Home Educating the Puddle Girls…

Right, where was i?

Did forget my entertaining trip into town on Thursday night, which took place during Fran and Maddys double Rainbows/Brownies stay. I had 75 minutes to get the kids a wedding outfit each, plus myself and do sundry other odds and sods. I walked into town to discover that Pumpkin Patch without me knowing, so dashed straight in there and set about choosing 4 outfits. Got some help digging bits out from a nice sales assistant, chatted with the girl at the till and after congratulating myself on getting 4 sets of pretties for £51, asked her to put them into separate little bags so the girls could be handed one each.

At which point i realised i had completely forgotten to buy anything for Amelie, doing my failed mother neurosis about her no good at all Quickly rectified it though and got her pretty tights to make up for it. Still spent less than £70 and it is all casual smart, so will do plenty of wearing.

Dashed to M&S and got myself gorgeous undies and a skirt for the Apres-Melrose-Party plus some sensible but (please do not adjust your set) not black sandals, shoes. Then realised i had only 20 minutes to get to F&M so hurried off again.

Needed to stop for change to get out of the carpark, so went to the bank, only to have every single card refused; some just said they weren’t authorised, some said there was a fault Either way, the minutes were ticking, Brown Owl doesn’t have a mobile and i was stuck in town with my car effectively impounded. PANIC

Luckily i had a brainwave, rushed into M&S, bought some sweeties with my card, which still worked in shops, and got cashback then positively whirlwinded (as much as a girl of my vstature can) back to the car, reaching Brownies just 1 minute late.

Was consequently grumpy and cross, but am blaming it on PMT as have put on 6lbs overnight. So be nicely to me next week you lot, as i may still be grumpy and intolerant, especially as i can’t speak on the Melrose Yahoo group, which is utterly ignoring all my attempts

Friday was also grumpy, but we eventually got to A World and the girls had a good rush about; laughed to see the bigger ones all holed up in a corner den like bit just chatting. Still can’t get used to having the big kids Then on to dancing, but i won’t moan about the show-related pressure being put on my children because we booked 2 weeks away before the dates were even announced

Today i made a fairly snap decision to go to the Toy Fair after all and i’m really glad i did. For one i completely recovered from the stress levels that London induced in me last year (when i definitely think i was suffering some PTSD symptoms) and the Tube didn’t bother me, though i was quite glad my mum didn’t mention that when she came through Kings Cross yesterday it was closed due to a fire! But also, i was much more sure of myself when talking to exhibitors, i knew why i was there and i had my aims and goals in what i wanted. All of which i achieved.

I spent 2 hours with the MD and Sales Manager of my main supplier, talking over doing some PR together, my thoughts on moving products forward and so on; i took on a new line with them, which is massively different and i’m possibly mad, but £350 isn’t such a massive outlay anymore and if it fails i’ll just have a lot of presents for kids for a while. Was very nice to have them acknowledging that my sales and success have been a significant contribution to their achievement of being leading craft kit supplier in the UK.

Also found several other suppliers of crafty/novelty/toy type stuff, some of which i ordered today and some which i’ll order other days and got a good mooch in the small business section, whichi hugely enjoyed. Great to be among my compatriots, as it were. Sarah, remember the Bedlam Puzzle bloke? he had a BIIIIIG stand this year!

Coup of the day was finding a novel twist on the Hama idea, which i’ll be getting in very soon

Home to tea, parcels (Lucy is working next week but i needed to do some for Monday so she didn’t get overwhelmed), a pleasantly busy day on the site and now… um… really must do my tax return…. I need my :wall: emoticon back - where’d it go? Jax… an excellent opportunity for procrastination for you, can you find it?

Expect me late and harrassed tomorrow