Property, Craft Fairs and Guinea Pigs

Agh! Wednesday again! Already! It has been a busy week including my first ever craft fair which I'll tell you more about later. I'm just back from an afternoon yoga class and feel refreshed and ready to write. I go to yoga at a studio near my house. it is called Balance. I love my yoga classes. I go every week. Today we were working on core strength routines and learned a new posture. Half Moon Pose. I liked this one a lot.

Yesterday was a glorious day here in Glasgow. Surprisingly very sunny. I'm currently doing a university module at the Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh on Gender Justice (quite a contrast from my crafty side, but I used to lead a domestic abuse project, so now this should make sense) and I have to submit my essay at the end of this month. So yesterday was a study day, in the garden, with my two guinea pigs, who cut the grass for me while I read about Michel Foucault.

My guinea pigs are called Buttercup and Bosshog. Buttercup is the wee blonde piggie and Bosshog is bigger and brown and white. They live in my flat with me which they like, however, they are not fans on the noisy sewing machine...

So lots to report on the tearoom business. I've been to a number of training seminars with the Business Gateway. One on financial planning and one on marketing. Wow, the finance bit scares me. I get really confused with numbers but I learned about basic book keeping, which I think I can manage. My dad has promised, when I set up, that he'll take care of the numbers bit which makes me feel a bit better! So overall, my confidence to start my wee business is growing and feels less scary.

Last week I looked at my first property. It wasn't really suitable. It was HUGE, far bigger than I expected and far too big for my needs as it had a massive basement the same size as the floor above. I really loved the facade though. The door and window were great, but I can't chose a property on those factors alone I guess! I'm going to see some more this week. This one in on the road that I like and it is very close to my home.

I think it is the lower shop, with the blue sign which is under offer. I think that would be quite cool, going down a few steps to the tea room. It adds a bit of adventure to the experience. A bit more curiosity. Any thoughts anyone?

As I mentioned earlier I had my first craft fair experience and thoroughly enjoyed it. My partner Stuart and I were there from 9am to set up in the church hall. I thought I'd brought too much stuff but seeing what others had brought, I think I'd got it just about right.

These are some of my cushions that I had on sale. I really liked preparing for the fair, thinking about what my stall would look like and having a practice at setting it up in my flat. Stuart created my lovely labels and business cards and I took time to display the business cards in a wee teacup and sewed my labels onto the cushions.

My friend Jill who helped me behind the stall took these lovely wee pictures.

 

I sold most of my cakes. I made a selection of cupcakes with butter cream icing and glace icing with dolly mixture sweets as decorations. They were the most popular ones. I also made raspberry and chocolate brownie. I'm not a big chocolate fan but I adore this chocolate brownie.

I'm really looking forward to my next craft fair and meeting up with the lovely bunch of people I met there.