Craft 2.0 Goodness

Phew... what a jam-packed few days it's been. After weeks of anticipation and excitement, Jess (Bam Bam Creative) and I were up in the early hours of Friday morning — 4.30am wake ups aren't what I'd call fun — and were headed for the airport. We were greeted by an absolutely stunning Wellington day (which from previous visits, I wasn't sure existed!) and whilst it was a busy day, we still had a chance to enjoy the sunshine.

The lovely view of the Harbour

After a relaxing lunch in the sun and a visit to Madame Fancy Pants store on Cuba St, the ever lovely Sue Tyler (Of Supervery and Craft 2.0 fame) and her equally lovely Mum picked us up and took us out to the New Dowse to set  up. The New Dowse is such a perfect venue — I loved the crisp clean, open feel it had. Jess and I unpacked our strategically sorted suitcases that resembled a sort of Jigsaw Puzzle that all fit together perfectly, and began to set up our tables.

Before and After shot of my table

We headed back to our Hostel, enjoyed some dinner and watched a play that was showing in the Fringe Festival and headed back to our room to try and get some sleep to prepare ourselves for the next day. We were up early the next morning and were lucky enough to score a lift to Craft 2.0 with Heleen (Ruby in the Dust) and her sister.

It was a fabulous day, and although it was said to have been a slow day in Craft 2.0 standards it still had a constant flow of browsers and shoppers all day, which was nice. Lots of Skipapple goodies found their way to new homes and it was really good to meet some new crafters and to catch up with ones I have met previously. I would have liked some more time to get around and see other stalls, but there was no real opportunity to sneak away from my table.

Before we knew it we were packing up, heading to the airport and flying home again. Wellington gave us a lovely view as we departed, and for that last little bit of happiness and sunshine, I was very grateful!
Here is a lovely snap that Jess took of the view from the plane (she nabbed the window seat... so I've shotgun for the next trip down! hehe)

The amazing view as we departed Wellington. Great photography Jess :)

After arriving home, tired and exhausted from what felt like DAYS away (it was literally only about 36 hours) I had a cuppa and a brief Facebook check, before heading to bed for a nice long sleep. As much as I enjoyed my trip — with all the rushing around and busyness — it was good to be home!

I'm really looking forward to heading down for the next Craft 2.0 (fingers crossed I get in!) and I've already started researching flights and accommodation.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and that the Devonport Craft Market was fruitful today for all it's lovely store holders.

xxx

Sawing, sanding and a broken camera

Okay, so although the title suggest my broken camera was something to do with my own doing, that is not the case at all ;) Last week was a crazily busy week preparing for the Crafternoon Tea market (as I am sure it was for many people) and thinking that I had all the time in the world to prepare, I decided one of my first projects would be a couple more displays for my pendants. My first was another smaller version of my earlier created display and the other was the snazzy creation pictured below. Such a cheap but rather effective display (if I don't say so myself). I wanted to add more depth to my market display and make it more visually interesting so I decided to create a display for the pendants without them being on individual cards.

I had some left over board from my first display so decided to put it to good use. I purchased some wood for the legs, a couple of hinges and then a stack of self tapping eyelet thingamajigs (yes, that's their technical name) and got to work. I actually cut this board using a stanley knife as although it takes longer, I find it gives a much cleaner cut than using a saw. Plus it means a LOT less sanding once you've cut it. My main aim when creating displays (apart from them displaying the product well of course) is to make them easily portable which is why I put the legs on hinges and the crossbar bits with hooks so they can unhook and fold flat. I am really happy with how it turned out, and it not only saved me a lot of room on my table, it looked pretty effective too. AND it only cost me about $9 in materials. It was wins all round really ;)

My snazzy new pendant display

So as you can tell, no cameras were harmed in the making of this display. However my camera did leave us last week, on the day that I planned to photograph all my completed pendants, and a day before the Crafternoon Tea — typical. I was more angry than sad about it dying, as I wasn't overly attached to my 18 month old Fujifilm (NEVER buy a Fujifilm, they are rubbish!). It was only a cheapy at the time so I shouldn't really be surprised that it just stopped working one day, but still... it was rather inconvenient! On the bright side however, I managed to use my FlyBuys points to score myself a really snazzy compact Olympus in a sexy Pearl White colour. She's such a little gem and I'm looking forward to using her!

Anyway, Crafternoon Tea on Saturday was a fabulous market and I really loved the Mt Eden Normal Primary School hall. It had a lovely vibe to it and felt very welcoming. Although it was a fairly quiet day I think Luisa and Trent did a fabulous job advertising it as best they could — Kudos! I had a wonderful day chatting with my fellow crafty peeps such as the lovely Jess and Bronwyn and to top it all off it was a successful market for me. I am really looking forward to the next one in January, back at it's regular Kingsland location.

My table with my new displays at Crafternoon Tea

I've cut 3 more bags ready to sew for this weekends Love Handmade market, and I have cut out 6 *new product alert* 'Obi style Belts' which I will be launching this Saturday — exciting stuff! I'm also getting ready to snap (with my sexy new camera) all of my pendants and start uploading them to my Felt shop over the next week.

Chat soon x

Crafternoon Tea is Tomorrow

And although I won't be attending this one, I highly recommend you pop along to do some chrissy shopping. There is going to be loads of talented crafty peeps there selling their wares, and you are sure to find the perfect gift for just about everyone. My pal Jess is debuting her absolutely gorgeous new cushions and I am sure there will be lots more new goodies available from plenty of stall holders.

As it says in the poster above, it's at the Trinity Methodist Church Hall in Kingsland from 10am to 2pm. So go grab a coffee or brunch at one of the Kingsland Cafe's and then mosey on down to the Crafternoon Tea.

It's sure to be fabulous.

Pendant Assembly Line

What a crazily busy weekend it was! On Friday night I was up late, making sure I was all set for the Love Handmade market on Saturday morning. I honestly can't remember the last time I was up before 7.30am on a weekend! But although it was an early start, I am really impressed with the amount of people that came through the doors throughout the morning. Although it wasn't super busy, for a first market it was a fairly successful day. Not to mention it was a fabulous location... nice and sunny, room to move and very comfy chairs ;) Fingers crossed I get to sit up in the same spot next time! I also got to chat to lots of lovely crafters that were there such as Podgy Panda, Books by Rachel, Ferrit and my girl Jess. Of course there was loads more people there so big apologies to anyone I didn't mention — everyones crafts looked fabulous and it was hard to restrain myself from dipping into my sales money!

Here is mine and Jess' tables all setup first thing in the morning. My pendant display worked a treat!

Jess looking all sweet at her stall. Who could say no to that face?

I couldn't resist purchasing a couple of cute Gingerbread men though, for Jess and I from Gretel's Gingerbread and I have to shamefully admit that it was indeed my breakfast! (But what a tasty breakfast it was!) I am really looking forward to the next Love Handmade market which will be at the same lovely location and at a even more lovely time of 10am-1pm. It'll be on Saturday 19th December, so mark that in your diaries!

Late Saturday evening I got a surprise message from Sarah from the Devonport Craft Market saying that there was one last little spot left at the markets if I was still keen. So I quickly nabbed it and re-packed all my market stuff into it's box ready for the next morning.

The Christmas Spectacular was exactly that... very spectacular! I had a fabulous day at the markets and although it tends to quieten down for the last 2 hours, it was a busy day overall with about 450-500 people through the doors. The first hour saw 110 people come through and by lunchtime there was nearly 300 shoppers that had come through! Not a bad effort for a market on a weekend that was in addition to it's regular weekend! The Sarah's did a fab job promoting the market and I loved the big banner outside. It definitely made us easier for shoppers to find, and a lot harder for them to resist a gander! I was also stoked with my little calendar — I've already gone through and marked it with the application close dates too.

I was far too busy on Sunday to get any pics, but again there was lots of talented people at the market. Unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to pop around and see everyone this time, so will have to make sure I make time, next market.

After a successful weekend of sales, my stock has depleted so it'll be a busy couple of weeks ahead of me preparing for Crafternoon Tea and Love Handmade in December. I have already prepped and started assembling over 160 pendants — how good am I? hehe. I also have some plans for some new products to launch then... so time permitting, there will be some new goodies on offer in December.

Will keep you posted x

Win your own Babe in the Wood!

One of my favourite blogs, from a fellow creative and super cool chick, has a competition going at the moment. You can check it out here - Bam Bam Creative.

But you'll need to be quick... competition closes on Sunday at 5pm NZ time :)