So long 2023, it's been a year!

Where to start with 2023? At the beginning!

In January I sat down with a very fancy new Goal diary and a spreadsheet, determined to plan 2023 to the nth degree (and tame my impulsive side a bit!)

It started well, thanks to my Chirpy team, we came up with lots of ideas about what we wanted to achieve during the year, some new, some building on existing things and some old things which we knew worked well.

In January to March we got off to a flying start, with Workshops, Makers in Residence, Fiverfest, Chirpy Chats and even a stock room tidy. I was part of a Retail Event Panel meeting some great industry contacts too. I diligently filled in my Goal diary with what we’d achieved - quarter 1 done and dusted.

April - June, Q2, a bit like the difficult 2nd album! A slow start and a quiet Easter. But as Spring turned into Summer (and the Goal diary got lost under a pile of papers!) I was determined to turn it around. In May I was part of the Breast Cancer Wear It Pink Launch which kicked off our fundraising for the year. To make it easier to shop local we opened on the Bank Holidays (2 out of 3 were worthwhile) and on Sundays when the Chapel Allerton Market were on.

The highlight of June was attending a new trade show, finding 5 new cards suppliers and being asked to judge the Henries (the Oscars of the card world). Lowlight was loosing 2 friends to cancer so keeping busy was the best think to do. We ran 5 workshops, welcomed Annika for work experience and ran a busy double points event.

Summer arrived, or actually didn’t as July was cold and wet, not conducive to shopping unless you sell umbrellas (which we started to!) As our customers were off on holiday in August I went back to planning, launching our Autumn Workshop programme, stock preorders and even our Christmas baubles. Escaping for a couple of days I celebrated my mum’s 80th birthday by the sea.

The sun eventually came out for the Chapel Allerton Festival and stayed out for the rest of September bringing customers shopping. This year’s annual visit to Top Drawer to buy my Christmas stock proved very successful (& expensive) finding some great new suppliers. The Brick Vases and Sweary Pencils have proved a huge hit! Our collaboration with Heyy Cards to celebrate Thinking of You Week helped us raise £250 for Breast Cancer Now so all in all a successful end to Q3.

The golden quarter - October to December. With lots of new stock arriving and preorders proving a very successful strategy October proved to be a good month. Fiver Fest turned into Magic Tenner (blame inflation!) encouraging everyone to continue to support their local high street.

It seems that every year Christmas prep starts earlier, but we always kick off ours with our annual Chirpyversary. This year we celebrated 7 years with a great evening shopping event and busy weekend of offers. Our Chirpyversary, and the fundraising done at college by my daughter. helped us take our total to £600 which will allow us to sponsor a Breast Care nurse for the next 12 months.

Another month, another judging panel! In December I was honoured to be a judge for Gift of the Year and look forward to see who wins in 2024. Despite a little blip (no one wants a bad back in the busiest month of the year) December has proved another busy month. It was great to finally have a Late Night Shopping event with most of the other indie businesses in Chapel Allerton, hopefully an annual event and welcome lots of people to our Christmas workshops.

So what does 2024 have in store?

Will I try again with a fancy Goal Diary (wonder where I put it?!) or will I grab a nice notebook from the Chirpy shelves and scribble my ideas (disclaimer I’ve already started doing the latter) I’m playing around with collaboration ideas, bespoke products, better gift bundles and of course more fund raising ideas. I might even try and get a week in the sunshine (not just on the north east coast!)

If 2023 was a fair ground ride it would be the Pirate Ship (which I’m not a fan of) and I’m hoping for more of a Waltzer (my fave) in 2024!

But first up, better tidy that stock room again and have a bit of a January Sale …

It's beginning to feel a bit like ... Autumn!

Can you believe that we’re 3/4s of the way through 2023 already, the mornings are getting chillier, the nights are drawing in and everywhere seems to be decorated in pumpkins, including Chirpy!

Time to look back at the summer we almost had!

Best buying decision of July had to be stocking the wonderful Smiley umbrellas for what turned out ot be a very wet month. For those of you who know me well you’ll know it’s a bit ironic that I’m stocking these as I have a thing against emojis (long story!) but I couldn’t resist these, and neither could our customers! The other best buying decision was stocking ROKA bags, which have gone down a treat! Their great designs and vibrant colours fit in perfectly with the Chirpy vibe and they’ve proved very popular. Think they’ll be a best seller this Christmas. Retail really is affected by the weather though and July proved to be a challenging month, much quieter than last year, when we were baking in sunshine. I did also manage a little family trip to Scotland where it didn’t rain all the time and a visit to the Harrogate Trade fair which is great as it’s only a bus ride away & got lots of ideas for new season stock.

August saw a couple of new businesses open in Chapel Allerton, Paria and Bricklebanks. It’s always great to see new businesses pop up and keep our local high street vibrant and thriving. Paria does great coffee and pastries, have to admit I haven’t had a chance to try Bricklebanks yet but it’s on my list.

We launched the new Chirpy Workshop programme this month, with lots of new workshops and a few trusty popular ones too. It was great to get lots of bookings straight away, really helps us plan ahead. Talking of planing ahead we also opened our preorders for lots of new stock, including our Festive Papercut Baubles. The aim of this was also to help you spread the cost of gifting this year, help us manage our orders and cashflow and help our suppliers know what we’re going to order as soon as possible so a win win all round.

On a personal note I had a lovely couple of days beside the seaside with my mum for her 80th birthday followed by her garden party. Hope I’m as sprightly as my mum (with her new hip) when I’m 80! My daughter turned 17 too (don’t worry the roads are safe as she’s not learning to drive) and we had a great trip to London to see Cabaret which was amazing!

September, my favourite month, and the return of summer! The month had a busy start with Chapel Allerton’s annual festival and the monthly market - not particularly good for shop sales but great to see the ‘village’ so busy and what a lovely weekend for it. September also denotes the beginning of the festive season for me in retail with a visit to Top Drawer, my favourite tradeshow, where I order most of my Christmas stock. It was a great show, meeting some existing suppliers and finding some new ones too. We think you’ll love the things we’ve bought and the new pencil sets are already proving very popular.

This September we took part in ‘Thinking of You’ week and raised over £250 for Breast Cancer Now, with personalised cards, a raffle and a bake sale. We’ll continue to raise money over the next couple of months so still time to buy your raffle tickets - there’s some gorgeous prizes.

The workshop programme got off to a great start, having already hosted 5 workshops this month and lots more to come - don’t forget to book your places!

The shop is looking lovely and autumnal as we’re embracing Halloween. We’ll also be welcoming back My New Wardrobe for a pop up shop on 6th October and also planning for the MAGIC TENNER event which starts on 7th October.

We couldn’t do all of this without our wonderful Chirpy customers who continue to support us, buying gifts, booking on workshops or even just popping in for a card.

Now the fun starts … if you see me running around looking a bit stressed then that’s autumn for me!! Coffee always welcome!

Jo x

Bye bye Spring, here's to a Chirpy Summer!

So we’ve waved goodbye to another 3 months of the year, Spring is behind us, we’re in the middle (!) of summer and half way through the year. Less than 6 months until Christmas - there I’ve said it now, promise I won’t mention it again!

So looking back at April, May and June it’s been a real mixed bag - typically Spring I suppose, with all retail seasons in 3 months.

After a busy March, April brought us back down to earth with a bang! Sales were 33% down from March and from April 2022, it was not to be a busy Easter! We were left wondering where everyone had gone to eat their Easter chocolate. We did however welcome Black Violet as she popped upstairs as our ‘Maker in Residence’ and hosted a fabulous Jewellery workshop. We also held our now monthly Arm Knitting Workshop with Mizz Knits which never disappoints with woolly fizz & laughter!

We welcomed May with the launch of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I was honoured to be featured in their ‘Wear it Pink’ Campaign - watch this space for more fundraising events in October as our chosen Chirpy charity. The news was full of how the numerous Bank Holidays would be good for retail businesses, so we threw open our doors to the cries of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’. The first one coincided with a very sunny Sunday and the new Chapel Allerton Market so as gluttons for punishment we opened then too! Think it might be a slow burn but Sunday openings when the market is on is here to stay for Chirpy. After 5 long years we were also delighted to welcome back My New Wardrobe with her pop up shop, which was a great success so we’ve got the next autumn date in our diaries (6th October is case you’re wondering) Another Arm Knitting and a Jesmonite Coaster workshop finished off what turned out to be an enjoyable and quite busy month.

June, my favourite month! And it did not disappoint! I have realised the busier I am, the happier I am and I think that reflects in the shop. 5 workshops, Double Points event, visited a new card tradeshow where I found 5 new suppliers, asked to be a judge for the Oscars of the card world, feature article in Gifts Today and welcomed Annika for a week on Work Experience. Another Chapel Allerton market day, where we were much busier and Shop Independent Day too. As well as my own birthday - a busy month which flew by!

So what does the summer have in store? As terms end and people go off on holiday July & August can be tough months in retail. We’ll be open as usual thanks tp my fabulous Chirpy team.

There's still time to grab those Teacher gifts, cards and vouchers. We’d like to think that the schools we support through prizes for Summer Fairs & Raffles support us by shopping local for their Class Collections (fingers crossed!)

We’ve got trade shows to visit with Christmas in mind (sorry, I said I wouldn’t mention it again!) and from September we’ll be back in full swing with lots of new Workshops.

I’m always amazed when I look back at what we’ve achieved at how much more there is to running a shop, no one told me that when I bought Chirpy almost 7 years ago. I’ll always strive to keep the stock, workshops and events new ands exciting for our wonderful customers and love to hear your feedback and ideas of what you’d like Chirpy to offer so don’t hesitate to get in touch here

Thanks for your ongoing support, have a wonderful summer and don’t forget us for all those summer birthdays!

Jo x