Award Winning Barony

Hi All

As always, I've been busy. Here's a quick update of all the things I been doing under the 'Work' banner over the last month... Perthshire Showcase at Perth Racecourse (NEVER AGAIN - last year was well organised and and everything ran very smoothly... This year was a very different story (don't get me started on this one, I'm still fizzing). Talking of fizzing...Bath Bomb making with Buclyvie Primary School as part of their Eco Fair. I absolutely loved, loved, loved getting covered in bath bomb dust with the kids, so much so, I'm doing all again with the Auchterarder Library later this month.

Ok, Ok, I've held out for a whole paragraph before I had to blurt out...

'We've Won GOLD at the Royal Highland Show'.

Wow, talk about gobsmacked. The Judges were mystery shoppers on the morning of the first day (and the stall was looking full and fresh). The award was not only for my stall set up but also for my products, vision for my company's future (more info on that later this month...!?!?) and my customer service.

And we've just got back from the Scone Game Fair. A huge apology to everyone who came along to the stall to get their little stash of Barony Goodies only to find I'd sold out of a few of the favourites. I promise to have lots of my Lemongrass & Lime Hand & Body Lotion at Crieff Market on Saturday 11th July. I've been so busy attending shows that I haven't had anytime in the workshop to replenish stocks. I also have to return lots of emails, answerphone messages and send out orders (both individuals and stockists) that have come in during this week. Arrrgh, Monday morning is going to be hectic.

wee note: All of a sudden everyone is wanting Barony lip balms and my supplier of the cute wee aluminium tins is out of stock. As soon as I get the tins I'll have them back on the stall.

The Christmas Rush

It's been a hectic few weeks for us in the run up to Christmas. We have done 17 days of craft fairs, markets and events since the end of November. This works out at 4.25 days every week, but most done on Saturdays and Sundays with Dave and I doing separate events on the same day. This of course means lots of time spent in the workshop making things for the next show and not much time for anything else. This is why there have not been many posts but I will try to catch up with all that has been happening in the next few days.

Our last show was on Sunday at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh and we were both looking forward to having a bit of time to relax. Sleep has been an item on my whiteboard 'To-Do-List' all week, and the only Christmas present Dave has asked for is a day off! However, since Sunday I have made 52 wedding favours, a rush order of 50 bars for Jamesfield Farm Shop, done all of my Christmas shopping and written all of my Christmas cards. We will deliver these tomorrow, using our 'Just In Time' management principles again! Maybe next year I will be organised! So it is safe to say we are still looking forward to some time to relax.

Soundtrack to work this last month has been: The Wombats - Is this Christmas?, Vampire Weekend - A-Punk (great tune at 2am to keep your spirits high). Anything Christmassy, from good ol' Bing to The Waitresses, including Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (I mean, for goodness sake!). And for the record... always Jeff Buckley, never Alexandra! You all know what I'm talking about.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Bbrrrrrr! Minus 4.5 on the way home

from Gloagburn Farm Shop

The temperature reached -7.5 on the way out to our craft fairs today. There's a spot on our road on the way to Perth that's always the coldest. Dave clocked it at -7.5 (on the way to Edinburgh at 09:30) this morning and my in-car temp gauge read -6 at 10:15. Although the roads were scary slippy and covered in frost & ice the landscape was a wonderful sight. I didn't have time to stop on the way to take pics and it was getting dark on the way home so I stopped and took the picture above. It's all so Christmassy. The tune on the CD player is a mash-up of several recordings of White Christmas including Louie Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross and The Supremes. Very Cool Yule.

Lots To Tell

This past week (and a bit) has been very hectic and full of ups and downs. On Monday last week I gave a talk about Barony to Logiealmond WRI. I was asked to be a speaker a few months back and all of a sudden there I was infront of a room full of people (isn't it funny how quickly time passes when you are worried about something). Well, I have to say a huge thank you to eveyone for making me feel at ease. It was a great night and I may have spoken for a bit too long once I got into it. Afterwards we had tea, sandwiches and homemade cakes, lovely. A special thank you to Helen for keeping calm before the talk.

Logiealmond WRI

That weekend, over Friday 5th to Sunday 7th, David and I had a couple of large shows as well as supplying a table for a charity fundraiser in Bridge of Allan.

On Friday 5th I set up shop at the Dundee Flower & Food Festival. It was a bit of a slow day (Fridays usually are at these 3 day shows) but by sheer luck I was placed beside Jo Cound, a photographer friend from Crieff Market. Jo's work is mainly of the natural world. Some of her pictures have appeared on magazine covers and loo roll packaging! Don't tell Dave but I did spend much of the day looking through Jo's stall and chatting away. The picture below is one of my favourites and I've told Dave I'd be very pleased with Santa if I found it under the Christmas tree this year...

Bell Cap by Jo Cound

David tended to the stall in Dundee for the rest of the weekend. I wasn't at Dundee on Sat & Sun, I had a stall at Glamis Game Fair and Countryside Festival at Glamis Castle with 3D/2D. What a great time I had & nearly sold out of all my stock. Now that sounds great but I have a view that if I'm running out of stock then I've not made enough! It's great when I have regular customers come up and say 'I was hoping you'd be at this show'.

To add to this busy weekend we had 'Crafty' friends staying over on the Saturday night. Sean & Gillian are known as Hamilton Taylor and are very talented glass workers. Instead of me telling you all about what they do you can visit their webpage. Sean & Gillian live in Glasgow and it's a bit of a trek for them to drive home and come back to Glamis the next day so we offered them a bed for the night. After a long day at Glamis we all headed off to have dinner out (no way was I able to make a 3 course meal in the middle of a show weekend!) and what a joy it was.

My African Delta trinket box and handmade glass beads by Hamilton Taylor