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Tuesday 15 November 2016

Lily Pad Bakery Christmas

Cake Truffles and Gingerbread House
Fudge and Chocolates
Tiffins
This week I held my Open House for Christmas orders.  I did a bit more marketing, and as I have got to know a lot more people in the last year, was hopeful that more would attend.

Cake Area
I added two more lines this year: Christmas chocolates (I have finally worked out how to temper chocolate - buy decent chocolate from a proper Chocolate Warehouse - costs more but it tempers perfectly every time!) and fudge - in 6 flavours: Boozy Christmas, Rum & Raisin, Vanilla, Ginger, Muscovado and Chocolate.  I did tasters for everything, tried to make it look nice and Christmassy, put on Christmas music and then made two big cakes: a giant Jaffa cake and a spiced apple and currant cake which were on offer with hot berry punch in return for a donation to Cancer Research.

It is always a nervous time.  It takes A LOT of work to get everything ready on time (baking, marketing, labels, presentation, packaging etc etc - it takes forever to do it all)

Knitted and Crocheted Goods
At 9am I got inundated from the school run - think about 10 people turned up with children as well - so it was a bit mad and I didn't get to speak to everyone, but pretty much everyone ordered something.  The rest of the day was calmer.  I had two down periods of an hour each when no-one was here, which was fine - gave me a chance to recharge.  One person even turned up that I didn't know - she had seen my poster in the Community Centre, so that was good - hopefully she will spread the word amongst her friends.

Oh and my crochet Rudolph proved very popular, so much so that I took orders for 15 of them in the first hour and then had to hide him so I didn't get anymore.  I'm going to be busy in the evenings now.  A good way to get my crocheting speed up.

I took £583.50 from 22 orders which was loads more than last year (just under £300). AND I made £77 for Cancer Research.

On Saturday, Tom went to spend the weekend with his grandparents, Matt went to Edinburgh and I had a craft fair at Smile Nursery - thought it a good idea to get exposure to the new parents of Kirkby.    Also as it was the day after my open house - it was two birds with one stone!  No-one was allowed to take anything away on Friday, but everything was for sale on Saturday.  Well to say the fair was disappointing is an under statement.  There were plenty of vendors: Phoenix, Body Shop, Vintage Stalls, Beauty Stalls, Fell Tarn Friends etc etc.  Everyone had put a lot of effort in, except the Nursery.  I was surprised to find NO signs on the A65 advertising the fair.  The fair was empty for the full 3 hours.  Those that turned up, turned up so their children could meet a character from Paw Patrol - they didn't  bring any money for shopping?  It was as if they didn't know it was a Christmas Shopping Fair?!

I did have a feeling that it would be a little amateur but I didn't expect it to be so under attended.  Luckily I had lots of small ticket items - gingerbread biscuits for 10p / 50p / 80p to entice people over and I managed to sell quite a bit of fudge (boozy fudge very popular amongst Dads), but really it was disappointing and some vendors didn't sell anything - some were really quite upset at how bad attendance was!  Not sure they will get any to return.  For me, it was a way to sell all the samples I had to make for the Open House, so it was no skin off my nose - I made £50, not great, but £50 that would have got thrown away otherwise.

So advice to me for next year:

OPEN HOUSE
+ Yes you have to get up at 6am to get it all ready in time for 9am start
+ 9 till 6 is good - people came up to 5.30
+ Have prices ready for the big cakes as people wanted to know
+ Definitely go for 'experimental' cakes - the Giant Jaffa Cake was very popular
+ Marketing - do some flyers next year and post round houses nearby, also let the teachers at school know.  Poster for the newsagents.
+ Crochet Rudolphs very popular

CRAFT MARKET
+ Find out projected attendance
+ Are they marketing the event?  How are they marketing it?
+ Will they put road signs out?
+ Think about maximising on fudge.  Find out Food Hygiene rules re selling fudge in a public place (spit shield etc).  Do boozy fudge flavours for Dads - very popular.

Cousins!

So at last - after the best part of 2 years, the cousins met up this weekend.  It always surprises me when children play so well with each other when they don't know each other that well.  As adults we find interaction with those we don't know difficult, is is something that comes with age and experience?

Gooning about
Anyway, they played well together.  I wouldn't say they were angels, they all played up at some point (some more than others) but on the whole they got on well and enjoyed each others company.  Obviously Jake and Amber are used to being with cousins as they have some from Clare's family, but poor Tom of course doesn't have any others - he's doomed to be from a small family, the same as his parents!  At least he has some cousins the same age as him - which is more than me, but just a shame he doesn't see them that often.

Anyhow, they got stuck in traffic coming up on Friday night - we told Tom he could stay up until 9pm and if it looked like they were near, he could wait until they arrived, but if they were stuck, go to bed.  Unfortunately they got stuck on the M6, due to a vehicle fire and advice on the Internet said that they might not be free again until 11pm.  Tom was yawning and actually said himself that he wanted to go to bed, which he did and he fell straight asleep.

The Branches arrived around 9.30 (Jake's opening words: "You are coming to us next time") - having managed to get off the motorway and dodge the worse of the traffic.  I couldn't wake Tom up, so they released a little energy downstairs and then went to bed.  Eventually Tom woke up and then of course there was no chance of them going to sleep.  There was a lot of chattering, in the end Simon went up and gave them a massive bollocking and they finally went to sleep - phew!  We weren't long behind them!

On the Ribblehead walk
Saturday dawned clear, cold, windy but not raining so we decided to go out.  We did the walk around Ribblehead which was freezing cold, punctuated with various moans, sheep chasing (Jake) and Amber flying down a hill so fast that she face planted on the grass in some sheep poo!  Oops.  There were a lot of tears, but they soon calmed down once I found some chocolate!

Next stop was Hawes and the creamery.  We headed to the cafe to have a warming drink.  Well the others did anyway - both Simon and I were on coke - I guess we are alike in some respects!  Next stop was the tasting room.  Now Amber had been going on and on about this all morning as she likes cheese, but as we got there, she decided she didn't like cheese, and didn't want to go in.  Jake, on the other hand had said that he didn't like cheese and wasn't interested in going in the tasting room.  Jake was so excited he went round it 3 times, and would have done some more circuits if we hadn't stopped him!  Amber did try some, but the Ginger & Wensleydale was a shock to her system and she refused to try any more after that!
At the fireworks

We then did the museum - which has got a lot bigger in the last year.  However, they weren't making cheese!  Really, on the run up to Christmas, we were surprised and disappointed.  There was a video on how cheese is made - I think Amber watched it about 5 times, so she would have enjoyed the factory.  Oh, well, maybe next time.  We then headed into Hawes for lunch and a little walk around - Clare and Simon were surprised by the range of goods on offer in the shops (typical Southerners - think we are food heathens up here!)

We then headed home for a rest before going to the fireworks at Kirkby.  Now we haven't been to fireworks for 2 years as someone tends to get himself in a state about them.  Last time we saw some fireworks, I think his howling was louder than the bangs.  For sure, EVERYONE around us was looking at him and not the fireworks and I had to literally drag him home screaming! We had a long talk about it this year and he agreed to give it another go if he got to wear ear defenders.  Hurray - a break through.  He also didn't look at me with dread in his eyes as we talked about it.  We continued to talk positively about it and on the night he was even looking forward to it.

People had told us to get there early as the roads would be in chaos, so we did.  No need, we zipped in with no hold up at all.  We bumped into loads of people we knew - think half of the school was there.  It was a nice atmosphere.  We got ourselves some burgers and hot Pimms and warmed ourselves by the bonfire. At 8pm on the dot the fireworks started.  WOW, they were brilliant and they went on and on.  In fact it was 20 minutes long, a brilliant show.  Even Simon said it was good - he doesn't give out praise readily so they must have been good - and they even said that although they thought it was an expensive entrance fee, it was worth it!  And Tom, well he had a smile on his face for pretty much all of it.  Matt kept his hand on his shoulders the whole time to reassure him, but I think we can say he is officially past his firework panic.  He did say he wouldn't want to watch them without the ear defenders - so that's the next hurdle.

We got out of the car park easily, returned home, the children went straight to bed with no arguments whilst we collapsed downstairs.

Sunday morning, Clare and I went for a run.  I've never run before with anyone else, and was a little worried, especially as Clare has run 10kms and half marathons, so would be faster than me.  However, I took a deep breath and went for it.  Yes, Clare is faster on the flat and downhill than me, but I was faster on the hilly bits so over all we were on par.  Clare wasn't impressed by the hills, but she did them stoically.  When we got back, the time was pretty much what I normally do it in.

When we got back the children were getting ready to go to the pump track.  I had borrowed 2 other bikes so Jake and Amber could have a go.  Tom got in a mood because we wouldn't let him on the BMX and asked him to ride Seth's bike as that was the most precious bike and he was less likely to fall off than the others.  It was so bad that Matt actually initially banned him from going - we had temper!

After 10 mins, Clare took him down - he had to go as he had to show them how to do it.  So, Amber had a go, fell off, cried, tried again, did it - had fun, did it again, again and again.  She was a natural.  Matt was very impressed.  Jake on the other hand refused to even try one bump - so much so that Simon and Clare almost lost it with him and each other.  He came home in a huff and played on Tom's computer until Amber and Tom came home.

Kitchen helper
Matt's Go-Pro got a good video of Amber doing a circuit - she really enjoyed it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYHXTWoEwxc

When they got back, Simon, Clare, Jake and Tom went for a walk around the village - with Tom acting as Tour Guide - he took them to the scout hall, the village, the park and Storrs Common, did a good job.  Amber stayed behind and made an apple crumble and laid the table for dinner.

I did a lot of bonding with Amber this weekend and really really enjoyed her company, I would happily spend more time with her.  I still haven't managed much of a conversation with Jake though - he has pretty much always ignored me and continues to do so.

We sat down for a roast at 12 - all ate up well - phew.  They then headed down south as Simon was going out for the evening.  We had an easy afternoon.