Kelham Island etc etc

I've been awake since 2.30am. Probably not the best time to try and recall stuff for a blog entry, but in the absence of getting any sleep I may as well attempt it.

Last Christmas it all went wrong on the Barefoot book selling front. The snow stopped everything. This year nothing has been cancelled and finally my book selling has helped with paying for presents.

So it didn't snow. But boy did it rain. When I turned up at Kelham Island Museum to set up I was gutted to see where I'd been positioned and joined in chuntering with the rest of the stall holders near me. It seemed hard to believe that the fun fair would entice customers to take the trek down to our little building, even with the draw of grumpy traders wearing thrown together Victorian garb. In honesty though we had it better than some. At least I was warm and dry and my stall hadn't blown into the river.

Having said all that I did pretty well despite the unabating rain and I had great fun chatting with customers and stallholders. We all cheered up by a couple of hours in. Plus the girls came along with Mum, Dad and Paul and seemed to have a lovely time. Tilly was just as enthusiastic about the printing press as finding the Victorian characters wandering about. Shame it rained though. More of a shame though was that I didn't get to go shopping. The items on sale were fantastic. The girls bought me a new handmade pewter tree decoration. I love Christmas and them of course.

The following week I did Sharrow Vale market, my favourite one in Sheffield. It rained there too, torrentially for the first hour. But it stopped eventually, I traded well and really enjoyed myself. Although when it became impossible to see at 3.30 I did have less customers. It's hard to choose books in the dark. And taking the gazebo down was a bit of a trial.

I was just walking P back to the car when we passed Father Christmas taking down his grotto (the girls had been in to see him and Paul said he was lovely). Phoebe smiled, waved and shouted "Bye Santa". That's the best type of Christmas market you can get.