And the Nominations are...

Yey I made it to the (not so) Short List for the 2010 Irish Blog Awards. There was also a long list but I didn't mention it here, just in case I didn't make it to the next stage. I've been nominated in two catagories Best Beauty/Fashion (sponsored by Spinakerpo) and Best Blog of a Business (sponsored by RedCardinal) . Thanks a million to the people who nominated me, and also to the judges for all your hard work!! I do have to choose betwwen the two catagories, I'm pretty sure I'll go with business,as it was this same decision last year that really helped me form the itentity of the blog. There will be another round to whittle it down even more and then the final awards will be held in Galway on the 27th of March. Last year I missed the awards as they were fully booked, but this year I got in there early and I've booked my tickets already. Last year I made it to the final few nominations for Best Business Blog which was amazing as I was just a newbie then and didn't really know what I was doing. It would be fantastic if I made it that far again, but I don't think it works that way. I'm going to the awards to put faces to people I've been in touch with online, and to network...and also to have a hell of a piss up!
The other thing I'm really excited about is that Etsy Ireland has been nominated a few times too, as I'm one of the team co-ordinators I'm really chuffed to see this baby flourish so well in it's first year.

Also I heard that part of the judging process is based on my interection with commenters. I know there are lots of you who are silent readers, but would you mind coing out of the closet for a few weeks as this would really help me out, you don't even need to be a blogger all you do is leave your name and email address(which nobody sees but me).....thanks guys I would really appresciate it!!

Note: If any of you want to steal the above image for your blog go ahead! But if you do, could you kindly link back to me please.

The Luck of St.Patrick

Excuse the following excitedness, I'm still in a little bit of shock. This morning I saw a a thread in the Etsy forums posted by admin looking for Irish people to write an article for Storque about St.Patricks Day, and being Irish and all that jazz. So with a few minutes to spare before I had to rush off to work I rattled off a quick convo saying I would be interested,that I was big into blogging, and that I'd like to do a piece based on Limerick and the great young party atmosphere the city has. I want to avoid the whole green shamrock Oirishness, and make it more modern. Low and behold 10 minutes later there was a reply back from Etsy admin saying sure thing we love your ideas!! So I'll be posting the St.Patricks Day special for Etsy, yey happy days. To those of you who are familiar with Etsy you know that this is a big deal, and to be honest I'm kinda terrified by the pressure of it, but it's also very exciting. Hopefully this will be a good opportunity to get my shop seen and maybe an avenue into writing more things for the Storque Blog. It get's about 20,000 30,000 readers a day, so at a guess I should get a few extra hits on the shop.

So I better get my-green-thinking cap on!

Red Ballgown

Here is another piece that I'm working on as part of the sustainable material exhibition. I've only got the skirt part of the design started, but I'm happy with how the different fabrics sit together. It doesn't look like I've gotten that far, but patchwork takes quite a while between all the cutting and sewing all the pieces together. I've never done this style of skirt before, but I think it look really pretty. As you can see from the design I have a LOT of work left to do. I still have to A) finish the shirt, with another few tiers of material B) make a black bodice C) make a cage type structure for the inside. For this last part I was thinking of a making it out of rolled newspaper, kind of a papier mache with an extra few layers of varnish to make it sturdier. It's gonna probably cause me lots of heartache trying to make it but I think it will add that extra pizzaz needed for a show piece. In some ways it reminds me of something Bjork wore to an Mtv awards ceremony about 10 years ago.

Queen of Hearts Feature

I woke up and did my usual log onto my shops/promo/email stuff, and I noticed that a few of my items were missing from my Nice Day Designs shop. I must admit that I've really let this shop go as far as promoting goes so it didn't even occur to me that I had sold stuff. So after checking expired listings and inactive listings, it dawned on me that I may have sold them. Low and behold there were a bunch of sales....how strange??! So off I toddled to check craftcult and it turns out my 'Queen of your Heart Pocket Mirror' was featured in an Alice in Wonderland article on Storque(the main Etsy blog)!! How fantastic is that?? I've never been featured in any way on Etsy, so I was really excited. All in all I've had a really good week, I wonder what magical fairy is looking over me?

Work in Progress

This is what I got up to today. This is the beginings of one of the main show pieces for the exhibition. So far I've used about 5 pairs of jeans and a jacket, I'll need at least six more pairs to get the lenght and train that I plan for it. I'll also need lots of material for the Queen Elizabeth ruffles I plan for the neckline. I'm happy with where it's going, hopefully tomorrow is another good day.

Busy Business

It's been another busy week. I attempted to take a well earned break yesterday but I spent most of the day on the computer answering emails and catching up on a few things. Ah well, I'll try again next week.
I eventually caved and purchased a facebook ad. I had no idea how this would work out, I set the limits pretty small at $10 per day for 3 days, which is a similar price to buying an ad on craftcult for a week. So far I've gotten 7 extra fans and that has cost me ten quid, as you pay per the amount of people that click on the page. To be honest I was expecting better results for my money, and maybe paying for advertising on craft sites would be more cost effective for me. I did want to increase my fanbase beyond people I know though. It seems like it hit the 200 mark and then stopped growing. I did notice an increase in clicks when I switched my picture from a pincushion to mixed buttons, I think this is because in Ireland it's impossible to buy good buttons so it would have grabbed peoples attention. I'll see how the 3 days pan out and I'll let you guys know how it all works out.

I also saw this blog post earlier in the week about sustainable materials being used by artists and designers. It was looking for artists who use recycled materials to exhibit in Limerick City Gallery in a group exhibition of artists working in different media. I couldn't believe I hadn't heard about it earleir and it it literally on my front door step! So I contacted the guy and told him about my recycled and customised clothes, and it looks like I'm going to be exhibiting my work in the gallery. I really can't believe this, since I moved to Limerick 10 years ago it's been my ambition to show my work there. I never would have guessed when I moved down here at the age of 18 that I would be show casing my fashion designs there. It's funny where life can bring you! The work has to be delivered to the space on Friday week (11th March), with the option to rotate the work as the 6 weeks progress. I'm going to create 3 outlandish exhibition pieces, and then have a smaller set of more comercial works there too. To be honest I would have liked more time but I'm well used to working to crazy deadlines at this point.
So if you are or your know any artist working with sustainable material check out this post they are still looking for contributers.

Also Happy World Book Day everyone!!

Window Shopping Love

Ok I need to start closing my eyes when I'm leaving work. As you have read before I couldn't resist the cupcake sugar bowl when I was walking past Carrig Donn, which is next door to where I work. But now they have put a giant tea cup and saucer bowl in the window, and it's polka dot!! How can I possibly resist?? It's so cute, and I swear it calls out my name when I walk past it. It's only 30 euro, which is a great price for how fantastic it looks, but should I really spend 30 quid on a bowl I don't need? Probably not, but I don't think I can ignore it's call much longer.

I got this picture from their website, it's of the normal sized cup, but the bowl is far cuter, and way more Alice in Wonderland shaped.

Inistioge Co.Kilkenny

I just wanted to let you know more about the wee little village of Inistioge that my clothes are now selling in. It's a picture book Irish Village that looks like it's been plucked straight out of 1940/50's Ireland. It's got loads of beautiful old houses, a large open square, a few sleepy pubs and stunning countryside walks. It's real little hot spot for tourists during the Summer and it's great claim to fame is the the Meave Binchy film Circle of Friends was filmed there.
It's only a 20 minute drive from Kilkenny city, but it has all the charm of being lost in old Ireland. I really enjoyed my stay there this weekend and wished I would have had more time to soak up the the tranquility of this village.They also have a great restaurant that I'm dying to try next time I'm down. Note to self: make time for more yummy pints and food when I'm there next, oh and those very pretty walks to wash away my hangover!

New Prospects for Nice Day Designs

Do you remember the exciting news that I eluded to the other day? Well I have returned from my adventure and I can spread the good news. The lady who has been selling my clothes in in the side room of her beauty Salon has opened a shop to sell my clothes!! How exciting is that?? Well to me: the answer is very much so. Roisin moved her salon into a more central location in the village of Inistioge in Co.Kilkenny. It is a much larger premises and and there are two floors, one for the salon and the ground floor as a boutique for Nice Day Designs.I went down to the shop this weekend to dress the window and ad a bit of pizzaz to the general floor display. As you can guess this was on a tight budget but I think I managed to get a pretty snazzy display out of these mini hat boxes and netting. I got the boxes in a pound shop and covered them myself with brightly coloured paper. I got about 20 meters of netting in Guinneys for only 30 euro, which was a steal and a half, I also got the pink candy stripe material there too. I used thumbtacks to hang the fake curtains at the back of the shop and pinned my accessories to the doors to fill the blank space.

I've never done any window or shop dressing before but I must say it was lots of fun.It also had the extra kick that it was my own stuff that I was displaying. I must admit that I felt like a proud mammy when I saw all my clothes hanging on the rails.If you want to check out more photos just click on my facebook fanpage here

Huge Giveaway!!!

I just wanted to tell all my lovely readers from this blog about a fantastic giveaway with the other blog that I'm involved with. The Etsy Ireland Team are giving away over $150 worth of handmade goodies to one lucky winner to celebrate St.Patricks day. But you're gonna have to earn this amazing prize. It's a treasure hunt where you search through the Etsy Ireland shops for hidden letters. For more details do to this blog post and start hunting, best of luck everyone!!