Trying a new way to blog

Technology moves so quickly - it is hard to keep up but here I am writing a blog on my mobile phone!  Hopefully all will work properly and it won't just be me who ever sees this!
Anyway this is a very short post to test it out...
Fingers crossed!

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice...

Well, that is what girls are supposed to like which is a dream for a crafter who is trying to get into other people's heads and make things they will want to buy, but boys can be so difficult.   Fairies, butterflies, flowers and glittery things just don't cut it!


I could make decorations til the cows come home for females of all ages (including a decoration of a cow for that matter!) but for the boys and men, the creative juices tend to dry up a little and I can more often than not be found scratching my head before deciding to make another butterfly as my brain hurts from thinking too much!   Now the more mature guys are a little easier, they actually go full circle and start to like the butterflies (I think they are just agreeing with their better halves!) and, for the more forthright, birds and dogs often seem to hit the mark but the younger generation are a bit of a nightmare.


Therefore, the pretty, glittery stuff has taken a bit of a back seat recently whilst I am on the hunt for less girly designs to work with.   The latest addition to the Ali's Craft Studio stable is a (not so) cute Gecko in either green or black & yellow - you would be amazed by how often I have been asked for Geckos recently so by popular demand, here they are...

Oh aren't they lovable!

They are now available in my online shop here and are already proving popular at the fairs.  I plan to add a snake to this sometime soon and will look for more slippery so-and-sos to join the menagerie!  Of course, boys wouldn't be boys without one (or more) of the following:

 skull & crossbones design

 even better to have a glow-in-the-dark version

or a pirate ship (featuring skull and crossbones flag) - starting to see a theme here!

See, sugar and spice and all things nice just isn't for the boys!!  (Well, most of them anyway - I do occasionally get boys oohing and ahhing over flowers and 'pretty' things but they are the exception rather than the rule!) 

See what everyone else has been up to and the wonderful creations they have been making over at Handmade Monday.  

Next weekend is an animal filled day of fun at the Rare Breeds show in Singleton, near Chichester so I am looking forward to that and will report back next week on what I hope to be a busy and sales-filled (rain-free) day!

Busy Weekend, Handmade Monday and Sunshine...

Well here we are again, the Monday after a busy weekend.  It really is frightening how quickly the weeks are flying by and before we know it the schools will have broken up for the long summer holiday and then it is September and Christmas!

Fortunately, the glorious weather at the moment lets us know that Christmas is still a long way away yet and this weekend was beautifully hot (almost too hot at times) and we were at a free community festival weekend in Kent where the people came out in force to enjoy the funfair, music, dancing and free entertainment on offer.   We were inside one of the craft tents and had a great weekend with lots of new and repeat customers.  It was lovely to also meet Terry from Aviya Glass who, until now, I have only 'met' virtually - she lives locally to the show and it is great to put faces to names!

No mud on offer this weekend (apart from the bits still clinging on to some of my boxes and banners!) which we are still regarding as a luxury whenever we see solid, dry ground!  Oh, and incase you are wondering, both pairs of trousers and one pair of shoes have now been 'de-mudded' - just one more pair of shoes to go!  The first pair tired me out so much with beating, scrubbing and getting generally soaked by the hose being used to try to 'waterblast' the mud into submission, I couldn't quite bear to attempt the other pair straight after.   They will be this weeks exciting job!   It was definitely more 'hammer and chisel' than brushing required...

I haven't had much time to do new designs this past week as I was preparing for the weekend and making up orders from the last couple of shows however one I have managed to make up (which sold pretty quickly at the weekend) is this beautifully colourful Tulips Frame. 


Tulips in a Frame - wonderfully colourful
(will be added to website shortly...)

This is going to be a quick post as I have a lot of stock to make this week ready for the next show at the weekend (already praying that the thunderstorms forecast for the mid-end of this week decide to give way to sunshine for Saturday!!) and I also have some website management to get on with - lots of new designs over the past couple of weeks which haven't yet made it over to the website shop, then I still have to head into town to go to the bank, the supermarket, etc...  So many things, so little time!

Make sure you head on over to Wendy's blog to see what everyone has been busying themselves with this week - it never ceases to amaze me how talented the crafters are who join in every week.

Right then, its off to work we go (are you are all singing 'Hi-Ho!' in your heads now... or is it just me?)

Giving Back with Crafts

OK, lets get this out of the way first - today has been hot, sunny and reminiscent of the summer of 1976 (those of you who weren't born then... keep it to yourself, I feel old enough without you reminding me thank you very much!!)   So top of most people's list of things to do today probably weren't what I was doing - sitting (or rather melting) on our stall inside a shopping centre under a glass, yes I repeat... GLASS roof!   I dread to think what the temperature was but I half expected someone to come along and baste us every now and again then declare that we were done!  Needless to say, hubby and I were not in the best of moods at the end of it especially as 1. I had a stonking migraine; 2. Hubby doesn't do indoors hot; 3. Neither, it seems, do customers!

Can you believe that it was just one week ago that I was preparing to spend the rest of my life in the middle of a muddy field as getting out in our little car seemed a bridge too far!!  How quickly does it flip on its head!!   Maybe we could have some happy medium sometime (preferably on a weekend when I am due outdoors - sunny, not too windy and pleasant to be out in - really, is it asking too much?)

Anyway, you win some, you lose some and I am not here to bemoan sunny days - if we had been outdoors we would have been joyful for the sunshine and (are you listening weather Gods?) I am praying for a lovely weekend next weekend as we are at a free festival in an outdoor marquee and when it is sunny, it will be busy with lots of happy people (hopefully in the mood for spending!).  Yesterday I was on the market and it was lovely and I had a great day so overall the weekend was good.

So, it is Handmade Monday time again so I thought I would look at how craft can be used to give something back to worthy causes.   I currently have three items where donations from each sale are used to raise money for others.

These are (click on any image to see full details in the Ali's Craft Studio online shop):

1. Poppy - the one I am really proud of.  I donate part of the sale price of each of these poppies to the Royal British Legion.  In my mind one of the most worthy of causes.  I am proud to say that the cheque I send to them increases each year & I hope this trend continues...  Hubby also proudly displays one of these around Remembrance Day in his taxi.

2. Avro Vulcan - Not everyone's cup of tea but if you have ever had the privelige of seeing this magnificent machine in the air, you would want to keep the last flying example of the Vulcan fighter in the sky.  Again, a donation from each sale goes to the Vulcan to the Skies fund which raises the thousands of pounds required to keep flying.   (As a footnote, if you haven't seen and heard a real Vulcan you have the chance - weather permitting - to do so at the Shoreham Airshow where we will have a stall on 20th & 21st August.   A fantastic opportunity which isn't to be missed as who knows how many more flights will be possible!)



3 & 4 - Awareness Keyrings.   Currently I have one for Breast Cancer and one for AIDS Awareness with donations to the relevant charaties (Cancer UK & the Elton John AIDS Foundation).  There are lots of awareness ribbons and I am happy to create and donate to any given charity if someone has a preference.

It isn't a lot but I feel proud that my creativity can contribute a little to these charities and hopefully help someone else in need.   Maybe one day I will be in a position to do more but for now I will do what I can.

There are, of course, other ways to help - stall fees at fundraising events, percentages of sales given in donations, etc. are some of the other methods of giving back.

Hope you all have a great week and don't forget to head on over to Wendy's blog to see what other creative things people have been up to this week. 

Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud...

... Nothin' quite like it for coolin' the blood, so follow me follow, down to the hollow, and there we will wallow in Glorious Mud!

Mmmm, mud...  Nice for piggies, maybe not for fairs!

Well thats how the song goes but I think it gives a slightly off-kilter view of what it really is like when, thanks to the rather dubious combination of two days of pretty solid rain plus something like 800 Land Rovers frequently driving over the same areas of field.  Want to know what glorious mud looks like?   The reality is infact...

Mud so deep (these were taken directly outside the craft tent we were in and still don't really show the true extent of how bad it was!) that we couldn't get our little car anywhere near and had to be ferried with our boxes up to the car park which had fared a little better due to less movement of vehicles during the day.

Sadly, this also meant the show was quieter than perhaps it ought to have been had the weather been kinder on Saturday (although as it was mainly for the Land Rover enthusiast we are talking about a more specialised market anyway so lower numbers than you might see at a more general event) and we spent much of today fretting about whether we would infact ever get out and if we needed to quickly knock up some 'change of address' cards to read 'We have now moved to... the middle of a mud pit'!

As I mentioned, this was a specialised show and me being me, I had to have a bash at joining in and created a couple of Land Rovers to see if they would sell (I am always nervous trying to please enthusiasts of any genre as they really will notice and point out any mistakes or moments of 'artistic licence!)   Well, I think they worked as, despite planning to sell one and keep the other to show and take orders of, the both sold within the first hour of opening.   Fortunately, I had created some posters showing the new designs and I did get some orders from these alone.  These will be appearing on the website soon and are priced at just £6.99 + P&P.

I also decided to create some keyring inserts (just incase) with this picture on one side and 'I Love Land Rovers' on the other and had a flurry of sales of these on the first day (hurrah!)  Ironically, after printing more on Saturday night to make sure I wouldn't run out on Sunday, I didn't have any sales of these on day two!!   Amazing how often that happens!!

So, after spending the weekend wading through mud, I now have two pairs of matching 'mud' brown shoes and two pairs of trousers with beautifully colour-coordinated 'mud' brown cuffs!   I planned on trying to brush off the dried mud but am starting to think a hammer and chisel might be called for!!   Oh the joys of it all - I think there are still shoes under there but I haven't really seen them courtesy of their new mud coating for a few days...

Next weekend is back to concrete underfoot and even for one of the days I have the luxury of an indoor event - what will I do, I am beside myself with glee at the prospect of just one week without Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud!

Hope you have had a great, mud-free weekend.  Do make sure you head on over to Wendy's blog at 1st Unique Gifts for this weeks Handmade Monday and see what everyone else has been up to...

Oh, and incase you were worried, we did make it out alive thanks to the help of the wonderful marshalls and their Land Rovers (which, don't be fooled folks, do get stuck in mud too!) and we have put the 'We Have Moved' cards on hold - for now at least!

The Joy of Fairs

Today is Monday (just) and therefore Handmade Monday over at Wendy's blog.   I missed my entry last week as I had a weekend show and was quite simply knackered and my brain went into shutdown mode so the connection between thought and keyboard were sadly missing.  However, I am back on track now and so please do go along to see what everyone has been up to.

So, what does the title of this blog mean?   Well on Saturday we had a stall at a lovely local Summer fair which consisted of the usual mix of trade and charity stalls as well as a great classic car show.   What I discovered over the course of a day was the following:

1. Having stalls around a central 'arena' where all the activities take place is a great layout and helps give a wonderful atmosphere.  We are lucky to do a few outdoor shows with this type of layout and it means that everyone has a great day - visitors and stallholders alike.
2. Dog shows are the best!   So many cute and cuddly dogs and the puppies just melt your heart!   What a fantastic end to the day to see dogs behaving very naughtily and owners looking terribly embarrassed indeed!
3. 'We Have a Winner'  Are the four most annoying words to have shouted (oh and I mean shouted) repeatedly from the stall alongside you in their vain attempts to try to get the attention of visitors!!  (Perhaps there will be a future post entitled - 'The worst thing about being next to a tombola stall!')
4. You should not attempt 'Zumba' in hot sunshine when the person demonstrating it is a young, fit guy who looks like he can Zumba for days without losing his smile or slowing down a pace.   A few people who thought it would be good fun to have a go and join in with this new dance/fitness craze but after song no. 2, the beetroot faces and heavy sweats were rapidly being overtaken by looks of panic and those sideways glances that we all know are sly attempts to find a way to duck out and sit down without anyone noticing!   After song 5, the St Johns Ambulance attendants were starting to feel like they might suddenly get a rush of business!   Major kudos to the Police officer who (with lots of egging on by colleagues) joined in at the back for a few minutes and gave us all a chuckle.  Not sure how much blackmailing will follow as colleagues were taking photos, no doubt to reappear at the station Christmas party...
5. Packing up a gazebo, ground sheet and all your gear is sooo much easier when it isn't raining cats and dogs.   The wind wasn't really helping but still so much better than rain...
6. Standing on uneven ground all day plays havoc with your leg muscles.  Hubby and I felt like we had just run a marathon rather than stood in a field all day. Ouch!
7. No matter how many fairs you have done, how many times you have set up your stall and display, there is always something new to learn and a new layout idea to discover
8. However, the real joy of fairs are the people.  All ages, all walks of life - it is a joy (most of the time) to be able to chat and share my work and hopefully make a difference to their lives in some small way. (OK, this sounds very grandiose but it is how you feel at the time)
9. And finally, I have discovered that rainbows are really popular - everyone loves them and they make people smile.  Maybe its that 'sunshine after the rain' thing or just the combination of colours that does it.  Who knows but everyone seems to love a rainbow...

So it will come as no major surprise that I now have a 'Rainbow Collection' section on my website with everything from actual rainbow designs to stars, bugs and butterflies. 

Rainbow Bugs

Rainbow Stars

Today has been wet, rainy, windy and miserable so if you want to brighten someones day, why not try a rainbow?  Yes, I know the ground needs the rain but it doesn't stop it feeling dull when you look out of your window...

Hope you have all had a fab week and weekend & sorry to everyone whose blogs I can't comment on at the moment - Blogger still has an issue with users being able to add comments to many blogspot sites, lets hope it gets fixed soon...

Right, I'm off to do a bit of Zumba in the garden (or maybe not!)

  

Another Bank Holiday Weekend...

What day is it today??  It is confusing due to all these Bank Holidays - I never know what day it is anymore... OK, so maybe it has nothing to do with Bank Holidays at all and I am just stupid!  Anyway, thank God for Wendy for her Handmade Monday blogs which tells me it must be Monday again as it is Handmade Monday Number 18 today.   Do go along as see what everyone has been up to this week.

If I am perfectly honest, I am not really thinking straight at the moment - I am knackered!!  Hubby and I have just come back from three days at a Spring Fayre which takes place on a 10-acre site and has just about everything you can imagine from heavy horses to classic cars, crafts to tractors, fairground rides to a personal appearance by Spongebob Squarepants for the young and young at heart.   This is such a huge show that it is actually one of only a couple where we arrive to set up our stall the day before so it has been non-stop since Friday getting everything ready for a (hopefully) busy weekend.

This is a well attended event and we always look forward to seeing people in shopping mood here, clutching their purses in anticipation of picking up a little something on one (or more) of the many stalls on display selling everything you ever thought you might want (plus a few you perhaps didn't!)   We commented that if it wasn't for sale at this show somewhere, the item just didn't exist!!

What we hadn't planned for was the howling wind!  On Saturday and Sunday we felt like we were in the path of a hurricane and despite being inside a permanent marquee-like structure attached to a building, the noise of the wind lifting the roof and rattling the sides and supports was horrendous. 

Mind you, we were the lucky ones, those traders in outdoor gazebos had a devils-own job keeping their stalls standing and many actually gave up on Sunday evening - not wanting to suffer a third day of high winds and really very cold temperatures.   (The stall selling hats and gloves was making a small fortune just supplying other stallholders!)

Today was much better with calm wind and even the sunshine made a nice, but sadly brief, appearance!  Overall, we have had a really good weekend, met some great customers (both existing ones and new ones) and seen some wonderful exhibits.  

I have to be honest however that I am glad not to have to set the alarm for silly o'clock again tomorrow morning and am looking forward to my (albeit short) lie-in.   I have a lot of customer orders to fulfil as well as having to rebuild my stock levels in preparation for next weekend's show and, thanks to the Bank Holiday, one day less to do it all in!   (See, told you it was the Bank Holiday causing all the trouble!)

And, the winner in the 'best seller' race for the weekend was....

Diddy Designs - Tiny Bumblebee

Closely followed by a new member of the Ali's Craft Studio peelable window decorations family - a set of three Rainbow Bugs - who are so new they haven't even made it onto the website yet and the photo still lives on my camera, waiting downloading to my PC for addition to my database and site.  Ooh, I'm such a tease - I promise a photo will appear on a blog sometime soon....   Rainbow colours are definitely popular and I will be adding a 'Rainbow Theme' section to the site soon where they can all be viewed together so if you love rainbows, keep an eye out for this coming soon on the Ali's Craft Studio site

Hope you have had a great weekend yourselves and I hope to have some actual creations to share with you next week...

 

Ooh, nearly forgot to say that today I had a fish manicure...   You may have seen the pedicures recently with the little fish that nibble at all your dry skin - well, this was the same but on your hands (no-one wants to see strangers feet in a tank of water at a show so Bev from Sole Karma just brought a tank for hands to the show)  If you are in the Eastbourne area, she is opening a new spa at the end of Eastbourne Pier in a few weeks - it is worth looking into booking an appointment as it was a surprisingly pleasant feeling and very relaxing!  She wants me to do some peelable window decorations of the spa logo so I have already tried suggesting to hubby that we hand deliver them and I can have a foot treatment overlooking the sea! (Not convinced that he is sold on the idea of that yet!)

Hindu Gods & Handmade Monday

Well, its Monday again and the weekly jaunt over to Wendy's blog to see what all the really talented crafters who are taking part have been up to.

Its only going to be a quick post from me but I did promise last week to share the two Hindu Gods I made as a bespoke order.  Well I am pleased to say that they were delivered to the customer on Saturday and he loves them (thank God for that - they took forever to do!!)  My next task for the same customer is two Buddhas - one the traditional seated one and a couple of sizes of the same laughing Buddha (with the big belly).  These aren't quite as detailed so should be a breeze after the last two!

So here we go (hope they were worth waiting for!):

1. Ganesh 

2. Hanuman

This was really detailed work and had to be done over a few days to be able to add the small detail once the rest was dry (and to give my eyes a break every now and then). I am so pleased with the finished results though.  I haven't added these to the website as yet but I will do at some stage - if you want more details in the meantime, please contact me.I have a couple more large orders to complete this week - both for large glass doors - they are some of my oval designs done in bigger sizes than I normally do so I am having to adapt my normal working area to fit everything in.   I will try to take a photo of them on my own door before they are sent off so that you can see them in a future post.    I still have to work out what the best way is going to be to mail these out to the customer without risk of damage but usually rolling them does the trick and it doesn't mean you have a massive envelope/parcel to deal with.

Wisteria & Birds

One of the designs is a half metre high version of the Wisteria and Birds design which I love but the small detail and combination of multiple colours in the wisteria does tend to make your eyes go a little skewiff after a while (I am hoping that the larger version may not be quite so fiddly).

This handmade design is perfect as a special gift and ideal for a door or window or to frame as a feature wall hanging and is available online now at the Ali's Craft Studio online shop.

 

Have a good week everyone - I think I am going to be busy this week with orders and preparing for the three day show over the Bank Holiday so I will probably have to do my Handmade Monday blog crawl over a few days when I give myself a break.

On to the next!

Time, I think, to put last week's debarcle* behind us and get on with looking forward to the next batch of fairs and market dates...

* For those who are wondering, I sent a very long (but hopefully constructive) e-mail to the organisers of last weekend's show (and you thought the blog post was long - it was nothing compared to what I sent to them!!) and have had a response back from them. I am pleased that they have actually bothered to acknowledge all the negative comments they received (not all organisers do) and taken the time to address what they felt were the most common complaints from exhibitors. For obvious reasons, I will not go into details what their specific response to me was but I now consider the whole subject to be dealt with and finished, hopefully never to be repeated again!

So, moving on, what is next on the agenda? Tomorrow I am back at Bromley Market and the weather is forecast to be sunny and, most importantly for this market, the wind is due to be light! Hopefully people will be out in force, newly paid and ready to enjoy more of the sunshine rather than disappear into the indoor shopping mall, never to be seen again!

Bromley Market - great when the wind isn't too strong!!

Next weekend is another Bank Holiday weekend (bet you've missed those after not having an extra day off for ooh, all of two weeks!) which means a three-dayer for us at the Cuckoo Fayre in Laughton, near Battle, East Sussex. Taking place on Saturday 28th right through to Monday 30th May, this is a great show - it is huge and I still haven't seen all of it! - with lots for all the family to do and see. I believe that we may even see Spongebob Squarepants and his friends there!!

We are located in the 'Craft Marquee' which is located near the funfair and is actually attached to a building so has hard standing floors - great if you have a buggy to push around.

It will be great to see you there, beit at Bromley, Laughton (or both!) and full details of of the fairs I have booked are available on my website if you can't make it to these.

Still shining, still smiling!
Ref. 335 - Sunshine



If you have a fair this weekend yourself (as I know lots of you are crafters...) I hope you have a great time, sunny weather and lots of customers.

I will be delivering my two Hindu God designs this weekend so watch out for photos here next week.

Oh, and don't be surprised if you read about another monster/Godzilla Moth encounter soon - they are starting to gather - lots of little soldier moths have been sent in to suss the place out in advance of an attack and a mahousive Godzilla moth tried to smash the glass in our kitchen door yesterday to get in the house. Hubby keeps telling me that they can't break glass or pick locks but I am not so sure - it looked big enough! (think its gone off to get a sledgehammer!!) If you don't know what I am talking about, I have a pathalogical fear/hatred of moths (don't even like typing that word!) and have had some serious run ins with them in the past as detailed here and here

Watch this space....This nice weather is continuing longer than any of us must have expected and here in Kent we have had no rain whatsoever (apart from a couple of pathetic attempt last week which lasted all of about 30 seconds!) The gardens are suffering but I love it! (sorry garden...)

Making the most of a bad job...

Morning everyone.   Today, being Monday, is of course Handmade Monday over at Wendy's blog.   You might want to visit the lovely blogs taking part to view some nice pretty things after what follows here....

I would love to be here today writing a really glowing review of this weekend's event and start the week on a positive note but unfortunately that is not going to happen!  Be warned, this blog is what can only be described as a long rant and moan so read on at your peril!

  

The concept of the show was in theory a good one and what could and should have been a great event was badly executed and compounded by very low footfall and definitely by the illogical layout and grouping of the stalls.  The 'themed' areas were simply ignored by the organisers and their sales staff who were obviously just desperate to get anyone to buy a stall and would locate them anywhere they wanted rather than in the section relevant to their style/product.  As an exhibition organiser for close to 20 years in my previous job, the mistakes were infuriating, obvious and astounding to me as many were real 'no brainers' and would have cost the organisers nothing, zero, nada, zilch to put right had they been done correctly in the first place! (so forget using the 'it costs money to do that and we would have had to cut the budget in our advertising to do that' excuse!)

Now advertising is always a contentious issue, particularly when the visitors just don't come and I can't and won't give any opinion as to whether this was done right and whether adverts appeared in the right places - after all, I know that the best advertising campaign in the world won't guarantee footfall - you just cannot force people to come if they don't want to.

OK, so just to give a brief idea of some of the many many problems with this show.... Split between two halls, there was no signage to direct visitors into the second hall (which could easily be missed as the small doorway was between two very colourful stands).    I found it so frustrating that despite being shattered after a very long and tiring day (how come you are more tired when you aren't doing anything all day??) I actually made up my own signage late in the evening when I got home on Saturday and put it up on the Sunday morning.   It wasn't rocket science and consisted of two things - the words MORE STANDS THIS WAY and a large arrow!!  Doesn't really take a genius - its not exactly difficult is it?!

Right from the time of booking (should've listened to my inner voice then telling me it wasn't going to be a good wekend!), I pointed out the major mistakes being made in the layout - the food stalls had been put at the front of the second hall with other smaller stands behind.   Food should ALWAYS be located at the back - visitors will keep walking to find  food and a cuppa, sit down and rest their feet before setting off to visit more stalls.   A coffee cart or similar in a second location is fine in large fairs so that there is an extra 'pit stop' for weary visitors to encourage them to stay longer and make a full day of it.    To add to the horror of the planning, there were NO tables or chairs for people to sit and eat their bought food, other than a couple (and I mean two) placed by a couple of vendors in front of their coffee/food stalls.    Many of the food stalls had actually been put outside the entrance to the venue - anyone who went outside at lunchtime to get a bite then just went home!   At least if they had to walk through all the stalls again to get out, they may have made a few last minute purchases on the way.  The area where I would have located them had in the area access to water, high power outlets and a large shuttered door for easy access and to let any excess steam/smoke leave the building without getting uncomfortable for everyone around.    The area in front just cried out for small bistro-style tables and chairs (a few hundred quid to hire about 100 sets).  I will tell you about what was actually in this area shortly...

I should have sold indigestion tablets for 50p a pop - I could have made my pitch fee back in no time!   People were either sitting on the very grubby floor (what a great look that gives to a show!) or walking around whilst shovelling food into their mouths as quickly as possible from plastic trays.  I saw people starting to look very uncomfortable indeed.  Oh and when you have finished - there were no bins for your empty containers, plastic forks and general rubbish.

A walk through the whole show just after opening revealed a good 20 or so empty stalls where the traders hadn't turned up yet the stalls were left with the large name tag on the wall added to help you locate your space during set up.  Even the stupiest of stupid people would know that this space should have someone on it. I am guessing these people were being allowed to pay on arrival - a real no-no for all but the simplest of events.  Perhaps someone should have at least taken the name signs down and encouraged the surrounding stallholders to spread into the spaces (after all, we all like extra space to display on) or slung a couple of colourful posters up there.   Stallholders from hall 2 moved into some of the spaces leaving even more gaps around our already very sparse area.   

Now, remember that space I mentioned earlier where I would have placed the food/seating area?   It was used for.... nothing!   It meant that an empty space of at least 25-30 metres deep and full width of the hall was all visitors had to look forward to after our stall.  Still, there we were - located at the back in 'no mans land' which had been advertised on the floor plan as the 'Craft Section' even though in reality all the craft stalls were intermixed with everything from furniture to paintballing, pole dancing - yes you did read that right - and loft ladders!

But hey, if the people came flocking in in their thousands ready to spend the day to get great advice and buy some fun, practical and unique items, our stall location and the poor layout would have quickly be forgotten and (maybe) forgiven...

Day one was bad (an understatement) but somehow we actually managed to sell some items - infact we sold to four, yes FOUR whole customers.   I nearly kissed the last one who at 4.31 (half an hour before the purgatory show ended) actually doubled my days takings in one sale - thank God I take credit cards as she had no cash left at all at that point.   We were one of the lucky ones and there were many others who would have loved to have sold to anyone.

Day two started off with us arriving to find ourself now almost completely alone in the back half of the hall - everyone had moved or left in frustration - except for us, the Scampi food van and Simon with his large bamboo gazebo.  Was it something we said??  Basically, you would walk in through the food section, past at least four now empty spaces to the beautiful garden/conservatory furniture.   Some 30 or so metres later (after nothing but empty grey walls were stands once stood) was our stall and the gazebo - two little Billy no Mates at the back!!   I would post a photo but don't want the miserable sight that greeted us to be out there in the ether where I might see it again!!



Different layout but same set up...

Our stall is complicated to set up and moving to a different location did not seem like a viable option at all - it would have taken hours and if I were to pack it all up to move, the only place it would be relocated to would be in the back of the car! 

However, a plea from the lovely Debbie at the Demelza charity stall to please, please, please move to the large empty stall next to her was made possible by her recruiting the help of three or four other lovely exhibitors who were literally picking up fully loaded tables and carrying them through from one hall to the other (which was some distance I can tell you!).  It took some time to get set up again and we were knackered at the end of it but at least there was a bit of atmosphere there.

Was it worth it??   Well, by 3pm we still hadn't broken into double figures of sales!!   A couple of customers just after made the day more reasonable and we did actually finish on a slightly better figure than the day before but still didn't make back the pitch money.   Well, you win some, you lose some but it did validate staying for the second day as I have three or four people who I am now contacting to discuss bespoke designs and once this is sorted out, I am sure they are strong possibilities for further sales which may just rescue the losses.   I also met some wonderful people both in front of and behind their stalls and have some more shows which hopefully I can attend that they are organising themselves.

I could go on and on and on about what could and should have been done differently but it won't get any of us anywhere so I think you have suffered enough!!

You will see that I haven't mentioned names of the organisers or the show here.  This isn't an error - I have done this deliberately.   Followers of my blog will probably already know what  show it was from previous posts but I am not going to give the organisers a namecheck on my blog.   I do other events with them in where the footfall is more guaranteed because of the type and location so I don't have a gripe with them (or their staff) per se.   But, I know I won't be attending one of their 'stand alone' events again any time soon - I think this opinion will be shared with all the people who paid money to take a stall this weekend.   That is a lot of lost revenue and they will lose much more than any single stallholder has so I suppose that is small comfort to all us small businesses struggling to get by in hard times.

Still, you never know until you try and if it had been a well organised and well attended event, I would have been raving about it and the organisers here.  I have been to shows before where I have made a loss or very little profit and I am sure there are more to come in the future years but this one was different as it would have been so easy to have made it great had things been done properly from the start.

But this is another week so lets all just take a deep breath and relax...

 

Noah's Ark - saviour for the animals
and for me this weekend!

You see we're all calm again now...  

Regular visitors may not be surprised that the most popular item this weekend was, as suspected, the Noah's Ark.   Perfect for nurseries and children's rooms as well as for those who are simply young at heart, it is colourful and fun (with a bit of sparkle thrown in for good measure!)

Of course, this and all my designs are available on my website at http://www.studiocrafts.net/ so if you fancy helping out a struggling crafter, please head over to my online shop.

There, I've had my rant and stopped being negative and all 'woe is me' now - I am a positive person and believe that everything happens for a reason (although what that is can be a little confusing at the time!)

So thank you to all the lovely crafters and stallholders who made this weekend fun instead of completely negative.  I think that sometimes we all need to find ways of making the best of a bad job and who knows, my future best customer ever could have found me at this event!

Hope you have all had a great weekend - I'm off now to make lots of nice goodies and get started on two orders taken at the show.   At least I won't be tearing my hair out trying to restock for the busier shows which are hopefully on the horizon....  (see, you should look for the silver lining - its always in there somewhere...)

Oh, and for those of you who have actually made it to the end of this long diatribe...

Give yourself a round of applause - you deserve a medal!!