Wedding Cake Toppers On Craft Juice

I was checking my cupcake wreath on craft juice tonight and i came across this photo and i just had to blog it. Isn't it absolutely gorgeous. Pauline from wedding treasures produces these wedding cake toppers and what a talent she has. All are hand crafted using no moulds or paints. I have come across her work before and have always admired her but this, to me, is out of this world. I have even commented on craft juice that she should consider submitting the photo to a greetings card company as i think it would make a fantastic card. If you want to vote for this item you can find it here on craft juice

New Heart Wreath

I have been reading craft forum posts on taking photos and trying to learn from them but finding it all hard work. Today i bought a roll of white paper and taped it onto one of my chairs and moved it out into the garden. Took a few photos but have only loaded a couple on flickr at the moment. But i dont get it. The background looked crisp but the wreath pale so i pressed auto fix and the wreath turned a vibrant pink and the background a dirty grey colour. Comments on this gratefully received please.
Despite this i have submitted my cupcake wreath on craftjuice and also listed on Folksy so feel free to vote. I notice it has 4 votes already, not bad eh?!!
Did our 1st school fair today. Took a few quid. Not much but at least it filled a couple of hours and i got to meet Selina from the craft forum.

Conclusion Of Milton Keynes Craft Fair

Well Sunday ended up being our saving grace. We seem to do better on quieter days, now how does that work?!!
Still plenty of people about which was a pleasant suprise. First couple of hours were bad then things certainly picked up. I had to go for a toilet break about 1pm and, on my return, found an excited Niki. Apparently a man had purchased a memo board, doorstop , hanging heart, wreath, pot lady and 2 pin cushions!! 3 of the items he wanted personalised so said he would return at 4pm to collect. 4pm came and went. At 5 the fair finished and by 6 we were packed and ready for the off, and still no man!! What do you do? He had paid £50, why wouldn't he return?
Have informed customer services and hope he gets intouch. Feel so guilty having his money.
As well as his purchase we had a few more which, as i said in the beginning, was our saving grace of the 4 days.
I dont feel entirely down about the experience. I wouldnt do it again but glad i tried it. I now look forward to our next event on April 18th and hope that it will be more successful.

Saturday At Milton Keynes

It's not good news unfortunately. Thousands of people were around today. Literally thousands. But we did badly again.Maybe we are more of a christmas product or just better off at proper "craft Fairs". But if you don't try these things you will never know will you?
To me it seems that people were out shopping and stumbled across the fair so popped by to have a browse. And browse they did!!! I don't think we are the worst off. One stall packed up and went last night, at least we are persevering to the end. As far as i'm concerned every penny counts now!!
We are experimenting today as it's the last day and we have changed our table from an "L" shape to straight. It means we bring the doorstops forward more as they are our best seller alomg with the tooth fairy pillows. It means that people cant touch the wreaths on our back wall now, though we have put a couple out on the table. Am expecting a quiet day today as it's Mothers Day but we shall see.

Todays pictures are of some origami that a very funny guy was demonstrating to everyone yesterday. He was quite a showman so i felt he deserved a mention here. He was there promoting artworksMK . As i understood it they do artist led workshops, exhibitions and events.

All items were made out of old envelopes amongst other stuff. Talk about recycling!

Final report of the weekend either tonight or tomorrow. Depending on how tired i am!!!!

Milton Keynes Craft Fair

Well the time finally arrived and here is our stall at Milton Keynes craft fair. Set up right in the heart of the shopping center this is an ideal place to reach a massive audience. Apparently around 450,000 people use the shopping center in a week.

Our pot people.

The tooth fairy pillows.

And so the fair started. I'm a little confused as to what a "craft" fair is. I always thought handmade goods but our neighbouring stall buy all their bags, jewellery, scarves and ladies clothing wholesale. The Italian couple opposite are selling knives, cutlery, and needle threaders!! The man further down has wooden animals which are so definately imported. Then there's national trust, Phoenix cards, Forever living, to name but a few. but at least we know that we are the real deal.

Thursday apparently is known as "slit your throat day" , well if that's the case then i'm naming Friday as "hang yourself day!"

It's not the organisers fault, there are plenty of people but they just arent spending. Dont get me wrong we have managed to sell, just not enough yet. It's a long day and you are so tired at the end. You eat more coz you're bored and it's really cold despite being indoors.

Despite all this i would like to introduce you to a couple of stalls that i love.

First here's Muggins Pottery

I love all his items.

Secondly i call her the pot lady. Sherwood Garden Features have the gorgeous people made out of wood and flower pots. Apparently they are a very popular stall and always sell well at these events

So let's hope Saturday will not have to be labelled "shoot yourself Saturday!" and that the people come in their droves and spend spend spend!!!

I Shouldn't Be Here I Should be Crafting!!!

I have been neglecting my blog the past couple of weeks and i shouldn't be here now but the lure of the computer was just too much! I just had to jot down an update of my exciting life!!!
I've been quite inspired the past 10 days to craft. We have booked Milton Keynes and forked out our £360 for our stand and, with that in mind, have worked our fingers to the bone to have tons of stock so as to make our fortune!! well a girl can hope can't she. It's a lot for our tiny little hobby but we are both risk takers and we think it's worth the gamble. So that's the main reason for not blogging. I've been getting up at 7am, sorting the boys, going to work and home to yet more cutting, sewing, stufffing and everything else a crafter does until 2am most nights. It caught up with me at the weekend and i'm slowing down a bit now just putting all the finishing touches together. So the fair is Thurs to Sunday this week. Nerves and excitement all rolled into 1 emotion at the moment.
Other news.
We did a craft fair yesterday in Coventry which has caused a stir amongst the stall holders. I sort of knew it was going to be a disaster straight away when we found our table in the back corner up against a wall as the organiser hadn't understood our requirements for wall space to put up our back boards for displaying the memo boards and wreaths. So we had to change our layout as there wasn't room for pulling the table out. Then our neighbouring stall arrived, who was selling clothes, and very kindly set up his clothes rail so it covered half of the front of our table. Anger built up inside but before i could unleash it he decided to move to a spare table which was a no show stallholder.
So the event began and we all waited. And waited. And waited more!!! I wouldn't like to guess how many people actually turned up but probably no more than 20. And 8 of those were friends of a stallholder near us who had come to support their friend. Now i know how hard it is to get people through the door but when you find out the organiser used her facebook page to advertise plus some posters round the hotel, that incidently needed a magnifier to read, then you tend to get very angry. So angry were most people that they started packing up an hour and half before the fair was due to finish!! We sat there looking around at a half empty room and pondered on what to do when i got a phone call from my sons father saying he was waiting for an ambulance as my son had broken his ankle on the football pitch, so our decision was made!! We immediately packed up and left and counted our blessings that 3 stallholders had purchased 3 of our larger items and so we had made profit.
At least we still had plenty of stock for Milton Keynes!!!!!

So back to my son. Xrays showed that it wasn't broken but damaged ligaments. But boy does it look bad. Very very swollen and turning a lovely shade of green today. And to add to my busy life i am now his servant!!

As well as everything else i joined in the spirit of the secret easter bunny thread on craft forum and have been given my bunny to create a present for. It's weird as when i first saw the name i got really excited thinking i love this persons work it will be easy. But as i thought more about it i thought their stuff is really classy and how does mine compare. I guess it's all about a little self confidence and as someone said we all know how much work goes into things and we would all appreciate something that was just made especially for us. So with that in mind i made a decision on what to make and will get on with it immmediately after the weekend.
Wonder who got me!!!!!!

Lastly for tonight i must acknowledge that i have been awarded 2 sunshine awards for my blog which i am chuffed to bits with but, at present, have not had the time to paste the award or indeed pass on the love! But i will, AFTER THE WEEKEND!!

So that's my catch up. Photos and weekend write ups definately will be done next week. Possibly some earlier nights as well plus catching up reading everyone elses blogs.
So much to do with so little time to do it in.