COULD IT BE THAT SPRING HAS SPRUNG?

Hello everyone

What a lovely sunny weekend we have had - hope it has been the same for everyone reading this post?  The forecast for this coming week seems to be reasonable - no double figure temperatures, but no sign of any snow.

Another busy week working on websites and card-making for yesterday's event.  It wasn't a great success and it is no consolation saying that the majority of stallholders did badly as well.  One lady I spoke to said she just covered her stall fee, but only because friends came in and bought her paintings, which they probably would have done without attending the event.  It was advertised as a Craft Fair so you can imagine my surprise when I saw Pheonix Cards (PC) were taking part.  In addition to PC the world and his wife were there selling cards along side their other goods.  Such competition is hard to cope with.  I had forgotten to ask if PC were taking part, just took it for granted that Craft Fair meant craft, as in handmade.  A fellow crafter, Snowflake Gems, taking part in the event sought me out as she had recognised my business name as being that of my Facebook page - her jewellery is lovely, so it's a good idea to nip over and have a look at her work.

The event was held in two halls: the smaller one seemed to have a much friendlier, buzzing atmosphere; someone said it was possibly because people were a little more closely packed into the smaller hall.  It also had a lot of natural light, which the larger hall didn't - apart from roof windows which were about 10 - 12 feet above our heads.

Here is a photograph of my stall.  I normally have a black cloth, which sets things off well, but this time I didn't have it ready and I felt there was no dynamic 'come and look at me' colouring to show my work off:

However, that was yesterday and I return to the guns I had planned to stick to early last year: reduce the number of fairs in the January to August period, restrict venues to within a 10 - 15 mile radius of my postcode and try not to pay above £15.00 for a stall.  For most of last year it worked well and although I seem to have veered a little off-track this year, I think I am back on it now.

Having organised an event and taught event organisation for a few years, I know what is involved and how it can be hard work for very little income or other reward.  What is the answer?  Yesterday's event was well organised, good publicity: radio, local newspapers, flyers, Facebook and Twitter.  I know that the area the event is held has a lot to do with it - aim for affluent areas in the hope the residents will spend.  However, does that guarantee those who live in an affluent area will attend a craft fair?

Apart from working on websites and card-making this week, I also confirmed my attendance at two wedding fairs later this year.  In addition to my card-making workshops, this is an area of my business that I want to concentrate on, so I will be looking into doing perhaps a couple more wedding fairs this year.

I treated myself to a Big Shot machine this week; despite having a lovely Cricut Expression machine, loads of punches, etc I don't have an embossing machine and really like the effect this can produce.  In between gardening today I have been embossing sheets of paper and rubbing some down with sand-paper - lots of fun.  I want to get some cards ready this week for my wall at Bourne Mill and also hope to have some to display in my post next weekend.

Have a great week everyone, let's hope we have lots more sunshine and the temperature gets to somewhere near what it should be at this time of the year.  Don't forget to visit the other Handmade Monday bloggers to find out what they have been doing this week - always great to catch up with them.

I will be back next Sunday and Milly will be here on Wednesday with her view on life.

Jill