W a u w
The last few months have been difficult but also great. If that sounds strange then you’re probably lucky not to be facing any major grief at the moment and should be mostly happy! For those who do know: it’s double and sometimes smiling & being happy feels like something that can’t be done when nothing is more comforting than that.
The realisation that you can get out of bed in the morning but not be there at night without any warning kind of hammered me. 3 days after the most terrible news ever that my brother had passed away in an accident, a message came from a fair in Madrid asking if I wanted to join as an exhibitor. In the past, I would have wondered why on earth they sent that to me and probably tossed the mail in the trash without reading to the end but I took it as a sign (yep, this down-to-earth person believes in signs and especially now since things happen all too often and can no longer be a coincidence) and quite impulsively signed up 2 days later thinking: the worst that can happen is losing a lot of money & time but I only live once.
After 2 fairs in the Netherlands, Noa & her boyfriend Sander headed to Madrid with me to lug around suitcases full of stock & help out at the fair with the customers who spoke English while I dusted off my Spanish from 24 years ago. Luckily for me, that layer of dust turned out to be quickly blown away as 90% only spoke Spanish :-) We first enjoyed the city for 3 days (I thought: if the fair would be disappointing, at least we had a nice city trip), gave Kristof’s sticker a nice place and then left for the first day of the fair feeling very curious. It was with a frightened heart but fortunately the Spaniards were wonderfully enthusiastic so that 4 days later I could close completely exhausted but super happy with dozens of new points of sale in Spain, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and Chile! I am very happy that I took the plunge thanks to my brother & hope he is proud from above.
With so many selling points abroad, a webshop where you can puzzle with colours to put together the perfect earrings became a must. After weeks of tinkering, it is now online! Have fun combining :-)
Love,
e l l e n
