As you know, I’ve been very busy making my craft products for my first ever stall at the Oxford Bake Off. I had a fab day! Oxford Town Hall is a lovely place for this kind of event, especially when it is decorated with bunting from the lovely people at Oxford Bunting Co (one of whom bought one of my iPhone/pod covers! Thanks!)
We arrived in plenty of time to set up, having done a ‘dry run’ at home, making sure everything would fit & look okay. My lovely OH was on hand to help with everything thank 
goodness! He made me a fantastic poster advertising the stall too.
While we were setting up, lots of people who had entered the bake off competition were nervously bringing in their entries & setting their cakes up. The standard was very high & I was lucky enough to sample quite a lot of the cakes later on in the day!
Once we had everything set up & prices laid out, we had time to get ourselves a drink (giant chai for me, obvs!) & have a good old look around the other stalls. There was quite a variety of stalls mixed in with cake sellers. We were next to Made in Jericho who made some fabulous pies & muffins (yep, sampled those too!) Our first port of call however, was to the very lovely Oxford Cupcakes, who make the best cupcakes & macaroons! Not only did they have these delicious treats for sale, but they also had some cupcake decorating going on. Fun for everyone. Later on in the day, after my first few sales, my OH visited the tea shop. The tea was provided by my favourite tea company, Jeeves and Jericho, who also had a stall at the
bake off.
There was a constant stream of people throughout the day, but when the bake off judgement was due, the place was packed! I managed to sell quite a few pieces and something from every part of my range. It was lovely to hear so many compliments from people as they looked through all my stock. It’s good to know what other people think!
I was pleased with the amount of stock I had on display & I’m pleased that I’ve got enough left to restock my Folksy shop. This means I can work on making some things for me & presents for other people. (Yes I’m already thinking about Christmas!)
I would definitely do another craft stall. It was nice meeting people from Twitter; hearing nice things about my products, and of course, selling things too! It was also a great opportunity to network with other local sellers & to get tips from them.
I did learn a few things too!
- Don’t park in Oxford City Centre! It almost wiped out my profit! I didn’t see the tweet from Oxford City Guide about cheaper parking until later. Should’ve moved the car then.
- Take a packed lunch. Not taking lunch did mean I got to eat a mushroom & goats cheese pie from Made in Jericho and a whole lot of cake, but it’s not cost effective.
I’m sure some other things will come to me the more I reflect on it. When I do another one, I think it needs to be closer to Christmas. Most of my stock is suitable as a gift so people will only buy it if they’re looking for a present or a treat for themselves. And with money being tight, it’s not the time for treats.
I really hope the Bake Off raised lots of money for the charities it was supporting. I had fun, even though I was exhausted by the end of the day!
I’d like to say a massive thank you to Kate for organising the event & to my OH for helping to run the stall, carry the stock, get my chai etc! Couldn’t have done it without him! x