I couldn't think of a more boring title, but I'm sorry my lovely friends, because today's topic is boring. B.O.R.I.N.G.

If you don't sell your craftware, patterns, hardware etc online, then skip today's post, this won't be of much interest to you.

Also, if you're not in the UK, skip this post and pop over to the US or EU ones.

I would like you all to know that preparing for today's post almost boiled my brain alive, but I'm writing this post because I don't want anyone else's brain to boil.

I have for you, for free, a set of spreadsheets that will help you work out your profit margin with minimal brain boiling for you. I've done a set for UK, US, & EU. If you're outside of those then you'll need to contact me and I'll tell you how to edit them for your country/currency. Today's post contains the UK sheets.

I've assumed you're using Etsy & Paypal, so the fees are worked out accordingly. I've also added a column to work out your profit margin if you were to discount your items.

These spreadsheets are incredibly useful for keeping track of your stock, and the money you're making each one, vital if a customer contacts you for a bulk discount. I think you should always be able to give a bulk discount, some of my best customers are those who pay less, because they buy 8 or more strap kits in one sale!

Let's start with talking Paypal fees. 

There are two rates for paypal fees, although the second rate isn't particularly well publicised, it's Micropayments.

Unless you've applied for the micropayments status, you'll be on the regular fee structure which is 3.4% + 20p per transaction. (Different currencies are coming in other posts).

With the micropayments fee structure you pay a higher percentage of 5% but a lower fixed fee of 5p.

If you're selling something worth £5, this is how the fees differ.

£5 item - regular fees (3.4% + 20p) = 37p fee
£5 item - micropayments (5% + 5p) = 30p fee.

I know it's only 7p difference, but why should you give paypal more than you have to?

The point at which it's economical to be on the micropayments fee structure is for transactions under £10. You can't switch between the two fee structures easily, so make sure most of your transactions are under £5 for it to be worth your while.

£10 item - regular fees (3.4% + 20p) = 54p
£10 item - micropayments (5% + 5p) - 55p.

If you want to change to micropayments, you need to call paypal, or submit a help ticket asking to be put onto the micropayments fees, stating that your average transactions are below £10.

Ok, so now you know about fees, download the right spreadsheet for you, either the one with micropayments fees, or regular fees. This is the UK version, if you want the US or EU version, hold on til the later blog post with those in. The fees are different for different currencies within paypal (Just to make it a bit more complicated!)

Now you've downloaded the spreadsheet, don't be alarmed, it's time to edit it for your needs. Save it somewhere on your computer so you can find it again. Don't forget to save it whenever you walk away from your computer otherwise your hard work will all be gone!

The spreadsheets



My first 3 columns are type, size, colour which relate to the bag hardware I sell. I only use this sheet for keeping track of my hardware stock so where it says qty, that's how I know how many I've got. I keep a track of which size/colour each of my sets are by using a different colour washi tape on the glassine bags I pack them in. If you have different criteria, just click on those boxes and edit the titles. The spreadsheet is set so that as you scroll down, the headers will remain.

Next along is the money side. The important side, but don't worry, I've done the hard work for you. And my very clever brainy younger sister has checked my maths before passing it on to her chartered engineer husband to check HER maths! So don't worry, all you need to do it use it!


The first numbers column is the sale price. This is how much you're thinking of selling the item for. You can leave that blank for a moment if you'd like. Add on the cost of postage to this. Put in the total sale price of the item + shipping. (If you're offering free shipping just put the total price in)

Next is the cost price. I usually put in the price per item, plus a portion of the shipping. So say I buy 80 triglides, 160 rectangular rings, then I divide the shipping price by 80+160 and that gives me a portion of the shipping to add to the cost price. You can also add other things like packaging, ink, paper, whatever it costs you to produce one ready to sell item.

Regardless of whether you will charge for postage or offer it free within the sale price, pop the price of postage in this next box. You will be charged paypal fees on ALL money you receive, the spreadsheet is set up to work this into your profits. (In theory!)


As you've started entering your numbers, you'll see the fees column change. This will work out how much your fees are per item, based on the prices you've put in. If you haven't decided on a sales price yet, you can look at the fees, and then work out how much you can afford to sell your item for. I'm not going to get into how much you should sell your item for and valuing your work because that's a whole other kettle of fish!

The fees on these spreadsheets are made up of the following
Etsy fees  (3.5% final sale fee  + 20c which I've converted into pence by an average exchange rate) + Paypal fees (as discussed previously)

After the fees you'll see your profit column, which will change along with your fees as you start entering data.


The final 3 columns are only if you wish to give a discount. Enter the discount percentage in the discount% column. I.e. if you're offering 10% off, just enter 10.

The fees & profit will change accordingly, showing you whether your sale price is high enough to give a discount. If it's not, I'd recommend changing it so that you CAN offer a discount. Just my personal opinion though!

Is everyone ok with that? Any questions?

Picture the scene.

A customer wants to buy something from you. WOHOO! No, wait, a customer wants you to make a custom item for them. Ok, that's fine, we can go with that. At least you know they'll be getting exactly what they want.

So the question is then, how to encourage them and ensure that they return to you for every single bag need in their life. (Assuming you make bags).

Well here's my top tips.

1) Let your customer know that you're married to a super hero.

Nothing says great customer service than a husband who's willing to risk his life for next door's carp. People love animals and stuff (I know fish are not animals, they're fish but bear with me) so they'll inherently love you in turn.

2) Show people your morning hair.

It makes people feel good about themselves when they don't really feel too polished in the mornings.

3) Show them the dust mites you keep in your house.


It makes people feel better about the amount of dust they have in their house. That can only be a good thing right?

4) Post a photo of their bag on facebook suggesting it looks like an alien.


Come on people, that definitely DOES look like an alien right :D

and finally, my top tip for repeat custom.

5) Give people a 10% discount on your etsy store.

Because blog readers are special and deserve a treat every now and then!


p.s. I'm linking up to finding the funny over at My life and kids but don't feel any obligation to go look at my etsy store if you've come over from there. I try not to use my blog as a personal advertisement.

I think I overuse exclamation marks. Do you remember that perfume? Ex-cl-ma-tion!

I think I used to use it in my teenage years.

Anyway, my shipment of triglides & buckles has arrived for making adjustable straps and I ordered enough to share with the world. Seeing as it was a nightmare for me to find them and had to have them manufactured!


I've only got a small sample, 10 of each colour but I've listed them in a folksy shop so that they're easily available and if it seems that others, like me, just want good simple triglides without the hunting forever to find them then I'll order a second, proper size batch.


Have you ever had any major issues finding supplies of something? I thought I'd never find these triglide and buckles myself! The elusive hardware lol!


Samantha x

At home with Mrs H

So, remember the bow pleat bag?

I made one, editted it, made another, editted it again and finally made another and then I was happy with it?


No, oh well, now you know.

Well, I made another and this time I'm not just happy with it, I totally love it!

Nickel bag feet to protect from grubbiness!

I've listed this wool bow pleat bag in my etsy shop if you want to buy it, but you could just admire it here too :)

Plain (!) back view

Adjustable handle (25" - 41" or 63cm - 104cm)

Identical nickel buckle hardware

Olive Green paisley cotton lining with two slip pockets and one zip pocket. (No Key Dangler though, I forgot!)

Thin nickel magnetic clasp. Just as strong, half as thick!

It's tough to describe the colour of this bag. It's a real soft colour (and fabric!) and I think I've decided on a natural soft dove grey brown as the colour. It's the same fabric as I usually use to lay my items on to photograph them so to see it in different lights check out the background on lots of my other listings! 

Also, I've reduced my prices in the etsy shop and just come to realise I'll never earn minimum wage for the hours I put in, but I can't bear to think of my bags languishing on a shelf here when they could be out there strutting around on some gorgeous lady's shoulder!

p.s. Bubbles loved her bag yesterday so unfortunately if you'd like a bag similar you'll have to 'commission' me! :) xx

I'm now stocked at 'That's Gorgeous' on the High Street in Aberdare. Wohoo! That's Gorgeous primarily stocks handmade jewellery and jewellery making supplies...and now handmade bunting, cosmetic pouches, tissue pouches & clutch bags!!

Hey lovelies!

I love the idea of Folksy, I love that it's UK based....but I hated that I couldn't give you all (y'all :P) a discount code. So I've popped my goodies onto etsy now too so that I can give you a discount!

2m red, blue & white bunting

Just choose what you want to buy from my shop, go to check out and pop ATHOMEWITHMRSH10 into the coupon code box and you'll receive a lovely little 10% off.

Red daisy peg magnets

I might do a little badgey thing one day for my sidebar if I can work out how to.....:)

Brown tweed bow bag

So picture the scene. It's Friday night. Your crocheting sister Loopy Lizzie has arrived.  You've already been told to calm down and not panic by craft fair aficionado Leigh the Sewing Diva and the corner of your usually immaculate (but dated....hey, we're saving up!) living room looks like this.


So now you're in the zone of where we were when we saw the weather forecast for the following day's enormous amount of rain. Um. Yup. Great.

Ok, so THE BIG DAY has dawned and it's raining. 6am and we were kind of blurry eyed but up and awake and dressed in our setting up clothes. My BFF Stacey arrives and we load up both of our cars with stuff important things and head on down to Caerleon. Lizzie and Stacey get there first and when offered a pitch directly next to the info tent at the entrance OR right up round the corner they chose next to the info tent. Good call girls! Until a blacksmith arrived and parked his whopping van and tent in the centre of that area blocking us off from people. Ah well, never mind eh?

Anyway, so my first reaction to the festival was 'oh, it's smaller than I had thought'. But as it was hammering down and we only had an hour and half to set up we got right to it with the gazebo. With sides. That when the wind blew brought in a wave of rain water. The roof of the gazebo was leaking, the sides were leaking, it was muddy underneath and we were all pretty soaked.

We ended up leaving 80% of our stock in the car as it was just so wet that it was pointless putting it out to get ruined. People just didn't wanna see wet and muddy things! But then...a few prayers later by 11am the rain slowly stopped and patches of blue sky were reported. I was fairly convinced it was a rumour but then I saw them myself...hurrah!

I hot footed it back to the carpark to bring out some more stock while Dusband (nicknamed our health and safety officer as we may have died from falling equipment if it hadn't been for him!) pegged the gazebo, did the guy ropes etc, etc.

Here's our tent with it all set out. Still less than we'd planned and things not quite 100% but better.




It was super windy and our gazebo took off at one point! Lucky we found some extra pegs to secure it.

Our lovely outfits meanwhile were left abandoned in the car and we stayed in our jeans and wellies for most of the day. Never mind, wellies go with everything right?

Lizzie got to crocheting and after a while I got my t shirts out to start making tarn (T shirt yarn) ready to weave myself a rag rug on the hula hoop. I forgot to take pics of me starting so the tutorial will have to wait until I finish so I can re start for the pics!



Lizzie obviously spent too long in this position (ignore the face, she's usually very attractive) as her sunburnt arms had little white creases at the elbows where they didn't get any sun!


Maybe she's incapable of not grimacing when a camera comes out?

If we were to do another outdoor event we'd both start crafting earlier and sit outside the entrance. People didn't seem to want to come into the gazebo if we were sat in to one side but they were happy to go in past us and have a browse knowing we wouldn't be breathing down their necks giving them the hard sell.

We sold a couple of items but over all it was a disappointing affair. From our vantage point near the entrance/exit we didn't see many people carrying bags or purchases. We spotted about 6 or 7 people carrying sock monkeys and a few people carrying frames so the sock monkey and art stalls obviously did ok.

Leigh was around the corner and further along slightly than us and said that she'd noticed the same that there wasn't much money changing hands. I guess most people just didn't see anything they wanted to buy or were the 'day out' crew.

We met some lovely people and had some great chats with some customers. Hopefully some of them have found their way here so...helloooooo!!!

The fair started at 10am and finished at 6pm and we were a little disappointed that the organiser didn't find the time to just pop round and ask how we were getting on considering it was our first fair or even to have a look at our stall. It seemed unusual but maybe I'm too much of a control freak that I'd have to go see what everyone's selling!

By the time we got home at 8pm ish we were all so tired that we sat and grunted at each other for an hour (following a dinner of breakfast cereal) before climbing the mountainous staircase to bed. I was totally looking forward to my 8am lie in this morning.....Sunday mornings have never been so fabulous!

Anyone else have a disappointing experience on their first fair?

Ok, so you know I said we wanted a pop up shop type affair....well mum bought us a gazebo with two sides but we didn't want to spend out on tables that we would only use the once.

Sure, pasting tables are only £10 but they're pretty flimsy. This was confirmed when we went to the carnival the week before last and saw a man trying to hold his table down in the slight breeze whilst not push it too hard and go through the middle!

So, we shopped our houses and came up with baskets, shelves more shelves and...yup...some more shelves!

I'll show you what I mean. Here's our stall in all it's glory.

Yoodle = yarn doodle.....more to tell you about those!

I bought a mirror new specially for this fair because
a) People will be drawn to it as all humans are slightly vain whether they know it or not.
b) Handbag purchasers will want to see what bags look like on
c) Putting it at the back of the stall will make it appear bigger and brighter
d) I really, really, really wanted a full length mirror for myself
e) It was only £9.99 in home bargains! That really is what I call a bargain!

Ok, so as you can see the long white cotton fabric covered shelves can be our table & till point and can provide extra storage.

The small wicker shelves fold up and can be hidden away when we run out of stock to go on them.

The tall steel shelves were £8.16 each from Ikea and look really good....can't wait to have to find a home for my set after the fair! (Already have a few places...)

Ready for the details?

Ok, so on the left as you enter our stall we'll have some of my handbags hanging and maybe perched on baskets on the floor. I hate having things on the floor, people don't like to bend down, plus it might be raining. It just looked a bit bare with nothing there so if it's fine then they'll start out there.

We had our helper (Dusband) string up some net curtain wire across the two side poles to hang things on sort of like a shopping type washing line and have used decorated pegs to hang these things. This is fairly flexible storage right here as you can increase the spacing as things sell so you don't look empty.



Underneath the hanging lines we've got the covered shelves which hold some covered cushions and a really old battered suitcase. I found it at the tip in one of the containers and (after asking permission) brought it home, cleaned it up and it makes fab storage for my brooches & hairslides on cards.



One of the tips we found was that people love a space for completing transactions. Somewhere to put their handbag down to rummage for their purse or to fill out mailing list sheets or order forms etc so we've tried to leave one end of the shelves fairly empty for that purpose.
We've got paper carrier bags to go into this basket ready for people's purchases. They're not pricey at around 11p per small bag and I think it really adds to the experience. Who wants to cart their handmade cushion around in an old bin bag?!

We've pegged up our price lists or receipt cards and when we've got our custom order forms printed (Lizzie's in charge of those) then we'll hang some there too. That way it's a go to area for us or any helpers for people who want information.


So on our first set of steel shelves we have Blizzard Yoodle on the top shelf (Can't remember the price...about £80 I think...contact loopylizziedesigns at hotmail.co.uk for more info), a bow pleat bag (I LOVE THIS BAG!) and a few clutch bags.

On the bottom shelf we have some beginner crochet kits...well we will when we get the labels and instructions printed up. The hooks will be in a pretty vintage mug if when we find one. Lizzie will be giving 15 minute lessons for beginners in the stall so we've got a couple of chairs set up for that.

TIP: If you have chairs but you're not sitting in them. Put them away! We've seen all over the web that crafters who take chairs and leave them out inevitably end up with a 'customer' who doesn't buy anything but wants to sit there to rest for half hour and ends up telling you their life story.

Obviously if you have an elderly customer who looks like they could do with a rest then feel free to offer them a seat, but beware you don't get sucked into when they made a quilt for little flossie and the intervening years tale since. It will distract you from selling and your other customers who genuinely do need to talk to you.


This is a super exciting photo of...urm...what's not there lol. These wicker shelves though I had from freecycle a couple of years ago and when I upgraded my bookshelves from these to some big fat wooden types I kept them thinking they'd come in handy. I'm so glad I did because they fold out and you slot the shelves in. Easy! We've decided not to use the middle shelf so on each set the cushions can go on the bottom yet still be seen.


Here is our 'other corner' with mine and Lizzie's work combined. I seriously can't believe she made those yoodles....I wouldn't know where to begin! Then again, she says something similar about sewing!


I realised last weekend that although I have a nice amount of tissue pouches they're all a bit girly! I'd better whip up some less girly ones soon!!
Next to this on the right is where we will have our couple of chairs when Lizzie is crochetting with customers. I have a tarn rug to make with a hula hoop (tutorial to come all being well) for quiet times so that's our area for crafting.

I know some craft show people think it's important to stand near the entrance to your shop and be there poised for people to ask questions but I am of the opinion that customers want to be able to come in and have a browse and not be scared to pick things up to look at them. As long as they can see you're around and know where to ask for help (name badges!) then that's enough. Yes, strike up conversations but don't pounce...that's just not cool! (This is where having everything price labelled clearly comes in as well.)


And finally on the last pole as you're leaving our stall is a parasol hook I found for 50p brand new and unopened in the Ty Hafan charity shop that is ideal for hanging a couple of extra bags on!

Excuse the poor quality of my photos, it was by strip light in the hall and I forgot my camera so was using my phone.

Lizzie took a pic of me being faster than the speed of light....would you like to see it? I know you would....

A couple of other crafters who will be at the fair are the lovely Leigh from 'The Sewing Diva (and her reluctant models)' who introduced me to the Caerleon Arts festival and the lovely Shepherds Moon who's facebook event I seem to have invaded. Oops!
Enough links in that paragraph for you?

Anyway, any hints, tips, feedback, all appreciated! xx

Ok, so I've mentioned this a few times already but now here is the full details.

So, myself and my sister Loopy Lizzie (her real name is Lizzie not loopy Lizzie) have decided to take a stall at the Caerleon Arts & Crafts festival this year.
The festival runs from 8th July - 17th July 2011 and artists and craftspeople are invited to exhibit and sell their work during the final weekend of the festival which this year is 16th and 17th July.

Lizzie and myself have decided to take an outside space for the Saturday and are going to trade our way to happiness. (Hopefully!)

In this week I'll obviously become a bit of a craft fair bore so bear with me. This is our first craft fair and it's set to be a big & popular one so we're understandably excited!

Here's my top ten tips that I've scoured from around the web for doing craft fairs such as these.

#1 Book early. It just makes sense!

#2 Think about how you're going to display your items so that you have enough time to purchase display stands etc to make the most out of them.

#3 Try to spend as little as possible to achieve the most expensive/luxurious stall as possible

#4 Check this list by Sunshine Glass and from it write your own list of things to take. This will help you to gather your bits together.

#5 Shop your house when looking for ways to dress your stall

#6 Label EVERYTHING! People can be too embarrassed to ask for prices in case they can't afford things.

#7 Use your height to it's best advantage. Eye level for what you want to show off most.

#8 Do a mock up of your stall the week before so you've a chance to change things around or pick up extra supplies

#9 Have a very handy patient husband/friend who can do any structural engineering (stringing wires, hanging banners, building shelves etc) to free you up for the fannying around making things look nice.

#10 Be as organised as you can. Fail to prepare and you prepare to fail.

Anyway, I'll tell you more as the week goes on and share some of the goodies Lizzie and I have prepared and our stall. We've modelled it on a pop up shop and have a few extra tips for you.