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Sunday 21 April 2013

IN THE GLASSHOUSE!

Hi everyone

What a gorgeous sunny weekend it has been - I spent yesterday alternating between gardening and crafting.  I would have preferred to garden all day, but I had an event today, so needed to get some cards and candles finished.  We managed to get our Heuchera bed tidied up and mulched, so apart form the odd weed that dares to poke its head through, it should be nice and tidy for the season.  Although I do feel it needs one or two additional Heuchera's - one of my favourite plants.

I took part in a fair in a garden centre today - in one of their poly-tunnel greenhouses!  Oh boy, was it hot.  In fact it was so hot, that some of the stallholders who were selling sweets, packaged cakes and chocolate had to move outside as their makes were either melting or the bags they were in were full of condensation.

Here are some photographs of the event:


The 'back' of my space


My spotty stall


I had planned to make candle mugs but having run out of them I went down the cup and saucer route, but decided against the antique cup and saucer.  They were very popular so, a good decision.


One of my matching bags and card range



The calm before the storm?


My cake-making friend, Linda's stall.  She was asked not to sell cakes as there were other cake sellers there, so she sold her range of breads.

This was the organiser's first event, so they charged £10 for the space.  A bargain really and hard to miss out on.  Advertising wasn't great and the big surprise when I arrived was no tables or chairs!  Had we been told?  Sadly, no.  A few sellers had brought their own tables to supplement the ones they thought would be in place and the rest of us were eventually able to get some for our use.  My cake-making friend had been told 'no cakes' because there was already a cake-maker booked in and they wanted to aim for one of each product, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw another card-seller set up.  The event was promoted as a craft fair, but I am at a loss to understand how Fair Trade (re-seller), a £1.00 stall selling second-hand goods, Pampered Chef and bought-in soaps are classed as craft.

I was happy with my sales, cake-maker Linda did well, sadly two stall holders didn't sell anything.  Why did I do this one?  It was tentatively booked before I made my decision to stick to my plan not to do any events in the early part of the year.

The plus side was meeting lots of good, genuine crafters, being asked by one to take part in a regular dedicated craft event, brain-storming (not called that now, but I can't remember the new name) various things related to craft selling, winning a stallholder's event draw prize and being well supported throughout the event by the organisers.  This is going to be a regular event, but I plan to stick with my decision and if the weather continues to improve (please, please) it will be way too hot in that greenhouse and my candles will probably melt.

It's Handmade Monday time (where does the week go?) so don't forget to drop in on those crafters who take part - lots of lovely blog posts to read.  I will be back next Sunday and Milly will be here on Wednesday with her mid-week post.

Have a great week everyone

Jill

23 comments:

  1. Great to hear you did well despite the heat! The stall looked lovely with its spots.

    Hope you have a good week,
    Alison

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  2. Glad you stall went well. Your post reminds me how i'm missing my gardening. I gave up my allotment to weeks ago since we hope to be moving house soon, so it didn't seem worth bothering starting this year

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  3. Glad to hear that you had a good time today as most people seem to be struggling at fairs at the moment. Your tea cups are lovely. Hoping the good weather continues this week :)

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  4. Good that you did well despite the duplication of stalls. I agree though that the re-seller stalls with cheap goods is not fair to the 'proper' hand crafted stalls. I miss doing craft fairs and meeting other craft folk, I wish I could find a good venue to do them again!

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  5. I love your spotty table cover! It makes your stall zing! I think there's usually a good side to fairs, even when things don't go as planned. I'm sure lessons will have been learned by many!

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  6. I love your spotty table cover, it looks very friendly. Most of the 'craft fair' events I attend have bought in stuff too. I'm glad you done well. It's a shame that some stalls don't have a good time.

    Jan x
    Thanks for popping over and leaving a comment on my last post. Pets seem to be a popular choice on my 'Houses' :)

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  7. I'm glad despite the initial problems with set up, the day went well. I too have seen craft fairs with stalls which do not fit the criteria - it's a shame.

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  8. Your spotty stall looked fab!! I was at a Craft Fayre last weekend that had brought in jewellery selling from a fiver...can't complete with that sadly :(
    Have a great week! xx

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  9. So nice to have some warmer weather at last!
    Your stall looks fab.

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  10. Your stall looked great, glad you had a good day x

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  11. The spotty fabric works really well on your stall. Glad the fair went well, even if it was a little hot !! xx

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  12. It is always interesting to hear craft fair experiences. I have one coming up in May, and have suddenly got that panicky feeling that I don't have enough to sell.

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  13. He he :) it must have been positively tropical in that tunnel!! I'm really glad that the event went well for you, your spotty stall looks v pretty :) x

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  14. Hi Jill, your stall looked so nice. I like the idea of the cup and saucer candles. I hope you continue to have nice spring weather!

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  15. The spotty table is genius, Jill. I also think the matching card and gift bags are a winner. But the candles are pure crowd pleasers. I hope you did really well.

    Linda's breads look great, glad that she did well, too.

    I do agree tho' that the organisers really should qualify the stall holders for craft fairs.

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  16. Your stall looks great and I'm pleased you did well.

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  17. I love the red and white spotted table cloth it makes everything stand out so well. The matching bag and card design look really pretty. Glad to hear it went so well.
    Ali x

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  18. The stall looks really good, eye catching. I'm glad it went well for you x

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  19. It is a shame when there are people selling bought in cheap goods under cutting those selling handmade.

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  20. Your stall looks great! It is frustrating when you get people sneaking in who definitely don't meet the brief. Whilst I applaud the sentiments of Fair Trade, I do sometimes think that us UK crafters also need to be paid a fair price for our time x

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  21. Ooh I wish I had a heuchera bed - they are one of my favourites too - sadly my garden is too small for much other than alpines!

    Your stall looked great, glad it went OK for you but it is so hard to work out the right place to be.

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  22. Your display is quite eye-catching! And I love those cup and saucer candles!

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  23. Those tunnels can feel like an oven sometimes. Glad to hear your sales went well.

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Thank you for your comment - it is always lovely to have feedback and I hope you enjoyed my post.