Introducing Mrs. Lacer’s Attic

So, you know that Etsy shop I’ve been talking about opening for months now? The one that I said I was going to open in the summer? Well I officially opened it today, a few months late and on a Friday the 13th to boot, but I have plans for this one! Called Mrs. Lacer’s Attic , which for anyone who reads this regularly will know, is a bit of a joke, as I live in a tiny ground floor flat, hence no actual attic. I’m going to be stocking principally hand embroidered pieces, it’d be tempting to say actually that they will be all hand embroidered, but I don’t want to limit myself. Currently there are only two pieces in there, but more will go in over the weekend. It will just be embroidered art pieces, mini cushions and maybe a few Christmas decorations for a while, as after a whole week frantically preparing just this lot, I need some time now to make my own Christmas presents, but in the New Year, like I say, I’ve got plans! Including doing something that my mum used to make (the blanket covering the table in the second photo below, was something she gave to me, it was nice having something linking my crafting enterprises back to her (although she didn’t make the blanket in question)), although done my own way, something which may become my speciality and I’ll leave it as mysteriously as that.

So, I marked the opening of Mrs. Lacer’s Attic with my very first craft fair where I’ve actually made the stock (I’ve been doing craft fairs for the last two years, selling children’s books). It was at my kids’ school, so although I knew it was a bit of a risk, at least the cost of hiring the table was going to a cause literally close to my heart, that along with using what I had already in my stash, made the fair tonight not too financially risky. Anyway, when I set up that stall, something I had done with the books, loads of time before, seeing my own stuff on the table this time, I was suddenly rather proud.

But when it came to actually selling, hmmm, I sold two Christmas decorations (two of the stars with eyes, which are my personal favourites and Girl Lacer’s). I didn’t, to be honest, expect much, the amount of effort put into hand embroidering pieces like that, meant I had to price the items relatively high, making them not really impulse purchase material. Still, lots of people actually liked my stuff, the skull mini cushion and the angler fish were particularly popular with the discerning 9 year old crowd, unfortunately the discerning 9 year old crowd doesn’t have that much cash. Lots of people were impressed, in particular with Gordon Brown, that the lines making up the picture were sewn rather than drawn, nobody was particularly desperate to go home with him though! Which, much as I only sold two Christmas decorations (and as Mr. Lacer said, who’s thinking about Christmas decorations now?) and none of the embroidered pieces (which were a bit too expensive for the event), I am pleased that people did seem to like them and considering as I was making them, over the last week, I was, in my more paranoid moments, imagining people rolling round on the floor and laughing in disbelief that I ever thought it was sellable, that is progress in itself.

And I had a nice night, it is possibly rather sad that I have come to link Christmas with selling stuff, but I find there is a lovely communal feeling at craft fairs and it’s nice seeing the same old faces again, it was also nice this time, considering it was at my kids’ school, how many other mums I knew or recognised, were there manning stalls, I like that Alan Sugar spirit. Christmas craft fairs also give me a chance to indulge in one of my favourite bits about Christmas, mulled wine. Now I was very late to mulled wine, I only started drinking it when it was on offer at the craft fairs when I started them two years ago but mulled wine is now intrinscially linked to the whole thing. I love how it varies so much and how you can ‘tell a good school by how strong it’s mulled wine is’, honestly, the two best schools in the area, I’ve tried both their mulled wines now and it’s strong stuff, far better than the stuff at the historic house Christmas fair I also did last year, which was only slightly stronger than Ribena.

-

So, I’m at the end of another strange week, after a week of Mr. Lacer being off for half term, followed by a week of us all being ill, followed by this last week of non stop crafting, I’m curious about when exactly things will get back to ‘normal’. This next few weeks coming up will have more of a family focus, with a slew of appointments connected with Boy Lacer (and one for Girl Lacer to), including a speech therapy appointment *keel over in shock*. There was one very apologetic speech therapist ringing today apologising about Boy Lacer falling through the gaps after his last speech therapist left and they admit they’ve lost his rather thick file. Once again though the kids’ lovely school shines through, as just as the speech therapist realised that Boy Lacer had been missed out and was about to ring the school about him, the school’s inclusion manager was on the phone ringing about him, now all the school has to do is wave their magic wand over the occupational therapist, Boy Lacer’s occupational therapist had also left and the appointments just disappeared, so on the school’s suggestion, we went to speak to our GP about it, we got a letter a few weeks ago, Boy Lacer is back on the list, a list with a 12 month wait.

So, other than quite a few appointments, I also need to do something about the tip of the flat, which wasn’t exactly tidy after half term or the week of sickness and I haven’t exactly had a chance to do anything about it this week either. This week has shown that if I’m determined to build up a business from home, I have to organise my time, including how I control this flat, a lot more rigidly, because even just from a purely business perspective, this will be where I work, I need to know where my materials are etc. etc. and I don’t want to have to pick my way over toys on the way to my work table. Just everything being more organised will mean more time, which will mean more time to work. You should have seen me trying to juggle, not particularly successfully, what felt like three million things at once, as I was trying to prepare for tonight, today, culminating in me discovering that the mouse had got into the wardrobe drawers and had gone and chewed holes into literally the most expensive piece of clothing I own (honestly that mouse has expensive tastes, always goes for Boden and now for Monsoon as well) –  this is the point where I mention to any future customers, that all my fabric is kept off the floor in wall mounted cupboards, always has been, I’m not that disorganised. This of course was the piece of clothing I was about to put on, I ended up wearing a grey M&S jersey dress and leggings, the mouse doesn’t like M&S, too ‘cheap’ for it. So once I’d got dressed in something, I then had to struggle out of the door, bulging bag in one hand, fake Christmas tree in the other, leaping over the building blocks that Boy Lacer is obsessed with at the moment, as Boy Lacer chooses that moment to go all chauvinistic on me (I know not really, it was just a change in pattern) “Mummy can’t go to work! Daddy goes to work!” he screams. Amazing I got out of the door.

Anyway, I also have to decide next week whether I’m going to continue with my NaNoWriMo, which I haven’t touched in a week (I’m coming to the (rather obvious) conclusion that I can’t do heavy bouts of writing combined with heavy bouts of crafting at the same time). I am now rather behind, but strangely optimistic that I might still be able to make it. I have to decide something though, continue with it, go back and edit my completed first draft of the other project (which is slightly daunting) or work on some nonfiction projects, hmmm.