Back in Blogland!

Cherub bust
Hooray, hooray, hooray! My blog is working once again... a technical gremlin got into my blog system about 10 days ago and it got progressively more difficult to upload pictures and finally it just ground to a halt a few days ago. Dave has finally managed to sort it out, but I now have to do something hideously complex to put images onto my blog. Do I care at about the added complexities? ... no siree, it is great to be back in the world of chatter once again.

Thanks to Jayne over at Country Cottage Chic for letting people know that I was having difficulties and if you haven't discovered Jayne's blog yet, it is well worth a read. She is jolly creative and has loads of energy so is regularly out and about doing things.

Today has been an endless task of uploading images to the website and creating adverts for items (this is not the most interesting, fun or stimulating part of my job, but it is an essential one, so I won't moan too much) and after almost 10 hours of it, I finished for the day and am delighted to be able to blog for a little bit.

Parisienne house tidy
Last week was totally different to my usual routine, I spent two days doing local deliveries, well actually not so local, two of them were over 100 miles away, but that's almost local when you consider that the 'local' Sainsburys is 50 miles from home! Unfortunately, one was 100 miles north and the other 100 miles south, but I did get to rent a huge van to drive, which was good fun!
One of our suppliers usually delivers to us on a Thursday or Friday, but last week they arrived on Monday afternoon (which was great because we were able to get people's orders out to them earlier than usual).
A friend has hurt her back, so I helped out in her shop a little towards the tail end of last week, it was nice to be able to help her out a bit as she has always been so supportive to me.
We had friends to stay with us over the weekend and although I couldn't spend very much time with them, it was lovely to see them. But all in all, my usual gentle routine was sent to ruin, so this week I am looking forward to getting back into my usual work rhythm and domestic routine.
Country chic spongeware mug

And as usual, my tea mug is empty, so it must be time to put the kettle on, chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.

Pretty Practicals on show

Wow! What a wonderful experience.

I'm home from the Homebuilding and Renovating Show at NEC, which lasted for 4 days and was brilliant fun (that's dreadful grammer, please forgive me). We met so many lovely people and it was so nice to be able to display our furniture and accessories on a room setting, so that visitors could touch them and feel the quality and see how well things worked together.

A film crew from S4C's Wedi 7 programme came and did a bit of filming on our stand (it should be on telly sometime this week) and although we couldn't understand most of what was said to camera, I got the gist of the conversation. It made me wish that I had learnt a little more Welsh in the time that we have lived here.

Just to explain (for our visitors from overseas) that here in Wales we have some different television programmes to the rest of UK and a Welsh language channel. For people like myself who do not have satelite or cable television and who also have very poor television reception because we are tucked between mountains, our telly viewing options go something like this.. BBC1 - the snowy fuzzy version, BBC2 - clear viewing on most days except when I desperately want to watch something and then it seems to develop vertical snowy bands running across the screen, ITV1 - good picture most of the time and S4C (which stands for channel 4 Wales) - great picture, great sound, mostly in Welsh which I don't understand! Since we moved to Rhayader, we have been DVD watchers.

But I digress... the show... was better than I ever imagined it could be, was busier than I dared hope it would be and was more fun than is polite to admit to since I was working flat out. If anyone is ever wondering if they should do this show, my thoughts would be yes it's great show with a huge variety of stands and a really good forum for displaying your products (and everyone was really friendly).

Today I am exhausted, but luckily, as the shop is closed on a Monday; I have spent the day at home recouperating and relaxing. Tomorrow I will head back into the office to start packing all the orders from the last few days and getting everything as organised as it should be.
Dave has done really well in the shop while I have been absent, but as it is not his domain, there are lots of little bits and pieces to sort out. If he goes away for a few days, I can't even begin to start doing his work as I have no idea how to program in languages that he uses, to do 'the brain surgery' of our website or how to manage our webserver, so it was great that he coped with the basics of my role in our business as well as he did.

Cecily-Daisy was a superstar at the show, she worked tirelessly, cheerfully and conscientiously for the entire time. She was still laughing and smiling as she left on Sunday late afternoon to catch a train back to Bath. A big thanks to her for her unerring support to me this week. On Saturday we were joined by one of Cecily-Daisy's friends, Hannah, who managed to pick up all the information that she needed to impart in superquick time (everyone has been so efficient at the show) and helped us out no end on the busiest day of the event. My friend Clare helped us on Sunday and (bless her) stayed to help us pack everything up ready for our return home last night.

It was interesting to watch peoples' reactions to the two areas that I created, the French bedroom scene was mostly appreciated by women and the dining room furniture was liked by almost everyone who visited the stand. Dave and I have decided on our way home that we like the county style furniture so much that we are going to rearrange the shop so that we can have a big display of it there. I will arrange all the gorgeous hand decorated pottery on it as the two compliment each other so well. Hooray, I get to look at it everyday!

I will be offering the French bedroom furniture at a special ex-display price on my website (in the clearance or special offer section), it didn't suffer any damage at the show, but it just won't have it's original packaging. Obviously there is just the one bedroom set so once it's sold, it's sold!

Well, as always, it's time for the kettle to go on, chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.

Old Friends, New Friends

Hooray, our friends Jane & Dave came to stay with us this evening. Jane is one of my oldest friends (oldest in length of time, not age!), our boys played together when they were little. We've had a gentle evening together, we walked down to our shop and I showed them around, we've eaten a lovely meal and caught up with what's going on in each other's lives. They have sensibly headed off to bed and my Dave and I are having just one more cuppa before we head up the stairs too. I love having friends come to stay, it's so nice to have more people padding around the house, which does occasionally take on the appearance of a ghost town.

We have also made new friends too... the letter that I received during the week was to tell us that Pretty Practicals will be featured in The Guardian Interiors Directory 2008 which will be in this Saturday's paper and will also be online at their online directory from Saturday onwards. They also sent me a sticker for our shop window saying 'Featured in ... etc' (I have a sticker! I have a sticker!). Poor old Dave has heard nothing else since I got the letter; I must have sung my sticker song at least 50 times ~ yes, I do get amused easily by little things.

So first thing tomorrow, I will be trundling along to our local newsagent (which is also my favourite sweetie shop) to get a copy of the paper and search for our entry amongst the independent retailers listed.

Well, it's time for bed, chat soon, Liz

Special moments

Following yesterday's good news, today has been busy, busy, busy ~ I have made a list of the lists that I need make (well it's a start!).

Two deliveries have arrived (oh it's like Christmas again at the unit ~ lots of boxes to unpack, items to check and then rewrap) and Dave and I have been working on our much awaited catalogue.

Some days, the time just flies past and it's suddenly almost six o'clock and I still haven't acheived all that I wanted to. Funnily though, it's on days like this that I get a really nice feeling of satisfaction in what we have acheived ~ it feels a bit like I've just eaten a Green and Black's Easter egg... hmm, why is Easter egg chocolate so much yummier than just a bar of chocolate?

Oh I digress again; so we have come home and resumed our usual post work positions, Dave in the dining room doing website development (interspersed with playing his favourite computer game) and I'm in the drawing room in the company of Robbie Williams (Live at Knebworth DVD), with a pile of this month's house-y magazines to leaf through in between answering emails and listing items on our website.

My lifelong best friend as just telephoned me for a chat. We only speak about once a fortnight and I see her even less (it was just before Christmas when I last saw her); but we have laughed until we were crying at something sillly she said, we have shared our affection for each other's families, talked about how work has been, plans for the immediate future (at work and at home) and re-cemented our very special bond. What's really nice about our relationship is that because she has known me my entire life, lots of things need no words spoken between us; they are just understood. We share our joys and our woes and support each other whenever we need it. She is an inspiration to me. She is my sister, J.

Have to dash ~ Dave is calling me and it's my turn to make tea... chat soon, Liz