Christmas Market in Hereford

With Christmas fast approaching us, so was our Christmas market in Hereford, and this was unlike any other we had done previously, as all the traders had to dress up in Victorian costumes. So rather than worry about our stock and how we would have our table laid out, the main focus was our costumes!

Brain storming away we first thought of dear old Oliver Twist, a scruffy little orphan boy...we felt that was within our creative abilities, however issues arose when trying to locate flat caps. Charity shops were trawled and raided and after days of searching we accepted defeat. Next idea...we would work with what nature gave us and be proper Ladies, Charity shops here we come...again. This time we were also on a tight time frame and so as three manic women hit the shops we were on a mission...feathers, flowers, lace and of course hat's, the check list was completed and  home we headed for the task of assembling the outfits.

High waisted skirts, ruffle shirts and hats- not so bad after all. With the outfits picked out and a few bits borrowed from our stock and enough room underneath each outfit for lots of layering it was time to make our hats! As we settled down to begin the building process...the night before of course.. we don't like to be too organised. We began. To our delight and surprise it was all coming along nicely, limited sewing was involved to all our glee, and the hats began to take life, we weren't sure if they were authentic Victorian style but we did our best and were all pretty proud and more importantly we actually enjoyed it.

The morning was upon us and on went the costumes hats and all and then it was off to Hereford. As we arrived decked out in full costumes we realised that everybody else had yet to put there's on and so then came the embarrassment, out in broad daylight, dressed in what can only be describe as a novices attempt at Victorian costume... we were exposed, embarrassed and tempted to retreat...but sadly we are adults and so hats and all we went forward and got on with task at hand.
The table was laid, fairy lights hung and looking very festive and colourful if I do say so myself our stall was done.
It was a lovely day in Hereford and we met lots of people and a we didn't completely freeze which over all we felt was a huge bonus and successful day, as we packed up for the day, ready to return the next we happily discussed our plans for improvements and with excited enthusiasm we headed home.

Outfits taken off and hung up, P.J's on and very large cups of tea drunk, we headed to bed in prep for another early morning. As the alarms went off 6am and we reluctantly stumbled out of bed and we took a look outside only to realise that we had in fact been snowed in and weren't going anywhere.

Our wonderful hat creations!!