500!!!

oh my ears and whiskers, I did it! 500 Etsy sales as of this afternoon!! big big thanks to everyone who has bought items from me, shared my photos/listings/pages etc and for just everything!

 Some more photos of Christmas at our house - I LOVE candles, and especially at this time of year when it just seems to be perpetually dark and dull.

The big heart shaped tea-light holder is in our sitting room window - it's so pretty!

 Christmas Day was actually a calm, sunny day - lovely and crisp, with snow on the far mountains. It was so nice out that Peter, Henry and I went for a walk along the golf links beach in the early afternoon - after breakfast (brioche and bucks fizz) and presents down at my Mum and Dads' house and before we had our dinner :)

I can finally post a photo on here of a very special present I made for the lovely Carrie <3 p="">

I made it using a pattern that I found in Simply Crochet magazine (though they used the squares for a blanket or scarf I think) - I really like the pattern - they are still 'granny squares' but with a bit of a twist!)

The yarn is lovely 100% baby alpaca from King Cole (via the lovely Springwools!) - you really need to be able to touch it to appreciate how luxurious it is!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

I thought I'd start off with a couple of festive photos! I'm busy today with a looong list of jobs to get done while Peter's out at work and the house is quiet, but I'm taking a break and have made myself a coffee so I can sit down and write what will probably be my last blog-update of 2013!

Big big news is that I am now only three sales away from having had 500 Etsy sales - I still can't quite get my head around that figure...I doubt that I'll reach that goal before the end of the year, but to be honest I'm not really that bothered about WHEN it actually happens, it's just a huge achievement whenever it comes around!

I just had a look at my 'shop statistics' the other day and I have actually done better on Etsy this year compared to the last twelve months. I need to remind myself of this kind of thing every so often, as I can get so bogged down in comparing myself to other people and shops on there, when really I should try to just focus on myself and making my own shop bigger and better {easier said than done, but one day I might just get there!}

I treated myself to a big order from BlackSheepWools last month - it was so big that it had to come in two packages :)

I've used up some of it already - making hats with the Rico Galaxy, King Cole Moorland and both lots of Wendy Celtic.

I also ordered some bits and pieces from PurpleLindaCrafts but had them delivered to Peter's Mum (in England) as I was meant to be going over there earlier this month, but I got sick so Peter had to go instead. I really have zero will-power!

I've kind of been on a spending spree recently but this is the time of year when I have more selkie-money so it makes sense to buy stock/supplies now rather than in the middle of the summer or whenever.

So in this spirit, I've bought 100 greetings cards from Moo :) I've included some new photos rather than keeping getting the same old ones over and over again - I thought I'd try selling ones with close-up photos of my crochet and I just love this photo from Valentia.

I'm selling the 'crochet' cards individually or as a set of four (in the photo above) - hopefully they will sell for me :) People are always saying how neat my work is, and I loved the colours so I chose those four as a 'test' to see how they sell.

I also bought 100 more business cards from Moo - they were having a sale and it always makes sense to stock up on that kind of thing when you can get a bargain.

I've used up yet more of my lovely wools from our Italian holiday -- the hat is a 60/40 blend of wool and silk. Oh I wish I had bought more of this instead of just one skein...

...and this is the second of the mohair blend with sequins which I bought there too...happy sigh... I still have lots left in my 'Italian' bag so keep watching for updates and photos!

Right, that's nearly the end of my second coffee so I'm going to finish up on the computer for now and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2014.

Italian Wool :)

I thought it might be a good idea to show how I've used some of the wools I bought on our travels in Italy...

These are all made with 100% wool and are so soft -- they've all sold apart from the black/grey fleck hat and I sold one of the cream wool headbands but have made another one to replace it.

And then I made these....

It was my first time using a wool with tiny (soft!) sequins in it and I just love how they turned out. I've started to make a pair in the cream too but have put them on the back burner while I concentrate on things in my order book. The creamy white version has little gold sequins and looks equally yummy (though I do prefer the blue version personally)

I've still got some more stuff in my 'Italian Stash' so watch this space in the New Year for other bits and pieces

December Update!

Wow, well another month and here we go again!

I've got dinner in the oven (fennel and onion pie though I'm sure it has a fancier name than that in the cookery book) so am trying to update on here while that's cooking.

I am meant to be going to the Royal tomorrow for their craft fair (Santy will be there too!) - it's usually one of my favourite fairs of the year but I've cancelled my table as I have the mankiest cold and don't fancy either infecting half the island with it, or sitting around and shivering all afternoon. It's really disappointing as that was going to be my last one of the year but I'm also meant to be going over to visit Peter's Mum in England later this week and I don't want to bring my cold over there :(

I did two craft fairs in November, one in Portmagee and the usual Christmas one in the Tech, just down the road. The Tech one is my favourite of the whole year; there's always a lovely atmosphere and it really makes me feel Christmassy.

The two fairs were kind of like night and day. I only sold three hats and two pairs of wrist warmers at the Portmagee one - I was happy enough with it but thought that I'd have done better as hopefully people would be getting ready to buy Christmas pressies. Sadly I also had quite a few ''oh I could make this'' comments from people who didn't even barely glance at my items; I don't know why on earth people do this --- it's so soul destroying and mean :(

Anyway, I dusted myself off and braved the one at the Tech, not really hoping for the best but wow was I wrong! I sold SIX pairs of the crocodile stitch wristers! Six pairs!! Also another 5 pairs of 'regular' wrist warmers, 4 of my little wrist cuffs, 2 headbands, 2 hats, 4 cards (yay!) and one of the little sea shell bottles! Phew!!

It was by far and away the best craft market I've ever had; and it was weird because the lady sitting next to me only sold two hats -- and her stuff was lovely. I guess you just never know what people will want on the day.

So my Etsy shop is looking a bit decimated, I 'only' have 116 listings on there; I think the Christmas 'rush' has passed now but I'm still desperately hoping that I will reach my target of 500 sales soon. It'd be lovely if I made it by the end of the year but I won't exactly be losing sleep over it if I don't.

I'm up to 482 sales on there, which I can't grumble about!

To celebrate my successful craft fair in Waterville last weekend I'm afraid I gave in to my impulse/addiction and splurged on wool! I've ordered from BlackSheepWools again and PurpleLinda Crafts too - and I think I'm gearing up for a Springwools order while I'm at it though that hasn't happened yet! I really don't have any will-power when it comes to wool but I guess there could be worse things I could be spending my money on ;)

I just found out this week that one of my favourite yarns is discontinued :( It's the lovely ''Freedom Spirit dk' by Twilleys of Stamford, and is a really good quality soft pure wool which I've been using for my crochet for AGES. I'm so upset that it's gone - I must try and scout about on the internet and see if I can buy up a few balls before it's totally all sold and gone. The above headbands are all made with it; I love the colours and it's great soft wool too :(

I only have one of the hats left that I'd made with my gorgeous Italian wools - I might do a separate blog post about how I've started using up that yarn as it would be nice to have them all together... Every time one of those hats has sold I kick myself for not having bought more of the wool..but we were at our full luggage capacity with RyanAir :(

 Oh and I must do a blog post about my adventures in spinning! Watch out world the spinning selkie approacheth! I've put that on hold til after Christmas though as I have a few orders on my 'books' and am making a surprise Christmas pressie for someone - so that will be enough to keep me busy for a while yet I think.