After the disaster with the market, I decided to turn those bitter lemons into sweet lemonade and hatched a plan. I'd consider myself a bit of a passivist and would like to consider myself as also a bit of a philanthropist. I could never be a hard nosed business woman stepping on whoever gets in the way whilst climbing to the top. I'd rather do good by good people and have a conscience I can live with. I was incredibly hurt and upset with the cut throat way the whole market business was conducted in, it felt like they had no care that a family with a special needs child had spent all their very hard saved for savings on stock before telling them 10 days before the start of the market that they didnt have a stall, and when I wrote to them explaining the whole situation they didn't even grace me with an acknowledgement, but on a positive note, it made me even more determined to succeed in a compassionate manner.
Luckily a friend from years back had witnessed via my protestations on Facebook and also felt I had been treated very badly and offered me the function room of their Inn free of charge so I could set up a craft fair. As you can imagine I was absolutely over the moon! My initial plan was to hire a hall and split the cost of the hire between any local crafters who wanted a stall, but then Simon jumped in with his offer. It was never my plan to make anything from holding the fairs, I just wanted an opportunity to sell my items at a reasonable price as everywhere I looked, stalls were so much. So now we have a venue for a regular craft fair on the first Saturday of every month (April's is on the second Saturday as a friend is hosting one this Saturday) and as the hall hire is free, I've asked each stall holder to contribute £5 for their stall and each month am going to give the proceeds to a local charity. This sits well with me as it helps others already trying to help the less fortunate, and gives local crafters and artists a chance to sell their goods at a reasonable price.
So despite feeling rough, rough, rough, this week I've dosed up on meds and worked really hard, all of which would not have been possible without Skye's invaluable help!!!!!!
And I think I'm finally ready to rumble
Boxes and boxes of stock, over 100 balls of yarn, 2000 buttons, fat quarters, threads, ribbons, pins, scissors, poppers, sem rippers, stitch markers and everything else precious stashed in my tower of boxes. I'm really excited and really hoping this is the start of my dream of running a craft shop and gallery to display local crafters work, with a studio attached so I can share my skills to teach others what I love best!
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