Workshop & Fair Updates

Hiya

Well, I promised I would be back with an update on my needle felting workshop and also the fairs I did at the weekend - sorry it's so late ! I have to blame it on the fact that Sam has now broken up for the school holidays and also the fact that my little madam has been up to all sorts of tricks including squeezing bottles of paint all over my friend's rug, drawing on our sitting room carpet with crayons and last but not least helping herself to my friend's hayfever and imodium tablets which resulted in us spending a morning at A&E being "observed" ! Fortunately, she was fine (as was my friend's son who was also in on the act), and only suffered from a little hyperactivity (what ?? more than normal ?)

But, back to Blooming Felt business !!

I held my very first needle felting workshop on the 30th June in the local village hall and, after panicking slightly that I wasn't going to get enough people, was really pleased when I had a last minute flurry of bookings. I'd got Mum to make some cakes (because I'm rubbish at cake making) to serve with tea and coffee during the break and after spending nearly an hour setting up, sat very quietly (secretly panicking) and waiting for my pupils to arrive ! And much to my relief, they all came and were very excited at the prospect of learning a completely new craft that they had never seen before !

After explaining about felting in general and then showing the ladies the different types of wool, I did a demonstration before letting them choose their own wool to work with and setting them loose with their felting needles.

It got to "break time" and no-one wanted to stop as they were all getting quite engrossed in their own projects, so unfortunately not many of the cakes were eaten (but Sam & Gracie did alright out of it). After a few quick slurps of tea and coffee, they were back at it again and I was amazed at the different ideas that they all came up with.

Everyone did really well and after the workshop finished, spent lots of money on supplies and books for themselves. All were very keen to attend future workshops and I'm now thinking of running a sort of club that meets on a monthly basis so that they can all get together regularly to felt and chat ! All in all, a very worthwhile event, especially as a couple of the pupils work at a local special needs school and have said that they'll be booking me to teach a few classes in the Autumn term.

Last Saturday saw me attending a summer fayre for a local pre-school. And I couldn't believe it ... I didn't sell a single thing !! That's the first time that has ever happened to me and I was ever so slightly stunned !!

But never mind, Sunday was the Little Baddow Village Fete and I was much more hopeful for sales at this event. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side at all and gazebos were taking off left, right and centre. Then it started raining and that, combined with the fact that the wind was blowing directly down the field towards me, resulted in half of my items disappearing off the end of my table and the ones that did manage to stay put, getting soaking wet ! I spent half of the day covering everything up with the table cloth, but never mind, everyone was extremely complimentary about all of my goodies and trade was brisk (with lots more enquiries about needle felting workshops).

Look - you can't even see all the loveliness on my stall :o(

I was amazed at the amount of people that turned out for the event, I've been told that a good few hundred people attended the Fete and I think the scarecrows had a lot to do with that - here are a few pictures of the best ones ! There were over 70 scarecrows entered into the parade / competition and it was such a lovely thing to see. Sadly, the event appears to be a one-off, but I'm sure that as it was so popular, it will happen again in the not too distant future !

As I haven't yet managed to add them to my website (hopefully, this evening though) I thought I'd post a few pics of my teeny tiny strawberry & cupcake button earrings. The cupcakes are available in different colours and will be shown on the website. If you fancy treating yourself, they'll be priced at £2.50 per pair. Also, fabric covered drawing pins / pushpins / thumbtacks (whatever you like to call them) - a set of 10, either strawberries or cupcakes, complete with a little tin to store them in - priced at £5.00 per set.


That's it from me for the time being. My blog posts will be less regular over the next few weeks because of the school holidays and also the fact that we go away for a couple of weeks next week (yay !) Let's hope the weather in Devon & Cornwall is better than it has been recently.

I'm also hoping to have some very exciting news on a new range of felty goodies for the website - stick with me and all will be revealed very soon !

Sarah x