Monday, April 19, 2010

what to do with myself now...?

I am here, but a weary shadow of my former self after two very busy markets this weekend. Here's how my stall looked at Say No To Plastic yesterday. Made In The Shade on Saturday was brilliant. Although it seemed a bit more quiet than usual, the people who were there were buying and I set a new personal best in market sales. Woo hoo! I also met lots of lovely people with lots of nice things to say about my work (I even had one person tell me I was their hero! That was a first!) and very much enjoyed the soundtrack, which didn't repeat a single song in the whole 6.5 hours. Impressive. I managed to have a quick browse round the other stalls when Graham came to help out at the end of the day and saw lots of lovely stuff, but resisted buying most of it. The market yesterday was super busy with so many people you could hardly move, but they were a bit less spendy than Saturday's crowd. It was still a worthwhile day though and my friend, Bernadette, came to help me sell stuff, drink wine and man the stall while I browsed the great vintage and handmade goodies.
If you live in Glasgow and are wondering why everybody except you is wearing a domino on their lapel, that is because domino brooches were by far my top seller of the weekend. I'm glad I made so many! One sweet couple even bought a his 'n' hers set - large for him and teeny for her. How cute?! Vintage button cards went really well too. It was back to their heyday/debut levels of enthusiasm and I think it was just because I displayed them in a cute miniature suitcase rather than on a plate. Makes me think I should invest in a few more display items... The handkerchiefs were oohed and aahed at a lot, but I only sold two. What?! Bernadette had a potentially good idea for them though, so they will be reappearing in a slightly different guise soon and I'm just happy that so many people liked them. I'm not giving up on them yet. I think it's definitely worth sticking with things. Case in point, I've lugged Big Daddy prints along to every market and given them valuable table space that could be used for... more dominos(!) but they have never had many (usually they have never had any) takers. I love them though, so have stuck with them. Well, I sold as many this weekend as I ever have previously and had lots of people commenting on them. I think Big Daddy's day may be coming, people! I'm glad I didn't give up on him before. And there go all my trade secrets. Ha!
I didn't buy an awful lot and resisted a lot of temptation. I would have bought a very lovely but slightly expensive vintage tin if the woman's hard sell approach hadn't frightened me off! Everything I did buy (except for an EastEnders item for a friend that a very nice customer tipped me off about) is in that bag above and it's all white! As well as lot of lovely white buttons, I got this little ice skates brooch.
I think it is adorable. It's one of those items that you can imagine someone from days of old wearing on their lapel as they skated round their local pond and watched a handsome boy... Well, maybe not, but I love it anyway :)

After weeks of squeezing in market preparations, I had so looked forward to a long lie today (and kind of needed it as I'm working late tonight) but the cats wouldn't allow it and I have been up but bleary eyed for hours. The flat looks like a post-market bombsite and I'm really quite excited about tidying up this week, especially after seeing Claire's tidiness here. Could my craft room really look like that? Time will tell... In other words, no, it couldn't, but it could certainly look a lot better than it does!

4 comments:

  1. i forgot to mention in my reply my secret weapons are under the desk - too big storage boxes from ikea AND an old lloyd loom blanket box to hide wool/fabric/planes !

    your stall looked amazing as always! I love how you lay out your stuff! sounds like the markets went really well for you! congratulations!

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  2. Thanks, Claire :) I will have to take an honest photo of my craft room to shock you with my disorganised stashes of materials! Storage is a major issue for me, not helped by the fact I use all sorts of fabrics, thread, wool, paper, glue, paint, pens, computers... And my recycling/upcycling obsessions mean there are all sorts of junk waiting around for greatness to be bestowed upon them - boxes and boxes of recipe cards, a bag of plastic ice-cream spoons, bits of broken plates, bobbins with no thread left on them, jars of the 'holes' from my paper punch... It's a logistical nightmare, I tell you! I'm in the middle of tidying right now, but I need to do organise things properly at some point.

    Thanks for your kind words about the stall :) Setting up is a big challenge for me. Yesterday I managed to nab a table that was bigger than all the others and I still couldn't fit everything on it! I rely on a pile of boxes of excess stock behind the stall, but I think I should get one of those raincoats with space to hang goods inside and start flashing passing customers!

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  3. Brilliant news about the fairs! And your description of your craft room reminds me of that scene in The Labirynth where Sarah wakes up in that junkyard. I think that may be residual craft room jealousy on my part though... x

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  4. I love Labyrinth! Whenever you feel that jealousy rising, just remember that my craft room doubles as a cats' lavatory. I think they are planning a military-style attack for sole ownership... I'll fight them for it, though!

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