We first met Vicky Simmons when she skipped into Superette one day to show us her "world's best stall" tote bags...we kept in touch and a few months ago she invited us to host a crafting room at the Design Grotto at Somerset House which she was organising for the first time with her partner in crime Jess Bentall. The Somerset House trust are also responsible for curating the amazingly popular Village Fete held at the V&A each year, so we were honoured and super excited to be involved.

The event was due to take place over a weekend in December and the venue was the Portico Rooms in Somerset House with balconies looking out over the Thames and ice rink. Our space was the Navy Boardroom which looked terrifyingly huge - at first we didn't know how we were going to fill it, along with the added difficulty that we couldn't attach anything to the walls or ceiling due to the historic nature of the building. Argh! But we rose to the challenge Lady Luck style and Sam set to work building an 8 foot candy cane as a centre piece for the room! After creating several mood boards for our space, we purchased a mountain of zingin felt and set to work making bunting, snow toppers for the tables and plush hanging decorations in the shapes of candy canes, buttons, bells, mushrooms, pencils and paintbrushes.

We then created four themed crafting tables - Badge-A-Rama; Build Your Own Kaleido-Crazy Charm Bracelet; Crackers Over You Wheel of Fortune and D.I.Y Winter Warmers all manned by the Lady Luck gang wearing festive red jumpers and huge snowball name badges. PLUS Lady Luck's Sparkle Pop Shop which sold the best selection of goodies from our Brick Lane store Superette. Over the other side of the room we set out 4 round tables with gingham table clothes for customers to sit at whilst they cracked open their craft kits and got down to some D.I.Y fun.

The whole event was stuffed full of festive fun with Santa at the decks playing a funny selection of christmas choons and the national elf service had sent down two of their best recruits to flyer around Somerset House to promote the day. Stall holders in the many other rooms included Beyond the Valley's "Ten Second Fondle", Mark Pawson's ace badge stall; a cheeky tombola where if you lost you received a beer (wah-hey); Donna Wilson's monster making workshop; Lie-ins and Tigers Parisian Portrait Gallery; Father Christmas' Grotto by If You Could; Gingerbread decorating; face painting rudolph the reindeer style and so much more...

We were delighted to see so many grotto go-ers getting into the spirit of a crafting Christmas! We saw oodles of customers wearing our customised ear muffs, gloves and vintage legwarmers skating around the ice rink. The wheel of fortune was spun many a time and crackers were going bang about the room and everyone was treating themselves to a handrawn badge. I don't think I've ever felt so darn Christmassy! Although I'm still not sure how we pulled it off, maybe because Sam stayed up til 5am the morning before putting down a third coat of paint on the candy cane the crazy guy and definitely due to all the hard work of the sparkle pop crew at Superette! A big ole thank you to Becky, Laura, Lydia, Leah, Penni and Diane. I think we're all ready for a long snooze in front of the telly after a turkey dinner and many a mince pie! Merry Christmas!

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