2026 - 1 week in

As I sit here by the fire with a fresh pot of coffee and the Christmas biscuit box to hand let me fill you in on what is happening in 2026.

So we are now 1 week into 2026 and to be honest it has not been the best week for me personally.

The post Christmas/New Year clean up has been done and everything packed away until December. I was in full preparation mode for getting back into some sort of 'normal' routine when what should happen but my boiler broke down. This also coincided with the first snowfall of the year and the coldest days of this winter so far. Needless to say, this has not been fun, mainly due to the lack of hot water. We lived for years without central heating so we have electric heaters and a fire so while it has been cold it has been managable but the lack of hot water is frustrating. Running up and downstairs with 50 pans of water just to get a couple of inches of water to wash in is not exactly the start to 2026 I had imagined.

I mustn't grumble too much though as there are people much worse off than me and my family and I am extremely grateful that I have a roof over my head, food on my table and clean water to drink - sometimes a bit of perspective can help a situation feel a bit less rubbish.

Moving forward.

While my 'get back to work' plan has not exactly gone to plan this week I am still cracking on with admin and behind the scenes plans so all is not lost and to be honest I am not sad that I have had to postpone sorting The Candle Shed - although I do fear that my gusto for the job may have left me.

I had the idea for this blog post and quickly came the idea that this could maybe be a weekly thing as a sort of diary of the year. I love the idea but I am not sure I am confident that I will stick to a weekly review, especially when sometimes there is just not very much to say. We will see how it goes, watch this space.

Things I am hoping for in 2026.

This year I am hoping to get to work on a new fragrance for my Signature Collection. This can be a lengthy process so if I can make some headway with it early in the year then maybe I can have something new and exciting to launch towards the end of the year!

I also want to expand my product offering with a shift towards the interiors section of the business. This will mean losing a few products to make way for new ones and slimming down the current fragrance menu. I am a sucker for fragrance so this going to be hard for me to do so I am going to create a tick box system and if it doesn't tick all the boxes then it will have to go - hopefully I can stick to this plan.

I already have some events booked in for the end of January but I would like to try out some different locations and types of events this year to try and tap into some different customer bases. I will be adding an Events page to the website soon as well as sending the usual reminder emails.

On a personal note I want to try and read a few books from my 'to be read' pile which is now even bigger post Christmas! 

Where have I been?

If you follow me on social media then last year you might have noticed that you saw me a lot less. This is because I have shifted my focus more towards social search platforms like Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok (although not so much on the latter two) and have seen a much bigger engagement so this is where I will continue to focus my energy in 2026. If you are interested in learning more about this then I really recommend joining Hannah Brown's Social Search Club which is where I have been learning more about how social search is the way to go.

Things I am looking forward to in 2026.

• Sharing some great opportunities with you
• Creating new products
• Writing more
• Trying out new markets

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