Riverfest Weekend

Thanks to Limerick News Wire for the image.

I have a pretty busy weekend coming up at the market this week. It is the Riverfest in Limerick this coming Bank Holiday and there will be thousands of people flooding into the city. Also all those people that abandon our city centre for the rest of the year in favour of the suburban shopping centres will pour back in too. There are loads of great activities including The Great Limerick Fun, The French Market, The International BBQ competition, and also an important rugby match in Thomond.

Thanks to Munster Images for the photo.

At the market we will have a fashion show during the Friday Flea Market hosted by the renowned Celia Holman Lee, with an array of clothes from independent boutique in Limerick. We will have the regular market on Saturday, but for the first time the are hosting a full nighttime gig in the venue, with The Coronas playing. They are not really my taste in music, but I'm very excited to see what other bands they book as it's a gorgeous venue.On the Sunday and Monday there will be the Artisan Craft Fair, with over 50 artisans from around the country selling their crafts. I'm looking forward to these two days as I've done very well there before, also I love having a gander at what everyone else is making...and maybe buy one or two things if I do well.

I'll also have some good friends from home visiting that weekend whom I haven't seen since Christmas. I think between work and play I'll have to transform into the Energizer Bunny that weekend.

Chill Out

I'm taking a step back from work for a few days so I won't be about the blogosphere much until Monday. It's a bank holiday here this weekend and there is a great festival going on in Limerick, the Riverfest. This year I don't have a stall, so I plan to enjoy all the festivities as a punter for once. I'm also going to visit my sister on Friday, and to marvel at her 6 month along baby bump. Hope you all have a lovely weekend, here's hoping for a bit of sunshine so I can wander about the city in flip flops eating ice-cream, what one should always do then you have the day off !

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.

Dresses Galore

Yey I have pictures at last, not of the best quality in the world but at least you can see what I'm up to. I'm delighted that the fashion world is obsessed with dresses at the moment, so that's what I've decided to focus on. I made 5 in the past day and a half(well 6 but one was a disaster that I had to abandon). Hopefully I 'll get a couple more done today in preparation for D-day tomorrow. The sun is shining beautifully today so fingers crossed for the rest of the weekend.

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).

Busy-fest

I'm back into busy season again. Firstly the Limerick Riverfest is coming up on the May bank holiday weekend, I will be trading on the Friday-Monday. Last year there was a fantastic atmosphere and heavenly weather, hopefully this year at least equals it. This year it will be a little more complicated as my friend who sells clothes and jewelerry at the stall beside me won't be there for the first two days, so I'll be doing her stall too, eek. Last year I had loads of extra stock made but I still nearly sold out, so I want to be way more prepared this year.

I also really need to do an order for the shop in Ennis, Olive, but that keeps on being pushed to the back of the list. I got two very exciting custom orders, one a mother of the bride dress that is very funky that I'm really looking forward to doing it. The other is a bunch of things for a regular customer who is really into my fun colourful work which I love doing. I also got a call from a friend in the Limerick City council and they want me to design some invitations for an opening of the Robert Byrne Memorial Park on Clancy Strand.

It's a hell of a list, but I'm more than happy to have lots to do rather than nothing.