I've been busy all week, with last minute preparations for our craft fair on Saturday. I spent Monday distributing fliers around the car parks and schools of Hertford - I think it must have been the coldest day since records began, - or at least that's how it felt by the time I'd finished.

On Tuesday I went into Art Van Go - it was Stuart's last day before he goes off to his very posh sweetie shop in Piccadilly, so to mark the event I made him a pair of cufflinks with smiley sunshine faces. Needless to say, my lack of forward planning meant that I only thought about making them that afternoon, so the glue wasn't properly dry when I had to take them, so he was issued with a warning not to take the out of the box! I hope they WERE properly stuck.

Here we are - sending him out into the world on his own! (Well, with just a noisy Father Christmas for company)
Hope he gets on really well, and doesn't leave it too long before he comes to pay us a visit (although, only if he brings some of his posh chocolates with him)

Back to the festive extravaganza that is Hertford Christmas Craft Fair! We managed to get the keys for the hall the day before, so were able to get in and do some of the setting up on the Friday. We got all the tables out, and put up Christmas bunting and fairy lights, which took much longer than we thought, so I'm glad we didn't leave it until the Saturday morning. It looked quite nice by the time we left on Friday night.

We arrived back at the hall early on Saturday morning, ready for all the other traders, who started arriving from about 8.30am. This was our table -

And here are some of the others -

We were all set up and ready to go for 10am, and opened the doors to the throngs of customers who were banging on the door outside, some of whom had slept on the pavement the night before to guarantee their place in the queue. What do you mean, you don't believe me???

Well, all right then, but we had a reasonably steady stream of customers, although I would estimate that around 70% of them were friends of ours - thank you to everyone who came and supported us, we really did appreciate it, and I promise we won't make you come again next year! All of the other traders seemed pleased with their takings and said it had been a good day. We decided it was successful enough to make it worthwhile, but not SO successful that we will feel obliged to do it again next year - it really was a lot of work.

We are, however, a bit concerned that we won't have an excuse to meet for coffee and cakes, so it's been agreed that Jill, Val and I will meet for a debrief, followed possibly by a meeting to form a committee, so that the committee (us) can meet to discuss whether we should have a planning meeting for a future event.

Anyway, it didn't take us too long to pack up, and then it was home to get ready for Mick's birthday party at the Cricket Club. I should have felt shattered, but it's amazing what a couple of vodkas can do. It was a really great night with excellent company, and I even ended up dancing to the band. You'll be relieved to know there are no photos of that, although possibly not as relieved as I am.

Despite a VERY late night I was still up bright and early, and Jill and I finished off the last bit of tidying up and then returned the keys for the hall. Have to admit to nodding off in front of the telly after Strictly though.

Now, what am I going to do with all my spare time?