Finders Keepers was dandy. I went with my friend Sam on the Saturday and after braving the masses of Collingwood fans we made it down to Shed 4 whereby I had an epic coughing fit and probably disturbed more than just the people infront of me in the lunch line.
The food area was much better set out this year with the coffee split off to the side and more sitting and eating space. The paper installation above the stage was pretty fantastic. Thumbs up to the cupcake stand at the front – we did a lap, had a cupcake and did a second lap, I truly appreciated the Ewok, it was quite excellent.
In terms of stalls this time around – there was a fair chunk of overlap from last time (both good and bad), one of the stalls I really loved last time wasn’t there (who sold super cute rabbity things) and there seemed to be a bit of an excess of silver jewelery. I also found that the prices seemed less accessible – I think there were more stalls in general and more that were charging more. I consequently bought less and was a bit less excited about the whole thing. It’s all very well but I’m not going to buy more than one or two things if the prices are jacked up however pretty and lovely they are. It’s fine to value ones craft, but make it affordable – it’s a market. There also seemed a few stalls that didn’t quite fit the mold of what I expected/wanted. There were a few selling rather non-descript scarves and one quite quilt’ish/old ladyish stalls that I would expect to find at your local market not a craft/design market that is held twice a year.
I came away with an excellent print by PrintSpace, and a very cute coin purse (at the ONE stall who had outstanding prices and were consequently extremely busy the whole time we wandered) Only Midge. But that’s it.
Other favourites (but alas either didn’t have the spare coinage or have too many brooches already…) Angus & Celeste and also Brkich there were also some extremely cute toys around that had great personality.
It was a good day out but perhaps a fraction disappointing compared to last time. Or maybe I’m just a cheapskate.
