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After my first Puggles Baby and Kids Market i was approached for an interview with Handmade HQ.Â
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MY INTERVIEW :
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Q: Tell us a little about yourself
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I,m a 44yr old first time mum of one, my husband and I immigrated to Australia from the UK in 2004 and shortly after bought a farm in Pokolbin, which is the heart of hunter valley wine country.
I make all sorts of things, art is in my blood as i come from a line of very Artistic people on my dads side of the family.Â
Some of my hobbies include:-
Drawing, painting, sewing, dressmaking, photography, sugar art, cake making, cooking, flower arranging, graphic design, pottery, crochet, knitting, woodwork.....the list goes on...........
Q: How did you get started ?
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It started over a year ago when i made my newborn son a decorative room mobile, when friends and neighbours saw it they asked me where i got it from, i explained that i handmade it myself from scratch, then they all wanted one and my business grew from nowhere and snowballed quite quickly
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Q: What was your inspiration ?
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I regularly see the hot air balloons floating over the vineyards and often land in acreage on the road i live in, so it was very inspirational and appropriate for the area. I wanted to make something visually stimulating for a baby as they can only see in black and white for the first 6 months of their lives, as they grow and focus their vision it will become entertaining for a baby to look at as well as please the parents eye and compliment a nursery scheme.
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Q: What is in store for your handmade business in 2017 ?
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Lots of good things i hope, i just started my first market last weekend in Newcastle that specializes in Childrens products called "Puggles Baby and Kids Market", my on-line shop (www.bhretreat.com) and Blackthorn Hill Retreat Instagram have proved very successful for me too. Momentum has grown over the past 14 months and my mainstream business is sewing custom orders in between looking after my 18 month old at home.
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I will be a regular feature at the "Puggles Baby and Kids Market" in Newcastle NSWÂ for my balloon mobiles, this market is the only one i can manage to fit into my schedule so far, mainly because i need that time in between to replenish stock on top of my custom orders which are my mainstream business.
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Q: WHY WAS MY INTERVIEW TAKEN DOWN ?
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A: When I first joined my local market selling my honey I was the happiest person ever, I was so glad that my friend of four years had talked me into joining her market as I immediately felt like I had an extensive artisan family and a community I could finally belong.
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Little did I know that she would shatter that friendship in a heartbeat within 12 monthsâ time.
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The market has a unique branding and strong ethic for Locally Made & No Imports, which I defended strongly for my friend who was subject to childish bullying by a neighboring market. I was always the first person to leave a positive note on the internet and hold her hand through all her trials and tribulations, we had well and truly accepted her into our family, becoming social outside of business and networking lunches.
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Being a small market they have a âone ofâ rule which means that you canât have 3 people selling honey there on any 1 weekend, fair enough. My then side business selling hot air balloon baby mobiles since Dec 2015 was taking off at a fast rate of knots, but because of the âone ofâ rule I knew that I wouldnât be able to sell my mobiles at her market, I was completely fine with this because I strongly supported and agreed with the market rules, however I did ask my friend at a networking lunch in front of witnesses if I could sell them at her âdouble upâ days ONLY, which happen approx. 3 times a year where ALL stall holders are invited to be there even if that means 4 people selling soap on the same day, double up days are usually only for Christmas, markets birthday, or occasional festivals. The answer was NO, absolutely no way, although not surprised by her answer, I was happy that Iâd asked and completely respected her decision because of our friendship as she had a handful of individual hot air balloons at the time on her jewelry stall (unlike my mobiles of them) and was claiming the one of rights solely to herself as market manager/owner it was her prerogative to do so.
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Some months laterâŠ.
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After writing to a specialized Kids website about some possible marketing exposure of my product (as theyâre my demographics) I was contacted by their sister company HHQ after my first ever Puggles market, they asked me if I would like to give an interview, I was ecstatic and jumped at the chance, the editor was glowing with praise over my mobiles and sent me a set of questions to fill out immediately. Â
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After my interview was published, unfortunately the editor put a sentence at the bottom of the page telling their audience that they could also find me at my local handmade market!!!! I did a double take and said to myself âWHY, WHY, WHY, WOULD HE SAY THAT?â now my friend is going to think that Iâm hijacking her marketing with a product that I donât sell there, I never mentioned her market in any emails or any part of my interview, I donât hash tag that market for a product thatâs nothing to do with them.
Soon after there was a NOT very cryptic message on the closed stallholders group for my honey market saying âIf youâre giving an interview to HHQ please ensure that itâs only for products that I authorize you to sellâ this really pissed me off (because she should of known me better than that after 5 years) and I was in a fuming mood all day at her market selling my honey, she didnât approach me once with an apology, after selling out of honey 2 and half hours before the market closed I had time to stew on it because the rules are if you sell out you canât pack up and go home (weâve sold out on more than one occasion due to the popularity of our honey and had to twiddle our thumbs for a few hours before we could take our gazebo down)
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A few days later she came to my house to have a chat with me and âApologizeâ I thought, but I was sadly disappointed. She informed me that my interview had deeply upset her, especially the question about âwhat inspired me?â when I said the hot air balloons that float over the vineyards and land in the road I live in, she said âyou know thatâs not true, you copied mineâ !!!!!!!!!!!
The hot air balloons do land/take off from the road I live in
I did not copy hers as she didnât make mobiles at the time (and I bought a pattern on-line)
In the dictionary the word COPY means to âreplicate an originalâ I have not replicated hers, and hers are not original.
She also lied to me that the independent website had only given me an interview because I was one of her stallholders, when actually I had earned it off my own merits.
She also wasnât happy that her market rule about âif you sell out, you canât pack upâ being made public and was insistent that I was upset because she didnât allow me to sell my mobiles at her market!! This is not the case because I can sell my mobiles anywhere.
My mobiles sell very successfully on-line, but I quickly found another market that only runs 3 times a year and theyâve welcomed me with open arms, this is the maximum amount of markets I want to do per year whilst raising my toddler at home fulltime.
Before leaving my house she said to me on Parting that sheâd already spoken to the Editor and got him to take the sentence off the bottom of my interview, but she wouldnât be completely satisfied until the entire interview was removed from the internet, and thatâs exactly what she did, bullied the man in to removing it completely.
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In an email from the Editor it said âSimply put!, I have enough to deal with having a wife with advanced cancer and effectively now being a single parentâ The market owner is taking up way too much of my time over this matter, we set out to support the handmade community as my wife loved it and wanted to help where we could, lesson learnt.
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From that moment on she ended our 5 year friendship from my point of view, I physically felt sick that we encouraged our Toddler to call her "auntie"Â and that I even invited her to our baby shower. I had no idea that this jealously was bubbling inside her until all the venom started spewing out of this pensioner
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Needless to say she had made the situation between us so bad that she couldnât face me at her market and I was sacked shortly after
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This experience has taught me yet again that Iâve wasted invested time in a friendship and to move on and donât look back because Iâm not going that way.
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