2018 - What a Year!
2018 My Year in Review
First off I can barely believe 2018 is almost over … how did it go so fast? I don’t know about you but I sometimes feel like every year I get older time seems to pass by quicker. 2018 has been a pretty big year for me and my business, there have been plenty of ups and downs but all in all I am excited to see what 2019 has to bring. Also sorry it has been such a long time since I posted, unfortunately when things get busy in one area of my business others sometimes get pushed to the side which in this case happens to be the blog. But I do intend to make posts more regularly in the new year as this is something I really enjoy, and I hope you do too (fingers crossed).
My Greetings Card Range
2018 was the year that I really dedicated to building and promoting my greetings card range. It’s something I have been working on in the background for a number of years but this year I decided to really make time to push it forward and I am so glad that I did. I have always been really passionate about beautiful papers and this is something that was very important to me when I first started the collection. I also wanted to make sure the card designs retained their original watercolour quality and look as true to the original paintings as possible. It has been a long process getting to the stage where everything is exactly as I wanted but it’s definitely worth being a perfectionist when it is for your brand. I am looking forward to building the collection more next year and adding in lots of new and exciting designs and working with more wonderful stockists.
My First Trade Fair
One of the biggest changes to my business this year was launching my greetings card range to Trade customers. I finally took the plunge and booked my fist ever Trade show (Harrogate Home and Gift). This was a big deal for both me and the business as it was the first time I had offered the collection to trade and retail customers on a large scale. It was also quite a big investment for me as a small business and was something I have been working towards for a while now but I felt it was a really important step I had to take. I feel like there is such a lot to say about my Trade Fair experience, far too much to just cram into a small yearly review post so I intend to do a proper follow up about what I learnt. (So keep posted for that)
My Personal Life
This has also been a big year for me in my personal life, as well as another year being a pug mum I have also started volunteering at a pug rescue and welfare charity - which has been amazing. I am a very passionate dog lady in general and pugs in particular, so it has been really special helping pair precious pugs with their new forever homes. This is also something I hope to continue with into 2019.
Me and Oliver also spent our 9th anniversary together and even more exciting than that we finally got round to booking our wedding! (Teddy will of course be the pug of honour/ring bearer) and we are excited to start planning.