Christmas Fairs so far

4 Dec

Lots has happened since I last posted, where to start?

On Thursday evening I had a stall at the gloss gallery in town, the event was in aid of Hospiscare and tickets were sold out.  It was a great evening, with a fashion show, opening of the Christmas Print Show and a bunch of lovely stalls.  On the down side I did not sell a thing, that’s right, nothing!  Oh yes, my work was admired and complimented but no one bought anything.  However…there was a local independent shop owner there who would like to stock my work!  Hurrah!  So I felt very flattered, friends have often said to me that I should approach her, but I just don’t have the confidence, guts etc!  But she approached me – so that’s fantastic.  I’m planning to go and talk to her this week but need to do some figure work, obviously she needs to make money too, I need to work out what to do so it is worth my while.

Friday was a day of doing as little as possible, I was fairly exhausted, the children hadn’t been well so we’d missed out on some sleep too.

Saturday was however a different story, 2 fairs to do and my birthday.  I had sort of requested that celebrations be postponed but the children weren’t so understanding, so we had a whizzy quick opening of presents and then on to the business of the day.

Tobit and the children dropped me off at the school with all my boxes and kit and I spent half an hour setting up before a slow morning of selling.  School fairs can be fun, there were lots of stalls for the children to win prizes at and a number of quality craft stalls too, however parents didn’t seem to be in the Christmas shopping mood!  I had the chance to catch up with the lovely Clare from DevonRed, who I met at a similar event last year, and later in the morning when Tobi came to pick me up I sent him over to buy one of her little scrap bundles.  More fabric?  Yes, she mostly works with home decor weight fabrics and I rarely do so I came home with some lovely new scraps!

So the school fair finished at 12:45 , Tobit had already put the gazebo up at the next event which was fortunately just around the corner.  Magdalen Road in Exeter is a lovely road of independent shops and businesses.  The St Leonards Neighbourhood Association organised the event and had permission to close the road.  There was live music, performances from the local school choir, a fair ride, roasted chestnuts, mulled wine, a group of  university students singing and a zumba performance.  The event was so busy and I sold lots of my lovely work!  Hurrah and phew, I was beginning to think that I was wasting my time!  It was a really fun afternoon, made, in part by lots of lovely friends stopping by to say hello, wish me happy birthday and buy my work!  At 6pm Tobit arrived with the children (all ready for bed in pyjamas!) to take me home.  Thanks must go to my mum for looking after the children during the day so Tobit could rush around fetching, carrying and putting up a gazebo!  The children did pop in for an hour or so in the afternoon, long enough to have fun and spend some money but not all my profits!

Today has been a bit of a day of reflection and planning and the urge to sew some more!  My next proper event is on Thursday evening – Unique Boutique at Exeter Phoenix, but there is also Make, Do and Mend’s Christmas party on Tuesday so I might just take some things along to that too!

This afternoon we went out to our local forest and the girls rode their bikes around, Mathias enjoyed stomping in his wellies and picking up sticks (before falling asleep in his pushchair).  It was wonderful to get out in the fresh air, clear my head, breath deeply and relax.

What no pictures?

Ok we didn’t take any of the fairs, it was the last thing on my mind, so for now this will have to do:
IMG_1088

I made a bunch of Christmas trees using selvedges…and sold them all!  I’ve started to make some more ready for the next few fairs!  I will be back with a ‘review’ of my birthday presents but for now that is it.

Sew Happy Geek

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3 Replies to “Christmas Fairs so far

  1. Well done you – I’ve been dying to know how it went at the gloss gallery event, although you didnt sell anything at least you can look forward to meeting the shop owner. School fairs are a bit unpredictable as in my opinion people come with a certain amount of money and when its gone its gone and there is quite a lot of other stuff around for people to spend their money on. At least it all ended well and you sold lots of your stuff – yay!!! Its soooo good to get out in the lovely fresh air when you’ve been cooped up inside. I was like that last weekend and just had to go for a walk in the Yorkshire Dales. I just love your selvedge trees they look funky. Good luck for next week and a happy belated birthday. xx

  2. It’s great that you sold them all! I just did a craft fair last month [my first time selling any of my sewing stuff], and it was terrifying and exhilarating putting myself out there for people to look and buy.

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