The Craft Hub “Summer of love” fair in Topsham on Sunday was buzzing!  I was really busy with my candles and was approached by a few people regarding selling them in their shops and at their fairs – how exciting!

Sarah and Bernie, who own The Juniper Garden Co. in Magdalen Road Exeter,  impressed me with their passion for what they do and their flexibility.  We discussed producing a new “peagreeen” range especially for their shop, in recycled vintage terracotta plant pots.  They will all be garden scents “Freshly cut roses”, “Fresh Limes” and “Bluebells” to name a few.  It is my first shop venture and very exciting – let’s hope they sell….

I’m also working madly to get my stock up for the big Cathedral Green Craft Fair this coming Friday and Saturday and local interior designer Holly Keeling is holding a Vintage sale on July 8th & 9th at her barn in Denbury, where my vintage jelly mould candles will be available to buy.  That’s about it on the “peagreen” news front, better get back to work!

Thank God it wasn’t raining like this the weekend of  the Exeter Respect Festival (4th & 5th June 2011) I’m not sure our gorgeous Cath Kidston gazebo would have held up!  Loaned to us by my wonderful pal Helene, it was the star of the show housing all out Craft Hub goodies which were for sale…..

From left to right: Hayley, Pip, Eleanor, Lucy, Hannah and me (wine in hand as usual!).

It was great fun, can’t believe I’ve lived here for 5 years and never been!  8.30am on the Saturday morning things weren’t looking too rosy, having done my back in lifting the gazebo into the car with my partner, I was in agony all the way to Exeter.  I then had to go on the scrounge for ibuprofen and paracetamol (thanks girls) and consequently spent most of the day sitting on my backside, until Kate arrived with the wine at 4pm and Pip produced some hardcore medication from her bag. Miraculously things started to look up!

On Tuesday night a few of us “Craft Hubbers” met up in Exeter to discuss the forthcoming Cathedral Green Craft Fair on July 1st and 2nd where five of us are representing The Craft Hub and sharing a stall.  Quite daunting for me as I’ve never done it before albeit a fantastic opportunity to market “peagreen”.

At Peagreen I have been working on a more affordable range of jelly moulds, in aluminium moulds which are smaller and lighter than the glass ones, so perfect for gifts as cheaper and lighter to post.  Soon to be added to the shop.

What a fantastic place!

I met the lovely girls from The Craft Hub at the new co-operative Cafe The Real Food Store on Friday to discuss our stand at the forthcoming Respect Festival in Exeter.  Downstairs you can buy Emma’s Bread and a great range of local produce and upstairs there is a spacious seating area, extensive local menu and fairtrade teas and coffees.  Since 2009 it has taken 292 shareholders to get this community project off the ground and well done to them. It’s relaxed, comfy and light with very reasonable prices, definitely worth a visit and you get to leave with that smug feeling that you are helping local businesses rather than a multi national global corporation!

Lovely Pip from the Craft Hub

Armed with a pile of gorgeous yellow flyers and posters for the Craft Hub “Summer of Love” Fair on June 19th which I have promised to distribute around Teignmouth & Shaldon (think I’ll get Tracy to help me from My Sister Mabel) I left the meeting full of enthusiasm for the future!

Well, my little candle making business is really taking off at last! Yippee!  The April 3rd fair at Topsham was a mega success and I was approached by someone from the Exeter Steiner School who asked me if I would like to do their Fair on May 14th.  A friend of mine, whose wedding is in July, has asked me to make 40 vintage teacup candles for the ladies’ table presents and I’m doing the next Craft Hub Fair in Topsham on June 19th.

I’ve found some great new scents for Spring like Hyacinth, Bluebell and Key Lime Pie and I have a room full of exciting vintage finds that I have been picking up on Ebay and in various charity shops.  Most importantly a growing collection of 1950s Poole Pottery which I love! I have started pouring candles into unusual retro pieces which can be washed out once the candle is finished and reused. Check out these old soup bowls, what a fantastic shape!  I’m going to fill them with a double wick soya wax candle and sell each one with a pale pink vintage Poole plate………viola!

Actually, they don’t look too great wrapped in plastic but I need to keep them clean and you get my drift…yeah….?

It’s my good pal Bridget’s 40th birthday today

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIGGERS!

Armed with coffee and croissants we shall all be assembling in Combeinteignhead village hall at 10am tomorrow to get it decked out with bunting, flowers & candles  (of course) ready for the evening party.  Everyone has to come in fancy dress, something beginning with the letter “B”  and I’m hoping one of the men has the confidence to come as “Borat” in a mankini, that would be hilarious (photographic evidence to follow……..with a bit of luck!)

Blimey………. can’t believe I haven’t blogged since November, although I have to admit, I turn into a rather large dormouse during the winter months.  Having stocked my house with essential supplies (red wine, chocolate, fresh coffee and Earl Grey tea) I light the wood burner & snuggle down in front of the TV armed with various box sets (The Inbetweeners being the best) and embrace Winter!  Having convinced my other half to do the morning school run months ago (he works from home and needs to escape the house for fresh air every morning – honestly!).  I managed a few hours work and have loaded some stuff into the shop at last. 

We had a Christmas visit from the Russians (my brother Luke and his Siberian wife)  which involved too much vino and not enough sleep!  My children, lured by the chance of some retail therapy, were keen to visit the in-laws in Birmingham, where I came across this wonderful life-size installation at The Custard Factory and an enormous vintage clothing shop – you know me…. I love a bit of recycling!

At Peagreen we are still on the hunt for some cheap storage in order to expand the business.  I am cracking on with my handmade candles (easier to store) and have a few fairs booked on April 3rd @ St Matthews Hall, Topsham, Devon, the first weekend of June @ the Respect Festival in Exeter and the first weekend of July @ the Cathedral Craft Fair, Exeter.  All these bookings have resulted from joining The Craft Hub last year. Thank you to those lovely ladies Pip, Hannah and Lucy who have been working so hard on behalf of everyone involved in this Exeter-based craft co-operative.

Problems with Paypal have prevented me getting anything into the shop. I can see our pre-Christmas sales disappearing! Oh well, it’s been over two weeks since my last blog entry so I’ll get on with it… sounds like a confession!

On November 17th there was another Cr’after Dark session at The City Gate Inn in Exeter.  “Crocheted Christmas Decorations” are obviously not my thing, and having had too much wine beforehand with my friend Nat, I have to admit that I struggled!  My poor friend George, who had driven over from Stokeinteignhead, and is a master crocheter, ended up trying to teach Nat and myself how to do it as the instructor was flat out because the place was heaving!  It’s proving to be a very popular night out. Well done to Pip and the gang for all the effort they put in. Let’s hope that the December 12th Fair in Topsham is just as busy.

Yesterday our lovely photographer friend Mike Evans spent the day here doing our website photo shoot.  A far cry from our lame attempt at photography, he was in and out with lights and gadgets and lenses creating fantastic shots. I got to utilise my massive hoard of junk shop buys to use as props, our friend Helene made up a beautiful bunch of flowers and a good time was had by all (I hope?). Watch this space for the results… should get the disc on Tuesday.

Another hectic week lies ahead, with a cupboard to finish painting that’s heading off to Tavistock on Thursday. Some craft orders to make from an evening I did at a neighbour’s on Wednesday, A Pampered Chef lunch at my house on Thursday, and my other half’s 40th birthday celebration on Friday! On Sunday Blue is having her Charity Arts & Crafts open day in Teignmouth and I still have to get some things in our online shop!  The next time I blog I will be the proud owner of gorgeous Peagreen photos….

…..did I choose doing up old furniture as a job?  I currently have two chairs, recently painted pale blue, drying off in the middle of my kitchen.  A dresser, minus a door, which Ben is fixing at his place, also in the middle of the kitchen,  various boxes, candles and packaging lying around all over the place and I’m supposed to have everything all perfect and gorgeous looking for November 26th, when we are having our website photo shoot!

The Craft Hub Falling Leaves Fair went very well on October 30th.  I was really busy with my candles and everyone seemed interested in the fact that they are made with natural wax, which washes out, so I also plugged my refilling service and hope to have some takers soon (apart from my pals – thank you all for your support) I think it helped that I lit a gingerbread candle and had that burning away for the duration, making everyone hungry.  Can’t wait until the next Fair in Topsham on the 12th December and the next Cr’after Dark evening in Exeter, when we will be learning to crochet Christmas decorations, which no doubt I’ll be rubbish at!

Progress with the website has been very slow, mainly because people keep asking me to weird things like stand in as a dinner lady at my daughters primary school,  I did look quite fetching though, in my blue and white chefs apron! I will endeavour to get something into the “shop” before my next blog entry.  Speaking of dinner I had better go and make a start on ours……

What a week it’s been. Three of us made it to the City Gate Inn in Exeter for the Sock Monster workshop last Wednesday and very enjoyable it was too! The room was full of women, socks, buttons & needles in hand, whilst Kate gave us a demonstration and we all learnt how to turn the raw materials into these gorgeous little creatures! It’s definitely going to be a home-made Christmas in my house this year, candles, chutney and sock monsters for all!

meet the family

On Friday I went to my friend Kat’s, who was holding a breast cancer fund-raising evening.  Lot’s of pink cakes, pink biscuits and pink balloons (oh, and Kat’s pink thong) went down very well! I took some candles along and everyone loved them, especially the fact that once they had forked out for them they can have them refilled as I have decided to do a candle refilling service.  I sold £100 worth of candles – yippee!  Hopefully a positive sign for the future of my candle making business…….?  And Kat raised £150 for the charity – Well done Kat.

Paul (other half) or “poor Pauly” as my friends like to call him – can’t think why? – has been working on the website as you can see….  We will soon have a “shop” he assures me, how exciting!  I am off to a packaging company in a minute to get some  boxes made up for the candles and vintage cake-stands. Maybe one day I’ll have to send one somewhere.

Ben is in Suffolk this week for a wedding, but he has already been to an auction and picked up some vintage Poole Pottery for candles and cake-stands, so I’ll let him off for taking a holiday at such a busy time of year!  We have our first Craft Fair on Saturday (St Matthews Church Hall, Newtown, Exeter 10am-4pm) since joining The Craft Hub, a photo shoot looming, Christmas around the corner and a website to build – better go and sort out my boxes!

too many plates...

Being a collector of all things vintage, I have decided to put to good use my enormous hoard of plates.  I have,  after much searching,  found a supplier of gorgeous cake stand handles which start off gold and silver and are then sprayed with a matt white enamel and knocked back, creating a distressed finish which fits perfectly with my old plates.

As well as being a vintage magpie,  I am also a shopaholic (mainly for research purposes – honestly!)  Anyway… I am increasingly coming across shiny, new cake-stands which yes,  you’ve guessed it,  are made in China.  Why do that?  Mass produce perfect,  floral cake-stands when you could probably fill Wembley Stadium with all the unwanted plates in the UK? And they seem to be so sought after at the moment.  So, we are going to add to our range of candles (hand-poured into vintage finds),  & old furniture (given some new love), cake-stands,  made from lovely vintage plates!   We at Peagreen think that they will fit in very well with our philosophy and will be available to buy soon… watch this space, as one day we will have a fully transactional website.

crying out for cupcakes!

On that note,  Ben and I went to visit our lovely photographer friend Mike Evans today,  in his amazing studio in an old barn,  to arrange our “shoot” which will take place in my house in a couple of weeks’.  Very exciting,  except I’ll have to do loads of cleaning beforehand… not my favourite pastime!

Off to make sock monsters tonight in Exeter – can’t wait!

okay…..I was feeling slightly better today as due to extreme nature of diet the weight seems to be falling off at a reasonable pace.  Then I remembered that I had promised my daughters I would make them a soggy chocolate brownie cake that involved dirtying my hands with such nasties as chocolate, sugar and butter!  Talk about needing an iron will!  I nearly had to lie down as a result of throwing those dripping utensils into the washing up bowl without so much as a lick!  And predictably,  they both shovelled it in for pudding – topped with loads of Madagascan Vanilla Cream – without so much as a “thanks Mum”,  and all I had to distract me was a…………wait for it…………….. ham and “light” cheddar cheese omelette!   All night the cake has been talking to me,  from behind it’s great glass dome and  now,  at 41,  I can fully appreciate what those poor kids  had to endure in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory that day………….it was based on a true story wasn’t it?  And I bet they all behaved so appallingly because their parents had them on carbohydrate free diets!

It’s great how things fall into place as you get older isn’t it? All of a sudden the penny drops, like when I was watching Mamma Mia & realised that I’d spent the last thirty years singing the wrong lyrics to Abba songs and then the morning after my 40th, when I realised that the mature, articulate grown up I was expecting to take over was never going to come!  And now I’m “old” and my kids are singing the wrong lyrics (and they are the wrong lyrics, because they are re-worked dance tracks that I used to listen to twenty years ago!) but what do I know?  I’m just their Mum………

………….I find this mantra helps me in troubled times :

when chocolate cake is calling you and wine whispers your name,

change your focus, something new, play a little game…..

dig out your old dungarees, faded blue with ripped up knees,

turn your ipod onto “rave”,  jump around and misbehave

and if you feel like getting “wasted” or getting “out your head”

remember you’re a grown up,  have some tea and go to bed !!!