Beautiful liliums at the market tomorrow

liliums available at the market for $6 a bunch!

The market is on again tomorrow and we are so lucky to have these gorgeous flowers for sale and so cheap!

We also have the following stallholders:

Tamar Valley Gourmet Foods - cakes, biscuits and all kinds of yummy treats including gluten free

Hoot Hoot Skirts - wrap skirts

Three Little Chickens - applique singles and all kinds of different things

Tina Pinkard - great shopping bags!

Blaze Mason **new**

Apooki - cute covered button jewellery

Bubbamia - get back to school with awesome pencil and crayon rolls plus cute little purses

Love Bubbles - lovely jewellery and things

22 Cupcakes - yep, cupcakes!

Genevieve - the most gorgeous little sock toys

Cheryl Medwin - free-form knitting and crochet

Mary Curran & Janice - totes, bags, booties and now pyjamas

Gemma Bryan - children's accessories

Lizart - beautiful beaded and glass jewellery

Kylane Creations - a cool range of hair ties

inner+child - great children's accessories including birdie clips and aprons

Robin Cochrane - groovy, chunky style jewellery

Taritta - the cutest little dresses for girls made from vintage pillowcases

Rocky Gardens - jams, sauces and what berries will Pat have this week?

Four Seasons Herbs - the hugest range of potted herbs and plants

Lees Orchards - apples plus free range eggs and veg

So that's it.  A pretty good range there!  Get in for your flowers, eggs, homemade baking and cupcakes... and whatever else takes your fancy from our lovely stallholders!

Pilgirm Hall, Paterson St, Launceston (opp. Myer carpark)

10am-3pm

A good omen from the Council maybe...

After reading through all the fine print from our previous application, the Council are right and I was confused - the process we went through last time took 7 months and was very confusing.  So many different levels of Council and processes.  As it goes, I had no option but to reapply, pay the fee again and now wait.  All being well we wont get any opposition as this will slow our application considerably. 

Today the Launceston City Council granted us permission to continue to trade whilst our Development Application is being assessed.

Thank you LCC for your generous decision.

Hopefully just the first of more good news to follow...

Announcing Market Theme Days in 2010

Our Development Application is yet to be approved but we are being optimistic and going ahead as though it is going to be approved without any hitches (please cross all your fingers and toes!).

To mix it up a little this year, as well as our regular market (which is great!) we thought we should do some special days where we have a focused theme for that day.  Some of our theme days will include stalls that are not handmade.  Our application to the Council includes the proposal of not more than 30% of stalls with a non-handmade content with not more than one theme day per month.  Non-handmade stalls will be stictly vetted to ensure the a high standard of quality in both the product and presentation.

Here is the calendar of our theme days for 2010:

13th March 2010 - Vintage Fun Day - What a theme to start with!  Vintage is just so groovy at the moment, how could I resist.  What we're looking for is anything vintage be it clothing, shoes, jewellery, homeware, toys, whatever fits in the vintage theme and is not bric-a-brac.  Fine line, I know, but we need to be different from whats on offer at other markets.

8th May 2010 - Woolly and Warm Day - Winter has arrived and we need cosy, warm wool.  Knitted, crocheted, spinning wheels, anything whatsoever to do with wool.  Heck, we might even go all out and bring in some sheep!

26th June 2010 - Kids Alive! Day  - Get those kids out of the house in the middle of winter and get them down to the market for a day filled with fun and kids stuff.  Stalls offering all kinds of things for kids as well as fun entertainment for kids.

28th August 2010 - Textiles and Fibres Day -  a day for all of those mad sewing buffs, tie-dyers, silk weavers, fabric lovers, clothing designers, anything at all to do with textiles.

9th October 2010 - Go Green, Go 'Re' Day - a chance for all of those recycle, reuse, re words to come out and about and converge at Homespun.


27th November 2010 - A Handmade Yuletide - a huge bumper Christmas market.  Start planning now as we'd love to see anything to do with Christmas at this market.  Decorations, cards, gifts, wrapping, food, the works!

Doesn't it sound exciting!

Seeking expressions of interest for Vintage Fun Day so if you know anyone who is into selling vintage, tell them...

Sometimes you have to wonder if its all worth it...

Our lovely postman stopped at the letterbox at around 10.30am this morning.  He's so nice.  We were outside and he stopped his bike, turned it off and had a little chat just like he always does when we're around.

He gave us the mail and went on his way.

There was one for me in a Launceston City Council envelope.  A reminder that a new development application must be lodged with the LCC including a little fee to go along with it of around $600.  I paid this fee the first time I lodged the application and the Council put a 6 month trial period stipulation on it.  When there were no formal (or informal for that matter) objections and no follow up from the Council after this period, I thought we were ok to trade on.

So now this letter states:
"There is no information on Council records indicating that a new development application has been lodged.  Until such time that a new application is approved by Council, the Civic Homespun Market must cease operating immediately.
Any further operation of this market will result in Council seeking immediate legal action."

Thanks Launceston City Council.  I must now spend all weekend writing another development application for an existing market that has proven to build Launceston's reputation among tourists, livens the central city on an otherwise dull day and brings together artists and craftspeople to exhibit in their home town.  And to boot, I must pay you for the priviledge of rubber stamping it to say that it's ok after all. 

Do you know what?  I don't mind writing the application again, its the fee to which I object.

I know that the market hobart and handmade hobart, both in similar buildings within central city boundaries didn't have to jump through these costly and time consuming hoops.

It makes me wonder whether I should cut my losses, close the market, take my stock and go market hopping in other cities in Tas and interstate every other weekend.  One thing is for sure: I will make money doing that.

We're baaaaack - Homespun is on again this weekend

Holidays done and dusted.  Time to get back into market mode.

So I'm going to tempt your market-buds with our stallholders for this weekend:

Isis - awesome hand-bound journals and the last of her 2010 diaries.  Don't miss out!

Three Little Chickens - cute glass pendants, fridge magnets, applique baby singlets and tees, so much stuff and heaps of new products!

Hoot Hoot Hooray - I've been sewing like mad this week to have my cotton drill skirts in stock again.  Most colours and sizes available this week

Soewnearth - amazingly hand-dyed from natural materials, products include beautiful silk wraps and scarves, buttons and tops

Cheryl's Creations - Cheryl knits, crochets and sews all kinds of things!  In stock she has berets and hats, scarves and wraps and cards but she will make just about anything to order

Mary Curran and her lovely mum Janice - a huge range of handbags and lots of really nice skirts too

Lizart - beautiful finely beaded jewellery including crystal jewellery

inner+child - very, very cute children's accessories including the becoming famous fairy wing tees.

Tina Pinkard - a big range of sewn treats including great shopping bags

Bubbamia - coin purses and now pencil rolls - perfect for back to school!

Robin Cochrane - chunky beaded jewellery including beautiful freshwater pearls

Megan - cupcakes!  They were so successful at our last market because they looked so awesome and tasted just as good!

Genevieve - cute little sock creatures that will melt your heart

Love Bubbles **new** - jewellery, greeting cards and original artwork

Bindu Tamba - African hair braiding, jewellery, clothing

Four Seasons Herbs - a really large range of potted herbs and organic coffee beans

Lees Orchards - get your apples, fresh veg and free range eggs here!

Rocky Gardens - jams and preserves that are so, so yum

Gemma Bryan - cool and groovy kids accessories

I'll see you at the market on Saturday! 

I know its been a while so I'll remind you that its at Pilgrim Hall, opposite the Myer carpark.  Just look for the hot pink market banners :)

2/4, 2nd & 4th, two/four, second and fourth - every month in 2010!

2nd & 4th Saturday

You are going to get sick of it but I'm going to drum, drum, drum away about the new opening times for the market!

We are now open on the second and fourth Saturdays of every single month of 2010.

We have a market this weekend, 9th January 2010, which is, in fact, the second Saturday of January.

Will post our fab stallholders later this week!