Appreciation and encouragement.

These postcards carry a variety of messages - I have had more fun with the slogans!

"Do what you love, love what you do."
"The simplest things in life are often the things most precious."
"Always follow your heart".
"Relax".
"You rock".
"Good morning sunshine."
"Laugh".

Pocket purses

These are a good seller, and fun to make.  I enjoyed selecting some interesting pockets and turning them into these little bags.

It also made a lovely change to do these rather than animals!

Harry Potter phone cases

More larger size cases, this time with the Hogwarts school emblem. Harry Potter doesn't seem to go out of fashion, I'm glad to say.

Simple pocket purses with contrast

I was reminded of these by the many visitors to my blog who come from a Pinterest pin linking to my tutorial for these.  Having recently tidied my sewing room, I have a bag of strips of fabric (often leftovers from binding) and these are a good project to use some up.

Umbrella Fair

This event has now become another favourite of mine.  Last year I attended for only one day; this year it became one of the rare events at which I am happy to spend two days. 

The Umbrella Fair organisation describes itself as "a Northampton-based community co-operative of local people promoting sustainable living and community co-operation."  Every year, a group of volunteers create a free festival in the centre of Northampton.  Stalls, marquees, music, food (all vegetarian) appear, as if by magic but in fact as the result of a huge amount of hard work.



We were blessed this year with good weather, and sunshine most of the time.  Saturday was a little windy when the sun went behind the clouds, but on Sunday my warm layers did not need to make any appearance.


 
Crowds were out in force, as this event deserved, and I had many interesting discussions with visitors, as well as a very pleasing number of sales.  I guess that my emphasis on recycling fits well with the ethos of the sale,



 The music played, from a number of stages scattered across the site.  I was mostly aware of the music from the main stage, but heard snippets from (I think) the youth stage as well, from my stall.  As I left on both days, the music was still playing and the audience seemed to be very appreciative.

I was happy with where my stall was positioned - last year I was up at the very top of the site, but this year I felt very much in the middle of the event, which was lovely.  The children's area was opposite me (I was very tempted to go and enjoy the story telling, crafts and other activities on offer there!) and there was a wide range of stalls around me.

I was also pleased with the set up I managed of my items - though lots of shuffling took place as the days progressed and items sold!  I have a lot of restocking to do.

One young visitor found a great place for her new pet as she explored the show...

 Thank you, Umbrella Fair, for a great event.  Unfortunately I won't be there next year as I expect to be in Utange, working with the women there.  I look forward to 2017!

 Thanks too to Hannah for the photos.

Phone cases

A lot of customers pick up my phone cases and try them as glasses cases, so it is clearly time to restock glasses cases.  These are the simplest ones, just constructed from a front pocket.  Hopefully in time I will get round to making some more owl phone cases as well.

Green elephant

 I should have counted how many elephants I have made as I went along - I did start off by keeping a list, but that has long since fallen by the wayside.  I suspect I have now made over 50 of these.

The ears on this one are very striking - I love the fabric.  I have been having much fun in placing pockets, and the pockets have in turn attracted much attention from customers.  You can't see the pocket on this one's back leg very clearly, but it is there.  The only places I don't put pockets are underneath, on the trunk, and on the ears (although the latter has some appeal and I may yet try it!)

Lamp collections: St Peter the Rock

It was very exciting to receive photos from Pastor John Kahindi in utange of the teachers from various Utange schools collecting the lamps I had bought for their teachers and pupils. One of the schools I have donated to is St Peter the Rock School.  Here, able bodied students are educated alongside physically and mentally disabled youngsters.  Their school motto is "Disability is not Inability".  Two teachers from the school came to collect their schools's set of ten lamps:

 The smiles on their faces say it all.

Positive postcards

These postcards are multi purpose, with the main hope being that they will raise a smile both for the sender and the recipient.

Which one catches your eye?

Florence receives solar lamps

Florence set up Noah's Ark Academy in Utange, Kenya, in two rooms of her own house initially, turning one wall of the house into a blackboard and educating up to 50 2 to 8 year olds from the village.  Since then, fundraising has enabled three classrooms to be build, along with a toilet block and a kitchen area to produce two meals daily for the children attending.
My own fundraising (from the sale of my denim items) has enabled me to give Florence 10 solar lamps for the school this year, and e hope to repeat this annually.  5 are for staff at the school; as a teacher I was struck by a comment that sometimes not enough parents pay their children's school fees, and so Florence cannot pay the teachers.  I was also impacted by imagining myself trying to keep up with planning and marking without light in the evenings - I don't know how I would manage.,The remaining 5 lamps are for the pupils who have made the most progress this year.  I wanted them to go to children who were not necessarily the most academically able pupils.

Florence picked up the solar lamps last week, and these photos show her unpacking them.

I'm hoping for photos and information at a later date about the individual recipients. My prayer is that the lamps will provide hope to them.