Christmas is coming, photo day tomorrow

Christmas is coming, photo day tomorrow. I will be taking photographs for this year's Christmas card. I have several ideas, all of them featuring Teddi and the bugs in some way or other, with Christmas decorations. Last year's card took ages, trying to get a bunch of bugs to sit still and pose isn't easy. This year it will be even harder as Teddi is hyperactive (that's what our dog trainer says), she rarely sits still for anything. Teddi was one year old yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed her day, especially her lunch time party that I organised with doggy friends. It was a bit rushed as I had to get my mother in-law to the hospital for yet another medical problem. I have spent a lot of time at hospitals with my mother in-law this week. Perhaps it's just as well that orders are so thin on the ground. There really is little money around for extras at the moment. Christmas is never a good time work wise for me. Most people buy pets for themselves and of course at this time of year people are spending their money on gifts for friends and family. I certainly appreciate the orders that I have received this week and I never take my customers for granted. I received an extremely unhelpful comment posted on my website yesterday, it arrived just as I was popping Teddi home and about to leave for the hospital. It said " try lowering your prices there are many other shops that are cheaper and have a wiser range of tarantulas". Needless to say this person is not a customer and left no name. I think most people reading this blog realise how hard I work to try and breed my animals and source captive bred stock, I don't import from the wild. There are plenty of people who come and go in this hobby. They think they can make a quick buck by importing large numbers of animals for pennies, putting them in a box, selling the ones that live and binning the ones that don't. I look after my animals, I may not always be the cheapest but I care! Probably too much, I was hurt by this person, I should have just deleted it. My husband started to reply last night but I stopped him. I didn't think it was a good idea, his reply wasn't very polite! It started by pointing out that capital letters and punctuation exist and went downhill from there.

I have spent my time this week trying to get organised before the festive break. January is always busy (thank goodness). I have had several helpful suggestions about my shelving predicament but in the end I had to buy the expensive industrial shelving again. The main thing is that I need the 6' span and it has to be very strong to hold glass tanks full of soil. The shelves have arrived but I need my husband to put them up and help move everything. He is working this weekend, he should have been off next Tuesday and Wednesday but he now has to work. It looks like we 'may' get the shelving finally put up next Thursday. The following week we are going away for a couple of nights (his work's Christmas outing) so there isn't a lot of time. We are staying near Bournemouth and visiting Monkey World. I'm really looking forward to it, I love Orangutans and will be visiting Silvestre, the little one that I sponsor (the Christmas party isn't at Monkey World, I want to visit with hubby and any of his work colleagues are welcome to come along!)

At long last I have updated all the Poecilotheria species of spiders on my website and stock lists. I simply had them all listed as Indian Ornamental, it has been a mammoth job as I stock a lot of them but a kind customer send me a list of all the common names so I felt shamed into doing it. It was much easier for me to list all Poecilotheria as Indian Ornamental because it kept them together as everything is in alphabetical order. Now I just need to remember all these 'new to me' names. I am planning on adding useful care information on each and every spider. It may take a very long time, possibly the whole of 2012, I have a lot of spiders listed, not just those currently showing on the site. I will need to look up each species to find the correct temperature, humidity, country of origin etc. I am scaring myself just thinking about it but I'm sure it will be worthwhile in the end. I will of course be restocking lots of spiders in the New Year. I won't be getting much in now before Christmas, although I do have a few captive bred spiders arriving tomorrow and some millipedes coming soon. I am quite excited about the millipedes, they have all been bred by a young lady who is a dab hand with millipedes. Most millipedes are pretty difficult to breed in captivity but she seems to have the knack. She is also trusting me with some of her special ones, they won't be for sale yet, the idea is for me to get them breeding. Fingers crossed that I manage it, I have been trying different housing for some of my millipedes. I think a problem that I sometimes have is that the plastic boxes get too damp. This is another reason that I urgently need the new shelving up. I want to set up more tanks, I don't have enough shelves that can hold that sort of weight at the moment.

I have been watching some of I'm 'A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here' this week. I think they have finally given up on eating live bugs and thank goodness for that. I would love to be in that program but it would have to be titled 'I'm A Commoner Get Me Out Of Here'. They have some adorable creatures, especially the snakes, I would have no problem being shut in a box with any of them (does that make me nuts - probably).

Lastly I have set up some 24 hour extra special offers throughout this week and I plan on doing the same next week but if you see them grab them quick as they are unlikely to be repeated. The more I sell now, the less I have to care for over Christmas!