Monday 30 March 2009

The month of March

I have never been one for keeping a diary...preferring to keep my thoughts to myself, but I started this blog to give people an insight into what I do and how I think. I am quite a quiet shy person and I don't usually have a lot to say for myself but it makes a boring blog if I don't try to keep it up to date. So needless to say, I am shocked that it's been over a month since my last posting. I have decided as I haven't had a creative epiphany that I will make this blog all about a little of everything that has happened to me in the business and as mum to 3 adult teens.
In Business
Weddings are down quite considerably for me this year. I remember being much busier this time last year. Thankfully though, I have been kept busy with an order from the girls in the Grangemouth Gala Day and the girls in the Bo'ness Fair Day. I made 8 tiaras for the Grangemouth Gala Day and 16 tiaras for the Bo'ness Fair Day. Because of the amount of tiaras ordered I was able to sell them to them with a considerable discount. My thinking for doing this, is word of mouth advertising. That is 24 mums and daughters telling their friends and family where they got their tiaras from. Friends could include friends with older sisters and family could include aunties and older cousins all near the age for marrying!
Anyway the Grangemouth Gala Day girls chose the Natalie tiara made using diamanté, light rose and light amethyst Swarovski crystals in silver plate.
The girls from Bo'ness chose Alina tiara in silver plate and all clear crystals.
The other thing that has happened in my world of business is that my bank account was hacked! Thankfully though my bank were on the ball and contacted me to confirm what transactions were genuine and which were not. Unfortunately though the first transaction that wasn't genuine did manage to go through. It was for over £300! The second though was stopped. My online bank account was suspended and my bank card cancelled. That was me officially unable to purchase any new materials until my new card was issued. I had just that day told a customer that her order would be ready for uplift at the start of the week but I had run out of crystals to complete the order. The customer telephoned me at the end of the week worrying that I was sitting with this completed order. I apologised and told her what had happened. She was very understanding and sympathetic about it. I have been reluctant to pay any bills during this time in case any cheques that I had written would bounce. I don't have an arranged overdraft >insert crying smilies here<
In Family
My twins(boy + girl) attended interviews for college and have conditional acceptances for their chosen course next year. My son is hoping to do a course on developing computer software and my daughter wants to continue her course in Media Communication. She came home this evening and told me that she has also applied to help her lecturer do some filming at Big in Falkirk This will be a good qualification on her CV. He only intends to chose people who have had good college attendance, and she feels that she will be in with a good chance, as she was only of one morning when she attended the hospital with a broken hand! I have an older son who is also at college doing a sports science degree. He will graduate this summer but is hoping to go on to university. Yesterday he was taking part in an International Tae Kwon Do competition. He won Gold for sparring and Silver for patterns. Unfortunately he did come home with a black eye!

1 comment:

CHRIS LINACRE said...

Hi Diana
Good to hear all your news again - You must be feeling very proud right now of your family :-)
x chris