DAY OFF

 

Today we both get to sleep/lie in.

Stew has taken the day off work, so he can actually have a little break.  The past three days have been rather busy, so he wanted a day 'off'.

Once we decide to get outta bed, I think we are going for a walk, followed by a nice lunch out.

I also want to suss out a new phone.  Sadly, paying through the nose for a new battery for my current phone has not stopped it from going flat super fast!   I am rather annoyed about that.

So we will talk to the man who put the new battery in two weeks ago,  to see if there's any solution before deciding what to do.

And that is all we have planned for our day, so... catch ya later.

11.35 am and we have been out and about.

Done some banking  first time I've used a money deposit machine. And luckily I had a bank teller showing me how to do it, because the machine had a glitch and stopped working! It got sorted eventually   thanks to the lady who was helping me.

On to look at new phones.

Sussed out the best deal, at Noel Leeming...

ABOVE: My new phone!

I went for one with the best camera. Now I just have to learn how to use it.

We are off to have some lunch now, while the phone charges up.

AND ANOTHER ONE

 

I don't know how people do three markets in a row!

Today is our second one this weekend, and I'm already knackered.

I feel like death warmed up to be honest.

We never sleep well the night before a market, so two nights in a row?  Not fun.

We are about to head over to Cambridge for the St Andrews Labour Day Market.

At least we won't be on MUD today.  And we don't have to travel very far for this one.

So a few blessings there.

I desperately hope this market goes better than yesterdays, cos I hate reporting on shitty markets.

ABOVE:  Some happy photos of Lake Whakamaru we took yesterday on our way home.  I learnt to water ski on that lake way back when I was about 14!   You never forget some things eh?

OK, *sigh*... time to leave for Cambridge.

I'll pop back later, once we are all set up.

...

ABOVE.... 5.50 am.. and the weather looks promising!

Oh hell... I was looking in the wrong direction ! Huge storm clouds behind me. Derrr.

8.09 am. The weather has cleared.... for now.

We are all set up...

ABOVE: We love our spot here.

Now ... again it's time to relax and just wait for customers. 

10.15 am.

ABOVE:  Sunshine... then RAIN.

And it is really, really COLD.

SHOOT.  ME.  NOW.

Blogger is having a glitch. 

Anyway... its now 11.30 and the sun is out and sales have picked up. 

Yaaa.

I have me wooly hat on now ... 11.30 am. And of course the sun has come out. 

Stews off getting  us more Diet Coke. 

We are so thankful to one of my Cambridge FBG girlfriends,  she has EFTPOS and has let us do transactions using her machine. Lifesaver!

I investigated getting an EFTPOS machine, but the monthly charges are just too high.

ABOVE:  It is now 3.56 pm, and we are home after a busy day.

Apart from a few showers, the day went very  well indeed.

It was a slow start, but picked up, as we knew it would between 10.30 and 12.30.  Then it fizzled a bit, but we still made some good sales.

On a whole, the weekend was NOT a flop after all!  We did quite well today.

I was really pleased that we sold a variety of runners this weekend, for a while there all we sold were Braid Runners!

I'm quite happy to now take a break from markets until the third Saturday in November.

We will have three markets, on three consecutive Saturday's, in a row in November.  FUN.

I have now changed outta me clothes, into my warm, snuggly pj's and I'm not moving again till I need a piddle!  I am knackered.

7.19 pm:  I'm signing off for the day, I'm done and can hardly keep me eyes open.  

Catch ya tomorrow.

KINLOCH MARKET!

 

GOOD MORNING!

We are waking up in Kinloch, bright and early so we can get down to the market site, and set up.

Our set up 'time' is 6.30 - 7 am, so we don't have to set off too early.  Best thing ever being here already, instead of having to travel down at 3 am this morning!

Not sure how the weather is going to pan out, but no matter what it is like, we have everything we need for a wet or dry market.

IF you are coming to the market, we are at site # 20:

ABOVE:  We will be fairly easy to find!  Luckily we are right at the start of the market.  And very close to all the facilities like Cash Out, Information, Loos... and Lost Children!   Hopefully no one actually does lose a child, as this market is very close to the lake and marina.

That scenario would be very frightening.  

We lost Steven at the Picton Wharfe when he was about 4.  Thankfully, he was such an intelligent small child, he just took himself back to our car and stood there till we found him!!!

I was petrified we had lost him forever!

I have NO IDEA how it happened either, cos I was and still am, massively over protective of me littlies.  

But anyway... I'm now waffling, when I should be getting a move on!

Catch ya later, and wish us luck for a good day, without too much rain.

...

It rained all night, torrential rain.

Up this morning and it seems to have cleared. Thank God.

BUT....

we now have this...

ABOVE: DIABOLICAL MUD! Its a bloody quagmire everywhere.  Well not quite everywhere, some people are lucky and don't have as much as us.

ABOVE: Some of the men have spent ages spreading hay in the worst places. Now we know WHY there was hay all over the place!

Lots of people have had to be moved to other spots as there just too much water.

We are SEMI OK where we are  but its NOT ideal.

At least its not raining or blowing a gale.

Small mercies.

ABOVE: 8.30 And we are all set up and can finally sit down. And wait to see how this day pans out.

ABOVE: Its the first time we have hung stuff from our 'rafters'... works just fine.

Stew has now gone for a wander. This is a HUGE market, he will probably be gone for a while. I have ZERO interest in checking it all out. I'm bloody tired. 

11.15 am, and while there's  good flow of people here,  sales are blah. 

We had a visit from a lady who lives here who reads my blog. Emma it was lovely to meet you, and thank you so much for the knitted cardigan and hat for Lily.

7.34 pm.

We are home.

Thank God, cos we are damn tired as.

The market?

An 'average' turnover, but nothing like we expected.

Our position at the market was utter crap, because of the area we were in.

About 1/3rd of the market was inundated with rainwater overnight, and the ground just couldn't soak it up, so we had to endure mud all day long.

As a consequence, a hell of a lot of people took one look at the mud and said 'Hell no way are we going down there', and they walked away!

So the foot traffic was NOTHING LIKE IT WAS in the drier area of the market

.

It was horrible looking up the road at all the people flocking to THAT part of the market, and leaving us alone.

The worst thing was, the market organisers KNEW that our 'area' would flood in the event of rain, and seemingly did nothing about it.

And NONE of the organisers came over during the day to talk to us, or offer us any solution, or apologie for the sorry state of the ground.  That really pissed me off.

Some stall holders got a couple of trailer loads of sand delivered to lay in front out their stalls, but that didn't really help much at all.

Thank God we had taken our big rubber mats!  Not that many people actually walked into our stall!

I was so unhappy all day.

The only shining light on my day was Emma visiting, and then one of my oldest friends, Raewyn. 

Raewyn lives in Kinloch, and she came down with her partner and visited us.  It was so lovely to see her (and him), we hadn't seen each other in many years.

ABOVE: They came down in their golf buggy, so cool.  Thank You so much for visiting us you two.

So back to right now... we have unpacked our overnight stuff ... and are relaxing till bedtime.  Which will be EARLY, as tomorrow we do it all again in Cambridge.

Here's hoping for fine weather, and lots of people with the desire to spend some money!

Catch ya tomorrow.

A BUSY SATURDAY AHEAD

 

Well, I really shouldn't still be in bed!

We have a rather busy day today.

First up, pack our car in readiness for going down to Taupo/Kinloch this afternoon.

Then we have to ready the house for today and tomorrow's Open Homes.

And drop the dogs off at Steve 'n' Bex's, as we can't take them with us, or leave them here because of the Open Homes.

We will be staying here until after the Open Home this afternoon, then leaving for Taupo.

We are so lucky to have family in Kinloch that we can stay with tonight, it means we don't have to leave here on Sunday morning at some ungodly hour.

Also, there's some road diversions in place half way to Taupo, and we will have to take some secondary roads to get to Taupo.  So, going down today means we don't have to get flustered over time, or what way to go.

Enough procrastination, I really should start the day.

...

ABOVE:  A photo that got missed last night.  Miss Lily didn't mind Uncle Andrew at all!   In fact, she would have stayed with him,  if they didn't have to go home.  lol

Very cute.

5 pm. Sorry for no update till now. But, we have had heaps to do today.

We are now safely in Kinloch.

When we arrived here, we drove down to the Market site to suss it out.

ABOVE: We are very happy with our spot, its super close to all the facilities. 

ABOVE: Hee hee.. our spot. 🤣🙂😊

ABOVE: Looking towards our site. Theres quite a few people who are already setting up! They have to sleep on site. We could have done that too, but didn't need to thanks to having family here to stay with.

Time to just relax now.

8.15 pm. Time to sign off for the day. Catch ya tomorrow. 

NITE NITE.

WAITING TILL NEXT WEEK?

 

Yesterday I said I would wait until sometime next week to make one of those floral runners that I showed you yesterday.

HA HA HA!  Like I could wait!

I started one yesterday morning.

And I finished it in the afternoon:

ABOVE:  And there it is. Now before you say it, yes it LOOKS like there's a lot of YELLOW ... but in real life those colours are less yellow than they look here.

ABOVE:  And I don't usually put an expensive fabric on the back, but that fabric just screamed at me.  I had to use it, it's perfect!

And because I'm bored shitless, I shall be making another one today.  I'll try to use less similar shades this time.  Sadly I don't have enough of the gorgeous floral backing fabric for the next one.  

Just remembered, we have family coming for dinner this evening, so I need to pop out to the supermarket for a few things.  Then when I get home I will start work on this lot:

ABOVE:  This is the line up for the second runner in this style.  None of it is stitched up yet.

It's been fun doing a few different runners of late.

It gives people a few more choices at market as well.

9.57 am:   All the jobs are done. Half the packing is already done for our trip away tomorrow.

I went to the supermarket and got what I needed for this evening and the weekend.

I needed fresh bread buns/rolls.... but like, there was SO.  MUCH.  CHOICE.

What to do? What to do?

YEAH

Dinner this evening will be:

Hot Roast Pork, sliced

Hot Roast Beef, sliced

Lettuce Salad (for inside the buns)

Sliced Cheese

Various mayo's and sauces

Followed by... MAGNUM ICE CREAMS.

I think that should be rather yum.

And now I'm in the sewing room, about to make a start on that runner.

ABOVE:  And there it is, DONE.  And that is a wrap on me doing any more sewing for the next few days.

I'm switching into clean up mode, get the sewing room all tidy, house tidy etc.

And I better not forget to put the meat in the oven in a couple of hours!

3.17 pm:  And the sewing room is spic 'n' span.

The roasts are in the oven.

I have to cut up all the buns, and get the salad ready.... luckily I actually bought pre-sliced cheese, one less job to do.

I am starving, and had a little bit of ice cream.  It didn't satisfy me at all.

I am craving the meat and buns!

The aroma of the meat cooking is just starting to waft over me... my mouth is drooling!

Seriously, there's another 3 hours to go till dinnertime.  Booo.

In other news.  I have none! 😂😅😆

I really can't do much else in readiness for our busy weekend right now.  So I'm sitting on me arse watching a movie on Netflix.  Though it's actually a series I think.  Called 'Clickbait'.  It's quite interesting.

Thank God for Netflix, it keeps me entertained when I am being lazy.

ABOVE: Dinner has gone so well, everyone really enjoyed themselves.  Lots of laughs and yakking.

ABOVE:  NEVER give your phone to Steve to take photos for you!!!  

ABOVE:  Lacy LOVED the Gherkins so much that she even drank the gherkin juice!  Gross!

It is now wind down time, and everyone is getting ready to leave soon.

Then Stew and I can start getting the house ready for tomorrow.

Catch ya tomorrow.