It really is that time of year again - it's funny how it seemed slightly premature when I put together an email to all our Twice customers about Advent Calendars about 10 days ago - and now, just days later, it feels like Christmas is just around the corner. It must be all the leaves on the ground, or the frosts, or something - but whatever it is, it has also brought the six weeks that I've got ahead of me into sharp focus. I will be doing twenty days of Christmas fairs and sales between 30th October and 5th December. This is a big step up from last year and I'm really not at all sure how I'm going to manage it, but I am feeling happier with the amount of stock that there is to sell and very happy with all our new stock. One good sign is that I have actually slept quite well for the last three nights which definitely hadn't been the case for weeks beforehand.So, next Wednesday the campaign starts with a trip to the Camphill Christmas Fair at Bedale in North Yorkshire. I'm really looking forward to this one - it looks a beautiful house and there are some really great companies exhibiting. It will also be the first chance for me to see how our new Christmas decorations and Advent Calendars go down with the customers - I am so pleased with them but the proof of the pudding is in the buying. Then I'm off to Glasgow to the Duntreath Christmas Fair near Blanefield. Again, lots of really good companies showing. The really big push starts the week after when I leave early doors on Monday morning to drive down to London to set up for the House & Garden Spirit of Christmas Fair at Olympia which runs from 7th-11th November and then straight into the Country Living Christmas Fair from 14th-18th November at the Business Design Centre in Islington. Phew! 10 days of showing and 6 days of setting up and taking down. If I'm still standing at the end of that, I'm off up to Aberdeenshire on 21st November and then it's all move to Hopetoun near Edinburgh for a three day sale there. That segues nicely into a two day fair in Perth and then there's a bit of a break until I go back to Yorkshire for a sale in a private house there.
It will be exhausting but it is always really lovely to hear feedback from customers and to see old customers who so often come and seek me out. And, hopefully, by the end of that we will have sorted out loads of Christmas present problems for people and put lots of little presents into stockings!
The picture on this post is a close up of one of the fabulous advent calendars that I have managed to find in Germany. They are really traditional and right up my street - lots of glitter, lots of angels, reindeer, Father Christmas and general proper Christmasiness!
I'm going to sign off now and finish labelling stock for all those fairs.
Caroline
PS. I was very excited to see our little covered notebooks featuring in Country Living this month - lovely to be in the magazine again and thanks to all the readers who've visited Twice since.
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