Sunday 16 November 2008

All shopped out

I went to the new Westfield shopping centre at Shepherd's Bush on Thursday. Wouldn't normally have bothered, but was going to a gig at the Empire (to see Mercury Rev, in case you're interested) so met up with a friend earlier just to have a look round. I have seen the building described by a journalist as a "cathedral to money" and that just about sums it up. Its a huge modern building, with a big glass domed roof with no view of the outside world, and all the personality of Gatwick Airport. It has every shop that you'd expect to see at any other regional shopping centre or major high street, with one or two (expensive) additions. I don't think I'd bother going again - I had much more fun shopping in Suffolk last weekend. Maybe (shock, horror!) I am starting to get bored with shopping. Which would be a good thing given the credit crunch and all that. Or maybe I should move somewhere that doesn't have a Tesco or major high street chains, and instead has lots of little independent retailers - any suggestions?
One good thing though - I bumped into Ian Waite from Strictly Come Dancing - he's even taller than he looks on the telly - he must be about 6ft 5 - I told him that if I'm ever famous and on Strictly, I want him to be my partner. He was very pleasant (in a 'let's humour the mad woman' kind of way) , smiled and reminded me to vote for him and then carried on with his shopping.
Mercury Rev were brilliant, and played my very favorite track, it's just a pity I felt a bit rough by the end of the evening and then missed my train by TWO minutes, had to wait an hour for another one, so didn't get home until 2am.

My friend Jill and I have been busy making things for a craft fair at Redbourn this weekend.
Sadly it seems as if either we made all the wrong things, or everyone in the Redbourn area is also bored with shopping, or hit by the credit crunch, because they certainly weren't buying this weekend. Not very busy yesterday, and even quieter today. It wasn't just us, none of the traders seemed to be doing very well.
This was us on the first day before we started - we sorted our table out a bit better later on, but we've decided we've got too many bits and pieces - it's probably better to concentrate on just a few things. Cards seemed to sell quite well, and at least they don't require huge outlay or take up much space to store them.
We've decided that anything that hasn't sold before Christmas (and we've got one more craft fair planned) is going to be given away as Christmas presents, and then we'll give up this little enterprise.
At least it will give me more time to do my homework!
Oooh - one last exciting bit of news - Maggie Grey asked me to write an article for Workshop on the Web - A Day in the Life of Art Van Go. I sent it to her this week and it's going to be published in the December issue. I'm a writer!!!

2 comments:

  1. A friend and I used to do Craft Sales. It was maddening that we could never anticipate how well we would 'do'. Sometimes they were great, but other times they definitely weren't. And I absolutely HATED sitting behind that table. I was ok if anyone wanted to chat about her lovely stuff, but if anyone showed an interest in mine, I'd feel all embarrassed and self-conscious. Tsk.

    Your table looked lovely, and I'm sorry it didn't work out well for you this time. Fingers crossed for next time.

    Congratulations on being a published writer! x

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  2. What a shame about the craft fair after all your hard work. Have to say I've done my fair share of them and you can never quite tell how they are going to go. Stuff that sells one day just doesn't shift the next time and vice versa. Hope you have better luck next time.... did you notice I haven't mentioned the homework once!

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