Milk Market Round Up

I have returned after my four days running at the Milk Market. I have lots of pictures to show you of the Thursday Artisan Fair, but I haven't had a chance to edit them yet, I'll have more on that later in the week. I was trading on Friday, which to be honest was a very quiet long day with lots of traders packing up early due to their being no customers whatsoever. I think this was mostly due to the it being the August bank holiday weekend,the most popular day of the year when people take off on a Friday and head towards the coast for sunshine and ice-cream. But even though it was an entirely uneventful day I got some amazing news, the asked me to fill in a vacant space at the Saturday Milk Market.

To those of you who have never been at the Saturday Market let me tell you it's a whole different beast. It is packed full with traders selling the best fresh produce in the country, and they have a religious following as every week the footfall is in the thousands. You can buy fresh fish, organic meat, olives, locally made cheese, organic veg, homemade jams and cakes, and delicious ready to eat food. There is a small amount of craft to, and luckily I was one of those stall this week. It was such a treat to trade there, and I could barely sleep the night before with the excitement, I very uncharacteristically bounded out of the bed at six in the morning. It was wonderful to have a stream of people browsing and chatting,and also lots of customers. Days like that fly by, so when 3pm rolled around I was tired but really happy with how the day had gone. The space will be vacant again next week so I've been asked to fill in again, so if you are about the city do pop down. I'll enjoy it while it lasts and try to make the most of it to promote that I'm there on Friday and Sunday. It's incredibly difficult to get a spot at this market, so I'm thrilled to be given the opportunity to sell there even for a couple of days.

My week was rounded off on Sunday, with a quieter day, but lovely nonetheless. As the weeks go by I'm starting to feel like the Milk Market is a home away from home, but how bad is that when there is such yummy food to be had, and great people to chat to all day.

Happy Bunny

I had a great day today selling in the Art College in Limerick city. It was nice to be back and see a few familiar faces. I was totlly shocked at how many things I sold. Lots of people bought my pocket mirrors as Christmas gifts. I sell them at 5 euro each or 3 for 10 euro, so that went down well with the frugally challanged art students. It was lovely to be selling indoors for once, so I could wear normal clothes and not have to layer on half on my wardrobe to keep from freezing half to death.

All in all I'm a happy bunny this evening. I'm gonna treat myself by not working too hard tonight. A bit of leisurely sewing while watching a movie should do the trick.

Be Fabulous and Swap 'Til You Drop

A new swap shop has opened up on Shannon St in Limerick City, called Be Fabulous. The guy there, Will, has a great selection of clothes, especially loads of evening wear for Christmas. The deal is you bring in your clothes, you both decide on a price and you get 50% of the sale when it sells. Great deal!! I know I'll be bringing in a few dresses. He also has a few locals designers work for sale too....and as of today that includes me too!! I dropped in some of my accessories like the brooches, pocket mirrors and Christmas decorations. I'm delighted he is taking a few bits and bobs, it's really easy with a local shop, I just walk down and deliver them, with no worries about postage costs or delivery times. It's a great shop, and Will is really lovely, if you are in ther area you should definitely check it out.

Yesterday I was selling at the UL farmers market. For 3 weeks in December they invite a few craft stalls to join the regular foodies to help all the students and lecturers with their Christmas shopping. The day started out pretty awful with rotten weather and very high winds. Our gazebo lasted about 10 minutes before it decided to fold itself inside out and snap in half. We were faced with the decision to pack up and go home or stick it out. So we moved inder a small sheltered area, set up all our stock and hoped for the best. Considering the awful start we had it was a pretty good day. There was lots of interest and more thatn enough sales to make it worth our while treking out. Having said that it was freezing cold, but the lovely ladies from the USIT office brought us out mugs of tea, so that it made it a lot easier! People are so nice sometimes! So we'll be there for the next two Tuesdays, not sure what we'll do about cover but hey we'll figure something out.

New Markets

I'm gonna be a busy bee over the next few weeks. I just got confirmation today that I'll be doing the markets in UL over the Christmas. So any of you fine folk who are studying hard over December, pop into the courtyard between 11pm and 5pm every Tuesday. I'm also meant to be taking part in a market being held in the Art College in Claire St. That's meant to be 9th Dec, but I havn't heard much about it so I'm waiting to confirm that. I'll also be doing 'show your business' on Friday 11th December in Bank of Ireland on O Connell St, in Limerick. It sounds kinda odd to be honest, basically I stand about the bank all day trying to sell my lovely wares to customers. It could be good, it could be dire, hard to tell with something like that. On top of all that I'll still be doing the Sunday Market every week!! Hopefully this year we will get a permit extension and be able to sell every day on Bedford Row in the week coming up to Christmas, but I'll hear more about that tomorrow.
Somewhere in there I've to squeeze in time to go to 2 weddings, a birthday party, do all my Christmas shopping, oh and make things too!! To be honest I'm really glad things are busy, the way all the talk was going I was starting to think there would be no Christmas rush, and that Santa may have been killed by either swine flu or the recession.

It's Days Like THIS That I Hate My Job

Rain, rain, go away and come back another day.

It's pelting down all the cats and dogs in the world outside and I've to go sell at an outdoor market in a couple of hours. To make matters worse I have to assemble my very shoddy gazebo in the rain. AND in the past year of non use of said gazebo we seem to have misplaced the water proof side panels.

Oh Joy this is going to be a wonerful day!!

Etsy Ireland Meeting

On Saturday I went to Galway to meet some of the Etsy Ireland(west) team.Sadly it wasn't a huge group, only three of us in total, but hopefully it will grow in time . But I did get to meet two really lovely Polish girls, Agnieszka of Lysulka and Kamilla of Niceartthings. It was really good to meet people in person and talk about crafting, experiences on Etsy, swap supplies tips, as sometimes it can feel a bit solitary working by myself all the time.They also encouraged me to get in touch with the main Etsy Ireland team, and try to get some of the benifits of being part of a team, I'm sure I have a lot to learn from them.

The other nice part about the trip was that I got to go to Galway,which I hadn't visited in 10 years, which is totally crazy because it's only 2hrs on the bus and it's a great city. It was totally buzzing with people when I arrived, buskers every 10 meters, a tonnes of shoppers in the city centre. I went to their market, which is great and has a wide variety of stalls. It is a bit crazy that it's in a tiny alley way and they stall are very small, it would drive me crazy as a trader. It did put me off queueing for food as I'm not a huge fan of getting stuck in crowds. I wish I would have had money on me, there were definitely a few things I would have snatched up. When I enquired at a few stalls if they sold stuff online I was surprised when most of them said no. It's so easy these days to set it up, it seems like such a wasted opportunity not to. There is one shop I totally fell in love with Lola Rosa, if ever there was a shop that I wanted to buy every single thing in it, it was this one!! It's like crawling inside someones brain who is dotty, arty, clolourful and they have a long shopping list of presents to get through. They sells lots of beautiful things that would be perfect for gifts, but also a selection of fabrics,ribbons, and buttons. Really I can't recommend this shop highly enough, and if you can't make it to Galway check out their website!

Return to the Sunday Market

It looks like I'll be going back to the Sunday market this week. Not in my usual incarnation as all my clothes are in Kilkenny, but I will be selling my pocket mirrors and handmade felt brooches at my friends stall. I will also have a selection of my buttons and ribbon up until the Christmas season starts and I'll replace them with yummy handmade Christmas decorations. I'm still deciding whether I'll make Christmas cards this year, as last year it took up a huge amount of my time for not much money. I might just make a small selection of xmas themed 1950s pinup collages.
So if any of you are looking for me down at the market head towards the gluten free cake stall. I would also highly recommend her merangue it's to die for!!I won't be at the stall myself as for the next few months I will be surgically attached to my sewing machine, but Orla will be there to answer and questions or queeries.

Bedford Row,Limerick City
Sunday 12-5pm

Selling in LSAD

Today was my first day out in the big bad world selling my supplies. It was a bit of a scramble to get things together, as I had only rang the Art college yesterday to enquire about selling, and the Students Union President said 'Yeah sure, come in tomorrow'. They had organised a small fair thing, on campus, very stall indeed at there were only two other sellers. I'm not sure if this will catch on as a regular thing as I don't think the other people did very well. Considering I did not advertising and people weren't expecting to spend money I didn't do too badly. I had 50 different types of button there, plus a lot of ribbon, and my own pocket mirrors and badges. Not bad for about 15 hrs notice!

It was a weird feeling being back in the college that I spent 4 yrs in, but it's still a pretty cool place, although it's maybe a bit trendier than when I was there. Hopefully I can go back again, but a little more prepared next time.

Note: I will be listing my 15yrd rolls of ribbon in my etsy shop as soon as I get my hands on a decent camera. Also thanks to Cliare Ann for buying buttons today and saying these lovely things about me...aw shucks :)

(Other) Note: My 1000 moo cards were delivered on Monday, I'm using them as packaging on my bags of buttons. I thought they would last a little while but alas I'down to about 60 already, and I'm only at the tip of the iceburg with the bags of buttons...eek!

Riverfest Photos

At last I have the photos of my stall at Riverfest. I had a double stall this year with my friend Orla Redican. She make the jewellery and crazy cool rainmacs(she also sells yummy baked goods but not on the days I took these pictures). Funny thing to note, see the green curatin...well that's my changing room. My genius boyfriend thought of using a hoola hoop and curtains, it works like a charm and has contributed to lots of sales.

Riverfest Market

I'm back to reality after 4 days of markets. It was lots of work and fun all jumbled up together, and luckily the gods smiled upon us and we got fantastic weather albeit a little windy. Limerick was thronged with people, most were browsing and soaking up the atmosphere but thankfully there were still a few punters parting with their cash. I'll count myself among the shopping hungry as I spent a few of my hard earned euros at neighbouring stalls. I got two pashminas for only 10 euro, and I'm a huge scarf fan so I'm delighted with that. I bought a lovely wooden mobile from one of the Irish stalls for a co-worker who just had a baby. Lastly the stall next to me had beautiful woolen scarves cardis and some jewellery, so I got myself a fantastic pair of earrings(which I sadly lost on the way to the shop yesterday), and a fabulous cardi that is a really unusual shape, as it sits quite strangely on the shoulders but that's what gives it the wow factor.
I must say that the Irish stalls really raised the bar this year and and competed very well with our French neighbours.I know my own stall this year was a vast improvement on my two rails of clothes last year. It was amazing the amount of people who recognised me from the nationwide piece, an hopefully I got myself a few extra regular customers. I handed out about 300 business cards with badges attached, and told about a million people about the Sunday market on Bedford Row. By the end of Monday I felt like a mix betwween a parrot and a worn out pack mule ( we don't have a car so we transport all the stock on foot). Verdict: I'm exhausted but happy.

Wet Sunday

I'm just back from a very wet day at the Sunday Market today. Even though customers should have been non-existant due to the weather I did fairly well, selling some nice dresses and t-shirts. I always find it impossible to guage how a day is going to go, I suppose it's quite random. My lesson was learned after last week though, as last Saturday I went for a quiet couple of pints that led to a very fuzzy head last Sunday. So this morning I was bright eyed and bushy talied, you see sometimes I can be quite well behaved. Unfortunately a few sellers didn't turn up today, sorry to anyone who ventured down and found the selection a bit sparse.

All my energies now are geared towards next weeks Riverfest Market, which will be on the Friday till the Monday. I'm planning on doing some of more outlandish pieces, just to stand out from the crowd and get noticed in the large selection of stalls. Sometimes this tactic works really well, during the week I made a silver, lilac, sky blue and mint green dress...I know it sounds hideous but I really like it in a wacky star trek kind of way, and it got lots of good feedback on the stall. It's also more fun making the crazy stuff, it just involves a bit more time staring at a blank wall trying to figure out what to do with a garment.

I'm gonna sit down now, turn on the heating, do some hand sewing and watch Twin Peaks(back when Kyle Mclachlan was very hot, before he did SATC and Desperate Housewives).

I had a good day at the office

Well my new tactics at the market really worked. I went from a small table of cards with two clothes rails, to four rails and a large table with a wide range of greetings cards. It's hard to get I rish people to cross over that invisible line and step into a stall and how a look around. Today the general public were feeling adventurous, stepped in and liked what they saw. So clap on the back for myself,yey. Hopefully next week goes as well.

I had a photo shoot on Saturday afternoon with my good friend Sharon, here are a couple of things I sold today. I haven't had a chance to process all my pictures yet, so my listing on etsy for my new garments are a little delayed. So if you're reading this Sharon you were great thanks a million!