Postcard Project Progress

I have been very remiss about reporting the work done on our project. I sent back my last parcel to Kirsten without showing the October stitching she'd done, and my addition. And now four weeks later, we have exchanged again. I'd better get a wiggle on [this is apparently a phrase from the USA, published in 1891, in the poem 'The American Psalm of Life' which begins "Get a wiggle on my lad, don't walk at a funeral pace..."]

Here is a lovely circle of Autumn leaves, stitched by Kirsten

My November was very taken up with producing stuff for my sale, and that included lots of bird brooches. So I added a bird to the linen rectangle

In November both Kirsten and Bob celebrated their birthdays. I had mentioned the coffee cake I'd made for my beloved. Kirsten made herself a coffee cake too. Then she re-coloured a chart she had for a birthday cake cross stitch, and here is the result

She tells me that the stitch round the edge, holding the Aida to the foundation cloth, is Bosnian Stitch. It is done in two stages, firstly the verticals, then the diagonals. Kirsten chose variegated thread for a 'party' feel!

I have an idea for my Christmas stitching, but it will have to wait a bit. I've yet to ice my cake. Kirsten included a lovely package of crafting materials - having been to a workshop, she thought the resulting activity might be something Rosie would enjoy, so generously supplied me with fabrics and an instruction sheet. 

Watch this space...

Have you done any Christmas crafting?

Kezzie  has produced some great Christmas trees from recycled paper and cardboard - if needle and thread is not your thing, do check out her blog for great papercrafting

A Saturday Afternoon In November

... was approaching the time of twilight.

Full marks if you recognised Thomas Hardy's opening words from 'The Return of the Native' Well, it was twilight in November, but not a Saturday, and I wasn't on Egdon Heath. 

I had stopped off in Wymondham, on my way home from the dentist for a much needed cup of coffee. [Can I recommend 'Roots' the excellent coffee shop run by Wymondham Baptist Church?] I popped into the co-op for milk and potatoes then wandered back to the car park via two or three Charity Shops. I walked through a little alley and shining like a beacon of hope, spotted this

Shining in the crepuscular afternoon, I saw a tiny little bookshop. I went inside, and met Tracy, one of the two paid staff of this amazing community run venture. Watch the two minute video below to find out more about this  lovely place.

Ketts Bookshop is named after Robert Kett, perhaps the town's most famous son, who led the rebellion against enclosure, and the removal of the land from the common people. "He tore down his own fences, and sacrificed all he had"

Tracy explained how the only bookstore in the town was closing and a group of people got together to ensure there were good quality books easily available. Nine years later, the shop is thriving.

I found a great variety of stuff on sale for all ages and tastes- fiction, non fiction, local authors, children's books...beautifully displayed.

Tracy is extremely knowledgeable and we chatted about all sorts of books [lovely cookery and craft sections!] 

It is definitely bijou  - an intricate jewel tucked behind the marketplace - but if they do not have the book you want, they will order it in. Maybe you might find your volume cheaper online - but if you can afford the extra £ that will help maintain this special resource for others. I bought two books as gifts - and then my plastic carrier split [potatoes and milk are heavy!] Tracy sent me on my way with a stronger cotton bag which sums things up nicely.

Kett's is more than just a bookshop - there are talks by authors [often held in the aforementioned nearby church] children's events, book groups...the website tells all.

Thank you Tracy and your team - this was a lovely ending to my brief stop in Wymondham, but I plan to call in again.

This book[shop] review is definitely *****

Finally It Fits!

Back in February I posted about rediscovering the robot knitting pattern, for the jumper Liz and Steph loved back in the 80s. I decided to knit it for George. Except the pattern was far too big for a toddler of 21months, it was sized from aged 6+. I did lots of sums to reduce the size. Like first time round I used wool from the Great Stash. It still came out way too big. But finally my first grandson has grown into it, and Steph sent me a lovely photo

 "Look Grandma, it's a robot!" 

Advent 3

How easily we read the Christmas story - and stop short at the end of Matthew 2:12.

"In a dream, the Magi were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country.

After they had gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.”

Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death.

Herod, when he realized that he’d been tricked, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills."

Rembrandt painted this picture of J,M,J [& the wee donkey] when he was barely 20 years old. Making the journey, scared, alone, in the dark.How terrifying for them.

I am no good at art, but have embroidered myself a little Christmas badge. It has provoked some interesting discussions!

A Pause In Advent?

comma: a punctuation mark indicating a pause in parts of a sentence.

But where does the comma/pause come in a popular carol? This little video will explain it very clearly

PS look again carefully at the different members of the choir!

PPS more info @ Ramsesthepigeon

Seeing Red!

I quite like the "traffic light system" on food labels. I can see at a glance whether something is high in fat, salt or sugars. Here is the label from a pack of falafel wraps.

I can see that I need to watch fat and salt in my other meals that day - but on balance it looks OK

But look at these two packs - yes, they give all the information, but the data tabs are all in one colour. You cannot immediately work out what they mean. I don't carry all the 'magic numbers' in my head. Here's a more helpful chart

By doing the maths, I worked out the item on the right scored

fat high

saturates medium

sugar high 

salt medium

Not a green tab in sight

In case you are wondering, this is a new McVities product

The pack tells me this is "the lovechild of the epic Jaffa Cakes and the delicious donut - we call them JONUTS"

My friend passed a box on to me - having eaten one and found them too sweet, 

The advert says

Our magic combo but with a twist - soft donutty shaped sponge, tangy orangey filling, topped with a layer of crackly chocolate.

Jaffa Jonuts offer a fun and distinctive new edition of the original McVitie's Jaffa Cakes for fans to try out. Perfectly suited to a lunchtime or evening treat

Jaffa Cakes are the original cake in the biscuit aisle and are on a mission to inspire the nation to be what they want to be as well. After all, if Jaffa Cakes can be a doughnut, you can be what you want to be too!

The other issue was that the right hand item was a smallish cake, and I can imagine someone would easily eat two at one sitting [although I should say they are individually wrapped, which may deter greediness] TWO Jonuts would be 32% - almost one third - of the recommended daily sugar intake. And the small print and grey tabs do not make that obvious. So probably not a good thing to have in your diet every day. 

Like my friend, we both found them too sweet. The only donut-ness was the shape. And the orangey filling was not the jellified texture which I really like.

I found myself asking "If they use monochrome food labelling,not the red/amber/green traffic light system, what are they trying to hide?"
You can't have your cake and eat it...

Ang And Bob Get In A Mess!

Bob, as a Parish Councillor, was invited to attend a Reception in the Officers' Mess at the local barracks. I was his 'plus one'.  We got ourselves ready ["dress code; lounge suits" said the invite] and drove up to the camp. 

I don't recall ever being inside an army barracks before. Cycling past in daylight is one thing, pulling up at the Gatehouse on a damp and gloomy November evening is quite another. He left me in the car, and disappeared inside to show the invitation. 

He was gone for what seemed like ages! He came out smiling, and announced 'down here, turn left at the tank and follow the signs' So we did- and eventually arrived at the Mess, where a smart young officer was standing on the steps to greet us.

We had a lovely evening - the officers were all in their regimental ties, so you could easily work out the guests who were not members of the Guards. I learned lots of history. 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards is one of the oldest regiments, their roots go back to 1685, when the King's Dragoon Guards and The Bays were founded [pre-dating the foundation of the 'British Army'] 

In 1896 Queen Victoria met Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, when they were both staying in Nice. She offered him the role of Commander-in-Chief of the KDG. Hence the badge of the regiment became the double-headed Austrian eagle, and their 'quick march' is the Radetsky March. In 1959, the KDG merged with the 2nd Dragoon Guards to form the Queen's Dragoon Guards. I completely forgot to ask if they'd change back to being KDG in the future [mind you, they had 64 years under Victoria and never changed to QDG then!]

They distinguished themselves at Waterloo, charging13 times - and at the end of the day only 15 soldiers of the original 530 remained, a junior officer commanding the entire Heavy Cavalry Brigade. As a result, a special bond formed between officers and soldiers, which remains to this day.

There was a magnificent painting of the battle hanging over the glorious open fireplace. Zoe [the only female officer, and the one responsible for maintaining the artworks] and I had a great conversation about art, and Waterloo [and the battlefield, which Bob and I visited in 2008.]

I chatted to the local Rector, the Bishop of Norwich, lots of officers, a fascinating antiques dealer, and others - also caught up with people I already knew, Bob's colleagues on the PC.

"Did you notice the table when you came in?" asked the antiques guy "It came from Hitler's Reichstag" I admitted that I'd been busy looking at Franz Joseph's portrait. I went back out into the entrance - and instantly a lieutenant appeared at my side "Do you have any question?" I asked all about the table. 

The KDG  'liberated' it at the end of WW2 and brought it back to England [it weighs a ton!] They cannot guarantee that Adolf actually sat at this table though. It is a lovely piece of furniture.I had a look online. There are many photos of the building showing tables with this distinct pattern of three lines along the edge.

I must mention the refreshments - cheerful soldiers spent the entire evening checking we had plenty to drink and serving canapés from silver salvers. All terribly elegant little mouthfuls which were relatively easy to pick up and pop in, and enjoy. I avoided the miniature filled Yorkshire Puds - they looked like a two-bite job to me, and I was afraid of making a mess and dropping bits on the floor [Bob did not have that problem!] My favourite morsel was the tiny diamond shaped crisp tortilla pieces, with paté and chutney.It was a memorable evening, and the generous hospitality and warm welcome from our military hosts was exemplary. The guards are moving to a purpose built barracks in Wales in 2027 - I think their presence in the community will be missed. I am grateful for the opportunity to meet such interesting people, and learn something of their story.

Sew Very Christmassy

Dereham Library has been closed for building work - but it has re-opened so we went in to change books. It was remarkably noisy, somewhere behind the wall we could hear power drills "This is Very Noisy for a LIBRARY!!" shouted another woman. I grabbed three books from the Christmas Craft display which caught my eye. All very different, with some clever ideas [for 2023 - I don't have time now to produce anything!]

Christmas Crafts Scandinavian Style by Tone Merete Stenkløv and Miriam Nilsen Morken was exactly that. If you like Tilda's World, you will be right at home here. Slim hearts, long-legged angels, quirky snowmen, and patchwork. 50+ projects. Unlike the British fondness for red and green, the colour palette is red, white and brown. 

Clear instructions, good templates *****

Craft it Up Christmas, Around the World is an excellent book for children's craft. Fun projects 'inspired by travelling' Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong have ideas from 35 countries - each has clear instructions, good photographs, and a 'fun fact' about Christmas in each of the countries visited.[in the Philippines, they hang star shaped lanterns called paról] Sweets, gifts and decorations. "for all ages and abilities" says the blurb, and I would agree. Its publised by Cico press, and their craft books are usually very reliable [good index, plus lists of Craft Suppliers in USA, UK and Oz] I may have to renew this one, so I can look through it with Rosie *****

And finally Sew Advent Calendars by Debbie Shore. From SearchPress, another great source of craft books - you may know DS's "Half Yard" series. I'd read the other two and already rated them ***** for their ideas, instructions, illustrations and indexes - but this one is so innovative, it gets *****too. I'm a little sad that none of the 20 projects is a countdown to the birth of Jesus - no manger, kings or even angels in evidence - but the different suggestions are really interesting. 

Two thirds of the projects have 24 pockets/pouches/pyramids/whatever but there are a load more intriguing 'countdown' items - A 'Calendar Girl' with a chalkboard for writing 'how many sleeps till Christmas, two number cubes, and a [slightly less interesting] calendar to count down the weeks [only four pages] Debbie includes two "Twelve Days of Christmas" projects - which is odd, as they are supposed to follow the Big Day, not be in the run-up...But her white towelling snowman has twelve bright pockets [ and she suggests if you made them half the size then you could fit 24 on his tum] And her 12 cones are a very clever idea. Here's her video [be warned - it lasts 20 minutes!]

I like her Christmas Cottages bunting - and am contemplating making a row of houses in Bethlehem, with a stable for the last one...[middle picture on left hand side of book cover] Not altogether convinced by the dog biscuit calendar for pets though!

So there you have three Christmas Craft Book Reviews. Apologies that it is too late for this year but file the ideas away till next autumn. 

Do you have an Advent Calendar? Home made or bought?

Does your contain chocolates [or make-up, seeds, jam or tea-bags...the choice of gifts gets more random each year]

How Come I Never Heard Of This?

I rarely use the word goblin. But last Friday I mentioned the poem "Goblin Market" in my wombat post. Then later that day I was listening to Pilgrim's Progress on R4extra, and found myself singing 'Hobgoblin, nor foul fiend, shall daunt his spirit". But it appears that the venerable Oxford English Dictionary has chosen goblin mode as its word of the year. And furthermore, this year, the WOTY was chosen by public vote [that passed me by too] 

It seems there were three words/phrases I could have chosen from. 

Goblin mode— a slang term referring to “a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations” — has been named Oxford’s 2022 Word of the Year.[last year it was vax] The Guardian depicts it thus...

The other two were metaverse [i.e. a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users] 

and the hashtag #IStandWith [ which recognises the activism and division that has characterised this year" and is used by people expressing solidarity with a movement or cause, such as the war in Ukraine]

I am aware of the words vax, and metaverse. I'm not altogether sure that a hashtag should count as WOTY [but Susie Dent said she voted for it, and if anyone should recognise a word, its our Susie. 

It does seem that Goblin Mode  probably won 93% of the votes because of an article in PC Gamer magazine. Not a publication I read, and the article doesn't persuade me to vote for goblin mode [or to read the rest of the PCGamer either!]

This is not an expression I plan to add to my vocabulary. 

And in case you were wondering,"What's the difference between a goblin and a hobgoblin?" I looked it up...

While a goblin is often portrayed in folklore as a grotesque, evil, and malicious creature, a hobgoblin tends to traffic more in mischief than malice. (The character Puck in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream might be regarded as a hobgoblin.) First appearing in English in the early 16th century, hobgoblin combined hob, a word meaning "sprite" or "elf" that derived from Hobbe, a nickname for Robert, with goblin a word ultimately from the Greek word kobalos, meaning "rogue." 

Had you heard of goblin mode?

And will you be using it?

Impromptu

"adjective - something done without being planned, organised or rehearsed"

We had an impromptu guest yesterday - there we were, at after church coffee, and it was miserable wet, day. And she was standing by the serving hatch and I wondered to myself how she'd be spending her afternoon. I had a quiet word with Bob, then invited her to join us for Sunday lunch. "nothing special" I stressed.

I had done the minimum of weekend meal planning for the two of us - Saturday morning a chicken casserole went in the slo-cooker before I did the School Fair, for our evening meal - and there was more than half left on Sunday. And I wanted to maximise oven use, so when I cooked the breakfast croissants, I also prepared two part bake baguettes [we were running out of bread] and also baked some puff pastry which was in the fridge.

I used my individual Hornsea bowl as a template and cut out 4 circles of pastry. The remainder I divided into 6 and rolled round chunks of dark chocolate to make rustic 'pain au chocolate' type pastries. And I also put a rice pudding in the slocooker. I'd thought this would provide Sunday's meals for the two of us. 

But it stretched very easily. 

I divided the casserole between three of the bowls, and heated them through thoroughly, popping the pastry 'hats' on for the last 5 minutes. These were served with boiled potatoes, and peas.

"This is not a pie, it is a casserole with a hat!" I said - and it tasted fine**. Our guest declined the rice pudding - but fortunately I could offer a bowl of fruit as an alternative dessert.

**This was a roll of Aldi puff pastry. I found it better- less oily- than Lidl's. But still prefer Sainsburys [or Jus-Rol if it is on offer] for flavour and consistent results.

Yesterday we chatted and laughed, and learned a lot more about each other. So much easier to do that in the relaxed atmosphere of home than while you are standing, balancing a cup of coffee, in the church hall!  I remember when I was young and single, and Sunday was the day I got most homesick, missing my own church, and family lunch with my Mum, Dad and brother. 

Preparing a fancy meal for family or friends can be good fun - Making An Effort - but occasionally the impromptu 'come back for lunch with us' invite is important and worthwhile. I need to remind myself to do this more often.

Advent 2

Along with many of our friends, Bob and have decided not to post Christmas cards this year [apart from a single greeting to friends in our churches in Leicestershire and Dorset, and three elderly relations who do not do have the internet] We are giving the money instead to the local Foodbank. It seems a much better use of resources. We have had a lovely year - two family weddings, a new great-niece and of course, the birth of Jacob, our fourth grandchild, in August.  So much to be thankful for.

This is the second Sunday of Advent, the theme is love
Thank you all for reading the blog, and for the many thoughtful and thought-provoking comments left throughout the year. Bob and I send our love and best wishes for a joyful Christmas, and a new year full of peace and hope, for you, and your nearest and dearest.

The Nativity tableau at Cornerstones is growing, year on year - new lights, and the little shepherd boy have been added - along with a quizzical sheep!

Pyramid Selling?

I contacted the local school, to see if there were any tables left at the Christmas Fair, and found they were all taken.  Then late Wednesday afternoon, the organiser kindly contacted me and said someone had dropped out, was I still interested? Yes please!

Bob suggested I might need to make some more stock of the items which sold really well. So I produced some more Teddy Bear giftbags, and some juggling sets.

The bags are quite quick to run up on the machine, the juggling sets contain a sheet of printed instructions and three pyramid shaped bags [filled with rice] Here's a tray of filled pyramids, waiting for the final closure to be sewn up. I can do that in front of the TV [whilst catching up on The Crown]

What I do not understand is why the school fixed the date of their fair, and then someone else has booked the Village Hall for a Craft Fair on the same day. I do hope the commercial venture does not detract from the school's fundraiser.

Let's see how much of my remaining stock goes today.

 UPDATE: 3pm, Fair has finished, and I sold lots of juggling bags, pencil rolls and wax wraps. And my HealthCare Fund is up by £70 !!

Wombats?? Who Knew?!

Liz sent me a WhatsApp with this link to a Radio 4 programme, and the enigmatic comment "I consider myself fairly well informed about the Pre-Raphaelites, but I had no idea about the wombats..."

A comment like that meant I just had to listen to the piece myself, and look again at this group of artist who have fascinate dme since my teens.

It seems that wombats [also called womback and wombar by the indigenous Australians] had become a curiosity in mid 19th Century England, and there were some in Regents Park Zoo - a favourite meeting place for the P-R brotherhood [and sisterhood!] Dante Gabriel Rosetti in particular, was obsessed with this furry brown marsupial.

He gave one to his love, Janey Morris, and named it Top. Here they are painted by DGR, both wearing haloes. DGR's sister Christina mentioned wombats in her great poem Goblin Market. How have I not noticed this before?

Curious Laura chose to linger
Wondering at each merchant man.
One had a cat’s face, 
One whisk’d a tail,
One tramp’d at a rat’s pace,
One crawl’d like a snail,
One like a wombat prowl’d obtuse and furry,
One like a ratel tumbled hurry skurry.
 

When her poem was published, her brother drew the frontispiece- and you can see the protagonist 'Lizzie' with the merchants, one of whom is a wombat!

Christina even wrote her own wombat ode, in Latin,  describing the animal as cheerful, agile, hairy, round...and heavy! 

Here is her brother's poem

Oh how the family affections combat
Within this heart, and each hour
flings a bomb at

My burning soul!

Neither from owl nor from bat

Can peace be gained until I clasp

my wombat.]

Another P-R, Edward Byrne Jones, drew a wombat frolicking in front of the Pyramids. Rather odd, imho

And when Top eventually died, grief stricken Rosetti wrote another poem for the pet. 

In 1857 Byrne Jones and friends were asked to paint the walls of the Oxford Union - sadly most of their work has gone, but one of the helpers said of that episode “Rossetti was the planet around which we revolved, we copied his way of speaking. All beautiful women were 'stunners' with us. Wombats were the most beautiful of God’s creatures.”

Thank you Liz, I shall definitely be looking at the P-Rs in a new way now! You can learn more about their crazy fascination here and here.

Using Nature's Abundance...

 ...to weave a kinder, simpler world

This is the motto of "Norfolk Hedge Baskets" - and on Tuesday evening I went along to the Swanton Morley Gardening Club to listen to Jonathon Carrie talk about his craft. 

He was really interesting. In 45 minutes he explained all about basket weaving in this country, and as he talked, he wove a small basket. 

It is quite a while since I went on my basketweaving course and this has definitely rekindled my interest in the subject.

Apart from anything else, Jonathon was so knowledgeable about the history, and the wonderful old words* still used to describe the techniques. 

He showed us that there are just four basic tools needed - secateurs for cutting, a bodkin for pushing holes through, a weight for keeping things flat [he has an old Victorian flat iron] and a 'heavy tool for rapping down' [he uses an old spanner. Well, we have three of those - so I would only need to find a bodkin.

He did make it all look deceptively simple! 

Here he is with the end product. He had a whole selection of baskets with him for sale. Find his website and shop here. He runs regular courses.

He says of his work 

Whilst other basket makers and sellers strive for uniformity I look for the individual, the original, the intimate and the exclusive. This is how baskets used to be made: when times were quieter, slower and more peaceful….Weaving is a spiritual activity; it is emotional and I try to weave compassion and kindness into every basket.

As I already knew, all willow baskets have to be woven by hand - they have not managed to produce a machine to do this work. During the coffee break, people went up to look at his display, and I heard one or two mutter about the prices [starting at £30] Yes, you can find similar stuff online at half the price - but it is usually imported. So once you have factored in the carbon footprint of the journey, and the various people along the way who want their cut of the selling price, it is unlikely that the skilled person who made the basket was paid a fair wage. 

Jonathon spoke about the continental baskets, and how the French look for style and aesthetic design - whereas the English have always been more concerned about functionality, and making the basket useful and fit for purpose. Norfolk has a great history of specific baskets for agricultural and fishing use. Creel, and skeps and panniers. Most English willow for baskets is now grown on the Somerset levels, but Jonathon uses locally grown materials.

This is the little fruit basket I made back in 2015 is not perfect, but is in regular use and I love it. 

*On the subject of old words, and weaving, I have been dipping into my "Wordhord" book again recently. I just love the word gongel-wæfre, which means walker-weaver. It is the Old English term for a spider!

Crafty Christmas Creations

As Advent started on Sunday, I helped the children make and decorate angels. I used my Martha Stewart circle punch to make 8" doyleys from thin card. The children coloured theirs and stuck tissue paper on them. This is such a simple idea, and works with pre-made doyleys or paper plates.

Steph asked me for a "1st Christmas" ornament for her tree to match the one I made for George 2 years ago. [tutorial HERE] So that was Tuesday afternoon's activity 

I haven't got any of my decorations up in the house yet - although the Nativity Tableau is outside [pictures to follow] 

Rosie is definitely getting in the mood! 

Just A Word

Do you do Wordle, the daily word puzzle? I started doing it back in January, and have done it most days since. On Sunday I completed my 300th puzzle

It took me five steps, but I was pretty HAPPY with my result. During the year, I've got the answer within 6 steps apart from 3 times. Twice I was rushing and made a typo, the third time I had two possible answers in my head, but chose the wrong one. 

I always start with STARE, and usually use POUND or CLIMB next. I dislike Wordles which have repeated letters or American spellings, or both [HONOR] and I don't do ANY of the variations [nerdle, quordle, dordle etc]

I have friends who do it as a family challenge, and compete to get the daily word in fewer goes than their relatives - but I solve it by myself. 

Bob is not particularly interested, even though he introduced me to the idea.

I usually do an online crossword and a killer sudoku everyday. If only I could develop the habit of regular daily physical exercises as well as these mental ones! They all have health benefits I'm sure. 

If you are a player, what is your preferred starting word? 

And have you ever "got it in one"?

A Profitable Pop Up Shop

I went to bed on Thursday with all my stock boxed up and on the sofa. Then Friday morning we set up shop.

It was not the warmest of days although the sun was bright and the weather dry. Our first visitor was a neighbour who had just gone through the alley to the bus stop and noticed that our sign was pointing in the wrong direction - he'd kindly walked back to the Close to tell us!

I had three tables - the first was covered with sewing bits, and an explanation about our crafts - plus a vintage sewing machine [partly 'window dressing ' but also I'm trying to sell it for a friend] Next table all the items at assorted prices. Finally a large table where everything was £3.50 or mix&match "three for a tenner"

I had made around 200 items as follows

Handwarmers, apple chutney, mini sweaters, tissue holders, notebooks, candle holders, pincushions, little pots, wax wraps, pencil rolls, bird brooches, three sizes of bags, and juggling bags. 

I had a slow and steady stream of customers both days, and the average spend was around £5. 

I sold at least one item from every category. What did I learn? 

• Wax wraps, mini sweaters and juggling bags proved most popular - but although almost every visitor said how beautiful the bird brooches were, I only sold three.
• Despite multiple layers of clothing, a heater, and frequent deliveries of hot drinks, I was still very cold by the time I packed up.
• Putting garden chairs out was a good idea, as many people who came on their own sat down for a proper chat. Bob said afterwards that there had been a lot of pastoral work done! 
• Planning to have a fish and chip supper on Friday, and slocooker curry on Saturday was a good idea, it meant we could sit down and relax, no cooking to organise
• The carriage house is a good venue - the ramp made it easily accessible for buggies and a wheelchair. One neighbour was talking to Bob about a charity sale he's hoping to do in the new year. We've offered him our space if it will help. 

I have lots of stock left, but I'm pleased with what I achieved, and money earned. I have got a long way towards the cost of new specs. I'm considering to how to deal with the remaining stock - maybe a table at a local Christmas Fair, or perhaps an online outlet...