Ding Dong Merrily on High, my beauties. I don't know about you, but I am literally riven with angels singing. Verily. 

Need to get something off my festive bosom so I'll forego the small talk, if you don't mind. 

Black Friday. Now, unless you're in the market for a massive telly or a tumble dryer or something, I'm going to ask you to do me a solid. PLEASE, pretty please, spend some of those pennies, that you might otherwise line the pockets of Mr Amazon or Mrs John Lewis with, at an Independent Retailer. There's an oft-used meme about small businesses doing a little happy dance every time you buy something from them. It's oft-used because it is entirely accurate. We make our living from people choosing us over the big guys.  

The great thing is, you don't have to do this as an act of charity. In return for your hard earned cash we can give you what some of the larger companies cannot: originality, attention to detail, craftsmanship/womanship and great, personal customer service. We can't compete with the big discounts but that's because our margins are tiny and we don't rip you off the rest of the year! 

There is a really excellent campaign called Just a Card, run by creative folk, who aim to promote independent makers and show the difference you can make by making the conscious choice to shop small. They have come up with an alternative Black Friday event called Indie Friday over on Instagram. If you search for the hashtag JACIndieFriday tomorrow (24th November) you will find a whole host of wonderful Independent creative types, showing you their wares. We might just solve all your Christmas present conundrums in one go. And you can feel smug in the knowledge that you will have helped keep a business going. Does it get much more Christmas spirit-y than that? 

If you want to buy stuff from me- hooray! You can do so on the newly revamped shop online or at any of these upcoming markets.