Works in Progress, and on the road AGAIN

I was never very good at keeping diary's as a kid or as a teenager. They would go from being very impersonal to very personal, with huge blank entries. Sometimes this blog feels like a diary, and when life throws many great big humongous soul-wrenching thingumabobs, its hard trying to keep it not too personal. At least you don't have big blank entries!!
But, this is a textile blog, so I'll try and keep it textile, oh, and a bit of travel....

I didn't get to the Kingdom County Fair, because I ended up hastily going to Mayo for a week. But I did drop in my entry to the Soft Toy category of the Crafts Competition.

This is another version of Sackgirl, very similar to the other versions, yes I know. She's in the car on her way up to the competiton. Sadly, she didn't get anywhere....

Before I left, I did another panic project. Are there any other type? The International Freeform Crochet Guild had a deadline for their 2009 Challange, Four Seasons, and I really wanted to get something in. I'm a member of their Yahoo Group, and although I don't say much on it (don't sound surprised, I still haven't said anything on Facebook), I do enjoy the conversations. I've been going through a case of creative block, where I suddenly feel so overwhelmed by wanting to make absolutely everything, I ended up making nothing. I think it did me good though, it was good to sit back and have a rest. My wrists needed it as well, they were starting to get a bit achey. Because I didn't really have anything specific in that theme, I decided to just mess around with the bag of Crocheted Coral that's left over from last years Electric Picnic. I grouped them into seasonal colours, and took some photos. I never actually took any decent photos of them, so it was nice to play around with them.

I received a lovely donation to my textile supply room. (It used to be called the spare bedroom, but now its pure fibre. I don't pretend anymore). I had been lamenting the lack of buttons available in charity shops these days. You used to be able to pick up bags of them, but they are a rare enough commodity. So, the mother-in-law, a hoarder the same as me, gave me her rather large button collection - 8 jars! Its funny, all the expensive noisy toys, and the kid goes straight for the jars of buttons. You just can't beat them for entertainment. So, I opened one jar for him to play with and went off to make dinner. A very short time later I returned to find he had opened all the jars, (He can open jars now? Crap. More safety needed round the house). They were everywhere. So, what do you do with a button mountain the EU would be proud of? (You oldies out there will remember the butter mountain, god bless those butter vouchers. When they ran out, I asked the man in the dole office if we could start on the wine lake!). You colour co-ordinate them of course! I got the child to help for about 5 mins then, spent the whole evening sorting out the rest myself. You textile people understand, but when my mum rang, and she asked what are you up to, and I said sorting buttons, it didn't really register as a fun thing to do of an evening..

So, bags packed it was on the road to Mayo. I usually stop over with my sister for a night, because driving to Mayo with a toddler is to much for one day. Especially when there are pennies in the CD player and it doesn't work. There's only so long I can sing for!! It was a beautiful day, and when I arrived a t their new house in Kinvara, they were sunning themselves in the garden, with their new cob oven all fired up. Home-made pizza's, delicious. If we ever get the one in the Community Garden finished, we'll have to get them down for pizza-making lessons! After lunch, a walk round the harbour, we managed to catch an early session in Connellys. I haven't driven round the Burren for years, and I'd forgotten how much I liked it there. Of all the places I've lived, I think its the nearest I'd call home.

Onto Mayo, to be general skivvy to my mum and her broken ankle. She was very gentle on me. I though she would have me cleaning cupboards, and painting walls for the week, but it was simply a case of keeping her supplied with tea and fags, and the odd meal! The weather turned for the worse, and we were all house-bound for the week. The highlight was when my step-dad caught a huge bug. Well, huge for Irish standards, I've never seen anything so big. The size of a small mouse! We didn't know what it was so I took a few pics, not great I know, I was scared the thing would fly at me. I got home I posted it up on Boards, within minutes someone had identified it. (That website its great!). Turns out its a June Bug, well the Euro version, a cockchafer. Used to be very common, but pesticides have almost wiped it out. It is very sensitive to toxins and is an good indicator for pollution levels. I think they are just too big for this country. I like Ireland for the fact they don't have these big creepy crawlies...

On my return home, via Kinvara and more pizza's again, I had my usual last min dash to get some work done. The deadline for Book 3 of the Crochet Liberation Front, was the following day. I have to say, a big thank you for the wonderful Ladies who tested out the pattern for me. Ravelry is great. I simply put up a post saying a I had a pattern needing testing, and several lovely ladies offered. I did warn them I was new to pattern writing, but they were very kind, and considerate, and gave excellent feedback. The pattern has now been sent, and its just a question of waiting to hear if its been accepted!...

So, after getting home, exhausted form the travel, I felt lousy. I though it was just tiredness, but I've ended up coming down with a nasty cold. I'm wheezing like a good thing, my chest hurts, I'm loaded on Lemsip, and desperately trying to get better for the Girl's Night Out, organised for this Saturday in Galway. I haven't been in a pub at nighttime in a long while! Its the opening weekend of the Volvo Ocean Race stop-over in Galway, so it should be fun...I have a thing for boats, so its great to be able to catch a glimpse this event, oh and the sailors...

Oh, oh, oh, and I forgot, I've finally gotten my Etsy shop together, well sort of...