July Update

The time has come for me to make a bit of an update on the last month; first of all - and most importantly - it looks like my health problems are all in hand and hopefully everything will be alright from now on.

Since I last posted on here I had my first ever 'craft fair' - well, we had a table at the Valentia Island Scallop Festival, it wasn't specifically a craft fair but it was the closest I've been to one so far.

It was a GREAT experience and was quite successful too - I had twelves sales in total (though two of them were just pairs of my old knitting needles. It was tiring but well worth it, and I would like to do another fair at some stage - possibly coming up to Christmas.



We had a great location - the video (if it loads ok) is taken from our stall :) The sun shone and everyone was happy, it really was a great day.





Things are getting really busy now at work (it's that time of year now, things will be bonkers for another month yet!) so I haven't had much time for making items, or listing the ones that I had already made; which meant that things have been very slow in my Etsy shop -- not the end of the world but I am delighted to have reached my 97th sale!!

I'm offering 10% all listed prices til the end of July to try and bump up my sales a bit -- not that many people want to be thinking about cold weather and warm woolies when it's the middle of July...

Oh I almost forgot - I'm making a donation to the April's Army charity shop on Etsy again this month (my second time!) last month it was a pair of my black and white wrist warmers and this time it's three packs of my little cotton scrubbies. I so hope they sell! It's so cool to be able to donate something to someone who really needs a hand.

Update

Oh my! So much has happened since the last time I wrote here..

First of all my health has been REALLY bad - I had a procedure carried out in hospital and then managed to get an infection not only in the wound site but also in my kidneys (I've never been one to do things by halves). A trip to Casualty left me with THREE different antibiotics, which then really knocked my body about - I wasn't sure what was caused by such a massive dose of antibiotics and what was due to the infections but it was truly awful.

I think it was the most ill I have ever been, or that I can remember anyway; but I have come through the other side of it and am going back to work on Wednesday this week after having to have taken two weeks (two weeks!) off. Sadly I was too ill to really appreciate the time off work, though in the last couple of days I have been well enough to be able to concentrate on my crochet again - yay!

I've been keeping myself busy making simple things, like the cotton facial scrubbies. It's great to be making something again; I knew I was starting to feel better when I started taking up my hook and yarn again :)





I'm hoping that these will sell well for me when I take part in a craft fair next month...fingers crossed everyone please!

I had a 'custom' order for a bag since I last wrote on here - it turned out really well and is now in Singapore!The yarn is a bamboo and cotton mix and is definitely something I would use again - it's a beautiful shade of blue and has a lovely texture. The customer was happy with it, which is super great!



I've had a total of 91 sales from my Etsy shop - which I'm delighted with - inching closer and closer to the 'magic' target of 100 sales! I've had a total of five sales to Australia now - which is just fab; and the majority continue to go to America.


These wristwarmers are my favourites in my shop at the moment - I love bright rainbow colours so much!


I'll be listing some new wristwarmers today (hopefully) and I'm nearly finished a natural cotton bag with coloured hearts so that will be up soon. I'm working hard to try and get a fair amount of 'stock' ready for the craft fair in a few weeks time. It's hard to know what, if anything, will sell so I'm trying to get a bit of everything in stock!

Wool, wool and yet more wool!!!

{I'm going to try and 'blog' just once a month as I think that might be somewhat achievable for me rather than try and do it more often...so apologies for yet another rambling post...}

Having told myself very firmly that I would not be buying any more yarn I succumbed last month and ended going to Kerry Woolen Mills on the way back from Killarney! I bought three skeins each of lovely denim blue, raspberry, and the same bright red that I made my original ruffledy handbag from. So far I've just used the denim blue to make another of those bags and it's listed in my Etsy shop.



Having told myself that THAT was the last yarn I'd be buying, I then somehow decided to buy more of the natural cotton from Springwools (and while I was at it I thought I'd better buy some more of that lovely Tivoli black/white yarn I make wrist warmers from...)

I like to have these wrist warmers in my shop - they have always sold quite well (I think they are gorgeous, the kind of thing you would wear with pretty much anything)and I might have a local customer for a pair(fingers crossed).


This is the last item I've listed in my shop...I really like the colours on this - that mid-blue is gorgeous! The cotton bags seem to sell quite well - I really like them myself (well, I must confess, that I only make things that I like!) - the next one I'm making I think will just have plain 'natural' flowers on so it will be quite subtle!





My final influx of yarn came as a total surprise - a wonderful gift totally out of the blue! I'm still speechless over it; the kindness of someone is so touching. It was a present from the lovely Kathy, come over all the way from Colorado with a bag full of gorgeous yarn just for me! I am the luckiest person ever!! I absolutely ADORE the colours of both yarns - the blue/green is so much reminiscent of the sea and I love the funkiness of the pinks/purples in the other one -- I feel some very special projects coming on!!

Sigh...

ok so it's been ages and ages since I updated this blog again... I don't think I'm a 'natural blogger' but it's good to have this blog all the same so I can look back and see how things are progressing (or not!)

I just finished this bag yesterday so I must get it listed on Etsy, we took the photos earlier this afternoon - it's so hot here at the moment, like a proper summer's day, so it was just perfect for the beach.




I love the colour of the hearts on this bag. That's the last one made from that big batch of 'craft cotton' from Springwools, the bags seem popular so I'm thinking about ordering another pack of 10 balls, and I can get making more of them...

Things have been very quiet in my Etsy shop but I think that's partially due to the time of year (not everyone wants to buy woolly wristwarmers etc in the middle of a heatwave...it's also probably because now I'm working on the ferry I don't have time to sit down and post on the Etsy forums etc.

However, I did have my 73rd Etsy sale recently - this pair of wrist warmers in mohair and silk mix for the lovely Brittany in Utah! They turned out really well, I love the longer length and it works very well with that yarn - I will definitely be making more pairs at this length, though the wool just is heart breakingly slow to work with as it is so fine.


I'm making another one of those bags, but from multi-colour cotton this time - Peter took some photos of me working on it this afternoon - how lucky am I to be able to sit down on the beach and work in peace? - though I think you can hear my skin sizzling in the heat in the second photo! I forgot to put suncream on so we didn't stay there as long as I'd have liked to, just half an hour or so.

Something for Myself

Before I start please take a look here http://http://cherryblossomtattoophotography.blogspot.com/2011/04/sweet-etsy-goodness-selkie-crochet.html if that works out ok it should take you to the wonderful CherryBlossonTattoo's blog where she was kind enough to publish an interview with me this week (and included loads of the photos - Peter will be pleased!)

and now on to something a bit more mundane..


This isn't really a great photo but you get the idea - I made myself one of those cotton bags to go with the lovely Boden dress I've bought for Gráinne's Communion at the end of May.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - the colours seem to go quite well really. It isn't a perfect match but I wouldn't want it to be PERFECT..I like how the green is slightly different.

I must admit that I'd decided on those colours for a bag I'd sell, and thought that they would go well together and then all of a sudden I remembered the dress so I decided that I'd keep this one for myself for a change :)

I don't have much in the line of cotton left now - only enough for one more bag! and I'm running out of colours for the embellishments too. I'm in two minds about buying another 10 pack of the cotton yarn from Springwools - they do seem to be popular. I had originally thought that these would be something to sell in the village market in the summer but I only have one left in my etsy shop!

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

I'm so happy today - while I was sleeping I had three sales on Etsy, which brings my 'total sales' over there to seventy! Yippee! I would have never thought that would be possible when I set up my shop last year - I really am delighted and touched that it's been such a success.

I sold two of the balls of Rowan kidsilk yarn to someone in Queensland, Australia - so that's a total of three stickers in Australia on my map! and the other sale is the cotton beach bag with the blue hearts on it - going to a lady in America.

I'm just waiting to hear back from the lady about the bag - she's bought it but asked if I could put a zipper on it --- so I've replied to say I could put a wooden button and loop on and would she like me to do this (I sent a photo of Rosie's bag, with the same on it) - I need to hear back from her first before I can post it out.

I'm really happy with how Rosie's custom made bag turned out - it is basically one of the natural cotton beach bags, but it has hearts and flowers all over it in different colours of cotton. It looks really summery :)

I have enough of that cotton left for two more beach bags, I just started on one yesterday though now I'm back at work I don't have so much time for crocheting! - I think I might put the button fastener on the other ones as standard. I have so many nice buttons in my sewing box.

I've ordered a big cone of natural cotton from Springwools yesterday - it's 1kg in weight! I'm not sure if I'll make bags from it or if it's soft enough I thought I might make a couple of these shawls from it...I think it would look very nice in a natural colour!

Bag Lady!

All I've been making just recently are bags! I'm in the middle of listing a couple of the cotton 'beach' bags on Etsy but we also took some new (better!) photos of my two woollen bags listed in my shop - I've edited the photos in and have relisted both of them. I would so love to sell one of those ruffled bags!

If I sell them then I would make more of them, but in the meantime I'm waiting for these two to sell...sigh!

I've just listed these two cotton bags in my shop...


As well as these bags I've nearly finished a bag for Rosie from the island - I must take a couple of photos of that when it's completed too.