The Toejam Etsy Market - Update

Here are the final details for The Toejam Etsy Market on October 27th.

• The Toejam Etsy Market will take place on Saturday October 27th from 12pm to 6pm at The Bernard Shaw as part of the 'Beatyard' event.
• Setting up
  Load in will be from 9am - 11am that morning via the back gate. There is a Google Map with driving and access directions which you can find and share here.
• Car Parking
  Cars cannot be parked in the Bernard Shaw Car Park as this is the shoppers car park. They can be brought to the back gate between 9am-11am for load in and (6pm-7pm for load out) but then must be parked elsewhere. Whilst you can park in the laneway it is at your own risk (the laneway is public land, not a private lane and does not belong to the Bernard Shaw). We recommend you park your car on the street in and around the bar or in Portobello.
• Tables
  Each participant will be provided with a 6ft x 2ft trestle table
• Electricity
  There are NO individual power sources for tables.
• Insurance
  The Bernard Shaw has full public liability insurance for the event.
• Weather
  The event will take place rain, hail or shine and all stalls will be under rain cover.
• Cancellations
  Please let us know ASAP if you can't make the event so we can free up a spot for another participant.
• Change
  Please bring your own change with you as there is only limited change in The Bernard Shaw and they need it for the bar at the weekend.
• Other Details
• Food & Drink - The Bernard Shaw is a fully licenced bar. The Big Blue Bus will be open all day. It does amazing pizza, breads and dips. It is very popular around these parts.
• Accessibiliy - The Bernard Shaw is a very old building and as such has no wheelchair facilities. Smaller baby buggies and prams will be fine.
• Music - the music outside will be at background ambient level for the neighbours sake! Music later that night will be a guy called Mike Slott from New York - full event details here for that night. And here is the full event listing for The Beatyard which is the weekend festival we are running that this market is part of. 
• Facebook - John has created a Facebook Event here and will also be doing a lot of other promotion. Please feel free to promote wherever and whenever you can, but do please visit the Facebook page and use the same material as John is. He is promoting us and doing everything for us, so we should promote his side of things too. Lets promote the TOTAL event!

Chit chat catch up - Dublin meeting round up

It was great to see a swag of people at the Dublin meet-up last Saturday, 22 May at the Snail Bar. We had some of the usual suspects show their support and some newer faces too which is always so lovely to see (thanks TanyaMac, Judith from Aboxformytreasure, Anne-Marie from byAMOR, Angela from ArtySmarty, Natalie from theBlueSylph, Aine from MissAine, HazelDonnelly, Mo from Huggleknits, Margo from Lilabelledesign). And because my brain is mush I hereby apologise because I know I've missed someone's name! Sorry sorry sorry!



After sampling the excellent made-from-scratch-fresh-lemonade which looked quite like this pic (yum) the things we discussed were:

1 - Nominations are now open for the 2 roles of team admin as it is time for Ruth and myself to hang up our hats and fix the hat-hair and move along. As with previous caretakers (thanks Tanya and Sarah!) the role is for a 6 month period and involves managing the blog (ie setting up the schedule for posts, organising people to contribute, keeping it ticking over with Fresh Picks, maintaining the list of members, dealing with Etsy regarding the team admin, pitching ideas to press & journos etc for publicity) and just being a general all round legend of an organiser. Sounds easy peasy huh?!? That list of things gets divvied up between the 2 people so it's not all down to one soul to manage. We're kind like that.

So if you'd like to put up your hand and ask not what your Etsy team can do for you but what you can do for your Etsy team, get in touch with either Alex (me!) or Ruth at Nicedaysupplies and make us proud. There will be a gentle hand over period of a month or so to ease you in and show you the ropes.

And it may be a good idea for the 2 people to come from different areas across this fine land, as that helps prompt more local meet ups etc. But we'll take all applications! Go on, pitch in and help us out.

2 - The Bernard Shaw car boot sale is on June 5th and is a reasonably priced opportunity to display your fine wares at a Dublin market. Have a look-see here for the info and get in touch if you'd like to grab a stall (or a car-boot). Stalls are EUR20. There is also an opportunity for a reduced price (or maybe free) stall space if anyone was willing to do a demonstration or how-to stall. This would be a great opportunity to wave the Crafty Ireland banner as a team event, so if anyone (a few of you joining together to work as representatives of the Crafty Ireland team?) would be up for that, leave a comment, but it will have to be quick as it's obviously not too far away.

3 - The Phisbsboro Phizzfest is in its planning stages for September. Natalie from theBlueSylph has been in touch with them regarding the plans and has feelers out for something we could do together as a team ... the ideas of a pop-up shop, stalls, demonstrations were all discussed. So keep it in mind for September and any more info we get about it will be posted here.

4 - We had an impromptu swap shop at the end of all the chit chat. This was suggested by Natalie from TheBlueSylph and was a great idea. If we do this again at the next meeting, Mo from Huggleknits suggested that we agree beforehand for people to bag up a little package of things to an agreed value (€2 or €5 perhaps) so it evens out the process. Great idea I think.

And of course lots of general chit chat went on and there were some excellent pancakes and coffee ingested amongst other things. It has to be done.

And did I mention we need 2 hardy souls to take the reins of this crazy Crafty train and guide us into the next 6 months? I did? :o)

Thanks to everyone who took the time out of their valuable weekend to come along, your support is greatly appreciated!

A Cork meeting is pencilled in for June 19th, so leave a comment if you're up for that and Ruth will coordinate the finer details. Cheers!

Market Opportunities

Thanks to the Savvy Shopper for the Image

I was contacted recently about these two markets:

Craft Fair in DCU
Laura Power is organising a craft fair in aid of Youth Release Ireland, she is looking to raise money to go to Dira Dawa (Ethiopia) and do volunteer work this Summer. The market is a craft,flea,food market in Dublin City University on the 21st of April. It's just 15 euro for the table fee. They do ask that items sold would be inexpensive as they are aiming at the student population. Email Laura at laura.power7@mail.dcu.ie for more information.

The Bernard Shaw Bar Carboot Sale
These guys contacted me wondering if Etsy Ireland wanted to get involved in a how-to stand. Showing punters how to make simple crafty things that they could then take away with them. You can also sell your wares there too, but I think they want more of an interactive thing. The deadline for the next show is 17th April (sorry for the late notice that's my fault!). But they seem to run regular events also, I'm tempted go go for one myself later in the year. This looks like a really cool venue from the website, and it would attract lots of trendy arty types....just the kind of people who love Etsy! Check out this link for submission, also mention that you are from Etsy Ireland.

I'm not gonna be around in Dublin myself for either of these events but if you leave comments here, maybe a few of you could team up and do something.