It’s that time of the year for me again – Christmas gift set season! From Early November to mid-December I’m pretty much a hermit, unless you can find me at a local event touting my Lovely Greens Handmade bath and beauty products. It also means that blogging unfortunately takes a nose-dive while I make batches of holiday candles, lip balms, bath melts, and assemble and label gifts. Usually I do it all myself but this year I’ve had a little help from both my boyfriend and a friend’s daughter. Whether I like it or not, each year my little enterprise becomes just a little bit bigger.
I’ve taken the year off of working at the Farmers Markets and other events in part due to my knee surgery but also because I needed time to focus on this blog. Now that the new design is finished and Christmas is here I decided it was time to book in a few events. The first of these were over Saturday and Sunday and were at my favourite little market of the year – the Laxey Working Men’s Institute’s Christmas Fair.
I can’t tell you how much fun I had meeting customers, chatting with friends, and enjoying a bit of a social while working! I literally spoke to at least thirty people I knew from around the island and village. It was such a nice change from my normal Christmas season day since for the past few weeks the only people I see aside from Josh are the people at the post office.
Over the weekend the most popular items I sold were unsurprisingly my handmade soap and the Christmas candles. I literally have six Christmas Spices candles left today which means I’m going to have to make a very large batch later on!
Of the gift sets, the Kitchen & Garden skincare set was the one that went the most quickly. The kitchen & garden soap has its own set of loyal users but packaged up with a pretty pot of Calendula Healing Salve it makes for a lovely gift. I have loads more types of gift sets listed on my website here.
A new offering I have this year are gift certificates for soap making classes. Thanks to the wonderful write-up the Courier gave me last month I’ve booked quite a few classes of mainly individuals or groups of six. In the class I show you how to make two batches of handmade soap which you’re then able to take home with you. Since I already have a big selection of essential oils and natural colours it makes it even more fun since you can get as creative as you’d like with your soap – especially when the lesson is one on one.
I had quite a few people come up for a chat over the weekend after they recognised me from the paper. Honestly, I’m a little embarrassed that the photo they ran was so big but I’m so pleased at the positive coverage and that so many more folks are aware of what I do!
The two days in Laxey were wonderful but left some of my stock depleted so this week it’s a catch up game before the other two events I’ve booked for the coming weekend. It’s a toss-up whether I’ll be able to go to them though since the weather has been wet and windy and both are going to be held outdoors. I’ll make a call closer to the time… If I do manage to go, you’ll be able to easily spot me because I’ll be setting up with my blue VW Camper, Daisy Blue. Saturday I’m booked in for the Real Reindeer event in Onchan and Sunday I’ll be in St. Paul’s Square in Ramsey.
If you’d like to have a look at my products in the meantime, they’re available on my website, through Not on the High Street, and at local retailers: Abode, the House of Manannan, Indulgence in Ramsey, the Manx Museum, the Manx Wildlife Trust Shop, and Trend Gifts in Port Erin.
Happy December (can you believe that it’s only 24 days to Christmas now?!) and if you’re on the island and planning on being out at either of the events I’m at this weekend please drop by to say hi. I might even have a bit of Manx honey with me if you’re looking for it!
