If you only ever see Georgina Kay Designs through the website or social media, everything probably looks reasonably calm.
Beautiful baubles.
Neatly tied ribbons.
Finished ornaments.
Pretty photographs.
Orders carefully tucked into boxes ready to make their way to their new homes.
Lovely.
What you don't see is me approximately ten minutes earlier asking:
“WHERE HAVE I PUT MY SCISSORS?”
They're usually right beside me.
Welcome behind the sparkle.
Today, rather than showing you another finished product, I thought I'd show you a little more of what actually goes on behind the scenes at Georgina Kay Designs – because running a small handmade business is rather different from simply sitting happily making baubles all day.
Although there is quite a lot of that too.
First things first: there isn't a team
This sometimes surprises people.
Georgina Kay Designs isn't a large company with departments.
There isn't someone in Customer Services.
Someone else in Dispatch.
Another person designing products.
A marketing department.
A photographer.
A warehouse team.
And an incredibly organised person somewhere keeping track of everything.
It's me.
If you send a message, I'm the person who reads it.
If you place an order, I'm the person who sees it.
If you order a personalised bauble, I'm the person who makes it.
If your parcel arrives beautifully packed, I packed it.
If there's a new design on the website, I probably designed it.
And if you see something on social media...
Yep.
Me again.
Sometimes I think Georgina Kay Designs should actually have an organisation chart.
It would just be my name written in every box.
The day usually starts with orders
One of the first jobs is checking what's come in.
And this is one of my favourite parts.
Because before I open the orders, I don't know what I'm going to be making.
There might be a:
Baby's First Christmas
followed by:
Our First Christmas Married
then a family ornament...
a travel gift...
a memorial bauble...
something for a teacher...
and a personalised decoration for somebody's dog.
No two days are quite the same.
That's one of the reasons I still enjoy what I do.
Then comes the checking
Personalised orders require a little more attention than ordinary retail orders.
I can't simply look at a product code, walk to a shelf and put something into a box.
I need to know:
Which design?
Which colour?
Which name?
Which date?
Which wording?
Which ribbon?
Which font?
Which personalisation?
And importantly...
has everything been spelled correctly?
If you've written Sophie, I need to make Sophie.
Not Sophia.
Not Sofie.
And definitely not whatever autocorrect might have decided Sophie should be.
Personalisation means every order has to be treated individually.
Then the workshop gets busy
This is where the calm website photographs and reality begin to separate slightly.
Because handmade production involves stuff.
Lots of stuff.
Baubles.
Glitter.
Ribbon.
Vinyl.
Boxes.
Tissue paper.
Packaging.
Ornaments.
Tools.
Orders.
Labels.
And approximately 84 things I was definitely just holding but can no longer find.
When several different orders are being made at once, the workshop becomes a little production line.
Just a production line operated entirely by one person.
The glitter situation ✨
We need to discuss this.
Glitter has rules of its own.
You don't really use glitter.
You invite glitter into your life.
And then glitter decides whether it ever intends to leave.
Fortunately, the glitter in my signature baubles goes inside the bauble, so you don't end up with it shedding all over your Christmas tree.
This is excellent news for you.
It is slightly less helpful for the person actually making them.
I can clean the workshop.
Vacuum.
Wipe everything down.
Change clothes.
Leave the room.
And somehow later discover glitter somewhere completely unrelated.
At this point, I've accepted it.
It's not mess.
It's branding.
Some orders make me smile
One of the nicest parts of personalised work is seeing the names and messages customers choose.
Sometimes it's incredibly sweet.
Sometimes romantic.
Sometimes emotional.
And sometimes somebody requests something so funny or specific that I end up laughing while I'm making it.
Those are brilliant.
I love personalisation that only makes sense to the people involved.
A nickname.
A strange family saying.
An inside joke.
Because I know that when the recipient opens it, they're going to immediately understand.
Even if I haven't got the faintest idea what it means.
And some orders make me stop for a moment
Then there are the other ones.
Memorial baubles.
First Christmas in Heaven.
A decoration remembering a baby.
A pet who has died.
Somebody facing their first Christmas without their mum or dad.
Those orders feel different.
I don't know the people whose names I'm adding.
But I know somebody loves and misses them.
And I never forget that what looks like a few words on an order form can carry an enormous amount of meaning for the person receiving it.
Those are the moments that remind me this isn't simply about selling Christmas decorations.
Somewhere in between, I'm designing new things
This is the dangerous part.
Because while I'm supposed to be working through the sensible list of things I need to do, my brain has a habit of saying:
“I've just had an idea…”
And suddenly I'm designing another product.
This is how collections grow.
One design creates another idea.
A customer asks for something I haven't made before.
I see a colour combination I love.
I think of another Christmas milestone.
And before long, what was supposed to be one new design has become twelve.
I don't seem to possess an internal department responsible for saying:
“Georgina, perhaps that's enough new products for now.”
I probably need one.
Photography is another job entirely 📷
Making something is only half the battle.
Once I've designed a new product, I need to show it to you.
That means photographs.
Lighting.
Positioning.
Backgrounds.
Editing.
Trying to make glitter actually look as sparkly in a photograph as it does in real life.
And discovering that something which looks perfectly straight with your eyes is somehow at a 47-degree angle in every photograph.
Then the photographs need to go onto the website.
Which brings us neatly to...
Running the website
This has become an increasingly big part of what I do.
Products need adding.
Descriptions need writing.
Collections need organising.
Photographs need uploading.
Pages need updating.
Menus need changing.
Search engine descriptions need writing.
And occasionally Shopify decides that something I thought would take approximately three minutes is actually going to become my entire afternoon.
If you've noticed The Bauble Shop, The Christmas Emporium and all the new collections appearing on the website, that's what I've been working on behind the scenes.
I want Georgina Kay Designs to feel like somewhere you can actually browse and discover things, rather than simply a giant list of products.
It's a work in progress.
But I'm loving seeing it come together.
Then there are your messages
Customer messages arrive throughout the day.
And because everything is personalised, there are often questions.
Can you change the wording?
Can you use a different colour?
Will this name fit?
Can I have this design but with that ribbon?
Can you make something for an occasion that isn't listed?
Can it arrive by Friday?
Some requests are easy.
Some involve a little problem-solving.
And some begin with the phrase:
“This might sound a bit strange, but…”
Those are often my favourites.
Because bespoke ideas have led to some really lovely designs over the years.
Ribbon. So much ribbon. 🎀
I don't think anybody outside a handmade business appreciates how quickly supplies multiply.
Take ribbon.
You start with:
Red.
Gold.
Silver.
White.
Perfectly sensible.
Then you need green.
Then navy.
Then pink.
Then purple.
Then somebody needs a very specific shade.
Then you discover another ribbon that would look perfect with one particular glitter.
And suddenly you own enough ribbon to open a haberdashery.
The same thing happens with glitter.
And vinyl.
And packaging.
And boxes.
Small-business maths is fascinating.
Apparently the answer to:
“Do I really need another colour?”
is almost always:
“Yes.”
Packing orders is one of my favourite stages
This is the point where everything finally comes together.
The personalisation is finished.
The ribbons are tied.
Everything has been checked.
Then your order is carefully packaged.
For my glitter baubles, that means placing the finished bauble into its black gift box with tissue paper, ready to give – or keep for yourself.
I love seeing a finished order boxed.
A few hours earlier, it was a collection of materials.
Now it has somebody's name on it.
And somewhere, somebody is waiting for it.
Then the parcels start piling up 📦
This is when the workshop begins looking like a very small branch of the Royal Mail.
Orders are packed.
Labels are printed.
Everything is checked again.
And the parcels wait to leave.
This part is always strangely satisfying.
A pile of parcels represents a day's work.
But each one is also heading somewhere completely different.
One might be travelling to celebrate a new baby.
Another is a Christmas present for someone's mum.
Another might be commemorating a wedding.
Another could be heading to a family who has ordered from me before.
Same pile.
Completely different stories.
And then I hand them over
This is where my part ends.
Once an order has been posted, it's on its way to you.
And I always find that moment slightly strange.
I've spent time making something.
I've had it sitting in front of me.
I've checked it.
Packed it.
And then it disappears.
Most of the things I make, I never see again.
But every now and then a customer sends me a photograph.
A bauble hanging on the tree.
An ornament displayed at home.
Someone holding their gift.
And suddenly I get to see where it ended up.
I absolutely love that.
Christmas is a different beast entirely 🎄
Most of the year, there's a rhythm to running Georgina Kay Designs.
Then Christmas season arrives.
And everything accelerates.
More orders.
More messages.
More parcels.
More glitter.
More ribbon.
More deadlines.
More cups of tea.
And considerably more conversations with myself.
During the busiest part of the season, the workshop can be full of baubles at different stages of production.
Some waiting for personalisation.
Some waiting for ribbon.
Some finished.
Some boxed.
Some packed.
And some sitting somewhere incredibly obvious that I am inexplicably unable to see.
Christmas can be exhausting.
But it's also my favourite time.
I wouldn't keep doing it otherwise.
The bit customers don't see
This is probably the biggest misconception about handmade businesses.
When you buy a £12.99 handmade product, the maker doesn't simply spend five minutes making it and put £12.99 in their pocket.
Behind that one product are all the invisible jobs.
Designing.
Testing.
Photographing.
Listing.
Buying materials.
Stock management.
Customer service.
Website fees.
Selling fees.
Packaging.
Postage administration.
Marketing.
Social media.
Bookkeeping.
And the actual making.
Small businesses contain an enormous amount of work that never appears in the finished photograph.
But that's also what makes them personal.
Why I still love doing it
I've been running Georgina Kay Designs since 2013.
And there have definitely been moments when I've wondered why I didn't choose a career involving significantly less glitter.
But then an order comes through from someone who bought from me years ago.
Or a customer sends me a photograph of their bauble on the tree.
Or someone tells me that the decoration I've made is going to be given to their daughter for her first Christmas.
And I remember.
I get to make things that become part of people's lives.
Not every product will become a treasured keepsake.
Of course it won't.
But some will.
Some baubles I make in 2026 might still be hanging on Christmas trees in 2046.
That's a rather lovely thought.
Behind every order is a person
That's what I hope you'll remember when you shop with a small business.
Behind the website is a person.
Behind the product photograph is a person.
Behind the parcel is a person.
And in this particular case...
it's usually one slightly glitter-covered woman surrounded by ribbon wondering where she put her scissors.
Again.
So the next time a Georgina Kay Designs parcel arrives through your door, you'll know a little more about what happened before it got there.
From your order appearing on my screen...
to making and personalising...
checking and tying...
boxing and packing...
and finally sending it off to become part of your celebration.
That's life behind the sparkle.
A little chaotic.
A lot Christmassy.
And still, after all these years, something I feel incredibly lucky to do.
Georgina x ✨🎄