Can I mention Christmas yet?!

Despite starting to plan new products for the Christmas season and Christmas events in the spring, I still dislike talking about Christmas too early! However, I heard my first Christmas song on Radio 2 this evening so I think it's time!

Unfortunately my favourite show of the year, Handmade Winchester isn't running this year but I will be showing my jewellery at two events - two different events but I am very excited (and rather nervous!) about both of them.

The first event is this coming Friday, 15th November - the Christmas Gifts Bazaar that a friend and I organise to raise money for the Wessex Cancer Trust each  year. This is our fourth year and we've got more stalls that before, live music, wine, mince pies, a raffle - what more could you want?! The reason I'm nervous is that we've worked so hard on this and I'm at the waking up in the middle of the night stage praying that it will be a success! I know that it will be as people have been talking about it and tickets have been sold, but that doesn't stop the nerves!

And the second event is our first annual Open Studios at the Sorting Office - the nerves this time are because I've never had to opportunity to open my studio up to the public before! I'll tell you lots more about this later in the week, but for now all the basic information you need is below.....

 

It would be wonderful to see you there!

Craft Show Countdown

 

Now it's November and the school halfterm holiday is nearly over I feel that I can mention Christmas! Although as I've been busy with developing new products for my made-to-order designs, ordering new business cards, a new stamp with my new logo and a new banner, and planning out improvements to my displays for my craft stall it feels as though I've been preparing for Christmas ever since we got back from New Zealand! You can read some of my plans for my craft stall in my Art Jewelry Elements blog post published yesterday, and there are lots of links to craft display ideas and tutorials for DIY displays in the post too.

I've got three shows this season, and the first is next week - which is rather a scary thought as a friend and I are the organisers! It's our charity Christmas Shopping Evening in aid of the Wessex Cancer Trust, and it's in it's third year now. This year it's going to be even bigger and better than before, with more local businesses and live music from a fantastic local jazz saxophone group - I know that they're fantastic as one of the member is our neighbour and they sometimes practise round at hers. I always leave the patio doors open in the summer evenings when they're rehearsing so I can hear them better!

If you are in the Southampton area next Friday evening it would be fantastic if you could join us to raise as much money as possible for this great charity, and to support small local businesses. It's a great way to get a lot of beautiful gifts under one roof! Tickets are £3, and include a glass of wine, a mince pie and raffle tickets. And you could also see what you think of my new craft stall displays on their first outing! For more details we have a Facebook event page set up here