Hello, November!
I saw a post on Instagram this morning that said ‘8 weeks today until Christmas!’ Golly. Where has that year gone?! I remember my parents always using the cliché phrase ‘it feels like only yesterday we were [such and such and such and such –insert activity here]’ and as the years go by I find myself saying it all the time too. My first hint of the season to be merry was sniffed out in Waitrose, in early October, would you believe? My dreams had come true; the season of the mince pie had returned to bless my days for months to come. I pride myself on my ‘one a day’ ritual with mince pies–a bit like the old idiom ‘an apple a day…’ or the government’s ‘5 a day fruit and veg’ nutritional campaign (mincemeat is technically…technically fruit).And it is nearly Christmas! In the meantime we can enjoy autumnal bliss of crunchy leaves and ‘such lovely colours!’ (must be said like Bridget Jones). We may have to put the ‘big light’ on by 3.30, and the chickens take themselves off to bed at 4 o’clock, but my is it cosy by the fire. It’s this time of year which makes me want to take up professional knitting in-front of Strictly.
So enough about seasonal treats, what treats do we have in store this season? We’ve had all hands on deck, with our lovely newbie Nikki joining us to look after sales. There’s been a period of excitement for the postman to arrive with new goodies and an array of packages –always a nicety when at home I exclusively receive bills and the parish magazine! We have been super excited to receive copies of the four books Kali has illustrated for Make Believe Ideas: Never Feed a Yeti Spaghetti, See You Later Alligator, No Probllama and Reindeer’s Nosy Christmas – all with fun, bright and lively interactive touch and feel elements and engaging rhymes, and all available now, with two more in the pipeline too!
Kali has also enjoyed creating even more designs for our ‘Tiddly Widdly’ collection. It was actually Kali’s step-son Sam that planted the seed for a new number collection that catered for all ages but had a mature and sophisticated touch. Kali liked the idea of a classy twist on a rugby-shirt style digit with unisex appeal. The collection covers a spectrum of colour and spans from teenage years to nonagenarians! Bold roman numerals in classic serif font with their lexical form beneath are juxtaposed with rich backdrops in a modern palette of blues, greens and reds; the perfect combination of contemporary and classic.
Our new wrap has also arrived in the office; we’ve been humming and hawing over colours and samples and wanting to get it just right –it’s a bit like choosing that all-important wall-paint colour for your living room– so seeing the finished product is like Christmas came early. Kali has designed a deliciously wacky ‘pebble wrap’, inspired by a little handful of stripy and speckled pebbles from Kimmeridge, and two new gold star wraps in mauve-pink and green-blue inspired by the success of our gold star tiddly number cards and suitable for babies but not so sweet that it doesn’t have wider appeal too.
Our new brochure is in the making and will be ready and out in time for Christmas, so you can sit and peruse at your leisure over the Christmas period.
As usual, do check out our social media for the latest goings on, and enjoy this fab picture of a deer, taken from Kali’s garden!