customers

For me, one of the best things about selling my wares directly at markets is that you can build up a nice relationship with customers, who sometimes come back more than once and/or tell their friends about you.

I received these photos via WhatsApp from two repeat customers this morning, both of whom collected their goodies yesterday at the Country Craft Market in Somerset West.

The round patchwork cushion joins a few other patchworky things made by me on Martina’s bed, but I think it looks cute on the chair, too. The gold butterflies were a special request, on king-size pillow cases, and I need to print more – Christine says she needs duplicates for when these two are in the wash!

It’s a slow slow Sunday here: the sun is shining and there’s a nice breeze, and I was going to get some sewing and some writing done – but I woke up with a bad headache and a sore throat, so decided to embrace the chance to rest up. I went back to bed with coffee and biscuits and my book (Josephine Tey, just to mix things up a bit!) and am shortly going to pop some ingredients into the slow cooker to make this recipe from a wonderful book sent to me by Kathryn:

Hope you’re all having an excellent Sunday :)

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Simply South

I set up at the Simply South Gift and Craft Fair on Sunday evening, with help from Rob (Manager: Car Packing) and Karen (Manager: General Organisation and Product Placement).

A full table space is 180 x 75cm, which doesn’t always feel like much when you’re spreading out your samples and wares. You have to get clever about that. A white tablecloth is obligatory – I was delighted to find an old sheet with no holes in it and which came up just fine after a good soak in some Vanish.

The market is open until 22 December. Let me be optimistic and plan to take some more stock through tomorrow evening….

Franschhoek

Franschhoek is a small town in the winelands of the Western Cape and one of the oldest towns in South Africa (established 1688). 75 kilometres from Cape Town, it takes us just over an hour to drive there.

and yes, it truly does look just like this !!

We met Elizabeth and Vince in Oudtshoorn who told us about the Franschhoek Village Market, and now we drive out there every Saturday morning to join a very mixed and friendly bunch of traders under the trees, organised by Elzahn and Elsanu, mother and daughter team. There’s lots of fabulous food and wine and craft beer, and some beautiful local handcrafted work.

Some pics, to give you an idea of the prettiness of the setting, and the lovely weather (yes, it’s officially winter here, but we still get a bit of sunshine).

…me with Elizabeth (Rob in the background), Virginia with her leather bags, Kim with cotton jerseys and ponchos, Kelvin photobombing, and Judy (the curry lady) looking at my beanies.

Franschhoek gets tourists from all over South Africa, and quite a nice bunch from overseas – Americans, Swedes, Poms, Brazilians, French, Germans, and the Far East. With the South African Rand in the crapper, the foreigners are happy to support our economy, and how happy we are to encourage them :-)  I had a very rude Taiwanese woman on Saturday who seemed to think I should give her an 80% or 90% discount, but rudies like her are few and far between. (She didn’t get the discount, by the way, I would rather have stuck my crochet hook in my eye than sell anything I’ve made to her!)

The pillow cases are doing particularly well, and I’m waiting for Gareth to call to let me know I can collect my new screens (elephant and rhino). Pics soon. They’re going to be stunning :-)

In other news, I am busy packing up my flat and moving to a new house, next week – 3 June!  The date is looming and there is much to do. So much, in fact, that I am  unable to think about it. You may recall my expertise in procrastination. I have a PhD in it.

And a shout-out to some people in particular (if you are still reading this blog and haven’t given up on me) – Vardi and Fiona, sending you both multi-coloured hugs, and lovely Lisa who I met at the Somerset West Country Craft Market. xxx

oops. been a while.

It’s challenging fitting everything in sometimes. A lot of times, actually. But then you all know all about that, too!  On days when I’ve really overextended myself, supper is yogurt and a banana and then I’m in bed quite early. It’s all I’m good for. Plus I think I deserve it. And on days when I’ve haven’t extended myself much at all, I tell myself I was busier in my head than usual so I still think I deserve my bed and book when I please.

Tomorrow the Festive Ideas market opens at the Simondium Country Lodge, for five days. Everyone set up today – usually a bit stressful at the best of times, but the weather wasn’t playing fair and the temperature shot up to over 40 degrees.  Simondium is an hour’s drive for me, and by the time I got home at about 5.30, I was crazed with heat-brain and heat-body. I don’t know how else to put it. I was the most finished I’ve ever been. It took an very stationary hour under a wet towel to recover.

Here is part of my stand (the focus is on pillow cases, you’ll gather, rather than hats, beanies and bags)

and here, if you look carefully, you can see one of the many peacocks that has given its name to the Peacock Palace – the ‘hall’ where I am set up, along with 8 other traders.  If the windows aren’t closed at night, apparently they come in and crap mess all over everything.

There are 130 traders in total, and the venue is just perfect for such a huge variety of products and styles. It was still pretty overwhelming today, though, and I was mighty glad to get home to my wet towel and some peace and quiet.

Ah well, tomorrow is another day, and the weatherman says it’ll be about 10 degrees cooler than it was today. Fingers crossed.

pillow cases

I’m loving my screenprinting. Concentrating on pillow cases to start with, I managed to get a proper display and packaging together and took them to the Kirstenbosch Market on Sunday (the first one of spring, yay).

The feedback was excellent, a few sold and I got orders for more in different colours. I’m so encouraged that I even managed to find the time yesterday to update my website. Wonders will never cease.

Next up: the Wildflower Show in beautiful Tulbagh, this coming Saturday. Looking forward to catching up with Tina, Susan and the peacocks, apart from trading at the market itself.

Back soon x