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| White silk velvet dyed for me by my friend Alison |
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| Fine cottons for making baby clothes |
Next month Handmade Happiness celebrates its third birthday. And I want it to put on its best party clothes for the occasion.
Just lately I've felt it needs a re-vamp and a re-energise. Yes, me too! Now I need to remind myself of the dream I had in the beginning of a beautiful and inspiring place and rein it back in to be just that.
Now don't get me wrong, people love Handmade Happiness and constantly tell me so. But I'm the one that spends my life in that shop and I'm the one that needs to be excited by that special place. So there are going to be some changes before that birthday party. As I change the look of the shop I'll take photos to share with you.
I'm thinking colourful and quirky. Clear and easily read displays. New makes from makers new to the shop - as well as new fresh makes from original makers. A working table where items are being made every day to go out on sale. A gift wrap area. Ideally a 'Have a Go' table. Fresh flowers. A refreshment area so I can offer people who get chatting a tea or coffee. The list is endless! Watch this space. Today is Day One of the 3rd birthday preparations!
Incidentally isn't it interesting that most people reading this are French? Usually my readers are either Americans or British but in the last month French readers have caught up and overtaken them statistically. Donc bienvenue et au revoir!
Just lately I've felt it needs a re-vamp and a re-energise. Yes, me too! Now I need to remind myself of the dream I had in the beginning of a beautiful and inspiring place and rein it back in to be just that.
Now don't get me wrong, people love Handmade Happiness and constantly tell me so. But I'm the one that spends my life in that shop and I'm the one that needs to be excited by that special place. So there are going to be some changes before that birthday party. As I change the look of the shop I'll take photos to share with you.
I'm thinking colourful and quirky. Clear and easily read displays. New makes from makers new to the shop - as well as new fresh makes from original makers. A working table where items are being made every day to go out on sale. A gift wrap area. Ideally a 'Have a Go' table. Fresh flowers. A refreshment area so I can offer people who get chatting a tea or coffee. The list is endless! Watch this space. Today is Day One of the 3rd birthday preparations!
Incidentally isn't it interesting that most people reading this are French? Usually my readers are either Americans or British but in the last month French readers have caught up and overtaken them statistically. Donc bienvenue et au revoir!
2 comments:
Some thoughts:
Do keep coffee/tea making out of the shop - just offer the cup otherwise it is a bit of a hazard with hot kettles etc. Gift wrapping is easy if you just use tissue and co-ordinated ribbon. The trouble is that wrapping needs a lot of space (the counter is usually full of other stuff) and someone will always want a gift wrapping service for something awkward to wrap just as a queue starts to form at the counter. It isn't usually a money maker as tissue/ribbon work out to be quite expensive and you end up doing it for cost. Also folks like a choice of wrapping which is just another problem to store without creasing.
Make sure EVERYTHING is clearly priced as a priority. The 'story' behing each maker is very good unique selling point - get the makers to write their own biography so you it is correct and then frame in cheap A5 frames by each object or collection.
Christine
Thanks for the good advice Chris.x
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