Jimmy's Farm Craft Fair

So, I've made it back from the Craft Fair which was unfortunately PANTS !! I counted the amount of people that walked past my stand today and it amounted to 63 !!

Now, I know the weather had a lot to do with it but it also transpires, after talking to a few of the other stall holders, that Jimmy's Farm didn't actually advertise the fair on their own website until Thursday just gone. Also, there wasn't a single sign on the main road advertising the craft fair - only the usual Jimmy's Farm sign. One lady refused to pay for her pitch because she didn't take a single penny and said that she didn't see why she should pay when Jimmy's Farm didn't actually advertise the fair. 4 or 5 of us other stallholders also spoke with the lady that organised it and said that we thought the advertising was really bad and that we weren't at all impressed. She agreed with us and said she would pass on our comments - whether it will do any good or not remains to be seen.

I was in the Barn and it was absolutely freezing and very damp - all of my fliers went all limp and the print started to bleed into the paper and all of the card I had mounted my brooches and hair bobbles on went all limp too ! Pretty soon I was starting to feel very limp myself!

But, I did sell a few bits and pieces - none of my pictures though - and after taking out the cost of the stand, made ...... wait for it ...... £3.50 ! So at least I did actually sell some stuff and am pretty sure that if Jimmy's Farm had done what we were paying them to do, and advertise the craft fair and if the weather hadn't been so awful, I would have made a whole lot more.

So, a bit of a bad day, but I know it wasn't anything to do with my stock ... just the advertising and the weather !
Here are some pics of my stall - I have to say I was REALLY pleased with how it looked and I got lots of lovely comments from the other stallholders about my stuff too !

And I just want to say a HUGE thank you to my lovely Mum who sat by my side for the whole day giving me lots of moral support and freezing her little backside off !! Thanks Mum xxx

I am now looking forward to having a bit of a rest before completing a few commissions I have for my "Name in a Frame" pictures, waiting for the deluge of business I shall receive following the publication of my advert in Crafts Beautiful magazine next week (fingers crossed) and starting to think about contacting a few little shops and galleries down in Cornwall. And of course, getting to grips with the freehand machine embroidery technique I learned down in Dorset last week !! So not much to do then ........

xxx

It's official

I'm addicted to felt !! And yes paper-and-string, it's all your fault !!

Below are 2 photos of my latest creations using felt. The first will be framed and used as my logo/sign at the craft fairs I will be attending later this year (more about those in a mo!) I used buttons for the centres of the flowers and also as the dots on the letter "i"s



The second is a new design that I will be adding to my website and also using as an example, again, at the craft fairs so that people can commission their own "initialled" picture. I will frame this (when I get a spare 5 mins!)


So, more about these craft fairs. I was lucky enough to be asked if I would like a stand at the "Jimmy's Farm" craft fairs later this year. For those of you who don't know who Jimmy is, he is Jamie Oliver's mate and is a Pig Farmer. BBC2 have been running a series of programmes over the last couple of years about him and his quest to reintroduce a rare breed of Essex pig. The fairs will be held at the farm which is on the Essex / Suffolk Border on the 28th May (Bank Holiday Monday) and 27th August (Bank Holiday Monday). If you live nearby, fancy a great day out (they also have a Farmers market there) and would like to see my work up close, do pop along - I'd love to see you. If you're really lucky you might get to see my twig tree in all its glory (probably with Sam standing there holding it up, if I don't manage to get it to set in the pot properly !)

Yesterday, my little stash of needle felting supplies arrived, so I spent the evening stabbing myself with an extremely sharp needle (note to myself - buy a thimble). Here's a picture of my very first needle felt attempt (don't look to closely in case you see any blood - oh, and please don't laugh either !!)


Not bad I thought, considering it was a first attempt and was done completely freehand. Could do with being a little less bulky, but overall I'm pretty pleased :-)

No sign yet of my Japanese needle felting book, but it is coming from Japan so maybe I should give it a bit more time and stop mugging the postman for a week or so! As soon as it does get here I will post some more pics of the beautiful projects in there and, if I'm brave enough, show you some photos of the projects I have attempted from the book. I am hoping that my wholesale supplies of needle felting goods will be arrive within the next week or so. I shall be putting together some needle felting kits to sell at the craft fairs and also on my website and these will contain everything you need to give needle felting a go ie. needles, foam blocks, beautiful merino wools and bags and purses for you to decorate (I might even pop in a couple of plasters !) If you would like to receive details of when the needle felting supplies are added to my website, please join my mailing list on the front page of my website.

Well, I think that's it for today.

Look forward to seeing you soon x