Our Market Debut

Yesterday the lovely Rosey and I had our very first stall in the Petrie Markets.Ah, the smell of success.Yesterday it was in the atmosphere along with smells like fresh air, camp fires, kettle corn and lavendar.



The day went very well, and lots of my creations have gone home with new owners. I sold 17 of my quilled cards (hmm, caught 18 fish, sold 17 cards...weird...)I will be very busy making more of the ones that sold, so more pretty cards will be available soon. If you missed out on one that you wanted, let me know via the email address to the right and I will make you one (keep in mind it won't be identical, I am doing this all by hand. But hours will be spent to make your card wonderful.).



By the end of the day the table was starting to look bare, so I'm hoping to make more than I had this time, so that I can keep placing more cards in the empty spaces as they appear.



I have learned lots from this experience. Like-
1: Bring a calculator next time. When you are all flustered and excited because you are making a sale, it takes longer to add up in your head, and that could look unprofessional. Plus it will just make the experience easier and I'll have more brain power to chat with.
2: Going by what sold early on in the day, I now know the style of items that sell best, and can focus on them.
3: Lots of stalls sell jewellery, so my little bit of jewellery was hardly noticed. None of it sold. I haven't decided for sure whether I will try to sell it there again, but clearly the cards are where my talents lie.
4: Get some sort of brochure-type stand to display the better cards in a way that will draw people in more. We did get lots of sales, but I think with more of the good stock and displayed better, it could do even better than that.
5: Wind is a factor. Don't have anything displayed on anything that can fall over due to the wind.
6: People are interested in quilling and it might be a good idea to sell starter kits and instructions, and perhaps even do some quilling while I'm there to show people how the cards are made. I'm going to start a "How To" page here on my blog too.
7: The Petrie Markets are wonderful. Beautiful place, great sounds and smells, fresh air, lots of families, delicious food and so many cool stalls there are too many to list. I sincerely recommend them.
8: Rosey is an excellent market buddy
9: People are nice. Thank you to all of our shoppers :)
10: People in my family who came out just to see my stall are the nicest. Thank you to my Mummy and my Grampa, my husband's Mum, Dad and sister Louise, to Kathy and Matt, and to Rosey's beautiful family and friends. You all helped our debut go very well, and you are all gorgeous.


My First Sale. An obvious choice I must say. I will be making lots more of these butterflies in lots more colours to sell at future markets and on my madeit shop.

We won't be at the markets every week, as my fingers just don't work fast enough to create that much stock, but we will go regularly, like once a fortnight or once a month or something. We haven't settled on the dates for sure just yet, but I'll of course be posting here when the next one is coming up. So stay tuned.


Stay gorgeous,

xnata

The Shop is Open Again! And Markets!

That's right, I'm back so the shop is open again! Yay!


RenataClarkeDesigns on madeit


And tomorrow I will be there, at the Petrie Markets, in person, selling lots of the goodies that you've seen here on my blog. I will be taking a camera and give you a detailed report of my sales achievements when the day is done. If however you can't wait that long and are in the Brisbane area, come along! It's a beautiful property, full of lovely stalls with all sorts of goodies, and I'm sure that if you want something for you, or a loved one, say, your mother *hint hint*, there would be plenty of options for anything from a gift to a card to give her, even at my very own stall with my very own Rosey.


Here's some info on the markets and what else you can see there :)

Old Petrie Town Markets | ourbrisbane.com

Mother's Day is a week from tomorrow everybody, now what more would your dear mother want than a handmade item from a market, hand-picked by you? Plus you get a great day out out of it.

So please, I beg you, come and support the co-mingling of Renata Clarke Designs & Itty Bitty & Pretty!!!

xnata

Tanned and Wiser

I'm baaaaack...

I will first blog of pleasure, then another post on business shortly after this.



I had a lovely holiday. I learned how to fish, and I caught 18 of them! And 18 is my lucky number too! Only 2 keepers though, a whiting and a brim. The rest were only babies and Matt let them off the hook and sent them home again.

Burrum Heads is a lovely, quiet, friendly place to stay. Only the essentials when it comes to shops (eg, a butcher, an excellent bakery, a bait shop, an IGA, etc.), but that's all you need really for a week away. The house we stayed in was beautiful and we felt very much at home there.

"Lynman Inn", our home away from home. (this photo was taken by Matt, not me. Credit where credit is due.)

Aside from fish, we saw lots of other wildlife! It was so great, we saw a few runny babbits (hares really, but you get the point), a green tree frog was under our house one day along with his two marsh frog friends (one of whom later snuck into our fishing bag and went out to the beach with us x) silly frog). Kangaroos were nearby and yes we did have to stop for one who hopped across the street in front of us, lucky we spotted him early on and were crawling along at the time. There were always dogs running around on the beach (friendly ones only), and THOUSANDS of soldier crabs, that burrow into the sand to hide when you get near them, along with hermit crabs, sand crabs and other little creatures all over the beach, but I've saved the best for last...

Turtles! Not on the sand, in the water. When the tide is out at Burrum Heads, you can walk out really far along the sand, over coral and rocks, to fish or just go for a walk. We fished from this spot on the rocks (which appears to be some sort of coral shelf going by the behaviour of the animals in the water below) a few times during our holiday.

Then on Thursday we were fishing away there when the BIGGEST TURTLE I HAVE EVER SEEN popped his head up from under the water to get some air. I would say that in length he'd have been as big as a golden retriever! I could have had a ride on that shell easy. But I wouldn't. He was only about ten metres away from us at the time, I've never seen one in the wild that close up before. We didn't get a photo because they are up for a few seconds and then disappear under the sea again, and I'm not quick enough for that.

Then on Friday, out there again, we spotted one about the size of a dinner plate, swimming right near the edge of the rocks we were standing on, about five metres away! And THEN...One about the size...of...oh, I know, a school bag...yes. He popped up several times that day, and at one point he swam towards me, stopped directly in front of me, facing me, popped his head up and had a look at me!

I MADE EYE CONTACT WITH A TURTLE!

I have since put turtles at the top of my prefered pets list. I love them.

I have more photos of this adventure but they are loaded onto a different computer so I'll post them another time. I have come back tanned, a fan of fishing, and eager to get back to business, which is handy seeing as I'll be at the markets in the morning :s -please don't let it rain, please don't let it rain- fingers crossed. See my newest post for more info on the markets. Eep!

xnata