HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hello everyone

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that it was not ruined by power cuts or flooding.  Bad weather is never welcome, but at Christmas it seems even harder to cope with as it is a time when families get-together and this year that may have been impossible for some people.  I hope the New year brings better weather for all of us.

We had a mini power cut on Christmas day (not long after the turkey had been put in the oven), but as our power is via overhead electricity cables, this is something that happens fairly often and didn't cause us to rush out and light the BBQ (believe me, we had planned this as an alternative way of cooking Christmas lunch).  However, two roads very near to ours were without power for most of Christmas Eve and friends in Godalming and Shackleford were without power off and on for long periods of time over the holidays.

We had a lovely Christmas Day.  A close friend spent the day with us  and once we had eaten our way through a mountain of food (well , it felt like that) we were able to relax, listen to music and play some 'old but fun' Christmas quizzes.  As always happens we seem to have catered for a coach party - plenty of leftovers to munch our way through while we catch up on television programmes we have missed over the Christmas break.

Christmas Pie Crafts made it into the Surrey Advertiser in time for Christmas.  By chance I was at home when we had a visit from one of the newspaper's journalists who was asking residents about the name Christmas Pie, its origins and what people though of the name.  How could I resist mentioning my business?    I love a bit of free advertising, always very welcome - thank you Surrey Advertiser.

2013 is nearly over and it's time to reflect on the highs and lows of the year and make plans to move my

business forward in the New Year.  I have some ideas and there are new things on the horizon for me and my business and rather than rush into new things and possibly regret some of them, I am taking time to plan.  Although there will be new activities for Christmas Pie Crafts to get to grips with, top of my 'To Do' list is to spend more time on CPC Wedding Stationery than I have in the current year.  I have already booked two wedding fayres for 2014 -with companies I have been with this year and they were successful for me.  The fayres are both in March so I have time to plan new ranges, marketing and promotion - however, as I am very good at putting things off, I must make a concerted effort to begin making for them very soon.

The sun is shining, hardly any breeze, although still frosty but a good time to get out into the garden.  Because most recent week days and weekends were spent in the Christmas Emporium very little work was carried out and there is still quite of lot of tidying and pruning to do.

Happy New Year everyone.  I am looking forward to reading new and 'old' blogs in 2014, welcoming new followers and hopefully starting up the Friday Guest Blogger spot again - anyone interested in being the first guest blogger of 2014?

Jill