Out and About

A couple of weeks ago we popped up to Matakana for a weekend.  It has a pretty good Saturday farmers market and just out of town there is a craft market too.

It's been a few years since I was at Matakana and it's moved from sleepy country village on the way to the beach at Omaha to popping visitor destination.

 St Andrews church by the craft market. Reminded me we live on a Pacific Island

 I'm a sucker for a tree tunnel

Brisk winter walk along the beach at Orewa

Lazy & Busy?

Is it possible to be lazy and busy at the same time?

I think so.

I haven't done any blogging, updating shops or keeping up on-line properly for a couple of weeks. And yet the crochet hook has been as busy as it usually is :-)

Coupla things I've worked on lately...

In other news... I've gotten hold of some sock yarn which is pretty thin compared to what I usually use, so it's taken a bit of getting used too.  And the lovely ladies who run Devonport Market have said I can have a spot in April, which I'm quite excited about!

Also keep a look out for the ultimate Gothic Loo Roll Cover Doll which I'm making for the same Ravelry team I made George the Dalek for. Fab fun!

Looking back and looking forward

The etsy bloggers carnival is on again, one of the topics is

"Now that 2009 has come to a close, what will you remember most about last year?"

Here are some of the things that will stick with me about 2009:

People I didn't know bought my creations

People I don't know are supportive of my creations

I have sold my creations at the local market

I've learnt how to blog

I've learnt how to Twitter

I learnt how to have a Facebook fanpage

I learnt how to open and operate 3 online shops

I have semi learnt how to market my creations

Google Analytics is an amazing tool that scares me

There are people out there in the world that love to create and are friendly even if you don;t meet them face to face

I have learnt all sorts of new and amazing crochet tricks and techniques

I have learnt that I love to buy handmade

All in all a pretty good year crafty wise. I think 2010 is going to be even bigger!

This is where we went on New Years eve day - gobsmackingly beautiful, all about the past and the present and the future

Bridal Veil Falls - Raglan New Zealand

A Mermaid and a Fairy

I’m trying out one of the mermaid dolls (Beatrice in green) in the new felt shop to see how she goes and I also put a new fairy doll (Pip in pink) in my etsy shop last night.

The market was incredibly busy, lots and lots of “isn’t that cute,” and “do you have a card” no sales though, seems to have been a trend with the other stall holders so I wasn’t too upset. I enjoyed chatting to everyone and met a fellow that used to live on a sheep station who used to spin wool and knit his own jumpers, he told me that lichen off a gate post will dye wool orange. I love learning new titbits like that

The barbecue is well and truly christened, we used it Sunday and Monday and plan on using it tonight too. It’s so much easier to cook outside when the weather is warming up. The cottage has a tin roof so when the sun has been shinning all day it gets incredibly hot inside.

I thought I might try my hand at writing a tutorial over the holidays. I’m off work until the 11th January so I’ll have time to write the steps and take progress photos. I just have to decide what it is I’d like to share….

Felt like Etsy :-)

I found a New Zealand site that has some similarities to Etsy and ArtFire so I'm going to try it out and see how it goes :-)

This is the shop www.JacBer.felt.co.nz I've taken some stuff from the shophandmade shop which wasn't doing well - I'd basically opened it, put some of our stuff in it and left it to itself, and after 4 months we were averaging about 2 views a month which was pretty crappy, so we'll see if we do better here. It's also were I can point New Zealand customers too without having to worry about exchange rates. I just have to wait for the first 5 listings to be approved, so hopefully that will be soon!

We're christening the new Barbecue tonight! We're having posh sausages, chicken drumsticks and vegetable kebabs

Last craft market of the year tomorrow and I'm predicting a total sell out!

Creations Galore

Well, we didn't get on the bikes, but we created so much!

Below is a brother to a new addition to the etsy shop, a mouthy mushroom. And above is a fancy dancy sparkly wrap that Andrew thinks looks like the Milky Way

I even approached the sewing maching (dum dum duuummmm) and I didn't even break it - hurray! On Saturday I bought 10 ties from an opportunity shop, unpicked them, sewed them back up and made a skirt. This is my first attempt at sewing a bit of clothing, and I'm almost impressed! I'll pop a picture on during the week. (It's on the line at the moment - I had to wash it to make sure it didn't fall apart!)

I'm tentatively thinking about having a bit of a stall at work one lunchtime. Isn't it funny, I'll go to the markets and sell on line and yet having a table at work scares the beejeezus out of me! Shame I can't have dutch courage at work!

Technology is my friend

Technology is my friend
Technology is my friend
Technology is my friend

I chanted as I set up a Facebook fan page with the help of a cold glass of Riesling, and then I tried to link it to my blog.
Do I really need one? Well apparently so!
Just like the blog, the twitter, the etsy shop and the artfire shop, plus I need to

Promote! Promote! Promote!
Forums and threads, chat rooms, join a team, do a challenge, do a giveaway.
Give out my card (after I’ve made one using some fancy pants computer application)
Wear my creations, go into local shops and show them my stuff, try and convince them to stock it and sell it.
Do the local craft market twice a month, and the other local craft market every Saturday.
Do the housework, the washing, the shopping and the cooking

(phew that I don’t have children as well!).
Read all the forums and threads that tell me to do all this stuff
Go to work at 7.30 a.m., get home at 5.00 p.m. and start all over again
No wonder I love it!

What a buzz :-)

Tui & Art

So I played last night with crochet as art, I think I have a way to go before I share :-)

It's the arts and crafts market tomorrow at the Bethlehem Town Centre, and if the weather is like it is this morning it should be quite busy.

I've acquired a bit of board, and I'm off down town to buy some black material to cover it in so I can hang my crocheted necklaces and bracelets on it to make them look fab! And after some recent buying activity in the necklace area I decided to make a couple of new ones last night to keep the inventory up. I'll try and get them in the shop later on today.

Just came back from a lovely walk down the lane, the Kowhai's are all blossoming and the Tui's love to drink the nectar.

They're a bit shy, I did manage to get a bit of a pic though.