Crafty Foxes on the Craft Trail a la Thames Festival

I spent the days before the Thames Festival doing the following things:

1. Sewing, sewing, sewing.
2. Starting my new job.
3. Checking the weather forecast every half hour, willing it to change from rain all day to sunshine.
4. Rejoicing when the forecast changed.
5. Daydreaming about selling out of most everything before dinnertime.

On the actual day, I was initially excited by the sheer numbers of people who descended upon the Southbank. Unfortunately, it turned out that not many of them were actually stopping to shop. My stall neighbours and I seemed to be stuck at the edge of a thoroughfare, and the best shopping time seemed to be when it finally decided to rain, and everyone ran to the stalls for shelter. While my daydreams did not manage to come true, I still got to meet a load of lovely folks.

Sharing a table with me were Maria and Andreea of Magic Joys. They had baskets full of adorable little hand-knitted animals. They use all natural materials and have begun working with only organic wool. I loved the foxes, made especially for this Crafty Fox event, and my absolute favourite of all time was the little baby white owl pictured above. Andreea told me that would be the only one ever made like that, as the knobbly wool was very difficult to work with. I love the downy fluffiness of it, makes it seem even more like an owlet. I was planning to purchase it once I made enough sales to pay for my half of the table. Alas, alack!

To my right was Corey, one half of the husband/wife team behind Strange Fruit, a unique greetings card company that aims to design cards to "reflect Britain's colourful population". I love the collage stylings of the cards, and was most taken by a Christmas card featuring two gorgeous girls sporting Santa hats and surly pouts. Corey (a fellow American) also became my "muse", as every time I complained to him about no one buying anything, lo and behold, someone would come by and hand over their hard earned cash for something babybandito. Thanks Corey!

And check this out! Thanks to my stint at the Thames Festival, I've been invited to sell some of my goods at Things British, a new boutique at Kingly Court, off Carnaby Street. I've been wanting to expand my brick and mortar sales beyond Kansas City and South London. Carnaby Street will do just fine. Yessir. Americans, maybe you're sitting there thinking, Hmm, I know of Carnaby Street - where have I heard of that before? And why is Austin Powers music suddenly playing in my head? Or, if you're slightly cooler than me, you'll have made a more rock and roll link to The Jam. 

Another highlight of the day? At about 8 pm, Regan popped over the river (as you do) to give me some freshly popped popcorn and a thermos of hot chocolate, because she thought I might be cold and hungry. She is officially the Random Acts of Kindness Queen of my Life. She makes me want to throw shapes.