All the fun of the fair

I was in my local pub on Friday night when a friend of a friend - a 'craft-type'- tipped me off about a winter craft fair, which I knew nothing about and was happening today very near where I live.

So today I went along to the Morley College Winter Fair in South East London in the hope of picking up a few Christmas gifts and some inspiration for my own projects.

Morley College has a lot of successful arts and crafts courses - everything from book-binding to shoe making - and it looked as though all the courses were represented in some or another at the craft fair.

Give or take a couple of stalls it was all quite professionally made stuff. I was quite taken by some beautiful lavender filled fabric door stops and cross stitched cushions. By far my favourite exhibitor though was a lady called Rosemary Muntus. Have a look at her beautiful textile artworks here. Though to be honest the photos on her website do not do justice to how beautiful her work is.

While there were certainly things I liked, I didn't end up buying any thing for Christmas gifts (I'm desperately trying to avoid self-gifting, as I have mentioned before!). So while I was a little disappointed not to come away with anything, I did leave the fair feeling fired up to start exhibiting in craft fairs myself before long. If all goes to plan, this time next year it will be me on the other side of the stall selling my wares.

I have also enrolled on a short course at Morley College but I can't say too much about that at the moment. I shall reveal more at a later date!