Here comes the Summer!

How about this for a lovely summery start to this blog update? :) I just love this time of year so much - we've had a run of a few days of really glorious weather so I've been busy sitting outdoors with my crochet whenever I can and trying to make the most of it. I'm off work today and I've got another 'garden' day penciled in once I've finished on here and got the few bits of housework done out of the way.

I thought I'd add a few photos of what I've been working on since my last post on this blog - the hat at the top is made from my massive 2kg cone of Studio Donegal wool -- that wool just went on for ever and ever! I was able to make seven flower headbands, three beanie hats and nine slouchy hats and there's still enough of it left for one more hat (if not another headband too!) Next time I ever get a 'wholesale' order for several hats I would definitely buy the wool in bulk like that - it was really intimidating to see how big the cone was when it arrived and I felt like I was never going to use it all up but it was a great way to bulk-buy wool.

I still must get around to listing those purple crocodile stitch wristers - writing the listings and taking photos of the items is something I really don't enjoy half as much as actually making the items themselves! The cotton bath mitt is to replace a similar one that just sold (to the lovely Mary Ruth in America), and I've sold some scrubbies just recently too so have remade and relisted them too.

Talking about sales in my Etsy shop, I can't quite believe it but I am not just SEVEN sales away from my 600th! Can you believe it? My very first sale was on the 11th July, 2010 - if you look at my profile on Etsy it says that I opened my shop there in March that year, but it wasn't til the end of June/start of July that I actually started to list items on there -- my first ever sale was a pair of wrist warmers  (to my best friend Carrie, up in Northern Ireland) and it's nice to think that four years later, I'm still making and selling pretty much the same things :)

I'd really love it if I managed to make the big 600 sales benchmark by the 11th July this year but things seem to have slowed down in my shop recently so it could go either way -- I'm not really going to be that upset if it doesn't happen by that date; these things happen when they happen and there's no point in worrying about it! 

My day-job on the ferry is starting to get busy now - last weekend was a bank holiday in the UK and this weekend is a bank holiday here -- but the weather has just been so glorious that even when we're busy it's still lovely.

 I just LOVE it whenever we have vintage car rallies on the ferry! The cream car is a Hummer from 1924!

..and this is my first full load of the season (the first of many)

Natural Rose ;)

Well it's only the 3rd of May and I'm already managing to update my little blog for the month - I'm really trying to get in the habit of updating little and often :)

I thought it's been a while since I posted a photo of myself - I absolutely loathe having my photograph taken but I wanted to record the fact that my hair is now all natural in colour! About a year and a half ago I decided to stop dying my hair and let it grow in naturally - so this is 'me'. I do have mixed feelings about it as it is greying (especially in my fringe) but it's part of me and I won't be going back to putting nasty chemicals on my scalp again :)

My hair isn't naturally this straight - this is just after having it cut in the hair salon and was the cut  got rid of all the residual dye on the ends.

In Etsy related news I've decided to switch on 'direct checkout' in my shop - which means that I can now accept any credit card, debit card etc as well as Etsy gift cards. I do still take PayPal as well but I've been wondering if by not having direct checkout I've been hampering the progress of my shop...it's got to be worth a try and if it's a total flop then I can always revert back to just PayPal again. I've only had it for a few days but was very optimistic about getting more sales --- and of course since I turned it on I haven't had a single solitary sale at all! It's early days though, and I guess this time of year can be a pretty quiet year in my shop so I'm not stressing about it.

I haven't added any new listings since I last posted on here as I've been busy making my wool hats for Barbara the artist and her art class - I must take a photo of them for my next blog update; I've actually lost count as to what number hat I'm making right now, I think it's number six or seven (the order is for ten hats) - if there's enough of the wool left over I might make one for myself even though I'm not really a 'hat' person.

And now for the 'life and other stuff' news....

Poor old Henry still has a bad paw; it was healing up really well and he was able to put his weight back on it yet again but then it started to bleed again - it feels like it'll never be gone at this stage! So we're back to taking him back to the beach so that we can let the healing salt water do its magic. I really love this photo of my husband with Henry.

here are a few of my most recent beach combing finds, including this amazing piece of carved wood - I would love to know where it came from and how it ended up on the beach here.

 And these glasses made me smile - I will be posting them off (with lots of other bits and pieces) for the artist Jo Atherton to make into ''Flotsam Weaving'' flotsamweaving

 Look who was watching me while I was beach combing the other day!

 I thought it was an otter at first - and then realised that there were two of them ...before finally realising that they were a pair of seal pups! Isn't it just wonderful? It was the most amazing thing to see - and they were SO curious that they followed me - swimming and frolicking in the tide while I walked along the shore. I spent at least half an hour watching them before they decided to swim away - it was just magical and one of those very special memories.