Friday, May 16, 2008

To Market...and beyond!




Serious house cleaning going on here, no time to sew so I will share some good things from Quilters on Friday instead. First though....remember my sister's baby blanket I nearly binned...she wonders if I will take orders from her friends!? Go figure!

Helen received this pack of hand dyeds from a friend in Queensland-fabulous colours. We had a play with different arrangements for putting them together.




Robyn was working on her socks. You may have seen this wool before with the computer generated pattern in the wool-all you have to do is knit and it looks like fair isle.





My lovely quilters spent most of their time helping me wrap boxes of hedgehog and pots of succulents for the market....and doing the stuffing and stitching for heart cushions and chooks! we had a real little factory happening!


Now, to the market.

The organisation of it works that there is a co-ordinator, which was me, then convenors in charge of the different areas, eg, flower bouquets, Mother's day Craft, confectionary, bbq, hot potatoes, children's activities/show bags,Cafe, Bakehouse, trash'n treasure, 2nd hand kids books and toys and a Farmer's Market.
I do all the initial work and get the helpers, advertise etc, then the helpers are allocated to the convenors and they put their actual section in place. They do a fabulous job. We give each School family a baker ID number for food handling and that goes on all their baking and jams for traceability.


School and Church people all contribute to the stalls, we used to hold it at the Schools but felt we mainly got School and Church people, so we now run it in the Senior Citizen's hall down the main street...adjacent to the supermarket car park. We are getting a lot more town's people calling in that way and find we don't have to make everything AND buy it!
So, the grand figure...our little market took $8500!!! hopefully only $1000 in expenses so $2000 up on last year...not bad for a 100 family School.
Here are some pics I thought you may like.....




some craft from our craft days......recognise any trademark Tracey???

I paid some girls on commission to sell my cards while they sold their jewellery, they sold $120 worth!



The bouquets bought in over $1500, 8-10 talented women put them all together on Friday, they get a lot of natives donated and everyone cleans out their gardens so no outlays at all!

So a great community day all around.

Have a good day, Tracey

13 comments:

Chookyblue...... said...

such an organised person..........your day looks good and good idea outsourcing sales of your cards........lol.......

Libby said...

Looks like a great sale . . . bet I could have found dozens of things to buy *s*

Gina said...

What a great day for everyone, and a great result in funds raised.

I love the hand dyed fabrics and I'll have to look out for that wool for my mum. She loves to knit but her hands aren't up to Fair Isle anymore. This may be a good 'cheat' for her.

love and hugs xxx

Clare said...

I wish Alex's college would take heed and listen. I'm sure holding a market/craft day a couple of times a year would pay for the stuff they want to fund, unlike blasted tombola tickets, yukky Christmas cards and raffle tickets which no one buys!

Lovely hand dyes - great to play with.

Andrea said...

Brilliant - you all did amazingly well. I love crafty local sales but they are a bit few and far between.

Calidore said...

Wow you did do well money wise and the stalls look so good. I love those kinds of markets. Heaps of yummy things and at good prices too. You and your team of workers are to be congratulated on all your hard work.

Doodlebug Gail said...

What a great Market Day you had! Well done to all concerned and great job on all your hard work.

Chocolate Cat said...

Market looked fantastic and very successful. Like the idea of the ID no's for baking etc, does that mean you don't have to individually list ingrediants on each item? I think the wool Robyn is using is just what I need!!!Love it!

Susan @ Blackberry Creek said...

Where do you find the wool and pattern for Robyn's socks?

Lynn Dykstra said...

A wonderful sale. It took a lot of work, I can see, and had beautiful items.

Kim said...

We call those big fat juicy looking succulents Hens and Chicks! Lot's going on for a fabulous sale. Funny about the quilt for your sister. Can you duplicate that? LOL.

Ruth's Place said...

Congratulations on the fund raising!

Christine said...

Congrats on your successful market - you are obviously a great and inspiring organiser.
Love those socks - the fair isle thing sounds cool.