1st February

Happy St. Bridget's Day - today's the day where we traditionally bring in something green from the garden to symbolise the start of the coming Spring, but unfortunately we are in the middle of yet another storm so I won't be venturing forth into the garden in search of green buds.

So what's happened in the last month or so since I wrote a proper update (last night's one doesn't count)?

Things are going SO well in my Etsy shop -- January always has felt like the month where I start feeling ''I wonder why I am doing this?'' and I always try to be brave and think of the quiet spell as a chance to make new stock, but it's always a slump with very few sales. Last January I had the grand total of two sales all month but I'm very happy to say that this January I had 19 sales - with a total of 29 items sold!

Hopefully February will continue this trend but even if it doesn't I'm just thrilled that January wasn't such a bad month at all for me this time.

Last month I started to make boot cuffs/boot toppers- it's something I'd never even thought about but I got a request from someone on Etsy to make crocodile stitch boot cuffs and thought 'well why not?'

 The blue ones were the 'proto-type' ones that I made when I was working out the stitches and the pattern - I've since ripped them out but I think the colours work well for this yarn. 

 ....these purply ones were the first pair I made (for my customer on Etsy) - I'm really happy with how they turned out but I took such awful photos...she was very happy with them in real life though so that's what really matters.

...and these grey ones are the ones I've just finished in the last couple of days - they were a custom order too, for the lovely Jessie in Canada.  I really like how they turned out and I think I'm getting better at photographing them too.

I'm happy to make more of them but they are something I am only going to make as a custom order, as everyone's legs are different. I might look into some different patterns for them too....so watch this space...

Well since I last updated on here I ordered some more wools from Springwools - they were having a sale so I couldn't resist: and then a few others fell into my virtual basket while I was browsing (that happens a lot to me!) - but I don't seem to still have a photo of my order :( It's disappointing as I usually take photos - I'm not sure if I posted one on my facebook page or not.

But since then I have made myself a promise to TRY not to go mad with buying more and more wool - I need to save some of my 'takings' from my Selkie shop, and really I think six big boxes full of different wool is more than enough for anyone. It's so hard for me, I get so tempted by all the new shades/brands....sigh...

Other stuff to update on --- Chocolette's coffee/chocolate shop in town have decided that they are going to concentrate more on the cafe/chocolate side of the shop so they are stopping selling my crochet and my cards :( It's a shame but they have to do what's right for them; I'm not sure about approaching a shop about selling my stuff now - I do have a load of cards, so maybe I will try somewhere for them; we'll see.

The plus side of them stopping selling my stuff is that I got a whole load of stock to relist in my Etsy shop! There's always a lining to every cloud if you look for it. So now my Etsy shop is up to 132 listings :) I think this is the most stocked it's ever been. Definitely the more listings you have in your shop the more chance you have of people finding your shop and hopefully buying something!

Just a couple of days ago was the 23rd anniversary of Peter and I meeting for the first time :) To celebrate this I decided to run a sale in my shop - everything has a whopping 23% off til next Wednesday! It's been very successful so far; I think it's the biggest discount I've had to date in my shop but it's bringing in some much needed cash to my paypal account.

Unrelated to Etsyland but something big in my life has been my beachcombing - it's my other big passion. We quite often find bits and pieces on the beach that have obviously come in from America/Canada etc but the other day I had a brainwave and thought to post on the 'Maine Lobster Boats' facebook page with a link to my beachcombing page - it's kind of skyrocketed since then and the up-shot is that we've been able to trace back several of the buoys and tags right back to the fishermen and boats that they have come from originally.

I'm waiting for a few more photos and more info on a couple of them but once I get it all I think I'll do a post on here as well as my beachcombing page :)