TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY?

That’s another buying week out of the way. We’ve eaten far too much fried food and drunk far too much coffee and spent way too much money. At the moment the last few days are a bit of a haze but I can remember a few highlights.

A pair of the most beautiful painted pine benches (with back and sides) we have ever had! There is little point trying to describe them because I won’t be able to do them justice. However (!)... one is a blue (ish) colour and the other pink. I’m desperately trying to work out if I can get one in my house!

We managed to find quite a bit of enamelware – teapots, jugs, coffee pots etc. which was encouraging because lately supplies seemed to have run dry – I’m sure it’s got something to do with the Jubilee – I blame the Queen!

Of course, a major highlight (for me, not so much Kathryn) was buying a whole menagerie of stuffed creatures. My absolute favourite being a massive seagull (the sort that would eat your cat and still have room for a small child). He has a comedy partner in the form of a goggle eyed cormorant! We also picked up another barn owl which was handy timing as we had just sold the owl bought at the start of the week. We were on the lookout for some new characters, so I also bagged a couple of new ducks (not Drakes) and some sort of seabird that may possibly be a razorbill. All will be in soon, after a bit of sprucing up. I was very tempted by a wild boar but I’m not sure our customer base is quite ready to be confronted by an angry looking pig...there should be some sort of joke here but I’m too tired and might end up insulting the staff...and, er..me.

I was also tempted by a Formula One racing car tyre in order to turn it into a coffee table. But, again, I’m not sure if our shop is ready to go down that road (ha ha!)!

I have, however, been building up a little stock of decorative ‘industrial’ pieces which will come in at some point when I work out the best way to display them...or rather stop them falling on someone’s foot. This is definitely a trendy growth area in the interiors scene at the moment which is slightly frustrating because it’s all so ****ing heavy!

So, all in all a successful week – now all I have to do is get everything ready for the shop – which means more coffee and lots of biscuits!