We're off to Barley in the Pendle Valley, Lancs next weekend for the inaugural Northern Healing Arts Project Craft Fair. It's from 10-4, Sunday the 27th of October.
We've met so many amazingly talented crafters and makers this year I don't think we'll ever have to buy a commercially produced present EVER again. This got us to thinking...
Why is it that we (in general, as consumers) don't mind shelling out our hard earned money on "stuff and things" that aren't made in the UK, then imported and sold in shops that give little or nothing back to the immediate area (ok, I'm generalising MASSIVELY here, but you get the point right ;) ) and yet folk grumble about paying for hand made items from local crafters?
We'd rather get bits for our house from second hand or antique shops, buy our food from local markets and suppliers (places like the butchers in Wark or Bellingham, the street market in Hexham) than go to a big supermarket chain and so on.
This Yule we're definitely not going to be buying the kids' or our family's presents from toys'r'us or Argos - they will all be hand made, either by ourselves or some of our superbly skilled friends.
I know that I'm preaching to the choir here, since you're reading this, but we should start trying to get our friends, families, co-workers and so on to change their spending habits too.
So thinking ahead to Yuletide and into the coming years -
Buy Local, buy Handmade, be awesome.
See you at Barley!
