I'm Excited!

Let me begin by saying I don't normally blog quite this frequently but due to me not blogging at all for a month I have a lot to tell you all about! Thank you for reading :-)

Ok, so I had been feeling a bit below par mid January, what with being ill etc etc. In November I made the decision to stop doing the smaller craft shows. For 3 months I had been doing a craft show near enough every 2 weeks. I enjoyed doing the majority of them but it wasn't worth it for the cost of the stand, petrol, car parking, my time there for what I was making at them. I found that at the local type craft shows you could be thrown in with anyone - being called a 'craft' fair didn't necessarily mean everyone was selling craft. There was a jumble sale at one and as you can guess, people's expectations of what they were willing to spend would adjust accordingly. So all in all, not really worth it. I'm now aiming at galleries and more upmarket "proper" craft shows that actually sell craft and where you have to be selected to get in as they are really attracting my target audience.

I'm delighted to have been selected for 'Sock' which is a craft show in nearby Loughborough and is rapidly gaining a great reputation, despite only being in its second year. But this also presented something of a dilemma as I'm not entirely happy with my display and I want everything to be perfect to give me the best chance of making money at Sock (and any other future shows). Never fear, help is at hand!

I mentioned in an earlier post about my being on the Enterprise Inc program, which has provided me with 2 brilliant mentors. I met them both separately yesterday. Bill is great and always coming up with exciting new ideas for me to try out to expand my product range. Rachael owns a gallery and has a lot of experience with displays and retail and she gave me some really good advice/ideas for my display. One of the suggestions was genius in its simplicity but is something I would never in a million years have thought of. However I can honestly say I'm really excited about the prospect of 'getting back on the horse' as they say and can't wait for Sock. All I want to do is start making as quickly as possible! However, I'm still recovering this week so will have to wait until Monday. There was also maybe a possible mention of me having a 2 page spread in a craft magazine!!!!!!!! Really hope that pans out as it'd give me lots of great publicity and would just be fantastic!! Fingers Crossed!

Over and Out,
Jenny (and her rediscovered motivation)