Steamfest Weekend

Hello!
OK… I am officially making my 2024 goal of blogging at a regular pace.
I am yet to sort out that pace.

But I just renewed the site for another 12 months so I better get my act together!
(Above and below: Mulled wine, Japanese Honeysuckle and some Aloe Vera Soap)(I was adding to stock to make sure I could cover the last lot of cruise ship markets and some local ones)

Stacked boxes of soaps!
All ready for Steamfest, held at Sheffield for three days.

I even went as far as labelling the boxes. Back to good old scribbled notes and tape as the little label holder didn’t really work.
I think there is around 600 soaps in here

Soap sock/soap saver!
New design – I just made it up and its quick to do and… importantly… fits the soap in. Just a couple of granny squares crocheted together

These will be nice to do over winter when I am trying not to do much but sloth in front of the fire.

Travel sized shampoo bars – I like the little bags.
Got to stir my butt and get more shampoo bars made.

This year we cancelled the campsite and was lucky enough to find a place not far south of Sheffield to lay our heads.
Maureen decided she was just a bit on in years to be crawling in and out of tents… esp in the middle of the night when one might want a wee!!
This spot at Gowrie park was only about 15 minutes drive and the part we stayed in was essentially a backpackers with private rooms, shared bathrooms and a kitchen! Perfect for what we needed.
Here is a pic of the room I artfully decorated in my rubbish.

We will definitely take advantage of this location again.

Anyway, down to Sheffield we go… Maureen and I! Her husband Gerry also drove up to help us put up a backdrop as we decided last year that the grotty old shed walls weren’t aesthetically pleasing enough.

Just in the throes of covering our stall up for the night. I love setting up and walking away!
But its a dusty shed and the condensation means a bit of cover is a smart move.

The ladies from the Cruise Ship Markets also packed up from one market and drove the hour and a half to set up here!! Exhausting!

This time Maureen convinced Gerry to let her bring up his baskets to pop onto a table! Mostly willow and flax – what a variety he has!
Not bad for starting a new hobby in your 80’s!!

I’d kept a number of full batches to use at Steamfest so I wasn’t left with half filled baskets
So good to see them all out on display

I made use of the back wall to display Mums scarves and the cosy cuffs my friend Nozomi’s Mum made.

Here we go!
All set up!
Carpet and all!

Maureen in fine form!
Mind you the hat lasted about 4 minutes as we were dying from heat!
It was madly hot over the weekend. Humid too!
Hilarious watching people though. The ones walking by in various stages of Melted Puddle were the Tasmanians who seem allergic to any sort of humidity.
I could instantly tell the Queenslanders though… they looked quite comfortable in an ‘you call this humidity??’ kind of way!!!

Lovely aprons and wall hangings.

Maureen certainly has been busy since returning from Japan.
She did have things on her stall that weren’t hers – besides Gerry’s baskets – and next year that wont be happening. Cutting down all the extras to just display her own work, (and the baskets of course!) so she can keep all the loot for herself!

Jeff dropped in to visit on the Sunday – to check out Steamfest and kiss his wife of exactly 17 years!
Unconventional anniversaries are the name of our game it seems
Yet to do something like have a dinner out to celebrate!

We loved the look of our little shop and had a fabulous weekend away, eating pizza and various other junky food!! We had a lot of laughs!
Mind you, sales were down a lot compared to the previous year, but we still went home happy.

My friend Jackie makes these absolutely gorgeous reversible bucket hats!
She has sold well over the cruise ship season.
Actually we were all meant to be there today, but the boat cancelled so we all packed up and came home.
Its raining now… and finally being at loose ends (yes yes, still a million projects to be worked on but…) so I wanted to sit and blog and photoshop travel photos from Yuri’s visit!

There are two more cruise ship markets and then the season is done.
Hopefully the weather and seas are good as they are pretty big boats.
I’ve done well out of them – I’ve been madly saving it all and I am planning on funding a return to Japan… this time with Jeff!! (Nice wife haha)
After the cruise markets there are three more local markets – two in April and one in May and a potential soap workshop in April.
So things have slowed up markedly and I am beginning to catch up on other things – helping Jeff a little in wood restocking. We emptied the tanks and swooshed them out. The bottom was getting a little manky in the main tank so it was time. And wow! Rain. So decent timing on that. Its been super dry.
Also made my beloved pesto and another batch of relish as the tomatoes have been so much better this season than last!
The house is still a wreck.
Lets not talk about that!
Hope everyone is doing well! Halfway though March already! Insane!

xx