SALE SALE SALE

I've been thinking of having a SALE for a while, and what better time than January, all sale items have been reduced by at least 30%. I have also reviewed my shipping prices, all second purchases now have free shipping!

Self Gifting with Sony

I just found my new favorite blog, photoshopdisasters, with me being a photoshop nerd it is satisfying to see so many highly paid professionals fuck up their job.This is one of my favorites.

I also bought myself a new toy, a present to myself after working so hard over the Christmas. A Sony 16G mp3 player. I've wanted one for ages and today I lacked anything resembling self dicipline, or sense....so chaching I bought it.

PS; I can hear choppers flying around outside, woohoo another shooting in gangland Limerick- or maybe I'm watching too much of The Wire.

Some rest & The Wire

I've been officially ordered to rest by my doctor. I hurt my foot recently and it's being very stubbourn and won't heal. When she asked me if I had been particularly stressed or over worked and I answered that I was working 70/80 hours a week, I got a raised eyebrow and strict orders to take it easy.So no waitressing, no sewing, but I found it too hard to stay away from the computer. So I posted some stuff on Etsy. I've also been watching isane amounts of The Wire. I had heard great things about it so I bought the 5 season box set for my boyfriends Christmas presents, and it's really just a bonus that I wanted it too! I'm already into Season 3, and I don't want it to ever end, it's written so fantastically, and for once a tv show that doesn't assume I have remedial intelligence. It also helps that I'm more than a little in love with the main character McNulty, a consumate bayboy but very beautiful.

Body issues

Womens body identity is an issue close to my heart, and is something that I've been meaning to write a post about for a long time, and it was when I read this , that is spurred me to say something. I have in the past had very black and white ideas about female beauty and how we feel about ourselves and our bodies. On one hand my business is in fashion, an industry notorious for promoting the anorexic look, and ignoring anything resembling a narural female body.In college I shaved my head, didn't wear make up for years, never wore a bra, and generally wore mucky drab clothes. Somewhere in my head I thought this was a statement about female empowerment and an unwllingness to conform to an idea of what a woman should want to be. It was something I needed to do at the time, but I was denying myself a lot through my militant feminism. I wasn't willing to let anything 'girlie' in for fear that I would become trapped under a preasure to be beautiful.
Most women I know don't like their bodies, thankfully as I get older the women around me grow enough to learn to accept what they have and hopefully at some point they will love it. I've seen too much of anorexia to know that the path of self loathing only leads to destruction. I'm not sure what this post is about except that I have a great sadness inside after the things I've seen friends do to themselves, something has to change about how we live as women. Especially at this time of year when every ad on tv is trying to tell you another way to feel inadequate about yourself. I don't diet, I don't feel guilty about food, and I refuse to berate myself about how I look...maybe it's a start.

You might find this interesting on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUUAgZ8f1OU

Thanks for my 15 mins of fame

Wow I'm really bowled over by the response. Thanks everyone for all your lovely comments, and hello and welcome to all the new readers that I got today. I should try to be on telle more often! I just wanted to post a this and say I'm going to bed a happy woman tonight!...Thanks everyone!!
Also here is a link to where you can view it on the RTE website, although hopefully I'll be able to stream the video onto this blog soon.

Death Wish Computer

I think my computer has a dead wish. It wants me to kill it, to pick it up and throw it out of the second story window beside me. If I have another day like today it might just happen. After lots of swearing, screaming and pleading I got another few things posted on etsy today. It's a pitiful amount compared to what should be there but I'm blaming this suicidal machine on front of me.

A collection of animal feelings

Well last month I was busier than a bee, and new years day I was limping and sick as a dog with the flu, so next month I'm aiming for the cat that got the cream, and then progressing onto happier than a pig in shit. I might as well be optomistic.

Between sniffles and sneezes I posted some stuff on etsy.

Post Christmas post

So how was your Christmas? Mine was suitably full of food, presents, and christmas cheer, sprinkled with family and love. It's been such a long time since I've been home, September-eek I'm such a bad daughter, it was lovely to see my family again. All the kids look so grown up, my dad looked really well, and everyone seemed so excited that we were together for a happy reason after the crappy year we've all been through. Santa brought me some lovely things, some great books, and easily the most comfortable pajamas I have ever worn(and am wearing right now). I think the biggest surprise was my present from John. He got me a voucher for Danny Bulmans tattoo studio!I already have a large tattoo on my back that for years I have been saying I would finish and bring all the way up to my shoulders. Now that I have the funds I'm half excited/half aprehensive, which is odd cos I'm always black and white about everything. I think it's cos I'm such a wuss when it comes to pain. Either way it was a very thoughtful present.

In other news, keep an eye on my etsy shop over the next week as I now have time to update it after all the holiday madness. I also have to get it looking extra fantastical for all those hits I'll get from being on RTE this coming Monday. In case you don't already have it pencilled in, this Monday 5th Jan I will be on RTE1 on Nationwide at 7pm.

Bleary eyed but happy

I did it!!!I finished my first order for Olive, the new shop in Ennis that is selling my clothes. I wanted to have pictures to post, but it was down to the last minute...I was still sewing in buttons in the car on the way there. So hopefully that will be the first of many deliveries. Within an hour I sold 2 coats, which I must say is pretty exciting. So the first hurdle is over, now I just have to get over this weekend and then I'm free to sleep and drink as much as humanly possible. If the sewing fairies would arrive early that would be the best xmas present ever. I've been awake now for 32 hours(and working for most of it), I'm gonna stay up for another 4/5 and finish a few things for tomorrow.

On a happy note I woke up yesterday to find that my wonderful boyfriend had walked across the whole city with a christmas tree on his back just for me!! So I took a wee break to decorate my beautiful mini tree. Whenever I walk into the dimmed sitting room I get a little flutter in my heart, the lights, the smell, it's all so evocative of another lifetime.

Ruth is not Dead

No I have not died, or ambled into an unseen ditch, or climbed into my wardrobe for a very long sleep. I'm still frantically spinning my xmas plates.I've let a couple drop, missed a deadline or two, stopped blogging, let my etsy shop go to crap. But I've also started 2 new markets, been captured by the magic of television, and the BIG NEWS, got an offer from a local boutique to sell my clothes, cards, and mirrors. As thrilling as the whole tv RTE thing was it has been eclipsed by this. I'll actually be selling in a real shop, with other real designers. It was a proud moment when I rang my mother and told her about it. It's been a crazy month. In fact now that I think of it it's been a crazy year.

Year in Review:
Quit my Bar Job
Got waitressing job
Started my business making clothes
Did a diploma in graphic design
Did a cetificate in web design
Friends got engaged
Dad got Cancer
Big sis returns from New Zealand
Went to electric picnic
Went to Edinburgh
Taught art to kids at Summer Camp
Friends got married
Siblings got pregnant
Got a credit card
Opened my etsy Shop
Made my first online sale
Was filmed by nationwide for RTE
Invited to start selling in a boutique
Was featured in 1 newspaper and 2 magazines
Taught John how to use photoshop

Things not achieved;
Didn't learn to drive
Didn't win the lotto
Didn't get a weeks holiday away with John
Didn't bake a cake