Branching out

So something very exciting happened for Hannah's Craft Cottage at the weekend. We took our first batch of stock to a shop in near by Woodhall Spa, to join other local crafters selling their items. The shop is called Stuff with Style run by the lovely Stephanie, you can see their facebook page here.

I'd heard about this treasure trove of local talent thought facebook and a few weeks ago gathered up some sample pieces of our range and contact details and plucked up the courage to go check it out. Its one thing to sell my crafts in my shop and at fairs its a little daunting to take them somewhere else and ask someone if they are good enough for them to sell. Luckily Stephanie is super friendly and seemed to really like our bits.  

So since then I've been selecting pieces and making new stock to make up our first box of stock. I've selected a range of things to see how they go and will adjust based on sales, and as new items join our range. In the fabric items there were some pocket tissue holders £3.99 each (pictured above), nail file holders so handy for handbags £2.75 each, fabric hearts lovely and decorative £3.75 each and lavender bags £2.50 each.

 All the items sent have been labeled up wit the Hannah's Craft Cottage stamp, branding is important, I'm really pleased with how they look.
In Stuff with style all the different crafters work are all mixed up together arranged in eye catching ways and coordinating colours so the tags will make items easily identifiable as mine.  

Lavender bags with a range of pictures on new themes coming in Snapdragons florist soon.

 In my hand stitched felt range I have sent four different designs for now. Some of my super cute toadstools (£3each) from the woodland autumn range because I think they are lovely all year round.

 Some of the felt Russian dolls,(£4.99 each) just in time for mother's day this coming weekend.

 Of course I had to send some of my lovely detailed partridges,(£9.50each), perfect for country gents and ladies which frequent Woodhall.

And our popular felt cats,(£4.99each) hopefully soon to be joined by some dogs when I get time to perfect my pattern.

In crochet I have sent some of my brightly coloured Quirly birds (£3.99each) I have added to their quirkyness by naming them all I hope they find happy homes soon.

Also some pretty crochet flower brooches (£3.50each) a pretty adornment to any hat, jacket or anywhere. Displayed on large luggage tag making a lovely gift.

 Some of Mums sure neat and intricate Tatting has also gone for something different. A selection of bookmarks (£5each)

And keyrings (£2.50each)
So why not have a pop along to Woodhall Spa soon and check out my items and all the other lovely bits Stuff with style has to offer. Supporting local talent.

March already

So it's March already not sure how that happened.
If you can bear to cast your minds back I'm going to do a couple of blog posts about Christmas, One about the crafty things I made for Christmas and one about the crafty things I got for Christmas (cus my friends and family know me so well.)

As an early Christmas present for my sister I made these cat decorations, I used the same template I designed for my general felt cats which I sell and adapted the extra pieces and embroidery to make them look like her cats.

I even managed to freehand embroider their names on the back. I'm rather pleased with how these turned out and my sister was very pleased with them too.

  Oh course I made a batch of Christmas cards lots of them had tree themes this year. the cut away tree punch ones looked good and I was also pleased with the lovely as a tree ones which have sheet music paper behind and vellum with embossed dots for a snowy look in front, these were for my choir buddies.

I had a commission for a couple of Toft critter for my Mother in Law to send to family. This Bridget the Elephant and Austin the Rhino have gone to live with a lovely pair of twin girls.

A cousin of mine was rather impressed with the felt cats I had made for my sister so with lots of looking at Facebook pictures of her two fluff balls I managed to make a pair for her too.

 Again I managed to freehand embroider their names on the back.

 On a baking front I experimented with 3d ginger bread for a games night with friends. I'd had the cutters for a while and have been trying to find a time to try them out. I used the recipe provided with them and although it takes a while to come together (so much so I thought I'd left something out it was so dry.) the end result is really tasty and keeps its shape really well. Along with the 3d bits I also made lots of mini angels and gingerbread men. With the speed which my friends demolished it I think was alright.


I also gifted a couple of crochet quirky birds to my brother in law and his partner but forgot to photograph them before they headed up to their new home in Scotland,




It seems like a very long time ago now but there you are crafty things I did for Christmas.

Christmas at the Mill

The local festive event was at held on Saturday the 10th of December at our windmill
There was craft and charity stalls, raffle, refreshments, live music provided by a band and school choir and a visit from Santa in his mill grotto.

Thanks go to my wonderful fiance Alex for his
help setting up, packing up and for taking these lovely photos of the stall.
This year the stalls were moved upstairs above the granary tearoom. I think this worked well as there was more space, and it was lighter and warmer up there.

I did surprisingly well at this event which shows that as an event it is improving every year which is very good for the community.
The lavender bags were popular as always particularly the Christmas designs.
The fabric tissue holders and nail file holders also went down well as useful stocking fillers.

The knitted Christmas stockings and crochet quirky birds also attracted some attention. Overall I sold a good mix of items which was nice.









More pictures of the even can be seen here on the town website. this event was my last fair of the year and we're looking forward to next years events already. Here's to a new year full of crafting.
Merry Christmas to all my readers.  

Gunby Hall Apple Day

Our third and final engagement of the year at this lovely venue, we have really enjoyed having stalls at Gunby this year and look forward to next years.

This was also the last outing for the coleman shelter this year the rest of our stalls will be inside. it held up reasonably well  to the rather damp seasonal weather with just a few tiny leaks along the seams in one particularly heavy downpour. Luckily the ex scout leader in me had the foresight to pack an extra ground sheet to throw over the stock when this happened. so all was well. The stall had the usual L shaped set up and I was pleased with how it looked.

 We snuck out a few Christmas items at this event just to see how they went, felt decorations in festive shapes including robin, gingerbread house, holly leaf and bauble shapes and knitted stockings in three colours of sparkly wool. The stocking drew quite alot of attention. They were displayed on our new silver glittered tree.

There were also some Christmas scented tealights in set of three for 99p these pair up with our popular tealight jars.
We also had some Christmas design lavender bags which were very popular along with our normal lavender bags.  Other well selling items included the felt cat decorations with us selling half of the stock taken. I wonder if this is because many cat lovers visit Gunby hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous Committee and Craig.

A quick picture of a few extra cards being added to the stock, I really must find time to make more. The top four were done with a Stampin  up set called pedal pusher which I picked up earlier in the year. The main tandem bicycle stamp as lots of little complimenting stamps to make each one different including a basket  with variety of contents, flowers, hearts and bread and wine, a flag and adorable little birds.





The next stall will be at the Lincolnshire Food and Gift fair on the Lincolnshire show ground on the 26th and 27th of November this is a rather large event with over 150 traders. Really looking forward to it fingers crossed it goes well.

Wragby Show and country fayre

On Sunday the 4th of September we attended Wagby Show and country fayre this was the first time we had attended this event and it is abit further afield for us. This was a craft marquee event which makes a nice change from having to set up the event shelter. The show had many attractions. Including Cattle, sheep, and poultry, equine events, dog show, displays in the main ring and traditional produce show.  

The day had an early start, the information said the show started at 9am with the show ground being open for setting up from 6am, I didn't wish to be late and make the organizers think I wasn't coming or have trouble getting on to a busy show ground so we arrived in good time around 7am, surprised to find only one other exhibitor in the marquee who had had the same idea. this gave us plenty of time and space to get set up before most of the others arrived at around 8am. Tables were provided and space was a little tight compared with our normal layout but I think in the end the stall looked good.

 The candle jars were sporting new Hannah's Craft Cottage labels as I try to include abit more branding on the stand. These dozen pretty patterned tealights presented in a clip top jar are a lovely present, great for thank-yous, new home or any occasion. I hope they will sell well in the run up to Christmas. Only £4.99 each.

The new felt toadstool and oak leaf ornaments looking good on the Shepard crook display stands.I sold some of each of these which I was pleased with as well as a good selection of other items.  I heard someone say afterwards that visitor numbers were abit down on last year this may have been due to the slightly damp weather, and I personally thought that the marquee could have done with some more signage to say what was inside but over all we were pleased with the day and will be looking to attend next year.


Our next stall weather permitting is Gunby hall apple day on Sunday the 9th of October. Where we will be starting to display some of our Christmas items.

Partney Fair 16

On Saturday we attended Partney fair this was the third time we had been and so far every year has been an improvement.  The fair its self was the village's 930th with records of the original ones appearing in the doomsday book. Its a lovely traditional fair with a real village atmosphere.

 Like the week before at Gunby it was a little breezy setting up but we expected this after experiencing windy conditions here before.  I felt the stall looked nice with things laid out well and the bunting displayed at the side. We sold a good mix of items and people seemed very impressed with what was on offer. It was lovely to meet customers old and new.

Again the Shepard's crooks were working well this one displaying the new felt toadstool decorations these are the first of a new autumn/woodland collection I'm designing.

Plenty of entertainment was provided at the fair including two sets from Horncastle Ukulele Group or "HUG" as their t-shirts state. Who played a good selection of sing along songs. And circus skills and comedy knights from Earthbound misfits who scoured the field looking for damsels in distress and dragons to slay.

A closer look at the new felt toadstools. Check back soon to see which other designs have been added to the collection.

Next Fair is on Sunday the 4th of September Wragby Show & country fayre.

NGS Gunby Hall

With the summer we are in full swing fair mode and this last weekend was our second trip of the year to the local national trust property Gunby Hall  to take part in their National Garden Scheme day.

It was abit of a breezy morning but we got the tent up and once the walls were on it was a very nice sheltered spot. Again I'm very impressed with  the coleman it is very sturdy and attracted alot of attention from the other stall holders who were finding their shelters not so solid.

I used a couple of the new mini shepard hooks to display some of the felt decorations, These were a bargain and are proving very useful I think they and the larger ones I have in the shop will be particularly good at Christmas.

A new felt decoration which launched at this show was these super cute felt cats. Like the other felt decorations they are all hand sewn. At the moment I'm just producing them in normalish catty colours. They proved very popular with half of them selling I'm now having to whip up some more in time for out next fair this weekend.

A couple of other new bits on the stall this weekend included a few extra cards I really must find time to build up  the stock of these again.

And a few extra friendship teas these are always well received. Other popular items at this show included lavender bags and candle jars,

All in all a very nice day and looking forward to the next fair this Saturday the 13th August Partney Fair 11am till 4pm.