Sensory Gardens = Much Fun

On Saturday I went on a rare but wonderful day out to Knaresborough with my friend Rachel. It is a beautiful place and it was such a gorgeous day. We went boating on the river, drank tea in a wonderfully quaint tea shop, had ice cream, went to see the castle and stumbled upon a sensory garden in an arts and crafts center. The sensory garden was amazing. It had different areas dedicated to different senses and was clearly designed for children - which is probably why I loved it so much! :D I especially liked a tree that kids had decorated with clothes, toys, mobiles and flowers. It was so lovely.

Sad news though :( One of our chickens died. We're not sure why. We noticed she had a bad leg yesterday so we think it must have been something to do with that. And we didn't get any chicks. We broke one of the eggs after the broody hen had been sitting on it for the right amount of time and discovered it hadn't been fertilised. The rest of them were like that too. But our remaining hen is now sitting on some different eggs so hopefully chics will be here soon :)

Craft Fair No. 2

Today I participated in my second craft fair of the year. The Artsmix team had employed the Urban Angels' Circus (two dolled up ladies with an oversized shopping trolley) to go through the streets of Leeds and promote the fair by handing out leaflets for free drinks at the bar downstairs. It was such a good idea and it brought a lot of people in. I had a great day. My jewellery went down really well and I met some lovely people with some really interesting products. I sadly forgot my camera though so no pictures of the table this month :( It's a shame actually because I had a 6ft table instead of a 3ft and everything looked so much better.

I tried something new out this month. I had a sale basket. I never know what to think about sale baskets at craft fairs or bargain sections on etsy. On one hand I think putting handmade items in a sale grossly undervalues the work of the artist, on the other I think it's a great way to give old stock or pieces that have minor imperfections new homes. I thought I'd try it out anyway. I had the items individually priced in a basket, but I decided to give them away free to people who spent over £15. It worked quite well although a few people didn't even notice it and spent £15+ and were really pleased to discover that they got something else for free. I think if I go with the sale basket again, I'll have to put it in a more obvious position so people can see it. I didn't really advertise my sale as much as I could have done because I don't like it when people do that to me. Sometimes it seems pushy and desperate.

My top tip this month is to make cards like this one in the picture. It makes everything look so much better and makes it a lot easier to display things. I did mine on word and printed them out on cream card. Give it a go!

Link of the day (yes I'm doing this now, apparrently): http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=12364 This is the best thing I have ever seen. Enjoy!

GIVEAWAY! - because everyone likes something for nothing!

I'm participating in a giveaway! Hurrah hurrah hurrah! All you have to do is go to the link below and enter the competition before the closing date (10th April) and this pair of earrings could be yours. There's also a lovely little interview I did for you to read and lots of pretty pictures. Isn't that nice!?

http://jleighdesignz.blogspot.com/2009/04/featured-friday-ruby-rouge-jewellery.html