My First Craft Fair

I did my first craft fair before Christmas. It was at the Church of a friend of mine, and we shared a table between 3 people - my jewellery, my friend Ali's Christmas decorations, and my friend Sophie's ceramics.


This was my little third of the table. I wasn't sure how to best display the jewellery, but I was quite pleased with the final outcome. I would definately have struggled to fill a whole table, though!

The fair itself went ok - I think there were about 200-250 people who visited (and all table/entrance fees went to our local hospital, which is always a good cause), and I made three sales. It was quite a long day for three sales - the fair was open from 10-6, but could probably have closed at 4 quite happily really. However, I got some really lovely feedback from someone who bought a necklace for his mum and was the flavour of the month on Christmas day apparently! That kind of thing always makes me happy!

I did also get to finish my own Christmas shopping from some of the other lovely stalls that were there, and it was lovely to sit for the day with my friend Ali and chat, without one of us always having to jump up to rescue a toddler from imminent doom.

I think I would have to think carefully before signing up for another one though, especially from a space and display point of view. If anyone has any tips on this, I'd be grateful!

I Knit Weekender

Last Friday Alice and I got the train into London, and the bus to Victoria, to meet my Grandma and go to the I Knit weekender. Alice's favourite part of the whole day was the bus ride (which took in Oxford Street - lots of stops, lots of people). This is how she spent almost the whole ride -

Her conversation isn't great anyway, I tell myself - and at least I got to admire her lovely cardigan (not hand knitted, I'm afraid - from Zara. Not that I usually buy her stuff in Zara, you understand. This was just too nice not to.)

The I Knit weekender itself was in a really interesting venue, The Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre, which was super Art Deco and had an unusual clock -

The Weekender was full of lovely, chatty, people, and gorgeous yarn. We were especially taken with the Illusion Knitting stall. I can't quite believe I'm considering it when I haven't finished the Blanket of Doom yet, but they have an ace pattern for a baby blanket with a teddy bear on it that I would really like to try! Who do I love enough, is the question....

This is my purchase for the day - two skeins of Araucania Toconao in a fabulous purple colour, bought from the Woolfish stall. Yummy. It is so soft and smooth! I have balled it up, and have plans already for it.

I could have bought a lot more, if I hadn't looked at my budget just the day before (boo hoo). There were so many gorgeous colours on display, it was sometimes hard to know where to look.

The only disappointment of the day was that the I Knit design competition, whose entries were supposed to be exhibited at the Weekender, was not in evidence. I wasn't expecting my pattern to win a prize, or anything, but I was looking forward to seeing it on display (as was my Grandma, who had kindly tested it for me). Not sure what happened there.

Overall we had a nice day out, but a bit more information would have been nice.

I Can Read You Like A Book Treasury

I bought into my first BNR treasury today on etsy (Buy and Replace - you buy an item, and it gets replaced with one from your own shop). I hadn't really planned to, I just saw some hair pins that (fingers crossed) will go perfectly with a dress I plan to wear to wedding in September.

Having said that, I do feel slightly glum that it hasn't resulted in a sale. It is going pretty well otherwise! I wonder again if it is my photos, but I just don't know what to do about that. Will have to have a good think.

On the upside, it reminded me to make a treasury I have been thinking about for a while. Called I Can Read You Like A Book - Almost it features gorgeous hand made notebooks and clever things made from books, all from UK-based etsy sellers.

I love books. One wall of our living room is pretty much filled with books. As well as a wall in Alice's room. And one in our bedroom. And there are boxes of my books beyond count in my parent's loft! I really must get up there one day soon and check them out....

I Knit Weekender Design Competition

Oh my gosh! One month to go before the I Knit Design Competition closes.

I Knit is a great shop in Waterloo which is really much much more than a shop - it is more like a knitting community centre, really. They run the I Knit Weekender Event (10-11 September 2010) which this year includes a design competition, with an exhibition of entries at the event and prizes of £250/£100/£50 - plus yarn! Further details can be found on their website.

I have been working on my design, which uses this lovely Rowan wool, for a while now -

Not because it is especially complicated, but because I am also working on the Blanket of Doom, and that is taking me forever. But I'd better get a wriggle on if I'm going to get in completed and sent off in time!

Bees Go Buzz.... My first etsy treasury

I seem to be a bit insect obsessed at the moment!

I have finally got round to curating a treasury on etsy, and it is all bees, butterflies, dragonflies and ladybirds! I know insects are funny things that inspire a great deal of fear sometimes - personally, I have a spider-thing (shiver down my spine just thinking about it), but I know plenty of people with bee, wasp, and ladybird things too - still, some of these items are really lovely, so if you can bear it, check it out!

Architects Build Small Spaces Exhibition

A quick disclaimer - I used to work at the V&A, and still do occasionally in the Learning and Interpretation department. I am doing some research on this exhibition, but was not involved in its creation in any way.

I was at the V&A today, going round the 1:1 Architects Build Small Spaces exhibition. I thought it was awesome. Further and proper information is available here
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/architecture/smallspaces/index.html


Essentially, though, it is 7 structures that have been built around the museum, that you get to go in and explore - for free!

Here are some photos of two of them for you to see a little bit of the variety. They are made from all kinds of material - plaster in the case of this first one from the Cast Courts, wood in the case of the second one from the Medieval and Renaissance Gallery, as well as plexiglass, metal, and tree trunks. There is one full of books, which is very lovely but hard to photograph effectively.

I always like to visit the V&A, but I think this is really something special. It's on until the end of August too - perfect holiday fare if you can't quite face the thought of the dinosaurs across the road again!