So, you probably haven’t noticed (because nobody really does notice when someone goes offline for a bit, do they?) but I’ve been a bit quiet these past few weeks.

I’m not apologising. Not just because I just read a post on Instagram that said you shouldn’t apologise for being absent online, but simply because I really really needed to focus on making work, in preparation for my first craft fair for FOUR YEARS!

I can hardly believe that it had been so long!

It was certainly long enough for my brain to have forgotten how much sheer hard work is involved in doing a fair!

Not just making enough work to fill your table – which, when you make tiny things, as I do, believe me is no mean feat! – but also all the other things you have to think about. Big things.

Like badgering your partner to get on with replacing their phone, which they were going to do anyway, but which is now completely essential because my phone’s battery would only have lasted half an hour and would have left me unable to take card payments all day (nowhere to plug it in and charge it up).Like putting together a display that draws people in, shows off the work to its best advantage, is portable enough to fit in a car and carry from the car park to the venue and doesn’t cost the earth.

Like making sure that my card machine still works after four years of sitting idle in a box under my desk.

Like working out what to make, how much of it to make and once made, how to transport it, protect it en route, display it, package it and sell it.

Anyway, not to blow my own trumpet too much, but I did ALL of the things. All with my own fair hands.

My mind has been full of decisions and my “To Do” list was longer than a very long thing indeed, but eventually everything on the list got ticked off and I only wept about a few things a couple of times and I only dreamt about it every night for a few weeks, so it was all OK in the end.

In fact, it was so much more than OK. It was AMAZING.As well as forgetting how much hard work it all was, doing a fair, I had also forgotten how incredible it is to watch people react to my work in person.

The moment their eyes fall on my stall… the way people look like they’re suddenly under the influence of some sort of magnet and, gaze fixed, they wander forward… the smiles that break out on their faces and the nudging of companions and the picking up and the cooing and EVERYTHING.

I think we all need a little validation now and again. And I had totally underestimated just how seeing folk enjoy and praise my work in person would fill up my maker’s heart with joy and gratitude.

Even in these straightened, belt-tightening, cost-of-living-crisis times, people actually wanted to buy what I had made.

And people really did buy lots of things. Not everything, because that would never happen. But lots.

Which fills me with wonder and happiness. Not only because of the money involved (which, heaven knows, is more than just nice to have, it’s essential) but because it is a validation of my ideas, my work, my vision – and me.So this post is me sending out waves of gratitude to everything and everyone that made it happen.

To the organisers, Anna, Laura, Rachel and Helen, who comprise the Sherwood Makers team, all amazing makers in their own right (check out their work via the links). Together they created an amazing event. It had a brilliant atmosphere, was organised, branded and publicised perfectly and seemed, to my somewhat preoccupied eyes at least, to run without a hitch.

To my partner, who not only sorted out his new phone in good time (and helped me sort out his old one so that I could actually use it, despite my technophobia) but also uncomplainingly got up early on a cold Saturday morning to drive me down the road and carry heavy things quite a long way, when he could’ve been tucked up in bed. Not to mention having to put up with weeks of my emotional rollercoaster and a kitchen table semi-permanently strewn with thread and wire and bits of fabric.

To my fellow stall holder and friend Katherine, who not only offered me a lift home so that my partner could watch his beloved footie, but did more than her fair share of carrying and loading and unloading my stuff (despite the cold and the very large rat scuttling about near the car as we loaded up!)

And finally, of course, to all the people who came to the fair. You will never know how much your presence at the event was valued, or by how many – organisers, venue, traders and everyone involved.

THANK YOU.

I’m now busy at the kitchen table again, this time slaving over a hot laptop, editing photographs and preparing to get all the goodies that people didn’t buy at the fair online, so that those of you who couldn’t come along can have a look and see if you like them.

I’ll be sending out an email to subscribers imminently about when the rest of the things will go on sale (as soon as I’ve worked that out myself!) so if you would like to receive that email (and occasional subsequent ones, about blog posts and available work mainly) you can sign up here.

I’ve put photos of some of them in this post, because I was literally too busy all day to take any photos apart from the one of my stall (and that wasn’t taken until the last half hour before the fair closed!)

Thank you again, everyone.

Back to work now!