It’s fair to say that the ‘shop renovating’ journey - were it a shape - would have many sides. So many. So many corners have been turned over the course of the last two months, but after every one a whole new heap of things to do is spawned.

Spoiler, I haven’t. Not yet anyway. But I’m working on it.

I never thought that moving the business from being online to bricks and mortar would be easy, but I have to say, it’s harder than I ever imagined. Just in terms of the logistics!

It’s been a little while since I posted a blog post. I have to say, that’s not because there hasn’t been stuff going on, but rather that any ‘stuff’ has been fairly dull, and mostly involved me up a ladder painting ceiling tiles gold. Niche. And that doesn’t make particularly great reading!

Shop renovations… I was daunted at first. I’m confident in my ability to choose a paint, or a tile. I’m a dab hand at buying too many cushions, and you can never have too many pictures in the ‘to frame’ pile.

There are two types of people in this world… the organised gift givers, and the disorganised ones. I - believe it or not (and the irony is not lost on me) - fall firmly into the latter. Which is actually one of the reasons why I founded Harriet and Rose.

We launched almost two years ago, and in that time we’ve always said that we would focus on Jersey first and foremost. This has not changed! We were founded in, and are based in Jersey, to provide a gifting service that we couldn’t find on island.

Business ownership is not always an easy thing, especially when you are a small one, and you as the owner have to become master of all the business aspects.

Hampers. Care packages. What’s the difference?

We were thinking about this long and hard the other day (our head is an interesting place to be sometimes!), and it occurred to us that so often hampers and care packages are used interchangeably.

Ah the half term juggle. It’s a tangible thing. The fact that I could be out on deliveries clearing this afternoon for admin and a dog walk, but instead I’m sat here doing admin (and finding more admin that I should have done) whilst writing a blog post (aka procrastinating), whilst the feral - in much need of a walk - dog pounces on, and consumes anything that comes out of the printer. It’s been a busy week.

Retail can sometimes have a bit of a bad reputation. As someone who’s worked in it from the age of 15 (yes, yes I count a Saturday job in Beckenham Library as retail) as well as hospitality, I remember saying that I’d never consider any other career…

Living in Jersey, we get it. When the sun is shining, the last thing you want to be doing is dashing to the shops to get a gift.