Today, I’m letting someone else do the driving.
Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while has probably noticed a pattern to what I post… especially in the last couple of months, since I’ve started posting twice a week. If you read my Tuesday post, you’ll usually find you’re being introduced to a new Beastie, while Friday is reserved for tales of Beastie adventures in the wider world, beyond the confines of Beastie Towers. However, taking the Blogging 101 course has meant that I’ve had the opportunity to pop in a couple of extra posts… and today I’m venturing even further outside my comfortable routine, by allowing them to dictate the content as well!
So today’s post is based on The Daily Post’s daily prompt, “First!“. I still wanted to keep things vaguely Beastie-related, so that’s why I chose this one, rather than talking about my love of F1 racing (“Fandom“), sharing the music I like through a playlist that sums up my life (“Mix Tape“) or inventing my own holiday, and telling you all why you should celebrate it (“Festivus for the Rest of Us“). However, if any of you are interested in this stuff, let me know in the comments and I’ll reconsider…
Anyway, let’s travel back in time a couple of years, and talk about my first day at the first market the Beasties and I went to together.
I heard about this market through a friend, and it seemed like a good choice for my first attempt – a 2-day event held not too far from home, with a manageable-sized downpayment on the table. So, I set about making more Beasties than I had ever made before!
I even made some minature Beastie Christmas decorations…
I took some time to photograph my work, and it was around this time that I set up the BeastieBlog! But my work rate was slow – at that time, I was still cutting out all the Beasties’ eyes by hand. That means I cut out squares of black and white felt, and trimmed them until I had two identically-sized circles… Looking back, I don’t know how I had the patience!
In the days leading up to the market, there were some fun times buying accessories to decorate my stall, and some less enjoyable experiences – trying to choose prices was a particularly irksome task, and one which I still don’t enjoy! But at last, market day dawned and I set off with my bag of monsters and a pocket full of change. I was wavering between excitement and nervousness the whole way there – what if I hadn’t made enough? What if I’d made too much? What if I sat there all day and no-one even looked at my table? This continued for about the first hour, until I sent the first of my Beasties off to a new home…
After that, I relaxed… and things just got easier! I got to know my fellow stallholders and their families, and I had a great time watching other people interact with the Beasties. This was the first time I had ever had the chance to see how kids respond to them, and I really enjoyed watching my creations walk across the table, dance and talk to each other!
By the end of the first day, more than half of the Beasties had gone home with their new families! Even now, I still get a boost thinking about it… and back then, this was massive. I had just quit a stable 9-5 job to move back to Dublin, and when I had told people that one of the main things I hoped to do post-move was to make little knitted monsters, I think more than a few of them questioned my sanity! To have my first market experience go so well really made me feel like I was on the right track, and gave me the confidence to keep on going. Yes, it was scary… but firsts always are. And I certainly didn’t have a fault-free first round – despite my agonising over prices, more than one person told me I’d gone far too low. Still, I learned so much, and made friends I’m still in touch with today!
Has anyone else a First Day story they’d like to share? Let me know in the comments!
… It only seemed fair to modify my props to make them feel more at home! So I strayed outside my usual crafting comfort zone, and had a bit of fun with papier mâché and paint instead. Can you tell what I’m making from this in-progress shot?
Other new additions to the table included some spiderweb fabric, to add a bit of a spookier feel to my cheery bright red tablecloth, and I made some creepy flickering lanterns using LED nightlights and black tissue. It was also nice to have some fixtures to hang my banner from – I don’t always get to use it!
…Although on reflection, it might have had something to do with this.
Oh Pint Beastie, you know it’s not a good idea to mix your drinks!
