Fait Accompli!

School Fete today – I had a table in the Main Hall selling craft bits, embroidering bibs, aprons and facecloths – and handing out Holiday Club flyers [Is that why you are in the ORANGE tee-shirt, Miss?]

Last week in IKEA, I bought an inexpensive Lerberg shelf unit.

It is lightweight metal and fits into the back of my car [just – but I cannot carry any passengers at the same time]

It was really helpful for display purposes today.

 

However, after spending the day sitting behind my machine, smiling at the punters, I have reached a number of conclusions.

1. I am never going to make my living as a craftswoman
2. When people say “Ooh, aren’t these pencils rolls lovely? Look at this, Millie"!” they probably aren’t going to buy anything from me.
3. People would rather spend £2 on tickets for the Bottle Stall, and maybe win a bottle of 50p Tesco Cola than £2.50 on a handcrafted Pencil Roll.
4. Most sales come at the end of the event – half way through, I hadn’t sold enough items to cover the cost of the stall [£10] but in the last half hour, and for twenty minutes after the event had technically finished, I was sewing away like mad, as people who had come inside to hear the Raffle Prize Draw decided they wanted a bib or facecloth after all!!
5. Despite all that, it was a brilliant day for conversations.

 

I gave away dozens of flyers for Holiday Bible Club [it is the next village to ours, so children can easily get to us if they want to attend] and the high point of my day was when a bloke in a leather jacket arrived on his motorbike, and bought me a cup of tea. [Is that your Bob, Miss?]

It was great to see former pupils, who came up and chatted [they change so quickly from primary school kids to streetwise adolescents] and also good to meet parents for the first time.

Two memorable comments

“I’ve just made the connection – you are Reverend Bob’s wife aren’t you?”

and

“You do lots of stuff outside school, don’t you Miss? I remember once being in a tent and you told us the story of why there is a lion on the treacle tin”

which is amazing, because it was either two or three years ago, and the child concerned could have been no more than 7 at the time.

Home to a barbecue in the garden, and then I fell asleep watching the season finale of Dr Who. Woke up to realise I had lost an ear-ring. Feel very guilty as they were a present from Steph- a pair of cute pink zip-pulls, and I am really fond of them. Hoping that the missing item will turn up somewhere when I unpack my boxes.

Why is it that favourite ear-rings are the ones which get lost?

It is hot – and looks like getting hotter…

Bob is out preaching at 3pm tomorrow afternoon. I wonder how many he will have in his congregation…