Market Season Is Upon Us

Summer is here and all the Finnish people are climbing out of their holes where they’ve been hiding through winter. Me included. Yes, even me. Or is it I? Anyway, summer means market season and I’ve already signed up for the first one. See, I’m optimistic and confident that I will get out of my craft slump on time.

This will be my third year of selling my crafts in Old Market Square Carnival of Rovaniemi. It will be on 24.-26.8, only problem being that my appointment with the orthopedist will be on day before which will mean I have to take the night train to Rovaniemi and then go straight from the train to set up my booth.

But who cares. It will be fun! Seeing familiar faces, guilt tripping family members to buy things from you. The usual. Oh and buying market food!!! Grilled sausages with mustard and ketchup is my go to snack. Oh and meter licorice!

This year I’m definitely going to dress up. The participants are encouraged to wear pre-1950′s outfits and there is even Miss Rillumarei (can be translated as Miss Yee-haw) competition. Should I sign up for that? If my style is not right for Miss Pin Up, maybe this one would be more up my alley…Thoughts?

Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to start hunting for bamboo dish cloths to print on.

Till next time.

About My Thrifty Sales

I  managed to sell the items I told you about. All but the fabric, sold within minutes of me posting them. The fabric sold today and even with postage (which in Finland is insane) I made a little profit!

That would have been great if I hadn’t visited my local thrifty store today and come back home with twice the amount of stuff I sold. Yeaaahhhh, not so good but it’s not that bad. One of the items was something I’ve been looking for years, one was for specific project and one is going to be a gift. Basically I bought just 5 “un-necessary” items then.

To make myself feel better I decided to put one more item for sale:

 And it sold within a minute! I posted this about a year ago when I was planning to use it for make-up and sell the wooden blocks that came with it but in the end I didn’t bear to do it. So glad that I kept the set because the person who bought this, had a hilarious background story…Can’t share it here but I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes.

Tomorrow you will get to see today’s loot. It’s pretty good.

Billnäs…A Market Fair Not To Be Missed

I live in a newly developed area in Espoo, where all the houses were built 2006 or later. It’s right next to the old part so there are historic building as well but it does feel like a place with no heritage or stories (or shops). (The rent is reasonable but in 4 years has risen by 25%). Basically this means that every time I get to see places which are visually pleasing, I turn into eep, ooh, aaah, wow and other exclamation sounds- machine.

Yesterday I helped Amalia to set up their stall at Billnäs Fair, which is held in Billnäs (who could have guessed) and now I’m in awe. And in tears too. Because I want to live there. I really, really do. Or at least get married there. Or at least get one date here in Espoo so I could at least DREAM of getting married there. Should I say one more time at least?

Billnäs is an old ironworks which was established in 1641 and it was running till 1983. Now it is in private ownership and the rumour says that the guy who owns it made poop loads of money in IT and now runs the Billnäs for fun. Personally I think that he has put his money in good use. Anyhoo, today was the first day that the craft fair was open and the atmosphere is great. I didn’t have any time to take picture today but here’s some pictures from yesterday. Note that we went to set up early and after we left, tons more vendors set theirs. That’s why the mill looks so empty in these pics but I hope you will enjoy looking at these pictures anyway!

P.S. Today, as I was browsing around, I spotted something that could have been turned into fantastic scrapbooking and stamping set. I asked the vendor if she’d be interested in collaboration and let me tell you, the response was…Let’s just put it this way; OMG! WTF!?! I will write a post about this next week because there are some points worthy of discussion but before that a quick question…How and maybe more importantly, where do you, as a crafter/artisan/designer/artist want to be approached? Or do you want to be left alone?

Thrifty Tip: A Cereal Package Envelope

See, I’m not all about ATCs and card challenges these days, I’m still doing my other crafty things. Little bit over a month ago, I was cleaning my closets and cupboards and found bunch of plastic bags from various stores.  At first I was thinking of using them as trash bags as we Finns usually do with them which seemed a bit harsh as the bags had very nice patterns on them. Then I remembered that Maarit, a woman I met last year at Rovaniemen Wanhat Markkinat, makes make-up bags out of pretty plastics. So I asked for her address, made a nice package and sent them to her! I didn’t tell her what I was sending and she was pleasantly surprised! I’m so nice and generous.

And modest.

Here is the how-to…I opened up the glued edge of a cereal package, turned it inside out and re-glued it closed. Then I used my fabric tapes to A. decorate and B. to close the envelope.

Let’s all ignore the crumbs inside my keyboard, shall we.

It felt almost sacrilegious to write on this but eventually I managed to.

Here are some links to how to make fabric tape yourself:

Simply Modern Mom

Annekata

the red thread

Hope you like this!

Announcement!

The craft shop I fell in love with has asked me to be one of their Official Crafters! Yay! Mira actually asked me a few weeks back but I didn’t want to tell you until I have something finished to post. Here’s a peek of papers I used…

Can I do the Fat Monica- dance now?