Show Business

Over the past month I have been apart of and helped out at a few shows, selling my wares to the public for the build up to Christmas.

For one day I took part in We Make London's Christmas Fayre on Sunday 4th November based in Chelsea Town Hall, Chelsea.  I've helped out my lovely friend Zeena at the infamous Country Living Fair at the Business Design Centre, Islington, and recently I took part in Craft Central's Winter Made In Clerkenwell, where I was apart of a Designer Pop Up Shop.

It's been great to be out selling directly to the public, as it makes a change from Trade Shows and it's great to do a bit of Market Research for a reasonable price to see whether the area/event you are selling at is right for your business.

With We Make London's Christmas Fayre, we were very unfortunate with the weather as it poured with rain all day!  Something you can never predict what's going to happen on the day.  This meant footfall wasn't as busy as it should have been. 

Nevertheless I still got to meet some great people with potential leads, make sales and meet some new friendly designer-makers, such as Hope and Eden.

On the 7th November I went along to Islington to help out Zeena -Textiles & Homewares with her stand at the Country Living Fair. 

Zeena has done this fair at this time of year, for two years in a row now and I asked if I could help her out for the day to give a helping hand with the busy buyers. 

It was also an opportunity for me to envisage whether Laura Felicity could feature within a show like this.

The  fair was amazing! Very busy, and a lot to choose from in terms of products.  As a business selling at Country Living it is a very long show...5 days in total, which doesn't include set up or take down! This is a tough slog, as other selling shows and Trade Shows tend to only be 3-4days. 
And trust me that final 5th day would have been very hard work.

It amazes me how people find what they are looking for without getting side tracked with all the other wonderful wonders with the Design Business Centre.

I have a lot of thinking to do in terms of exhibiting selling here...

On Thursday 22nd November Craft Central, based in Farringdon, London opened it's doors to the public for a few days, giving 120 designer-makers the opportunity to sell their products before the crazy Chrismas rush.

As always, this is a lovely show to be apart of because you get some wonderful people walking around who have a real interest in design and all things handmade.  It's also a great way to network with other designer-makers  and get to know/catch up with one another, as it can be a lonely life working in the studio all by yourself.

 

I was selling my smaller wares at the Design Pop Up Shop including my Lavender Bags, Coasters, Hand Cut Prints and Greetings Cards.

I was also introduced new offers with my products which will be coming to the website soon...all will be revealed shortly, so watch this space.

 

With my participation in selling shows all done for this year, I am now focusing on seeing in the New Year with Trade Shows, more selling shows and designing new products for 2013!

My range is still available for perfect Christmas gifts until Thursday 20th December on my online shop.

Plus watch out for my Christmas Countdown offers...Coming Soon!

Best Wishes,

Laura Felicity

Anniversary Weekend

At the start of November it was mine and the boyfriend's 9 year Anniversary. 

We don't tend to have a specific date of when we celebrate our Anniversary but around the beginning of November we try and do something special to celebrate another amazing year together.

This works well what with my birthday being in mid October and his being at the end of November, as we have a nice couple of months where we can spoil each other and spend some well earned time together.

This year we decided to take a trip into London and make a day of it.  There were a couple of things to do that I had stumbled across over the past weeks and it seemed perfect to try and do these whilst we could.

Firstly I have found a fantastic blog called 'London Pop-Ups'.  This is a blog that tells you about all things that 'Pop Up' across London, whether it be bars, restaurants, shops, galleries, day events etc.  What a great way to do something fairly unplanned and different in London Town.

A little messing around on the tube for Movember

Find out how you can supporting Movember via Laura Felicity here

On Saturday as we headed into town we stopped off in Hampstead to one of the events this blog had recommended; the 'Pop-Up Designer Sale'.  This event cost just £1 for entrance and had all things designer from clothes, bags, shoes and accessories for both men and women.  There were well-known designer names and some not so well know names, all giving 60%-90% discount off the retail price.

It was great because not only did I find a bargain winter jacket for less than half price, I also managed to buy both my brothers their Christmas presents there too.

Next we went over to the Barbican.  Here they have a FREE exhibition called the Rain Room.  This is literally what it says on the tin...a room full or rain! You are able to apparantly walk around this room whilst it's pouring with rain and not get wet!

With this exhibition being on such high demand, the queue to get in was almost 3 hours wait!  So we decided to take a wonder over to Spitalfields Market and visit We Make London's Designer Market and say congratulations to the official book launch.  (Which Laura Felicity is featured in...read here for more info!)

After a couple of hours of wondering around, a few purchases bought and a couple of G&T's consumed in a local pub, we headed back over to the Barbican to see if the queue waiting time for the Rain Room had reduced.  Considering it was coming up to 6:30pm, the queue for the exhibition had to close at 5pm due to the amount of people turning up to see the show and the wait was still 3 hours long! Wow!

So, we are going to take a 'RAIN-check' and come back to try again for the boyfriend's birthday.

Before we headed off I noticed the Martini Bar at the Barbican...nothing gets past my eyes :) and we decided to have a lovely bubbly prosecco to celebrate our 9 years.

 

Warning! This is not a Movember mock-up! This is a real mustache.

(all in aid of Movember)

Finally to end our day we headed over to Kentish Town where the bf had read in the Metro about a modern takeaway type restaurant which had rave reviews.  This place is called 'Dirty Burger'.  It's a burger bar hidden away from Highgate Road, round the back of another restaurant, and it literally looks like you are walking into a shack.

 

It was amazing though, bargain prices and extremely yummy, definitely worth the recommendation if you are looking for a quick bite to eat.
...And the best thing about it...we ordered two burgers and got a third one for free (by mistake)! It's the small things in life that get me by! :)

All in all we had a lovely day celebrating our 9 years together, and we hope the fun, laughs and great times between us continues!

Best Wishes,

Laura Felicity

Printing Workshop Review

As you would have read around a month a go Lucie Pritchard and I were about to hold our printing workshop 'Printing Made Fun' at Craft Central on the eve of Halloween.

I've been a little on the quiet side about out lovely workshop, but it did go ahead, and it was a a great success.

Here are some images of our lovely workshop...

We met some lovely ladies who were very creative and made some lovely greeting card prints.

The processes we covered in the workshop consisted of basic lino and block printing techniques.

The processes are easy; 

Perfect for to do at home as a 'Craft It Yourself' hobby, or to do with your little ones on a creative afternoon.

 

Lucie and I are planning to do more of these workshops next year, as well as hold some workshops specifically for screen printing.

...so keep reading my future blogs, or join my mailing list (all I need is you name and email address), as you'll be the first to hear about it.

Best Wishes,

Laura Felicity

Made In Clerkenwell:Design Pop Up Shop

On Thursday 22nd Nov from 5pm Craft Central will be opening their doors to the public for their annual Winter Made In Clerkenwell:Open Studios.

100 Designers situated in the two Craft Central buildings will be selling their beautiful products, and you get the chance to have a wonder around their studios to see where all the magic happens!

Whilst the Open Studios are taking place, I will be apart of 12 Designers who are holding a Design Pop Up Shop within one of the Craft Central buildings located on St Johns Square.

Designers I will be selling alongside are the likes of;
Susan Bradley
Esther Coombs
Selina Rose
Lucie Pritchard
....and more.

This is a great event to get you into the Festive mood and begin your unique Christmas pressie shopping.

Admission is £3.  This gets you into both buildings...bargain!
Craft Central buildings: 21 Clerkenwell Green EC1R 0DX & 33-35 St John’s Square EC1M 4DS

Dates and Times;
Special Launch Night on Thurs 22 Nov, 5-8pm (join us for a drink)
Late Night Shopping on Fri 23 Nov, 12-8pm
Avoid the High Street crowds on Sat 24 & Sun 25 Nov, 12-5pm

See you next week!

Best Wishes,

Laura Felicity

Laura Felicity is Featured in a Book!

I have great pleasure announcing that Laura Felicity is apart of the new We Make London Book 'Inspired:London'.

I was approached earlier this year by Mary, owner of We Make London, asking if Laura Felicity would like to be featured, and how could I turn down that offer!

  

Laura Felicity is one of 162 Designer-Makers to be apart of this fabulous book, which is set out to inspire and bring awareness to people across London (and the UK) about handmade, individual products that are made by small independent businesses located in and around London.

And as of 10th November 2012 the Inspired:London Book officially launched during We Make London's second 'Designer Market' weekend at the famous Spitalfields Market.

I popped down there to say congratulations to Mary and her team.

The market was buzzing and by the looks of things a success so far for the book and the designers on the stands.

'Inspired:London' is available online now for £12.99.  

This is a perfect purchase for anyone who loves to follow and know about handmade, unique products and support independent designer-makers.  

It's also a perfect gift idea for Christmas!

Soon I will be sharing with you some of the featured designers that I know and love, to tempt you even more to make a purchase for yourself or a loved one.

But for now take a look at and route around the Inspired:London website and get a love for all things handmade.

Best Wishes,

Laura Felicity

Laura Felicity Supports Movember Month

Those who follow me through any means of my social media pages would know that in October I was raising money for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now I'm not one to take sides in the battle of the sexes, and as I have devoted a month to the ladies I now want to show my support for the males in this world by raising money for Movember.

Movember is a charitable cause taken on by men (aka Mo Bros).  Every November our lovely guys set out to raise money for prostate and testicular cancer charities and raise awareness to men's health in general by growing a mustache for the whole month-no beards allowed.

Seeing as here at LF HQ mustache growing is not able to be done (or not as successfully!) ;) I have decided to become a 'Mo Sista' and am going to be giving 10% of all profits made from a Laura Felicity 'Blue or Purple Purchase', and donate it to funding for prostate and testicular cancer.

Warning! This is not my real mustache!

Products include all of my wallpapers, interior accessories, gifts and cards which feature blue or purple within the colour scheme.  Even if a product consists of other colours as well, it doesn't matter, proceeds will still be donated.

This is a perfect way for both guys and dolls to get involved in Movember as anyone can buy handmade,  luxury gifts for yourself or a loved one (especially with Christmas around the corner-ladies hassle those boyfriends/partners/husbands!) and donate some money to a fantastic cause without having to lift nothing more than a finger.

Please help spread the word about what I am up to, to loved ones, family, neighbours and friends, and of course follow my promotions throughout Twitter and Facebook.

Happy Shopping everyone!

Visit the Movember website for more information.

Best Wishes,

Laura Felicity