I did my third craft fair on Sunday - the Duck Pond Market at Ruislip and had a really good day. It was a very late booking on Thursday which meant long hours over the following few days but I think that might have actually helped as I was FOCUSED. I knew what I wanted, what I needed, what I had to abandon for another day and I went for it - it was a bit of a success given that I did the last bit of sewing on Friday night and was able to spend Saturday night just "styling" (oooohh...get me!).

The market is held in a lovely old barn and as it was Mother's Day, there were lots of families out for the day. In my last post, I was feeling all negative about my product pictures and my displays so I put my thinking cap on and raided the house for bits and bobs and came up with this...

This is such am improvement from my last craft fair so feel really positive in the way things are going.  I had to use a lot of props as I currently have a few bag inners with no clasps as I'm waiting for a shipment.

I don't think I've introduced my new bags on the blog yet have I??  Well, here they are...

Hope you like them!

New skills

Do you ever compare yourself with others?  Of course you do, we all do it ...right?  How many times do you come off better? 

Recently I've been going along to other markets and checking out other peoples blogs and shops and the inevitable happens...I start to compare all my stuff with those I've seen and start to sink deeper and deeper into a hole of negativity.  I have a bit a habit of this.....I tend to over think things, reach the conclusion that I can't do it, strop around for a bit and then avoid the whole issue by focusing on something else.  I remember doing this with fractions at school, chemistry at university and tonnes of presentations at work.
Mr L gave me some simple advice..."it's just a skill you'll have to learn".   This hadn't actually occurred to me...but he's right.  So I've been working through this really great book to try to improve my photos:

This book is really useful; it has sections on how to improve your specific craft photos and how to better understand your camera.  So, fingers crossed.

Already, I think there's an improvement...

Next up, improving my displays.  Strop over for now.