IZZY, WHIZZY, LET'S GET BUSY

Hello everyone

I am notorious for leaving everything until the last minute.  I have somehow managed to create a wonderfully organised personality, which is quite untrue.  I tell myself that my best work is produced 'last minute' but I know that is incorrect, because often it is thrown together in a very unprofessional way.  However, I would like to assure anyone who has purchased work from me or taken (and taking) part in my events that where they are concerned, I am very organised.  Disorganisation happens when I arrive home and shut the door on the world!  Then chaos reigns.

The reason for the title of my post is that life is hectic at the moment and the days/weeks are not long enough.  A long time ago, I posted the question on here asking can I organise craft fairs and still take part in craft fairs organised by others; the questions still remains completely unanswered and having taken part in two fairs recently as a seller, I am still unsure.  The silly thing is that I excuse my self forgetting to take things to a craft fair on the basis that I am too busy!  Er, yes, so is everyone else.  I forget that I owe it to the organiser to do the very best I can by dressing my stall attractively, having a nice range of work to sell, following their terms & conditions and giving myself over to enjoying my time spent at the event (and all the time worrying about the million and one things I have not done).  Oh dear.

I took part in a craft fair in North Camp, Farnborough yesterday.  The weather was atrocious and this affected footfall, which was low.  However, the event was well organised, I met lots of lovely stallholders and I was pleased with my sales - I covered all costs and made a profit so left the event as a happy bunny.  A couple of pics of bags sold at yesterday's event:

My only niggles were my left and right side stallholders - lovely people, but......  If terms & conditions say don't put boxes, shelves, items, etc in the gap between tables, why do some stallholders think it includes 'but you can if you want to' on their information sheet?  To my left was a very big space, which was great because I  moved my table several times to escape the ever-growing pile of display material the stallholders on my right were adding to the gap!  I placed one of my bags on the door to my left only to have the daughter of the stallholder plonk herself down in front of it and lean on it - despite there being a very large space to park her backside elsewhere!  How unfair of me I can hear people say, but come on we are all there to display and sell our work, enjoy the company of others and look back on a successful event - not have annoying memories.  As I said, lots of lovely stallholders, but just a plea for some to remember they are not the only ones in the room.

When I take part in fairs, I take along work to do because even at busy events, there can be time to catch up on making.  I was able to complete a bit of work yesterday, but also had the time to look around me with my organiser's hat on; someone recently suggested I email photographs of a good stall set-up to my stallholders.  I have seen some really well set-up stalls, ones that look beautiful and others that look as though the stallholder walked into the room, threw their things onto the table and left.  One yesterday was a good example (or rather bad example).  No table cover and all storage boxes on display under their table; the table top display was poor too.  Why?  A table cover can be a bed-sheet - clean and ironed it can look very smart.  I suppose this is a little niggle about sellers who complain that they haven't sold anything, nobody went to their stall, etc, etc - come on you lot, you are a shop as far as the world is concerned so if you want to sell, please dress your 'shop window', lay out your goods beautifully and don't have all your boxes, bags, etc on show.  It makes such a big difference and your fellow stallholders will like it too.  Don't let event visitors remember you for the wrong reason.

I digress, I was supposed to be explaining why the post is called Izzy, Whizzy, Let's Get Busy because I must get busy.  A two-day event in two weeks time at the Medicine Garden in Cobham followed by my final event of the year as the organiser, closely followed by a hospital admission to have my knee sorted out.  An early Christmas present?  Fingers crossed.  In between these are lots of Christmas lunches and evenings out with friends and family and getting ready for Christmas at home - mobility will be limited so I will be able to get Richard to do all of the preparation and shopping. As if.

Have a good week everyone - see you soon.

Jill