Virginia Cheeseman Blog

My first spider evening is today! ‘No rules’ - seemed such a good idea at the time but now I’m panicking, I am worried that nobody will turn up, I know there is the possibility that too many people will turn up but I have convinced myself that I will be all alone. Hubby says “go with the flow, I will be here if you need me” but I am not one to go with the flow and I could panic for England. Time will tell, obviously I will be clearing and cleaning the bug room today and my office too. I managed to get some new captive bred spiders in yesterday, cutting it fine but I said I would try. This time of the year is always the slowest for sales. Most people are surprised when I say this but my business is a hobby business and people don’t spend money on themselves before Christmas as they have presents to buy for friends and family. There are a number of people who buy tarantulas for their loved ones and I must say that I have sold a fair number this month but really nothing much else. I no lo...

I’m now trying to write something quickly as I’m also cooking dinner and I’m trying to be sociable as my mother in-law has just arrived. I would usually write the blog in the morning but I have about a million jobs on my to-do list (perhaps a slight exaggeration) and I need to get as many as I can done tomorrow before the weekend. I am ‘once again’ trying not to spend the whole weekend working as it really annoys my family but it is a problem when you work from home. I am still trying to get straight from being away for two weeks. So, I’m sitting here on the sofa between my mother in-law and husband, tapping away on my iPad and hoping nobody notices J No, I didn’t get away with it and it’s now Friday morning J This time next week I will be having my first spider evening. I know I said no rules but I’m getting a bit worried now as the post that I put on a Facebook reached over 1,000 people I reckon my bug room could accommodate about ten people at a push! That said I still may end up a...

Getting there! Almost back to normal, everything in the bug room has been fed, cleaned and watered since returning from Costa Rica (most of them twice). All is looking good, Georgie (assisted by Josh, her boyfriend) did a great job with all the animals while I was away. I am trying to cut back on the animals until after Christmas but everything keeps breeding so I am still spending hours caring for the ‘mini zoo’. My motto for moving forwards is “more personal - less postal” and it is going well. I’ve had a few people call to collect their orders since I returned and I have finally sorted out the dates for a spider evening and open afternoon. I am always trying new rules and regulations when people call so I am going to be different this time by not setting any! Not sure how this will go, it may be chaos as my bug room is not very big or perhaps no one will turn up. We will see, I would like to have regular events so this will be an experiment. I have many pretty spiders that nobody ge...

What time is it? The holiday in Costa Rica was brilliant, we saw lots of amazing animals and took a zillion photographs. We got back on Tuesday but I’m still feeling shattered from the 11 hour flight and 6 hour time difference. Georgie did well, looking after all the animals, big and small but I know she found it really tough (2 weeks is a long time). I started sorting out all the bugs as soon as we got home but I think it’s going to be a week or so until I get straight. I had intended to write a nice long blog about my trip but to be honest I just don’t have the time. I managed to send off yesterday, all the UK orders that came in while I was away and I have the ‘rest of Europe’ orders sorted, ready to go on Monday. Everything looks good in the bug room, my beautiful Spearmint Asian praying mantids have matured while I was away and they are absolutely stunning! I was a bit worried that my Florida Wolf spider had escaped but Georgie assured me that she had simply dug down and just this...