It’s beginning to feel (quite) a lot like Christmas!

It’s December and it is indeed beginning to feel (quite) a lot like Christmas!  Freddie has taken possession of his Advent Calendar and is definitely entering into the spirit of things – though I’m not sure the purple dinosaur crayon he discovered in pocket number three today was appreciated as quite as much as the chocolate Santa on Friday – though he told me it was still very nice (he is a polite little boy!).

Yesterday Rosie and I headed off early to the MShed in Bristol for the Etsy Made Local Fair.  We were both feeling rather nervous as I haven’t attended a fair for five or six years and Rosie has never done one before.  But it turned out we needn’t have worried at all!  The venue was great and the fair itself was amazingly well-organised by the hardworking Bristol Etsy Team members.  There were so many talented makers there – we felt extremely honoured to have been selected (250 exhibitors applied for just 50 stands and the standards were very high indeed!  The team had issued lots of helpful advice, including practising your display at home first and I’m so glad we took the time to do this – we only had an hour to set up on the actual day itself, which may sound like a long time but actually isn’t!

I even remembered to iron the tablecloth the night before!  You may recognise some past and present projects from the Magazine as well as a few designs that haven’t appeared between the pages.  The panda cushion was developed from my Party Panda Hoop whilst the unicorn and fox heads are quite old patterns now that I really enjoyed revisiting.  I think my favourite design from the December issue is the Llama Head though – they look so cute and inquisitive!

I made four of these and every one found a new home!  I also stitched some llama and cactus hanging tree decorations – which also sold out – but I thought I might make another couple of these for Rosie (who was very disappointed that none remained for her) and when I’ve stitched them I’ll share the pattern on here, probably a little later this week. (you can see them on the right of our stall, just next to the fox heads). I think that for us both though, the best part of the day was meeting so many people that we’ve only known as email addresses or user IDs. Thank you so much to you all for coming along and supporting us! For me it was especially lovely to meet Liz, with whom I’ve corresponded on various occasions and who is one of our earliest subscribers!

And as a final note … I’ve just listed the last few Rosie’s Houseplants kits – we’ve just half a dozen left and when they’re gone then I’m sorry to say that there won’t be any more before Christmas.  We simply hadn’t anticipated how high the demand would be for these, so apologies for any disappointment.