Half a small forest

We just placed a whopping order for our shop furniture. After much to-ing and fro-ing, humming and hawing and running down every furniture supplier the internet had to offer, we went with a very plain set of tables and chairs from Homebase...

(photo brazenly swiped from their website)

...ten of them. Yes, ten. These pine babies will arrive unassembled, so I'm anticipating an orgy of flat-pack this weekend - which is good, because I have an unhealthy love of putting this stuff together. (If the business ever falls through, I am available for hire for all your flat-pack needs!)

They fall into the 'sturdy and inoffensive' category, which is what we wanted given that the main focus of the shop is to be the products themselves. Initially we'll probably only have space for eight, but wanted to get two extra in case we expand in future, and it'll be good to have the back-up of extra chairs in case things get busy.

The process of ordering them online was strangely stressful - whilst I know why the anti-fraud measures many banks have introduced in the last few years need to be there, they now mean I dread placing any orders over the internet, particularly large and costly ones using soon-to-expire discount codes. There's something mindblowingly frustrating about being at the mercy of a tiny little text box on a small glowing screen.

Meanwhile, K is making progress getting our signage sorted out, and we're moving closer to being able to place our first big stock order. There are so many things we need, and a couple of very competitive suppliers, which makes the whole process pretty complicated. Lucky then that my talents don't stop at furniture assembly, but extend to writing complex price comparison spreadsheets....