So far we’ve had a few responses. Rachel of Devon based Curworthy Cheese has emailed me back to say they will be happy to donate a cheese and we’ve been promised some drinks from Luscombe but the first donation arrived this week in the form of a shiny new voucher from Quickes to spend in their farm shop over near Exeter.

Thank you Mary (pictured above) at Quickes – this should help us raise some money via our raffle and the proceeds are to be shared between Upottery PTFA school funds and Clic Sargent – the children’s cancer care charity who promote fun-packed fundraising events for mums of all ages across the UK.

Quickes Cheese Shop is based at the farm in Newton St Cyres and the shop stocks the whole range of Quickes Cheddars plus their handmade whey butter and ice cream. The highest standard produce is all sourced from the West Country, from like minded artisan producers.

The the deli counter also offers a number of other West Country produced cheeses such as Cornish Blue, Sharpham Rustic, Cornish Yarg, Beenleigh Blue, to name but a few. Other gems you will find in the store include handmade chocolates from Somerset, tea made in Cornwall, honey made in Exmouth and free range eggs from Yeoford.

I don’t know about you but I think I need to make a point of visiting the Quickes Farm shop in the near future, it all sounds absolutely delicious!!!

If you run a business here in Devon and could help us out with a raffle prize or would like a stall at the Yummy Mummy Market which is being held at the Manor Rooms in Upottery on Saturday 20th March 10am – 12 midday, please call Sharon on 07740973990 or email sdpavey@googlemail.com

We are organising a fundraising Yummy Mummy market on the Saturday morning of 20th March 2010 in The Manor Rooms, Upottery. Half the proceeds will go towards buying a school stage and the other half to the wonderful Clic Sargent charity – which cares for children with cancer.

We are looking forward to seeing a lot of parents, grandparents and children from Upottery School at the village market which will include food, crafts and local tradespeople.

The highlight of the market will be the raffle which is always incredibly popular at any school fundraising event. So I’m on a mission to collect some goodies from fellow businesses in the run up to the event.

Please either add a comment if you can donate something or email me direct on sharon@tishtashtoys.com

If you do send us something – I could add a blog article about your business on here – just send me over some words & I’ll add links etc. This blog has been going for years now and all the articles get well ranked on google so great free ad for you as a bonus!

Thank you for reading

Sharon Pavey

www.tishtashtoys.com

Basically the Green Party need candidates to run for every constituency in the country. The fact is in most places they won’t stand a chance of winning BUT it’s about representation for everyone in that area who believes in true green politics and wants to get their voice heard. It will also raise the profile of the Green Party in every area where someone stands. With the next TEN years being the time we NEED to get something DONE about climate change NOW is the time to vote for your beliefs, and secure a better future for your children and your grandchildren, We CAN make a difference. We really can.

If you live in the constituency of East Devon and would like a candidate from the Green Party to stand – please pop your comments on this blog, see below. I’d love to hear from you.

For everyone else – pop over to my Facebook page and leave your comments there

Click here to find out more about joining the Green Party – you can join from just £10 and make a difference http://www.greenparty.org.uk/

I did the Upottery Village Christmas market on Saturday with the toys and my able assistant Natasha (aged nearly 8!). Not so busy this week but not sure how many people knew it was on. I didn’t mind this week though as I handed out a few catalogues and chatted to some friends, took a few sales.

Upottery War Memorial, centre of the village – image from http://www.upottery.com

The village hall is the venue for the Yummy Mummy market I’m putting on in March so it was actually a great chance to see how many tables they got in there and how many sellers we could potentially have. I also got the number of the flower lady so we’ll invite her to have a table in March (with her spring bulbs). I couldn’t resist buying a beautiful beech bowl from an older couple who make wooden items, so we’ll see if they want to come as well.

Best contact was Adrienne, a lady who says she passes us everyday on the school run – her kids go to Stockland school and ours Upottery so our paths cross twice a day! She said hello and we got chatting. It turns out she’s just been training for two years as a holistic therapist, doing reflexology, indian head massage and aromatherapy. So she was very interested in our Yummy Mummy event.

Saturday afternoon was a lazy one after our busy morning. Nanny came over to see the kids then I think we all ended up watching Star Wars! Then Tasha and I made some cakes on Sunday for the preschool Christmas Bazaar which is happening this afternoon. We wanted to make some homemade sweets but didn’t have the right ingredients so ended up making tiny cupcakes instead. Who would have thought evaporated milk was so essential to sweet making!!?

We’ve been asking fellow businesses to donate items for our Christmas Hamper raffle for preschool here in Upottery in Devon. A HUGE thank you goes out to Judith at www.JudithGlue.com for sending us some lovely treats all the way from the top of Scotland right down to Devon. This is what Judith told me about her wonderful hamper business:

Real Food From the Orkney Islands! Our Orkney Christmas Hampers are crammed full of local Orkney produce, widely recognised as some of the best food in Britain. Most of our producers are small cottage-based businesses and you simply won’t find their products anywhere else in the UK. We aim to keep our carbon footprint low- all our suppliers are locally-based so our food miles are kept to a minimum. Everything in our hampers is sourced from our local Orkney producers who we’ve been dealing with directly for nearly 30 years- so we know exactly what makes them and their products so special!

Thank you again to Judith, all the Mums were thrilled and afer browsing the website and looking through the lovely brochure, we’d highly recommend Judith Glue if you are looking for an interesting and unique Christmas gift. The website is http://www.judithglue.com

Natasha would like a kitten for her 8th birthday in January so hopefully we’ll chat to someone about that while we’re there.

Saturday, 26th September 2009

Saturday, 24th October 2009

Saturday, 7th November 2009

Saturday, 12th December 2009

Saturday, 19th December 2009

The market is usually held on the last Saturday of every month and it’s held in the centre of the village in the Stocland Victory Hall (pictured below).

Stockland Victory Village Hall

There are cakes, meats, veggies, jams, preserves, marmalades, fresh eggs, cards and more. We usually get a coffee and take it out to sit in the children’s play park while the kids run riot with a few other kids from the area. We bought some huge ’straight out the garden’ carrots with Stockland muck included for free – as the nice chap said. Also refilled on onions which we seem to get through incredibly fast and a couple of cards to stock up my greetings cards box – which I try to keep full, for whenever I need a card! People’s birthdays seem to appear out of nowhere and my ever-full card box saves emergency trips to the shops!

We chatted to some ladies about possibly selling our Tish Tash Toys at the market nearer Christmas and apparently Monica Parris is the person to contact (on 01404 881535).

More info about Stockland Victory Hall (from http://www.devonvillagehalls.co.uk/Stockland)

Stockland Victory Hall is one of the largest community halls in East Devon, situated on the edge of Stockland in the Blackdown Hills, an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The hall stands on its own 3.5 acre site including playing field, cricket pitch, tennis court and play area and with parking for approximately 50 cars, Stockland Victory Hall is an attractive, large venue with a large kitchen, committee room, changing and shower room and has a capacity for up to 225 persons.  Recently refurbished to a high standard with new toilet and storage facilities and dedicated pre-school area, and with its own licence to sell alcohol (PLWA0175) as well as a licence for dance and performance, it is the ideal complex for all events. There is a moveable stage platform of up to 6m x 3m.

Stockland lies approximately 2 miles from the A303 and A30 and about 6 miles equidistant from Chard, Honiton and Axminster. On reaching the centre of Stockland Village, the Hall will be found on the left hand-side on the road towards Axminster.

The toys went down very well, and I really enjoyed sharing a stall in the shopping mall area with Harriet of  The Children’s Jewellery Company. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces, with family members, friends and mums from school popping over to say hello. We sold a wide range of toys this weekend, with the wooden toys being ever popular with parents and grandparents. Lots of people commented on the traditional old fashioned toys we had on display like the rainbow humming spinning top.

Also chatted to people interested in working for us as party plan agents and mums wanting toy parties or coffee mornings plus event organisers looking for toy sellers for their own events later in the year. We are back in the Tish Tash Toys office today and working on our new mail order catalogue. This will be our fourth annual collection of children’s toys, including pre-school and toddler toys, gifts for birthdays and Christmas, pocket money toys and party bag fillers.