Saturday 2 October 2010

Artisan Show: Warwickshire Exhibition Centre

Friday's Artisan Show was pretty busy, despite torrential rain for most of the day.  I hope most of the exhibitors managed to get set up the day before, or they would have been drenched.  Lots of crafters had brought their own wheelie bags, so I imagine that a great deal of crafty goodness was acquired.  Perhaps I should have done the same, as I had to have assistance to the car with my buyings - thank you Gail! 

Below is a little teaser of my BIG spend.  You can see it in those three boxes to the front of the picture.  More on that in a future post...once I stop wibbling with excitement and actually get on with using it.




This is part of my show stash.  Distress inks, ribbons, pens, embossing powders, alphabet tape, desk calenders to alter, and the strange blob at the back on the right is a mannequin to decoupage.  The little bronze shapes in the bag are all different, and will be added to boxes.  I also finally remembered to buy a heat mat.  Perhaps safety was in my mind, as the kettle had a strange hissy fit before I left the house and started billowing smoke.  It spent the rest of the day cooling its heels in a very rainy garden before I threw it out. 



It occurred to me that in much the same way as there is an international index for the cost of a burger, perhaps we should index the price of distress inks across the stalls at craft fairs.  Although it didn't occur to me to check before I bought (Lesson # 1 for this craft fair novice). I did end up with the second cheapest at the show...



This was a lovely freebie for spending at the stall of Craft Stamper magazine (I bought back issues I had missed out on).  Pliers, some sweet charms, beading threads, a natural and bronze jewellery kit, earring findings and some beautiful aqua beads (one of my favourite colours), plus a soft mat. 

We went for lunch in Leamington Spa after the show so that I could recover from my over-excitement/overspending.  After a long search in the pouring rain, we ended up dripping all over Bar Angeli, where the sweetest waitress from Funchal took great care of us.  Highly recommended, if you are in the area: gorgeous bread and antipasti, and some delectable looking cakes that I was sadly too full to try.

The sun made a brief appearance at about 6.30pm when we set off to collect a coffee table ready for renovation.  This is the rainbow right over Birmingham International Airport.  I do hope that some people got to fly through it; can you imagine how beautiful that would be?



3 comments:

  1. sounds like you had a crafters dream day.

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  2. Yes, it was fabulous. So good that I was tucked up under the duvet and sound asleep by ten (dreaming of ink!).

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  3. Lovely new stash, and the rainbow photo is magical. The freebie gift is amazing -lucky you!! Thanks for visiting my blog today, and I have enjoyed taking a peek at your lovely work.
    Sylvia x

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