Selkie takes on the world!

Yay - Peter brought me back some small stickers yesterday so I've just sat down and put each of my Etsy sales up on the map!!

The place with most sales is North Carolina, with California in second place and then Utah.

I am really amazed to see it all up on the map properly - it's so wonderful to have had so many sales at all, but so many international ones is just wonderful!

I love how I have one lonely sale in Australia!

Love Heart Bag

Remember how I mentioned making a plain cotton beach bag yesterday? Well it's all finished now :) It looks nicer in real life - the hearts are a sort of 'chalky' shade of pink (if that makes sense?)

I won't be listing it on Etsy until after Peter gets back from England, as he is my photographer. I really like it - I must admit that I'm happiest making things that I like rather than what I think might sell..it might explain why I haven't had a zillion sales, but I would rather make things that I love and if they sell then that's a bonus!!

I thought I'd include a photo of 'SPRING' from our garden - the buds are just starting to burst on the sycamores!



Next crochet project is another beach bag - not sure what I'll sew on this one when it's done...I've got lots of different cottons in different colours...I think I prefer the hearts to the flowers, but that just might be today and I'll feel differently tomorrow!

Ta-daaaaaaaaaaa! they are all finished - I am so in love with them.

I'm making cotton beach bags now for a change! - just plain unbleached cotton but I thought I'd put some cotton love hearts on this one when it's all finished. I'm JUST up at the handles part now so might get it finished tonight - then tomorrow will be 'heart' day :)

Rainbow Wrist Warmers - part two

I am so in love with this pair!

I've put a shell edging (which I love too)on the tops so took a couple more photos (front and back) to show my customer :)



I've just started on the second one but am too tired to keep going so I'll hopefully get it mostly finished tomorrow, depending on how things go!

Oh gosh, in other crochet news, I got a 10 pack of 100g balls of unbleached cotton in the post today from Springwools AND spent over €80 in yarns from the shop in Killarney.

I don't know if I will ever actually make a 'profit' from all this, as as soon as I get some money from sales, it just gets spent on more and more yarn.

I have ZERO willpower!!!

Rainbow Wrist Warmers

Just HAD to add photos of this fab yarn I got from Springwools yesterday -- it's going on a pair of wristwarmers and is just beautiful, totally my cup of tea...I bought four balls of it so there should be enough to make myself a pair (hopefully, even if it means that I have to make my ones a little shorter than I'd prefer...it's just gorgeous yarn.

I love bright colurs and I love my wristwarmers (if I say so myself) - I don't know how many pairs I've made for myself, it must be nearly 10 pairs by now..but each pair are different - colours, textures, edgings etc...

I so love randomly self-striping wool!!!

I've just joined up two small 'blocks' of my granny squares blanket - must take some photos of it sometime though it doesn't look like much and is looking VERY wonky...hopefully once I get the edging on the whole thing it will even it out a bit??! I've never made one before so I'm really not sure...

I've just ordered a 10 pack of plain unbleached cotton so I can make some more of the beach bags (which I'll sew some of the crochet flowers/hearts on to jazz them up a bit I guess) -- I'm hoping that they might sell well in the summer.

I've been inspired by Carrie to try and take a table sometime in the village market in the summer months; it all depends on when it falls on my day off from work but I thought it might be worth a try a few times in the Summer. I can put my Etsy shop on vacation for a day and then if anything sells I can just delete the listing.

I can never think of a 'title'

Yay, I had my 65th Etsy sale since my last blog post!!! It was just a ball of wool from my 'destash' box but I'm happy nonetheless. I dream of hitting the magic 100 sales, I might reach that by Christmas if I'm very very lucky I guess...no point in even thinking about it though, if it happens then it happens!

I've just listed the red multicolour cotton beach bag now and have a pair of wrist warmers to list later on today or tomorrow - photos already taken, it's a FAB yarn, part mohair and part polyamide, very unusual and great colours...aren't they pretty!?


I'm not sure what to make next - I do love making wrist warmers but I will have 35 pairs listed once I get these pink ones up and I guess I should try and add some other bits and pieces. Wrist warmers are kind of addictive to make though, I do love them!

I'm still working on my 'grannies gone wild' blanket for ourselves but that's a LONG TERM project I think (I am so dreading sewing in all the loose ends in each square!)

Cotton on...

Here's a better (?!) photo of my 'magic' rock - it really is just the best place to be :) The weather has been so great the last few days, so lovely and mild and hardly a breeze of wind.

I've finished the bag you can see me making in the beach photos - Peter took some photos of it the other day and I must go and get it listed on Etsy - it's pretty simple really but practical and the colours are bright and cheery, hopefully someone else will like it too.



Fingers crossed I might have a local buyer for the cotton bag I'd made with the applique flowers on - Peter's taking it in to work tomorrow with him.

I seem to be concentrating on my cotton yarns at the moment - now I've finished that reddish bag I'm going to make a couple of those clothes peg bags from cotton in other colours. I have one listed in my Etsy shop, which has been there since last year, so I'm not really expecting the other ones to sell on their either, but they would have a better chance (hopefully!) of selling in the local market in the summer months. We'll see...I would make beach bags with the yarn but I don't have enough of it for that, so pegbags it is!

What a Fab Day

I was thinking about sitting out in the garden this afternoon but in the end I changed my mind and headed off to the beach instead. Oh I'm so glad that I did, it's only a 5-10 minute walk away but you sometimes just take it for granted.

Anyway, I took my camera, crochet and my bag with me and did a bit of beachcombing at the same time (please see my shiny new blog http://selkie-beachcombingblog.blogspot.com/ ooh I finally got the linky thing to work!)

I found the world's best crocheting site EVER today - the tide must have pulled the rocks/stones out from around it as I never remember seeing it there before but it is fab..

I really need to get Peter to take a few photos of me sitting on it so I can get the full effect on camera...because it's kind of scooped out so there's even somewhere for you to rest your feet (for those of us with little short legs!)



This is what I was making down on the beach today - a cotton beach bag - though I'm not sure if I'll have quite enough of the yarn to make it, but we'll see. I can always rip it out and make something else.

Update

First of all -- big big thanks to the wonderful Carrie for giving my blog a bit of a facelift - I love it!! Hugs and kisses xxxx

I know I'm not going to be the world's best blogger in the world but I'm going to try and post at least once a month; that will hopefully be a reasonable target.

I bought a load more yarn in Killarney recently - I now have three great big boxes full of it -- all sorts of different things to try out, though I don't know when I ever will get round to using it all.

I've even started listing my 'destash' stuff in my Etsy shop (at cheaper than RRP) and it's been a bit of a success so far - and helps keep Peter from muttering about how 'wool is taking over the whole house'




I've just listed two different shades of Rowan Kidsilk Spray - pebble and medici (kind of coffee and cream, and shades of blue) so we'll see how they do. Hopefully they will catch someone's eye...

I've had a grand total of 64 Etsy sales now - which is brilliant though it would be FAB if I could just reach 65 by the end of this month. It's a year this month since I registered with Etsy, though I didn't put anything in my shop until May or June I think.

Peter's put up a massive map of the world on the wall in here and we're going to get some tiny stickers so I can record just where each of my items has gone to - it's quite exciting really in a geeky kind of way! I've even sold one pair of wrist warmers to someone in Australia now :)

I somehow think I won't become a millionaire from Etsy, but that isn't what it's all about (for me at least) - I get ridiculously happy when I have a sale...that feeling never seems to wear off. I love it, but especially adore it when you hear back from someone either via the feedback system on Etsy, or through emails or private messages on Etsy that they like what they've bought from me.

I've yet to sell any of my organic cotton scrubbies but I love them and have great faith that someone else will too! They're such a fab idea - very gentle on the skin and enviromentally friendly to boot, which is always a good thing.


I've been busy over the weekend and have ordered 100 business cards (!!!)and another book of stickers - all from Moo (oh I love that company but I wish they were cheaper!)I think I'm being a bit ambitious with the 100 business cards but you have to have faith in yourself - if you don't then no one else is going to do it for you. I've easily sold over 100 items by now anyway - what with Etsy items, things I've sold locally or given to friends and family.

The latest thing I've finished is this unbleached cotton beach bag with cotton applique flowers - I was just going to leave it plain but it looked like it needed 'something' and you can never have too many crochet flowers! - you might notice that the flowers are in the same cotton as the scrubbies - I love purple and pink!

This is a bit of a sneak preview as I haven't listed it on Etsy or my facebook page yet...oooh a world exclusive, ha ha. I think it's quite cute.




I love taking the listing photos down on the beach - it's so much more beautiful than our garden is this time of year, and you don't end up with chickens or stuff in the background!

I'm loving this time of year now that things are starting to get spring-y and I can work outside, either in the garden or down on the beach (if I wrap up well) - you can't beat crochet al fresco! I quite like the idea of including a photo of me making things in my Etsy listings - I love where I live and I like to share that when I can.