Getting Back to Fairs and Shows.

 Fingers crossed we will be able to attend some fairs and shows this year and have got a few bookings in place. We didn't manage to attend any during 2020. So I thought before we start heading out again I would do a round up of all the fairs we attended during 2019, it seems such a long time ago now, but there really was some awesome ones. 

First up Vintage on Sea at Sutton on Sea this event was held in early May and started out as a very wet and cold day. We were on open market stalls a new experience for us and we now quite prepared for this type of stall the exhibitor next to us kindly shared some of their back cover with us and when we attend this year June 26 &27th we are ready with our our cover and clips. 

This is a vintage event 1940's and 50's so dressing up was required although I did keep my jeans on under my dress, the stall had the added extras of some vintage books and playing cards found during family house clearances. and these cute vintage button tags. (must get some more made for this year.) 

The crochet cacti and succulents proved popular at this event.

Langton Plant and garden fair was next up a week later. We've done a few events with this quirky village hall and residents and they are always super friendly and have an excellent supply of cake and sausage rolls. The craft group at the hall had been working hard to create and knitted and crochet greenhouse full of plants and flowers this event was to show it to people before it went on tour. 

 It was the first event were we took our new ladder shelving I really like to use this when taking the event shelter out, gives us lots of display space. 

The next day we were at Woodhall Spa Country Show. I really like this event and was pleased to be returning, having missed the previous year as it was on my wedding weekend. 

A bonus for this fair was winning the best indoor stall trophy.

At the end of May we attended Carrington Steam Rally a two day event. It wasn't the busiest event sales wise but it was nice to have a stall here as my parents used to attend this stall with crafts when I was younger and the craft tent was something they are trying to build up again. 

We get to share the tent with some vintage farm equipment displays which is fun. 

Little gap till our next fair in late June attending Gunby Hall Rose day. All ways a well organised event with plenty of new and old customers to see. Unfortunately due to changed at Gunby these big event days with stalls might not be returning after covid which we are very sad about. 

In early July we attended the Burgh festival day (Photo credit Burgh le Marsh Website) This is always a fun afternoon with a great community spirit hopefully we will be able to have this event this year. 

The next day we were up bright and early for Galley Hill farm Strawberry Fair. We've done this fair a couple of times and its been great, we love making some strawberry themed products for this event. 

Early August saw us a Revesby Show this is a well established show but a first time for us attending. The craft marquee is well laid out with very easy parking. 

It was the first time we took a new display stand out, this lovely vintage folding cake stand is great for displaying bunting on. 

At the end of August, we went to another vintage event held at Baumber walled gardens this is a beautiful venue and we had a good time dressing up for it. 

The next day we attended Wragby Show, we have done this a number of times both in the marquee and taking our own shelter, we booked the marquee in 2019 as my sister was having a baby and it would be easier for me to attend by myself if needed. (Luckily she waited till the week after)

Mid September was another new event for us Stourton Autumn Festival we had had this one booked for almost a year after being approached by the event organisers. This was a really good day with Crochet cacti and succulents proving popular again and we hope it can take place again this year. 

In early October Mum should have attended Gunby Hall Apple day, however rain stopped play I was attending the OWPG event with my husband we got caught out with flooding and had to spend an extra night in Norfolk. 

Late October found us a Thurlby Mortors classic car day. We'd been invited to attend by the owner who we have known for a number of years, with the idea of being something pretty and interesting to look at for the less interested partners of classic car enthusiasts, we had plenty of space and had an enjoyable day sneaking in a few Christmas items for the first time that year.    

  Lovely vintage car in front of our stall, clad in leather. 

Late November saw us returning to Batemans Brewery Christmas fair a two day event with lots of fun. I will admit I preferred the location of our pitch the first year we attending but our neighbouring stall holders were a giggle. This event has  great atmosphere with lots of local family run businesses Christmas music and beer. 

(Photo credit Batemans Brewery Facebook page) 

The end of December was the biggie Lincolnshire Food and Gift fair. This two day event with a preview evening for invited guests on the Friday is a great Christmas fair, super well organised, indoor, dry and with lots of great stalls attending. (its hard not to spend all the profits while your there.)  

We had a great corner pitch and look forward to being able to attend this event again. In the mean time we have signed up to be in the same venue on the 15th of August at Lincs Fest hopefully this is be a good day and fun for al the family. 

Our last event of the year was Burgh's Santa day another community event like festival day where we like to have a stall, on the upper floor of the old granary there's always lots of festive cheer and its a great way to round off our fairs for the year. This room did sustain some damage when we had the mill tragedy but has been repaired now, and we hope to be back later in the year. 

(photo credit to Burgh le Marsh Website) 

In 2021 we hope to attend several fairs starting with Vintage on Sea at Sutton on Sea June the 26th and 27th se you there. 

  

 

Handmade Wedding (part three)

Finally getting round to finishing my blog posts about the handmade elements of my wedding. (Which was nearly two years ago now) So the first post covered the stationary elements and the second post covered the church bits now this post will look at the handmade things for the reception.

Lets start by mentioning again some of the bottles and jars used for the table centers. I have talked about these on my florist shop blog but think they are worth mentioning them again here. To try in with the pew ends in church some of the bottles were decorated with old OS maps and sheet music as well as lace, ribbon and black and white bakers twine.

 Also decorating the tables was some table confetti hearts and stars made out of the mint macaroon card old sheet music and OS maps. I decided on the handmade table confetti partly because it tied in well with the handmade theme of the wedding and the colours etc but also because we had attended a friends wedding with table crystals a couple of years before, and a few  of our less mature friends had taken to using them as missiles at fellow tables, each our and some down the back of my dress, this seemed a safer option particularly with so many small people attending.

Photo of me putting the confetti out. 

A big theme of decoration at the reception was bunting I'm unhealthily obsessed with bunting it's brill. My awesome Mum made tones of it in specially picked fabrics to match with our colours, one of which was a great mint green with bees on it which tied in with the bridesmaids gifts. There was enough to go all the way around the edge of the inside of the marquee about 200 foot of it. 

There was also a mini version made in matching fabrics to adorn some shelves in the entrance hall on which we created a display of black and white wedding photos of of family and friends some of which dated back about 100 years. This string of bunting has now found a home on our favorite bookcase a constant reminder of a wonderful day.  

We also managed to get some of the fabric used inside as matching oil cloth fabric this was cut with pinking shears to make abit of quick and simple bunting to adorn the garden outside and carry on our theme. Our guests spent lots of time in the lovely garden chatting, playing games and enjoying the sunshine. 

I also made a couple of card strings of bunting, its not very clear on this photo but it had the die cut letters MR & MRS RODDIE in the mint green and grey of our colour scheme. This hung across the enormous fireplace in the entrance hall.

The last string of bunting I made also using die cut letters was this saying just married I put it up in our room for when we returned home and then we took it with us on mini-moon to adorn our tent. 

 

Another use I found for my letter dies was creating the cards sign for the basket thought it looked rather good placed in the entrance hall next to the table plan

Also decorating the marquee was these brill hanging paper decorations, I didn't make them my self but purchased them from a great party decoration company called ginger ray they did all come flat and need assembling which took quite a while but was fun. 

Then my brother in law was in charge of getting them all strung from the ceiling with a little help from my niece.    

The last handmade element was something quite small but played quite a role in the proceedings of the day. I made a dinky throwing bouquet which included crocheted flowers and leaves, wool pompoms buttons and felt hand stitched flowers to cover the underside.  

And here's its big moment. 

So that's our handmade wedding. So much fun to plan, make and celebrate the day with our family and friends. 

I do plan to get back in to blogging more so check back soon to see what over crafty adventures I've been having. 

Handmade Wedding (part 2)

It seems an age since my last blog post about the handmade elements of our wedding. I must get back in to the habit of regularly blogging. So in the last post I talked about all the handmade stationary I did for the wedding in this one I will talk about the various handmade elements for the service which was in my local church.

 The main handmade item in the church was the paper pinwheel pew ends. When I had decorated the church for my sisters wedding she had had full flowers pew ends and while these are stunning they are time consuming to make and I wanted to make things easier on my self and create a very different look. The pinwheels where made out of the mint macaroon card as that was our colour, old os maps for Alex and sheet music for me.  The centers where a mixture of the have and hold stamp and our random greekyness, including minecraft, Harry Potter and Doctor who.

 I was particularly chuffed with the little doctor who reference, having found these one inch circles of each doctors outfit. Its a double nod to my randomness as it reminds me of the wedding in the vicar of dibley when Alice is planing her wedding dress and says about having hearts with a different doctor who in each one, I had a different doctor who in each set of pew ends.

 The iconic fourth doctor, Tom Baker, Scarf.

 The pinwheels were strung on to the pew ends using the black and white bakers twine I'm lucky that the shape of pews we have lend themselves to having things tied to them.

The front two book rests which are narrower just had a large mint green pinwheel on. The pew ends took quite a while to make but it was something I could do well ahead of time and then only had to place them on the day before. I actually got quite alot of work on them done over a couple of snowy days, thanks beast from the east.

The day after our wedding was a church festival so I left my flowers for that and was surprised to find the church wardens also left the pew ends up so the congregation could see the whole effect which i thought was rather fun. I really liked the idea of the mixed centers and it gave people something to look at while they waited for the service to start, many younger guests noticed the geek touches which I was pleased about.

 Some other little handmade bits in church were some decorated tic tacs theses were placed on the pews for the wedding party and choir. A die cut jar was stamped with the phrase mint to be on it which people found rather cute.

  And some decorated tissues which said for happy tears on them. You always need tissues at a wedding. I was quite lucky in finding some packets which were green and spotty so looked good inside the green sleeves.

Alex was mostly in charge of sorting out the order of service using the same fonts as on other items, but I gave them a little decoration to fit in with the rest of the wedding by adding some mint and grey bunting, a have and hold stamp and punching the corners.

One last thing I made for the church was these super cute little paper pouches, made out of more old os maps and sheet music they contained dried petal confetti for the guests to help themselves to on the way out of church.These went down well and looked really good in a white wooden crate.

And there was plenty of confetti when it came time.