Chapter 15
Seeing Milly with her Castlerigg Stone Circle cross-stitch kit had inspired me.
I used to love cross stitching and hadn’t done any for years but, riffling through my crate of kits, nothing called to me.
They were all beautiful designs but, having derived so much pleasure from creating a patchwork quilt that meant something to Paulette, I wondered if I could create a special cross stitch for one of the others.
What about Laughlin? There were websites where customers could upload a photograph and have it converted into a pattern for a cross stitch and I could do that with the photo of him and Noreen during the acqua alta.
I hadn’t wanted to spoil the surprise by asking Laughlin for the photo but we were friends on Facebook and it didn’t take much scrolling to find it there so I’d ordered the pattern.
I was busy working on it on Friday morning when Trevor announced, ‘Visitor! Come in!’
‘Have you got a minute?’ Paulette asked when I answered the door.
‘I’ve got all day. Would you like a cuppa?’
‘I’d love a strong coffee.’
I led Paulette into the lounge and introduced her to Trevor, leaving them to get acquainted while I made the drinks.
‘I have a huge favour to ask,’ Paulette said the moment I handed over her coffee.
‘I’ve been trying all week to smooth things over with Andrew, Joanne and Saffy but we’re going round in circles and getting nowhere.
I need to speak to them in person rather than over the phone so I’ve decided to drive down to theirs in the morning and have it out with them. ’
‘Just you or you and Saffy?’
‘Just me. I need to come down pretty hard on Joanne with some home truths about what her tunnel vision is doing to her daughter and there’s no need to subject Saffy to that.
She’s such a positive sweetheart but it’s taking its toll on her.
I’ve heard her crying in the night and it breaks my heart.
So my favour is to ask whether there’s any chance of Saffy spending the day with you tomorrow.
I know she doesn’t need a babysitter at her age but it’s about having some company.
She’s really sociable and gets her energy from being around others.
If she’s left on her own for too long, she retreats into herself and starts overthinking things. What do you say?’
‘It would be a delight to spend the day with her.’ It really would, but my insecurities set in. ‘You don’t think she’d be bored spending a full day with me?’
‘No chance. She’ll bring her journalling with her and I guarantee she’ll want to spend some time with Trevor. She had a cockatiel when she was younger and misses having a feathered friend.’
‘In that case, she’s more than welcome.’ Saffy was lovely and I was honoured that Paulette had asked for my help. It backed up what I’d been thinking on Wednesday about how they all seemed to value my friendship.
Paulette sank back into the chair, clearly relieved at having sorted that out.
‘What sort of things does she eat?’ I asked.
‘Pretty much anything, but there’s no need to go to any trouble. I thought the pair of you could go to The Fox and Rabbit for lunch or tea, my treat to say thank you.’
The determined expression on Paulette’s face told me not to argue about paying so I thanked her and reassured her that we’d have a great day because I genuinely believed we would.
I wished Paulette hadn’t been put in this position as I could imagine it would be an incredibly uncomfortable visit, but I was looking forward to spending the day with Saffy and doing what I could to help my friend in a time of need.
* * *
The following morning, Paulette dropped Saffy off at 7.
15 a.m. She hadn’t warned Andrew and Joanne of her plans, anticipating that she’d either be told to stay away or that Joanne would demand that Saffy accompany her.
The early start lessened the possibility of them going out for the day before Paulette arrived and, as I was usually up and dressed early anyway, it was no problem for me.
‘Good luck,’ I said, hugging Paulette while Saffy wheeled her pink crate of journalling materials through to the dining room. ‘You’re doing the right thing.’
Saffy reappeared and hugged and thanked her grandma and, when I closed the door, she thanked me too.
‘I’m looking forward to it,’ I said. ‘And there’s somebody else who’s looking forward to meeting you.’
Saffy grinned. ‘Grandma said you have a parrot. What sort is he?’
‘An African Grey called Trevor. Come and say hello.’
Saffy and Trevor bonded instantly. He climbed up her arm and sat on her shoulder as she fed him a slice of banana. She was eager to hear all his sounds and words and seeing them together reminded me of how much pleasure I’d always derived from watching Cliff and Trevor interacting.
After an hour or so, Saffy asked if there was any chance of looking round my craft room, telling me how much she loved spending time in Paulette’s.
‘Wow! That’s a lot of quilts,’ she said, her eyes scanning down the shelves. ‘There has to be more than thirty there.’
‘After you asked me how many I had, I counted them. Slight underestimate. There’s fifty-seven and all those crates contain completed projects too.’
Saffy’s eyes widened. ‘You should deffo think about selling them. People go insane for homemade stuff like this.’
‘Do they? Where would I find those people?’
‘There’s websites set up especially for creatives.’ She rattled off a few names. ‘I can help you get set up on one of them if you’re interested. If you don’t fancy going online, you could try craft fairs or even set up a pop-up shop.’
‘A what?’ I’d never heard that term before.
‘It’s where someone sets up a shop – usually in an empty retail unit – but only temporarily. You often get pop-up shops appearing in empty units at Christmas. It’s better for a landlord to get some rent in from a two- or three-month lease than leave it standing empty all year.’
‘I’ve seen Christmas shops like that but I didn’t realise they had a name.’
‘Do any of those suggestions appeal?’
I shrugged. ‘Definitely not craft fairs. I did one maybe fifteen years ago and it was awful. One of my husband’s customers had organised it and, when somebody dropped out at the eleventh hour, she begged me to step in.
I’d never tried to sell my stuff before – I craft because I love it – so I wasn’t keen, but she went on and on and I finally relented.
What she hadn’t told me was that the stallholders knew each other well, often attended fairs together, and they had an agreement not to undercut each other on the pricing of similar crafts.
My quilts were selling well and nobody else’s seemed to be and I naively assumed that it was because the customers liked my designs better.
Turned out it was my prices that were the pull.
Mine were significantly cheaper and several of the stallholders came over to have a right go at me.
You’d think I’d deliberately set out to destroy their trade from the way they went on about it.
I couldn’t stay after that – packed up early and never attempted it since. ’
‘That sounds awful,’ Saffy said. ‘I can see why it’d put you off for life. What about selling online instead?’
‘Depends on how intuitive the site is. I get by with tech, but I don’t like anything complicated.
The pop-up shop probably appeals more but I’m not sure I have enough crafts to make it work.
’ When Saffy pointed at the shelves, laughing, I clarified, ‘Enough different crafts. Patchwork quilts are an expensive purchase – one thing I did at least learn from my craft fair nightmare. The fabric and materials are already pricey before you add in anything for labour so I don’t imagine they’re an item that’d sell every day and they’re not to everyone’s taste. ’
Saffy scanned her eyes down the quilts, her brow furrowed. ‘So you’re saying that, for a pop-up shop to work, it’d need a big range of crafts.’
‘Yes, and different price points too. Impulse buys, I think they call it.’
She nodded slowly before turning to face me.
‘Here’s an idea. You have fifty-seven quilts and, I dunno, ten crates full of crafts but you don’t think there’s enough variety.
Grandma has a room full of homeless crafts too and I bet Milly, Veronica, Laughlin and your other friends from Cake & Craft Club do too.
What if you did a collab? You’d have everything you need – massive range of stock, big-money items and impulse buys – and you’d be able to split the rent and share the workload. ’
My initial instinct was to laugh and declare, We couldn’t do that!
But then I thought about the living entry on my start list. I hadn’t really thought about what that meant – I just knew that I wasn’t doing it.
Joining Cake & Craft Club had been a great start and this could build on that.
It would be a chance to do something different – something for me – and it’d also be an opportunity to meet some new people.
And it wasn’t as though I had any doubts about my crafts being of a high standard.
It was one of the few things I didn’t have any insecurities about, having learned how to sew from the best.
‘It’s actually a brilliant idea,’ I said, smiling at Saffy. ‘I don’t know if the others would go for it but do you fancy sounding one of them out? I could ring Milly and see if she wants to join us for lunch at the pub. If she’s a yes, we could take the idea to the others.’
‘Perfect! You ring Milly and I’ll google units in Keswick – see if there’s any who’d consider a pop-up shop.’
As I waited for the call to Milly to connect, butterflies soared in my stomach and my heart raced with excitement. Imagine the five of us running our very own pop-up shop. What an adventure that could be!