…and breathe!

I'm not sad to see the end of this week… it started with a constant purr of the sewing machine as I sat chained to the bernina and ended with packing up the car and bringing most of my stock home, less a few monkeys and, oh yeah… I was very light on the business cards!

Don't get me wrong, a great day was had by all and we left the fair still smiling and laughing even though the rain was falling… but was it worth all the hard work? Neglecting my kids, neglecting the housework, neglecting the ironing? (Always worth neglecting ironing!!!) But as hard and rubbish as last week was I think it was worth it.

It made me finish all those little projects that I was putting off doing… those little sock monkeys that would have sat limbless on my sofa for another few months (there were 7 in total), the embroidery that I needed to finish a quilt, the binding for another, all the labels that I needed to print, all the bags that I had cut out in January that had been sat in pieces with no purpose, and all the new bags that I have now made… chickadeedoodah, this ones mine… and apparently Tinks! …and by the way, all my bags are original designs by monkey and squidge.

My cotton stash is now looking very sad, and my sewing machine needs a clean and an oil, but I am now armed with a lovely collection of stock that I am so pleased with and no pressure to make more, and with the urgency lifted I can make some more bags at a time that suits me… tomorrow? Maybe not.

There were some wonderful stalls yesterday. Of course the lovely gilhoolie was there, we were butting up on our smaller than they told us tables, and cake stand and deliver selling their beautiful… cake stands obviously, there were also handmade hats, bags, cards, cakes, candles… wonderful crafts made by wonderful clever people. Two other stalls had sock monkeys but I took great delight in the lovely Guy who told me mine were by far the best… he didn't buy one however!!! My little squashed stall below and some of gilhoolies lampshade on the right!

I'm not sure craft fairs are for me though, I've sold more since I got home than I did on the day, and after all the work you put in, do we really need to stand for 6 hours smiling! It does make your face ache a little! I think I'll concentrate on setting up my Etsy and/or Folksy shop again and maybe it's about time I started work on that website!

Now the question is… where to stash everything?

Thanks for looking.

Rachael