I’ve sent most of the last two days in St John’s Street, Cardiff, setting up the stall for the Cardiff Christmas Market and for the first day of trading.  Our stall is just under one of Cardiff’s new WiFi access points(facing the Bright House electrical and furniture shop), so it seemed like a good opportunity for a quick update from the site.

The market stretches from the junction with Duke Street down into the Hayes and runs from now until 23rd December.  Over 80 businesses will be here over the period, specialising in local products, hand made arts and crafts, unusual and personalised gifts and good food.

We’ll be here until 23rd November, then we’re back again for nine days at the end.

Today’s been something special, with ‘Step into Christmas’ taking place all around us.  There has been live music, parades, Father Christmas (the real one) and real reindeer.  I’ve not seen much of it as I’ve been sitting in the stall like a rabbit in a pet shop, but I’ve heard the music and served a lot of very excited families.

We’ve had good dry weather so far, the streets are lit up beautifully and there’s a great atmosphere.  …and the comedy musical nun has just trundled past. It’s well worth a visit.

I’m very pleased that I have finally managed to get to one of the WordPress Users Wales sessions, this one organised in conjunction with the Software Alliance Wales.  It was a very useful few hours that left me with plenty to think about.

Reflecting WordPress’s origins, much of the day’s activities focused on blogging and making sure the right people know about the blog (particularly through social media). Not so much on static web pages or using WordPress to deliver transactional services (although they were mentioned).  I left with a wealth of new ideas, and useful reminders of things I already knew I really should be paying more attention to.  It was great to meet up with some old and new friends (and to be reminded about the challenges of working on communications in the public sector!).

Many thanks and a big round of applause for the organisers and speakers.

Key things to me to remember?

• Post regularly
• Don’t let technical tinkering and presentation distract you from the creating the content
• Social media is an essential tool for directing and filtering the flood of online information
• Share, and others will share in return

I must pin them to the fridge.

We’re back from holidays and open for business again.

Our next public event is another Paws4Tea event with Four Paws Animal Rescue.  It’s at Graig Community Centre, Caerphilly Road, Bassaleg, Newport, NP10 8NE from 2 until 4.30 pm.

More details are available on Four Paws’ forum.

We’ve grabbed a space at Roath Craft Market this Saturday, 29th June.  We’ve not attended this market for a few months, but it’ll be good to be back, show off our new products and see what’s changed.

The market takes place in the Mackintosh Community Centre, 38 Keppoch Street, Roath, Cardiff, CF24 3JW.  It is open to the public from 9:30am to 1pm.  The Roath Farmers Market takes place at the same time in the car park outside, so you can get cheese, organic veg and cakes as well as freshly picked crafts.

We had a great few days at the Craftfolk event at Landsea Square.  Every day was different, which kept it interesting!

After a couple of weeks of fine warm weather we were disappointed to find ourselves setting up in rain and wind on Saturday morning.  The rain soon cleared, but the wind continued all day.  Our stand wasn’t very well designed for windy conditions, and we had to deploy a lot of Blu-tac to stop our stock from flying about.

We had some interesting neighbours; animator/ artist Steve John on one side, photgrapher Mark Lewis on the other, and around the square were stalls including Hungarian twister cakes,  a creperie and amazing hand carved wood crafts.

The big news on Sunday was a parade through Cardiff to celebrate Cardiff City Football Club’s promotion to the premiership.  The parade ended at the Oval Basin, just a few hundred yards from our stall.  The whole area was thronged with happy Bluebirds fans enjoying the sunshine, the celebration and the Brains SA.

Monday was another warm, calm day.  The bay was blue and glittering.  There was a lovely relaxed atmosphere as people strolled around in the sunshine, browsing the stalls and enjoying the scenery. Our best trading day so far.

Our next event is the Four Paws Fair at Tongwynlais Village Hall on 18th May, which should be very different!

Spring is finally here!  Our tulips have opened, our garlic is sprouting and blossom is busting from our cherry tree.

We’ll be celebrating by attending the big craft fair in Landsea Square, Cardiff Bay (the paved area just outside Café Rouge and Woods Brasserie).  The fair will be open from 10am to 17:30 from Saturday 4th to Monday 6th May.

We’ll be taking our familiar products and a few new things including our latest Cardiff candle arch featuring the Millennium Stadium.

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Here’s hoping the good weather holds until next weekend!

We’ve just had confirmation that we have a stall at the St David’s Day craft market in the centre of Cardiff this week – it’s on Thurs 28th Feb, Fri 1st March and Sat 2nd March 10am – 5.30pm.

The whole market will focus on items with special Welsh significance, so we’ll have some items as well as some old favourites.  If you’re in the area please come and see us.

Unfortunately, we’re going to have to miss the Roath Market on Saturday, due to a family health problem.  We hope to be back soon.