Day in the life Craft Fair edition!

This was my second craft fair of the year (the first being with Hustle and Bustle at The Ark in Alvechurch all the way back in January) and my first ever craft fair in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, UK. For those of you who aren't familiar, Stratford-Upon-Avon is the birthplace of Shakespeare and the weekend the craft fair took place was his birthday weekend! Happy birthday Shakespeare! Being the birthplace of Shakespeare, there is always a constant flow of different people to meet and there's always something happening. If you can visit, do. It's a sweet town, just get the park and ride as traffic in the centre is grim!

Mike and I set off for the fair at about 7:45am. We needed to drop of lovely doggo off with Mike's parents before we got there and, being it was an event weekend, we gave lots of time in case of traffic nearer the town. Turns out, not many people are as mad as us as traffic was really quiet. We made it to Stratford by 8:30am! Whoops!

We killed time chilling in the car and getting the last few bits and pieces packed up ready to get to the venue. I wasn't allowed into the venue until 10am, but they very kindly allowed me to leave my stock there ready for set up later. Which was fantastic as, by this point, Mike had to go off to his job and so I was on my own in the town for a little bit. Being the social introvert I am, I found a coffee shop and hid in a corner playing puzzle games on my phone.

I got back to the venue just after 10 (I was two minutes late, I didn't want to look too precise). Initially everything was a bit manic. The organisers weren't allowed to do any preparation before we all got there either, so we had it all to do and an hour before the doors opened.

Once I found my spot, came the challenge of fitting all my stock on the table! I had extra stock just in case as I have another craft fair this Sunday which I will tell you more about next week!

I was really pleased with the set up. The venue had varying table sizes and shapes, so it was definitely a case of creatively working round what you had which is fine. As you can see, I have finally moved my larger bears out of the corner unit, as I felt they were getting lost there, and moved them to the left of the stall. I repurposed the corner stand to make an 'under the sea section' with axolotl, frogs, octopi and turtles.

One of the really unique parts of this fair was the entry raffle. Each stall had an item on it that was entered into the raffle.

On my table, I selected my little blue dog. Then there were people outside the venue handing out tickets. The twist was you didn't know if you had won until you had gone inside and searched round all the stalls. It was definitely a different way to get people to really pay attention to each individual stall. My ticket was won and the lovely lady exchanged the blue dog for the rainbow one next to it. I hope she is very happy with her prize!

I had a few new products make their debut at this fair as well. I finally caved and made the now infamous leggy froggy by KnotJadedCo. They are really addictive to make and they are so derpy, I love them! I also debuted the axolotl. I made a blue, variegated mint, and two in a 'coronation' colourway. I'm really happy one of the coronation axolotl went! I took a risk that the strong red would work with the pattern but I'm happy to report, it did!

I also now have this new display of a little field enclosure! I am debating whether I should paint it in the brand colours to help it pop a little bit as I felt it got a little lost on the table on the day. It's that or whether it needs elevating somehow to give that part of the table a bit more depth. As always, I am open to suggestions! How can any of us improve without feedback and I have only been doing fairs for a year (and you should have seen what they looked like a year ago!).

I also changed up the lucky dip. You now pull an egg with a coloured gem inside. That colour matches one of the shelves next to the bucket so you can choose one of the prizes from that shelf. I noticed the last time, that the kids would get disappointed if they didn't get an animal that they liked. This still gives the random luck of a lucky dip, but gives them a handful of prizes to choose from instead of being stuck with one they hate. At the end of the day, I love to make people of all ages smile. That is the entire reason I do what to do is to spread some cheer in these often miserable times.

Overall, the fair was ok. I got to talk to a lot of lovely people and some of my creations are going to the best of new homes. I learnt that I am, in fact, a better stallholder than I was a year ago (phew!), but I do miss my boys terribly being on my own. I might seem very articulate writing this but I am awful at talking and, if I get myself anxious or flustered, then I do tend to get caught on my words a bit. I am quite self conscious of that so I appreciated all the people who were very kind and patient with me.

I hope to be back in Stratford-Upon-Avon again soon with my stall, so I'll keep my ears open for more opportunities there.

If you've read this far, you are amazing! If you want to keep more up to date with my work then do give me a follow on my social media channels @NerdyTortoises on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok (the links should be in the banner at the top of the page!). Until next time, stay safe and keep crafting! Lexi