The 3-day fair at Gawsworth Hall turned out well in the end - the bank holiday Monday was busy, busy, busy with lots of lovely customers.  There was a real buzz and people seemed to be having a lovely day out.  I came home with some lovely things: among them, this little gift from the lovely Joanne at www.vintagetwee.com - the popcorn will be a little treat for my daughter. 

popcorn cone

Wouldn’t they make fabulous girly party bag fillers?

Today I’ll be spending most of the day back in the studio (it’s funny how I miss it when I’m away from it for a few days) making up all the orders which came in over the weekend.

studio looking tidier than it is right now

My next fairs are this coming weekend: I’ll be at a playgroup event on the Saturday, followed by a craft fair at Sandymoor Hall in Runcorn on Sunday the 6th June.  If you’re wanting to visit Sandymoor Hall - a fabulous opportunity to support local designer/makers and buy handmade, unique items - the postcode for your satnav is WA7 1XU and there’s more info here: http://millenniumcrafts.co.uk/events.php

OK, there’s lots of work to be getting stuck into now - see you soon!

There is a reason I’ve called this post “Don’t Touch My Craft Room”.  Really.  Other than the fact I’ve had a bit of a re-organisation in my crafting space and plan to share some of the piccies here with you.

Here’s the reason:

craft room door plaque

One of the door plaques I sell is this one.  It surprised me that so many crafters attend craft fairs as customers (I don’t know why that fact surprised me - I attend as many craft fairs as I can as a customer even though most weekends I’m selling at them) - I only know they do because they buy this plaque.  The wording seems to be something many crafters definitely associate with!

It’s available as a hanging plaque too.

hanging plaque for craft room wall

I can change the wording.

personalised version

If you’d like a craft door plaque of your own, here’s the link: http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/doorplaques.2.html

And if you’d like the hanging plaque: http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/hangingplaques.html

But now onto my space.  As home-based workspaces go, it’s quite a generous size - I’m very lucky, I know.  I still manage to fill it - and mess it up!! 

This is the main space I use for painting:

my painting area

It’s often quite messy.  But also sometimes a bit like a production line:

watching paint dry

Round the corner, there are even more shelves of items ready to be finished off:

waiting to be finished and packed

It’s sometimes quite organised.

white boards

 The whiteboards keep me on track (mostly) - I update them daily.

It’s not just practical stuff that finds its way onto the walls.  I’ve put up some of my own paintings and you’ll also find postcards and photos that inspire me on the walls.  The beach hut canvas is one of mine.  I was inspired to paint this after getting lost in Devon one night.  I had to stop the car in a mad frenzy of excitement when I saw beach huts in the dark lit up by fairy lights.  It was magical, although the rest of the family thought I had completely lost the plot by this point.  They may well have been right.

pics on the wall

More of my paintings in another corner.

my paintings

This bit of the studio is a bit messy:

untidy area

I love sewing too but my poor sewing machine is feeling a little neglected these days.  It is a fabulous machine and deserves much better.  I will dust it off soon (promise!) and may even do a bit of something creative with it as well as the practical (read: boring) jobs I have lined up for it to tackle.

my sewing machine

Happy New Year

Here it is - the last day of 2009.  Traditionally, this is when thoughts turn to reflect the year gone by, as well as look forward to the new year to come.

2009 for me?  The story of 2009 for me has its roots firmly planted in 2008.

Sometimes you can go for years and nothing eventful happens.  About 18 months ago, midway through 2008, I was walking into work thinking how uneventful my life had become, how samey, how mundane (although my job could never have been described as mundane - I was a manager/teacher in a young offenders’ institute - an “expect the unexpected” kind of job - although after 12 years, even the unexpected becomes vaguely predictable!).

Then our house was suddenly sold after over a year on the market.  

sold

The very same week I was told I was being made redundant.

redundant

Yikes!  Nothing was mundane any more!

One of the reasons for moving was to get a studio for me to work in (my art helped with my migraine problem but didn’t mix well with family mealtimes: “Would you like gravy or perhaps paint on your dinner?”) - so the redundancy did make us think twice about moving, but didn’t put us off.  The art would not just be a hobby anymore - with a purpose-built studio, rather than a kitchen table, it could become a business.

We found a fab house with potential for a large studio, storage/loading for craft fairs/markets from the attached garage, and (a very welcome bonus!) a huge garden.  The downside?  The house had been sadly neglected - and hadn’t been lived in for over 2 years.  64 (yes, sixty four - I counted them) overgrown conifers dominated the space I now call a garden. 

conifers

The would-be studio (second “garage”) was made from asbestos, tin, bits of fence and wooden pallets, bound together by a tangled mess of ivy (probably the only thing holding it upright). 

The house itself was (almost literally, it turned out) held together with seventies-style hessian wallpaper coated with several decades-worth of nicotine.  It needed a replacement roof, rewire, replumb, new heating system, new kitchen, new bathroom and, as we discovered when we stripped the wallpaper, wall ties to help the walls stay where they should be - er, together and not inches apart.

crack in the wall

Not much, then…

I was actually made redundant on the 11th December 2008.  We moved into rented accommodation on the 12th December.  The sale and purchase completed on the 19th December.

Newly redundant, with just a new part-time job and a business plan to my name, I became project manager, wallpaper stripper (oh God, what a job!), chief painter and, of course, brewer-upper for the myriad workmen - builders, roofers, electricians, plumbers, asbestos-removers - you name it.

work has started

a new doorway

shiny new flooring

The business finally got underway once the house was habitable and the studio rebuilt:  http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog/creating-the-garden-studio/

Wow, what a year it’s been!  It’s been a massive learning curve for me - and I’ve loved, loved, loved every minute.  I’ve learned about building, roofing, kitchens, IKEA, B & Q, websites, blogs, search engine optimisation, taking/editing photos (ok, I’ve still a way to go on that one!!), craft fairs, farmers’ markets, and the value of sharing advice.  That includes giving as well as receiving.  Both have been very valuable. 

I’ve discovered frogs, dug up boulders, chopped down trees, used a chainsaw, made plum jam (well, what else do you do with 15 lbs of plums?), planted (and dug up!) all sorts of stuff, pruned an overgrown grapevine, crawled through roof spaces, climbed up onto roofs, got RSI from too much ceiling-rollering, scrubbed a very green greenhouse, froze (as well as painted) in my new studio, met all sorts of new people, made people smile, made people gifts they were pleased to give to others and also to themselves, stood all day at an outdoor market in sub-zero temperatures and not only survived intact but actually enjoyed the experience…

Phew!!!

I suppose what I have done is built a home and a business this year.  Wow, I hadn’t thought of it like that before!! 

It’s been inspiring, it’s inspired others (I know because they’ve told me) and I in turn have been inspired by many others who are doing something similar to me.  I found this blog post particularly inspiring: http://www.thatcanadiangirl.co.uk/blog/2009/12/14/the-hardest-thing-about-an-idea-is-to-get-it-started/ - it’s not all about the success for me, it’s about the doing.  The scraped knees alongside the victories, to paraphrase Vero’s blogpost.

We are in the middle of a recession, and it definitely hasn’t been easy.  But it most definitely has been very rewarding.

I don’t know what 2010 will bring.  I hope it brings you at least some of the joy and satisfaction  I’ve had in 2009. 

Happy New Year!