The final countdown to a Castlefield Christmas



The giant advent calendar in Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens
Photo courtesy of menmedia.co.uk

Only one more sleep until the fabulous Castlefield Christmas Artisan Market opens for festive fun.  As the 23rd is peeled back on the giant advent calendar in Piccadilly Gardens the market opens at 10 am.  On the cobbled streets of Castlefield, near Dukes92, you will find speciality foods and produce, artisan arts and crafts and even sherry and minces pies.  In the evening there will be entertainment and North West Tonight broadcasting live.  A real traditional family Christmas market with something for everyone until 9pm.

Lights, camera, action and a giant advent calendar....

...just a standard day in the life of Castlefield Christmas Market which takes place this Friday, 23rd December, on the cobbled streets of Castlefield, near Dukes92  Not only is it going to be a fabulous traditional artisan market with lots of yummy food and produce, individual crafts, beautiful jewellery, sherry, mince pies and music but to add to the excitement North West Tonight will be there live for their 6.30pm show and the event will be unveiled to Piccadilly Gardens as the 23rd is peeled back on the GIANT advent calendar!! Definitely a day out not to miss, open from 10am to 9pm.

A big thank you to all our customers who braved the elements on Saturday and Sunday and supported us at the fantastic Wilmslow Artisan Market and Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market .  A big thank you too to our lovely friends and 'neighbours' at the various events who have helped keep spirits high on some of the cold, wet and windy days we've had over the last couple of months!

A special mention for the lovely Lorraine, of George's Gourmet Dog Biscuits who has become a good friend over the last few months.  Her home cooked gourment dog biscuits go down a storm at the various markets and we were totally wowed by her new line which debuted on Saturday, the Adidog dog jacket seen below!

Lorraine, still smiling despite the rain!

The gorgeous new Adidog jacket

A mention too for our fabulous new friends, the lovely ladies who are Vicki from Dotty Designs and Sam from Perfectly Poncho .  Always cheerful, whatever the weather, they've brightened up grey and rainy day with their fab personalities and gorgeous items.  Vicki's beautiful jewellery and Sam's gorgeous children's knitwear combine to create a pretty and eyecatching stall.  It was such a great surprise when they turned up at Wilmslow Artisan Market on Saturday and I can't wait to see them there again in January!

The lovely ladies Vicki and Sam!

As you may have heard it was Jacy's birthday on Saturday and we ran a prize draw on Twitter, a Make A Wish bracelet for the first 5 drawn out of a hat after midnight on the 17th who had tweeted her a happy birthday.  We also had a bit of fun on Saturday and offered a free Make A Wish bracelet with every purchase to anyone who sang 'Happy Birthday' to her.  I must say there weren't many brave enough to do a solo in the middle of Wilmslow high street but we managed to give a few away!

Happy Birthday Jacy!!

Looking forward again, we're getting really excited now about Castlefield.  We're joined by our extremely talented friends Cornelius Potts and Uncle Monty with their brilliant handmade greetings cards and Louise with her lovely macaron and other tasty goodies!

See you all there!! x

More Christmas Markets...

We have a busy week coming up with the last Wilmslow Artisan Market before Christmas on Saturday 17th (10 am - 4 pm Grove Street), the Altrincham Vintage & Craft Market on Sunday 18th (11 am - 3.30 pm in the covered market, Greenwood Street) and the Castlefield Christmas Market on Friday 23rd (10 am - 9 pm Castle Street, near Dukes92).

This is the 6th Wilmslow Artisan Market and the last six months have seen it go from strength to strength.  The market takes place on the main high street in Wilmslow town centre and there are now a huge amount of individual, quality stall holders offering a vast array of food, drink and artisan crafts.  Well worth a visit!

This weekend sees Altrincham's very own Christmas Market.  Called The Christmas Kitchen Food Fair it has been organised in conjunction with Altrincham Market and Barry Cooperman from La Rioja, The Belgian Bar and The Fish Game and will be open from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday.  The regular market will be open as usual on Saturday as will the Vintage, Craft and Food Producers' markets on Sunday.  Of course, we'll be there, as usual, as part of the Vintage & Craft Market!

See the Christmas Kitchen Food Fair mentions on NetMums , Messenger Newspapers , J Davidson and The Hale, Altrincham & Sale Independent

Last, but definitely not least, is the Castlefield Christmas Market.  Hot on the heels of the successful monthly Castlefield Artisan market comes this special traditional Christmas Market. 

As I've said, it's on Friday 23rd December, just right for those last minute Christmas presents and for fabulous locally produced food from award winning producers.  It will be open from 10 am to 9 pm and situated on Castle Street near Dukes92 .  A fabulous traditional market offering an eclectic mix of Artisan specialist food, and festive hampers, chocolates, flowers, vintage gifts, jewellery, sherry and  mince pies with music and dancing from 5 pm onwards.  Something for all the family! 

Read more about Castlefield Christmas Market on the official Visit Manchester - Mcr Loves Christmas site, the Castlefield Forum , Yelp and CreativeTourist.com

See you there!

♫Happy birthday to you.....♪♪

It's our lovely Jacy's birthday on Saturday so to make it extra special we're running a birthday competition on Twitter.

If you tweet 'Happy Birthday' to Jacy on Friday 16th December on any of our Twitter accounts - @jacyandjools, @jjkitsch or @makeawishco - you will be entered into the draw.  At midnight, as her birthday begins, the first 5 people out of the hat will receive a free 'Make A Wish' bracelet!

Don't worry if you miss out on the Twitter draw though.  On Saturday we are at the Wilmslow Artisan Market on Grove Street from 10 - 4 and anyone who sings 'Happy Birthday' to Jacy will receive a free 'Make A Wish' bracelet with their purchase!

Good luck x

Coming up in 2012

We always have our next three events displayed on our blog but we have so many events coming up in the new year we've produced a downloadable document showing where we are going to be for the next few months. 

New events are always being added so it's always best to keep checking back on the blog or keep up to date by following us on Twitter @jacyandjools

Just click the link below which will take you to 4shared.com where our document is stored ready for download

Events 2012

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Well it's been a while since our last blog and that's because we've been uber busy here making lots of new jewellery and preparing for the various sales and Christmas markets we're taking part in over the run up to Christmas... but more about that later.

Since we last blogged we've had three more very successful markets at Wilmslow Artisan Market , Altrincham Vintage and Craft and Castlefield Artisan  All three are fab and they each have a very different feel.  Wilmslow is sited on a busy and bustling town high street which definitely comes alive on market day.  There's a real continental market town feel to the day with huge support from local residents enjoying the full experience of the market and bringing increased custom to the existing shops and cafe bars too. 

Photograph by Lisa Reeves, wilmslow.co.uk
Wilmslow Artisan Market - the high street comes alive!

Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market is sited in the covered market on Greenwood Street next to the Victorian indoor market building, a traditional market setting which complements the craft and vintage theme wonderfully. 

Altrincham's historic market hall

On the third Sunday of the month the market is filled with vintage and artisan craft stalls each offering something very different and very individual.  The market has been taking place for several months now and has many regular return customers and is discovered by many new ones each event and is definitely well worth a visit!

Photo courtesy of Magpies Markets

Photo courtesy of Magpies Markets

Photo courtesy of Magpies Markets

 

Last, but by no means least is the Castlefield Artisan Market  A new market on the Artisan calendar, the December market will be the third and if the first two are anything to go by, it's definitely one not to miss!  Set in the wonderful Castlefield Basin area of Manchester this is a gem in the heart of the city.  It's situated in a lovely cobbled area under the railway arches and the first Sunday of the month it becomes a bustling 'town' filled with stalls selling a variety of delicious produce and artisan arts and crafts at their best.  Entertainment has been provided on both occasions by the fabulously energetic Cotton Town Hot Club and the November market saw the addition of Sax Solution.  They both help create a fabulous atmosphere and the next market is definitely one to put in your diary!

The Cotton Town Hot Club entertaining at Castlefield

We've introduced some lovely new items for the forthcoming markets and they're all on our web site Jacy & Jools now.  Also check out the lovely new items on our sister sites JJKitsch and The Make A Wish Company for the full range of our popular 'Make A Wish' bracelets.

We've have a new sterling silver variation of our JJKitsch 'Love Beads' bracelets, called JoJo bracelets they're available on Jacy & Jools now

Fuchsia jade with sterling silver beads and star

Semi precious turquoise beads with sterling silver beads
and open heart charm

Take a look also at the full range of our lovely new sterling silver charm necklaces - here's a sneaky peek at a couple













Now to Christmas, Jacy's favourite time of the year!  We're really excited about it and we've got a full calendar of events throughout the following weeks.  We start the run up to Christmas this weekend with Wilmslow Artisan Market on Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm on Grove Street, Wilmslow and Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market on Sunday, 11 am to 3.30 pm in the Covered Market, Greenwood Street, Altrincham.

The next Castlefield Artisan Market is on the 4 December in the usual place at the corner of Duke Street and Castle Street close to Dukes 92 and we're excited to be taking part in two Christmas Markets!!  The first is in Wilmlsow and we're there from the opening night Friday 25 November, when the lights are switched on, to Tuesday 29 November from 11 am to 8 pm.  It will be located on Alderley Road from Sainsburys to MultiYork and other attractions include an ice rink, Santa's Grotto and fairground rides.  The second is the Castlefield Christmas Market, just a stone's throw from its usual location outside Dukes 92.  This takes place on Friday 23 December, from 10 am to 9 pm and will be a fabulous traditionally themed Christmas market with entertainment, carol singing, sherry and mince pies.  An event for all the family with a great festive party atmosphere! One not to miss!!

We're also at Heyes Lane Junior School's Christmas Fair on Friday 2 December from 5 - 7 pm and we have the regular Wilmslow Artisan and Altrincham Vintage & Craft on December 17 and 18 respectively at their usual times/locations.

We hope to see you at one of the events, don't forget to come and say hello!

Copies of our flyers about the above events can be downloaded using the links below:
Castlefield Christmas Market
Wilmslow Christmas Market
Find us on the web
See us next!

Putting the custom into customer

One of the great things about having a custom jewellery company is that we get to work with the customer in the design process so they end up with an item that's exactly what they want.  Sometimes we start absolutely from scratch, as was the case with a recent customer who gave us a photo of a necklace they already owned and asked for earrings to match.  We produced a few designs and they chose two pairs they particularly liked and we made them both up for them.

Last week we received an order for a couple of bracelets, one from each of our collections on our Jacy & Jools and JJKitsch sites.  The customer loved the 'Peace Man' but wanted the feature bead in white turquoise instead of blue.  She was thrilled with the finished bracelet and tweeted us this fab picture of both!

So, if you see anything on our site and you'd like it slightly different, a different charm, size or colour of bead, custom size, whatever, please email and ask.  If we can find a way of doing it for you we will because at the end of the day we want you to love your Jacy & Jools or JJKitsch piece and we'll do everything we can to make sure it's just the way YOU want it!!

We've been really pleased this week to read some of the feedback about the Castlefield Artisan Market  There's been quite a buzz about it on Twitter since the first one last Sunday and the next one on 6 November promises to be even better.  On a personal note we were really thrilled to read Sophy Vanner's fab blog TheTrendClash where she had some lovely things to say about us and about the market in general.  We agree it's going to go from strength to strength and will be a great place to pick up some very individual Christmas presents.

With the forthcoming Castlefield Markets, our regular spots at Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market , Wilmslow Artisan Market and the Wilmslow Christmas Market we're all set for a very busy few months.  We're very excited about the forthcoming weeks and we've lots of new items to make and new ideas to try out.  We look forward to seeing our regular customers in the lead up to Christmas and to welcoming new ones too!

Castlefield, Corrie and the Conservatives

Human wall of police on
Deansgate

Sunday saw the first Castlefield Artisan Market take place and true to form in Manchester, the rain came! Along with the rain came convoys of police TAU vehicles and the largest police presence since the riots sealing off roads with human walls and policing the TUC rally and Conservative Party Conference!

Start of the rally near the MOSI

Despite all that, though the market was fabulous. It was reall well supported and there was a great atmosphere enhanced by the live music and dancing.  There were some lovely stallholders selling everything from fudge to flowers and photos to food.  We had an amazing day and even had a celebrity customer, the lovely Cherylee Houston, Izzy Armstrong to all you Corrie fans. 

It was lovely to see a familiar face there too - Gail was there giving out flyers for the next Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market  on Sunday 16 October, 11 - 3:30 in the covered market, Greenwood Street.

Thank you to everyone who came down. We met some lovely new customers and really enjoyed being there with our Jacy & Jools and sister site JJKitsch jewellery. We think it's going to be an amazing regular market and hope to see you there next time - first Sunday of the month!

We wish you a merry Christmas!

OK, so we're a bit early! We're already thinking about Christmas though and we're very excited to unveil our gorgeous 'Make A Wish' Christmas cards! They feature our very popular sterling silver 'Make A Wish' bracelets in various colours and a large choice of charms mounted on lovely pale pink card with matching envelope. At only £4.50 we think they'll make a super cute present for a special friend or relative.

Some of our new range of 'Make A Wish' Christmas cards

We'll be taking them with us tomorrow to the first Castlefield Artisan Market, 10-4 at the corner of Duke Street and Castle Street. See you there!

Close up of a 'Make A Wish' Christmas card

Tie it... wish it... wear it... then your wish will come true! x

Boogie Nights!

We've had another busy week this week busy preparing for the weekend. We're excited to be taking our jewellery to the first Castlefield Artisan Market on Sunday, 10 - 4 on the corner of Castle Street and Duke Street. We think it has the potential to be a fab monthly event and we're keeping our fingers crossed this gorgeous weather holds out until then.

Raffle prize packed and ready to go!

We 're also happy to be providing a raffle prize for the charity Chernobyl UK who support children and families in Belarus, the country most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. They do amazing work and we are pleased we are able to do our little bit to help. They are holding a Back To The 80s Ball at the Cresta Court in Altrincham this Saturday, 1st October at 7pm and we've donated one of our Swarovski pearl bracelets which we hope will help them raise lots of money.

A mention for lovely Louise of Retro-Rimella  She's set up a new Twitter account @AltrinchamMrkt and is doing a brilliant job promoting the fabulous Altrincham Market, gathering support, encouraging some great ideas of what can be done to make the market the bustling hive of activity it once was and just generally create a buzz.  Please follow her and help make the market great again!

Here's wishing!

We're off to Prestwich today to the Vintage Life Extravaganza so we were up until the wee small hours making lots of lovely items to take with us.  Following the sell out success of the sterling silver version of our ever popular 'Make A Wish' bracelets we've come up with some new designs.  The sterling silver range are made with pink, pale blue, lime green and lilac cotton cord, with a gorgeous little charm and sterling silver beads on each end.  They are super cute and make a lovely little gift.

It's all about the label!

We're beyond excited about the arrival of our new Jacy & Jools branded fabric labels.  Specially designed for our sterling silver bracelets, we think our grey and silver thread bags in our brand colours, with pink and grey ribbon drawstrings will look uber stylish.  What do you think?

A whole lot of wishing going on!

Louise of Retro-Rimella

Wow!  What a weekend.  We had a fabulous time at our first Wilmslow Artisan Market.  The turnout was amazing despite the odd downpour and we even had a celebrity presence with Graham from Corrie.  Sunday at Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market was equally fab and it great to see return customers and new faces. 

Our lovely friend Louise of Retro-Rimella can be seen in the photo wowing the crowds.  Check out her fabulous retro home accessories and gifts on her gorgeous re-vamped site

Our new Jo-Jo rings and Planet Collection sterling silver bracelets were very well received and we completely sold out of our new sterling silver version of our ever popular Make A Wish bracelets so now it's time to get back in the studio and make some more!!   x

Jo-Jo cute....

.... and so, so excited for our first Wilmslow Artisan Market tomorrow.  Despite our best efforts, and being super organised earlier in the week, we've ended up burning the midnight oil again preparing for tomorrow.  That's what happens when you get an unexpectedly early delivery of gorgeous beads, you just can't wait to start using them!  As a result, making their debut tomorrow are four new Jo-Jo rings.  They're made with tiny semi-precious turquoise and onyx beads flanking various stardust, corrugated bicone and rondelle sterling silver beads.  They are designed to be worn on their own and to complement the other charmed rings in our collection. 

We hope you like them and hope to see some of you tomorrow at Wilmslow.  Don't forget to come and say hello!  x

The Italian Job!

The Roman gods Jupiter, Saturn and Venus meet the Minis with our newly launched Planets and Mini Collections.  They arrived on the site yesterday and we're super excited to hear what you think.  Each collection features a 'base' bracelet available on its own or with a choice of charms ranging from cute heart, shamrock and crown to a gorgeous large chunky peace sign and amazing shiny and patterned hearts.  You'll be spoilt for choice with so many lovely pieces, each one looking great on its own and fabulous combined with others from the collections.  All the new bracelets feature our cute branded sterling silver tag to finish the look.

Make love not war!

There'll be a whole lot of lovin' going on with our new Inner Peace bracelet with over-sized peace bead.  It's not for the faint-hearted this one, with a super big 25mm neon pink sign nestling amongst turquoise beads you're really going to stand out from the crowd!

Coming up later a first peek at our new Planets Collection of sterling silver ball bracelets!!

Peppa Pig..... and pork pies

Jacy looking gorgeous on the stall!

... and some of our equally gorgeous jewellery

It may have been a little surreal, flanked by pie stalls as Peppa Pig made her entrance but we still had a fab day at the Wilmslow Big Party in the Park!  We were happy to see some regular customers and to meet lots of new ones and thank everyone who came to see our stall on Sunday.  We had prayed for sunshine and we got it.... mostly, although it occasionally felt like hurricane Irene was trying to lift the jewellery off the stall when a 'healthy breeze' whistled through the marquees!

We were straight back to the business of designing jewellery on Monday morning and we've got some super, super gorgeous new pieces to show you very soon!

x

Tie It...Wish It...Wear It...

...then your dreams will come true!

We hope you like our new sterling silver 'Make A Wish' bracelets.  We love the sentiment behind them and the cute charms and pretty pastel colours of the cord.  Tie them tight then make a wish and don't take them off.  Don't be too sad though when the cord finally wears through because that means your wish will come true!

We're busy preparing for The Big Party in the Park at Wilmslow High tomorrow from 10am to 6pm.  Our beautifully packaged 'Make A Wish' bracelets will be there along with all our usual gorgeous pieces so don't forget to stop by and say hi and spoil yourself!  We're keeping our fingers crossed for the sunshine because there's lots going on and it's going to be a great day. 

Hope to see you there!

x

Life full of chaos? Find some Inner Peace!

Just arrived on the website are our new Inner Peace bracelets.  These gorgeous stretch bracelets are all made from semi-precious turquoise, cream turquoise or mother of pearl with turquoise peace beads and finished off with our new branded sterling silver tag and sterling silver balls.  They look great on their own and fabulous worn together.

Jacy........meet Joe!

 
We're very excited to announce the launch of our men's jewellery range, Jacy & Joe!  Our inaugral piece is the fierce Blackbeard, a double wrapped black plaited leather bracelet with sterling silver skull bead, chunky end caps and our branded tag.  We love it, what do you think?

Split personality!



Jacy's view from the stall!

Jacy without Jools is a bit like apple pie without cream but that's how it was on Sunday when Jacy took our jewellery to Bramhall for a rugby club fun day and I did our regular stint at Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market.  The sun shone down on both of us - I think Jacy won hands down on the view but I had a lovely afternoon with regular 'neighbour', and now friend, Louise of the fab Retro-Rimella and it was great to meet new customers and see regulars returning too!

Our 'Faith' Jo-Jo ring





We debuted some of our new Jo-Jo rings at both venues and they were a big hit.  We absolutely love them and we're so glad our customers do too!

Our new branded tag

Other exciting news is that all our new jewellery will now carry our branded sterling silver tag!  We're thrilled about it and think they're super cute and a lovely addition to our pieces.  

We've ditched the kitsch!

Well not quite but what we have done is launch our brand new look website and give JJKitsch its very own site.  You can still find us at jacyandjools but if it's kitsch you're after never fear, just go to JJKitsch and you'll find all your favourite cute and quirky pieces.  We're hoping you'll like the new site, we love it!

Peace be with you!

We're super excited today because we've taken delivery of a package of gorgeous new charms from Thailand.  Amongst them are these beauties - now we just have to come up with the designs to match their amazingness! Can't wait!!