Craft fair aftermath

So we last spoke on Sunday? I think I told you about my fun times at the craft fair, written from my bed as I nursed my poor, overworked back.Got into a bit of a pickle with my back, had to get my dad to come round to make me some food because I couldn't move. A very important lesson for next time, don't neglect my joints while enjoying myself doing craft things. I think I shall add my back support and some valium to my craft fair kit.

Anyway, I still managed to get down to Brighton to see the lovely JT. I actually managed to spend a whole day awake with no naps while down south! It was a good day. I spent that day making JT buy lots of cushions and pillows for me so I can get more comfortable when I'm there.

I also took my shrink plastic and pencils down so I've got some earrings ready to cook so I can actually send the ones I need to send to Emma after I melted the previous pair!

Earrings I sent last week, and a bag and a t-shirt, went down well with their respective recipients which was good! And I've made a sale on Etsy! It's been a good week.

I've also been having a play at some craft projects with my smallest (although not that small!) cousin Eve who is reading over my shoulder as I type this so I had better be nice to her :P

We made cake decorations from fondant icing:

We did some pumpkin carving:

There they are in my parents' house's window.

My cousin got a bit sinister... Repeatedly!:

I did some henna:

Sadly it didn't really take as well on Evie as it could have done. I think it needs some good moisturiser and it'd take better.

Mine stained pretty well:

I've also ordered some oil based marbling inks because I thought they'd be really awesome on earrings so watch out for some in the near future. 

I'm going to attempt sleep again now, I'll check in next time I have something interesting to say!

Janet

P. S. I think this sloth might be my spirit animal.

My first craft fair is DONE

Hello there, internet dwellers.

It's done. It's over. I did it. 

With my beautiful assistant, Corrie, I have done my first craft fair! 

Suitably colourful I think!

What's more, I broke even, and I think I was the only person there to do so. Sadly, not many people came. Probably because it was half term and the weather was poor, less people came than otherwise, and also it was the first craft fair there so I think they were all factors to the poor turnout. I sold two pairs of earrings, one to my dear mummy and one to my friend Lubna, and a phone case to my sister in law. I did a henna tattoo on a small child, one on a fellow stall holder, one on Corrie and one on me.

Overall it was a really positive experience, if a little disappointing in terms of turn out. It made me realise how much I like doing this! It's been a stressful week, but I love making things, and I love other people liking the things I've made, and if they want to buy them, that's even better! I also love doing henna on people. I think I'm getting better at thinking on the spot about designs, as shown by the last picture. A heart is not something I would usually do, but I think that turned out really well, and I'm also impressed with how dark this henna is. I've put the remaining cones in the freezer to preserve them as the colour is awesome. I think I'll definitely be buying from that supplier again.

When I got home last night, I sent a few emails about other craft fairs and I've got a table (subject to me completing the form!) at a shopping and pampering evening in Kenton on the 8th of December. The stall cost is £25, but I'm fairly confident I can make that back. I'm going to be offering henna, a small amount of jewellery and t-shirts. I'm going to do some more hand painted ones for that event as I imagine it will be people looking for slightly more luxurious products than my printed t-shirts, not that they aren't nice, but they're better for a different audience I think. Slightly longer to prepare for this one anyway :D

My back has been rather angry with me today for the abuse that it has suffered this week, so another thing I have learnt is that I really need to give myself more time to do things, and not take tables at craft fairs with a weeks notice, however much I want to do it!

I think I'm going to spend the next few days asleep (subject to the forecasted storm noise!), and then I'm seeing my lovely family and helping my cousin make a Victorian costume. I think she's going to be a chimney sweep/beggar child! Also hoping I get to take her trick-or-treat-ing! 

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.

Until next time...

Janet

P. S. Corrie took this lovely picture of Mau!

Time's UP!

Ok, it's just gone midnight, I've packed everything I think I need for tomorrow other than my insurance documents which I'm printing now, and the stickers, which I haven't designed yet, and I'm not entirely sure I'm going to.

I've done a stock check and I have:

• 30 t-shirts
• 64 pairs of handmade plastic earrings
• 39 pairs of silver earrings
• 15 phone cases
• 8 bags
• 2 pashminas
• 2 small scarves

Total: 160 pieces of stock!

I think that should be more than enough! I also have 5 cones of henna, and two cones of henna/jagua mix so I can do two toned designs.

I also have a very sore back and a very sweaty face! I was going to have a shower tonight so I don't have to get up even earlier tomorrow, but I think that I'm just going to sit here and be lazy instead, possibly design some stickers, and do a check over the to-do list to see if there's anything I'm missing!

See you on the other side!

Janet

P. S. Don't leave shrink plastic in the oven too long!

Less than 24 hours to go!

And to say I'm stressed would be an understatement. 

I'm trying to be calm because I know when I stress I hurt more, but it's a bit difficult.

At the beginning of the week my to do list looked like this:

Sort the t-shirt stock

Print the t-shirts

Decorate phone cases 

Make Henna/Jagua cones

Buy insurance

Sort table layout

Get blu-tac!

Make and print henna ingredients and aftercare sheets

Price lists/signs

Print bags

Buy frames for Henna designs

Sort my design book

Make more earrings

Design & Print stickers

Iron all stock

Get change from the bank

Post long awaited items to Luisa and Emma!

I have:

Completed 20 t-shirts

Decorated 10 phone cases

Made henna paste

Bought insurance

Worked out the basic principles of my table layout

Got blu tac!

Designed henna ingredients and aftercare sheets

Designed price list

Designed size list

Printed 3 bags

Framed henna designs

Finished 24 pairs of earrings

Realised I can tumble dry stock rather than ironing it

Not bad for a week.

Really important things to do are:

Make my printer work so I can:

Print aftercare, ingredients, size, stall info and price sheets and insurance documents

Design stickers for earring bags

Make henna cones

Find some fabric to cover table

Get change from the bank

Find out where I'm actually going tomorrow

Rest!

Desirable things to do are:

Print more t-shirts

Print bags

Work on design book

Post things to Luisa, Emma, Christina and my solicitors. 

Speak to the people about my business cards

I've hopefully sorted getting the printer to work, ie. I've asked my dad to come round later and fix it! Printing the things shouldn't take too long. Designing the stickers might be a bit difficult before I've got my printer working because I wanted to scan the sheet so I knew where to put the design etc. 

Making henna cones takes me a while because I'm completely incompetent. What I'll probably do is cut out loads and loads of bits of cellophane and set myself up in bed with Netflix and a cup of tea, make hundreds of the things, then use the ten or so that actually work. I've got the henna mix in a piping bag ready to fill cones with but want to make some mixed with jagua so will have to do that too. That shouldn't take long though. Finding the fabric should be easy, I have a whole cupboard full and I think I've got some nice orange linen that would be good. 

The bank should be fine, I think I should get a float of about £40: 4 £5 notes and 20 pound coins. That just means I need to get out of bed before 5.

I've just worked out where the place is. I thought I knew, I just needed to check!

Now to work on the rest? 

Janet

P. S. 

This is how I feel right now!

Mau is a terror

Mau, for those of you who don't know, is my cat. So called because it is the noise that a cat makes, and us the Egyptian word for cat. 

Mau is lovely, usually, but today he has been a bit of a pain. Despite having several lovely cat boxes, and half a bed available for him to sit on, he decided to sit on my lovely ironed and folded shirts, which I have now had to brush with a lint roller. If that wasn't annoying, Mau is also evidently a little poorly today and I woke up to a horrible retching sound as he managed to be sick over not one, not two, but three piles of shirts. I'm sympathetic to my poor kitty but wish he'd chosen a better place! I've had to put anything contaminated in the washing machine. Sigh. Just another job... 

I'm struggling today with motivation. I'm really quite tired, I've got my course tonight, and my back is still very painful from its dislocation yesterday. I don't really want to take to my bed and give up doing things for today, but it's hard to work out if I will have enough energy to actually do the stall on Saturday if I use up all my energy making things beforehand. Not having done a craft fair before, I have no idea how well my things are likely to sell and how much stock I will need, but I don't want to be underprepared. 

Thinking about it, I should probably rest if I need to. I have at least 30 pairs of earrings, I've got around 7 more shirts to iron, then I'll have 20 finished. I've got 7 phone cases, two bags, one scarf, but I've also got henna, if I make up my cones! 

I think mixing the henna up is something I should put on my to do list for today, but at the moment, that's going to be it, I think.

Too tired to think!

Janet

P. S. He may be a terror but look how pretty he is!

Getting there!

Ok, so yesterday my plan was to

1. Make some more earrings, particularly frosted coloured segments as I need to send some to Emma
2. Pack the stuff up for Luisa
3. Print my remaining stock
4. Decorate the 5 phone cases I have
5. First coat of varnish on the cases
6. Make price and size signs
7. Make henna ingredients and aftercare sheets.

I didn't make more earrings, I didn't pack the stuff for Luisa, although I did separate the t shirt from the other stuff, I didn't finish printing all my stock, I decorated 4 phone cases, but the fifth went a bit wrong. I have also found about 5 more cases to draw on so that's a job to do too. I did do the coat of varnish. I designed price and size signs, and I designed the henna ingredients and aftercare sheets but sadly my printer has decided that it doesn't like me and so I can't actually print the damn things!

I think I'm going to have to go find a printer to use either tomorrow or Friday. Just one more thing to add to the list!

So, I didn't really do too well out of what I intended to do, but in my defence, JT came to visit which I wasn't expecting when I wrote the list. I didn't have a to do list for today, but I've actually been remarkably productive despite managing to not wake up til 2, and just before JT left about 5, I managed to dislocate my lower back when coughing. Joy of joys. 

Despite that I have sorted out all the shirts that arrived today, putting them into piles of size and putting their respective labels on them so I can identify them easier. 

Some beautiful piles there, you can also see the marked out table, the framed henna, and the general complete mess my living room (now workshop!) is in!

I have printed something like 10-15 t-shirts, probably, and have ironed about 8 before I decided that if I'm going to be well enough to actually do the craft fair, I should probably not continue ironing when I know I've just trapped a nerve in my shoulder. So, instead, I'm sitting in a lovely comfy memory foam bed typing this. In a bit, I'm going to get up and get my shrink plastic and pencils, find another film or series to get involved in (I've just finished Secret Diary of a Call Girl, I only started watching it on Monday!) and do some drawing for earrings. 

I also arranged the completely finished t-shirts in their respective size piles. There are a total of 13 fully completed shirts now!

It's a bit tidier in here! Only a bit though, the cardboard boxes, bag and shoulder support are not part of the stock...

I've also got various stages of printed, drying, or something else t shirts in my hallway 

And the kitchen

It's going well....

Anyway. I'm going to have a bit of a well deserved break now I think.

Janet

P. S. I made a hoodie for JT, I think he liked it.

A second progress report of the day

I realise that all these posts about my progress might not be terribly interesting to other people to read, but it's helping me keep track of what I'm up to!

So, my first to-do list looked like this
Sort the t-shirt stock

Print the t-shirts

Decorate phone cases 

Make Henna/Jagua cones

Buy insurance

Sort table layout

Get blu-tac!

Make and print henna ingredients and aftercare sheets

Price lists/signs

Print bags

Buy frames for Henna designs

Sort my design book

Make more earrings

Design & Print stickers

Iron all stock

Get change from the bank

Post long awaited items to Luisa and Emma!

I feel like I've done loads of that stuff but I can only actually cross off two things from that list, which is a bit depressing!

So far, I've:

1. Marked out (with masking tape on my floor) the rough shape of the table I expect to get on Saturday. I'm awaiting proper dimensions, but its given me an idea of how much space I have and how much stock I need out
2. Sorted out 32 t-shirts hopefully being delivered tomorrow!
3. Bought and assembled a clothing rail for the stall
4. Come up with a quick way of identifying the size and style of t-shirts with a helpful sticker system, and I have bought the required stickers.
5. Bought frames for henna designs and put them in.
6. Printed 3 bags and 3 t-shirts (all the stuff I can do with white paint at the moment)

Things I want to finish this evening are:

1. Make some more earrings, particularly frosted coloured segments as I need to send some to Emma
2. Pack the stuff up for Luisa
3. Print my remaining stock
4. Decorate the 5 phone cases I have
5. First coat of varnish on the cases
6. Make price and size signs
7. Make henna ingredients and aftercare sheets.

I'm relatively confident I should get that done.... I'd better hop to it though!