Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Christmas is coming, photo day tomorrow. I will be taking photographs for this year's Christmas card. I have several ideas, all of them featuring Teddi and the bugs in some way or other, with Christmas decorations. Last year's card took ages, trying to get a bunch of bugs to sit still and pose isn't easy. This year it will be even harder as Teddi is hyperactive (that's what our dog trainer says), she rarely sits still for anything. Teddi was one year old yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed her day, especially her lunch time party that I organised with doggy friends. It was a bit rushed as I had to get my mother in-law to the hospital for yet another medical problem. I have spent a lot of time at hospitals with my mother in-law this week. Perhaps it's just as well that orders are so thin on the ground. There really is little money around for extras at the moment. Christmas is never a good time work wise for me. Most people buy pets for themselves and of course at this t...

Harrods was lovely but lots of catching up to do today. My sister and I went on the Flackwell Heath, annual Christmas coach trip to Harrods yesterday. It really is another world in that gorgeous store (must get an extra lottery ticket this weekend), I bought Teddi a ceramic doggy bowl, with Harrods printed on it for her first birthday next Thursday. This week has been pretty quiet again but I have sold off a number of stick insects, they were at reduced prices as I need to cut down on the number of cages. Even feeding bramble eating stick insects has become a problem in the last couple of years. We have woods all around us and not so long ago I just hopped over the fence a couple of times a week to collect an armful of bramble for my little friends. Now the woods are full of Muntjac deer and they have even it all. This week I was reduced to visiting the local Homebase car park. The car park backs onto the M40 motorway so there are no deer and lots of bramble. This is only usually nec...

A pretty quiet week, not a lot coming in and not a lot going out. I hope things pick up next week because the weather is still amazingly mild here in Buckinghamshire. I have had no problems with anything in the post recently, nothing has arrived in a poor state and there have been no delays, so everything is good. I really hope that Royal Mail manage to cope with the Christmas post better than they did last year. I know the weather was bad but I do think they could have made more effort. Dropping the next day delivery guarantee for the entire month of December was a total cop out (in my opinion). Things got so bad that I stopped posting out orders long before Christmas, I just hope that if we do have any snow this winter that it falls between Christmas and New Year only! I am certainly planning ahead, my aim to cut down on leaf eating bugs is going well. I have had some cheap offers on my website over the last couple of weeks and later today I am visiting a fellow dealer who is taking ...

More like April Fool's Day than Halloween on Monday. I arranged for my website guy to send out my newsletter on Monday evening. I didn't realise that it needed a title, he called it November Newsletter, the only problem being that he managed to spell November and newsletter incorrectly! I was not a happy bunny when I realised but what could I do? It had already gone out to hundreds of people. The 'almost' funny bit was that in the newsletter I asked people to check my website and let me know of any mistakes as it is very difficult to proof read your own work. We went to a super Halloween party on Sunday at my nephew's house and then on Monday I was waiting for 'trick or treat' people to call but nobody did! Evidently you need to place a pumpkin outside your house to tell people they are welcome to call, oh well we will know for next year and I get to eat all the sweets! Since sending out the newsletter I have had some nice replies and a few good suggesti...