Hallo! Claire here ... I am putting a P.S at the start, I've written a lot here so to keep you entertained I've thrown in some pics from the day.
It was an early start, well for me it counted as early, leaving the house at 7.15am. Thanks to the Wiltshire life, I live a 30 min drive from the train station! I had a massive suitcase packed full of MBH goodies, including these beautiful plates (some of you may have seen the insta about my tiger case) and loads of one of a kind Harriet Lowther original drawings, and had moved it next to the door to remind myself to grab it when I leave. Now, I don’t live in a big house and in fact I would have had to squeeze past it in all likelihood, but somehow, I forgot to pick it up as I left - DOH!! Luckily I realised only about 2 mins down the road so quickly got back and grabbed it. So I was now a little tight for time as the train was booked for 7.56am.
Kudos to the train station because they have a sign saying “In a rush? Scan here to pay” and I was busy running the best I could from the car park to the platform lugging the heaviest case, conscious I didn’t want to break anything! So after all that I got there with a few mins to spare and paid for my parking on the platform. It took just over an hour to get into London and then 30 mins on two tubes. I got to one stop away from Southwark only to be told that the station was closed all weekend! So I decided by the time I sorted a taxi I could walk there. I arrived 10 mins later, pretty sweaty at that point from lugging my case at as fast a march as I could muster, probably looking like I had been dragged through a hedge backwards, only to bluster through into reception of this fancy hotel, Hoxton, to say “Hello, I’m here for the dogs”.
They obviously only hire quality staff because the receptionist gave no weird looks or comments at my state and politely told me that the event doesn't start for a while yet and I could wait in the bar and order a drink if I wished. I then had to stumble over and start again explaining I was here with Harriet and selling things! She pointed me upstairs and I was soon in a kitchen area overlooking a lounge where I was to set up. I haven’t done many events and I haven’t been in many fancy hotels so had nothing really to compare to but it felt more like someone's very fancy home than a hotel. It had lots of medium sized rooms and cozy adjoining spaces, beautiful and stylish and I think the perfect vibe for MBH’s first event - intimate.
It was a bit of setting-up frenzy, trying to work out how to utilise my kitchen area to display everything cause boy oh boy did we pack heavy hah! I was just finishing the final touches when people started arriving and SO MANY CUTE DOGS!!! There were lots of greyhounds but also a real mix of breeds, including a Chi and a Great Dane!! Everyone was so lovely and excited to meet Harriet, buy some goodies and get a free drawing of their pooch. It was a fantastic day. Some of our best sellers were our I Can Fly keyrings, pins, Socks and mugs. They also had first dibs on the brand new batch of ceramic dog heads which were a real hit. Our Patreons now have second dibs, so if you're keen you can sign up here!
We finished around 3.30pm and it took a few hours to pack everything and decide how best to get it back to the studio. Harriet and I got a taxi to the station because we somehow ended up carrying more home than we arrived with haha. Getting through the barriers at the station was fun and games and we crashed out on the floor of the train carriage, trying our best to tuck ourselves out of the way. By this point I think we were a little loopy on tiredness and the excitement of the day!
The success of the day spurred us on to say yes to more events, so we will next be at Dogstival! It might just be myself and Fliss, but keep an eye on our socials for updates… We're planning something special with our marque plot so hope some of you lovely people and gorgeous pooches can come and see us there!
Here's me getting excited about this little pud!!
