It was the most beautiful place to be! I had never been myself, Mum had though, and I loved having a stroll around the grounds on set up day! We ate our lunch by a fountain, saw swans and their signets, parakeets, herons.. the lot! It was a truly inspirational place and I learnt a lot.
On Thursday morning we arrived and offloaded the van. It took all our strength to get everything off and into our stand! But we got there in the end and then spent a few hours attaching shelves (yes I did DIY!) and making it look pretty! It was the biggest fair I had ever been to, so wasn't sure what to expect! I was pleased with how our stand looked in the end. I had worked hard to prepare and design the whole thing.
This is a little photo I took after we had set up on Thursday. What do you think? We had a little Christmassy corner as I didn't want to offend anyone, a table in the centre covered in our small gifts. The left hand side was shelves covered in cushions and the right side had our bunting and bags on.
My highlight of the entire weekend, was meeting my idol Kirstie Allsopp, not once but twice! The first time was at the exhibitor drinks party, where we had a very brief introduction, hug and cheeky photo. But then on Sunday morning she came to my stand and had a chat about me and Jessalli, and how I started! She was the nicest, most caring person, and was so interested in talking about the business, but I just wanted to talk about her!! :D We had another photo and it just made me the happiest person alive! It made my year and I will never forget it!
I also had a chat with the amazing Annie Sloan and her team gave me a book as a thank you for us helping them transport some of their heavy furniture!
I completely utterly loved the whole weekend and met so many lovely, beautiful people. Including Nina and Marion from Sugar and Spice , Lynne from The Make it Room and Sarah from Blooming Felt! They were full of encouragement and gave me loads of advise, which relaxed me and made the experience a whole lot more enjoyable!
It's only Tuesday, and although I have tons of work to do now, I miss being there already! Bring on next year's fair!
Let me know if you went and what you thought! Happy Handmade!
love Sophia x
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