Criminals, Camper Vans and Cake

Hi Folks, sorry it's been a while (again). One of the reasons for this is that I am now without a laptop. A couple of charming individuals did this to our dining room door, having slid open the half-painted sash that was without a lock.

They got a really good haul of all our electrical goods and even carted off my son's little home safe which he used to store his sweets in.

Lack of intelligence prompted them to use Mr Magpie's cards in two different cashpoints which had cameras on them and a car that was registered to their address. When the house was raided four days later our goods were long gone but other people's were found. A letter written to my son from his cousin (which had been in the safe) was also found, as was the tool that made the charming marks in our woodwork. This evidence was enough to charge a man with and he is now on bail pending a court date in the new year.

We are now waiting anxiously to see whether the insurance company will settle our claim since the window was unlocked (the lock had been removed for painting) even though the inner door was double locked.

Mr Magpie had a busy weekend after the robbery securing the house once more and adding window restricters and an alarm. I took the children up t'north to see family and we had a lovely time before coming back for our camper van adventure.

 

We have owned our old T4 Van for about six years now and although we have added (and removed, and added) seats to it it has essentially been a builders van, very useful whilst we have been renovating the house and also handy for transporting off-road motorbikes. It is also brilliant for camping since we would never fit all we take in the car. I was however very envious of my friend and her old VW in the summer when we went camping. She pulled up, hopped into the back and put the kettle on. I pulled up, had to unload all our gear and then spend at least two hours setting up camp.

 

 

Mr Magpie had been eyeing up camper vans for a while and spent much of his time at Larmer Tree sussing out the various options. We have been thinking of upgrading our T4 to a T5 so decided to hire one in half term to try it out. We weren't disappointed.  Since we didn't want to spend hours driving we had a lovely little tour of the West Country and it was just what we needed.




Glastonbury Tor
 



East Somerset Railway
 



Wookey Hole
 



I'll let you guess
 

The van was toasty warm at night thanks to the heater and it was fab for the days out too since we could provide our own hot snacks, drinks and warm seating area. This was particularly welcome at Stonehenge where the wind was whistling across Salisbury Plain.

We hired our van from here and thought the service was excellent. Although the owner is selling one of his vans, the £34,000 price tag is slightly over our budget so we will be looking for an ordinary van and 'pimping' it ourselves. I would love to hear if any of you have any camper van tales to tell or wisdom to impart.

Finally the cake you were promised. I can't show you a true 'ta-dah' since it is still in the oven and will be for at least another three hours, but it is that time of year again. I love making my own Christmas cake and in doing so I give myself the metaphorical kick up the backside needed to kick-start our annual preparations.

They are on hold for one more week though as this weekend I will be having a stall at Karen's lovely fair, so I have got a little bit of sewing to do. I am looking forward to catching up with Karen, as well as some other blog land friends like Katherine.

If you can make it to Alderholt on Saturday I'm sure you won't be disappointed, Karen did a fantastic job last time and always has a great mix of stalls and entertainment. Make sure you come and say hello!

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x


Larmer Tree July 2012

I promised you all that I would take loads of pictures and report back about my time at the festival but I may have sort of forgotten to get my camera out quite as much as I should have. Our old friend the British weather decided to get in on the festival action by providing several prolonged heavy downpours which made the event harder work than our long-lost friend Mr Sunshine would have done.

This was my stall all laid out on the Wednesday, before being opened to customers. I went with pretty much the same layout I had used in the last few fairs I did, but having seen some of the other stalls, I think I will make some changes in the future.

Below you can see my stall in the evening. I was lent a lamp, which did make a big difference. I had not thought I would need any extra lighting as the marquee was lit, but I see now that individual stall lighting can be really effective and next time I would definitely dig out the fairy lights.

In the picture below you can see some of the other stalls. The jewellery stall in the right of the picture was to my left. It belonged to the fabulous Annette, who became my festival heroine. Annette is a Larmer Tree veteran and was full of good advice and information, not just about Larmer Tree but about running a craft business and life in general.

Annette's jewellery is made from handmade glass and is just so colourful and gorgeous that I couldn't resist spending some of my profits on a few pieces.

I even got to design my own necklace, which wasn't as easy as you might think. It took quite a while to choose which colours to include, in which size, and in which order, but I love the finished piece. Please go and have a look at Annette's website, Wild Scarlet. You won't be disappointed.

The festival itself is held in a really beautiful setting in the Dorset countryside and the organisers did a fantastic job of getting us all on site and into place. We got to camp directly behind the marquee and even had access to showers! Unfortunately for us, we had decided against taking our own marquee-like family tent as it is really huge and we were concerned about it getting ruined. We opted to take our old, much smaller tent, which turned out to be a mistake as it proved no match for the torrential rain we had over the first few days and leaked like a sieve.

Double rainbow!

Mr Magpie was understandably less than keen to spend his holiday sitting in a muddy puddle so we made the decision to return home for the night and ended up commuting to the festival daily for the duration.

Initially the rain helped to drive people into the marquee for shelter and was quite good for business; Thursday was my second best day sales-wise. However, it soon worked against us as the lush green fields we arrived to turned into a brown swamp during the first 48 hours.

To reach the Artist's Quarter you first had to cross a sea of mud, and many people chose not to do so. I don't really blame them. Indeed, I was so reluctant to cross myself that I made only a few trips into the rest of the festival and failed to see a single band or comedian all weekend, which had not been the plan at all.

Would you?

Talking to the other traders, most of whom had been to Larmer Tree before, it seemed as though business was slower for most people this year. I know that this was the first year that tickets for the festival were still available as the gates opened, and from chatting to the visitors, many were planning on leaving early because of the mud.

I didn't sell as much as I'd hoped to, but I was happy with my takings all things considered and would definitely be up for a return visit next year if invited. The kinds of things that sold well at Larmer Tree were different to my usual best-sellers and I think I'd have a better idea of what to take next time and what changes to make to the stall.

Interestingly, although I displayed my fruit pincushions with a couple of decorative pins in, I didn't label them as such. I priced each item individually instead of my usual 'Fruit Pincushions £5' sign. Last time I did a fair I sold a dozen of them; this time only about five over the five days! It does seem that you really do have to spell things out for your customers!

All in all, I found the festival experience much more satisfying than selling at craft fairs. I have been on a steep learning curve and this experience taught me loads, as well as introducing me to lots of really lovely people.

For now, I am going to enjoy the last week before the children break up. I have got a few little sewing treats planned just for myself, as well as a bit more knitting and crochet. I can now resume Granny-Striping, yay!

If you were at the festival, I hope you managed to enjoy it and would love to hear from you with any thoughts you have on my stall.

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x

All the Fun of the Fairs

Three craft fairs, three poorly children and a visit from the in-laws. Last week was rather manic and has left me feeling pretty shattered. The craft fairs were all really good though. I sold lots of stuff and met some more lovely people.

My brooches were selling really well. I was making them while I was sitting behind the stall. Some of them got sold within minutes of being finished. I also sold all of the apple pincushions and most of the pears. It was a bit odd seeing the first one I made get chosen, but it's new owner assured me it was going to a good home!

I've got the setting up and taking down of the stall pretty well sussed now, I can even speak whilst doing it and I'm getting less nervous and actually enjoying myself more.

On Sunday, we went out for a lovely walk along the beach and then through the town and back again. We're still having really mild weather in Bournemouth and it was lovely to be outside. As we headed back, the sun was setting and the sky looked brilliant. I took lots of pictures, but none that properly captured what it was like.

 Skies like this make me want to paint. I wish I could!

Usually I make my Christmas cake at Halloween but all the sewing has taken priority. I finally managed to get it done yesterday.

From this to this in only five hours!

Only one more craft fair before Christmas. I really need to get started on the presents I'm making this year, but the children very kindly passed their bug on so I'm taking it easy this week.

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x

A Very Busy Week

I had hoped to be showing you lots of pictures from Saturday's craft fair but I was trying to be so efficient making sure that the camera was charged that it got left out of the packing and the snaps I took on my phone are trapped there because I haven't ever tried to upload them and now don't seem to have the relevant means to do so.

The fair went really well, the best one I have done so far. I met some really lovely local people who are regulars on the craft fair scene and they were full of lots of useful information. Thanks to Louise, the lady I was fortunate enough to be positioned next to, I now have an extra fair this week tomorrow night.

The success of Saturday, coupled with the fact that I now have three fairs this week means that I have been flat out trying to replace some of the stock I sold at the weekend. My felt brooches were really popular so I have made lots more and I also have a commission to make up and send out.

This is just a quick visit to remind you I'm here but I promise a proper update next week with  lots of fair pictures. With three events, I'm bound to remember the camera at least once!

Craft Fair Prep

It's been another busy week in the mapie's nest. Lots of sewing going on. The machine and I are now friends again. I turned some of my new oilcloth into these.

The flowery print on the right is by Clarke and Clarke, I really love their fabrics and so far everything I've made using it has sold pretty quickly. This is another of theirs that I've used before and had to buy again.

I also have this in ordinary fabric and it's just as lovely. This is a little purse I made a while ago.

I also made some more bags using the Ikea prints that have been popular. The fabric bags take a little longer to make because I interface them to make them sturdier and it adds to the cutting and ironing time!

Last week I was very kindly given a big bag of remnants by my neighbour whose friend works making curtains. I love this kind of gift, it reminds me of when I was little and we'd receive a black bag full of clothes from a friend or neighbour and would all go diving in for the spoils.

New stash!

I haven't got plans for it all yet but I did quickly whip up these for the weekend.

This is just a quick visit, still got to price up this lot and make some tweaks to the stall. Will let you know next week how the fair goes.

Thanks for stopping by,
Beth x