Hiya Scotland

We have been back in Scotland now since Thursday September 13 and have been quite busy already.

Sheila - a dear neighbour who introduced me to the Kelso fair and who is going to help me selling - and I dressed the dummy, who we christened Astrid. We will use her at ‘Presents Galore, in Kelso on October 7 and 8. We have made lists of what we have to take with us, lists of the items we are going to sell etc. In addition to that I had to change the shipping details of every single item in my shop (I did not find a bulk changing tool for this particular task - I suppose not many shop owners take their whole shop to another country). The days seem to fly by now!

Because I wanted to make a few more bags for Presents Galore, I ordered some fabrics online in the UK. It probably is a language problem but I have not been able to find the right fabrics online in France. I would welcome any suggestions for links on this! I bought some fabrics in Switzerland but I have to be careful because the prices are terribly high and the shop I use does not really have the fabrics I want.

One of my best hunting grounds are two fabrics shops in Zwolle, the Netherlands. I never leave either shop without a stack of fabrics. As we always make a stopover in Zwolle before going to Scotland, I visited these shops this time as well and was very pleased to have Alan with me to carry the heavy bags.

But, as I was saying, I ordered some fabrics online in the UK ( http://www.the-millshop-online.co.uk/ ) and was very pleased to find that they had arrived when we got here. I was even more pleased when I opened the parcel and found the lovely fabrics. Sheila confiscated one of the fabrics immediately telling me that she wanted a bag of this particular fabric for her sister and probably one for herself as well. In addition, I can use either side of some of the fabrics. One side has beautiful bright colours and the other side has the more subdued tones, but both are very beautiful.

I have started the first bag!