Pretty Flowers :)

I thought I'd try and write my blog a bit more often now that I'm not so busy with work and other bits and pieces in my life so here we are, only the 6th of November and this is my SECOND blog post of the month! What's coming over me??!

So anyway, these are some of my beloved orchids! I always thought that orchids were something that would be really hard to grow and take care of: that once they had flowered you may as well throw them away as they would never flower again (unless you did some super-dooper feeding regime) --- but I've had most of mine for nearly a year now and some of them are already flowering for a second time! All this without any special care or feeding or whatever. All I do is to water them with the water from the dehumidifier (whenever I remember!) - I think they are just happy on that windowsill so I haven't tried to move them or do anything with them to tempt fate.

The third photo is one that I just bought yesterday; I saw it in M&S and thought ''oooh that looks unusual'' and bought it as a treat to myself. Hopefully it will be as happy there as the other ones are - I've got two of the old ones flowering right now (and the flowers literally last for weeks!) and then yesterday I noticed that another of the old ones has a new shoot coming on an old flower stalk - so eventually that will flower again for me too. I can't remember what colour flowers that one has so that's kind of exciting - I'll just have to wait and see.

I've bought myself four new amarylises this year and of course now I can't remember which is which - but that's part of the fun. Three of them are 'double' versions and I think the fourth one is plain white but I'm probably wrong...

Rainy Days and Mondays...

sad song  (click on the link) - when I was down on the beach yesterday I had this song going round my head (thanks to the weather!) so I thought I'd share it in here too as this is kind of my own personal headspace too.

Anyway...I went down to the beach yesterday with Peter to take some photos of the bags I'd just finished making as I needed to get them listed  -- I finished the wool ruffled one a while ago but was slow to get it photographed and listed (how I HATE writing listings!) but the love heart ones were just finished yesterday as a custom order so I was keen to get them online. The pink one is just so cute - it's for a little seven year old girl!


luckily the weather wasn't looking TOO showery so after we'd taken the photos Peter headed home and I headed off for some beach combing.

For the first time ever I took an umbrella with me (I was SO grateful for that just minutes later) - you can always see the showers coming in from Ballinskelligs (the other side of the bay here) but yesterday they were coming just so fast and  there's nowhere to shelter on that beach -- the cliffs aren't safe nowadays, too many falls of rocks, so I was so happy that I'd brought my umbrella!

 Our weather has been pretty stormy lately (though nothing compared to 'superstorm' Sandy of course) but look at all the poor worms that lost their homes :( I'm not sure what the proper name for these are but they are little worms that live in the sand and made a little tube out of sand to live in  - the sea must have been so rough that it churned up all the sand and evicted the poor worms. You need to click on the photo really to see how many there were - and that's just one patch of them :(

I thought I'd add a couple of photos of the shower coming in from Ballinskelligs - the second photo was taken while I was sheltering under my big umbrella!)

I'd brought some crochet with me to work on (a pair of wrist cuffs - but it was too wet to sit down and really enjoy the beach!) - but there's always another day at least.

Home Sweet Home!

Peter and I are just back home recently from a trip over to England - it was all a bit of a rush really as we were going over to help look after P's Mum after she had an operation to remove a cataract. I'm happy to say that it all has gone well and her eye-sight is lots better - she can finally see things out in the garden/on the TV etc and has been able to have a look at the crossword in the newspaper again (using a magnifying glass while they are waiting a few weeks for her to have a proper eye test). She's had a few bad days after the operation and we were all a bit apprehensive that it wouldn't 'work' (and she's totally blind in her other eye so it really needed to be a success)

While we were over we fitted in just SO much in to our time there; trips to the cinema, visiting Peter's lovely daughter and her boyfriend in their new house -- they'd moved in six months ago but this was the first time I'd been over to England since the Springtime so it was fab to see their new home together...we also had a day out in Birmingham (which was so over-whelming, I'm not used to crowds and so much noise now!), and finished off our time over there by going down to Portsmouth to visit my sister and her family for a flying visit too.

I also was able to finally get the wools I'd ordered a while ago - the postage was too much to Ireland so I had it sent to my mother in law's house & had to wait (impatiently!!) -- we also went to the wool shop in Kidderminster and then there's one down the road from my sister's house...

It was fab to see everyone and great to catch up but I'm just SO glad to be back home - you really can't beat sleeping in your own bed (with Oscar curled up on the pillow next to my head!)

Today was my first proper day back on the beach since we got home -- yay!! I took my crochet with me -- I'm working on a pair of wrist warmers in Tivoli Celtic Aran (which has been discontinued - nooooo!) The scarf is one I've made for myself with some yarn a friend brought me from America! I utterly adore the colours in it...it's just perfect. There was enough for me to make myself a hat too!!!

This is where I was 'working' this afternoon - the sun even came out! You really can't beat 'home' :)

October...

...and now I'm unemployed! My job on the ferry has finished for yet another year - I can't believe that I've completed my 7th season there; where does the time go? I thought I'd add some photos from the last couple of days at work; they pretty much sum it up really :) I know I'm so lucky to still love my job after so long but oh! I am so grateful for my winter break from it all. I don't really have anything life-changing planned for the winter, but I will keep myself busy with my crochet, beach combing, and tackling clearing one of the local grave yards (a 'job' I started on last winter and which will take years and years to complete)

On Etsy I've just listed my 101st item in my shop -- I had made it to 100 listings earlier this year but since then hadn't been able to make it back up there again -- because of this just being a hobby really, and real-life and work taking over in importance through the summer months. Hopefully things will pick up a bit for the winter over there...but I am intending to take part in more craft fairs to try and get some extra sales - the next one is 24/25th November on Valentia.

I've sold a couple of the wrist cuffs that I'd made for my shop - they really were a bit of an experiment so I'm really pleased that someone bought two pairs! This is a pair I just listed yesterday - the photo doesn't do them justice...they are the deepest most gorgeous shade of purple and are a blend of baby alpaca and mulberry silk - just pure heaven... If these ones don't sell I'll definitely keep them for myself as purple is my all-time favourite colour...


This is something that I'm making for myself - yay!! A lovely friend brought the wool over from America when she was on holiday over here and I'm making the most wonderful scarf with it -- isn't it lovely? I really adore how the stripes are working out properly so that the colour change isn't in the middle of a row - a happy accident! I can't wait til it's finished and I can wear it -- I'm hoping that there will be enough of the wool left over so that I can make a matching hat...I need a new hat.

I'm not really a 'hat' person but I'm recovering from the nastiest flu-y cold and found that wearing a hat outside at work really did help; so it would be good to have a couple to choose from.

 And finally..it wouldn't really be a proper blog update if I didn't post a photo of my 'darling one' -- I'm sure Oscar thinks that's his name really :) He's been so up and down lately; I don't think I've written about it on here but he has colitis which is a long term inflammation of his guts and means that he has good and bad days. On bad days he'll just want to curl up and sleep and won't eat much at all; but on the good days he's just like any other normal cat.

  I took this photo of him on a bad day and it pretty sums it up; he just wants to curl up and sleep til he starts to feel better. I know how he feels really...

Wool and Water

''Wool and Water'' - what do you think? I was toying with the idea of renaming my blog, or retitling it at least and this is my favourite idea. It pretty much sums up my life generally really but it's also the title of a chapter of one of my most favourite childhood books - ''Alice Through the Looking Glass'' click here!

So what do you think? Anybody??!! I quite fancy a change really...

Anyway, I'd better update on my life and crochet bits and pieces.

My Etsy shop seems to have pretty much stagnated so far this month, which is quite disappointing really as I was hoping that we would soon be in the start of the 'busy' season. There's still time of course, and of course it isn't really the end of the world either way, but I was really hoping to reach my goal of having had 300 Etsy sales by Christmastime. I don't know if that will happen now...

I've decided that the best way around shop-stagnation is to try and have another string to my crochet-selling bow ;) So this year I've done way more craft fairs than I did last year! Last weekend I was there for the Sunday of the Valentia Isle Festival and it was quite successful for me really even though there weren't really that many people milling about at our end of the field.

You can see me at the far left of the photo, with my crochet on the tables in front of me (big thanks to Pat Lawless for taking the photo - he makes the most amazing furniture!). I really MUST get in the habit of writing down exactly what items have sold so I can keep track of it all. I brought a few items that I hadn't listed in my Etsy shop yet and so it's hard to remember just what I brought with me and what actually sold. It isn't very professional really and is something that I need to do.

My next craft fair is at the end of November - on Valentia Island again -- so far every time I've done a craft fair on the island it's all gone really well, so hopefully this one will be too. It'll be my first ever two day event!! I'm moving on up!!! It's the ''Holistic Wellness Fair'' in the Royal Hotel and is on the 24th and 25th November. Hopefully I'll fit in a couple more local fairs before Christmas; last year I did one in Waterville and one in Valentia (at the Royal again!)

Wow I just read through my blog post from this time last year I've come a long way! and it all feels like so long ago now; way more than just 12 months ago (almost to the day!) So sad to read about our lovely Boris - I miss him every day :( but now we have little Oscar in our lives, which is surely something to be grateful for.

What do you think about these wrist cuffs? They are my own design - can you tell??!!! I made this pair with the lovely 'Ondine' yarn from Louisa Harding Yarns - oh I wish I could afford to always use her yarns! This Ondine is 100% cotton and has the most wonderful shades: this one is called 'indigo' but it's a really great colour - not just a flat plain blue, it also has inky black and sea green subtly running through the yarn.  I posted a photo of these on the Facebook page of Louisa Harding Yarns and they actually posted the photo on the page themselves - so they must look ok?! I got quite a few compliments, which is really lovely. If I was any good I guess I'd write down the pattern really!!!

I hope the photo above doesn't offend or upset anyone - I think it's kind of beautiful in a sad way - a close up of a dead seal pup's front flipper. Every year so many of the baby seals don't make it to adulthood, I guess it's just natural selection at work but it's so sad to find them washed up on the beach :( It's a rare chance to see a seal so closely though I guess; I love their claws - they look so sharp!

It's quickly coming to the end of my season on the car ferry in Valentia -- I only have ten working days left now; so I am looking forward to being able to spend more time to my two favourite past times--crochet and beach combing of course ;)

This was the view from the ferry the other morning - isn't it just glorious? How lucky am I??! To top it all we had a group of approx 20 bottlenose dolphins swim alongside us yesterday - they were only with us for 10 or so minutes but it was just heaven!

Bonkers!

Sorry for not posting at all last month; I try to update this every month (I'm really writing this blog for myself, if anyone reads it then it's a bonus) but July is such a bonkers month at work -- August is even busier but I thought that if I don't sit down and write a quick update NOW then it will end up staying on the long finger and I won't get around to it until September or even later!

I really enjoy being able to look back at the old posts on here, it's a great way of seeing how far I've come :)

I'm now up to 262 sales in my Etsy shop; I'm really hoping that I will reach the milestone of 300 before Christmas (I can't imagine having that many sales  -  it constantly amazes me that this is really happening to little old me)

June was a pretty quiet month in my shop but July was better - I decided to take part in the 'Christmas in July' promotion on Etsy and it was a big success; definitely something that I would participate in next year. I used the 'Etsy on Sale' site to change all the titles - and was able to do that for free as part of an offer for being a new customer there; I think I would pay to use the service again though - you can even set it so that it edits the tags as well as the titles --- and then, best of all, when your sale/promotion is over it will set everything back to normal: like magic!

Peter and I took part in the Scallop Festival craft market in Valentia again this year - it was pretty successful too, we made slightly more money there this year compared to last year, which is great. This year it was all in little 'booths' under cover, which was great :)

 I've also been attending the indoor market in Portmagee the last three weeks -- the first week we just sold ONE PAIR OF WRISTWARMERS!!! What a fiasco! I was so disheartened, especially as it was just after the (successful) day at the Scallop Festival. The next week we sold way more - I forgot to write down just what had sold but financially it was great :) Then last week Peter went on his own as I was working and only sold two hats and a pair of wrist warmers! There doesn't really seem to be any rhyme or reason to how it all works, you just have some good days and some bad days, but any sales are a bonus really so I'm happy with how it's all gone.
 
In my spare time I've been trying to fit in as much beach-combing and rock pooling as I can -- I am utterly fascinated with sea anemones! Who knew that the red ones have a royal blue edging!?? You wouldn't think it was natural, would you? 

 ...and how about this pink rock pool?? I think the pink-ness is a type of encrusting seaweed rather than a coral; it looks so surreal though!

I've been busy, crocheting by the sea too -- it isn't all rockpooling :)

250!!!

Excuse me while I do a happy dance but this month I finally reached my 'goal' of having 250 sales on Etsy :) I'd really wanted to achieve this goal before the second anniversary of my first ever sale (a pair of wrist warmers to the lovely Miss Gault on 11th July 2010) and it happened!!!

My 250th sale was just a ball of Rowan bamboo tape that I was de-stashing (to make room for even more yarn in my boxes) but I am delighted none the less!

When I started out with my crochet I would have never believed anyone if they ever said that I'd have sold so much within such a relatively short period of time. I really am delighted and very proud of myself.

Things have been very quiet on Etsy for me lately so I was half-worried that I wouldn't reach this target - but even if I hadn't achieved it, it wouldn't have been the end of the world...

Woolwise...my lovely friend Jana went over to Germany on holiday last month and came back with a whole load of different yarns for me! I never took a photo of them all together, I really should do - it was mostly cottons (which I had asked for) and a ball of lovely purple bamboo/cotton blend -- so I will be making lots and lots of scrubbies etc for my shop. These seem to sell very well coming up to Christmas last year so now I will have even more colours available :)

We were in Killarney last week so we did a very quick visit to the wool shop ....

I bought these ones for making hats - it's fab yarn, I've used it before in different colours.

and then I saw this .... it's ''Ondine'' by Louisa Harding -- I LOVE her yarns generally but the name and shades of this just spoke to me!! It's 100% cotton and I'm not sure what I will make with them but I fell in love with them and had to get them - they were reduced down to €3 a ball (nearly 1/2 the normal price)

I've been down on the beach whenever I can lately - the weather is a bit changeable but it's so lovely when the sun shines. I love this photo with the acorn barnacles so much - I'm using it as the 'cover' photo on my facebook page; I'm so happy with how it turned out!

 this is the view from where I was crochet-ing last week - aren't I just so lucky??! I was making this striped red and green beach bag while I was there (the colours are brighter in real life, it was so warm that I was sitting under the shade of a big boulder for a while so I could work in comfort!) -- and then when I'd finished with my crochet I packed up and started rockpooling for a while and found several of these red and green sea anemones!

At the moment I'm still in the middle of making bags - using King Cole's bamboo/cotton blend; the one I'm making just now is to use up all the odds and ends I had in various colours, so it's a bit on the colourful side, but hopefully someone will like it!