NON-STOP BUYING!

I think we said, at some point in mid-September, that our buying spree would halt until early October. We lied. It has been going on ever since that blog because of you lot (our lovely customers!) continuing to buy furniture. It is proving difficult to keep up with demand. So much so that we’re off in two large vans next week to buy serious tonnage!



And it’s not just furniture – Freddie the Fox has gone! Gone to live with someone who has another fox in the freezer ready for stuffing. Yes, Freddie will have a foxy friend! And Barney (Barn Owl) has gone too!

Now, if someone could home Henry the Goose and Barnaby the Badger, all would be well, and Kathryn might let me buy some more taxidermy treats!

 

P.S. I made all those names up apart from Freddie and Henry...

NEST LANDROVER

The main company van, as many of you know, is an old Landrover. As we’re always being asked about it I thought that if I put it on here, I could then just refer people to it, rather than constantly getting into beardy weirdy discussions on Landrover specs.

So...it’s a Series III, long wheel base, built in 1979 by British Leyland – it shows all the finish quality of a car made in that year (which is probably how long it took to build, what with all the strikes).

The Landrover was purchased from new and converted into (of all things) a mobile seed testing lab for an agricultural research station. It essentially lived in a barn for 11 months – emerged at harvest and then went back to sleep – hence in approximately 30 years it clocked up only 16,000 miles!

The van was serviced every month for its entire life by the same mechanic – I have his monthly reports which are mundanely boring, with the odd highlight involving changing the battery!

It was originally fitted with a 6 cylinder petrol engine – quite possibly the worst engine ever made by Landrover. It is now fitted with a 200 TDi – possibly the best engine ever made by Landrover. It also has a non-standard low ratio gearbox which until I had an overdrive fitted meant it could only do a maximum speed of about 45mph. However, it is surprisingly fast off the mark – you can actually wheel spin it, not bad for a vehicle fitted with off-road tyres...

The main point of this vehicle, however, is its road appeal. It is, in effect, one big smile inducing advert for the business!

However, all legends must come to an end and we are beginning to think of replacing the Landy and our small Vauxhall van with something else – so if you’ve ever wanted a completely unique vehicle, put your bid in!

PRAMS

“Oh, there isn’t much room in your shop for my pram”.

Well, it depends on the size of your pram. If your baby needs to be pushed around in something that would look more at home in the Sahara, going up and down sand dunes, then perhaps leave it in the car park with the rest of the Landrovers!

When I was a baby, we were lucky to...etc, etc...rant, rant.....etc etc.

By the way, this is a lovely old pram, as used by our friend Ellie for daughter Hope, who is not at all the kind of customer to complain about lack of manoeuvring space!

BUYING BLOW-OUT!

Right – I think that’s the end of our current monthly buying spree (well, it will be once Kathryn has visited Jane Hogben tomorrow). After spending a pile last Monday, then having a tyre blow-out on the A1 and watching it actually overtake us, I think either God or our rivals may be trying to tell us something!

Still, we did pick up a goodly haul of ‘smalls’ including, for some reason, a job lot of box brownie cameras, a load more French enamel, some old wooden toy lorries, more typewriters and several tin trunks full of odds and ends.

 

Hopefully, all this might offset the cost of a new wheel and tyre...and some new nerve endings for Kath!

NEST IS EXPANDING!

It’s sort of been on the cards for a few years. But now the planets have aligned, we’ve got our heads round the business aspect and our bank manager hasn’t laughed himself off his chair – so it’s all go!

We have taken on a new workshop (it’s next door to our current one, which is handy!) thus expanding this very important aspect of our business. It’s all really occurred because of our involvement with interior designers and their incessant demands for non-existent furniture in ‘just-so’ shades of colour! We also find that clients want a Nest ‘style’ piece, but have very specific dimensions and colour requirements. This has involved us making bespoke furniture and consequently we really, really, needed more space.

In a past life I used to design and build kitchens and so this is now a service Nest will provide. We will also undertake a repainting service if you want to give a blast of life to a tired piece of your own furniture.

So, if you need a kitchen, a wardrobe, a row of storage lockers, a tree house, a boat shaped shed, just about anything really, then give us a call. It will be built with all the creativity that you expect of Nest...

We had a very tasty all day fried breakfast the other day (well, I did, Kathryn had a vegetarian breakfast – when she asked what was in it, they told her ‘everything except the meat’...fair enough) at a farmers cafe – this can mean only one thing – we’re getting fat? No! We were on the road, driving and buying.

It was an eclectic haul of goodies that trip. Lots of typewriters, a fencer’s mask (you know, for people with swords), lots of fold-out wooden rulers and a good pile of furniture. We bagged our first ever seed drill which would make a wonderful err....decorative type thing! A collection of hammers, some lovely watercolours, mirrors, crates, a concrete dog, loads of interesting cutlery and, well, just boxes of stuff!

The madness, I mean the buying, is carrying on into mid September...providing I get enough fried breakfasts!

LOTS OF LOVELY NEW THINGS!

We went to one of the big trade shows on Sunday and managed to come away with some exciting new suppliers.

People are always asking us for traditional wall-mounted plate racks, but these are really difficult to find so we decided to see if there was a British manufacturer...and yes, there is! So look out for these beautiful pine racks made in the South West coming soon to Nest...

There were actually a lot of little British manufacturing companies at the show so we put a few orders in for lots of lovely things. Watch out for them in the next couple of months! We also, whilst we were there, put in a large order with our false flower company to ensure some really stunning autumn and winter displays in the shop.

Whilst writing this blog, two large deliveries have turned up (just my luck!). The first is a new batch of French ceramic lamps which, if the French didn’t take the entire summer off, we might have got just a little bit sooner (still, worth waiting for!). Secondly we had a delivery of books from a new distributor – some really good titles and some, dare I say it, ideal Christmas presents – sorry!

SELLING TOO MUCH!

August was a very strange retail month indeed. For some reason, you lovely people out there all decided to buy large pieces of furniture and this is beginning to cause us problems (not least because we tend to store our glassware in larger dressers!). We have recently bought a lot of large items but, at the moment, most of this stock is weeks away from being shop ready so if this pattern continues we’re going to have to pile lots of smaller bits in!

This is what happens when I dare take a full bank holiday off – still, can’t complain, it’s a good problem to have!