SOS - Country Living Fair

Hello and good morning to you.

Another fine winters day, calm, blue sky's and most importantly, dry.

Firstly a huge thank you to our fantastic design team for the stunning cards they took time to make for our launch yesterday. If you missed it read on to the next post because this time everything is here on the blog. Thanks also to Gayle for organising it and writing up the post. If not an exciting time waiting to see what you make of the new images, I wonder who's already coloured theirs up? Remember that they are on a special launch price for the rest of today only.

With all our demos and classes in the house of sugar passed, and the images loaded over at Funkykits for the new release yesterday, it was time for a break.

 Both myself and Kate were off to visit Glasgow and the Country Living Fair. I went down with a friend on Thursday and Kate went on Saturday. It will be interesting to compare notes as it was the first time I had attended.

I was looking out for Kirsten from Quernus who has a stall, before I found her I bumped into a customer who told me I really needed to see the stand with the wee mice! YES, you guessed it, Kirsten makes the cutest little mice from clay. It was a delight to chat with her and learn that she might even come visit us for a workshop in her wee van.!

https://www.facebook.com/QuernusCrafts

Next on my list was the home of the cutest little caravans and houses don't you think? 

 Flossy and Mr Flossy were there, wonderful young talent. Clay again but they looked like they could be fabric. 

https://www.facebook.com/flossyteacake01

And by chance a few stalls down I discover another mixed media artist, Emily who was a student at the same school as Flossy, both friends who attended the fair to exhibit their talents independently.

https://www.facebook.com/emilynotmanmixedmedia

Those were my top three. I would have loved more handmade Indie crafters but its just so much money to do these shows, four days hotel and food on top of the cost of table, lucky if the smaller stand could do it for £2k! 

It's great to see young talent showcasing, sadly they may well be head hunted as designers for bigger companies who then have the range made overseas. But for now they have my support which is important to them and me, after all if I did my Christmas shopping in the big stores, would I be thanked? 

Would the boss take time to chat to me about how much he loves his job? 

Would I make a difference? 

If you answered No to any of the above, your might be the key to a small business surviving difficult trading ties and having a successful Christmas, not to mention the feel good factor you get visiting small businesses either in your local town, facebook or etsy, giving gifts with a little thought behind them.

Go " like " these girls, tell them Karen @ sugar Nellie sent you over, it's a delight to have them pop up on you FB feed. And I have a give away, chosen from those comment I see on those FB sites.

Buy local, support the independents, buy original gifts. It matters.

Now all I have left to do is draw a couple of names for last weeks give away.

But how about another give away today?

Let me come back to you with those, it's time for breakfast and a photo or two for you to win.

Karen