Craft Stall Update and Review

Posted on May 8, 2024 by Crafty Kath

Hello Again!

This week I thought I’d have a look back at some of the craft stalls I’ve done over the last year or so. I’ve made much more effort to get ‘out there’, although it’s quite difficult trying to balance the place to be with the costs of doing the fair. As my cards and gifts are generally low cost items to purchase, I need to sell a lot to even cover the costs of the table and there have been times in the past when that’s about all I’ve managed and that is very disheartening I can tell you.

Anyway, balancing act aside, I did a few stalls last year. I ended 2022 with a successful stall at the local primary school Christmas fair. It’s a good cause to support, the table money goes to school funds and they ask for a raffle prize for on the day. With it being after school on a Friday, it only lasts for a couple of house as well (and there’s the bonus of only having to transport my things down the road). It’s hard work but good fun and I can always nip home if someone asks for something specific! I could do with more like this.

Into 2023 and I arranged to have a small stock of special day cards in my local Post Office. I’d missed the boat for Valentine’s / Mother’s Day, but I did get a decent collection of Father’s Day cards in there. They went down quite well, so I also did some thank you teacher, Halloween and Christmas cards, and then some Valentines and Mother’s Day cards this year too. The cards don’t sell in huge numbers but as the ad says ‘every little helps…’

Back to 2023 and I discovered that my local Dunelm has a community group and they offer a table at weekends to local small businesses in exchange for a donation to their charity fund. I thought it was worth a try to see how it went, so a booked myself in for a few dates. It’s a long day (10-4) and I was on my own for a large part of it – definitely one to limit drinks! Crafty-Teen (craftykid has grown up) dis accompany me on a couple of occasions but didn’t stick it out all day. I did the weekend before Father’s Day last June in the hope I could sell some sports shirt and trophy cards. I tried to make at least one for every football team I could think of! The weather was ridiculously hot. so it wasn’t the best attended stall I’ve ever had but I did sell some things and get my name out there. I had another table in October, this time in a different location in the store. Once again the weather wasn’t on my side as it was very wet. I focused on Halloween themed items and sold a few knitted pumpkins (new for 2023) and some little tassel ghosts. All in all it was a better day than it had been in June.

At the end of the Summer term I attended the primary school Summer fete again. I always take lots of teacher thank you cards to this but hardly ever sell any which I find very strange. However, the small knitted/crochet characters went down well with the children. I guess small mascots at pocket money prices area winner. It was nice this year as we were able to have the tables outside and it was very well attended (I was starving at the end though as I was very close to the BBQ station).

I had another table at Dunelm in November with a focus on Christmas cards. I find it difficult when to pitch Christmas as lots of people don’t want to see festive things until December, but with making and selling cards I really need to get them out there well before Advent. This was the earliest stall I’ve ever done for Christmas and I launched my £1 card collection which did reasonable well , along with my regular recycled cards. I did a few bundle deals too which seem popular so I will continue those again next Christmas, It was my best stall of the three at Dunelm but it really is a very long day on your own, with long periods of nobody stopping to chat. Thank goodness for some friends dropping in to say hello!

I managed to get a table at Clark Crafts in Ramsbottom at the start of December. I was really lucky to get a last minute cancellation place as I had somehow been missed off the initial listing. I was really looking forward to this one as I had been double-booked for their first market in the Summer, so missed out and it had been really well attended. It was cold! Snow on the ground (and we didn’t get much over Winter) but the Ramsbottom Maker’s Market was on so my fellow stall-holders and I were hopeful. I think the weather must have put people off because we didn’t have lots of customers. I still managed to do ok, but it was a long day and several stall-holders didn’t make their table money back. The highlight was a lovely lady selling Thai curries and she gave us all some of her tasters – much needed on such a cold day!

I finished 2023 with another table at the school Christmas fair and again it was the little knitted characters that sold to the children. It’s a fun way to end the year, but it wasn’t as well attended as previous ones and my sales were down a bit. But it is very local and not a long stand! The time does go very quickly with lots of people to chat to.

Total sales from the stalls:

Cards – 51; Knitted/Crochet Characters – 44; Gift tags – 35; Christmas decorations – 29; Chocolate orange covers – 14; Keyrings – 6; Pumpkins – 6; Hat/Gloves – 5 Ghosts – 4 Poppies – 3

And from the Post Office: Total 20 cards (to date)

Father’s Day – 3; Teacher/Thank You – 7; Halloween – 1; Christmas – 6: Valentine – 1; Easter 2.

So those were my 2023 efforts to get out and about a bit more. It was hard work and I must thank my husband and Crafty-Teen for their help with transport, setting up, lunches and packing up. I have learned a lot about what people are prepared to buy/pay at these small local fairs and I’ve met lots of lovely people (fellow makers and customers). I will definitely continue with the school fairs and need to have plenty of pocket money characters ready for these. I shall keep taking a view on my stock before making a decision on doing Dunelm again, but I have got my name down for Clark Crafts again and I will get my Father’s Day cards back in the Post Office soon. Then it’s back to updating my Facebook page!

Happy Crafting

(Last week’s Parkun 44:52)

Hello Again!

Posted on May 1, 2024 by Crafty Kath

Well hello there! it’s been almost a year since I wrote anything on here and it really does seem like forever. I don’t know where the time disappears to these days – it must be my age!

So, what has been going on? As I said, I’m not really sure where the time has gone. I’ve been busy as normal with my regular routines – looking after the house and garden, shopping, cleaning and shopping for my parents. Just the normal sort of life stuff, including mountains of washing (where does it all come from?) I’m also still a governor at my local primary school, although I am trying to step back from this a bit. Having said that, I’m now Vice-Chair, so my plans aren’t quite working out on that front! Ha ha.

One properly new part of my life is becoming a regular at Parkrun. It’s over eighteen months since my first ‘run’ and I am now a firm fixture at Heaton Park on a Saturday morning. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t enjoy the run/walk element of it, but being out in the park is very refreshing and I usually feel better for it a couple of hours latter! I’ve never been a runner, so this is very new for me and I find it incredibly difficult, so much so that my first attempt took over 52 minutes! I’m now able to run some parts of it and I’ve just dipped under 44 minutes 30 seconds. I’ve completed over fifty 5k’s now, mostly at Heaton Park, but there have been a few at other venues when we’re visiting friends and family or just because my other half fancies a different place. It’s been great to meet new people and I’ve also volunteered for a few different roles. Who knew I would enjoy being a course marshal so much!

Work wise, the admin job in Bolton didn’t go any further. They took on someone full-time who had previous experience in commercial property. So I’ve been back on the job hunt for a while. Recently I’ve had a couple of interviews and I’ve just taken the plunge and registered with an agency to do some exam invigilating. My thoughts being it will fit around all my other commitments but also get me back into working outside the house (and with other people). I’ve done all the registration process, DBS checks and an online training course so far. There’s an incredible amount of reading to do before I even get near an exam room. So with exam time looming, I’ve been trying to get all my jobs done at home – mostly washing it seems like. It has included some crafting as well so I’ll sign off with a crafty project and I’ll catch up again soon.

Happy crafting

A quick update

Posted on May 24, 2023 by Crafty Kath

Once again, I find myself saying “it’s been a while.” This time it really is ages since I put pen to paper and there’s a lot to catch up on.

I’ve caught up on my last musings and I am pleased to report that we still have regular hedgehog visits, but I didn’t get around to making a hedgehog house with the pallets I’d collected. ( They have since been turned into another tiered planter and a box planter). I’m hoping for another good garden year and we now have a new bespoke fence as well as a new hedge down the side of the garden. The hedge means we can still give plenty of access to wildlife and it will give some structure all year round. My husband is obsessed with photinias, so that’s what the hedge is completely made up of. Fingers crossed for the lovely red leaves throughout the winter!

There are some other garden projects to catch up on, but they’ll keep for another time as I have some more interesting news….. I have a part-time job!!! I didn’t see that coming after a rotten few years of applications and rejections, so I’m still somewhat in shock. It’s all happened so quickly as I was contacted following a Father’s Day card post I put on LinkedIn. Unfortunately it isn’t a card-making or even a crafting position, it’s an admin job at a commercial property company in Bolton. So I’ve done a day and a half to see how we all get along. I think it went pretty well so far, everyone seems very friendly and I’ve managed to make a brew and tidy up a cupboard (as well as putting a couple of reports together). The rest of the admin is going to take some getting used to as it’s a whole new area of business for me, but I think I’m okay with the computer work and answering the phone. Let’s see how it goes. I am tired now though, it’s going to take some getting used to!

Hopefully I’ll find some time to do some crafting soon.

Happy Crafting

A lovely garden surprise

Posted on August 16, 2022 by Crafty Kath

This week I’m having a catch up, as the family are away camping in North Wales, So I’ve done all my housework and the cats are keeping me company at home while the weather is cooling off a bit.

I love the Summer sunshine but the humid heat we’ve had over the last few days has played havoc with my sleep. So I’m hoping for a more comfortable night tonight. I’ve also found it very hard to do much crafting or anything creative at all – thank goodness for all the recent sport – World Championships, Commonwealth Games and now the European Championships ( I love the athletics).

I think I’ve just about managed to keep my pots and baskets alive in the garden. We’ve had lots of strawberries and my chillies and tomatoes have loved the recent heat. I’m thrilled that I have four successful sunflowers and most of the pots are still looking good. My key tips have to be deadheading, daily watering and a weekly feed. And on the wet days I’ve been out in the evening removing greedy slugs and snails. On one of my evening forays for the pesky molluscs, I was beside myself to hear some strange snuffling in the undergrowth. Not just one but two hedgehogs chomping away at the slugs and snails in the flower beds. It’s been years since I’ve seen a hedgehog and I logged the sighting on hedgehogstreet.com. I have also mades sure that all the routes in and out of the garden are clear but under cover. A really super surprise to find them neing regular visitors since then too. I think I might be using one of my acquired pallets fo make a winter hedgehog house.

Now it’s cooling down a bit I’ve had a look at my to-do list and it’s gong to be all about Autumn/Winter and Christmas for the next few months I think! Wish me luck there.

Happy Crafting

Hunkydory Crafts Surprise

Posted on July 20, 2022 by Crafty Kath

Today I received a fantastic delivery. It’s a huge parcel from Hunkydory Crafts in Preston.

I’ve been watching Hunkydory TV on Facebook Live on a Friday morning after doing the household weekly shop – it’s an interesting companion to having breakfast.

Anyhow, this week’s broadcast was all about their new Diamond Club and special deals for members. I joined the club a few weeks ago when it was launched. It’s a good deal as you get a craft kit with membership and 10% off all future orders. They also do a monthly set of special offers just for the members and this show was demonstrating with some of the products in this offer. It’s great to watch someone using different products and being able to get some hints and tips on how to use them.

In addition to the light-hearted presentation, there are always a few giveaways on a Friday, and this week was no exception. Last Friday was National ‘Give something away’ Day apparently, so for their main giveaway the question was ‘What’s the best present you’ve ever received?’ The presenter then spins a wheel to see what the prize will be. I was thinking what a great prize ‘win the show’ would be, when it landed on just that! They only give a few minutes to get your answers in, so I had to be quick to think of something. All I could think of was the 9th birthday card I still have from my Grandad – he died when I was 12 – but I loved the card so much I’ve kept it with my most precious possessions, along with my Grandma’s wedding ring which is now my wedding ring. Whilst these are incredibly precious to me, I didn’t think they could compete with others citing their children / grandchildren even cars and holidays.

I was wrong! I was chosen as the winner of everything they showed in that hour! Over £300 worth of products I’ve never used before!!

There’s card, papercraft kits, glimmer mist sprays, loads of envelopes and card bags, even a scoreboard and A3 size mirri card. AWESOME!

Great timing for the Summer holidays, crafty-teen can’t wait to have a go with the glimmer mists.

Happy Summer crafting

K x

Cards and Gardens

Posted on July 13, 2022 by Crafty Kath

Woah! It’s certainly warm this week, and I’m hiding inside to avoid the worst of the heat and the pollen? This is certainly the downside of living near several farms, as they are making the most of the weather to do their haymaking.

So I am trying to keep cool and carry on sneezing (not)and I’m too hot to do a lot of crafting, so it’s my chance for a catch up on the last couple of months – if I can remember that is.

It’s been a busy few weeks all around. We had the Jubilee in rubbish weather, but fun was had by all. We went to Manchester and visited the Manchester Flower Show. It wasn’t quite what I had expected but it was fun to go back into the city after almost two years.

I enjoyed seeing the little floral displays around the shops and some larger displays in St Ann’s Square and King Street.

I was lucky enough to get a small bouquet of farm grown organic flowers. They were beautiful and lasted over a week on the kitchen window ledge.

I was inspired to get back out in the garden, giving everywhere a good tidy up as well as planting some seeds. I thought I’d have a go at a little bit of grow-your-own and I’ve planted a few pots with peas, purple sprouting broccoli and radish, to go with my strawberries. Fingers crossed the slugs don’t demolish them all!

I have made a few cards on the cooler days. I started making special cards for a local business during lockdown and have continued to do so. This has been a really great opportunity to improve my skills and to use different styles.

I am particularly enjoying looking through all my stash – it is quite extensive now as I seem to be filling all my available storage space in the ‘office’. With my husband back in his place of work, our office has now reverted to being my crafting space again. It’s a lovely place to be and it makes a real difference now I know where everything is. What I have to be careful of now is not over-filling it. Ha ha!

Time for a cooling drink now.

Happy Summer crafting

K x

Shaped card crafting

Posted on May 25, 2022 by Crafty Kath

It’s been a few weeks since I last wrote, I’m really starting to wonder where the time goes these days. The joys of middle age have been working their magic again – lethargy, brain fog and lack of focus!

Anyway, I’m here currently back in school covering the office for a few hours while the staff have some academy conversion training! Fingers crossed it’s quiet as it’s pouring down outside. I an hoping to catch up with some of the staff here as it’s been quite a while due to all the lockdowns and me leaving the lunchtime rota.

So what else have I been up to crafting wise? Well, Easter came and went quickly. It was great to be able to spend it with my family and after the holidays were cancelled due to craftykid testing positive for Covid (had to happen at some point I suppose). No symptoms and both me and my husband remained negative. In spite of the very boring school holidays we managed a celebratory trip to Hebden Bridge once she tested negative and I arranged a couple of egg hunts, one at home and one at my Mum’s for my nephews. I was really proud of the one I did at home as I wrote a poem of clues based on the nursery rhyme ‘Round and round the garden’.

Crafting wise I’ve been making lots of cards for us at home and some lovely local orders too. Over the last couple of years, I’ve really enjoyed making different shaped cards. I started making handbag cards several years ago, but I have tried to enhance them recently with more elaborate papers and gems as well as paper flowers.

So I thought I’d have a go at some more shaped cards. My Dad plays golf, so this golf bag card was an ideal format for him. I invested in a collection of plaid papers and they work brilliantly for these cards.

My next attempt ay a shaped card was at the request of a friend wanting a shoe for her niece’s 21st birthday. This was a little more tricky as I had to get the proportions of the shoe and the heel so it looked right as a shoe, but also sturdy enough to stand up. It took a few goes to get the basic shape and then it was a simple (?) case of picking the papers and decorations.

I plumped for a sophisticated elegant look using a collection from Papermania – Midnight Blush. It gives such a soft look , I just wish I could walk in a pair of heels that high!

Well, that’s about all for now. Time to work on some ideas for more shaped cards I think!

Happy crafting

K x

Spring sunshine

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Crafty Kath

Today I have taken the plunge! I’ve coloured my hair. I fully appreciate this isn’t a major event for many, but I’ve only ever done it once before (in my twenties – a very long time ago now). It wasn’t as complicated as I thought it was going to be, but it wasn’t that easy with hair as short as mine is – fingers crossed I don’t end up with dye all over my face!!

So I’m taking this opportunity for the twenty-five minute relax (while the potion works its magic) to sit outside in the sunshine. The garden was looking very tidy after my afternoon’s weeding, pruning, planting and collecting fallen magnolia petals, but the wind has rendered the petal collecting pointless – I think there might be even more on the ground now. I might wait a couple of days before clearing up this lot.

I’m pleased to say there are plenty of lovely signs of Spring taking advantage of the April sunshine with me. I’ve been serenaded by a pair of blackbirds, squawked at by a starling and enthralled at the majesty of a pair of goldfinches and a pair of bullfinches. The first orange tip butterfly of this year (that I’ve seen) has flitted around, joining the countless ladybirds basking on my hebes and geraniums. Oh, I think this really does have to be my favourite season – I hope my sunflower seeds germinate and don’t get eaten by slugs!

A short pause to deal with my hair! I must mention I have very dark hair with a few (very obvious) greys, so I’m not sure I expected much from this colouring. However, if anything it looks even darker now- so much for the deep plum/red tones I was initially hoping for! No visible grey though (but I forgot to wipe my ears before leaving the potion to work – oops!) The real test will be if anyone notices when they get home from work and school!

This last couple of weeks I’ve been crafting away as usual, lots of little knitted chicks which I sold to buy some books for my local primary school (Springside where I’m a governor too). I was making some little knitted baskets to put larger Kinder surprise eggs in, but the reports of salmonella meant I didn’t actually finish them even though I had some eggs ready to put in them. The eggs I have weren’t in the affected batches but I though better safe than sorry. So I think I’ll be adding the surprises to my geocaching swag box and I’ve taken the hit on the eggs. I’m just pleased I didn’t spend a fortune on them.

Right, I’d better get on with making tea for the workers!

Happy crafting

K x

PS – 3 days in and no-one has commented on my hair yet!

The knitting needles are out

Posted on March 31, 2022 by Crafty Kath

What happened to Spring? All the glorious sunshine and balmy 18^oC has been swapped for snow and -1^oC! I’ve had to put the heating back on (not for long) and I’ve retreated to blanket crochet again, just to stay warm!

This cold snap has made me think back to the last couple of winters and my chance meeting with a friend I hadn’t seen in ages. She had recently bought a shop in Ramsbottom, not long before lockdown, and selling lovely ladies clothing. Over a chat about Easter chick knitting (more of that in a future post), she asked if I fancied making some hats and gloves to sell in her shop when Autumn came around. So we decided on a trial of a dozen or so items, just to see how they went. Lots of knitting (and the inevitable unpicking) ensued, choosing different yarns, colours and patterns. She wasn’t concerned about them all being the same, if anything she was happier for lots of different designs to add to the uniqueness of the products. A great opportunity to practice some long forgotten and new techniques and to improve my cabling and sizing.

With my first collection complete they went on sale in October 2021 just to coincide with a warm late Autumn! But in the run up to Christmas, the weather did turn colder and they started to sell well. So-much-so that I was asked to make as many more items, particularly hats, as I could. What a confidence boost for me. I’ve had a few knock-backs with job applications and interviews over this last year – it seems being a peri-menopausal fifty-year-old returner to work is not who people want to employ these days, in spite of plenty of work experience and qualifications!

Anyway, suffice it to say I think the hat/glove trial was a success and I have been knitting away frantically in the evenings to make more for Autumn/Winter 2022. I have been working on my cabling and making some headbands as well, with my now teenage daughter’s help in colour choices!

The knitting was something I enjoyed doing even if it was a bit of a production line, but I had completely forgotten about having to make labels for all the items. So there was a frantic couple of days wondering what I could do, investigating sew in versus stick/iron on labels and having them all printed. But I settled on making my own and adding in all the care instructions for the yarn from each yarn band. I’m quite pleased with the end result, I think they add to the handmade feel of the items too. What do you think?

Time to warm up again with a brew now. Have a lovely week.

Happy crafting.

K x

Post COVID normality?

Posted on March 24, 2022 by Crafty Kath

Well, this has been a very long time in the writing! It’s been almost two years since I last put pen to paper, while the whole world was in the throes of the first set of lockdowns I think.

It’s been a hard couple of years for everyone in may different ways, and today marks the two-year anniversary of the official start of our first UK lockdown. Similarly to then, I am sat in the garden enjoying some very warm early Spring sunshine. This time though I am being serenaded not by the local birds, but the screeching tones of the local primary school after-school-club children! Why do children feel the need to squeal and scream everything?!

Anyway, it’s been a tough couple of years. I have found it hard to function normally with all my routines thrown into chaos and lots of changes to our lives and freedoms. Like many I have loved the peace and quiet without all the traffic noise; being able to hear the birdsong was absolute bliss for me and a great opportunity to start to identify birds from their song. The chance to spend more time outside was a real tonic particularly as I had had my space invaded by a home-worker and a home-schooler. It’s amazing how stressful it is having your family all under the same roof! And the house felt so small. So the garden has become even more of a refuge than ever before.

I’ve been thinking about what to write for a while and I had planned to start at New Year! I blinked and now it’s Spring, but better-late-than-never. So what have I been up to crafting wise? I’ve kept up with my facebook page reasonably well and card orders have been pretty steady, so I’ve managed to retain my crafty focus more-or-less. It’s been good to do some crafting for us at home too(lots of face masks and family cards) as this is something I don’t generally do that much of. I had a good read through my last posts in 2020 and what I haven’t done much of is finishing off the enormous pile of unfinished projects. I had every intention of completing them, but I think I just lost my way with the enormity of it. However, I am pleased to say that the pile is somewhat smaller than it was.

Before I go, I thought I’d end with a success. I have spent the last two years crocheting the granny square blanket, started in lockdown and the subject of my last post (http://www.handmadebykatherine.co.uk/2020/06/my-lockdown-blanket/). This was a labour of love and something I thought about submitting to Grayson Perry’s Art Club, but I couldn’t think of a theme that it fitted in. It’s a project I’m pleased I’ve completed but I miss it keeping me warm on the settee watching the TV. It looks great on the bed though and as you can see, the cats rather like it too. This is George’s favourite spot!

It’s good to be back and I Shall try to keep up with some ramblings more frequently. Do message or comment, I’d love to know how everyone is out there.

Happy crafting

K x