Bobbetts Blog No 41, They let us out!

Well it's another lovely Sunny day, and what better way to spend it than on a day trip up to London, we are visiting the international trade show Top drawer.

Yes they have let us out, Tonia and I took the train from a local leafy village up to the big smoke, its been a while.

We got up to Earls Court and had to take a bus up to Olympia. Overhearing a man saying he was going the same way, we got a bit of a sightseeing tour and then started to stalk the man we had overheard going to Olympia😂😂😂, He stopped in the middle of the street looking at his phone map he was following so I decided to ask "excuse me are you trying to get to Olympia" yes he replied surprised, We been following you as we are going too anyway we were all going the wrong way and then proceeded to walk together, He was a buyer from Marks and Spencers, five minutes we been up here and we are making friends 😂

Here we are it was Tonia's first trade show, I have exhibited here several times with my Jewellery.

It didn't seem to be that busy but it was the last day we got our badges and started working on a plan.Tonia made a great entrance tripping up before we got to the entrance but lol no one noticed only me 👀

We started to hit the stands, mainly the card section we chatted to lots of people, quite a few business come from our local area, including a charity based in Godalming, who work with chronic epileptic people who can't work so run creative businesses through the charity, their work was amazing candles, chocolate, soaps,

They have their own shop in Godalming Arthouse Unlimited, Well worth a visit.

We saw a lot of handmade cards which was interesting as we are doing a blog on this in the next couple of weeks.

We took a pit stop which was a nice 5 minute coffee, as it was so hot in there then we realised the show was going to finish in a couple of hours and we had to get a move on.

That was it we were off only stopping for what caught our eye the colour scheme seemed to be following a muted green and Coral pink colours, animals such as Lamas, rabbits and foxes, not very many unicorns or flamingos, this trend seems to have seen its last season.

We got to the end or what we thought was the end but then realised that we had only done one side and had a whole section of garden and homeware to do.

A lot of the stands had bought in pieces made in India and China they had a similar feel and most of it was stuff we have seen before, bought in by companies such as

Anthropologie or H&M Homes.

Plants are very much in and we found some unusual ways to display them, in bottles and macrame hanging seems to be back in.

There were a couple of companies that really stood out with quirky designs and interesting concepts as you can see from our contacts.

Well I can honestly say it was fun and an insight into what's trending over the next 12 months, we hope to work with some of the designer makers we met today.

That's it from us this week

Next week we have some spooky fun Halloween themes going on as we get ready to talk Christmas 🙈

Happy Crafting, Cas and Tonia. (The Bobbetts)