Working Hard...

Whew! My Etsy shop selkiecrochet is now up to 165 listings! I've a feeling that this is the fullest it's ever been - really I need to keep a record of stuff like this, but to be honest, I've never been that organised.

So at the moment I have

• 38 listings in my wristwarmers and cuffs section 
• 22 listings in my bath and beauty section
• 46 listings in my hats and headbands section
• 2 listings in my bags section
• 2 listings in my little beach pebbles section
• 15 listings in my beachcombing treasures section
• 2 listings in my supplies section
• 33 listings in my greetings cards section
• and 5 listings in my sale section 

 To date I've had 632 sales in my Etsy shop and my feedback rating is 363 (all five star apart from two four star reviews)

At the moment I'm still working on wrist warmers as I've sold quite a few pairs lately (in markets and in my shop) -- I'm trying to get some 'stock' for the Christmas markets locally. 

Last year, in the Waterville market I almost sold out of the crocodile stitch wrist warmers so I'm hoping that it might be the same this year -- hopefully the more I have to choose from, the more that might sell for me!

So this is what I've been making since my last blog update -- like I said, I've been busy!

all these ones are now listed in my Etsy shop. Hopefully later today I will have another pair of wrist warmers finished so that then I can start on a custom order for the lovely Mary Ruth :)

Confessions of a Yarn Addict...

Well we're just back from our Autumn trip to visit Peter's family and our friends in England - we had a great holiday but I only just realised after we got home that I didn't take any photos at all during our time over there; it's quite disappointing really but it was out of my head.

We were only away for a few days so it was quite a whirlwind of a trip but we managed to spend lots of time with my step-daughter and her boyfriend and also Peter's Mum. I hadn't see my mother in law since before I started back on the ferry this year and in that time she's sold her house and moved into a great retirement home (I actually worked there for nine years myself!) -- it was amazing to see the change (for the better) since she moved in.

We also fitted in a trip to Cheltenham to visit my wonderful friend Shirley and to Nottingham too to catch up with my old friends Michelle and Dominique (and to see Michelle's new pet rabbit)

Shirley and myself met up for lunch (thanks Shirl!) and then some serious wool shopping here wool shop in Nottingham . It had been quite a while since I had been in a proper wool shop and I'm afraid I did over-spend a little bit...

The next day I went to this great wool shop Woolwise , in Kidderminster (where we were staying). I'd intended to just do a ''top-up'' shop but I ended up buying LOTS more again.


If you ever want to see what over €350 worth of wools looks like take a look at these photos.... the yarns are all mixed up so I'm not sure exactly which ones I bought in which shop now.

In my (feeble) defence it is all lovely stuff and I will use it all up. The yarns to the right of the last photo are actually ones that I didn't buy myself -- they were a gift from Shirley and they are GORGEOUS!

Everyone really should check out Shirley's own  fab Etsy shop :) I am the proud owner of several of her pairs of socks as well as a set of knee and elbow warmers!

October

Well Autumn is here with a bang - I'm finished on the ferry and it's a really wintery rainy day today; I'm so grateful that I'm not working outdoors any longer!

This was the last photo I took on the ferry - really it's a shame it was such a grey end to the season when we've been so fortunate with the weather this season, but it could have been a whole lot worse so I'm not really complaining.

It feels kind of bizarre to be finished up for another winter - this was actually my ninth season there; it doesn't feel quite 'real' yet but I'm sure it will after a few days; I think it's always the same.

So now I'm technically unemployed I can focus on my lovely Etsy shop! I went to a craft fair yesterday :) It was the one in Portmagee as part of the Sea Shanty Festival that they hold every year. I'd always missed out on it thanks to my job on the ferry, but this year I finished work on the Friday evening so I was able to attend.

I'm so glad that I was able to go and take part -- there weren't a whole lot of other sellers compared to the markets in the Summer months and there wasn't really a HUGE crowd of people walking around but all the same I am very happy with the sales I made :)

Shannon (one of the other sellers) took this photo of me --I love all the colours on my table (and check out my great card display in the background!) I sold one headband, three pairs of wrist warmers, four hats and 13 of the greetings cards!

When I got back home I had to go through my 'shop' and reactivate the listings for the items that hadn't sold at the craft fair but shortly afterwards I noticed that several of my Etsy listings had disappeared...it turns out that someone bought SEVEN pairs of my wrist warmers as I was reactivating the listings! I'm thinking it must be someone who is doing their Christmas shopping early but isn't that wonderful??

I'm now up to a grand total of 631 sales in my Etsy shop - I guess 700 sales is my next 'goal' -- it would be nice if I made that before Christmas or the end of the year but I can't honestly see it happening as things can be a bit 'slow' in my Etsy shop and things tend to happen there in their own time ;)