What can I say?

What can I say? I knew it was going to be busy but this week has been crazy. I'm not complaining, it's great to have so many orders and enquiries. I have fed and watered all the new animals that I got last weekend but I am some way off having them labelled, housed up properly and added to my stock list. Most are now listed on my website but I do have a couple of tarantulas that I don't yet have a common name for. I might ask my Facebook friends but as yet I haven't found the time! Honestly I haven't stopped, I have been waking up early and going straight into my office (that’s after making a cup of tea and having a wee - too much information?).

The show was brilliant as usual. The Invicta tarantula group who put the show on are so friendly and well organised and the venue is a plush hotel. I was picking out millipedes and got into a right mess, my hands were covered in mud. I went to the bathroom to clean up and not only did they have a good quality soap dispenser and paper towels but they also had hand cream, I was most impressed.

There were tarantulas everywhere and plenty of other creatures too. My favourite was a Coconut crab or Robber crab as they are often called. I have only seen them on the television and was really excited to see one in the flesh. It was just a young one but stunningly beautiful. I took a photo and put it on my Facebook page. I have never received so many likes and comments. I am obviously not the only one who was fascinated. Unfortunately, the crab came with a price tag of £350 and even though it is my birthday today and our Ruby wedding anniversary next week my husband wouldn't cave in and let me have her (I don't know if the crab was male or female but I named her Bluebell, she was a lovely blue colour). In all honesty, she was wonderful to see but I think keeping her might be difficult, they grow huge and could do serious damage with those claws. I think she would eventually need a room sized cage. As most of you know by now I hate the idea of animals being taken from the wild and never import myself.

The shows are always a great place to catch up with everyone and have a good chat with likeminded people. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day but then of course I got home with my multitude of animals and as I looked at the bags covering my bug room the thought came into my head, "oops I did it again"! Still give it a couple of weeks and I will get on top of it.

The best seller this week has to be the Jumping spiders that I got from the show. I bought tiny spiderlings and some that were half grown. I wish I had seen the spiderlings first as although tiny, they are proving really easy to keep. I am feeding them on newly hatched brown crickets but they will also take small fruit flies. The larger ones were far too expensive really but they are gorgeous. They are one of my favourite pet bugs, they are so interactive.

Yesterday I did the grand review draw with the help of my great nieces and the winner for January is ‘David’. The winner will be receiving his postage code in an email, this will entitle him to free postage on his next order. The competition has been a huge success, I received 20 reviews from 7 people and I am extremely grateful to everyone who took part. I am delighted to have all these new reviews. The February competition had already begun! Previously the most reviews that I have had submitted in a month is 13 but 8 of those were from the same person, the next highest was 6 so 20 is fantastic. The strange thing is that David only submitted 1 review whereas others submitted several but that’s the luck of the draw (literally). I can only put one photo on here but I will put a few more on my Facebook page. The draw was entirely fair. I was helped by my great nieces (with the promise of MacDonald’s for tea). We wrote the names on pieces of paper, folded each entry and put them into a hat. Katie drew out the name and Izzy held the hat, Katie wouldn’t hold the hat as she was scared of the Jungle Nymph stick insect that I placed on it as a bit of added interest. I did try to tell her that it is only a stick insect for goodness sake!

Anyway, it’s time to walk Teddi now and I have a couple of people calling to collect orders, plus I need to clear up as I have family and friends coming around for my birthday tea later. Everyone has to eat pizza as there is a competition to win a holiday on the boxes and I really fancy a holiday!

This week's photo: Izzy and Katie and the "Great Review Draw", in my terribly messy office :(