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