5 Things I learnt about selling face to face

1. It's very hard. You really put yourself out there for people to criticise and be rude. You need to have a thick skin and be confident enough in your product to know they are actually just rude.


How do you do this? Well start small, don't throw yourself at the mercy of a craft fair 1st time out. Take you stuff in to you work colleagues, church group, toddler group, where ever you have people who are your side. You still will get people who are a bit of hand but most people will find something positive to say. Take these comments and use them.


2. Know your market. I sell a wide range of bag sizes and I have discovered different bags for different people. Before the craft fair I thought how much do I usually spend as my max in a single purchase at a fair and with this in mind I made more of my 6inch bags. This was by far the most popular size and outsold the others hands down.


3. Find a natural born seller and befriend them. If you are quite shy about selling yourself, get someone else to do it for you, until you can see that people are interested. It is much easier for someone else to say how fab your stuff is. My person is Max, she is a true drama queen in every sense of the word, but only has my best interests at heart (btw I didn't befriend her just to sell my product). However be warned don't hard sell you customers, they will just walk away. I do.


4. Have lots of product. We all like to look and we will stop to look at someones work if there are plenty of things to look at. Have a good variety of price range, everybody has a price range and your need to cater to all.


5. Make your customer feel special. Go that extra sticker, it will pay off in the long run. No-one wants to get a lovely handmade item, or anything for that matter, shoved in a plain white plastic bag. Wrap it, stick it with some printed stickers, bag it in paper or wrap it.

Georgie has arrived, Yipee

I ordered a Georgie the Gingerbread man as part of my mum's xmas box (she doesn't read this) and he arrived today, that's what I call cutting it close. I only ordered him because he is so darned cute and even nicer reality.

He is a cubby wee man, but absolutely lovely. Don't you think? I have to admit I actually ordered 2, one for me as well, I just couldn't resist.

He was a little at risk as he wasn't dispatched until very late last week and only after some... erm... shall we say "firm" emails. In fact I had come to the conclusion he wasn't going to make it but he has.

the postie brings little parcels of joy

Some fabric has arrived, well a lot really, but I was only actually able to contain my self to photo this before ripping open the parcels. I am very impatient.

This is just the tip of the iceburg, I have a pile about a foot high (no joke) sitting waiting to be put away.

Oh and by the way for those who check-in from time to time, you are not going mad they did appear at the same time, publishing problems.

I must get back to some wrapping and tidying.

last custom order before christmas

phew! Last custom order finished for christmas. Thank goodness. I really appreciate the business but I really could have done with more time before christmas. I have that sneaking feeling I have forgotten to do something.....

Tomorrow morning I have the joy of an early morning christmas food shopping trip with my mum to marks and spencers. As we live an hour apart we will meet somewhere in the middle. My poor hubby is being ditched at work at 7.10am instead of 8am to accomodate. Why do I love christmas????

Fabric Purchases

I went on a bit of a fabric splurge today.... and bought loads. Which looking at the current state of my kitchen I clearly don't need, but anyway, now I just have to wait and see if it arrives before christmas. Fingers crossed. Back to custom orders, boy am I tired.

Craft Fair

I did get them all framed and I survived the craft fair, as well, but only with a little help from some friends. It was the most fantastic 2 days, we had great craic, drunk lots of coffee and indulged in a little cake.


It was a very early start on the Saturday morning, about 6am, after a very late finish, about 2am. We got all packed up said goodbye to the dog and set off. We arrived at St Georges Market at about 7.30am and went and located our stall. We had a good spot, a little of the main path through the market. We set up.....



and waited...

After I had made my first sale I felt much better. The thought of going, putting all that effort in and selling nothing was very stressful.

After the 1st sale was the next and next. In total we sold about 50 bags on the first day, I went home very happy, but a little worried as I had only brought 92 bags with me, so I made some more that night. I was quite lucky I had some bags that were 1/2 made so just needed finished, while others had to be started from scratch. In total I was able to make and finish over 20 more. It's amazing what you can do when you backs up against it.

Sunday was not quite as busy but brisk enough. We sold another 40 bags, including all of the ones I had made on Saturday night.

So all in all it was definitely worth it. On Sunday my husband & I were able to chill out for the first time in weeks. I was asleep by 9pm.

Will I ever be ready

Will I get these all framed in time for the craft fair?

Will I ever get my house back from the fabric and bag warehouse it has turned into???