When I walked in to the hall, I was shocked at how busy it was, there were crowds of people surrounding the stalls. There was Christmas music playing in the background and a lot of hustle and bustle. The atmosphere felt really high spirited and the smell of all of the homemade cakes, teas and coffees made it even more inviting. There was also the distant smell of cinnamon which always makes me feel festive. 

The hall is relatively large but felt smaller because of the amount of people, the food stalls were placed together near the end of the room, the craft stalls were around the outside of the room and in the middle were a couple of charity stalls offering raffles and tombolas for several worthy causes.

The mixture of people attending surprised me as I imagined this event would attract the older generation but there were a lot of young people and quite a few children. Most people had their bags for life with them, hoping to pick up a creative bargain or Christmas gift for a loved one.

I was overwhelmed at the talent of some of the crafters, but when I spoke to them they had all started out, like me as a complete novice who learnt new skills along the way. One lady reassured me that although her work looks perfect (she crochets animals and blankets) she often makes mistakes and has to go back and redo her work. I found this comforting as some of the skills take a while for me to learn and it is just about persevering to get a finished piece that I am proud of.

The card stall holder showed me how, even though his designs look complicated and intricate they were achieved relatively simply with the correct stamps and background work, he gave me the name of the website he uses so we can look at them and order some supplies from home.

Another learning curve for me was to accept that some crafts take a long time to make and complete, the longest project I've worked on is my crochet blanket, but that's OK and it is better to do less of a higher quality than to rush through projects and not be proud of what I have made.

I also learnt that most people are happy to see someone interested in crafting and that they will take the time to go through their experiences with you, if you just ask.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and plan on attending a lot more events like this. I felt welcome, relaxed and definitely inspired.