IT'S ALL GO IN THE CHRISTMAS PIE CRAFTS WORKSHOP

Hello everyone

As it says on the packet above, it's all go here and exhausting too.  I know it is the same for everyone involved in any sort of business at this time of year, but those of us involved in the world of handmade know that it seems to be doubly exhausting.

I took part in my last wedding fayre of the year today and have five quotations to prepare and hopefully future contact from people who said 'I'll be in touch'.  I know we all hear that occasionally, but the optimist in me is hopeful.

The weather here today has been lovely - I was hopeful that the good weather would bring the brides out and I wasn't disappointed.  Lots of other lovely wedding sellers, but the most eye-catching was a wedding cake stand (they always catch my eye) and here are photographs of two of the gorgeous creations by Alexander Taylor that were on display at today's fayre - what a talented person he is:

A burger, hot dog, box of fries and a coke.  I wouldn't want to cut into it.  The designs are so out of the ordinary, you couldn't fail to be amazed by them.

Love and peace man - a Sixties themed cake.  Incredible!

Alexander's wife and her father were on duty today and as you can imagine there was a lot of interest in their stand.  The best bit was seeing the look of 'I don't believe it' on visitors faces.

I had planned to make an all white range of wedding stationery for today and I managed to make some of the range.  My thanks to Jan of Handcrafted by Picto for the suggestion to have a red trim.  A great idea and I did just that using burgundy velvet ribbon and diamante embellishments.  Here is a photograph of them - not very good because the lighting at the event wasn't great:

In the Christmas Pie Crafts workshop, I have been back on the make, label and pack treadmill.  The fear of not having enough stock is hanging over me: have I got enough of this, should I make more of that, will they sell.  I am sure my fellow handmade business people know this feeling.

I bought four heart-shaped willow wreaths recently and have decorated each them in a different way.  The light has gone now and I cannot photograph them, but will do so during the week and post them on my blog next Sunday.

This time next week, I will be breaking down my stand following my three-day event at Secretts Garden Centre - I am looking forward to it (and feeling nervous about it too) and will be making stock up to the very last moment (probably during the event too), but there is that 'oh dear, I hope my things sell' feeling, and I will let you know next week how the event went.

Back to the treadmill now, but before I go don't forget to visit the bloggers taking part in Handmade Monday and a big thank you to everyone from last week's linky party who visited my blog and commented - always appreciated.

I have had a couple of people say they are interested in being a Friday Guest Blogger - that would be lovely and I look forward to you joining in, can you email me on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com and we can arrange dates, etc?

Have a good week everyone - Milly will be here on Wednesday and I will be back next Sunday.

Jill