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The Joy of Making, Selling and Giving

And just like Christmas it’s all over! I popped by craft fair cherry 🤭!

After 6 weeks of manic making, I hosted my first craft stall at Fresh Ground Eltham’s first Christmas Fayre. As I mentioned before it was very much like the wedding prep but in a much shorter period but so worth it!

I will confess to being so nervous about it – Would people like my makes? Would I have enough stock? Would I sell anything? The pressure felt rather mixed as I knew I was underpricing items because I didn’t really know what people would want to pay, but at the same time as I was raising money as opposed to seeking profit. That said I still wanted to make sure I was getting a reasonable amount to support Ronald McDonald House Charities.

I was ably assisted on the day by 2 of my lovely friends who helped me set up, pack up and keep the chatter up with the prospective customers. As it was a Christmas market and I was selling Christmas Fripperies I made sure to “Elf up” the stall, with Christmas table cloths, fairylit white trees, and we naturally dragged the Christmas jumpers out of mothballs a couple of weeks early. Topped with some festive headgear and armed with a staple tin of Quality Streets (other Christmas chocolates are available 😂) we were ready to greet the market visitors.

The state of panic rose over the first hour with a lot of passing glances on the stall but no real interest. This is when supportive friends really make the difference with a lot of cheerful chatter, encouraging words and reassurance that the stall looks great, and my fripperies are lovely.

And then suddenly a rush! More friends arrived armed with cash for the purchase of items! Suddenly the stall was attracting interest as my friend started exclaiming loudly about the detail of the stitching on an advent calendar, “in gold thread?! How beautiful! And it is how much on Etsy? Really?  so this is truly a bargain!” My first sale bagged!! And yes to a friend, but I had already thought some of the higher priced items would be more likely to sell to the people I knew. I had my 2 advent calendars sold within half an hour, but we kept one on display with a sold sign, to promote the full range of makes and also to maybe demonstrate demand…

Hubby and Small made an appearance, Small to add the cute factor, and Hubby with his eagle eyed approach to effective business management. Suddenly my approach of POA was dropped and price tags were made up! The table was slightly rearranged to show case the stocking bunting better and the chocolates were moved a little further back from the front of the table (to encourage leaning over and having a proper look!).

One of the stall visitors was Gabriella of KeepingItDelicious, who gave me some great feedback on my products but also some real encouragement to look into specialists craft markets as she thought I could really capitalise in a focused environment where the visitors are all there to buy crafts. I have to say a massive thank you, because her words and advice were really inspiring, reassuring and a major boost! I am not a business, but a hobbyist, therefore selling has always been a scary place for me as I struggle with pricing products to achieve a return. I suffer from an inherent belief that no one would pay what a item is worth exacerbated by the fact I work too slowly to be able to properly charge for my time, therefore always selling at a loss.

It was soon becoming evident what products sold well (mini bunting) and what wasn’t shifting at all (stockings), which is great for understanding where to focus my efforts in future. There is a definite demand for personalisation now, so items like stockings are less desirable if not personalised. Something to consider in the future, however I think the market is pretty saturated with that offering.

I also met another maker like myself. She was a Mum who made a few things for a market last year and was selling the remaining stock this year. She doesn’t really sell, because she can’t make any money from it and now she has a new 3 month old she doesn’t have time to do anything! Made me realise that I am very lucky to have recovered my crafting time, I really do find the outlet invaluable for rebalancing my stress levels!

It was an amazing experience, I met some really interesting and inspirational people, and took away a desire to try my hand again at another event. More importantly I raised a fantastic £270 for Ronald McDonald House and sold most of my stock. Selling for charity really took the pressure off trying to push to break even, and the feeling of beating my £250 fundraising target was a truly incredible feeling!

I did manage sell the remaining stock to my colleagues at work and family, taking my final total to £543!! So so thrilled that I could give something back to this incredible charity. We experienced their work first hand when we stayed at their Evelina House when Small was poorly as a newborn being treated in Evelina’s Neonatal unit. Although the reason for staying with Ronald McDonald is in many circumstances very traumatic, worrying and distressing, the house itself is an oasis of calm. We only stayed a very short time but we couldn’t fail to feel the overwhelming sense of love and community that radiated through the house. Privilege is possibly not the right word to use in the context of why we were staying there, but that is the best way I can describe it. Ronald McDonald House provide a “home from home” to families with poorly little ones so that they can stay close by. A few weeks after my event I also had the fantastic news that my employer was matching my fundraising so I doubled my total and with a few more donations the current total stands at £1,148. That is a sum that will really make a difference to so many families in need of the love and support RMHC.org offers.

So what did I learn from my first craft fair?

  • – pricing- make sure the pricing is clear, although I was trying to encourage the concept of “suggested donations” a lot of people are not comfortable with asking the price of things therefore I would probably have attracted more interest if the items had been clearly priced.
  • – labelling – what are the items? are they handmade? Then say so!!!! Not everyone will expect my items to have been made by me, or if they identify that, they may not consider the whole item (like the embroidered hearts) to be made by hand.
  • – sell handmade story – selling the story effectively justifies the price you apply. There is a market for handmade, and the story of the maker and their craft is a big part of that.
  • – promote promote promote
  • – logo and branding – for this event I was raising money for charity so I wasn’t really promoting myself as a maker. This is something I really need to invest some time into, as I have a name/brand, but I don’t have a logo. Definitely something I need to link into what I want my making / selling focus to be.
  • – consider what my focus is? Seasons? Holidays? – As a crafting magpie I have interests in so many things, however to effectively sell I need to have a clear focus. I clearly love Christmas makes, but you can’t sell these all year round, therefore I need to think of the other makes. Perhaps seasonal / holiday decorations, especially when you consider the rise of Easter and Halloween decor. But also maybe the gift market as I have always loved making knitted toys, there are a number of considerations though when selling toys. Or perhaps I return to the focus on weddings and celebrations. All food for thought…
  • – market items ahead of time – use social media more effectively. If I am going to be hosting a stall make sure I profile items on social media ahead of the event to drum up support.
  • – note items that have already sold – evidence demand!
  • – work out a wrapping strategy and make sure the tissue is big enough 🙈
  • – personalisation?! – this is a tricky one as there is so much personalisation out there and in most cases it is achieved using an embroidery machine, which is a reasonable outlay for something I am not really focussed on. I think if I am going to consider personalisation I am going to do it on a commission basis.
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Mikey’s Magic March

As some of you will have seen from my recent Insta posts a couple of weekends ago I spent Saturday very differently to my usual routine of CBeebies-Breakfast-CBeebies-Park-Lunch-Nap (SHED)-Reading (same book over and over again)- Dinner prep – CBeebies Bedtime Hour- Dinner- In the Night Garden- Bathtime- Bedtime.

Instead I was up at 7:30 leaving my two favourite people cuddling in bed (watching CBeebies) and out the door in less than an hour, wearing the unfamiliar attire of running gear and trainers (I bought them in 2015 and wore them 3 times before deciding cardio just wasn’t my thing!).

It was the day of Mikey’s Magic March! Mikey Harney is a beautiful little boy, full of life and joy who, at 20 months, was diagnosed with stage 4, high-risk neuroblastoma. His parents, Caroline and Paddy, discovered a lump in Mikey’s tummy while Caroline was in then later stages of pregnancy with his little brother Bobby. Whilst Mikey has responded really well to treatment and is currently undergoing a round of immunotherapy, the next stage of treatment is not funded on the NHS. Therefore they face having to find treatment in the US or Europe or clinical trials, and that requires a lot of funding. So we are walking to try and raise as much money as possible towards their target of £200,000. I haven’t seen my friend Caroline since I left to go on maternity. Our grand plans of meeting up with our little ones were thrown in the air with Mikey’s diagnosis. Although the reasons for our walk were very serious, I was really looking forward to seeing her, and being part of her opportunity to have some time out. Her life since leaving on maternity to have Bobby has been a whirlwind I cannot even comprehend and Mikey being under treatment for over a year has meant being confined to the house or hospital because of his low immune system. Today was a rare chance to be out in the air, to spend time with friends, and put collective positive energy to the most worthwhile cause. I have included the link to Caroline’s JustGiving page for anyone who wants to support Mikey’s cause.

We started our walk at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, where Mikey receives treatment before taking on the long walk to town and the river! The first stage of the walk was more about getting to know everyone in the group than the scenery. Some were girls I knew from work, others were former colleagues of Caroline and there were also some friends of friends who were keen to walk alongside us and support Mikey. There was a lot of sharing experiences of motherhood, tips for childcare vouchers and clothes to fit children with large head, all of which drove away my fear of a blister which surfaced at around 5k (not good when you consider the remaining distance). We were lucky to have relatively benign weather and we made very good progress thanks to the frankly awesome pace Caroline was setting out in front! For a woman who had admitted to have not walked more than a kilometre outside of the house in the last 15 months she was really attacking the challenge.

We had a brief photo stop at Morden to prove we hadn’t just jumped on the bus, before continuing on the (marginally) uphill route to the river. I should at this point acknowledge we were checking the mileage count frequently (reminding me of the constant checking of the word count when writing my university dissertation) for reassurance that we were making steady progress, and to mitigate the couple of wrong turns.

Just ahead of reaching Wandsworth we were greeted with the magical news we’d made the 10 mile mark!!! This felt like making the 3km split when I made a rare appearance at Park Run many years ago (which incidentally is why I owned running trainers!). Celebrations were had when we reached Earlsfield with coffee from Gail’s, a toilet stop and the breaking out of snacks and sweets! We were all feeling a bit a of a burn but we remained in high spirits! So far it hadn’t rained, everyone had kept a decent pace, and no one had got lost! That said my splinter group were accosted by a rather opinionated old man on the correct way to cross a road which was mildly irritating when he started his rant with “Do you speak English?” and we were dealing with a blind corner where 2 of us went to check the traffic from one direction, whilst 2 others went to check the other and we all crossed safely. Harumph!

I digress… so we headed on towards Chelsea, passing Stamford Bridge (thankfully the game that week was on the Sunday), and a fabulous house with the most elaborate party balloons I have ever seen (naturally I have saved this photo to my Pinterest Board for Small’s next birthday party). And before we knew it we’d made it to our second key milestone – Chelsea Westminster Hospital, where Mikey (and little brother Bobby) were born, and Mikey was diagnosed.

Time to turn southwards again and make our way back across the river to our final destination and finish, Mikey’s home: Clapham. It was a merry bunch of girls that crossed Battersea bridge on the downhill. High spirits were slightly dashed when south of the river the wind started to hit us with the threat of the rain that had so far held off, and suddenly we were faced with an incline that we hadn’t expected! But we were so close and nothing would stop us now!! So up we marched!! Upon reaching the top we happily discovered ourselves on the approach to Clapham Common! We had done it!!!

The final mile count was just shy of 18 miles, 3 more than the 15 Caroline had planned and 5 more than I had expected. What a super achievement. All finished in 5hrs 43 mins!

I left the girls heading to Caroline’s for a celebratory prosecco. As Small is a walking plague of nursery germs I didn’t want to run the risk of passing something on to Mikey, who’s treatment had left him with a low immune system and the threat of infection could delay further treatments.  I was heading home for a long soak and cuddle with my favourite people and the hope that we’d be blessed with a decent night’s sleep.

The walk was a greater achievement than I ever thought I would undertake (being a typically lazy person who has always used the creativity to relax than exercise). I have nightmarish memories of the Duke of Edinburgh Award trek, and a constant fear of shin splints which have plagued me since I my teens. But I cannot begin to explain the sense of joy this experience gave me, matched only by the fundraising Caroline has achieved. But for all the joy the walk gave me it is always sobering to remember why we were walking. I experienced the trauma of having a very sick baby when Small was just a day old, but our trauma was very short lived. What Mikey and his family are dealing with is on a whole other level that I cannot begin to imagine. And yet to see Caroline so strong, so resolute and so grounded fills me with pride that she is my friend. My love and wishes are with her and her gorgeous little boy, that he may continue to be a perfect little boy full of life and mischief!

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