ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CRAFTER?

Hi everyone

As you  know, I recently produced a post about a day in my life - but it seemed to encompass a few days.  This time around I am going to write about a specific day - last Saturday in fact.  The previous week had been spent burning quite a lot of midnight oil to complete a wedding stationery order - the wedding was on Saturday, 22 September, so no pressure really!  The bride and groom had kindly invited me to the church service.

'The' day dawned bright and sunny - thank goodness.  In addition to attending the church service, I was also taking part in a a craft event in Pirbright - so a bit of juggling was needed.  I had packed my event bags the night before, and at 8.00 am I loaded them into the car - along with part of the outfit I was going to wear to the wedding.  I had decided from a time constraints point of view the best thing would be to wear as much of my outfit to the event as possible.  So on me was the skirt and handbag and in the car was my jacket, long contrasting scarf and high-heels (I later discovered this was a bad choice).

I arrived at the event in Pirbright and set up my table.  Linda who was helping me at the event (covering for my absence at the wedding) arrived shortly after we were let in.  As any participant in an event knows, the first, say, half-an-hour is panic time.  Have I got everything I need? Do I remember the one time my stand looked great so that I can replicate it?  For the first time I am sharing a stand, so how much should I leave for Linda?  Decisions, decisions.  Set-up achieved, table shared between the two of us, coffee provided (free, very nice) by the organisers and the doors opened.  A trickle of customers at the start but this increased as the morning moved on, some stalls attracted a lot of attention, some not much.  The fudge stall next to us did great business.

As the clock moved around to 12 noon (my departure time) my plan was been to take one top off and add jacket and scarf in the loo - however, the loo was hard to get to and I decided I would change in my car!  12 noon arrived and off I went - sat in the car park pulling my arms out of my jumper and putting them into the sleeves of my jacket ensuring not too much of the rest of me was on show.  Mission accomplished without any embarrassing show of flesh.  Off to the church.   A friend had said 'it's best to park in the town centre car park - it's free and the church is not far'.  Silly me, I should have remembered that not far to her is a marathon to me.  Off I set, high heels getting a little uncomfortable, but I eventually made it to the church after a 20-minute hike.

The church had been decorated beautifully.  The groom came up to talk to me, which I thought was lovely of him.  He was very happy and looked very smart.  The bride arrived -ten minutes late!  Sadly I had to do a lot of clock-watching as my time was limited - as this was Linda's first event I didn't think it was very fair to leave her on her own for too long.  The service was lovely and I managed to stay until the registers were being signed - not too much of an interruption to slip out then.  When I got outside there was a fabulous old car at the foot of the church steps - I thanked the driver, said it was very kind for transport to be arranged, but thought It best to leave it for the bride and groom!

I set off for the return 20-minute hike, high-heels so uncomfortable by this stage made it back to my car ready to change my outfit again.  Problem - a man was sitting in his car next to mine using his mobile phone and he sat therefore for over 5-minutes!  Patience is not my middle name, but eventually clothing change effected, jacket swapped for original top and I returned to the event in Pirbright.  Aching feet, scarf still around my neck and desperate for a cup of coffee.  A great day?  Very much so.  Would I do it again?  I'll let you know.

I am linking today's post with Caroline's UK Handmade Thursday blog hop and will add the link tomorrow when it is available.  Don't forget to read the other blogs that take part and join in the blog hop too, everyone with a craft-related post is very welcome.

Jill