Teenage Kicks

We now have a teenager in the house as Oscar turned the big one three today. Scary stuff but happy to report he hasn't turned overnight into monosyllabic Kevin The Teenager .... phew.

Shhhhh don't tell him this but he's actually not that bad to have around the place. Okay so he doesn't always tidy his room and he has some very annoying habits like drinking milk straight from the bottle, physically restraining his brother, randomly walking around naked, not putting dirty clothes in the wash, using me as a taxi service and putting the phone down in mid conversation but on the whole he's actually quite lovely. I love his enthusiasm for his passions of scooters and rugby. I love his knack of convincing me I really do want eight of his friends over for a sleepover. I love his attempts to remember to be nice to me "Would you like a cup of tea?". I love his continued  belief that I care about his scooter or its parts. I love how he tells me in great detail about the exciting day he had at the skate park. I love how he always seems to be the one in the wrong place when a job needs doing but does it anyway. I love how he always does his homework (maybe not exactly with huge effort every time but he does do it.) I love his bashful half smile if anyone praises him. I love that he makes me laugh ... often. Happy Birthday Oscar and welcome to your teens.

Busy as a Christmas Elf

This week has been very busy, wonderful to see the orders pinging through but it has sometimes felt a little overwhelming. On Wednesday afternoon I had a bit of a confidence crisis thinking I couldn't keep up especially as I was due to go out for dinner with my Book Club and really wanted to go but felt I should stay at home and get on top of things. Luckily my lovely husband said he could help me the next day and so off I went safe in the knowledge that I had an extra pair of hands the next day. Of course, having a night out away from Daisyley was exactly what I needed and the next day I was rejuvenated and didn't need his help after all. There's a lesson there!

Despatch notes in a daunting pile

All printed and cut and ready to be checked and packaged.

Packaged and neatly lined up ready for weighing.

Postage labels affixed.

Finally in the post bag and ready to go to the post office.

My favourite postbag this week GREAT BRITAIN POST!

As always there are orders that come through that I would love to know the story behind. I'm convinced that the two tags from the same customer to different men was one to the husband and one to the lover. I was intrigued by the Auntie who was very liberal with her love and kisses to one child but not so with the other children. Does she love one more than the others why did only one get Lots of love AND kisses? Maybe the other children are just irritatingly awful? I do hope that they're not all in the same place for Christmas day though as it could scar them for life.

I'm also intrigued by the customers who order multiples of fifteen/twenty/thirty tags for one name - are these for their children and are they really getting THAT many presents each? Spoilt children or some other reason you would want so many tags???

And there are the lovely tags that are from Father Christmas or Santa ... you see I really am like a little elf working for Father Christmas!

Things I've also learnt this week - I'm actually quite organised when I put my mind to it; not everyone can count; not everyone can read simple instructions; not everyone follows simple instructions; not everyone can spell; some people have very odd ideas of grammar. It's always a tricky thing deciding whether you should double-check or change spellings/grammar. This week a customer was happy I asked whether it should really be Godmother Mike and I changed a your to you're {hope they didn't notice but I just couldn't send it out with the wrong your}.

All in all a fantastic week, far outreaching my wildest expectations of sales, and my family have been amazing given that I've not lifted a finger to help with any household chores and I've had meals and hot drinks made for me all week .... thank you. ♥

Father Christmas Please Stop Here

Now then, have you been very good? No naughtiness all year? Then someone might just buy one of these for you to hang on your door come Christmas time. My Father Christmas Please Stop Here sign is already proving to be a hit with notonthehighstreet customers and although I thought everyone would want it in festive red or green it seems that I will be doing every colour available before the Christmas season is over {although I've not done an orange one ... yet}. 

I haven't decided whether my children will be having one of these hung outside their doors yet, still plenty of time to threaten that Father Christmas won't be coming unless they start behaving.

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!

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 ... !

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.

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?