Where's my festive feeling?

I'm normally a big fan of Christmas, I love the lights, the food, the decorations, seeing family and friends, having time to do some cooking, eating and drinking too much and the list could go on and on. But this year I just want to curl up on my sofa and sleep and not have any contact with the world for a least a week!! So I suppose I am still looking forward to it, but in my own way.

I started off the month feeling very festive and had some big festive plans. But then we had the burst pipe and then last week I was ill up with some kind of stomach bug and only had my first proper meal in 6 days last night. Its all kind of killed my festive feeling. I am sure when I finish work tomorrow I will rediscover some of my missing festive feeling, and I think I need to plan some things to get me in the mood. But at the moment its well and truly gone.

Pipes

I had big plans for last week. I was hoping to take lots of product shots and list them on Folksy (better late then never), I was going to do a Christmas Giveaway and was generally going to get myself sorted and organised.

Unfortunately things went pear shaped again on Wednesday. We got a call from our lovely neighbour saying there was water pouring out of our roof. We got home to find some of the kitchen ceiling on the floor, water pouring into the living room and general the house in very wet chaos.

After contacting about 8 plumbers we managed to get hold of someone who could come round. It turned out to be a bust pipe. The plumber was really puzzled why it had happened as our pipes are lagged and the heating had been on a lot and nothing else seemed to be frozen.

So then the clean up began. Every room bar one was effected to various degree's so we called in back up in the form of my wonderful mum and dad.

The spare room got the worst of it, we had to pull up the carpet as it was completely soaking and the fitted wardrobe got a good soaking, all the wood has split or swollen and none of the doors will close. Unfortunately the wardrobe contained our entire selection of clothes, shoes, towels bedding etc... and almost everything got a good soaking. So I am currently working through about 20 bin bags of washing and my mum took several back with her too (bless her). All my shoes were full of water and I currently only have one dry pair. They are so wet I can't see them ever drying.

Some of the ceiling came down in the kitchen and water got into every kitchen cupboard and draw so everything has to be cleaned.

We were quite lucky in the living room as we have varnished hard wood floors and leather sofa's so have been able to cleaning up most of the mess, things are still drying out, but it doesn't seem too bad considering.

After a few days of hard work cleaning up, things aren't looking too bad (especially considering the amount of water we had pouring into the house). We are both trying to look on the positive side and things could have been much worse. I am still working my way through a massive pile of washing and things are a bit damp. We still have some things to sort, but we are getting there. I think most of the house will need redecorating, carpets and rugs replacing etc... so it will be a while before we are back to normal, but it just one of those of things.

Now I have the fun task of sorting out insurance, which is already proving very stressful and so far I am very disappointed with the service I am getting from the building insurance and I think it may be a hard slog to get anything sorted. Having said that the contents people seem much better.

I am just hoping to next cold spell doesn't last too long as I am so scared of it happening again!

Another strange one

This weekend I shared a stall with Pinnikity at the Contemporary Craft Fair at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre. After a very disappointing fair the weekend before we were both hoping this would be a good one. But unfortunately sales were few and far between, we both sold a few things, but only really enough to cover costs, which was a bit disappointing.

Having said all of that in many ways it was a really good event. It was really well organised. (My day job is an events producer, so I do like and appreciate a well organised event!). The booking procedure, regular updates throughout the year, exhibitor manual sent out before the event, were all really good. Then onsite there were people directing you to loading bays, where there were trolleys available and exhibitor parking was close by, all of this made setting up and taking down really easy. All the stands were clearly labelled, and room plans were available at the door so you could see where to go. The organisers had also done a really good job with getting visitors, it was really busy, especially in the morning, but was it got a bit quiet in the afternoon. So I really can't fault the event itself. Its just shame people didn't seem to be spending any money. Many other stall holders were saying the same thing.

So that's all my Christmas Fairs done for the year. I think next year I will be choosing what I do more carefully and may just do a couple of smaller local fairs, as its easier the cover cost and doesn't matter so much if you don't so well. I also hope that by next year, people may be happier to get their purses out again, but that seem unlikely.

Contemporary Craft Shopping Experience

On Sunday (5th December) I am sharing a stall with Pinnikity at the Contemporary Craft Shopping Experience, at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre.

I am really looking forward to this event and have my fingers crossed that its going to be better than last weekend. All the stalls are selling handmade goodies and I believe there are around 100 makers attending. The organisers have tried to get a good mix of crafts and looking at the website there seems to be a really nice selection. Sounds like it may be a great place for some more Christmas shopping. I am just hoping that its not effected by the weather too much.

Here is a photo of my snowy garden, not bad for city snow!

Hot Spicy Apple Juice

Thanks for all your lovely comments about my craft fair 'experience' at the weekend, really appreciate everyone's encouragement and its really helpful to hear other experiences.

Another success story from the weekend, was Hot Spicy Apple Juice. I spend Saturday looking rather longingly at people drinking mulled wine. And thought it would be great to have a non alcoholic version. So on Saturday night I went home and made some Hot Spicy Apple Juice, it was loosely based on a recipe for mulled cider by Sarah Raven, which is also very yummy.

The recipe is roughly as follows:

Hot Spicy Apple Juice

2 litres of apple juice.

2 apples, sliced

2 oranges sliced

Lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 cinnamon sticks

10 cloves

About 2 tables spoons of brown sugar, you may want to do this taste.

1 tsp of mixed spice.

Bung everything in a large pan and gently simmer for an hour, then drain and drink. I re-heated the next morning and put in a flask and it was great.

I think this may become my tipple this Christmas.

More about the weekend....

Here are some more photo's from the weekend. Our stall was in a stable, so we were fairly limited to space, although I think we managed to make the most of what we had. It got a bit busy when people were looking, so we had to lurk nearby and this meant standing all day.

I have wondered if people may have looked or brought more if they didn't have to walk into the stall, I suppose its easier to casually browse at a table, but I doubt it made that much difference.

Here is Pinnikity's version of events!

I suppose the good news is I don't need to make anything for the fair this weekend, (although if I get time I may make a couple more hot water bottles, but waiting for a fibre delivery first). This means I can start thinking about making some things for Christmas or for me, which is quite nice. First project will be making my niece a Christmas stocking for her first Christmas, which I

am hoping she can keep for a few years.

I also need to find some time in daylight to take some product photo's, I have lots of draught excluders, door stops, Christmas cards, tea cosies etc... to list. I think its maybe a bit late for Christmas, but seems silly not to list them.

The curse of the craft fair continues.....

This weekend I shared a stall with my friend Nikki at the craft fair at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. I try not to go to a craft fair with too many expectations as you never quite know how the day is going to go. But I think I was fairly hopefully that it was going to be a good one, as it was at a National Trust property, last year they had over 5,000 visitors, the stall fee was much more than I would normally pay, it was a two day event and its Christmas shopping time. So I think I was hoping we would do ok.

We woke up on Saturday to snow, although I am a fan of snow and still get excited by it, I wished it could have waited a few days. We managed to get to Kedleston Hall without too many problems although we did have a little incident trying to turn round in front of the hall and got a little stuck. But the hall and grounds looked beautiful and it all felt very christmassy.

Our stall was in the stable block and although it was very cold at least we weren't outside like some people. Saturday seemed very quiet, but I still sold a few a bits. I presume the snow put quite a few people off. So we went home on Saturday trying to remain positive and hoping Sunday would be better. When we arrived on Sunday and were relived to see that the roads were much better. But Sunday was so strange, its was really busy, but only sold one thing! I know many of the other stall holders were having similar experiences, but that doesn't really help.

I am experienced enough to know that not every craft fair will be a success, but I was thoroughly disappointed and it does make you questions your products, packaging, how you have displayed everything and if you are actually good enough.

But on a more positive note, I was really happy with our stall and personally thought it looked great and I had a really good laugh and it was lovely spending a weekend with a friend I don't get to see too much. So it wasn't all bad!

I have also been thinking maybe I need to choose the fairs that I do more carefully, but until you do it you never know what its going to be like, but I think in future I will try and stick to more contemporary fairs, where everything on sale is handmade. It does bug me when something is described as a craft fair, but half the things on sale are not handmade or have been brought it (there was someone selling Cath Kidston products!)

We're doing another one on the Sunday 5th December at the Warwick Exhibition Centre, I'm trying to go with limited expectation, but I have my fingers crossed that it will be a better experience for both of us, I think we both need a bit of a boost.

*I have some better stall photo's which I will show later in the week, these were just taken on my phone.