…..had to steal that from my friend Ben who called me it when I told him that I was on my 3rd course of anti-biotics! Haha!

Feeling so much better than I have done since the beginning of October, my little cold turned into a chest infection, which turned into sinusitis, which basically ended up as chronic sinusitis as the anti-biotics failed to work. My 3rd course were a load of huge white tablets, three times a day, plus decongestant, ibuprofen and steroid nasal spray! Nice! Last tablet tomorrow morning so fingers crossed for me as Christmas quickly approaches…..

Through my snotty haze I have managed to see Mumford & Sons (in Torquay of all places) Florence and the Machine (at Westpoint in Exeter) all down to my lovely friend Lucy who sent me free tickets to both. I took my girls to see Florence (& a few friends) it was great to see them bopping around, singing along – it’s just a shame it took us an hour to get out of the car park (well – field) at the end….worth it though!

I’ve managed (with a lot of coughing) to do all my fairs this Christmas (4 in Nov & 7 in Dec) the Craft Hub fair at The Castle in Exeter was brilliant. It was the busiest day I have had – ever! I nearly sold out of candles! Fortunately I had taken my trusty assistant (& great pal) Helene, who held the fort – especially as I had a surprise visit from a London friend who was down in Devon for the weekend and managed to drop by (lovely to see you both Val & Deb’s)

I had a stall next to the talented Kirsty Elson (been next to her before in Portscatho so we know each other) I had to buy this Christmas card holder, isn’t it fab?? You can’t really see  but there is a long string hanging down from the centre with a large red bell attached to the end so you can clip all your cards on, I love it!

I also ordered some gorgeous blocks from Fee at Chipper Nelly. I sent her an old book from a collection I have and she created these so I can use them as a decoration year after year. She must have tiny little fingers as she manages to work so intricately. We were messaging away on facebook like we were old friends, she’s a real sweetie – check out her blog….

Getting ready for Christmas in our house always involves a hug slab of Rocky Road so you can see that the prep for the big day is underway! I stupidly decided to start moving the house around as I wanted the tree to go in the bay window in the lounge…why oh why did I do this? So the rest of my week now includes painting a cupboard, putting up shelves and emptying boxes to add to everything else!

The tree is still on top of the car (been there since the school run yesterday!) and I am still in my PJ’s (it is only 9am) so I had better go and start crossing things from my list (a blog post was one of them so I’m not doing too badly am I…?) I might do another when I get the tree up. Thank you all for your support with my little business, I had the busiest Christmas yet with loads of regulars returning for candles & full of “peagreen” praise, it was heart warming, not to mention inspiring. I love what I do and have let it grow slowly and naturally over the past 3 years. I’m thrilled that it is pretty much a full-time job now and is encouraging people to reuse old things in a way that maybe they wouldn’t have considered in the past……

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone

Sam x