How many more sleeps…..

December is here and it is feeling a lot like Christmas. The Belmullet Christmas market was last weekend and today the Christmas jumper and music is on! The shop has been decorated and we had a lot of fun doing free decorations. We've posted a few on our Facebook page so we hope you like them. I hear on the grapevine the local scout group is trying out our cardboard chimney so I'm delighted. 

We have so many lovely things in the shop its great to see what people can make. We have lovely handmade decorations, Irish food hampers, Christmas Jumpers, Stocking Fillers for €5 and under and of course our usual array of fabulous handmade goodies. 

The one thing this year that I'm sure you've all heard about if you watched the late late toy show are our fairy doors. They are wonderful for capturing the imagination of the kids. We even had our very own fairy move into the shop. Our fairy door went in and we used our chalkboard paint to get some ideas for the fairy and now we have Finan the Fairy living with us and keeping watch over the shop at night. 

We've had a lot of lovely comments about our Christmas window. With a  bit of imagination we transformed our window into something warm and lovely. The theme come in from the cold is hopefully a nice invitation to our customers. 

So we hope to see you over this festive period and to come and enjoy a bit of cheer with us. 

R x 

Halloween

Well the clocks have gone back and I was very grateful for that extra hour in bed. Each year  the joy of the extra sleep softens the hail of the arrival of winter. The long, stormy nights are here and Halloween is on the horizon.

Halloween has always been a magical, mysterious and superstitious time. And with it come some lovely Irish traditions that I'd not heard of. Last week at the Erris Chamber Bingo they were giving out Bracks (fruit loaf!) and I natively asked what the bread was for. Through the chuckles I was told it's a Halloween tradition and there is a ring buried in the brack. In 18th century Ireland a matchmaking cook would bury a ring in the mashed potatoes hoping to bring turn love to the person who found it. 

A customer told me that on Friday that the Irish never really made much of Halloween which surprised me a little as it has it roots in a Celtic Festival. To quote the The festival of Samhain marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the darker half of the year. Celebrated from sunset on the 31st to sunrise in the 1st traditionally it was a time when cattle were brought down from the summer pastures and animal killed for the winter.

It was a time when spirits and fairies and the festival was a bridge to the dead. Feasts were had and a place set for deceased family calling them to return. People would go from door to door in disguise reciting verse in exchange for food. They would light fires and use the disguises to ward off the roaming ghosts. Pope Gregory III designated Nov 1st as All Saints Day and the evening before became known as All Hallows' Eve.

I like Halloween - it's a great excuse to be a big kid again. There are lots of easy decorations and great costumes to do. And next week we will be getting into the spirit of things with our holiday club and haunted house party. With tricks and treats for adults and children we hope to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis West a great charity building a fantastic facility at Castlebar Hospital. We hope you will come along and join the fun. x 

For those of you that want some Halloween Inspiration visit out Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/lunasacraft/halloween-autumn/

Warning - some people may find the contents of this blog offensive!

I was in Dublin recently and I lost count of how many times I heard the C word
It's September and the weather is amazing but it was being talked about like it was the middle of December. Unless you are a dedicated crafter you may find it offensive to be talking about Christmas this early (Well what C word were you thinking of?). If you're into making things you've probably been thinking about it already and you don't mind the days drawing in and the weather taking a more autumnal turn 'cause its the perfect excuse to get making. 

In fact the crafting calendar always gives you something to look forward to. The summer ends and you are making for Halloween, two months after the end of August, and Christmas is two months after Halloween. You can spend January recuperating and maybe indulge yourself in the sales and then come February you have half an eye on Easter and all the joys of spring. Then before you know it it's summer again! There's no time to get the winter blues when you crafting. 

To be honest last Christmas was probably one of the most unmemorable ones I ever had. The shop had just opened (which of course was amazing) and we were playing catch-up pretty much most of the first year so I didn't really get chance to think about Christmas until around about mid October early November. Tom was working and neither my nor Tom's family made it over this Christmas. And because I was so late thinking about it, there was no big build up to get really excited about it. 

As soon as 15 August was over this year it was almost like flag to say go go go and I've been thinking about Christmas, all the things I can make, how to decorate the shop and what gifts I'm going to make for everyone. I found a fantastic recipe for a pudding to try tomorrow and although it feels a bit odd to be getting a suntan and then going inside to make a Christmas pudding I love it. 

But don't worry if you just can't bear the thought of it at this time I've put them away in a special little corner. If you want to sneak peak come in and give me a secret Christmas Shimmy and I will show you where it all is. So the first few bits for a handmade Christmas have started coming in. We have some really fabulous fabric, craft supplies, beautiful ribbon, card making kits and lots of little bits.

Where has the summer gone!

I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I wrote a blog post! The summer has flown by and as our mini makers and their parents think about getting back to school I want to hang on to the last few weeks of the summer.  It has been a fantastic few months helped massively by the general good weather….well except for the Hen weekend in the UK when we got very wet at Newmarket races. 

We have hit some pretty incredible milestones this summer. The biggest being our 1st birthday which we celebrated in great style. It was a beautifully sunny day as it has been on the 1st of August for the last few years.  We had a brilliant party which was helped hugely by the presence of West Mayo Brewery. We raised €600 for Cystic Fibrosis West with tea, coffee, cake and beer, I was touched by people's generosity and their help with cakes, prizes etc
Tom was on hand being a very good husband and seemed not to mind that once again our wedding anniversary was overshadowed by my small but expanding business. He had been working hard to get everything ready and I am very grateful. 

Oh yes and we have expanded. We now have a furniture and vintage room upstairs and a new workshop and store room. Our challenge now is to paint furniture fast enough as this has proved very popular so far. 

However my proudest moment over the summer was at the Erris Agricultural Fair. I was very proud of how the dogs behaved but was delighted to see one of our mini makers had entered her apron from the sewing class in the show and won 1st prize. Well done to her and all the other. 

We had lots of our makers in doing what they do best and showing off their crafts and we had a great day at the Heritage Fair and Fair Day. 

Wow after all that surely it must be time to put my feet up….well for 5 mins anyway. I am currently working on our course schedule for the autumn. You're going to love it!

Make your own memories

When I think about all the places I've travelled sometimes its hard to remember all the details. I love collecting little bits along the way and these things bring back memories that really capture the essence of a place. Some of the mosttreasured  souvenirs that I have are things that remind me of an experience I had that the photographs just can't convey.

I have a some wool from a sheep that I sheered in New Zealand and a small bit of woven cloth I made with some women in Tonga. A picture that I helped the little boy paint at the homestay in Samoa. I love to keep my battered guide books and travel souvenirs and reminisce and if you do the same you’ll know the power of objects to evoke a time and place. 

Crafting is a great way for you to make some of your own treasured possessions that you can bring back from the road, and remind you of the amazing experiences behind them.

That's why we came up with our 'Give it a go' sessions in our workshop. And it's not just for the tourists. It's a great way to spend time with loved ones or celebrate a special occasion. 

We have something for everyone from glass painting to embroidery. 

Being kind to myself.

Well last week was again busy busy busy. But by the end of the week instead of feeling invigorated I felt a bit flat. I do a lot of thinking (often at the expense of sleeping) about the business and I love that it keeps my brain active. So why last week did I feel so flat?

Well when you have your own business it's simply the way that you have to turn your hand to anything. I was manager, painter and decorator, marketeer, planner, cleaner, shop rearranger, supply manager, accountant and web developer.

My favourite part of the week was the 1.5 hours on Thursday evening with the sewing class but the one thing I wasn't last week was maker.  

You can escape for a while painting the wall but there is no creativity in it! I'm happiest when I'm being creative. 

I can be doing anything and an idea pops into my head. It generally kicks around there for a while until I get chance to do a bit of research. After a lot of surfing the net and thinking about how to make it I get down to it. Sometimes I like the product as soon as its finished and other times I can't decide if it works. 

For the ones I'm not sure about I will do more research.... which means leaving the product on the counter or the table. No comments is feedback in itself and any comments spark a conversation. 

I might then make changes and make it again. 

It doesn't have to be a long process but sometimes the creativity can be as simple as planning the window or the shop display or how to show a product. 

So while Tom is away this week on the other end of the spectrum doing a science exam I'm going to be kind to myself and create.....

It's all go at the co-op

It's a silly expression, maybe it's from an old advert or something, my dad used to say it sometimes when things were really busy….and boy have we been busy.

It feels like it's been non stop since we got back from our holiday and this is suppose to be our quiet time!  And I suppose you are wondering what we are at……

Well the most exciting this is we've been working on the rest of the building and 'phase 2' is almost complete. As you've passed you may have seen or heard the workmen hard at it. They will be gone this week and then we will be hard at it getting it ready to open. The room downstairs will give us more space to display our wares and space for the drop in sessions that are really taking off lately. (More on that next week) As news of the shop has spread we have had more crafters approach us and now stock over 30 regular suppliers from around Mayo. It's great to see the talent that is out there and we are delighted to be able to give them a chance to showcase and sell their work. 

We've done a bit of work on our upstairs workshop and that will hopefully be complete this week as well. We are now one of only 11 stockists of the amazing Autentico chalk paint. I've been waiting for this to be available in Ireland and now it is I didn't hang about. And the furniture seems to be flying out quicker that we can paint it so we have dedicated space to create our masterpieces. So you can come up and see what we are working on next. 

The other project that is underway is our new website. It's still work in progress but should be 'live' by the end of the month with some of our lovely products and we will be adding m more as we go along. 

I haven't been doing all this alone. We were recently joined by Mollie Henry who is working full time in the shop. She is bringing her creative talents to help us as we embark on all our new adventures. She did the new 'Made in Mayo' window packed with all the great stuff crafted round the county. 

Our Holiday courses for Easter were fully booked for the two weeks. It was great to have the sunshine for the two weeks and we had a bit of fun outside in the back yard. We are busy trying to get some new courses for the Autumn to get your creative juices flowing in ways you never knew possible!

Well better get back to it. I'll tell you more about our Phase 3 next week and the new extended drop in sessions.