We Make

*phew*

I'm glad I'm home!  Yesterday was a VERY long day... thankfully made shorter by the lovely Sally from Stitchy Woo Woo.

I left home shortly after 6am so I could catch the bus up to London from Milton Keynes.  I'm a great supporter of public transport - but I'm not sure I'd use National Express again!  The website was terribly confusing as to which stops I could use with luggage in the hold - and even a call to their call centre did nothing to help, so in the end I settled for travelling into Victoria Coach station.   Now I had trouble navigating the coach station so heaven help anyone from another country visiting and ending up there!  Anyway by 9:30am I was at the venue - having bumped into Angharad on route (with her lovely daughter and father).

It was lovely to meet fellow Etsian's both stall holders and customers.  I met some blog readers too - which was lovely, as you're never quite sure if you have any!!  The day was quieter than I might have liked, however I made several sales, and a couple of custom orders and it was wonderful to meet up with fellow crafters.

The delightful Abi came up from Devon bringing my custom tops that she'd made - beautiful and I must remember to show you a photo!

The topping of the day came when Sally heard that I was travelling by coach and offered me a lift in her car all the way to Milton Keynes - thanks to Lovealittle's mum Renee for organising that!

Lots of photos of the day can be found over at Flickr::  http://www.flickr.com/groups/750040@N25/

Now if you don't mind - but I'm going for a cup of tea and a laze on the sofa!!

WE MAKE

... London

The 'Made by Cara' stall is off to London, Covent Garden today for the We Make fair.

Do pop along if you are in the area (I've heard the first 10 customers through the door get a free cotton tote bag!).  It starts at 11am and full details are here::  http://wemakelondon.blogspot.com

Me, I'm off to catch the bus in a few moments.  No trains were running before 9am this morning, not quite what I planned.  Last night we were at the Circus and it was fab, and I'll spill all about that too later.  Enjoy your sunday!

C x

Busy...

Life has been really busy lately, and as much as I seem to do my 'To Do' list never appears to get any shorter!

However - progress HAS been made! I've listed some new iPod cases in the shop today, and I have a BIG STORE UPDATE next Monday with new products to reveal to you all!

I'm still making additional stock for the fair in London next month and my website is just ticking along. It could do with some love and attention - but I think making has to come first. I'll leave you with a shot of some new crayon rolls ...

Stock

I can't believe how long it has been since I last wrote a blog post.  My ability to manage time seems to have just disappeared out of the window - either that or there really isn't enough hours in the day to achieve everything I want to achieve.

I'm still busy making lots of new stock for fair in London next month.  I can't believe how quickly June is rolling round.  I'm also halfway through making my apron for the Summer Apron Swap.  I don't think my partner knows who I am (in that I mean the person I am making it for does not know its from me) so I should be able to post some photos of it soon.

In other news - um, thats just it - there is no other news!  Oops...

Macro #3

I really am loving this challenge of a Macro a day...Can you tell what it is yet?

Why, of course it's none other that a balloon thats been washed in my machine. Don't you all wash your balloons too? No, well I didn't intend to either. However, this is what happens when you have a son like mine and a mother who frequently forgets to check pockets. The number of times I've washed stones, tissues (the lint drove me mad, so we only have handkerchiefs now!), feathers, coins, lego, playmobil and even snails - you'd think I'd have enough nonce to actually check his pockets by now. Alas, no. So here we have todays deposit - a washed up balloon. Makes an ace macro shot though.

And other news.... I'm co-ordinating the 'We Make' shop - whats that I hear you cry - well lookie here for the blog and here for the shop! Ooo and put the date of June 22nd into your diary - its the very first 'We Make London' craft fair, and yep - I'm there!

Phew!

Yay - I'm home! After rather too many late nights over the last week I'm now home from my first Christmas Fair, and it was much better than I expected, which is always good! I took quite a few things - not everything I'd intended to take, but enough. Need to make more crayon and pencil rolls which sold very well and a few more felt reindeer, robbins and puddings, but I can at least relax now and just concentrate on getting them into my shop!

Craft fair progress

I went and collected our mini Christmas tree off my mum yesterday. We plan to use this at the Christmas Fair to display my felt ornaments and Anna’s glass.

I've still a fair amount to do for the fair, but I am half way through the felt ornaments, the Christmas gift tags are now done, and the Lavender hangers have been scrapped - I wasn't happy with the quality of the lavender, and its one thing to give them as gifts, but another to expect someone to purchase them! Quality control wasn't something I worried about before. I made something because I wanted to, and with all the time in the world. Having a deadline hurries things somewhat, and has resulted in the occasional slip in quality. Everyone I've shown the 'dud' items too assures me that they could see no 'error' in it, but I could, and if I'm putting my name to something - I want it to be good!

On a brighter note, I've also decided to take some felt magnets and some fabric tissue holders along and they are all finished!

Work In Progress!!!

Never has 3 little words held such meaning to me! My friend makes beautiful suncatchers and often does a craft fair or two at this time of year. She'd seen my soft trees - plus some felt snowmen I'd made and suggested we shared a table at one of the fairs.

I rather like making things, I've just never sold them before. I've made bunting and fabric gifts for people, and baked, but never sold. The thought both scares and excites me. Scared because what if someone stands there and rubbishes my things - in front of me! However it gets me a little excited to think that someone likes what I do and thinks they'll sell. So I said yes, and now I'm really quite worried!

It did seem like a good idea, I think. To appease my fear that nothing will sell, I've decided to make a selection of things - hoping that something may catch someones eye and that I won’t look a complete nonce. So going with me will be:
* Felt ornaments
* Christmas tags
* Lavender hangers
* Bunting
* Ribbon hair slides
* Mini Christmas Cakes