Pink is not the new cream

So an interesting couple of weeks in Odiham High Street.......

When we refurbished the shop in May the outside was looking a little scruffy so we painted it a light candy pink - not realising that Odiham was in a conservation area and as such the colours of the shops all need to be first approved by Hart Council. We have had a meeting with the conservation officer at Hart Council, who has stated that the pink clashes with the outside brickwork and therefore it needs to be changed to cream or cream with a hint of pink (so in fact cream)

Since the pink front has existed we have had a lot more visitors to the shop, lots of pictures have been taken by tourists and in general people love it! However, Hart council are still in insisting the colour is changed to cream, even though it looks great pink and really adds to the personality of the High Street. We really don't like making too much of a fuss about these things but we felt so strongly about keeping the colour that we asked our customers what they thought, if our customers didn't like it then fine, we will change it in a flash - over 600 people have now signed to confirm they love the colour which includes local people,businesses and members of Odiham Parish Council..

Molly has had a number of interviews with the BBC including radio 5 Live (all very early in the morning!) to discuss this situation, our next meeting with Hart Council is next week so fingers crossed!!

We have recently ordered the most fabulous hand made chocolates, they should be coming in towards the end of September and then we will start gearing up for Halloween.

I was having a rare day off on Monday and went into Winchester which is the most beautiful City, there were a couple of sweet shops there and obviously we had to go in and have a nose. I am happy to report that not one was as nice as Swirleeze - not that I'm biased or anything!!! It was a bit depressing, even though it was a warm day and I had a T-Shirt on, there was a lot of shops that had all their Christmas stuff out - it just gets earlier and earlier doesn't it every year?

That's it for a couple of weeks - will keep you updated on mission Pink!

Live and Kicking!

So finally the website has gone live!! I'm really excited about the fact that we are going out into the world

Monday we went to the Speciality and Fine Food festival at Olympia in London - we are passionate about finding interesting, UK based suppliers with delicious products - not necessarily award winning but if they have then so much the better! I went with the mission to find an additional chocolate supplier, Christmas puddings and cakes and something interesting.... It was really worthwhile going but my poor tummy afterwards - after eating lots of sweet things, I then had to have some sour stuff with chillis in etc and then back to the sweet, then some ham just because it looked delicious (and it was) How we suffered for our art

There were so many different trade stands there, some from France, some from very large companies and some from small independent businesses like ourselves. It is a hard life but I tried about 10 different chocolate companies and finally decided on Davenports Chocolates a small business based in Newcastle, the chocolates are created by Artisan Chocalatier Jane Williams and the chocolate taste is just outstanding as well as looking incredibley pretty- I've ordered some and as these are made by hand just for us they will be arriving in a week or so. I am really looking forward to getting them in the shop and online and getting the response from our customers

I'm yet to 100% make my mind up about the Christmas puddings - I've made a short list of 3 and I shall be having the folks over for dinner for the final blind taste and decision (don't tell anyone, but I don't really like Christmas pudding and therefore need assistance from my willing volunteers) It will be a bit like the X Factor but with more fruit - mind you some of the contestants are 100% fruit loops

We recently had a customer come into the shop and tell us that they had recently been to America and that we should definitely stock candied crickets, maggots and beetles as people in Odiham would buy them. Now maybe I'm missing a trick here but some people can find chilli chocolate and salted caramel a step too far so I think I can categorically say that we will never be stocking creepy crawlie - Yuk!!!!!


The hot baby news is that our pug is "probably" pregnant with at least one puglet - it does mean that I can't go to a friends wedding and I'm not really looking forward to waking up every 2 hours just to feed them, however I am sure it will all be worth it in the end.

I was hoping to go to the gym today to work off all the food from Monday but I forgot my trainer! Oh well, looks like I will just have to think about it - they do say it's the thought that counts?