My Market Day

I wanted to share with you my Market Day on Saturday.  I travelled up to Gympie, which is north of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.  It was about a 3 hour drive from my house in Brisbane.  Hubby came along to keep me company for the long drive there and back bless his heart.  The whole purpose of travelling so far to go to a Market, was really an excuse to catch up with my really good friend Lyndal - from Love Lyndal.  We had a really nice weekend together and met lots of lovely ladies at the Markets.  Hopefully we can do another Market together in the future :) 

Car Boot Sale - Failure #2

#2
Well I did it again.  I had an unsuccessful attempt at selling my goods.  But you know what, this time I don't care!  I made a total of $11!  WOOHOO I'm rich!!!!

Let me tell you why I don't care.
1.  I had a good friend sit with me for the whole morning.  How amazing is that.  Thanks Maioha.  (PS she is an amazing photographer)
2.  The stall only cost me $10... so not big loss there.
3.  Everyone there was SO LOVELY.  I had many chats with fellow stall holders, and also the organisers of the Sale at the Uniting Church.  Such a nice bunch of people.
4.  There was food for sale.  And it was cheap.

And folks, that is all I need to have a good time.  Oh and an added bonus that made my day good was that no one stole anything!!

So here are the piccies..

My spread.  See those ladies outside the window... they're standing behind a BBQ with delicious sausages cooking on them.  I love a sausage in bread.  And only $2.  I had 2.

I had a good spot, right near the doorway so I had a lovely breeze which was at times quite chilly and also good traffic (even if it didn't lead to sales).  This Sale was supposed to be held outside, but it was raining ALL MORNING.  It was quite depressing, but luckily I got there nice and early to set up so got a good spot inside.  Other's were not quite so lucky.

Peeping through the space on the earring stand.  Can you believe I picked that baby up from a Thrift Store for $4?  I know, neither can I.

One of the pretty necklaces.

Bracelet stand.

One side of my table.

The view from my table.  Most of the other stalls were 2nd hand goods.  I got a few goodies of my own - a vase, some scrap fabric, some doileys, kiddie clothes & best of all.....

Homemade Apple Pie, Lemon Butter, & Choc & Caramel Fudge. MMMMMMM mmmmm!  Pie is good...

And pie makes EVERYTHING better... especially with cream :)

Hope you're all having a fab weekend...Happy crafting!

Christy

PS.  I have two lovely little packages all ready to be posted on Monday

Catch up time... again!

Ok I think I am the worst blogger in history.  I never get around to posting what I've been up to.  So here I am again, with a few things to show you (that really should have been blogged about individually as I made them).

1.  Fabric Canvases
I decided about a week ago, that although I am always making something crafty, my house is absolutely, 100% not decorated.  We rent so we're limited as to what we can do, but it seems to have escaped me to do anything until now.  So I went down to Crazy Clark's (Aussie Dollar Store) and bought a whole heap of different size canvases.  They ranged from $3.50 to $10 a piece.  I bought 10 in total.  I got the idea to do this from a blog I follow.  I can't remember whose blog.  I just looked for a good half hour and couldn't figure out who it was.  But I still ended up doing my differently.  They made their own frames and just did the fabric over the frame.  Where I bought frames with canvas on them.  Different but the same.  I have been asked to do a tutorial for these.. I promise I'll add it to my Urgent To Do List.  But here is what I've made so far.

These are in my craft room.  I love them.  The fabric in the centre is some vintage fabric I got from the Op Shop.  It was such a good find.

And here are the ones in my bathroom - yes they are covered in towels.  I found some super cheap ones and thought they'd be a fun way of decorating the bathroom.  I love them!

I have 4 more to make.  Then I need to find other ways to decorate my house... it is looking less bland.


2.  Money bag
I decided I needed to make a bag to put my money in for when I do Market Stalls.  I  made it out of nice and sturdy denim scraps that I had, and put in my VERY FIRST  ZIPPER!  I was so pleased when it worked out.  I was fully expecting a fail.  I think it's super cute!

3.  Applique Onesies
I finally bought that wonderful (I don't actually know what it's called) baking paper sticky iron on stuff for appliqueing.  It makes life a hell of a lot easier!!  I whipped up two onesies the other night.  I have a few more to go, plus a little boys Tee.

4.  Lace Earring Frames
Once again, got this idea from someone else, and can't remember who or where.  I really must write these things down....  I made a whole heap to sell at Markets, in white, silver & gold (gotta love spray paint fumes.. wooooohoooo!!)

5.  Christmas Paper
I will be going overseas in 47 days.  For a whole month.  Right before Christmas.  So I need to be super organised with having all my Christmas Cards ready to go to sell.  So I went and bought a very nice selection of patterned papers from Stampin Up! & my local Scrapbooking store (which is hugely overpriced).  These are just a FEW of the delicious stash that I now have.

6.  Filling orders
My friend/cousin came over the other day.  She went through my fabric stash, and chose all the fabrics she wanted me to make flowers out of.  She is a photographer and needs props.  She photographs babies quite often.  I am putting together a selection of flowers to be clipped onto headbands.  Here's what I've made so far.  There's still a few more to go.

7.  Other flowers
Last night a friend of mine put on a Girls Night.  I brought some of my crafty stuff (I made the previous flowers at this event) and the others girls there decided to give it a go themselves.  This is what they came up with.  I really think some of them are funky as!

8.  My stall last month
The promised photo of my stall at the Fete last month (that was depressingly highly unsuccessful).

And I think that pretty much brings me up to speed!!  I promise I will get my tutorials under way.  I have three in the makings.  I rarely have time to do anything, so when I do it's usually an hour - and I'd rather craft then blog (sorry ladies).  I'll post some of my Christmas cards once there are more to show (only 2 types so far).  Hope you are having a lovely Sunday!  Back to work tomorrow!

Happy crafting!
Christy

PS Don't forget to enter my giveaway!!  Only 4 days to go!!

My First Official Stall!

I am heaps excited folks! Next Friday afternoon/evening I'll be holding my first official stall at the Hilliard State School Fete. I am busily going through all my things, working out what I need to make, which things to take, putting prices on everything in preparation for the big day. I'll let you know more throughout the week!

Bad news

Well, I have some bad news. I got a call yesterday and was told the Market I was going to hold a stall at has been cancelled due to there not being enough stall holders. I'm pretty disappointed, as I've been working towards this for some time now. But I have a few other Markets in mind that I'm going to look into. I'll let you know.

Preparations for the Market Day

Well I have been a slack blogger of late. I have limited my experimentations to Facebook only, instead of keeping my blog up to date. The Market Day is only 29 days away! I am getting excited to have my own stall for the very first time!! I have been experimenting with different things to make and sell at the stall, so as to have a wide variety of fun things to sell.

I found a GREAT tutorial one day whilst Blog Hopping, on how to make fabric rosettes. I took this idea and have been making headbands. I have gone a little cuckoo and bought a whole heap of scrap fabric rolls at my local Fabric store, and have been tearing up old clothes and things. I love upcycling!! It's much cheaper! :)



Whilst at Mathilda's Market last month, I came across a GREAT way to display hair clips. I had my husband take a sneaky photo of it and I have created my own board!



It took me a few hours to construct, but a whole heap of glue & staples later, this is what I came up with. It will hold a good amount of flower clips, and the rest will go in these cute purple and blue wicker baskets that I found at the cheap shop.



I have become slightly facinated with Buttons. I found these great big button bags at Aldi a few months ago for a really great price. They have been put to good use. I have used most of the big and medium sized buttons - now to figure out what to do with the 100 or so tiny buttons I have left from each pack! Here is a headband I experimented with. Some like it and others don't. I figure if it doesn't sell at the Market Day I can easily unpick all those delicious buttons and reuse them for something else!



I went over my friends house last Saturday. She is conveniently a Stampin Up! Demonstrator and she said I was welcome to come over and use her stamps and Big Shot to my hearts content. So I spent about 8 hours doing just that!!! I have some cute pillow boxes to sell that I will stuff with some MM's, and some awesome little gift boxes.



One last experiment to share...

Going along with the theme of buttons, because they are just so fun, I had an inspiration to make a button piece in a frame. Once again I've had mixed reactions. Some people think it's adorable, other's aren't keen. But I think it's cute. We'll see if it sells!!



I make the most of every opportunity to get some craft done. I take needle, thread and ribbon to work most days and sew flowers in my lunch break. Each night I try to get a few things done. I am amazed at all the little things there are to do to make sure that everything looks 'just so'.

I will be sharing my stall space with my sister. She is busily making little girls dresses, little boys tops, stuffed animals and some hair accessories. I was also over my parents house the other day and realised mum has gone Cross-Stitch mad!! What can I say, craft runs in our blood!! I love it!!

Sales on hold

So I am looking at having a stall at a Craft/Homewares Fair end of July, and need to stock up on my goodies so I have a good supply of wares to sell. Feel free to continue putting in orders for Father's Day cards as that is still a ways down the track and will be able to work on them after the Fair. As for the rest of my goodies.. they are officially being held for the Fair! If you want to purchase them, then you'll have to come and see me on the day! Details to follow :)