Supplies Shop

One thing that I still have tonnes of is supplies. When I moved house 6 months ago I was somewhat disciplined and sold off a lot of buttons and fabric, but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of all of it. I had lived in that house for seven years so there was a lot of clutter and unwanted life garbage that was clogging up my space. Moving was a great excuse to sort through it, downscale, see what I wanted to keep, and see what was good for selling. 

I reopened my Etsy supplies shop a few months ago and have been tipping away with some sales without having to put too much effort into it. I should really be less lazy and do a few days of photography and listing and properly figure out what I have. For the moment I have about 100 listings of buttons, knitting supplies, pincushions and other miscellaneous items. If I was a more organised person I could easily bring that up to 250, I'll get there eventually!

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Costume design for Mustang Hobo

After finishing up with Nice Day Designs it took me a long time to figure out my relationship with my own art. I was burnt out, dry of ideas and no longer sure if I ever wanted to pick up a sewing needle ever again. I tentatively made a few pieces for myself and friends over the couple of years, but waited a long time before embracing a large project again. I only wanted to do it if I loved it, I needed a real passion project to get me going again. One that I have been working on lately is being the costume designer for the music videos for Mustang Hobo, a funk/jazz band based in Scarriff.

The bassist is my partner, so naturally we've been talking at length about the creative process, his ideas for his band, and what artistic direction they want to take their videos. It seemed like a natural evolution of both our relationship and our conversations that I would work on them with him. I like how his crazy brain works, and he likes that I can somehow make his ideas a reality.

The most recent one that I worked on was the song 'So You Think I'm Crazy', which shows the curious journey of a man into the afterlife, which is populated by craven woodland fairies, of which I am one. My direction was pretty specific, he wanted fairies but not the glittery pretty kind; something rugged, textured, and hairy. As is the case with all bands there was pretty much no budget, so this lack of funds informed my decision to collage different fabrics together to make woodland pixie hoods. I used these pieces to accessories a cast of extras all dressed in browns and earth tones.

That's us just as we shot the last scene

The couple of days that I was on the shoot, there were seven in total, were loads of fun, I got to style all of the extras, and it was great to see ideas go from paper, to creation, then to final cut. When I saw the final edit I was pretty blown away with what the Niall Coley, the director of photography, came up with, I didn't expect it to be so beautiful and lush. We'll be making more, and the ideas have gotten even bigger and crazier. I've already started working on the next one, but it's all hush hush, I have to say though, it's pretty darned cute!

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A Return to Business

I've spent a very long time away from Nice Day Designs, I'm not sure if I have any readers left after abandoning this little niche on the web for so long, so if you're still reading please wave hello. A lot in my life has changed both externally and internally, mostly for the better, and even the hard stuff ended up being transformative in a positive way. 

Those of you who have read this blog over the years probably had a false sense of how well the business was doing, I always put a positive spin on it and kept the sharp claws of the recession out of this polka dot little site. The reality was that it was too tough to keep Nice Day Designs going, I ran out of patience, energy, ideas, and eventually the love for it left too. In January of 2014 I decided to call it a day and embrace a new exciting project, The Stormy Teacup, which was an artisan tea shop that I opened with my friend Martins Punculis. Many of you who are based in Limerick know that it was a seeming success for the year that we ran it. It was an incredible life experience setting it up and seeing it flourish, but again I had to be realistic about how financially viable it was, at the start of Summer last year I made the tough, but mentally healthy decision to step away from it. What has followed since has been months of re-evaluating what I want personally, professionally, and creatively. After 15 years of living in Limerick I moved out and started a fresh with a new house, new job, and a new relationship. Things are looking really good and I can genuinely say that I am contented.

I made the decision recently to restart the custom badges side of my business again. It was always something that I enjoyed, that sold well, and didn't have the same pressures that the more intricate hand crafts had. I've already gone through the madness of having my own self imposed sweat shop, I don't want to do it again, so I won't be going back to making endless hand stitched accessories. I still craft, draw, and create, but mostly for myself now, and in so doing I have found the love for it again. Moving forward this will be more of a nerd, feminist, lifestyle blog, that will sometimes have badge and craft related posts. 

I hope to keep writing, and that there's still some of you still reading.

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