Tara Tuesdays - Part 35 - Highgate Florist and Growers Christmas Market

Every year in November, my friend Kerrie organises a Christmas Market in our village hall and gets together local crafters and traders to sell their gorgeous wares. She works extremely hard to organise everything and advertises the event with beautiful leaflets that she has delivered in the village and surrounding areas to ensure as much publicity as possible. A charity of her choice attends and all proceeds from raffle tickets and refreshments are donated to them. This year was the Working Horse Trust that is a registered charity, which is devoted to safeguarding the future of our Heavy Working Horse breeds.

This I think was Kerrie's 4th year and as in previous years was a huge success. There were lots of lovely stalls with local traders to include handmade cards, felted Christmas decorations, sock monkeys, jewellery, cupcakes, cake pops and Christmas cakes, chilli jams and chutneys and of course the handmade goodies on my stall that my girlfriends and I have been making for the last few months!

Despite the horrendous rain, there was a constant flow of people and there was a cheery festive atmosphere amongst everyone. Although we are still a good few weeks away until the big day in December, I always look forward to this event as it is the first Christmas Fair of the year for me and it really gets me in the mood. I restrained myself by only having a small spending budget and came away with 3 beautiful felted Christmas decorations that I just couldn't resist! Santa, a snowman and a little robin which will all look gorgeous on my tree when I get it next month! These came from two lovely ladies that needle felt Heidi at Smonkeys and Betty's Bloomin' Bazaar, both are on Facebook so please go and have a look at their pages. Since January (I kid you not) I have been busy making my knitted reindeer and was delighted to have 14 ready for the Fair! I came away with only 5 so was quite pleased with how I got on! These little lovelies take 4 hours each to make and are a real labour of love.

I also mentioned in my last blog that I had purchased some goodies from Emma's Open Day. Well, I used some of her gorgeous fabrics and buttons to make these two Christmas stockings. I love the limeade assortment of buttons that I used for the Christmas Tree as they match the fabric perfectly! Essex Linen is fast becoming a real favourite of mine and I will definitely be purchasing more for future makes as it is so nice to work with.

I am at the Wealden Times Midwinter Fair in two weeks time with Kerrie and am REALLY excited about this event! I went to the Summer one with her and we had a great time, however I think this year I may have to up my spending money allocation!!!! I'll be sure to let you know how I get on!