It really works!!

As the market stall idea didn't really work out for us at the moment, the MadeIt.com.au website seemed like a better option, and it is!!! I sold a dilly bag!! Just one, admittedly, but it is still a sale, and the bag had only been listed for a day! What a success!!

Each seller is notified by email when they make a sale, so you can imagine my excitement when I opened Outlook to find a message from MadeIt.com.au advising me that I had sold an item. The only problem now is, everytime I open Outlook I expect to see a sold item email.

I have now listed about 8 treasure bags, as well as 7 of the dilly bags, and have them listed under 'babies and children', 'bags', and 'craft and made' items. This way I am sure to get maximum exposure and hopefully receive many more sold item emails!

The artistic friend is still waiting for the excitement of receiving such an email, but I am sure that success for her is not too far away.

Change of Plans .....

Although the 'artistic friend' and I were quite keen with the market stall idea, life has decided to point us in another direction. Due to children's weekend sports programmes, the practicality of attending weekend markets just didn't work. Therefore, a website called 'madeit.com.au' seems to fit the bill very nicely. It is a site that sells handmade items. I had been thinking of selling my products on etsy.com, but this seemed more appropriate for the professional artisan, whereas madeit.com.au has a more homemade/handmade feel to it.

Both the 'artistic friend' and I have stalls on the madeit.com.au website - toffeeandwren and retrogarnet. No sales have been made by either of us yet, but our stalls have only been operating for 1 day!

We are selling everything from podpals to dilly bags, beaded bookmarks, plastic covered bags and anything other craft item that we find we have made lots of and haven't yet given away as presents.

Our next effort is to design a banner for each of our stalls, and we should then look very professional, even if we don't feel it yet.

I have lots of photos to take of my dilly bags so that I can update my market stall, and I will keep all my readers abreast of our progress.

Success!

Although I wouldn't consider our first market an amazing success, we had some sales and by the looks of the small crowd there on Sunday, we may have been one of the minority of stalls who did. It was a very quiet market - that's just not us saying it, that was the overall feeling of the stall holders and operators. It was a great experience, and we were both very pleased that we had done a trial run of putting up the tent the day before, so that although we didn't look like complete professionals on the day, we didn't look like dorks either. Our stall was set up and decorated well before the 8.30 a.m. deadline, and in our cream coloured aprons with red and white rosettes (many thanks to the 'artistic friend'), we looked thoroughly in our element. We kept being told that it can take up to 12 months to make a success of something like this, so I will keep all my readers posted! I think we both have a little bit of restocking to do, but found that we had ample stock on the day to keep up with our sales.

On the tail of the market success, I completed both the wedding and engagement quilts. They both look fabulous, and I even remembered to take photos of them before wrapping them (which is quite unusual for me!).

This is a short blog for me, as I have run out of things to say (also unusual!).

Marketing Madness!!

The 'artistic friend' and I have decided that we should finally pull our fingers out and have a market stall - at Flemington Market. We decided to start big, and with about 2,000 people attending each Flemington Craft market, we thought this was big enough. I intend to sell dilly (drawstring) bags in two sizes - one big enough for sports shoes, colouring books, stuff for keeping the kids interested while travelling or as a library bag; and a smaller 'treasure' bag, for fairy stones, dead insects, iPods and headphones, shells - anything really that takes your fancy. I will also have beaded bookmarks for sale. The 'artistic friend' is making lots and lots of pod pals (small bean bags for iPods) and hand stamped note cards. We have decided that our theme is red and white, and that our market stall name should be a mix of our blog names - therefore - Retro Toffee.

In light of the red and white theme, I have learned how to make bunting (red and white of course) - harder than it looks - and have made a red and white tablecloth - easier than it looks - just hem the two ends and use the selvages as hemmed edges.

I have a 55 litre tub in the middle of my loungeroom and am putting market stall items into it everytime I think of something - paper bags, munchies, display item for bookmarks, munchies, display items for dilly and treasure bags, munchies, etc. etc. etc. You get the idea.

The only problem with all this sewing and organisation is that we are not sure that we have a stall yet! We are hoping to hear before the end of this week - the market is on Sunday - but if we are not successful, at least we are now prepared!! And if we are not successful, we at least get to sleep in and therefore don't have to be at the market at 6.00 a.m.!!!

I will blog again after the very successful (!) market!