Busy bee behind the scenes.

Can't believe it was last Friday that I was on here - time is whizzing away again. No matter how organised I try to be, there are never enough hours in the day to get everything done.

We had a fabulous response to our first set of wrap at Harrogate Home and Gift and a lot of interest in a Christmas range if we could get one done in time. So I have been busy behind the scenes finalising my next set of designs, 3 of which will be Christmas and of course with the reverse of the sheet being a different design - that's 6 designs in total.

Jeff (my lovely husband) has been building the latest set of shelves, I do the final proof of the paper tomorrow, then in 2 weeks time these shelves should be full of new wrap - exciting. As soon as I have images, I will post them on our website so you can see what will be coming very soon.

I have also been having a re-think about my cards and brainstorming the different occasions to which we send a card.

I am planning on adding some new designs to our range in the coming months and was looking at which of my cards fit into any of the categories listed above.

When I first started out my designs were very general so could fit any occasion. As time has gone on, I have been asked to design for specific occasions like new baby, congratulations etc. Some of my cards fit easily into a specific category and others simply don't. By cutting the card images out and sticking them into the categories, it is quickly obvious that there are some areas I don't yet cover.

But am I missing any occasions/categories from the list above and are there any current postcard designs that you think should become card designs?

Any comments will be gratefully appreciated and those of you who take the time to leave a comment will be entered into a little giveaway of some current cards.

A little Autumn giveaway.....

Tree Card

Well, as I wrote in my previous blog post, Autumn seems to be blowing in full steam ahead. It's my favourite season, so I thought I would celebrate by offering a little giveaway/thank you to all my valued customers over on the dots and spots website.

This morning I was packaging up an order and used my fab 'Spooky' tape, as we are now in Autumn and Halloween will be with us before we know it. I thought it looked great.

I was reminded that we have some seconds rolls and some rolls without a spotty inner core, lurking around in a box over at the premises, so I thought I would give them away to anyone who places an order over on our website to the value of £10.00 or over.

The tape is in perfect condition, just the inner core may be a little scruffy - it retails on our 'sales' section of our website for £2.75 a roll and could be yours, completely free, if you place an order with us, between now and the 31st of October, for £10.00 or over (*whilst stocks last).

Various Postcards

We have some beautiful, seasonal greetings cards and postcards over on our website and of course we will be thinking 'All things Festive' very soon!

Autumn.....

....seems to have arrived early this year. So far we haven't been treated to the late summer sun I love but wet, blustery weather. Not my favourite, I must admit - the weather that is.....

......I love Autumn!

I have been locked away for the past couple of days, catching up on orders from the end of the summer holidays and starting to get myself into gear for the start of our Christmas season. I have already packed so many Christmas cards, it feels like we have started already! Blink and Autumn will have passed me by.

All the Autumn Magazine editions have come out - not had chance to have a proper read yet, more a quick flick through whilst grabbing a coffee.

I'm loving the new magazine - 'Mollie Makes' - it makes me want to learn to sew, knit and crochet and I just love these vegetables - not sure when I'll find a quiet 5 minutes to try but will store it in the pile aptly titled - 'one day, when time!'

This feature in Country Homes and Interiors magazine is close to home, it's a feature about The Orhard Pig, producers of Award Winning Real Somerset Cider and Pure Apple Juice. I often buy the apple and pear juice as it is soooo very delicious.

Magazines are expensive but are my one real, monthly indulgence - I have to say, Country Homes and Interiors is proving to be my favourite at the moment.

'Big' School!

The start of the September term is always a big event for us - one because Jeff and I, were/are teachers and once you have children, each new term marks such a big stage in their little lives.

This was my super cute Sophie on her first day at proper school 7 years ago - top knot a must have!

And then this her today - her first day at Secondary School - with the new addition of a blazer and tie, looking very smart.

When Sophie started school it was so close to home - literally! We lived in boarding accommodation and she just had to walk across the courtyard and I could spy on her through her bedroom window.

Now we live in our own home, we have the joy of the school run - not my favourite time of day.

So there were smiles all round this morning - fingers crossed it continues!

Dancing Ledge

Yesterday we headed off to the Dorset Coast to Dancing Ledge, a good 2 hour journey. We were meeting Jeff's side of the family - 15 of us in all, to celebrate birthday's coupled with a chance to remember Jeff's mum, who sadly lost a hard battle with cancer, nearly 4 years ago now.

As a family we holidayed together for years, on mass at Studland Bay, staying in caravans and enjoying family time together. When Jeff's mum was diagnosed with cancer, our last holiday together was to Dorset and the last place she visited was Dancing Ledge, before she returned home and had to go to stay in the hospice.

It was also the place that my sister in law went into labour, whilst on a return visit and Lois - the last of the children to be born in the Peabody family, was born in Poole hospital within hours of being there!

We haven't been back for a couple of years but each time we have, Daphne is certainly to the forefront of everyone's minds.

Some of us on couldn't make the last climb down to the waters edge, so looked on from higher up.

Those that could make it down the last climb, took the opportunity to swim in the natural sea pool. It was apparently man made originally and used as a local school's swimming pool!

We had a lovely day, the sun burnt through by the afternoon and then there was the climb back to the car. The photo really doesn't portray the steepness of the walk but it was well worth the effort.

End of the holidays

We have all enjoyed a lovely summer holiday and although I have had to work quite a lot of it, particularly the first 2/3 weeks full time, the children have enjoyed time at home with Jeff all Summer - best perk of being a teacher - the holidays. But with the holidays coming to an end and Jeff back to school for INSET days, I had to take the children over to the premises with me this morning.

Sophie is an absolute star, doesn't moan in the slightest, happy to help with prepping orders etc and as she does such a good job, earns herself a little pocket money.

Sam on the other had moans and complains, expects to be paid for doing nothing and will only remotely help, if climbing ladders are on the agenda!

I had to take some quick photo's whilst we were there, as we are putting together a Christmas Flyer to launch our new Christmas wrap, which will hopefully be ready by the end of the month.

My printer is coming to the house later on today to show me proofs - hard to think of Christmas today as the sun is shining and it's a glorious day here in Somerset but I guess blink and it will be here!

Riot Raffle

I did promise in a previous post, to tell you a little more about the fantastic Riot Raffle that has been organised by the lovely Zoe, after the riots we all watched from our television screens recently around the country.

Through her tweeting and hard work - there are now 100 UK designer/makers and independent retailers who have donated items to the Riot Raffle.

To get involved - you can donate an item for the raffle yourself or go and buy some raffle tickets, then go and spread the word.

Tickets are only £1.00 each and with your support support in raising a lot of money, it will help Retail Trust assist the many shopkeepers who were victims of the riots - so go on, buy a ticket, or ten!

The prizes are fabulous - so there is nothing to lose!

You could win a set of our 'Owl Family' posters.

You can also view an ever updating gallery of images, over on the Riot Raffle facebook page.