Amanda’s Musings

So, how did it go? This is the question I’ve been asked a few times over the last 24 hours so I thought I’d take the chance to write a little summary of the event while the girls are asleep. We got to the Hyde Park Hotel around 9am and set up our table as quickly as we could. I was in a bit of a flutter as I haven’t done a big event before. All was sorted and set up by the starting time of 10am and then people started to slowly come in. Overall it went well. The day had some very busy peaks and some quieter valleys but was steady over all I thought. I was next to fellow polyclayer J2aney and Annie from 17Threads.

It’s hard to tell what ‘good sales’ are as I have nothing to compare to but let me just say that my sales were under $400 and I’m happy with that for now. Of course I would have liked more but I’m fairly sure that this slow economy is effecting everything. I have a post in mind about some of the lessons I learnt by attending the market and I’ll put that up later but for now, here are some photos of the day.

Different angles of my display

Lotta from PrincessLotta

Feli from InMonoDesigns

Lauren from Osier hard at work

Niina from NiinaAoki

Ali from Aussiepatches

Beth from The Tiny Little Girl

So it was a great day, met lots of people, saw a lot of interesting things and had a whole day with Michael minus two kids (rare). I’ll be blogging about lessons learnt a bit later.

My beads are ready to go for the market. After spending a lot of time sorting through my stock and then putting them in colour order I think they look fairly attention grabbing (or at least I hope so). These will be for sale at the MOTL market for $1.20 each or 10 for $10.

For our household this has been a very busy and crazy year. In between travel, moving house, having a baby and normal life we have hardly had a run of ‘normal’ time. Well, ‘normal’ is nearly here but we have two big events left in the year first.

The first event is the market I’ve mentioned before which is this Saturday. Here are the details:

Made On The Left
Designer Arts and Crafts Market
Showcasing Western Australian Talent
Saturday November 15th 10am - 4pm
Hyde Park Hotel
331 Bulwer Street
West Perth

I’ll show you in a separate post the beads I’ve prepared for the event.

The second big event (and final for the year) is Go! Reachout. Here are the details;

Go! Reachout
GO! Reachout aims to teach the biblical basis of missions, enhance awareness of the needs of our world and provide an opportunity for young adults to meet, and explore the implications of God’s passion for the unreached. GO! Reachout represents the partnership of churches, mission agencies, Bible colleges and Christian networks, and is an event of Missions Interlink.

Saturday 29th November
Murdoch Worship Centre
Just off carpark #5 at Murdoch University

I will be representing SIM at both events in very different ways. At the market I will have SIMAid brochures out on the table and the money from the event will all go to missions. Go! Reachout will have our SIM display alongside the other missions displays and Michael is the conference chairman this year so he will be running around the place organising this and that.

So, will we see you at either of these events? Click on the links above for more information, especially for Go! Reachout in regards to the speaker and topics etc… Hope to see you there!

After a bit of thought and a few experiments I’ve finally sorted out how to display my earrings for the MOTL market this weekend. In between Luci having catnaps today I gave myself a very sore finger pushing pins into this pin board after lining it with courderoy fabric. I have secured the earrings to the board so I don’t have to set them up again once there. I have tried to make this as visually attractive as I can by hanging them in colour order and have done the same with my beads (which I’ll take a photo of tomorrow if I can). Almost set for the market now!

Recently I was asked to do a review of another member of the Aussie Etsy Group called DUST (Down Under Street Team). She was also asked to do a review of me and my shop Polyclarific. The person I swapped reviews with was Robyn Dixon from Hot Fudge. Robyn makes gorgeous kids clothing and her store is worth taking a peek at.

If you would like to see Robyn’s review of my store then follow this link - DUST review of Polyclarific.

So, my display for Made On The Left is coming together nicely. I have worked out how to display my necklaces without them taking up a lot of room. I did not come up with this idea myself but found it on flickr. It was easy to do, bought a lazy susan from Ikea for the base, made a box which is lined with sheets of foam covered in fabric and then stuck pins into it. It has a book in the centre for weight and spins smoothly. I’ve filled it up and rearranged it a fair bit since this pic was taken and it’s looking good!

When Michael first found out he was going to the USA we both made shopping lists, mine consisting mainly of clay and his mainly of techie gadgets. Then the dollar value went sour and our lists became ‘we’ll see how things calculate on the day’ lists. Well, some things did turn out to still be cheaper so he came back with some nice things from his week in the US and his one day in Japan. My instructions for Japan were simply ‘paper and beads’ so he did well with what he bought us. Not wanting to go overboard he bought one item each. He got Kezi a t-shirt in Sydney which I don’t have a photo of yet but also a cute feeding set for Luci (with baby chopsticks), a gorgeous teapot for himself (which I’ve claimed as ‘ours’) and a special door curtain. He did get me some clay and as a real treat, some Altoids (you can’t get them here and I’ve wanted the tin they come in for a while) and a pile of Big Red cinnamon gum. What a thoughtful hubby! xx
PS He did get himself a little techie gadget too!

My little organiser had to stack them in colour order right away!

Yesterday from 8.45 - 2.00 I manned my little stall at the Melville Baptist Church Fair (Fete). The Fair went well overall with lots of sales of books, plants, bric a brac and food. I didn’t sell much but it was a good day anyway. I thought I’d share some photos of the setup of my stall there. It was a good practice run for two weeks time when I’m at the Hyde Park Hotel for the Made On The Left market. All funds from that market will got to the work of SIM and I am still thinking/praying through where to send the money.

So, here are the photos, there are none of me behind the stall but I’ll try to get one next time. I would probably change a few things and need to get some better signage (this was a rushed job) too.

Tomorrow I will be selling my items at the Melville Baptist Church fair. This is our church and Michael is an Associate Pastor there. All funds raised from everything everyone is selling will go to assist the local high school Chaplain. This afternoon I went down to the church to set up my table to discover that mine was the only one not set up! Its all ready to go and now my table is no longer the odd one out.

For those locals who may be interested here are the details:

Where: Melville Baptist Church 9 Sargeant Rd Melville
Time: 9am - 2pm

I hope to see some of you there, make yourself known and come over to my little Polyclarific table inside the main hall. Some of the items on sale include:

So here I am, sitting here in my black swivel chair next to the window that looks out at our strange little Budgie while typing this, yes, we are back in Perth again! Our lives have been all over the place for the last three weeks with Michael travelling to the USA, Tokyo and Sydney and myself, the girls and my Mum off to Adelaide for the wedding I wrote about earlier.

We did a lot in Adelaide and enjoyed looking around at both chocolate factories (Melba’s and Haighs), the giant rocking horse, Rundle Mall, Glenelg, Handorf, The Cheese factory and more. A highlight would have to be the giant rocking horse which had a small (free) wildlife sanctuary as well as a toy factory and picnic area. Keziah had a great time that day (and so did I) and managed pretty good considering she missed her afternoon sleep.

I also got to meet up with a few people while in Adelaide including Amy and Sal whom I’d met via the Christian Mum’s website. It was so nice to meet them in person. Amy’s baby Charlotte is one day younger than my Lucinda which is why we met in the first place.

So, here are some photos from our time in Adelaide, enjoy!

Me and Kez at the Silver Balls in Rundle Mall

Us sitting on the famous Rundle Mall pigs

Me and my girls with Amy and Charlotte

Sal and her boys

Scenes from the Giant Rocking Horse

Handorf

I’m glad to be home again and spent today sorting out all the bags and doing loads of washing. Our house is almost back to normal already so I’m glad. Now, where’s my to do list!