Deadline

Yesterday Jack and I went to the Made'n'Thornbury market run by the Thornbury Women's Neighbourhood House. It had been promoted in The Melbourne Times (I love my local paper) as a quarterly opportunity to promote women in small business with around 25 stalls of craft, jewellery and fresh produce. I wasn't sure if it was going to be quirky alt.crafty or hennad menopausal hippy or perhaps overlooked by people who weren't into either of those things.

The first surprise was that there were tonnes of people there. It looked like a lot of young families had made it part of the Saturday morning walk - it got a bit tricky navigating all the prams around each other. The stalls were a mix of indie craft, AWA-style knitting and cupcakes.

I talked to a stallholder whose nursery papertole art I'd noticed at the Northcote Kris Kringle market in December. This was the first time doing Made'n'Thornbury and she had similarly had her doubts whether there'd be a crowd. But not only were there lots of people, but they'd come prepared to spend. While we were chatting a number of ten-year-old girls pawed through her basket of $1.50 button brooches and made purchases. Good idea - a market stall should have something kids can spend their pocket money on. I remember being that age, there was nothing as disheartening on a Saturday morning than not being able to exchange my pocket money for some trinket or other.

There was a table of surveys and stallholder application forms by the door. I wasn't the only one who grabbed one. The good news - stalls are only $10. The less good news - the next two markets are 2nd May and 5th September. I would either have to be ready in five weeks or wait five months. In one spot on the application it says it needs to be in by 30th Jan, on another 24th April. I'll assume the second one is correct, otherwise they wouldn't be handing out application forms. :-)

So I don't have to decide today, but I do have to sit down and plan how much stuff I could get made in five weeks.

Or fish around for a stall buddy?

[ETA] Maybe I could get some stall-filling stuff from Mum.

I picked up a flyer for a craft group called Loophole, which is first Thursday evening of the month on High St Thornbury. I'm going to make an effort to get along, although it'll depend on how Jack's sleeping that night. And also on me ordering some felt on eBay, and it getting sent out on time.