Hard to believe that this time last week we were awaiting the arrival of Hurricane (later known as Super storm) Sandy. I know we weren't expecting it here, but sometimes the tail end of weather in New York nips over to us. More important though was those of us with family and friends in America who were worried for their safety. I am so pleased that my brother and sister-in-law are safe. The news and photographs of the devastation throughout New York and New Jersey are very hard to take in and I know that everyone there is working very hard to return things to as near-normal as possible and I wish them well.
I took part in my first Christmas event of the season yesterday (Godalming Independent Christmas Market) and I am really pleased to say it was a great success - in fact I did better at this one than at the same event this time last year. A sign of improving times? Not sure, the public are a fickle bunch when it comes to handmade aren't they? right place, right time? My mini-cards sold really well and always seem to be very popular - long may it continue. I had also made up some packs of 5 different-design cards, but of a similar theme, and these sold well too. I sold two of my fabric decorated hearts and my best 'bit' of the day came when one of my Twitter friends, Lesley ( known on here as a guest blogger under the name of the Mad Dog Woman of Shackleford) came to see me and ordered a Christmas fabric wreath. Thank you Lesley, a lovely order to receive.
Here are a couple of pics of my stall. I had ordered a new banner from Vistaprint and hoped it would arrive before yesterday - as so often happens it arrived yesterday. A great shame as the wall behind me was crying out for some information about me.
It wasn't successful for everyone and as we all know, this is often the case. One stall holder was selling very beautiful jewellery she had made but it was priced in the £100 region - people visiting these types of craft events are not necessarily looking to pay that sort of price. A couple of other stalls didn't sell anything, and it seems Craft Fairs are still very hit and miss. My cake-making friend, who had the stall next to mine, did well - her cup cakes were very popular, as were her gorgeous coffee and walnut cakes. She is still taking last-minute orders for Christmas cakes, so if you would like one let me know and I will ask her to get in touch with you.
Some more news 'of the week' is that I won a book in the blog hop managed by Make and Craft to celebrate the publication of the first issue of their magazine. Each day was hosted by a different person and on the day that it was hosted by Hannah Blavins (Spans Studio) I decided to enter as I very much liked the look of the book prize: A Compendium of Mosaic Techniques. I had decided that if I didn't win, I would buy the book as the projects looked great. You can imagine how pleased I was to receive an email from Hannah telling me I had won - wonderful news. Thank you Hannah and thank you Make and Craft - there are lots of projects that I plan to have a go at, in particular the dragonfly which looks beautiful.
The next two weeks will be, almost, non-stop work making things for the event at Secretts. I am looking forward to it, but also thinking 'oh, boy, have I done the right thing booking into a 3-day event'. Well, he (or she) who dares and nothing ventured, nothing gained, etc. I have also booked into the next Frensham Pond Hotel Wedding Fayre in February 2013 - seems a long way off as Christmas is still to be managed, but as you all know these bookings have to be secured early.
Wallace and Gromit (oops sorry, Wallace and Jasper) are still with me. They are slowly becoming less nervous, but it is a long process to get them over their nervousness. They are lovely and it is great fun to sit and play with them. Richard was Senior Kitten Looker-After on Saturday while I was at the event and I know Jazz and Daisy will have kept an eye on them too. Of the three black kittens I wrote about recently, I am pleased to say that Mo has found his fur-ever home - hopefully it won't be a long wait for Jessica and Bradley to be adopted.
Compared with normal weekend posts, this one is a shortish one but don't forget to visit the bloggers taking part in Handmade Monday this week. Blog posts now are getting very Chrismassy. I hope you all have a good week and I will be back with my usual Wednesday post and my Friday Guest Blog post - it has become such an interesting part of my blogging week and I really missed having one this week. I have some spaces in November and December, so please do get in touch if you would like to be a guest blogger (christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com).
Jill
