That song keeps buzzing round my head at the moment, though truthfully I only repeat that one line and hum the rest as I haven't the foggiest what the words are. Foggy is another word that repeats in my head with an endless persistence, much like the never-ending cycle of the merry-go-round, slowing, slowing and then building up with the next quick push from an unexpected corner. In my case, the corner isn't really so very unexpected as it takes the form of emails and orders...by the barrow load. If I thought last year was anything to go by, my very first Christmas as a small business woman (gosh, that sounds good) then I was wrong. I thought I was busy then, but when I look back it was busy because it was new to me. I had only been 'open' for a month or so and was so surprised to receive orders, any orders, that I felt that I must be as busy as it was possible to be, bless my poor naive soul.
I had no idea how much I should have in stock or what to stock in all honesty. What I liked and had made for my own family over the years - the basis I have built this business on - suddenly seemed not good enough, amateurish even, to my nervous eye. The wonders of self-confidence or lack of never cease to amaze me. On the one hand, there I was the exhausted mother of a one and a half year old, fairly demanding baby who couldn't seem to finish anything she started before one of the somewhat large brood needed something, and on the other was this determined yet foggy-brained me who had worked with dave through the summer to learn all about website building, photography, copy writing, designing, making...oh the list is endless. I can't wuite see what I was doing in hindsight and can only put it down to hormones still not settled post baby! If ever there was a way to make yourself feel like you're messing up, I think I found it.
This year I built stock ready for the Christmas rush I hoped would come, listened with an ever-depressed ear - if there can be such a thing - to the doom and gloom of the credit crunch and crossed my fingers as hard as I could. I have been amazed how busy I have been and how quickly stock has needed replenishing (a lesson for next year - there is no such thing as enough!). My confidence has certainly had a little boost as I must be doing something right. I have also been so thrilled to see that the items ordered have been across the entire range from bags to babbits, lavender hearts to lavender sachets, door hangings for children to door hangings for adults. It isn't always easy to have a wide range of goods on the site, but it is what I wanted it to be and so far, touch wood, it seems to work snd if it isn't broke as they say...
I am lucky as I love what I do and, so far, the fates, gods or whoever have looked after me. Let's just hope it continues this way and that I somehow manage to lose the foggy feeling that has resulted from not being able to switch off at night, the lists of 'things to do' running past my eyes as I stare into the dark and that blasted song milling around my almost addled brain....It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!
Bye from me and The Angel Gadriel who is now in her 21st year of sitting on our tree (thanks Tom x) xx
