This Saturday will see me at the Mother’s Day Craft Market in Didsbury, Manchester:

dignity-craft-event-flyer

It’s being held at Ivy, Ddisbury in aid of Dignity.  I’m told there’ll be a fab mix of stalls selling all sorts of handmade goodies.  I’m really looking forward to it - a great place not just to buy Mother’s Day gifts and cards but also gifts, accessories and treats for all sorts of occasions. 

cupcake clock

Craft Fairs are a great way to build up your own little collection of internet shopping sites - sites where you can buy something different and quite special from individual small businesses and designer/makers.  I make a point of asking for cards or website details from stalls I really love.  That way, it’s so-ooo easy to return anytime to their online store and make a purchase.  Most stallholders at craft fairs have websites these days.

best mum in the world photo frame

If you’d like to pop into Didsbury and have a lovely mooch around the craft stalls, Ivy is in Barlow Moor Road, M20 2GP.  Come along and say hello!  It’d be lovely to meet you!!

More info here: http://blog.didsbury.fetch.it/2010/03/craft-market-ivy-manchester-barlow-moor-road-13th-march/

You can also buy the pictured goodies (and much more!) here: www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk if Didsbury is too far away for you to visit.

I had a great day today at Croft Memorial Hall - I met some lovely people and had some lovely customers.  It was also nice to catch up with craft friends, some of whom I’d not seen for a while.  The sun shone all day, and although I didn’t see much of it, it does certainly make you feel better!

The day didn’t start brilliantly.  I had packed the car last night, was ready to go - and, oh dearie me (or words to that effect), the car had other ideas. The battery was flat. Dead as a dodo.

I unloaded everything (there are a lot of boxes!) into Mr 1st Unique’s car but had to return the car after unloading as he needed it today.  What a good thing the fair was so local!  The whole kerfuffle delayed me a little but the day was really good after that. 

So thankyou, if you were there.  I enjoyed chatting to everyone, enjoyed personalising items for people and hardly sat down all day.  My ankles ache, I’m worn out, but I’m really quite happy.

Tomorrow is the most local of local events for me.  A craft fair in my own little village of Croft in Warrington.  It’s very close to both the M62 and M6, so it’s easy to get to for most people in the north west -but most especially people from the villages of Croft, Culcheth and Winwick, who will have a very short travelling distance!!

WA3 7BG is the postcode for finding your way to Croft Memorial Hall for the craft fair tomorrow.  All day catering (breakfasts, lunches) and cakes! (Oh dear, bang goes that diet, again - can I resist?).  However, if you want to make it a day out, Croft is the perfect place for a fabulous pub lunch (try http://www.horseshoe.moonfruit.com or  http://www.thegeneralelliot.co.uk )  and maybe even a countryside walk through fields and lanes.  There’s also a lovely, safe and very well-kept playground for children.  If this sunny weather continues, it could be a lovely day out for the whole family.

If you come along, please say hello!  What’s the betting you’ll find me with a cake in my hand, hiding behind here:

my stall

The much-awaited www.wowthankyou.co.uk is now live!  Yay!!

It’s an amazing and exciting site and it’s a privilege to be a small part of it!  The site is full of the most amazing handmade gifts - so get yourself over there and enjoy browsing!

www.wowthankyou.co.uk

Life is full of irony, isn’t it?

I’ve waited for weeks for a delivery of MDF plaques - and when they arrive, I’m crippled with a migraine and unable to paint (or even unpack them!) effectively.  So it’s a short post for today - I’m off to try and recover.  I’ll venture out to the studio to admire my stack of plaques and unpack the rest - and see if the cold air outdoors improves my head any.   I do hope so.  Otherwise it’s back to bed for me - and I just hate to give in.

I hope you’re feeling better than me on this frosty March morning.  I’m just taking comfort from the fact I’m feeling slightly better than I was last night.  That’s got to be a good sign - surely?

PS: Please forgive me any spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and a distinct lack of pictures.

Twitter is described as a micro blogging service. Twitter asks just one question: What’s happening? You can, of course, interpret that question any way you will (but in under 140 characters please!).

twitter

You can keep updated with breaking news - all the big news providers tweet.  You can keep in contact with friends - instead of texting all your contact list about something, you could tweet it. You can find friends you’d lost touch with.  And so much more.

It’s said that Twitter is a great marketing tool - but, like all marketing tools, it can annoy your potential customers too!  Who hasn’t been annoyed by a direct sales call (or even worse, a recorded message) when they’re in the middle of something important?  While sales messages on Twitter aren’t quite that bad, bombarding your followers with sales messages can cause them to become fed up and unfollow you (now there’s a new word for the next dictionary upate: unfollow!).  Not the result you were hoping for!

telephone

So how does Twitter work for business?  I had some very early success which gave me an indicator: businesses found me via Twitter and asked me to supply them. People found me and bought items.  I don’t think any of it was through an overt sales message.  This article about marketing on Twitter is a good one: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/oct2009/ca2009106_370257.htm. The best uses for Twitter seem to be all about connecting and communicating.  The people who are best at this face-to-face will often be the best online too.  Businesses are, after all, run by real people.  Twitter can help to show the human side to a business.

networking

If you, like me, work from home, you may find Twitter is useful for a much more basic reason: it helps you feel connected with other people.  Those mini-conversations serve a purpose for all of us.  Sometimes these conversations will help you sell or promote too, sometimes they won’t. Often, they will just help ease the day along a little for you or for someone else.  Don’t knock it - that in itself is sometimes a big plus.

What do I love about Twitter?  You can dip in and out of it in a couple of minutes, you get a glimpse of other people’s lives, you can chat to anyone and everyone, it’s a leveller, it’s all about “now”, it’s easy - oh, and it definitely hones my editing skills.  Getting a message down to 140 characters but still readable is a challenge - and one I admit I sometimes fail as some messages are two or three tweets long!! (Oh, there’s a surprise!)

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/1stUniqueGifts

follow me everywhere

It’s always lovely doing a craft fair so close it’s within walking distance (well, it would be walking distance if it weren’t for the truckloads of stock!) and it’s not often you get the opportunity.

This Sunday I’ll be driving for all of two minutes before I arrive at the venue.  What a luxury - no chance of getting stuck in motorway traffic, no petrol money to budget for - and if I forget something vital I could even nip home for it!

It’s at Croft Memorial Hall, Mustard Lane, Croft, WA3 7BG.  There’s an all-day catering service - breakfast barms, hog-roast lunchtime barms…oh, and home-baked cakes.

yummy cake

It’s close to J9 of the M62 and J22 of the M6 and really easy to find.  Lots of stalls selling lovely things.  What more could you want?

Other people who sell at craft fairs will, I’m sure, agree that not all craft fairs are a success.  Yesterday’s was one of those.

To be fair, it had all the ingredients of a good fair: a superb venue, a good area, good advertising, a fabulous mix of crafts and gifts.  What went wrong? Well, the customers didn’t turn up in the numbers anticipated. The football was on (don’t ask me what the match was, this is just something I overheard being muttered about!), people didn’t want to come out in the cold, the admission charge may have been offputting.  Who knows?

OK, so it may not have been a total washout: I sold a few things and I met two people who liked my things enough to discuss stocking them in their shops.  I met some lovely people selling some lovely things.  I tried out my shiny, new chrome Gridwall stands.

new display stands

They were surprisingly easy to put up, despite their weight.  I don’t think I’d have managed without my trolley to carry them to and from my car, though. 

I didn’t maximise the display space - I’ve realised I can do so much more with it.  I can hang things on both sides of the stands.

display stands

The banner probably needs a re-think to keep it looking crisp and not saggy like this:

display stands

The table itself also needs a re-think.  I thought it looked a bit cluttered.  I think I need to bring some of my baskets back out of hibernation for some organisation.

clocks and canvases

The moneyboxes looked quite good though.  I’ve realised that not everyone understands the egg money box.  It’s for people who keep their own chickens, sell the eggs and want somewhere to keep the money.  It’s a good way to save up for the chickenfeed.  Self-supporting chickens! 

moneyboxes

I’m off to Worsley Park Hotel today for the craft fair there.  It’s nice to be getting out and about again with my 1st Unique Gifts goodies.  I love the buzz of a busy craft fair, love meeting the public and other stallholders.  There’s usually a great atmosphere at fairs, lots of banter and camaraderie.

The other thing I love is the instant customer feedback.  It’s always good to hear what customers (or even potential customers) think about your work - and it’s even better when that feedback is positive.

I was pleased to find out the fair is even closer than I thought and that the snow which appeared late last night has disappeared.  Yay. Driving isn’t my favourite hobby - driving in snow much less so.

If you’d like more information about the Worsley Park Hotel Craft Fair, you’ll find it here: www.creativecrafts-online.co.uk and if you’d like to pop along, it’s M28 2QT.

Come and say hello if you spot me!

There’s a bit of a New York shopping theme going on with my customers recently!

This is the latest New York shopping fund moneybox:

New York shopping fund

Gorgeously girly, delightfully pretty - and personalised too.  Just the thing to save up for a special occasion, it also makes a fabulous way to give a gift of money or even an exciting hint of a gift of a holiday!

The shoes and handbags are proving a popular theme, so these moneyboxes will be making it to the website very soon.  They are a snip at just £12.50 (+P&P) - if you can’t wait until they make it onto the website, use this contact form to request yours: http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/customdesignform.html 

Because we handpaint all our gifts to order, you can choose any colours and any wording so if one of our items needs tweaking to make it perfect for you, please just let us know.