JUTE ADORE

Hello everyone

Sorry for the pun-ish title, couldn't think of an appropriate one and this popped into my head.

How are your Christmas plans going?  I am no further forward and can see that the bulk of our Christmas shopping will take place during the three days before Christmas.  This is the second year I have been involved in the Christmas emporium at Secretts, but this year has been busier because an extended range of 'makes' has meant lots of lovely extra orders.  We have had some poorly stall holders this week, which as you can imagine has put pressure on others to jump in to help out.  For the second weekend running Saturday was not great for sales, but Sunday was.  I wonder why?

Jute bags completed this week have included 12 butterfly-decorated ones for Lesley, a second Scottie dog one for Denise, a black cat one for a customer at Secretts and another butterfly one (purple) for Carrie, one of my fellow stall holders.  In addition to orders, I am decorating a small stock of bags to take to an event I have been invited to on Thursday evening at Barnett Hill, which is just outside of Guildford.  The event is to promote the venue to existing and new clients and although the advised attendance will be low, fingers crossed they are in a Christmassy buying frame of mind.

As so often happens, I have no photographs to show of bags made - I try to remember and I always so, once they have been passed to my customer!

Another busy week looming although some social things too.  Catching up with a couple of friends tomorrow evening and then I will be having a Christmas lunch/get-together with my pottery group.  Hard to believe another term is over this week - but guess what?  I remembered to take photographs of the pieces I was working on this week and here they are!

This is a very tall wraparound vase, with a slightly fluted top.  I am not sure what colour to use and as I will have the Christmas break to think about it, I might buy some glaze as we have a limited range of colours available at the centre.

This candle holder was made with the left over trim from the fluted vase.  It just seemed a waste to return it to the bag, so I rolled it and lo and behold another piece of pottery.  I have blended some of the edges, made the centre wide enough to take a thicker than normal taper candle, and I am rather pleased with it.  Again, not too sure what colour to go for but rather fancy a bright shiny red.  

I am off to catch up with the Handmade Monday bloggers but I must thank everyone who took part in last week's blog hop for visiting and commenting on my blog post.  I know it is a frantically busy time of year and I appreciate you and all my other lovely visitors/commenters stopping by.

Have a great week - see you next Sunday

Jill

HECTIC TIMES AT CHRISTMAS PIE CRAFTS

Hi everyone

A busy week and getting busier all the time.  Being busy work-wise is always very welcome but getting behind with our own Christmas arrangements is not so good.  Like lots of people I haven't bought any Christmas presents, written any cards or even thought about pre-ordering food for 'the day'.  Never mind, only 24 days to go and I am sure between now and 25 December everything will come right.

You may remember my Scottie dog jute bag?  I had an order to make one with two Scottie dogs on and the customer was so pleased with it that she has ordered another one.  As well as that I have one to make with a black cat on (to be collected by the customer tomorrow) and another one with purple butterflies on.  Here is a photograph of the double Scottie dog bag:

The Christmas Emporium at Secretts has been busy although rather strange, yesterday was very quiet.  Our first Saturday of opening was very busy and we were all hoping for something similar yesterday.  It may be that there were other events taking place locally that prevented visitors coming to our 'show' - I think some of the local towns turned their Christmas lights on yesterday and Godalming (very near to Milford where Secretts is) had lots of activities on during their 'switch-on'.  A good friend of mine, Jan , covered yesterday afternoon in the Emporium for me - thank you Jan, I hope you enjoyed your session.

A fellow crafting friend, Dawn of Stone Pit Crafts, has some space on my table in the emporium and her hand-knitted head bands and bangles are proving very popular, as well as her wellie-boot toppers.

I have spent today working on customer's orders as well as decorating candles - lots of beads, baubles and ribbons in use.  I am so pleased that I have three whole days off during the week - woo hoo!  However, they are three days off from working in the emporium, but here at Christmas Pie Crafts it will be three days of making scented Christmas candles, cards and decorating jute bags, as well as taking my foster kittens to the vet and two of them to their new home, pl,us pottery on Thursday.  All very hectic,but also very enjoyable.

Thank you to everyone who visited and commented on my blog post last Sunday and I am so sorry it took me a long time to return the compliment.  It seems to get harder and harder as the weeks go by to visit everyone who takes part in Handmade Monday and I am sorry about that because I love to catch up on my fellow crafters work.  However, I do recommend you try to visit as many as possible taking part in this week's blog hop as I know you will really enjoy reading about their week.

Have a great week everyone  - just seen on the news that snow is forecast for the end of the week!  Hope it's not too much though.  'See' you all next week.

Jill

A LOOOOOOONG WEEKEND

Hello everyone

We all know that the weekend begins on Friday and finishes with a relaxing day on Sunday - well most weekends that is.  Mine began almost at the crack of dawn on Friday setting  up my spot at Secretts Christmas Fair and finished at 4.00 pm on Sunday.  Those of you who do fairs know the drill, you take time and care when setting up and then it's a mad rush to put everything away as quickly as possible when the doors close.

It was a great fair for me and I almost doubled my takings of last year.  I think it was because I had extended my range of makes/items for sale this year to include my jute bags, more wreaths, gift bags and other Christmas decorations.  I had a great time, met some lovely new crafters, one in particular was Cathie Brooks who has seven cats!  As you can imagine we had lots in common.  Cathie very kindly gave me a bag of knitted catnip balls to pass on to my cats and foster kittens as well as some other lucky kittens and cats currently being fostered by Woking Cats Protection.  Thank you Cathie - look forward to seeing you during my time in the Christmas Emporium at Secretts.

I took some photographs of my stand, but think that must have been just after the mulled wine!  A couple of them look a little fuzzy but here are two that seem to be clear:

A photograph of one of the willow heart wreath I decorated - very pleased to say these proved to be popular so I will be decorating some more.

It is always interesting talking to other stallholders to get their impression of the event.  Some said seem quieter than last year, some said it was busier, some did better last year, some not as good.  It was a very well organised event and although very cold on Saturday, we were warmed up with supplies of mulled wine and free tea and coffee.  The only thing I would change is the name of the event - it is promoted as a food and craft event, but although plenty of food is available, not all stalls are selling craft work.  Perhaps food, craft and gift fair would be more appropriate.

Day off today and then back on the mad working treadmill tomorrow.  Back to Secretts on Friday to set up for the month-long Christmas Emporium event.  This is great fun, with six stallholders taking part selling a mix of gifts, craft and food.  If you are local or live nearby why not come along and see us.

Off to check out Handmade Monday now - I am running late this week.  It's a bit lastminutejilldotcom here.  Thank you everyone who visited my blog last week and left me lovely comments.  have a great week everyone.

Jill