Page 19 of All Wrapped Up

I knew Lizzie and I were getting ahead of ourselves, suggesting the festival would be happening again, but I wasn’t going to put off any potential future interest in it.

‘You sound like Molly,’ Hayley laughed, but I didn’t know who that was. ‘Next year for sure then. And the hall isn’t a total loss in terms of help, because I think I might be able to do something.’

‘Oh?’

‘I’m an artist as well as a whizz with a vacuum cleaner,’ she told me. ‘So, if you want any posters drawing up to advertise the festival in general or even any individual events, I’d be happy to come up with some design ideas.’

‘Oh, yes please,’ I said, turning to a fresh page to jot her details down.

‘That would be great. I’m going to set up online festival pages as soon as I can.

Possibly even tomorrow, and if you could come up with something like a logo or banner to give the event an identity across every platform, that would be great.

Though I appreciate it is very short notice… ’

‘No, it’s fine,’ she said helpfully. ‘Leave it with me. I had already been doodling a couple of logos when the festival idea was first floated, so I can easily refine those. Are you settled on Wynbridge Autumn Festival as the name?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘We’ll stick with that. It’s simple and shouldn’t be hard to find as an online search because it’s so specific.’

‘In that case, give me your email address and I’ll put my ideas together and send over what I’ve got in mind. Branding is key, right?’

‘Absolutely,’ I agreed. ‘And that would be great. Thank you so much.’

Given that I loved an appealing aesthetic, I was thrilled that Hayley was willing to come up with a brand for the festival. It might be something we could use year on year to build familiarity. Further down the line, we could even commission some merch!

I knew I was getting carried away again, but I was so excited.

Yes, I had a huge task ahead of me, but I couldn’t wait to get stuck in to organising it all and seeing it come to fruition now.

And of course, after what had happened at the first meeting, it was a huge help that everyone was so kind and keen to let the blow-in take charge.

‘Now,’ said Lizzie, flopping down on to a chair as the crowd finally thinned, and once I had talked myself literally hoarse, ‘I’m not usually the sort of person to say, I told you so—’

‘You’re exactly the sort of person to say that, Lizzie,’ cut in Jemma’s husband, Tom, who had just been telling me that the council were completely onboard with the festival but that there weren’t any funds in the pot to support it.

Volunteers to support the events and ticket sales to fund them were going to be key, but I had a good feeling that both would be fine.

‘Hey!’ Lizzie yelped and pouted.

‘But on this occasion,’ I joined in, having gulped down the lemonade Ash had kindly handed me, ‘you did tell me so and you were right.’

‘So, you’re definitely up for it then?’ Lizzie asked, holding up crossed fingers which had become something of a theme of the evening.

‘Of course I am,’ I laughed, once I’d thanked Ash and as I started to gather up the many filled sheets of paper.

‘Well, thank goodness for that,’ Jemma chimed in, with a nod to the growing pile. ‘Because I don’t think any of us have the head space to make sense of that lot.’

‘I’m not sure I have now,’ I joked as I flicked through them all.

‘But I will by tomorrow. All I need to focus on for the moment, is getting the draft schedule drawn up and sending it out for the participants to check and hopefully confirm. And enlisting all of you,’ I then carried on, ‘to encourage the shop owners to dress their windows. And the yarn bombers to keep their needles clicking in time for the launch on the twentieth. And then get the events pages running online, of course…’

‘ All she needs to focus on!’ Ash teased. ‘That’s all, is it, Clemmie?’

‘Don’t worry,’ I grinned at him. ‘I know how to delegate and with your help, Ash, we’ll have it sorted in no time.’

‘I’m sure you will,’ Lizzie beamed. ‘And you can leave the knitters and shopkeepers entirely to me and Joanne, if you like. We can go round the shops and make sure everyone knows how to join in, can’t we?’

‘Absolutely,’ Joanne, who had been unusually quiet all evening, agreed. ‘I think almost everyone who has a shop was here tonight anyway, but I’ll go around the town tomorrow to double check.’

‘That would be great,’ I said. ‘Thank you.’

‘My pleasure,’ she told me. ‘I’m just pleased this is all happening before I leave.’

‘Trust you not to want to miss out,’ Lizzie laughed at her, but I wondered if there was more behind Joanne’s comment than that.

‘You know me so well,’ was her response but I still wasn’t sure that a desire to take part was all that was behind her words.

I didn’t know her well enough to ask, but I had the feeling there might be something going on with Joanne that she was keeping under her hat.

‘And that much appreciated extra help will leave me more time for Pixie,’ I said, having taken a quick look at the time. ‘Though she already was right at the top of my priority list.’

‘Have you taken her on?’ Jemma gasped.

‘I have,’ I said, feeling thrilled with how my life was turning out now that I’d taken the leap of faith Callum’s recently found note had encouraged. ‘And right now, she’s waiting for another cuddle, so I’m off.’

‘We’re off,’ Ash laughingly corrected me. ‘I drove us in, remember?’

‘We’re off.’ I swallowed, feeling the words stick as I quickly looked to Joanne, but thankfully, she didn’t seem to have heard him.