A week of birthdays

Kangaroo was 30 years old on the 18th May, Aunty Joyce was 90 on the 19th May and youngest grand-daughter Martha was 1 on the 22nd May.

Me on the left and Karen on the right

To celebrate Kangaroo's 30th anniversary I am re-writing some of the patterns for the original children's knits I designed when the shop first opened. These were mostly machine knits and some of them look positively dated rather than cool vintage, however with a bit of tweaking and some new shades they will make a lovely collection of hand-knit designs and will be available soon as patterns or kits.
The photo above was taken in our first year of trading and is of me, my friend Karen who started the business with me, her baby boy Ben and my first Golden Retriever Bodie.

Some original Kangaroo knits

Aunty Joyce treated us to lunch at the Waterside Inn in Bray to celebrate her 90th, which was superb. It was a lovely sunny day and started with champagne and canapes on the terrace, followed by a yummy lunch, petits fours and coffee. The service was fantastic and the desserts a work of art, a great day and so nice to see Joyce enjoying herself so much.

Aunty Joyce (and my pud at the front)

Martha's tea party was a little noisier, an afternoon in the garden with the new trampoline being tested out by elder sister Eliza, while the grown ups lazed in the sun with a glass of bubbly. The teddy bears cake was the highlight of the day, but the marzipan has done nothing good for my diet.....!

Servers and Street parties

What a weekend!
Our server crashed the middle of last week, which means that we have had no emails for nearly a week and the Kangaroo website has been down.
The bad news is that most of the data has been lost which has meant I am having to do a complete stock check and re-enter all the data and images, the good news is that I have got around to making the final changes to the website, so hopefully there will be some improvements when everything is up and running.

We managed to celebrate 'the wedding' in style, inbetween website updates! With a get together in front of the telly on Friday and a street party on Saturday, ex pats at their best!

Bedrock provided the music and everyone chipped in on the food, the weather was fab!

Kangaroo should be pretty much back to normal tomorrow, although I think we are going to have to re-issue new passwords to all existing customers.
There is a massive thunderstorm coming in now, which I think will put an end to my website up-dating for the day. Time to turn off the computer before the power goes off and I lose all my stock check......

The move

I finally seem to be surfacing from the mountain of packing boxes, my office still looks like a tornado has gone through it but things are improving. Kangaroo is temporarily set up in a bedroom at La Verderie, where it will have to stay until we get the work to the chai and the barn finished (which could be some time!) I have signed the contract for another book with a deadline of early April so the pressure is on again.

The move was even more stressful than moving house, with the added complication of keeping the computers running, finding stock in the mass of collapsible boxes and black bin liners, sending out orders and trying to keep all the customers happy. On top of all this I have to complete half year accounts for the UK, complete my registrations in France, decide on the best postage options, re-price and change loads of things on the website, design some new kits for KnitKits and then there is the garden.......

My poor little courtyard has been totally neglected for the last 6 months, so am trying to spend a little time every day out there. The weather is fantastic at the moment, still cold at night with a frost but up to 23 degrees in the daytime.

The crochet workshop here in October with Jane Crowfoot is now fully booked, which is really exciting. I am emailing tutors this week to arrange some more dates for 2012, so watch this space! We have had a few chambres d'hotes enquiries and  http://www.accommodationcharente-maritime.com/ is starting to get more hits which is good news.

Care for a cuppa at Kangaroo?

We are holding an all day tea party tomorrow (Thursday 6th May from 10 am to 4 pm) at Kangaroo in support of Diabetes UK. All proceeds for tea, coffe and cakes will be donated to the charity. So come along and join the Kangaloonies knitting group, have a cuppa and make a donation to a worthy cause. For directions to find us click here.

Easter Bonus - 10% discount on knitting yarns

A little Easter egg for all our customers, go to the Kangaroo website and when you place an order enter the code TENOFF at the checkout and receive 10% discount on your order. (Offer ends at midnight on Monday 5th April and only applies to items currently in stock).