Pip's Place

Having not been to a craft fair since before Christmas perhaps I was out of the swing of them but I have to admit to being  dispirited last Saturday at Rustington Parish Hall.  My table looked attractive and the public said nice things about my work but chose not to buy.  The day was bright and sunny on the South Coast, although the wind was still cold.  Plenty of people came through the doors but it took well over an hour for me to make my first sale.

Contrast this with yesterday when I had a little stall at the My Favourite Things Spring Fair in Broadwater Parish Rooms – within an hour I had taken my table money and knew it was going to be a successful day.  And so it was …

It was a lovely small old fashioned venue, just right for a fair selling handmade and vintage items.  All the stalls looked lovely and there were lots of original things to buy.  There was tea and gorgeous home made cakes, fresh flowers and lots of customers all having a browse and making purchases.  Five hours flew by and it was soon time to pack up.  I did so with renewed confidence in my crafting and the hope that I can go back to the next fair organised by My Favourite Things in November.

My Folksy shop has been a bit neglected for a while so, with new found enthusiasm, I have listed a couple of  items today …

Men are notoriously bad at washing in my experience.  Despite instructions on the finer arts of sorting colours from whites, I know once away at Uni, my 18 year old is merrily bunging everything in to wash together on the basis that either (i) he does not have enough change to do two separate loads or (ii) he does not have enough washing to make two loads in the first place or (iii) he’s just plain lazy or (iv) he’s male!

I met a colleague last week who was one of the first people to buy some of my felt brooches.  She pointed to the red loopy flower on her cardigan saying ‘see, I’m still wearing it’ which pleased me no end.  BUT, oh dear, it looked so sad.  What on earth could have happened to it in the intervening months?

Seeing my puzzled expression she confessed to having put it through the washing machine by mistake!!  THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA!  Although it had survived it’s ordeal quite well it wasn’t the vibrant brooch it once was.  I’m quite amazed however that it was still in one piece.

The moral is that whilst the odd spot of rain may do no harm, please remember to remove before you wash – there are no washing instructions!

At last we have seen the sun (in the South East anyway) and it felt sufficiently warm to open the car window yesterday!  Very odd really as I drove to work wearing gloves all last week and then on Friday all change, I’ve taken my coat off!  It was even nice enough to put washing on the line and inspect the progress of the bulbs in the garden – daffs will be out fairly soon I think – this marks the end of SAD for this winter, hurray!  Grey days are much easier to cope with if there is the prospect of tomorrow being brighter, don’t you think?

Crafting has been difficult for the last week or two, initially because I have felt uninspired and then because of upheaval at home caused by a leak from the radiator in Andy’s room.  In the last couple of days I have made a few Spring coloured brooches and will continue with this theme for the next few weeks and refresh my stock at Traders and on Folksy in the hope of a few sales.  Things seem very quiet and I’m looking forward to doing some craft fairs again before too long.

With all the news recently about food, what’s in our burgers and lasagne, raising the tax on fizzy drinks etc, I can guarantee that a Graze box will provide a healthy snack or two.  To register for a free box courtesy of me, use this code!!  http://www.graze.com/uk/p/P29HBQB

Happy Snacking!

Since before Christmas I have been struggling to see and my creations have taken longer to produce than normal.  This is because of a change in the lighting in the craft room (which is really just one end of my partner’s son’s bedroom – he’s not around much).  Both the boys are considerably taller than Mark and I and were hitting their heads on the light fittings!  Action had to be taken.

The lovely new fittings that we chose are virtually flush to the ceiling but they give off less light that the old ones and I was finding it hard to sew in the evenings – threading the needles was taking forever, colours didn’t look right and I was finding inspiration hard to come by as a result.

All is sorted now thanks to a trip to Southampton to return Andy to Uni.  He’s let me borrow his lovely little spot light which was surplus to requirements (this was evident from the layer of dust that it was covered in, although to be honest, close inspection found that most of his room was covered in a layer of dust and the duster I had provided him with, whilst it had made it out of the box, lay forlorn in a corner! ).

Here is the little smiley light and what I’ve made now my darkness has been illuminated!

This bright pink softly padded hanging heart measures approximately 17 cm x 17 cm and is decorated with sequins, beads, buttons and ribbon.  I think I will put it on sale at Crafter’s Corner at Traders, Littlehampton for £6.50 – do you think it might be a good seller and it’s worth me making another one?

… or maybe two!  Valentines Day will soon be here so it’s time to think about how you will show that special someone that you really care.  We would all like to be showered with romantic gifts (or even just one!), such as red roses, a candlelit dinner for two, the odd diamond, but alas the majority of us are not that lucky.  Romance seems to desert our other halves when things become more permanent.  Why is it that romantic partners are in short supply?

Maybe one of the reasons nowadays is the financial pressure that we are all under – it’s more difficult to justify splashing out when there are other potentially more important calls on our hard earned cash.

That’s where Pip’s Place can help!  For just a little more than the price of your weekly coffee in Costa (other coffee houses are available!), you can purchase for your loved one a hand made hanging heart like the ones at the end of this post.  They are beautifully sewn and decorated by me with buttons, bows and small hearts in a variety of designs.  They are a unique gift for your Valentine that will last long after those roses have died and been thrown away or the romantic dinner is just a memory, although they may not outlive the diamond!

The hearts are softly padded and have a ribbon attached.  One style measures 5.5cm x 7.5cm approx, the other measures 7cm x 7cm approx – ribbon lengths vary.

A selection are available in my Folksy shop and at Crafters Corner at Traders in Littlehampton.  Alternatively, please contact me direct.

If you like my designs please have a look at Pip’s Place on Facebook, let me know and share my page with your friends.

I am sure I’m not alone in my aversion to social networking sites.  It seems rather disturbing to me that people could be interested in the minutiae of others lives to the extent of what they ate for breakfast, have been watching on TV or bought in Tesco – does anyone really care or is it just a means of filling the vacant hours and minutes between interesting things happening in our lives…?

You may call me a hypocrite for this opinion as I am hoping you are sitting reading and being interested in my blog which, as you will be aware is about my crafty creations and I am about to tell you that I have now been dragged kicking and screaming into the social networking whirl – well it is a new year and perhaps I do need to modernise my outlook a bit!

Craftseller magazine has been extolling the virtues of Facebook and Twitter to get your business known to a wider audience and I have at last taken note.

Ever useful in situations where technology is key and I have no idea what I am doing, Andy was on hand to advise and guide me.  At first I thought he was going to provide some simple tweeting lessons for the over 40s but after some discussion we agreed that perhaps Facebook was the place to start.

So I am now the proud owner of my own ‘Page’, or rather Pip’s Place has a page where all you lovely people can comment on what I’ve eaten for breakfast!  Only joking, I will aim to keep the posts relevant to crafty matters, with the odd line about Pip and the rest of the household when the need arises.  I will soon be posting some photos of items I have made for Valentine’s Day (these will be for sale shortly in my Folksy shop and at Crafters Corner at Traders in Littlehampton).  Please do leave me a comment or ‘like my page’ (I think that’s the right phrase!) and spread the word about Pip’s Place.

Thank you dear readers!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pips-Place/311505322300472

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Have you visited my folksy shop yet?  If not, why not?!  It’s easy to get to from the link on the right hand side which Andy kindly put in when he set up this blog.

Folksy is a lovely site selling handmade British crafts.  There are so many talented people out there – have a look round and you will find some fantastic items that will make wonderful original Christmas gifts for your family and friends (or you might find a little treat for yourself).

My folksy experience started back in July and by November, when my first six listed items were due for renewal, I’d sold nothing.  Naturally I was disappointed but decided to relist them.  Then, to my delight, I got my first sale!

Every week folksy send an email to approximately 50,000 addresses picking out selections of items in various categories.  Scrolling down this weeks’ email you can imagine my surprise to see my purple flower brooch! (featured in my Purple Power post) in the Stocking Fillers section – here’s the link … http://eepurl.com/shMnr

Within a few hours the brooch was sold and the following day I got another sale!  Big thank yous to folksy for promoting my work in this way.

With only 3 items left in my shop I’ve selected a few more to list and they are now available to purchase … there are some little Christmas stockings and my mini stocking bunting which measures about 1 metre and has 9 little stockings attached, all with different decoration.  I’ve also listed some new brooches – perfect Christmas presents!!  Here are some of the photos … hope you visit my shop soon!

In my first post I mentioned that the site is named after our cat so I thought perhaps the time is right to say a bit about him.

He’s a very handsome chap and has lived here much longer than me!  Mark got him from the CPL and Pip was very nervous and timid then and spent a lot of time on top of the kitchen cabinets!  The only time he resorts to this now is when the cat basket comes out and when there are fireworks about.

He lives in the conservatory and is only allowed a little way into the house as we are not keen on cat hairs everywhere.  He is a hunter and often brings us presents, dead and alive, and tells us loudly in the middle of the night that he has brought them in for us or we hear him sliding around the conservatory in pursuit of his cute whiskered prey.  If they are still alive in the morning I join in the fun and manage to save them if at all possible.  Of course this causes black looks from Pip – especially when the mouse escapes under the shed never to be seen again.

We recently decided to remove an easy chair from our lounge to make more space and on getting it as far as the conservatory before taking it to the tip, struck on a great idea of giving the chair to Pip!  So he now has his bed in the chair and appears very happy to be off the cold floor at last.

When he gets the chance to get in the house he is often found in Andy’s room – it seems he’s keen on learning to use the computer or perhaps he wants to get his paws on the mouse!

Isn’t he adorable?

… and it’s time to start making lots of festive bits and pieces to sell at the events I have planned.  Basically I have 3 sales lined up all within 10 days, so not ideal timing – it will be a challenge to make sure I have enough stock for them all.  That, of course, assumes they are all going to be really successful – fingers crossed.

Firstly there is a craft fair at work on 21 November, then I have been invited to have a table at a Christmas Gift Fair on 24 November at Chatsmore High School in Goring and then on 1 December I will be at the Norfolk Putting Green Cafe in Littlehampton.

I did my first half day ‘minding’ Crafter’s Corner at Traders Indoor Market last Wednesday and it was a really pleasant afternoon with nice company and some members of the public having a browse.  Made a few sales including 2 of my brooches which was really pleasing.  I’m beginning to see what is selling best so there is more focus to my creative hours.

Isn’t it funny how some days you can make lots in a short space of time and others you really struggle?  My other half was out for 4 hours last night so I had absolute peace and quiet and made 7 brooches, tonight it looks like the ironing, sandwich making and getting myself together for the week ahead will take precedence!!  I do find it quite frustrating that my hobby comes second to all the other things that need to be done.  Never mind, should get some time tomorrow evening.