Gosh it’s been ages since I had the time to update my blog!  Before Christmas I was sewing madly making things for Handmade Christmas at the 02, then it was Christmas, and then I got ‘the bug’ so feeling quite poorly now.

Regarding the handmade Christmas organised by Peninsula Exhibitions I am sorry to report that this was a big disappointment. Not just to me but many stall holders are talking via a FB group about taking the organisers to the small claims court and the Office of Fair Trading.  The event was not the amazing prestigious wonderful occasion it was made out to be when we booked.  For visitors there was certainly a wonderful variety of high standard crafts as many people had been fooled into exhibiting as well as us.

My first concern on arriving was that my stand was not where I had booked it in the ‘Folksy Trader village’, near the entrance and opposite what was supposed to be a bar/café.  No, it was at the end of the market opposite an empty dark space.  There were many issues which I am not up to recording today but please be very wary should you think about exhibiting with Peninsula Exhibitions again.  They refuse to offer any compensation to stall holders for various mistakes at this event and to refund our deposits for the Spring event which we now do not wish to attend – despite admitting it was their error in not placing our stall in the spot we booked!

They also charged visitors £8 for the first two days and £6.50 on the Sunday – not the £5 stated when we booked – so visitors had paid a lot before they got to us!  They didn’t seem to have spent any money at all on festive lighting, music or decoration.  Many stalls were so dark the goods couldn’t be seen!

Folksy have been very supportive – you can read their blog post about the event here

http://blog.folksy.com/2013/12/20/handmade-at-the-o2

hoping to feel better in the new year and get back to making things again.  Hope all you Handmade Mondayers had a good holiday and best wishes for the new year!