Just a quick note to say Sarah, and thus Neema, is now on holiday until Monday 26th July.
Hopefully by the time I’ve returned the blogging bugs will have been ironed out and the missing posts from the past year will be restored.
Have a wonderful, and fair, July everybody!
This weekend, 27th and 28th June, was the exciting Kilwinning Carnival at Kilwinning Academy’s KA Campus.
With a full programme of music and entertainment including kiddies rides, face painting, owl magic, TA Army, Army Cadets, the singing chef, children’s services, charity stalls, bouncy castle, beat the goalie, The North Ayrshire Leisure Activator unit and lots more, it was the place to be in Ayrshire this weekend.
Promoting Kilwinning, the organisers, had worked hard to pull off a high class event and though all the attractions were excellent the venue let them down by creating a labyrinth like warren that meant the visiting public had a hard time finding their way to the Craft Hall where I and a dozen other crafters were located.
Despite the often quiet times in our wee hall the atmosphere was great and a good time was had even if a profit was hard to come by. The people of Kilwinning are knowledgeable and vocal about Fairtrade with many interested in Kilwinning’s Fairtrade Campaign and willing to have a wee debate about the surrounding issues. Good chat was had by all, and the Abba tribute band was amplified loud enough that even us stuck inside got a chance to be dancing queens.
Feedback from the public has been mostly positive and I’m excited to see how Promoting Kilwinning’s Fairtrade Campaign develops in the coming months.
The one thing I’d change next year – better signage and a clearly thought out floorplan.
Best sellers: bamboo flutes.
Q. When is an eco fashion show not an eco fashion show?
A. When Matalan are the featured brand.
When I was asked to contribute the Fairtrade element to what was described as an ‘Eco fashion show involving lots of recycled and organic fashion‘ it never occurred to me that Matalan would have the starring role. A quick summary of their ethics can be found here.
Unfortunately the bulk of the show was devoted to disposable fashion with an amazing but all too brief eco section. There were the ‘Fashion Fixers’ who wowed the audience as pupils showed off clothes they had modified themselves with fabric paints and needlework and finally a dazzling display of Fairtrade outfits – two People Tree dresses and seven Namaste summer items.
It was lovely to see the confidence and pride the young designers had in their own outfits and their explanation of Fairtrade showed that the pupils themselves had done a lot of research about the movement. Sadly there wasn’t much time during the evening for me to chat with people but I feel confident in saying there were quite a few seeds of change planted.
Despite the many things about the evening that didn’t make my heart happy it was, for me, a steep learning curve and an interesting foray into the land of fashion. I have taken many lessons from this occasion and look forward to creating an event in the new year that will satisfy my eco crusader tendencies and involve a broad section of the community.
Watch this space.
Just a short blog today to thank the staff at Galston for their hospitality this afternoon. I greatly enjoyed my time in their staffroom and hope they weren’t too put out by the handicrafts covering every available surface. After such a pleasant day I’m really looking forward to returning to the Nursery’s Open Day next week.
I have a busy day tomorrow with two assemblies in the morning and a fashion show at night so I’m off to pack. Should be a fun filled day for this intrepid fairtrade crusader.
This afternoon I was presented with an award for my contribution to Youth Strategy’s 2008/09 enterprise project of running a print studio. I provided a real life design brief for a fairtrade cotton bag and the young people really got interested in the process and have came up with some fantastic ideas for me. The finished bags will hopefully be ready by next school term.
My gorgeous certificate, and the certificates given to each of the recognised ‘employers’, was designed and hand printed by one of the youth strategy young people, the blisters on his hands prove how hard he worked to fulfil this commission.
I really enjoyed spending the afternoon at The Park Hotel with the representatives from Youth Strategy. We were treated to entertainment in the form of cheerleaders and a magic show and we listened to speeches by various dignatories. Although it was a pleasant afternoon I was left wondering just what the point in the event was. Neither the achievements of the young people nor the input from the business people was celebrated and the over arching theme of ‘Determined to succeed’ was lost in translation though as it was the first event of it’s kind to be held in East Ayrshire I can forgive the shortcomings and truly feel honoured to have been nominated and recognised in this way.
Having contact with artisans in all corners of the globe gives me access to a wide range of quality handicrafts and allows me to regularly introduce new lines with the hope of keeping Neema’s stock fresh and exciting. I do my best to purchase a variety of pieces to suit all tastes and pockets but as I’m limited by storage space and capital there are lots of niche products that I’d love to have for you but just can’t justify purchasing on the offchance. As a result my regular customers have long been requesting I source them bits and pieces and often receive an email mentioning new products I’ve seen that I think they would appreciate. One such lucky customer is my mother. This year she has been exploring storytelling within her work setting and has needed to expand her collection of percussion instruments to accompany her ever expanding range of stories. As you can see from the photo there is a whole mix of instruments in her collection that haven’t made their way into Neema’s regular stock. Although loving all her instruments her favourite three are definitely the ocean drum (£25-£40) lotus clack (around £10) and Tibetan chimes (£10-£15).
Another customer who takes advantage of this system is a local percussionist who has snapped up large rainsticks (£10-£50), xylophones (from £8) and even a didgeridoo (£15-£60).
And while decorating her living room a lady requested some wooden furniture receiving a large delivery including a mirror, coffee table and some reed lamps.
If you have a particular area of interest and wish to be given a no obligation chance to see some really cool products. Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll see what I can find for you.
Leaving sunny Saltcoats to drive towards gathering thunder clouds could hardly be counted as one of my favourite pasttimes at 7am on a Saturday morning but that is exactly what I found myself doing yesterday. I had a wee stall in Crawford Village Hall at the Crawford and Abingdon Toddler’s Annual Summer Fayre. The drive over was quite an adventure with roadworks on the A31 causing a slight bit of diversionary rallying but having arrived safely in one piece the sale was fairly relaxed. Despite the dreadful weather there was a steady stream of people and although I never saw nor tasted a strawberry a grand day was had by all.
Best Seller: Nodding Nut Animals.
Favourite Moment: Spending time with all the lovely children.
Last Friday and Saturday I was in North Ayrshire Museum supporting their bank holiday open days. As always it was a great delight being able to contribute to my local community.
As well as my stall, which as you can see from the photo was located under an incredibly fitting “Project Earth” banner, there was homebaking, craft activities and musical entertainment.
The lovely Alison Thomas was again teaching visitors how to create their own felt masterpieces going into great detail about every step of the process.
The “banner ladies” were making felt flower badges with the children and using all the leftover rolled felt to make themselves a large felt banner.
There was a lady making paper.
And ‘The Musical Family’ were once again playing an interesting repertoire of music from many genres. I’m fairly certain that isn’t the name they perform under but I still haven’t managed to find out what they are really called.
Despite the torrential downpour on Friday there was a good turn out with plenty of visitors all day. Saturday, with it’s nice weather, brought even more people through the door so there was plenty of buzz and excitement and opportunities to connect with people- discussing their lives, the local community and global issues. As always I was astounded by the amount of wisdom and knowledge shared by everyone especially the tiny tots.
The sunshine has been making an appearance all over Britain lately; must mean summer is just around the corner.
For me summer means festivals, carnivals, fayres and fetes, and being rushed off my feet because of them.
If you are free any of these weekends I’d love to see you at an event.
May 1st & 2nd – North Ayrshire Museum, Saltcoats – 11am til 3pm – all welcome.
May 9th – Strawberry Fayre, Crawford – 11am til 2pm – all welcome.
May 16th – Carron’s Fundraising Coffee Morning – (tbc) – all welcome.
May 23rd – Sarah is taking a quick holiday – private event.
May 30th – Crawford Primary’s Table Top Sale, Crawford – 10am til 12noon – all welcome.
June 6th – Catrine Festival – 11am til 4pm (music festival til 9.30pm) – all welcome.
June 20th – Holy Fair & Pipes in the Park, Rozelle Estate, Ayr – 1pm til 4pm – all welcome.
June 27th & 28th – Kilwinning Carnival, KA Campus – 1pm til 5pm – all welcome.
As you can see, despite lots of busyness, there are still some gaps in Neema’s event diary. If you know of an event happening in your community, workplace, school or place of worship that you think would benefit from a Fair Trade stall I’d appreciate a heads up.
The lovely folks at Hillhead Primary School had a health fair this morning. There was information from Fresh Air-Shire on stopping smoking, The Big Plus on adult literacy and numeracy, Dental Health, the Crazy Moos parent group provided healthy smoothies, there were fitness activities happening in the hall and outside, every class took part in a timed walk and I provided samples of Fairtrade Tea, coffee, hot chocolate as well as having some bits and pieces for sale.
It was a good day with lots of parent participation in the activities. There was a lot of good information being passed on at each table, with many adults interested in stopping smoking and the help available to them.
A definite highlight for me was being recognised by many of the kids. Some of them told me all about Fairtrade and how they like Dubble chocolate, many of them brought parents and carers to my stall to meet me and a few of them handed me their smoothies to hide – I don’t think they were too fond of the apple one.
As always I had a lovely day in Hillhead and can’t wait to go back to see everyone again.
Best Seller: Rings.
Biggest Surprise: Selling the large and medium chocolate swirl giraffes before I’d finished setting up my table.
