End of the year...

It's almost the end of 2013, and it seems the older you get the faster the years fly by! We had lots of plans for Pierrot et Coco in 2013 and not many were brought to fruition, as it seems we were just busy doing the everyday things involved with running a shop. The last month of opening 7 days a week, with longer hours in the evening has left us especially tired and very happy for the break we're currently on. There were times when we needed a day just to do mundane household tasks, or feel relaxed in the evenings while helping our boy with his homework instead of wondering what still had to be paid for or needed to be ordered, or which products had to photographed for the new website.

A few things did happen as planned. We had always wanted to expand on our range of gourmet foodstuffs as when we opened we only stocked some chocolate (mainly from Prestat and Charbonnel et Walker) so we were pleased when our wider range of honey, jams, sauces, oils, truffles and drinks were snapped up by those wanting to try a few things they'd never seen before, or put together a mini hamper for the foodie in their lives. The Eat 17 Bacon Jam was a much bigger success than we had ever imagined, having to re-order it several times before Christmas, and anything with sea-salt caramel was bought as soon as it hit the shelves. We expanded upon our quality chocolate selection by adding in Coco of Edinburgh's breathtakingly packaged delights and London's super-stylish Artisan du Chocolat.

Joe & Seph's gourmet popcorn was incredibly successful for us, with their Gin & Tonic popcorn going into many, many stockings this year. It was mainly bought for the gimmick, but thankfully tastes pretty amazing too, and is definitely the snack to have on hand throughout the festive season.

We held a wonderful evening of Middle-Eastern treats with Mel from Glasgow's Habibi Kitchen and although the horrendous weather ensured it was quieter than our usual nights, everyone had a brilliant time, got to sample some amazing Coco Siren Rose & Black Pepper hot chocolate and sampled some food they might never have tasted before.  We took delivery of some beautiful Moroccan tableware for the night and the tagines from Marrakesh proved to be an especially popular gift this Christmas.

We did plan on holding a second evening, with a selection of beautiful St Erasmus jewellery to try on, nails painted with Ciate polish and Prestat pink champagne truffle tasting, but time ran away from us and we didn't manage to organise it before the Christmas rush was upon us. We'll be sure to host something similar in the new year.

We were really pleased to expand on the section for men too, with awesome T-Shirts and prints from Los Angeles - we're the only UK stockists of these designs.
Thanks to everyone who has shopped with us regularly, meaning we can stay as a bricks & mortar shop in a time when it seems the high street is doomed. We won't lie and say it's easy to be in such a quiet location, but we really appreciate that so many of you make the effort to come to us and we hope we'll be able to continue to be your little slice of style for a little longer yet.

We'll be closed until Wednesday 8th January, and hope 2014 will allow us to work on some of the creative ideas we have planned.

Much love, happiness and cheer for 2014. xxx