Saturday 14th September saw us attending Castleton Village Show, a lovely village on the North York Moors. It was a good day and we rehomed a lot of humorous greetings cards – if you bought from us, thank you! I managed to sneak away for a wander around the produce tent, and was glad to see some exhibits not too dissimilar to the ones I’ve been growing this year!
Tomorrow sees us back at the popular Sheriff Hutton Village Market. I’m hoping it will be another good day so please pop along if you are nearby, it’s a lovely market with crafters, baked goods, cheese and gin (plus lots more). We will have some Christmas decorations from The UK Christmas Store with us too.
Next week I will be re-ordering cards ready for Crayke, so if there is something you would like us to stock please comment below.
Well, our reusable advent calendars and quirky advent calendar cards anyway. I’ve been taking a few to our recent events and they’ve sold well, so I’ve gone ahead and ordered some more, including the very popular Reindeer Stables advent calendar.
I know for most of you it’s probably too early to be thinking of Christmas, but quite a few of our customers like to buy more unusual items when they see them, which is why I’ve started showcasing Christmas in July now. I will be bringing the new stock as soon as it arrives (probably early September) but I do have quite a few advent calendars still in stock, so if there is one you think is perfect for that special person, you can buy online or visit one of the local monthly markets we attend.
I’ve also got new card designs waiting in my basket. The plan is to have them for Crayke Village Market at the end of August, but we will have to see how things go – at the moment as fast as the cards sell, we are ordering more stock (which is a lovely position to be in!)
I’m so so grateful for how everyone has been supporting my business this year. When my dad got unexpectedly sick and passed at the beginning of 2024, I really thought I was turning my back on my greetings card business, but I was obviously meant to start again and rebuild. From the event organisers who have been so supportive and welcoming, to other stall holders, and my lovely customers, thank you. I am very excited for autumn 2024 and although Christmas will be a difficult time for my family, I’m hopeful that we can make 2025 even better.
It’s Monday, and it’s feet up day (although I’m struggling to relax).
After a busy weekend attending Crayke Village Market and Saltburn Food Festival, I need to relax though. It seems you all love our new humour range and I am almost at the point where I need to restock for the third time – thank you if you were there supporting our small business. Sunday in particular was a very long day, we got up about half 6 and finally arrived home 13 hours later. Of course it was takeaway for tea, not that any of us had the energy to eat it!
We were next to the fantastic Lemontop Gin yesterday, and I just had to reward myself for all my hard work last night. It is highly recommended! I’m now on the hunt for more cream soda to mix it with.
So, next weekend is another busy one, with a village market and another long Sunday (just a bit closer to home) with the fantastic Festival on the Flatts. I’m hoping the humour range proves just as popular with the locals!
Yes, as expected, this new card design was by far the best seller at Crayke Village Market today. We only have one left in stock (at time of posting) so a restock order will be happening soon.
First we have our guest stall at Hovingham Village Market to prep for. I’m so excited to be invited as Hovingham is such a tranquil and picturesque village, a dream retirement location for us in an ideal world! The market is a thriving event in the region, where you will find an eclectic mix of local artisans and businesses from food and drink to crafts and homewares.
If this one goes well we may be invited to add it to our regular markets. In fact, July is a busy month for us, with Hovingham, Sheriff Hutton, Crayke and Saltburn Food Festival on the calendar. Full details of all our upcoming events are shared on our socials.
Website back online
I panicked a little this morning at Crayke market when I got a notification to say my website was down. I had just added a video to TikTok, directing people to it! Thankfully it is now back up and running but please do get in touch if something isn’t working as it should.
I’m so happy with how everything is going, it’s lovely to be out selling face to face at so many local markets and events. August is shaping up to be just as busy and then we will be thinking of Christmas!
Well, it’s about time isn’t it? Getting my business going again has been tricky, in particular managing cash flow. If I’m honest, I overstretched myself when investing in reduced price stock from Flamingo, so I didn’t have funds to buy anything new. However when we started regular markets again as an independent greeting card store, I was hopeful we would be able to buy some new designs. It’s taken longer than I wanted but finally I have new greetings cards to show you.
I’m pleased with the new humour range and want to add to it soon, but first these need to fly out! There’s only six of each design available so I don’t expect to have them for long.
If humour isn’t really your thing, we also have some cute animal cards for birthdays and other occasions. The animal cards we had from Flamingo have been very popular, we only have a couple left. Although these aren’t quite a replacement for those, I’m hoping they come close! Let me know what you think.
I can’t choose between this cute chap and the highland cow. There are more designs in the range that I wasn’t able to get this time round so if they prove popular I will expand the range!.
As always, if there are any designs you would like me to try and find please comment below or get in touch via social media.
I’m counting down the days until summer break at my ‘day job’ in a local school. I only work part time which gives me plenty of hours to spend gardening and running my businesses.
It doesn’t feel like a month since we first attended Sheriff Hutton Village Market, and here we are, booked in for the next three, with the first being this Sunday. It’s a welcome distraction from what is a difficult Father’s Day for me, with losing dad earlier in the year. I have my foodie wish list ready (we always support the food producers at these markets) as well as a stock and equipment wish list for my business. Will we be as busy as we were last month? I’m keeping my fingers crossed it’s a good day as the broccoli seedlings I have are desperate for a raised bed planter, plus as our joints are seizing up we really need this trolley to transport things.
If you haven’t been to Sheriff Hutton market before, it’s well worth a visit. This time they have a wide range of local small businesses attending, including alcohol, baked goods, meats, Homewares, clothing and many more. You can treat your dad to something special, including a bacon/sausage/egg butty from the cafe.
If you have other plans this Sunday, you can visit our stall at Crayke Market at the end of June.
Last year, when we found out Flamingo Paperie was closing, I thought long and hard about the future of my card business. I took advantage of the stock sales, but with no other suppliers and limited options, I honestly thought my business would go too. A lot of the team members around me decided to close, and I was sad thinking I would be doing the same. I didn’t want it to close but wasn’t sure I had the energy to work through all the problems.
2024 brought ill health and loss to my family, which left my business languishing with a quiet website and a pile of stock as I took time off. It’s been a tough job to get going again, but I’ve never been one to give up on something I really love. One monthly market led to two, with a possible third to follow (we will see how that one goes!)
A regular income means my ‘closing down’ stock is reducing rapidly – a lovely problem to have – and I have a couple of suppliers lined up, but not enough funds to invest as I need to.
If you don’t follow me on TikTok, you won’t have heard that at each market we attend we try to ‘pay it forward’ by supporting the food producers. Their stock doesn’t pack away until next month, so they need to sell out of everything they produce to avoid waste. This means that although we have sold at markets, a proportion of that goes to other stall holders. As a result we are growing slowly, but need to refresh our stock for the next few markets.
I have a wishlist of humour cards, occasion cards, and craft kits, so if there is anything you were thinking of buying please do so. Alternatively you can share our website with anyone who needs to stock up again on cards from Flamingo Paperie or Phoenix Trading (yes I still have a few gems from those days).
I’m excited to make this business truly independent and profitable, meaning we can give even more back to other small business owners in North Yorkshire.
I’m thrilled that I’ve been offered a place at another popular monthly market. I really feel like this is the way for me to grow my greetings card business again, and I’m hopeful that this one and Crayke will be enough to keep me ticking over until the Christmas events start.
I will be sharing more details soon, but for now I wanted to share the market offer. If you visited Crayke market at the end of April you may have taken advantage of the 5 cards for £10 offer, which will also be available at this new market.
I have plenty of floral cards and birthday cards in stock, and will be buying new designs as soon as I can (I’m as keen as you are to see them!)
I have lots of the amazing craft kits in stock too. These contain everything you need to create a card 3D animal character including glue and scissors. I’ve made the sheep and flamingo, and my children have made the llama and unicorn head designs. They will keep you busy for a few hours and at the end you will have a lovely display piece!
A colleague recently asked me if I had any plans for Easter break. Now my children are adults, I don’t have any need to think up fun ways to amuse them in a bid to save my sanity, so I thought about all the house management type jobs I have planned then responded with ‘no, not really’.
Of course that’s not strictly true, as I will be at Crayke Market over the two weeks off, but apart from that I will mostly be sorting the kitchen cupboards and getting rid of things we no longer need – oh, and relaxing as much as possible.
Duckling craft kit
If you are still looking for activities to do with your children, and the weather doesn’t cooperate, these cute craft kits might come in handy. They come with everything you need to make the model and will keep older children (and adults) amused for hours.
Rabbit craft kit
I hope you do manage some days out in the sunshine too, as there will be lots of fun events happening in your area for Easter. If you have any to share please reply with details below.
The beginning of the year is when all our family birthdays fall, so we usually have a flurry of gift giving. I’m always grateful for my card shop as I’m awful at remembering to get cards when we go shopping.
This year however has been difficult to celebrate. My dad was diagnosed with cancer in early January and we have just been given the news none of us wanted to hear. This means that my card shop has been at the back of my mind, and birthdays have been subdued. I am still sending orders out but they make take a little longer to pack as we try to spend as much time as possible with family.
I still need to update the stock on my website so please bear with me. If you order and I’m unable to send everything I will of course refund.
