My First NDC Creations Event | A Storm in the Derbyshire Peak District

3 min read

My phone buzzed somewhere on the motorway, four hours from home, my husband driving and my laser engraver wedged in among boxes of stock in the back. It was an email from the event organiser: the forecast had changed. Heavy winds, 40–60mph, expected overnight — right where we were headed, a two-day event in Tansley, a quiet village on the edge of the Derbyshire Peak District.

On the road to Tansley — packed to the roof, phone buzzing with the weather warning.

Getting to this point had already been a small victory. When I first started trying to book events for NDC Creations, most organisers wanted photos of your stall setup before they’d even consider you. I didn’t have any yet — I was brand new, and my “setup” was still just an idea. So when I finally got accepted somewhere, it wasn’t local. It was four hours away. But it was a yes, and after eight months of building this business from nothing, I wasn’t about to turn it down.

We took the wind warning seriously. On the way, we made a detour to a B&Q and bought steel pegs — on top of the four sandbags I already carry everywhere for the gazebo. If British weather has taught me anything, it’s that you can never be over-prepared. We camped overnight near the venue and were up early the next morning to set up for day one.

Day one was rainy and windy from the start. My biggest worry wasn’t me — it was my laser engraver, an xTool F2, which absolutely cannot get damp. So we improvised: we reversed the car into the gazebo, boot open, and I sat on the floor of the boot with my legs folded under me, using stacked boxes as a table. My laser engraver sat on top, and from that slightly ridiculous setup, I took orders and engraved gifts all day while the wind tested every guy rope on that gazebo.

Day one — the gazebo holding steady, stock laid out and ready for the first customers.

It held. Just about. Through a full day of rain and gusts, my little steel-pegged, sandbagged gazebo stood its ground, and a few customers still came, still waited, still watched their names and messages get engraved in real time.

The night was a different story. By the next morning, the gazebo hadn’t survived — battered flat by the wind overnight.

What was left of it the next morning.

It could have been the end of the event for me. But the organiser, seeing what had happened, kindly offered me a spot inside the marquee for day two. Crisis averted, and honestly, one of the moments that’s stuck with me most from this whole summer — a stranger simply being generous when it mattered.

Day two — back in business inside the marquee.

That trip to Tansley was the first stop of a summer spent travelling the UK in a normal family car packed with a gazebo, stock, and a laser engraver, chasing the chance to do what I love in front of real people instead of a screen. It nearly ended before it began. Instead, it taught me that this business — like that gazebo — is more resilient than it looks.

Next up: the rest of the summer tour, and what I learned about setting up a stall that can survive anything the British weather throws at it.