Handcrafted & Vintage Christmas Fair

I can't quite believe it's that time of year again! This time last year I was spending my first few days at home with our little Stella, where has that year gone.........?



Somehow, in the midst of the madness, I have managed to keep the business ticking along, only just! So, after the Open Studios back in September, Katie and I got our acts together and organised the above fair, and in the blink of an eye it is upon us already!



We have a great selection of stall holders, everything from beautiful porcelain ceramics, to knitwear, vintage and textile homewares, artwork, photography, fashion accessories, painted furniture and lots more.



We've decided to do it as a fuindraiser for Help for Heroes as Rob, Katies husband, was in the Royal Dragoon Guard for 16 years. As far as we know we think this may be the first ever Handcraft Christmas Fair held in aid of the charity in Scotland, so lets hope we get a big turnout.

We've got the local SWRI serving up tea, coffee and lots of home baking, so hopefully that will pull people in too!



So, if you fancy a wee day out on Friday or Saturday of this week do pop along to the fair, remember to come and say hello!



L x

Christmas "Open House" at Lilybank

Hello all!

I'm in the land of pink and babies at the moment so this is very short and sweet! Thank you all for your lovely messages welcoming our little Stella into the world! She's doing extremely well, Mummy & Daddy are a little sleep deprived, but hey, it could be worse!

Just a quick post to invite all the locals along to this years "Open House" event. Seeing as we have our hands full at the moment, Katie at Vintage Squirrel has kindly offered to host this years event, and would love everyone to come along. We'll both be selling our wares, plus another friend is coming along to sell her gorgeous painted furniture, so do come along and start your Chistmas shopping!

It's at Lilybank, 32 Mercat Green, Kinrossie, Perthshire, from 11am until 4pm, this Saturday, 14th Nov. If you'd like any further info or directions give Katie a call on 01821 650632.

Hopefully see you on Saturday!

L xx

Back into things.

We are back home and trying to get back to normal, back into the routine of things. Friday was a really hard day, my first on my own with no one to look after, just me, myself and I. And a very messy studio with a huge backlog of orders to be made, put together, and posted out. I'm getting there, slowly. The shop is also back open now and is dressed for Christmas with twinkly lights and lots of festive loveliness.

Thank you to everyone for their thoughful comments, cards and phone calls, it's at times like this that you realise just how important good friends are.

Taking things slowly this week, but missing the buzz of the Country Living Fair, never mind there's always next year. I'm sharing a stall with Katie this weekend at a local Winter Festival so that shall keep me busy.

L x

A fab weekend

Well, we're onto the last push this week, it's more mad sewing for our Open Day this Saturday (all welcome if you're in the area). We had a fab time at The Green Gallery Fair this weekend, we were beside some lovely stalls in the conservatory, it always helps when you've got nice "neighbours" at these things.

I love the fact that quite a lot of bartering goes on between the stall holders, I did swaps with Emma of Pumpkin Sputnik who was next to me, she makes the most fabulous stationery, have a look at her site. We're hopefully going to work on a project together some time next year.......

We were also kept well fed and constantly tempted by The Cookroom, the most delicious range of cakes, all gluten and wheatfree. The Fair was their first weekend of trading so I really hope they do well in the future.

I also got to meet the lovely Jane Keith, the sister of my friend Sara Keith, both extremely talented textile artists. Jane was there with her fabulous range of hand printed and painted silk ties, I think we're planning on doing swaps too, she loves our dotty aprons and is getting one of our dotty door stops for her Christmas..........!

Right, must get on, loads to do this week, plus the house looks like a bomb has hit it, so a fair bit of tidying will be required before Saturday.........!

Bye for now,

L xx

P.S. the pictures are of Katies gorgeous felt jewellery, it flew off the stall this weekend. x

All work and no play.....

This week has been a bit mad, the fair on Monday and Tuesday went really well, which to be honest I was really quite surprised at. I had felt previously that it had been more of a "social" fair where people go to catch up rather than shop. But this year we did really well, hence the reason this has been a bit of a mad week, no stock left! So amid a mad flurry of sewing, we've also been trying to get the web site updated (always late doing that, one of these years I might actually get organised and be updated with xmas goodies by October, but to me that would just be boring, I much prefer to fly by the seat of my pants!). Plus, other than wanting to get the shop updated before December is upon us, we've also got a lovely little article in The Scottish Farmer about us this week, so by midnight last night my head was spinning slightly!

So, this afternoon I'm heading down the road to Buchlyvie to The Green Gallery for their annual Christmas Fair this weekend, one I always enjoy as there are always so many familiar faces, given that the area used to be home. It's my last fair for the season other than our open house next weekend, and boy am I looking forward to getting home on Sunday night, I'm pooped!

Off to get on with some last minute sewing, label printing and packing my bag, roll on Sunday night, a big hug from Gregg and a log fire to come home to!

Enjoy your weekend,

L xx

A few photos....

I'm absolutely pooped! Not long home from another fair, a big one in Perth that was on tonight and all day tomorrow - if you're in the area do pop along to say hello, there are some lovely stalls there........

The fairs are all going well, some better than others, but that always tends to be the case in this game, you can just never tell...... I should really be going to do some sewing now as we've sold out of a few products tonight, it's very heartening to see that it's the handmade goodies that are selling out, it makes all the hard work worthwhile!

Seeing as I've not shown you any photos of the studio build for a while I thought I'd post a few tonight, it's really coming on.......

The roof trusses inside, it's going to be open plan to make it feel nice and airy....

The sarking boards going on the roof......

At the end of this weekends work, roof water tight, the back wall clad and the side wall started.......

A rather blurry photo of Gregg on the roof playing with his favourite toy, the nailgun.......!

Right, I suppose I'd better go and get a bit of sewing done before I go to bed, it's going to be a long week I think!

Night, night,

L xx

A quick post.....

Morning all! Just a quick post to let you know our next fair is tonight and tomorrow at The Edinburgh Academy School. Tonight (7.30pm - 10pm) is a ticket event, £10, which includes champagne and capapes - very posh! Tomorrow is open to the public from 11am - 4pm. There will be approx. 50 stalls so it should be rather good. I'm really looking forward to it as I haven't been down to Edinburgh for ages, hopefully this afternoon Katie and I will manage to squeeze in a couple of art exhibitions, so I'll report back on Monday!

I also want to tell you all about the latest happenings here on the animal front, I've

been trying do a post on it for ages, but never quite get round to finishing it! We've had our first experience of eating our own poultry produce, but all I'll say for now was that it was very yummy! Don't worry we haven't eaten William the Cockerel.............

More next week, off to pack the car, it's a very frosty morning!

L xx

Friday Fair

As usual, I forgot to take my camera last night to take a picture after the set up, but never mind, better late than ever eh!

As you can see, that's not me standing behind the stall, it's Katie, my great friend, who I'm doing all the fairs with this Christmas. Katie makes the most beautiful felt jewellery, and lots of other gorgeous little bits and bobs and trades under the wonderful name of "Vintage Squirrel"! We had a great time today, met lots of lovely people and lots of friends came along too, so a successful day was had by all.

So it's stocking up time next week as the next fair is a week on Saturday, no rest for the wicked as they say! It's also an exciting week here, but more on that at the end of the week.

Have a good weekend, hopefully the weather will be good so more progress can be made with the studio, cladding on the walls this weekend!

L x

Progress

Just a quick update with the progress of the studio, it's coming on, as you can see......

We have decided that we're probably not going to get it completed for a Christmas opening, which is a shame, but we'd rather not rush it just for the sake of being open for a couple of weeks, plus the weather is bound to turn sooner or later...............!

So, I've started making plans for the grand opening next year, probably even more exciting than a Christmas opening actually, but more about that in the new year.

Julia, you mentioned in your comment about having a wood burning stove in the studio, well funnily enough that's exactly what I was thinking!! It's all dependent upon space as it is a bit of a luxury and there are certain things that I must fit into the studio, but hopefully we'll be able to squeeze one in somewhere. It would just be rude not to have a stove for Chrissie to lie in front of now wouldn't it!!

Tonight is a tagging and organising of stock evening, the first Christmas fair is this Friday at Letham Grange Hotel, from 10am - 4pm, so if you're in the area do pop in and say hello. I've been sewing like a mad woman for the last few weeks now, so hopefully I'll have enough stock made. We set up tomorrow evening so I'll take some photos and try and remember to post them!

Anyway, better get on, loads to do tonight. I promise I'll come and visit you all very soon.

L x

P.S. Blogger was playing up so I've only just managed to load up the photos after umpteen attempts last night - it seems to be behaving a little bit better this morning! x