My BIG order

For those of you who follow me on twitter and facebook will know that for the past 3 days I have been some what consumed with a BIG order - 1200 packs of postcards! The order came in just after our first Trade show in Harrogate and just before our weeks holiday in Cornwall. Of course, I was delighted, Jeff was rubbing his hands together with glee thinking of the money that would be coming in but I was thinking about the practical implications of putting together such a large order. I knew It wouldn't just 'get done' and had penciled in at least 2 days!

I ordered the insert sheets for the printers before we left for holiday and squeezed the packet tops into the boot as we were leaving. As we were staying with my parents, I enlisted their help and one evening we all sat and folded the packet tops in front of the TV and another night sat punching them and counting them into 10's in preparation for the big packing event!

So the day arrived - I had cleared all my other website and trade orders and had 2 clear days ahead of me. I worked out I could lay out 40 sets of postcards at a time on the table and would have to do that 30 times. So I set myself up in the dinning room, the weather of course was against me and instead of eating outside, as we have done for most of the summer, we had to clear the table every time anyone wanted to eat, due to the rain!

It quickly became apparent that this was going to take a lot longer than I had first thought.

Day One and 440 packs done !

I continued through into day two doing much the same - constantly checking just how many packs I still had to do! It wasn't until late into the evening that my husband offered to help! This proved to be a great help - he laid out the sets, whilst I bagged them up and stapled on the tops!

Day Two - 480 packs completed - 880 in total!

Day Three - the final day! 1200 packs done, packed, completed!

YIPEE! I had finished - well the postcard packing anyway!



This scruffy piece of paper has been my best friend through out the 3 days - crossing off 40 every round I did. Sometimes it was depressing seeing just how many packs I still had to do but towards the end it was great to see it all coming to an end!




The sad thing is once in a box, packed and ready to go - it looks nothing, certainly not 3 days of effort! And of course then there was the actual packing of the boxes, typing out the delivery notes, wrapping in brown paper etc - that in it's self took a little while!

So my first BIG order is packed and ready to go! Can't say I really enjoyed putting it together but it will be nice to think that people in the South of England will have the opportunity of buying a pack of dots and spots postcards very soon in one of the 40 shops they are on their way to! At least if they reorder, I will be in premises and won't have to take over the dining room!