Hello!

I'm going to start off with a little apology to anyone who actually enjoys reading my ramblings. I realise that September never got its own blog post release, and I'm sure that you have been wondering where on earth I've been, but honestly, I'm not sure how I'm still upright after the last two months.

I ended the previous blog by telling you all about our upcoming Christmas events and the list of awards we have been announced as finalists in.

Well, I'm incredibly proud to say in The Gin Cooperative Awards 2024 we made some serious waves, taking home Gold in London Dry Gin, New Scottish Gin, and Scottish Packaging as well as Silver in overall Scottish Gin and two Highly Commended in the Community and Industry Judge categories.

Now we are waiting with bated breath to find out how we have performed at the Scottish Gin Awards 2024 in a glitzy awards night in Glasgow next week, which will be a nice chance for myself and Katie to relax and put our feet up and meet some of the big players in the Scottish Gin Industry. I'm sure the imposter syndrome will swing into full force at some point in the next few days.

However, before that, we have The Gin To My Tonic's biggest event of the year at the Glasgow SEC on Friday. I am really looking forward to getting out in front of the public again as we have just not had a chance to do as many shows over the back end of summer as we wanted. Following this, we have Living Norths Christmas Fair in York and Ideal Home Show Christmas at Olympia London. Hence why we have been non-stop producing our award-winning product, in anticipation of a prosperous festive season.

Taking a look deep behind the scenes, we have had a tough couple of months. I'm sad to say Poppy our Golden Retriever passed away at home in our arms mid-September. She was close to 12 years old and has been with me and Katie since the very start of our married life together, she was there shortly after losing my mum and when my dad also passed. She welcomed home both our sons from the hospital and she was there at careers beginnings, endings, and the start and rise of Igneous. Some may say she was a 'Pet', but we know differently. Poppy was a spark in our lives that brought us joy, energy, and enthusiasm for life.

I have to admit at the end of September I lost my way a little bit with the business and struggled to find my edge with how to move things forward. But I'm hoping this is returning now and I'm focusing head first into the end of the year after a brief pause for thought.

To add to the chaos of home life, our eldest son Archie had appendicitis and ended up having it removed a little over two weeks back. He coped like a champion and it was just another bump in the road less travelled.

I'm currently sitting in the office at the Distillery writing this after a night of 80 MPH winds from storm Ashley, the still is whirring away as one of the final distillations of 2024 gets underway so I can take a breath, have a cuppa and get a few things done whilst I occasionally glance over to the Outer Hebrides and beyond. I often watch the weather fronts come off the ocean bringing with them waves of rain and sunshine whipped up by the occasional storm and realise I've seen this pattern before; In our everyday chaos of life as small business owners with a young family. One day is sunny and the next the rain is so violent on the wind that it feels like it could remove the skin.

Let's hope that we get a few more of those sunny days now, giving us a chance to lick the wounds and for Igneous to prosper from the festive joy that rolls in after Halloween.

In other exciting news… we have Merch! This week saw the completion of our first delivery of branded Igneous Hoodies.

We are doing them in reverse colour ways Stone with Grey Branding and Grey with Stone Branding, I must say they are fantastic! We decided to go big or go home, so they are very high-quality hoodies, if you're into branded merchandise we will be releasing these at our shows over the festive season and then will be also adding them to our website in the coming weeks.

The end of 2024 is all about brand awareness for us, we want to build on the success of the awards we have gained this year and show that Igneous is a powerful brand that has so much more to give in the coming years.

Right, the still has just beeped to tell me it's up to temperature so I'm off to go and monitor my first cut. I will try must hardest to get a blog done at the end of November, in between all the shows and chaos. But I'm sure I will have lots to tell you as a result.

I hope you have a fun-filled Halloween, see you when the festivities are in full swing!

Miles & Katie x