Finally a moment to catch my breath

Wow. Can I just say what a busy few weeks this has been - we've all been running around the country like mad things what with one thing and another, but it's been times like this - and meeting some of you who can't make it to the shop - that make it all seem worthwhile.

First up was our third birthday party - can you believe it's been three years? And a whole year in the new shop? Madness. Thanks to Corinne & Kim (who now has a blog, you can see more of her here), Jane, Debs, Amanda and all the lovely peeps who came to share the day with us, it was lots of fun.

No sooner had we caught our breath from that, Vintage was upon us. For those of you who haven't heard about it, Vintage is the new festival at Goodwood. Organised by Wayne Hemingway, Goodwood is a celebration of British art, design, music & fashion from the '40s to the '80s. This was the first, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Even though we were working, it was great fun, and everyone who came by our stand was in great spirits despite the dampness of the weather.

.

me, with my victory roll...

our stand - we were really pleased with the way it turned out.

Rachael and Millie, sporting looks from appropriate decades.

I guess we are really lucky that this is such a local event - being just down the road from us, it was great we could go home and sleep in our own beds - rather than join the camping masses on site. I have nothing against camping - in fact I enjoy it - but i have no desire to enjoy it whilst working at a show!

Especially not when I knew what would follow Vintage.

Yup - Festival of Quilts.

There are a few shows each year that you need your full energy up for. And Festival of Quilts is one of them. Can I just say, despite the fact that we were all pretty tired by then, there was such a great vibe at Festival this year that it didn't matter. It was great meeting so many people, some old friends, some new - and as usual for festival it was busy busy busy. I managed to get out to see a couple of other stands on Saturday morning before opening time, but as usual planned my own shopping for the Sunday. Which didn't quite happen, due to me having a car accident on Saturday night which involved me ending up in London, rather than Birmingham on Sunday. Don't worry, I am fine (at least, finer than the car) but am still gutted about my shopping time at Festival. Luckily I totally scored a great piece of Liberty fabric from Fabrics Galore - I will let you know at a later date what I do with it.

So as you can see it was a busy few weeks, and weeks in which I can only say I am totally proud of my team and how they all pulled together and didn't moan at me working them so hard and took everything on board without so much as a blink of an eye. We totally could not do anything without our great team.

But finally now, a time to catch my breath... Until tomorrow at least.