Christmas Shopping Event in aid of SJPA.

 

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Christmas Shopping Evening
Friday 22nd November 2013, 6pm - 9pm
St. John The Baptist Catholic Primary School, Normanton

 It's here: the very first Christmas Shopping Event  for SJPA! This is not your typical school Christmas fair! You won't find a bottle stall or a white elephant table; it's definitely a time for the grown-ups! Prepare yourself for Normanton's shopping event of the year and be part of the first of many successful shopping nights in aid of the school's PA. With something for everyone and every budget, save yourself the hassle of the shopping centre and tick off your whole gift list under one roof.

The evening will be opened at 6pm by the beautiful sound of the school choir singing your favourite carols. Alongside a fantastic array of high quality items, many of them handmade by local businesses, you will be able treat yourself to some Christmas baking and a glass or two of festive tipple to kick start your season in style with a child-free night to remember.

Here's a taste of the businesses and items that you can expect to find on the night. And if you see anything that takes your fancy, why not make it easy for yourself and write a list of things you want to watch out for? With the added bonus of helping to raise funds towards the school's outdoor classroom, it's sure to be a wonderful evening.

ChaseTheCloudsAway
We are delighted that Zoe will be joining us with her handmade homewares from Vintage and Retro fabrics, such as sausage dog draught excluders, wheat bags, oven gloves, hot water bottle covers, peg bags, pin cushions, door stops, baby snugglers, crochet baby booties and dribble bibs. She also has a fabulous range of oven gloves, all British Safety standards approved. Pop over to say 'hi!' on Facebook.

Booby and The Beads
Sharon offers a host of wonderful breastfeeding jewellery, dummy and toy clips, personalised key rings,small crochet items and ornate jewellery display stands. If you're looking for emergency contact/"If I Get Lost"/Medical ID bracelets and key rings, then here's your chance to buy peace of mind! In addition, Sharon will also be offering mini manicures and nail painting on the night, perfect for the weekend! PayPal payments are accepted for bespoke orders. Say hello on Facebook and on Twitter @BoobyandtheBead.

Little Shop of Lathers
Claire makes fabulous natural, handmade bath, body and shower products, including bath bombs, shower tablets, soaps, hand and feet treatments, body scrubs, facial treatments, lip balms and bespoke gifts, all with no chemicals or preservatives. Little Shop of Lathers is able to accept debit/credit cards on the night. Find out more at www.littleshopoflathers.co.uk, on Facebook or on Twitter at @shopoflathers.

The Stationer
We are really pleased to be able to welcome Susan and Robert from The Stationer on Normanton High Street into school for this event. They will be bringing along a selection of beautifully handcrafted wooden toys, along with a range of the ever-popular Melissa & Doug wooden fun! You'll also find some fantastic educational games and puzzles from Orchard Toys on their stall. The Stationer will also accept personal cheques at this event. 

 
Delgled Crafts
With a range of lovely crafts, Dela will have something for everyone and every budget on display at her stall! Items include fused glass pieces to add light to your home, decoupage items and small sewing projects. Dela is happy to accept personal cheques for purchases made at the event.

Sandy Fryer
Sandy is a fabulous local artist and poet, and unsurprisingly her product range is based around her wonderful work. On the night you will find small paintings (some of local scenes), paperweights, bookmarks, Christmas cards and poetry booklets. Sandy's range for children includes colour and rhyme books, and art to colour. Some of her colouring books include images based on Bible texts, making them the perfect quiet activity to take along to Mass! You can see some examples at www.sandyfryer.co.uk.

Pampered Chef
We are very grateful to Gaynor for standing at the event as a fundraiser stall, with a percentage of sales on the night going to SJPA funds. Pampered Chef specialises in high-quality kitchen tools that make cooking quick, easy and fun, and that make getting together as a family even more enjoyable! As well as ordering from the extensive catalogue (including cheque and card payments), you will also be able to watch a demonstration at Gaynor's stall. For a sneak preview, visit Gaynor on Facebook.

Hop Stitch Jump 
Make memories last a lifetime with Doodlebroidery, an embroidered version of your littles one's amazing artwork! Catherine will be bringing along some examples of commissions to give you a feel for the work she does, and you'll be able to place orders on the night. There will also be a range of ready-to-buy wall art and fabulous dinosaur hoodies! Personal cheques will be accepted on the night and PayPal for commissions. Pop over to Facebook to see more and say 'hi'!

Sisters MC Photography
Award-winning photographer Sarah will be joining us to showcase some of the amazing portrait work she undertakes at the Wakefield studio. Sisters offers an amazing package range that includes special photo shoot parties for your little princess, pregnancy and baby portraits and makeover shoots, and has some great value Christmas offers to share. You can see more at www.sistersmc.co.uk or on Facebook.
Felt Like Art
Lesley makes her own felt by hand and uses her creations in the most beautiful wall art and cushions. Her range depicts nature and landscapes and is very striking. From poppies and peacocks to fairies and flowers, you'll be amazed to see what can be made from felt. If you'd like a better idea of the items you can expect to see in school on the 22nd, please visit Lesley at Facebook.

Calli-Fleur
We are delighted to welcome Maxine along to school for our shopping evening, and look forward to being able to give you more details very soon about the beautiful floral items on offer and the exciting demonstration you can see on the night!

Gail Draper Knitting
All her own designs, Gail will have a wide range of hand knitted items for children and ladies. With beautiful baby cardigans, fantastically fashionable handwarmers and the most amazing children's character hats, you are sure to find every you need to beat the cold this winter!

Created In Yorkshire
Lynne will be joining us with a fabulous selection of handmade goods stocked in the award-winning shop in Wakefield. Items include tile coasters, Christmas decorations, stunning wooden signs, pocket mirrors, badges and fridge magnets. Add to that a delicious range of sweet trees that make a wonderful gift and then the ultimate Christmas table centerpiece, and you'll agree there's something for everyone! If you'd like to see more before the 22nd, please pop over to Facebook.

Avon
Following the tradition of Avon making your shopping easy, Tracy will be joining us with Avon! If you are looking for  gifts or just something to treat yourself, you're sure to find something worth ordering!

Jewelbox
You'll find Karen among her varied range of fabulous wooden, crystal and glass jewellery,perfect for the ladies in your life. She'll also be bringing along some special Christmas items, including children's door hangers, wooden and beaded decorations and wooden plaques. Visit Jewelbox on Facebook to get ideas for your Christmas list! Personal cheques will be accepted on the night.

Cupcake Central
You'll be amazed by the range of sweet treats Lisa has to offer! She'll be bringing along beautiful cupcakes, boxed shortbread, gift wrapped traybakes, chocolate toolboxes and makeup kits, wow! Added to that are gingerbread houses complete with gingerbread men, and Christmas baubles filled with chocolates, yum! Lisa will accept personal cheques on the night.

EDITED 08/11/2013 to add two further businesses. Wow, what a night it's going to be!

Baht 'at Designs by Ruby Shoesday
Vicky will be joining us with a lovely selection, including beautiful ladies' bags. Whether you need a large messenger bag for every day use, or a beautiful clutch to finish your Christmas outfit in style, the range of unusual fabrics is bound to have something to suit you! Take a look at her website or visit her on Facebook.

Liah Made It!
We will also be joined by Liah and her hand-painted glasses, wish stones and cute cat doorstops! These all make wonderful gifts for someone who is usually difficulty to buy for!

The Day I Cried In Debenhams

 

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The day I cried in Debenhams...

Tomorrow night is the first Wakefield Retail Awards, and Created in Yorkshire has reached the finals! How fab is that? We've only been a team for nine months and here we are preparing a 'just in case' speech for, well, just in case we win! Yay! A great, and very justifiable excuse for a cheeky little night out. And to swap my daily uniform of jeans, a t-shirt and either pumps or Birkis depending on the weather, for something lovely, pretty and grown up! It turns out that our Boss Lady's on holiday and won't be able to make the event, so yours truly has been tasked with saying a few words if they're needed. And our local newspaper, the Wakefield Express, is organising the awards so you can be fairly sure there'll be some snaps in next week's paper. Dress pressure!

I have tried everywhere I can think of to find a dress. Actually, that's not strictly true, but I have tried absolutely everywhere that sells dresses a) in my size, b) suitable for an evening event, and c) in my budget, which in all honesty is not that much more than a fiver! I have ordered online but wasn't happy with the sizing, trawled every rail in the outlet village for a special dress at an extra special price, and today it was time for me to hit the high street.

In the past, I've had some unexpected and fantastic finds in the clothing department at the supermarket, so I dropped Beatrix and Jasper at school and started there. Asda was always a long shot, and turned out to be fruitless. Have you ever tried the Gok Wan range in Sainsbury's? I've seen some really nice pieces, particularly around Christmas, but I had no luck there either. So on to Next. Neither of the dresses I'd seen out of stock in their directory were in stock in store. And on and on and on and on I went, visiting every clothes shop in Trinity Walk that met my three criteria.   

At 10.15, I wandered into Debenhams, pushchair and all. (Did I forget to mention that I had Abel with me? And that he was a bit fussy, clearly having inherited the anti-shopping gene from both of his parents?) It was bonkers - there must have been close to 300 dresses to look at. How many dresses can you actually consider before you go dress blind, I wonder? Definitely not that many, so I took my chance and accosted a store assistant as she walked passed. Our little exchange went like this... 
Me: "Excuse me, do you work in ladies wear?" She did. "I could do with a bit of help; do you have five minutes?"
 Her: "Yes, of course! What are you looking for?"
Me: "Well, I'm going to an awards evening tomorrow (her eyes widened slightly, clearly recognising the panic of the last-minute dress purchase), the shop I'm part of has made it to the finals of the Wakefield Retail Awards, and I haven't anything to wear that fits and, and, and..."

That's when it happened: my eyes started leaking. Boiling hot blobs of salt water sploshed from my eyes and down my reddening cheeks. And they were the extra large tears that do indeed splosh, not the dainty type that well up in the corners of your eyes first, giving you chance to catch them with a well-timed Kleenex.

Me: "Oh, no! Now I'm crying! I don't know how this happened, I don't even cry when things die."
Her: "Stop, please don't make me laugh, because it will turn into tears and I'll be joining you! Right, don't panic. We will get you sorted. I'm going to get the keys for the Personal Shopper booth and take you in there. You can be calm, the little fella can run around and we'll get you a dress."
Me: "Thank you. I feel so stupid. It's just a dress. I don't know why I'm doing this..."
Her: "Listen, it's all going to be fine. The panic's setting in, but we're going to get you sorted. Go for a wander around and I'll come and find you when I've got the keys."
And off she went, all sympathetic eyes and really calm demeanour.

I trotted around with the pushchair for a couple of minutes and picked up two dresses from the teary blur around me before the calm, kind lady returned to collect me and whisked me off to a room about the size of my bedroom, complete with a sofa, scatter cushions and plush velvet curtains. We talked a little about what I like - I explained that I feel good about my small waist but everything else needs hiding or disguising - and I accidentally gave her a potted life history. Whoops! Have you ever done that? Found yourself inexplicably pouring your heart out to a stranger? It's not something I make a habit of, to be honest, but the calm, kind lady just let it happen, as if it's par for the course during her Friday morning at work!

I gave her a bit (okay, a lot!) of background to me coming out of teaching and how I ended up sewing and running a little business and then becoming part of Created In Yorkshire, and she explained that she'd also made some big changes to stay home to raise her son when she became a mum, and it helped that she knew where I was coming from. Then she told me her name was Sue and she left the room to collect a few dresses as a baseline and I felt like I'd been touched by the hand of serenity, seriously! You know that scene in Grease when Frenchie's guardian angel is singing 'Beauty School Drop Out' and everything looks all dreamy and soft-focus and she forgets her crazy pink hair mistake and the horrors of being a drop out? That private changing room was like that! Abel and I had a snack, played a few game of hide-and-seek behind the curtains and I was calm again, the tears of minutes earlier forgotten.

Sue's first run returned a bounty of four dresses to get an idea of shape, length and neckline and I tried them while she popped off to round up some more. It was fun! I don't remember the last time I had fun shopping for clothes, but it was definitely before I had three babies in four years, and probably when I wore matching underwear every day!

As Sue popped in and out with more dresses, some shoes to help with the overall look, and some jackets and cardigans for cover-up options, we had a few more little chats and I learned that she's already a big fan of Created In Yorkshire. She reminded me that if we win tomorrow, the people I will have to stand in front of are no different to the thousands of children and parents I stood before in my time as a teacher, and that all of the people there - even the big wigs from the more established finalists - were once children themselves. I just need to harness my inner speaker and bring her out again.

Without boring you with any more of the little details, something special happened today. Sue The Dress Lady really moved me, she gave me a different take on things and I came away with a bit of an identity, something which has been lost for a long time. She made me realise that I'm not my twenty-something, carefree self, that I'm not the suited teacher, nor am I the old island girl on the beach. But that's okay. It's okay to be a mum and businesswoman and a maker. It's okay to wear practical jeans and t-shirts every day. And it's definitely okay to wear something a bit more classy and grown up to an occasion, something that won't blow the budget like it would have eight or ten years ago, because there are other priorites now and my riches are somewhere else.

I did buy a dress in the end. It's a grown up number that I hope I'll get lots of wear out of. I wasn't swayed by the price, or the brand, or my own idea of what suits me, and I feel quite nice in it! There was a massive bonus of a 50% discount today, too, which I didn't know until I got to the till. Huzzah!

Today I cried in Debenhams. Today I was removed from the shop floor to a semi-padded room by Sue the retail angel and I almost enjoyed clothes shopping. Today Sue gave me back a piece of myself and I became a bit more comfortable with who I am now instead of missing the someone I used to be. Today I took a great step in accepting myself, and I liked it.

I suggested to Sue, in all seriousness, that she considers a career change to some kind of life coach, but in between time, I'll be sure to commend her customer service to the store manager and be ever glad of the help she gave me today.

(All the dresses pictured are from a selection available online and in store at Debenhams. I tried all of these and more on!)

And now I'd like to know. Did you ever get big help from somewhere or someone unexpected?