Tomorrow is December....

And that can only mean one thing - the start of Advent and officially the start of Christmas in the Peabody house!

The red and white spotty stars have come out of hiding, in preparation to decorate the advent garland and the little enamel buckets have been filled with surprises.

The wreath has been put out on the front door.

The fairy lights which adorn the house all year round are lit earlier and are adding their own sparkle of Christmas magic and excitement.

The Christmas coffee mugs have made their seasonal trip out of the cupboard and onto the dresser.

The advent garland meanders it's way up the stairs, overloaded with daily treats for the children.



And an advent calendar each, to open every morning in the build up to Christmas, lines the kitchen cupboard doors.

Christmas cards will begin to be written.

And the favourite Christmas stories will be shared.

And of course, the Christmas spotty chocolate tin is filled to the brim with yummy treats for any visitors.

I love the build up to Christmas - the excitement and anticipation. The tree won't go up until the middle of the month but it's super to slowly build up the fun and festivities.

Christmas at the Barn

So this morning we woke up to this ...... snow!

The view from my studio or rather 'igloo' as it's aptly named at this time of the year, was beautiful.

The only one brave enough to venture out into the cold first thing was Sam - brave boy!

It was Freezing!

But by mid morning we were all wrapped up warm to head over to 'Christmas at the Barn' over in the Tithe Barn at Mells near Frome. The event was run by Rebecca from Edamay and how lovely it all was too.

Her wish of a dusting of snow, to complete the scene was granted and it was truly magical driving through the snow capped country lanes to get there.



My daughter did comment that it was the most Christmassy, Christmas Fair she had been to - ever! The very sensible Rebecca had laid on 'things to make and do' for the children, which kept my 2 nicely occupied whilst I had a natter and a good look around.

All the stalls were lovely - full to bursting with beautiful handmade arts and crafts I did snap Rebecca's stand - firstly because it looked beautiful and she'd worked so hard to organise the event and secondly it had lots of spotty things there for sale.

The snow didn't put people off and the barn was full of festive shoppers - a lovely hour spent doing what I like best - talking and shopping all at the same time!

In January - I will be exhibiting at my 2nd Trade Fair - the design led show at Earl's Court - Top Drawer. It's always very exciting to plan your stand - the above photo showed our stand space at Harrogate - our first show in July. We quickly realised it was a very small space and decided we could afford an extra half a meter. We booked that size stand for Top Drawer and I was very happy with that until I received a phone call the other day, asking me if I'd like an additional meter!! Well my mind went into overdrive the possibilities of display with extra space!

So today I went over to visit my friend with a card spinner and box of dots and spots goodies as she's opening her very own flower shop on Monday. It's only about 30 minutes away but it is in the same vicinity as an adorable little country furniture shop.

She has the amazing collection of really old, lovely bits of furniture. I always pop in on the off chance and always end up coming home with something. The minute I opened the door - I saw it - this lovely little blue painted dresser - it will be perfect for Top Drawer. A cupboard for all the bits of paper you need to hide away and a perfect display space for all my tapes, place setting cards, notebooks and magnets. And the best bit of all - it was just £75.00!

I loved my stand layout at Harrogate but it's always good to change things around. Of course there is the question of fitting everything in the car - but I'll worry about that nearer the time!

The perfect stocking filler!

So, at last (it feels like I've been waiting ages) both our magnets and stickers are for sale on our website. I am so pleased with them all.

The magnets can be bought individually or 14 of our designs can be bought in pairs.

Just £1.99 individually or £3.50 a pair.

And then there are our stickers - a set for boys .....

.....and a set for girls.

For just £2.50 for a pack, you get 2 sheets of 15 designs - that's 30 stickers in total.

The perfect stocking filler this Christmas!

Coming Soon!

Its exciting times at dots and spots with lots of new products and designs soon to be launched. Our magnets and stickers will be on sale in the next few days (want to be among the first to know when they 'go live'? Then make sure you're signed up for our e-newsletter - click here and fill in the simple form on the bottom right of the screen) and earlier in the month I shared with you some sketches for my new decorative tape designs

Well I've received the proofs from my printers today and I'm so excited that I wanted to give you a glimpse of the final designs!

Baubles

Cupcake & Stars

Spooky!

These decorative tapes aren't available for sale yet, but I've got some great tapes that you can buy now.
They are flying off the shelves - I think that decorative tapes are going to be the 'must have' accessory for 2011!

http://www.dotsandspots.co.uk/

Take That and Party!

I am the luckiest girl ever - my gorgeous husband has managed to get 2 tickets to see Take That in concert in June next year. I am beyond excited and surprised! A Fantastico Birthday present and whether or not I really wanted to remember my 40th - I will now!

40!

So tomorrow, Sunday 14th of November - I am.......

I'm hoping to have a quiet day and that it will pretty much go unnoticed!

My parents and granny came up from Cornwall to start the 'quiet' festivities off by taking me out to lunch and very nice it was too!

I've booked a day off normal duties, cooking, homework etc and am hoping to grab some quality family time and an afternoon of peace in my studio.

Happy days!

The Carnival has arrived!

Look what I was met with this morning when I drew back the curtains!

Certainly something to brighten a wet and windy November morning.

It's always quite magical - you go to bed as normal - (okay we had to move the car to a neighbouring car park) - but in the dark of night the carnival floats arrive. I must have been shattered last night because I didn't hear a thing, just eerily quiet this morning as the road is closed to all traffic until the early hours of Thursday morning.

This time of year the Carnival is always a big event in Shepton Mallet - my neighbour was very much involved in the carnival but sadly passed away after a long battle with cancer. Today was his funeral - quite fitting that the carnival should be in place. He was a wonderful man, someone who I chatted to on nearly a daily basis. Someone who loved to give me business advice on a daily basis, whether I was out in the garden enjoying the sunshine or hanging out my washing. I will truly miss our chats over the garden fence and send love and best wishes to his family and friends!

4 Days to Go!

My magnets will be available soon.

Here you can see them, with their packaging.

They will be sold individually, or as pairs.

Visit our website to see all 15 designs of

Fridge Magnets

The magnets have arrived!!

I am so excited - looked what arrived today 100's of lovely new shiny magnets!

I seriously LOVE them and surprise, surprise

they have already made it onto the side of the fridge!

All that I'm waiting for now are the packaging cards from the printers,

which should be with me by the middle of next week.

Everything is ready to go - the website is primed and ready to take orders as soon as they're ready. Click on the image above to take you directly to our website, where you can see the magnets in more detail. You can buy them individually or as a pair!



Which is your favourite?
Decisions, decisions!
Perfect advent gift or stocking filler!

New Designs!

I've been busy working behind the scenes on lots of new designs and I thought I'd share my new tape designs with you. Our decorative sticky tapes have been so successful since we launched them in June, so we just had to add some new tapes to our range.

I like to sketch lots of ideas first then build up towards a theme and then work on the sequence that builds along the length of the tape. It repeats every 20cm so the repetition and overall design needs to flow the full 30m length.

I work in black as the designs are produced in single colour, not out of choice but out of cost. I would love some of the tapes to be mixed colour but simply can't afford to do it and offer you tape at an affordable price.

I actually like the black and may well offer it as a colour choice - what do you think?


Hens have been a favourite in our other lines so I thought it was about time to add them to our tape ranges.


And also the lovebirds - one of our most popular card designs had to become a new tape design too. With product requests for Valentine items already coming in, we hope this will be a winner too!

We have also decided to offer a slightly thinner, cheaper range of tapes for those smaller parcels and packages. Bunting, spotty, spooky, sweets and the very popular cupcake will form our portfolio of new designs and will be available in a range of colours in the New Year. We will of course let you know when they will become available and will do a giveaway or two to celebrate. Let us know what you think - we love to read your comments.

For now you can buy all our existing tapes from our website - a perfect stocking filler or wrapping 'must have' this Christmas.

Check out our seconds shop too for bargain tape for your own use only.