Welcome to the Love Handmade Fairs blog!
Some of you may have stumbled on to here, others probably meant to be here all along. Whichever category you fall into, welcome! Many people have been asking us how we have come into being, so below is the story of our creation….
Well it all started when we all answered an advert two years ago to hire tables at an exciting new Christmas Pop Up Shop in Warwick town centre. There were many different stall holders that year, and we had a ball. We had such a good time that the organiser decided to repeat it for Christmas 2013 too. There were 9 of us who had regular stalls and got on so well, that we thought it would be a cracking idea to carry it on through the whole year. Love handmade fairs was established! We are a fabulous team of creators, and each of us bring something different to the table….
From Nicci’s enviable skills on the computer working on all of our branding, to Jane’s beautiful artwork which forms the basis of those designs. From Julie’s talent at keeping us all on track at meetings and her near-supernatural powers at remembering what was said, to Nicola’s experience of running the pop up shop for two years and the myriad challenges involved. From Anita’s essential knowledge of what people want, how to get it to them, and her wonderful design style. From Tricia’s unparalleled ability to network and market our brand, to Susan’s support and venue scouting skills (and her cupcakes!) Then there’s me. Well I like writing – almost as much as I like talking, so I do all the emailing and booking in of the stallholders!
We’re doing alternate months in Warwick and Leamington, in St Nicholas Church in Warwick, and Dale Street Church Hall in Leamington. They’re great venues because they’re big, so we can fill the room with lots of lovely goodies for people to choose from. Our fairs are generally the first Saturday of the month, but there are one or two exceptions, so it’s a good idea to check our Facebook page or the website which is coming soon. There’s also a tea room serving scrummy handmade cakes, tea and coffee; so it’s a great place to come and put your feet up with a cup of tea before you look round at all of the tempting handmade items.
Yesterday, we had 19 different small businesses for everyone to browse through, from hand poured scented candles, to sparkly jewellery and gorgeous hand painted water colours. We’ve got stuff for dog and cat lovers, fab wooden items for the home, and loads of other items too numerous and fantastic to mention all of them here!
There’s loads of opportunity to order bespoke items from each of us, so if you’re looking for a specific birthday present or the perfect gift for your mum/aunt/sister/gran/neighbour’s dog or even the postman, then we’re sure there will be something for everyone!
We think it’s really important to ‘shop local’, so as much as possible, all of our stallholders are from the Warwickshire area. The quality is really high, so don’t just think it’s all plonking a sparkly crystal on a jam jar and shouting “ta da!”
We are aiming to have one stall per month run by a local charity; our first month was The Warwickshire Air Ambulance, as worthy a charity as it gets. We feel that it’s an important chance to acknowledge the reality of all of these local charities. They all need the awareness for their causes raised as much as possible. So if you’re a local registered charity and would like the chance to run a FREE stall for the day, we’d love to hear from you!
We’ll have an ever changing selection of artisan goods each month too, so we really are hoping to build up a good customer base, where people feel it’s worth coming back to us every month.
So that’s it! A short(ish!) informative(ish!) account of who we are and what we do. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and most importantly, in person at our fairs!
www.facebook.com/lovehandmadefairs
Jenn, Love Handmade Fairs
info@lovehandmadefairs.co.uk
Love Handmade Fairs 