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Felt necklace on sale at the Phoenix Exhibition in the Physic Garden, Petersfield £25 |
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Felted flowers for Handmade Happiness |
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More felted flowers for sale in Handmade Happiness |
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Experimenting with paints and tissue paper |
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100% cashmere bunnies for little hands to hold |
This week I've been making in the shop. More cashmere bunnies that sell so well. Lots of felt flowers to buy as decorations or to wear as brooches. And I finished off a felt necklace ready for the Phoenix Stitchers exhibition which runs from today until Sunday 10-4 daily at the Physic Garden. Plus I enjoyed gluing tissue paper leaves onto a painting to add interest.
It is worryingly quiet in the shop at the moment. This year it's as if the customer tap has been turned off. I know it's the same in all other shops. People have just stopped spending. So shops can't survive.
Everyone tells me that people are buying online now and certainly that's part of the picture but I think the main reason people have stopped spending is because they are worried about the future and the natural response is to hunker down and save any money you can for worse times ahead.
I didn't vote for Brexit and of course, I have no say in who our next Prime Minister will be and these are the issues that are depressing people like me. It's that feeling of helplessness. We can't influence these things but we sure as hell are being affected by them.
And of course, there is the mammoth issue of climate change to grapple with. I look forward to the next David Attenborough series 'Seven Worlds; One Planet'.
He is a person everyone trusts to tell the truth about our situation.
Meanwhile I'll keep making. I'll create a stock of items for Christmas sales because in November and December I'll wish I had made more!