The Habulous Blog result devon

Wow, it’s been a rollercoaster of a week; I became addicted to watching the voting for the Muddy Stiletto’s awards, I stayed up until 1am every night and only one of these was for social reasons. Attended a little awards drink presentation.  Finished off my card designs, sent 68 artwork cards to the printers, trained a new member of our team and managed one social walk, one run, a picnic and a great day out at our local summer fair , I also gained 2LBS (just like Bridget Jones!!!).  I’m breaking into a sweat just reading about it!

Yay, we did it, we won The Muddy Stiletto’s award for “The Best Gift Shop” in Devon, I have to say a massive thank you to everyone who voted for our stores, it was really quite overwhelming receiving so much support and hearing from so many people about why they love our shops.  We now get to put a rather beautiful window sticker in our stores to let you all know how good we are!

So rather than write any more (I want to sleep) here are a few photo’s that sum up my week. 

A great event hosted by Muddy Stiletto's to get all the category winners together.  Top right is the winner of the best Yoga fitness teacher, I tried very hard to persuade her to start a wine and yoga class, but I'm not sure she took the bait.  Bottom Right is Muddy Stiletto's blogger Sharon and of course me pulling one of my many silly faces (I am not at all photogenic).

I have missed writing my blog; it’s like the old fashioned diary I kept as an angst teenager, although most of what I wrote then was a load of rubbish about my latest boyfriend/crush.  I don’t know why, but writing about snippets of my life has a really calming effect on me, it might just be the process, I have to slow down and take time out, to review what’s been going on in my busy life before putting pen to paper or rather fingers to keyboard.

Today I’m sitting at my desk about to start a major admin job (admin is most definitely not where my skills are based).  I look pretty bad, my eyelids are buffed up and feeling like lead, so much so, that I am contemplating using match sticks to keep them open; It’s all my own doing of course, I’ve been working till midnight or later every week night for the last few weeks.  I’ve become totally obsessed with designing for our card range and whilst the desire to draw and create is strong I feel I must make the most of it.

Our card samples arrived on Saturday, I was so excited about opening that envelope, pouring the contents onto the kitchen table and then spending the next hour contemplating which card stock to choose for the real print run.  Decisions are now made and by the end of next week all of our designs should be with the printers, so in a matter of months we should be well on the way to selling our very own range of cards!

I’ve had a very busy time socially, that’s the way I love to live, a little bit like burning the candle at both ends all though I think it’s one of those slow burn candles as I can’t maintain the pace I set in my twenties.  Also a difference in how I burn the candle, yes sometimes it does still involve lots of alcohol and music but equally the odd walk/run or book club natter has started to dominate my social calendar, is this middle age?  I have been to a few really good events so I think I’ll do a couple of separate blog posts on these as they are most definitely worth a read.

Hubby Paul and I have been really pleased to find out that our stores had been nominated for an award “The Best Gift Store in Devon” by award winning blog Muddy Stilettos (well worth reading).  So as well as all of those standard work things we do, we have spent some time harassing anyone who loves our stores to vote for us.  We are currently in second place, we appear to be yo-yoing with the leader (I am one of those annoyingly competitive people) so you know what I’m going to ask.  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, VOTE for us if you think we deserve to win this accolade (you could also encourage everyone you know, family, friends co-workers, pets, to do the same!!!) No I’m not obsessed......  click here to vote for Insideout in the Best Gift Store category.

Bye for now.  xxxxx

It's been a few weeks since my last blog, I have been quite lazy since my epic marathon run. I hardly moved the following week, every part of me hurt; I began to wish I lived in a bungalow, stairs equalled agony (and yes I have given birth, so I know what pain is). My body was trying to tell me not to move, it actually wanted to eat lots of chocolate and drink gin!  Incidentally I've established a new firm favourite on the gin front a Welsh number called Brecon, highly recommended to any gin swillers out there. With the help of this new gin and those marvellous juniper berries, I'm nearly fully restored (except for a wee back issue, but that is slowly healing). 

It's been a steady few weeks on the work front, my team and I have had our usual fun displaying our new stock, it’s one of my favourite jobs. I love merchandising, the process of putting different products together, to create an eye catching display. It's something we do really well, that might be because we have had lots of practice or just good old fashioned luck.

The real change in weather (excusing the downpour that’s currently going on outside my door) and the demand for our eco soy wax melts lead to a full week of melt making for me. It's now turned into one of those jobs my whole family are involved with, Ben and Ffion do all my packing. I'd love to tell you they rush in from school and get straight to work with a big smile on their face whilst we all merrily chat about our days; the reality is they slink in and hide upstairs until I twig that they are home and hunt them out, coaxing them down to help with various threats and promises!  The joys of being a family business, but on the plus side I do think it’s important that the kids are involved and understand what work is like. 

The weekend was a mixture of work and pleasure with yet another visit to London for a trades how and a catch up with some fantastic friends.  Saturday was fun filled with too many cocktails, lot of laughing and some excellent food.  We normally head towards Covent Garden but this time we stayed south of the river; starting near the Old Vic and heading to the Borough Market.  Like most of inner London, this area has seen lots of change over the last 10 years and now boasts some excellent places to eat, drink and shop.  As I have family close by, it has become one of my favourite haunts.  Our top places at the end of the day were “The Baltic” on Blackfriars road and the Oxo Tower although if you have more than one cocktail in the later, you may have to think of re-mortgaging your home (the views are well worth it!)  The Baltic is a polish restaurant with a very interesting menu and top notch cocktails.  If you’re a foodie Borough Market is a must, now London’s most renowned food and drink market with over 100 stalls to tantalise your taste buds. 

Sunday was all about work, checking out potential suppliers for our stores.  Pulse is a small but good tradeshow which tends to showcase new designer/makers as well as some of the more established companies.  I always feel very inspired by the work I see there and hope when it arrives in the shops my customers will too.

Before heading back to Devon on the Monday I managed a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  I love spending time inside its walls.  Not only is it a building of true beauty but it is a great inspiration for my ceramics and just art and design in general. 

My weekend wouldn’t have been complete without a few minor mishaps, luckily nothing too drastic. I can only confess to conditioning my hair with moisturiser. This was an accident, I didn’t want my hair stuck to my head for the weekend honestly.  How did I do that you may wonder, well I have a habit of filling small bottles with my weekend supplies then forgetting what’s in what bottle.  I should have twigged when it didn’t want to come out of said bottle but no my brain did not work out what was wrong, so after 3 hair washes normality resumed.  On my train journey home, after making use of the facilities I was trying to get the tap to work to wash my hands, a sign indicated you pressed a button, I couldn’t find the button anywhere then suddenly I noticed it under the sink.  Strange place I know, pressing the button I then waited for the water to flow, instead my ears burned with a high pitched alarm, panic ensued. (I was in the disabled toilet).  I quickly made my exit red faced and feeling every single set of eyes on me in the rather packed carriage as I made my way back to my seat.......

After what feels like weeks of rain, I opened the curtains to sun, immediately my mood lightened and the thought of today’s training run changed from dread to excitement.  I love being outdoors especially when its dry and you can feel the sun heating your skin.  I’m feeling very lucky that I also have a walk planned with friends later today. 

We have had lots of fun in the shops in the last few weeks as we have received loads of new stock from my trade show orders earlier in the year.  It’s a great feeling when we get new ranges in, 13 years into running shops I still feel like a young child opening a present when new things arrive.  I’m super pleased with my finds this year, we are now stocking a new range of jewellery, that is absolutely beautiful, we also have a range of ceramics by an artist called Jimbobart whom I have made personal purchases from in the past.  His work is so clever featuring caricatures of animals with great slogans.  We have a total of 4 of his plates on our wall and they are supposed to represent each one of my family members.  I’ll let you guess whose is whose!?!

Training for the marathon is so much harder than I expected.  The commitment is at times totally overpowering both physically and mentally.   I’ve got a busy life anyway and I really have been finding it hard to squeeze my training in.  This week I managed 16 miles and believe it or not I ran the whole way, I didn’t walk once, not once (although I did have a very brief pause for a wild wee!)

I find myself focussing on fractions on my long runs. So the conversation in my strange mind goes a little like this; Great 1/16 of the way only 1/15 to go, 2/8 of the way this is easy....  you can do it.....  You’ve only got to run this another 5.5 times.... OMG 5.5 more times, what am I doing, why, it will be worth it in the long run, stupid girl thinking this would be easy.  Oh look there’s a walker, say hello and smile.  Your nearly  ¼ of the way now,  come one keep focused, gosh your ½ way you’ve got this, keep on going.  Think of your form (bugger that just run) and the second half in reverse, I won’t bore you with more fractions.  Then I reach the last mile and if I have any energy left I think I might just smile.  

Before I confirmed my charity place with Back Care, I needed to know more about the charity, so I phoned to ask my list of questions, I’m one of those people who have to be passionate about something to give it my all.  I was super pleased to get a call back from Brian Hammond the charities Chairman.  It’s always a good sign when someone takes time out to explain things.  From speaking with Brian I learnt that the charities core focus is on education and fact sheets to help prevent back pain/problems.  Over the years they have ploughed lots of funding into research and have had a positive impact on treatments.  They have a help line and have when funding has allowed, paid for individuals who could not access treatment to get help.  What really amazed me is how reliant they are on the funds raised by their small team of London Marathon runners, without us Brian does not think they would be able to continue their work.  So by supporting me you are helping this great small charity continue their amazing work. Sponsor link just click here

At this very moment in time I ache like bloody mad, my legs and my butt in particular.  I definitely feel as if I have overestimated my ability to run a marathon, I won’t give up but I am getting worried.  I’ve not long come back from my long run for this week,  a mere 14 miles, I say mere lightly, it’s a massive achievement for me and one I would be really happy with, if it wasn’t for the pressure of training for London.  I need to run an additional 12.2 miles on the day, which right now I really can’t imagine doing. 

Today’s run was the furthest I have EVER ran and I must add if it wasn’t for my commitment to the marathon it would be the most I’ll ever do.  I’m not good at repetition so today I ran a new route,  the cycle route from Yelverton to Plymouth, this meant that until the half way mark I was running a gentle downhill slope, so when I turned around all I could think was “Bugger” I should have thought that one through a bit more before setting off.

When I finished the run I had to nip to the local shops for a few essentials, I got out the car and started to sway on my feet, as if I’d just left the pub after way to many units of alcohol, I did a quick recky to make sure no one had noticed and then hobbled around the shops before heading home, where I planned to jump into a steamy hot bath.  As soon as I walked through the door the doorbell went and I had the sinking realization that I had a meeting with a rep to place some orders for the stores.  Oh well life goes on, a little stiffer than normal.

Last week was half term for my kids and my eldest was off skiing.  I was so pleased for him (even though I will admit to being very jealous).  It was certainly strange for the rest of us, who had to carry on as normal, knowing one of our clan was having the time of their life.  The week was spent juggling work with occupying FFion our youngest.  I’ve got to say I’m glad they are back at school today and the juggling can stop, anyone else feeling the same way?

So this week its back to normal ish, we have an exciting new project on the go, which I’ll share with you all soon.  In the meantime I’m really looking forwards to getting some time on my pottery wheel, as I have been working on some new decoration styles that have worked really well on the testers and I want to get more done as soon as I can.  So I’ll leave you with a photo of my new jugs and a link to my fundraising page!