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Crafts & Comedy Weekend

What's that you say? A weekend full of crafts, comedy & tasty food, yes please, I'll take it. A dollop of sunshine, thrown in too? Great. And yes, supersize it with a bank holiday. Lovely, just lovely.

  The much anticipated craft fair at Galeri in Caernarfon kicked off the weekend in splendid style. Although pretty quiet on the potential customer front, this wasn't too troubling as it was the first time the fair had been held here (apart from Christmassy ones) and the general consensus was an upbeat expectation that numbers would grow if we get the message out that a great little craft fair is here every month (on the 1st Saturday of each month). More advertising & finding ways to lure people in will hopefully work a treat especially since the stalls all looked so pretty with good quality crafts in a refreshing range. On a purely self-satisfied level, I was very pleased with my colourful little stall of curios. My crochet bunny heads attracted attention although my favourite moment was the following exchange:
Little Girl: "Mum, these are so cute!"
Mother: "No, they are strange".  Suddenly seeing me sitting behind the stall, she pauses and apologises while continuing to look slightly bemused at the rabbit heads.
Me: "It's ok, they are a bit strange. It's intentional!". 
We laugh, she backs away...

See this link to the Facebook group page to keep up to date with info about next month's fair:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crefft-Cyfoes-Caernarfon

Fortuitously, a very nice student bought a crochet orange with needle felted bee because her nickname is Tangerine (or a variation on it). I'm hoping that this is a studenty trend & soon young uni types will be queueing up to buy various creatures & foods from me. I'm certain of Apple Martin's custom one day but it might be a bit of a wait...

Another encouraging aspect of the fair was the lovely crafters/ artists I met there. All were interesting (in a good way!) and inspiring. Favourites included:
Dyfal Donc who create imaginative cards, prints and jewellery http://www.etsy.com/people/DyfalDonc, 
Laura Wyn who makes pretty, contemporary enamelled jewellery, (inluding on trend swallows & foxes etc) http://www.lorawyn.com/ and
Little Miss Jones hand knits all manner of splendid clothing & homewares http://littlemissjones33.blogspot.co.uk/ 

My self-imposed discipline to not buy anything crumpled in the face of the prospect of owning a knitted thong (purple with generous ribbons since you ask) knitted by She Who Wields The Needles in the Little Miss household. It's now hanging prettily from a hook in my craft room, serving as inspiration for future collaborative endeavours and to make me smile!

In contrast, Sunday was a day of respite from repeated stabbings with a felting needle as me & hubby took ourselves off to the Machynlleth Comedy Festival. I've been learning Welsh since last year and can now confidently say 'Machynlleth' so surely I deserved to go! It's a gem of a festival. Small, laidback and with actually good comedians, think Stewart Lee rather than Peter Kay (except Phoenix Nights which remains much loved). Scaling back from last year's full weekend, we enjoyed a daytrip this time but packed in 3 shows-David O'Doherty, Tim Key & an unexpectedly brilliant show with four younger/ newish comedians discussing comedy. Not at all wanky, it was funny and fascinating and introduced us to Angela Barnes & Romesh Ranganathan (def ones to watch). We also managed a tasty curry and pizza each & ridiculously decadent chocolate brownies, all consumed alfresco with the built in entertainment of people watching, a good effort all round. Put it in your diary for next year! http://machcomedyfest.co.uk/
Dilapidated musical scene spotted in front garden in Machynlleth (it's that kind of place)






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