A Moment's Pause?

Just when I thought it was safe…

A salutory lesson in not taking anything for granted.

There I was, after my last blog, still flat out trying to get all the Christmas stuff out and then suddenly, all the one-offs and Christmas presents seemed to be done.

“I’ve caught up!” I announced triumphantly to Suzy, “I’ve been trying to catch up all year and now I have.”

And all of a sudden I felt all end-of-term-ish and started to kick back a bit.

It’s nearly Christmas, I told myself. Nobody’s going to hit you with mounds of work at this late stage. Just enjoy a slightly more relaxing time before it all kicks off again in the New Year. There’s a couple of runs outstanding but you can work your way through those at a little more leisurely pace.

How wrong can you be?
Because barely was the thought formed when the phone started ringing…

I should have known.

Kick back? Relax? Ha! I wish!

But now the focus has changed completely. OK, well there are a couple of small jobs for delivery after Christmas but even cynical old unshockable me was surprised by the number of longer “runs” that came in the space of half a day.

Clubs, emergency services, businesses, all getting their orders in before the VAT increase in January. And who can blame them?

On top of all that came a monster order for Sea Cadet badges – one which, despite my moratorium, I accepted because there’s no way it could be done before Christmas, and so is something for the New Year. It’s brilliant and I still can’t really believe that people want to buy stuff from me.

It’s all good. No, really. It is. I might feel like I'm standing on my head clapping my feet sometimes, but what right-minded business-owner can complain of having too much work?

Last year I described January as a time when, for the first time since I started this embroidery lark, I “hit the ground running” instead of waiting for business to rev up for a month.

This year, I don’t think my feet will even touch.

And I might even be able to afford Phil’s wages, instead of adopting the "Pay and Pray" principle.

Stranger things have happened.

I wonder if my mentioning Sea Cadet badges will prompt another phone call from Lambeth.

Hmmm.

Sea Cadet badges Sea Cadet badges Sea Cadet badges Sea Cadet badges Sea Cadet badges Sea Cadet badges Sea Cadet badges Sea Cadet badges.

Not that anyone will be there for me to wind up this week...