Made Marian: Oozing Crafty Goodness

I’ve been a long time fan of the Irish music scene, I was brought up on a strict trad diet so I’ve always loved that but when I was in college I developed a love for all things Irish Indie.  My favourite band has been The Frames since 2000 when I saw them live in the courtyard in UL.  Since then I have seen the Frames (or various members of the band in their solo gigs) more than twenty times.  If you were a fan of the Irish Music scene in the early 2000’s you couldn’t have escaped the wonderful O by Damien Rice.   Neither could you escape the amazing voice of Lisa Hannigan on that album.  So I was delighted to hear that Lisa was bringing out a solo album and you can imagine how delighted I was when i saw the album cover and website wallpaper which her mother knitted it for her.  I need to find out if there are awards for the most beautiful album cover ever because I think this is it.  This isn’t a music blog so I’m not going to review the album but Darragh has a great interview and review here. Oh, and I won tickets to see Lisa in UL next week through The Limerick Blogger so I can’t wait to see her.

No, I’m not talking about the pledge that you might have taken with your confirmation, I’m talking about the pledge to Buy Handmade this Christmas (or holiday season as the website calls it).    I know I wont be able to make all my Christmas Presents myself, but I’m planning on making a good stab at it.  And what I don’t make I’ll probably get here (Susan doesn’t hand make the food but she does put the gorgeous hampers together by hand so I’m letting this one slide), here or here.  This also fits into my plans to combat Throwawayism single handedly

Stitchlily, a blogger I discovered recently thanks to Lou has also taken the pledge.

My pal Lette has just set up an Etsy store, you can visit and buy her prints, photos and ceramic ornaments here.  The shop is called Crafty Paws (a tribute to Scribbles).

I’ve already snapped up these prints as part of a arty/crafty swap

My part of the swap is a Work in Progress at the moment.  Updates to follow.

As I’ve mentioned before Limerick Pride is coming up soon and since the Rainbow Coffee Dock makes such a great home for the Limerick City Stitch ‘n’ bitch I figured I should do something to help.  So, I’ve volunteered to make crochet flowers which will be for sale on the Saturday of the Parade (13th September).  Here’s a few I’ve started working on.

I’m working from my own and donated stash.  Lou was first to donate stash but Gina and Conor from the group donated generously on Saturday.  Flowers will be €2 and all proceeds will go to Rainbow Support Services.

Today I’m guesting over on Beaut.ie.  I did the ladies a HUGE favour last week by DRAGGING myself to Cocoon for a facial….seriously they owe me one

I rave about Cocoon here.

I’ve been pretty strict with myself with this blog in that I have tried to keep it entirely to craft related topics but I’m going to go slightly off topic to tell you about Limerick Pride which is being held from Sunday the 7th September to Sunday 14th. The proceeds of all the events are going to Rainbow Support Services.  One of their services is a volunteer run coffee dock where people can drop in whenever they want for a chat and a coffee.  I suppose it’s not entirely off topic since once a week the coffee dock kindly let us crafters take over the comfy couches for our Stitch ‘n’ Bitch.   The parade on Saturday will be a must see, it’s a great day out and it’s so much more fun than those boring St. Patrick’s Day Parades. If you’re in Limerick at any stage over the week, please try to support some of the events.

I have always loved Saturdays; a whole day to yourself and the promise of another one on Sunday!  Heaven.   I got to thinking about what Saturdays have meant to me over the years.  When I was a kid it usually meant Saturday morning TV, cartoons on the sofa in my PJ’s.  When I was a bit older Saturday meant piano lessons at an ungodly hour of the morning and then study for my Leaving Cert after.  When I was in college Saturday meant cleaning bedrooms in the Devon Inn Hotel.  For my first few years of working Saturday meant sleeping.  About a year or so ago, Saturday came to mean a trip to the Milk Market and now it means Milk Market followed by Yarn stores (Lena’s and Singer’s) and probably Hickey’s and then Eason’s/O’ Mahoney’s for himself.  Home to drop off the purchases and make some lunch and then back into town for Stitch ‘n’ Bitch! So my Saturdays these days are all about great food and crafts.

What about you?  What do Saturdays mean to you?  Are you a late sleeper or an “up and at ‘em” Saturday person?

Way back in May I mentioned on my old blog that I bought a customized t-shirt from Ruth at Nice Day Designs but at that stage she only had a myspace account.  I’m glad to say that she now has a fully fledged website as well as an etsy shop.   She sells her hand customized clothes and handmade cards in the Sunday Market here in Limerick but now her stuff is available to buy on-line also.  It’s great to see Ruth in the Sunday Market, sewing away at her stall and her stuff has really inspired me to keep going with the sewing machine.  I’m thinking of trying bunting as my first project, having been inspired by some beautiful handmade bunting at the wedding in Finland?

I just want to wish Ruth the Best of Luck with the website and new Etsy shop.

This has been a wonderfully crafty weekend.

On Friday evening I managed to get another tiny bit of my embroidery project done before I went out for dinner with himself and his work buddies.

Margaret and JD were in from the sticks that night and were staying with us in the “big city”.  They brought me these fantastic crafty books for my birthday.

On Saturday morning, I went yarn shopping for this…

and this…

The Navy and Yellow is for a sports themed (not Tipperary as I originally thought) baby blanket and the Green and White are for another commission, this time for lapel pins.  All will be revealed on both projects in due course.

While I was taking a break from yarn to do some food shopping I met Deborah and Lette in the market, Deborah had another box of tricks for me, more about that later.

After that I pottered off to the Rainbow Coffee Dock to attend my first Stitch and Bitch.  For those who haven’t heard of Rainbow, it’s a support service for members of the LGBT community, they have been doing great work in Limerick for many years now. On the S ‘n’ B Bebo page they mention that they are not an exclusively gay branch and so long as you’ve no issues with anyone, they are more than happy to welcome you.  I can guarantee that this is definitely the case, despite my status as a man loving woman they made room for me on the couch and offered me the best value coffee in Limerick… €1 for a decent mug of drip coffee, frugal and crafty!  It has become apparent that I may have to brush up on my musicals before I go back though Lou, one of the original stitchers, has an account of the gathering on her blog.

Yesterday, I finally took the sewing machine out of the box and get the thing going, thanks in no small way to my mother who managed figure it out based on her years of sewing experience.  I can now wind a bobbin,  thread the needle and sew in a (relatively) straight line.  Amy Butler here I come.

I also managed to reorganise my craft supplies, Deborah has given me so many extra paper craft goodies that I had to buy myself this set of drawers to hold it all. And yes all the drawers are full.

Today, we’re having visitors for a Sunday summer lunch of fish and salads and I’m going to make a start on the Green and White project.  All in all, the perfect Bank Holiday weekend.

I have 100’s of crafty ideas running around my head at any given time, so I’ve decided that I need to commit some of them to paper and by paper I mean the blog of course.

In the near future I hope to:

• Finally take my sewing machine out of the box
• Figure out how to use it
• Hopefully then use it to make cushion covers
• Take a Calligraphy Class
• Take a Flower Arranging Class
• Give knitting another go
• Start embossing - now that I have the tools from Deborah.
• Buy some embroidery hoops and maybe buy a starter kit to get into it.
• Investigate the possibility of home printing - possibly Gocco if I can get my hands on one of them!
• Incorporate crochet into my cards, I need a finer crochet more like a chunky lace.
• Look into jewelery making - There’s a course that I’d like to do in September but I doubt it will be possible, I hope to do the March 2009 one.
• Finally, I want to at least start the process of setting up an Etsy shop and getting a stall at the Market in Limerick - more than likely the Sunday Market but I haven’t ruled out the Saturday Market!

Before I do any of the above, I need to find a better storage solution for my crafty stuff, we live in a 600 sq foot apartment, the spare bedroom was full to the brim of “stuff” before I got into all these crafts.  And let me tell you paper and yarn crafts are not space saving hobbies.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m going to get started on Embroidery this weekend, I’m also going to buy some fine yarn and small crochet hooks if I can find them.  And I’ve roped my mother into helping me with the sewing machine on Sunday week so the wheels are in motion for at least some of the above.

Have a nice weekend everyone.