene and unnecessary as the year goes on. Gosh, I think this challenge has changed me ... !

Monday 22 October 2012

Vintage Style Hire's "Bit of A Do"

On Thursday I was delighted to be invited to Vintage Style Hire's Bit of a Do in Kate's new barn. From the outside the barn looks like any other "industrial" style barn with a very business like door but as soon as you stepped in the door you could easily forget you were even in a barn (apart from the slight chill) and we were greeted by this gorgeous pushbike with WELCOME bunting. 


Gin & tonic was served in delicate teacups and elderflower cordial in jars with stripy straws.



Tea cup in hand we then got to wander round the barn and marvel at all the "rooms"



Wherever we looked there was something that caught the eye, whether it was a little artful collection, a sweetie corner or beautiful flowers from Violets & Velvet.



I heard a lot of people commenting that Kate has the knack of making it look as if it had all effortlessly come together.




Now this all looks casually thrown together in an informal way but look closer and you will see that every item has been placed in exactly that position for a reason. 




Then the guests started to play with the photo booth and it was discovered that if you give Kate's friends a couple of gins, some masks and a photo booth you can have them in fits of giggles for a very, very long time!





It was a wonderful evening and so lovely to see Kate's new barn full of all her unique props. We even got a goodie bag when we left. Thank you Kate and best of luck in your new space and I hope you get to share your vision with lots of lucky customers.



Monday 15 October 2012

But it's not even December yet ....


I've just had my busiest week ever with notonthehightstreet all due to one innocent looking little email going out on Thursday. Since then I haven't done any childcare, cooking or socialising! It has been an interesting few days and has made me realise that although it is lovely to see the £££s rolling in I honestly couldn't cope with this all the time. I often look at other people's businesses (always a bad idea to try and compare yourself with others) and think I should expand and grow the business a bit but then when I do have an increased workload I realise that the level it is at the moment is just right. Am loving this little blip but will be glad when things are back to normal and I can schedule in some hoovering .... now who thought I would ever say that?

Monday 8 October 2012

Cake Bunting aka fiddly little bits of paper



Occasionally Lucie from Wonderland Bakery asks me to make some cake bunting.  I'm always happy to do this for her and as I got these two ready this week I thought maybe I could sell it.  However it doesn't take long for me to remember why I don't sell cake bunting because after fiddling around with teeny tiny bits of paper I realise that cake bunting is not for me. Far too time consuming - lovely to do occasionally but I'll leave it to those who love miniature things.

Monday 1 October 2012

Here Comes The Bride

A customer recently asked for a HERE♥COMES♥THE♥BRIDE in my wedding signage bunting. It looked so good I thought I'd take a photo of it.



Since uploading this photo to the product page I now get a request for this bunting a few times a week and a product that hardly made any sales is now doing rather well.

I know full well that my photography lets some of my products down and this was a case in point, the reason I didn't sell much was because the photography was rubbish and customers didn't know what they could use it for. I also know full well that without good photos you don't sell your product ... if only I had a professional photographer onhand at all times. I will just have to work my way through my listings improving improving improving. 
I still have so much to learn about the visual nature of selling a product and the need to show customers what they might like.

I'm also spending a lot of my spare (!) time updating the seo on my products. This is a tedious, difficult and time consuming job but I must get it done. I've told the boys that every time I nag them about their homework they must say seo to me, which they are doing and now I know how easy it is to ignore someone telling you to do something you know you should be doing.