Its been one of those weeks! Nothing seems to have gone right! At the beginning of the week, well the end of last week I put one of my handmades on ebay. I had seven watchers by the time it ended, but no-one put in a bid, for some reason it quite upset me. I am always being told oh, you should put this on ebay, or you should put that on ebay so I did! I was quite disappointed to the fact I was actually going to put all my crafting stuff into a charity shop. I thought 'Vintage' was the by-word. A few months ago I was told I didn't actually craft.......I was wondering what I did do, but apparently I should be making lots of one item and not one or two one-off items which I prefer to do!
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| A commission - it had to be Lavender in colour hope the people like it |
I buy my eggs from our local farmers market once a week, the rare breed eggs were the same price as the normal eggs so I bought half a dozen, they tasted the same but the shells were very pretty - pale blue.
It comes to something when you have to weed the compost bag doesn't it! Do you remember the empty nest well.................
Sorry the picture is not clear, because I wanted to take the picture and leave with out disturbing the place too much, and the other day I saw the sparrow sitting on the nest. I won't go near too often now because I do not want the nest abandoned.
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| An Electrolier - not a chandelier! It is run off electricity not candles. |
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| The white garden |
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| The Walled garden |
Friday we went out for the day to the National Trust property Barrington Court another disappointing place in my eyes, the house had no furniture or exhibits. It once belonged to Col, Lyle of Tate and Lyle syrup and sugar, and when his son gave it back to the NT (the family leased it for 100yrs) he took all his furniture and just left the wood panelling. Then we went on to............................
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| Market place Shpton Mallet |
Yes.........we went to see lovely Nikki
Such a lovely lady.
It has only taken us three years to get there..........
Shepton Mallet must be one of England's best kept secret, we just kept missing the turn off to the place! So this time I put the SatNav on!
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| I just had to take a photo of this weather-vane I thought it quite unusual |
Yesterday afternoon we went to a very, very large bootfair, the field was full to capacity, it was such a lovely afternoon, well over about two hundred cars at least. It took an hour to get round, we only went round the once! All I came back with was this sieve! I needed to replace my one like it because the sieve part was parting from metal edge, from too much being squashed in the dishwasher!
Last night I joined Ancestry.co.uk I don't know anything about my family. My parents didn't talk, my mum didn't like living in the past, but I have two wonderful grandchildren growing up fast and I know nothing about our family, I know more about my husbands than my own! If anyone lives in Ipswich, Suffolk UK and knows anything about Alice Wilden who died in 1943 (she was my grandmother), or the Wilden family please let me know........
Before I go I would like to say a big HELLO to my two new followers.
Before I go I would like to say a big HELLO to my two new followers.
Oh don't loose heart your crafting is beautiful, its ebay that sucks, for crafters at least, too many people want something for nothing, and don't appreciate the work involved. Have you tried etsy? I am trying to set up a shop on there myself, to help my Mum sell some of her bits, its certainly a bit cheaper to list things, and its geared to celebrate handmade. But regards to things selling, well I haven't got that far yet so we will see :) My compost bag looks the same but then so does the garden! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I hope the sunshine is with you! xx
ReplyDeleteBlogs and everything seem really quiet just lately, don't get disheartened.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the family history research.
I'm sure you feel upset, but dont feel bad, these are your beautiful hand made items and therefore part of you, so it's bound to upset you. However as Wendy said ebay is not for the beautiful things in life. It takes time to get going too, you just have to find the right market. Compost bag made me laugh-never had one look like that but sometimes they are left too long and huge spiders take up residence.
ReplyDeleteDon't lose heart Julie. Your things are beautiful and there's no logic to what people will spend money on.Yesterday I was selling at a bootsale. There were people who didn't want to pay £2 for a pair of curtains in immaculate condition, or £3 for a text book, but they were walking around eating a takeaway burger that probably cost more than I wanted for those items.
ReplyDeleteIt's really tough on the selling front at the moment, don't give up! Good luck with your family tree, I gave up on mine as my mum couldn't remember anything!!! xx
ReplyDeleteDon't give up, the things you make are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI loved the look of shepton mallet, esp the weather vane.
Helenxx
Lovely post Julie. Keep on making things. I am not having any luck on the selling front either. I can't even get people to look!!! Best of luck with the family tree. I hope you find out lots of fascinating things! x
ReplyDeleteI love the garden at Barrington Court, but you are right, inside it is such a disappointment.
ReplyDeleteHi Julie,
ReplyDeleteThanks again for coming to visit my little shop in England's best kept secret! :-)) It was lovely to see you...
Such a shame about Barrington Court...I agree with you...its nice to visit a NT property and see it 'alive' with furniture and possessions...
I don't think there are any easy answers just now in regard to selling hand crafted items. Like you, I prefer to make one-off pieces, which hopefully people appreciate more and see it as value for money with it being unique. Find your passion and run with it...your love for your work will shine through...
Good luck and keep positive,
Niki x
shame about barrington court - I like to see the bits and pieces more than the property myself, so I quite know what you mean.
ReplyDeleteDon't let the ebay thing get you down - so much turns on when the list ends - the fact it was near the end of the month and a bank holiday could well mean that people either ended up not being near a computer to bid or had run out of money - another time you could get a completely different result.
Good luck with the family tree - my mum did it recently and found it fascinating all that she uncovered about her family (although, essentially it boiled down to the fact that generations of my ancestors got preggers outside of marriage and had shot gun weddings at any early age - I come from a long line of strumpets it seems!! Hope your past is less scandal filled!!