Christmas Pop up Shop

I know, I know it is August....Christmas is a million miles away and no-one wants to think about it, sadly in retail this is the time of year one must think about Christmas stock and events.  Personally I adore Christmas and am really excited about having our first one in our lovely new house.  This year with the opening of our teaching studio and the launch of my Etsy shop (coming soon) I have been toying with the idea of a pop-up Christmas shop here for a couple of days during the festive season.  I love the idea of local people coming here for a drink, a chat, to buy handmade gifts and maybe even have a go at making something themselves.  We want to source handmade items from local designer makers and showcase them here with a lovely social atmosphere.  I hope that people will come to shop and stay to make friends and chat.  It is something I am really quite excited about and hope to repeat in future years if it goes well.  I am a real winter person and love any excuse to snuggle in with hot drinks, candle light and good company.  I will be serving drinks and nibbles and if all goes to plan getting to know my new neighbours and maybe even teaching a few people how to make tree decorations and personalised stockings.  If you know of anyone in the local area that is a maker or crafts person pass them over in my direction.

My first student

Although officially we are not open yet I had my first student today at the Studio.  She didn't want to wait for the course so I offered her a 1-2-1 lesson which she jumped at.  After all the planning it was lovely to have someone here to see the space and get some feedback on it.  Thankfully my teaching skills are still good despite a break of a few months and I flowed back into it quickly.  She was so happy with the cushion that she made (first time ever using a machine!) that she took a bunch of leaflets with her with promises of passing to all she met.  These are the kind of people you need marketing for you as they do much more than a website or advert can.  I hope to have many more students here as the Summer reaches an end and people start to think about Autumn crafting and gift making.  It will be lovely to have the place full of people discovering a craft for the 1st time.

Launch of the Studio

If you follow me through Twitter or Facebook you will probably know that I am opening a creative teaching space here in a lovely annexe we have.  It has been a labour of love and I am very excited about having lovely people here to learn and to enjoy the space.   I am busy ordering sewing machines, finding lovely items to stock and making everything perfect for the launch party on the 21st August.  We are having a little tea party and hope that some local people will come along and check us out and then pass it on to other local people.  I really want to encourage a good local base of crafty people that come to learn or just to use the space for larger projects they are making.  It is important to me that the classes are accessible to local  people as well as those coming from further a field.  We are offering set workshops, evening knit and stitch groups and the option to come for parties, use the space for a group meeting and come along to hire a machine and use the equipment for a project that may need more space.  We will slowly stock more and more haberdashery items and lots of lovely locally produced wool and my personal dream of having a little Christmas pop up shop in December.  I am also inviting local crafts people to come to me with ideas of courses that could be run here and hopefully offer a few more interesting classes.  On the Sewing front I am making my Christmas range at the moment which always seems a little strange in the middle of Summer but that is the way the retail world works.  My Etsy shop Little Rowan Tree is opening soon and I will keep you up to date on that and all  my other exciting projects.