I'm a Finger Puppet Millionaire!
Well, a £61-aire.
But that's at least £61 more than I ever expected!
About two months ago, my brother, P2, who lives in a picturesque little village in Huntingdonshire, told me that his wife, K, was organising a 'Christmas Cornucopia'. Here's the rather smart flyer he designed to promote it:
(The picture's a bit distorted because I had to screencap it from Skype).
On Sundays during the summer, K and her friends run a cycle cafe in the village hall, selling sandwiches, coffee, and amazing cakes to people in lycra, and they wanted to raise some money to improve the kitchen. They planned to have 12 stalls, plus Tombola, a raffle, and their cafe, and P2 asked if I wanted to put some items on their stall.
So I set to work, and made 21 finger puppets, including Santas, Rudolfs, Snowmen, and Angels:
Plus 10 teddies, with a choice of scarf or Christmas jumper:
I charged £1 extra for a jumper, because they're quite a lot of work! (I'm particularly pleased with the Christmas tree motif, which I copied from a picture of traditional Scandinavian gloves, though it's come out a bit wonky on the green jumper).
Here they are, all packed up and ready for their big adventure:
Here's a picture of the hall, just before we opened:
And here's our stall:
My sister-in-law painted the scarves, made the gnomes, and designed the reindeer's heads, which have two electric tealights on a bracket at the back, and glow when mounted on a wall; my brother made the cards from photographs he'd taken of the local churches; and my puppets and teddies are at the front -- here's a close-up :-)
(I don't know what possessed me to make a Manchester City scarf! The lady who bought the grey teddy asked P2 to swap it for another).
We opened at 2.00 and the hall was packed all afternoon. By about 3.30, the Tombola had run out of prizes, and by the time we closed at 5.00, the cafe had been stripped bare! With the stall fees, the Tombola, the raffle and the cafe, K and her friends made almost £1000 for the village hall.
And I have three very special £20 notes in my purse that, so far, I cannot bring myself to spend!
The remaining puppets will fit nicely into some crackers for the Christmas dinner table.
Now I need to finish the hat I'm making for my great nephew, little M:
...
The power supply for my 12-year-old-plus Windows XP laptop -- the only computer that will still run my favourite graphics program -- finally failed. I ordered a replacement on Amazon Prime, and it's just arrived but I need to pluck up more courage before I dare plug it in. Just in case.
I did buy the latest version of the program, which is allegedly compatible with Windows 10, but a) it's flaky & keeps crashing, and b) they've 'improved' it so much, it no longer does what I want it to do :-(
But that's at least £61 more than I ever expected!
About two months ago, my brother, P2, who lives in a picturesque little village in Huntingdonshire, told me that his wife, K, was organising a 'Christmas Cornucopia'. Here's the rather smart flyer he designed to promote it:
(The picture's a bit distorted because I had to screencap it from Skype).
On Sundays during the summer, K and her friends run a cycle cafe in the village hall, selling sandwiches, coffee, and amazing cakes to people in lycra, and they wanted to raise some money to improve the kitchen. They planned to have 12 stalls, plus Tombola, a raffle, and their cafe, and P2 asked if I wanted to put some items on their stall.
So I set to work, and made 21 finger puppets, including Santas, Rudolfs, Snowmen, and Angels:
Plus 10 teddies, with a choice of scarf or Christmas jumper:
I charged £1 extra for a jumper, because they're quite a lot of work! (I'm particularly pleased with the Christmas tree motif, which I copied from a picture of traditional Scandinavian gloves, though it's come out a bit wonky on the green jumper).
Here they are, all packed up and ready for their big adventure:
Here's a picture of the hall, just before we opened:
And here's our stall:
My sister-in-law painted the scarves, made the gnomes, and designed the reindeer's heads, which have two electric tealights on a bracket at the back, and glow when mounted on a wall; my brother made the cards from photographs he'd taken of the local churches; and my puppets and teddies are at the front -- here's a close-up :-)
(I don't know what possessed me to make a Manchester City scarf! The lady who bought the grey teddy asked P2 to swap it for another).
We opened at 2.00 and the hall was packed all afternoon. By about 3.30, the Tombola had run out of prizes, and by the time we closed at 5.00, the cafe had been stripped bare! With the stall fees, the Tombola, the raffle and the cafe, K and her friends made almost £1000 for the village hall.
And I have three very special £20 notes in my purse that, so far, I cannot bring myself to spend!
The remaining puppets will fit nicely into some crackers for the Christmas dinner table.
Now I need to finish the hat I'm making for my great nephew, little M:
...
The power supply for my 12-year-old-plus Windows XP laptop -- the only computer that will still run my favourite graphics program -- finally failed. I ordered a replacement on Amazon Prime, and it's just arrived but I need to pluck up more courage before I dare plug it in. Just in case.
I did buy the latest version of the program, which is allegedly compatible with Windows 10, but a) it's flaky & keeps crashing, and b) they've 'improved' it so much, it no longer does what I want it to do :-(