Ho hum, back in Blighty. Bit of a shock to the system, actually. Now, while I was working in the States and only had some time off right at the end, it still felt new and exciting. Being back at work here has a mundane sheen. Coupled with a bad dose of jet lag; a house full of dust; and fumbling fingers, it has not been a good week.

However, it is sunny today, warm and clear. How could I not be cheered by a beautiful cycle into work along the canal with all the ducklings and goslings to coo over.

And we have Pitti to prepare for. Starts in 2 weeks, gulp! We have the transport sorted out, tick. We are doing a mail out to potential buyers today, tick. All our marketing materials are here, tick. New samples are here and the rest in hand, tick. Flights and hotels booked, tick. What else could go wrong? Who knows? But we are very excited about it.

We are exhibiting in a section called New Beats, where the organisers invite new companies to participate for the first time. So it is quite an honour to be there, and we hope the start of many visits. We will not be taking any bespoke shoes, just the Limited Editions and the Winkers. The object being to meet potential buyers from retailers and take some orders.

We will of course keep you posted on our progress towards and during the show. After such a great reaction to the Winkers in the US, it will be interesting to see how people from other countries respond to our work. The feedback was that they would work well in warm climates where they could be worn casually with shorts and no socks, but also more formally to evening functions. We shall see.

A great thing happened in America. We were visited at the course by a Mr Bruce Pask of the New York Times. He was fascinated by what we were teaching and by our work. He does a very influential blog called The Moment, specifically Feeling For.... where he muses on his own particular views on style, fashion etc. Hence the name. You can read it at the link below.

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/feeling-for-carreducker/#more-13027

The curious thing is the response we have had from it. It has been read by so many people, some of whom have fedback to us about it. Seeing the power of the internet as a marketing tool, I signed carréducker up for Twitter last night. I am flummoxed as to what to do next but I will ask the Other One, who is more savvy than I...

And so, another Friday, another blog post. Onwards and upwards.