Tutbury Castle :(

Sorry it has taken so long to get my review up about Tutbury craft fair. Well overall it was a complete waste of time and a very big hit on the pocket. It was meant to be a weekend event and should have had 5000 - 7000 people through the door throughout the weekend. However we were in a very large cold windy tent in the middle of a wet field a million miles away from the action going on in the castle grounds and if we had 250 people wander around that was the maximum.

My other half and I decided to pull the plug after the Sunday as it is a fair few miles from where we live and it was far to cold and empty to get the muster up to get out of bed at 6am the Monday morning. I have spoke to a few of the traders that decided to stick it out and Monday seems to have been even worse than the Sunday so we were glad we made the decision to stay nice and tucked up in bed. I did however showcase new items again on the Sunday mainly consisting of new scented Cocoa Cubes, Bath Bombs and Gift boxes of Bath Melts. I will be putting photos of these on here in the coming week hopefully.

As for Craft fairs, I have decided to take a break from them for the next couple of months and concentrate on pushing my products to shops and hotels.

It will be nice having Saturdays and sundays to myself again :)

Folksy Feedback

I have sold a few other items since I started the blog and thought it would be nice to share the feedback I have received from my customers

SusieJ left the following feedback after she received her items

'Lovely item, as described, beautifully packaged and very prompt shipping.'

Twisted Hazel left the following feedback after she received her items

'WOW! They arrived the very next day, beautifully wrapped and smelling gorgeous. I was very pleased to get a sample as well because the purchase is for a gift. I can say that on using my sample not only does the soap smell wonderful but it is so gentle and creamy it's a joy to use. I highly recommend this shop, all round great service and a fantastic product, what more could you ask for?'

She also sent the following message to me

'Hi Lucy, just wanted to say thanks. My parcel arrived today and was beautifully wrapped (I love it when you get a parcel that is wrapped with care it makes it feel so much nicer I think!). It is actually a present for my Mum so I was really chuffed to find a sample that I could try myself. It is absolutely lovely to use, I will definitely be buying some of your soaps for myself in the future. I am sure that my Mum is going to love hers when she receives them (and I didn't even need to wrap them as they were so wonderfully wrapped already) so thank you. Ruth '

I almost burst with pride! I am so so happy when I receive feedback like this it makes everything worthwhile :)
So thank you very very much ladies you both made my day and I was walking on clouds for the rest of the day :) xx

Tutbury Castle Easter Weekend :)

We are taking part in a handmade craft fair at Tutbury Castle today and tomorrow. So if you were planning a day out but could decide where to go then come along to the castle! There will be plenty of activities and demonstrations such as arrow making and medieval cooking, medieval re-emactments throughout the day and of course a quality handmade craft marquee. Whatever your doing this weekend I hope you have a lovely Easter xx



-- Post From My iPhone

Easter Eggtravaganza Giveaway

For the up coming Easter weekend I am having my first Giveaway!

From 0.01am Good Friday morning to 11.59pm Bank Holiday evening I am offering 10% off all my products to all of my Blog and Facebook fans and if you are a fan of both you get 20% off!!

All you need to do is choose and buy the items from my Folksy shop then send me a message saying Facebook or Blog fan and I will refund the discount to your Paypal! It is as easy as that!

And that's not all the first 5 sales receive a Eggtra gift :)

Hen Doo Gift Bags

This past weekend was my Best friends Hen weekend in Manchester. We travelled up Friday afternoon on the train. We spent the afternoon getting ready and dressed up for our night out. We also dressed my best friend in L plates, Bride t-shirt, bunny ears, garter and tiara. We then head off to the Tiger Tiger club for a meal, a couple of hours in a karaoke pod and then dance the night away on the tiles. It was such a great great night. I had to leave Saturday morning but the Hen party continued into Saturday with a spa afternoon followed by a salsa lesson and then the hen and her chicks danced the night away at a salsa club using the skills they had just been taught.

As I am my best friends bridesmaid I took a gift bag for all the girls for them to take home to remember the weekend by. These are a few photographs of the gift bags. They all included a Bath Bomb, Fizzing dust, Cocoa cubes and soap so the girls could go home and have a lovely soak to relieve those achy muscles and sore dancing feet.

Quernus My Beagle?!? Wee Lily:)

After having a long look around Folksy I stumbled upon a shop called Quernus Crafts. The Shop was full of lovely little creatures made out of polymer clay. These absolutely gorgeous characters really captured me I loved them I could have bought them all but then............a light bulb went on above my head .......... ' what if I could get this marvellous crafts person to recreate my beagle Lily
So I got in touch and got talking to a lovely lady named Kirsten Miller so so helpful and obviously loves making these sweet little creatures. She said that most of the orders she gets are for customised pieces and that she would be happy to make a 'Wee Lily' So I just email a couple of pics of my crazy little beagle (one from the front, back and from each side) and yesterday morning my Wee Lily had arrived.
She was lovely, so identical on to my Big Lily (even tho she is only tiny, but obviously a lot bigger than Wee Lily) I've took a couple of pics of Wee Lily and My Big Lily so you can see the likeness . I think Big Lily liked Wee Lily. So I was over the moon with my Wee Lily and then my curse of being a clumsy oaf raised its ugly head again and when moving my camera from one side of Wee Lily to the other I managed to knock my lovely Lily onto the very hard floor and broke her ear off :(
I was devastated I got back in touch with Kirsten and she said It would be no problem to make my now one ear-ed beagle better again so off to the post office I go.

If unlike me your not a clumsy oaf then I seriously recommend you take a look around Kristen's site http://www.quernuscrafts.co.uk/ or www.folksy.com/shops/quernuscrafts


Big Big Thank you goes to Kirsten your creations are legendary xxxx

Cocoa Cubes

Here is another addition to the ever growing products of Sleepy Valley, and what fun did I have creating these cute little cubes of loveliness :O)

Basically they are made from high-quality cocoa butter and sweet almond oil.

These pampering little cubes are solid at room temperature, but melt with the heat from your skin or hot water.
Just pop into a warm bath to melt for a luxurious moisturising bath. Alternatively you can rub the cube all over your body as a moisturiser. These were my best seller of the weekend and I only have Lavender scented ones so far but I will definitely be making lots of different scent for these. If you do like the look of cocoa cubes but would like a scent other than Lavender just drop me a email lucy@thesleepyvalley.co.uk and I will make them just for you :)
Caution: Your bath may be slippery after use. Please take care!