Happy campers

I know it's been more than a while and as much as I feel really guilty about it I have a multitude of good reasons! Apart from the general mayhem associated with trying to work two jobs at once (one as a sales-assistant and the other being my trying to get my handmade jewellery venture off the ground!) the other big reason for my absence from the web has been the addition of Bumble-Bee, a bright yellow '81 VW  camper van to the family! We've wanted one for years and years and FINALLY we found the van of our dreams. Needless to say I wasted no time whatsoever in getting her kitted out in super-retro 70s cushions and matching bunting :D

When I haven't been busting my butt in my spare hours working on my jewellery, we've been scooting up and down the Cork and Kerry mountains in the big yellow fun bus, including a weekend excursion to our first ever VW meet-up, which was unbelievably good fun!

Here are some snaps from a wee road trip we took with some old friends of ours a few weekends ago, we first went to Sherkin Island via the ferry, then to Baltimore for a night, then onto Glengarriff, Kenmare and through the Killarney National Park before heading back to the city. Even though we froze our butts off the first night (we don't have a heater in the van just yet) we did have more than our fair share of incredible sunsets over the weekend, as well as a night out around a glorious camp fire, beside the sea and under a harvest moon, not bad for the end of October! It was a really great way to finish off the camping year :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Paul, Benny and Podge for taking some of these amazing shots! We had a lot of fun taking turns with our Canon and it's so nice having pictures taken by so many different people to add to the collection.

By the way, I also got my Etsy shop (also see my cool new Etsy widget on the side of this page) and Facebook page up and running, please stop by, like and/or follow if it takes your fancy! I could do with all the support I can get :)

Robin Egg Blue

 I stumbled across this picture this morning and I just had to share :)

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Exciting times!

 

I am more than a little bit excited to anounce that the Ruby Robin Boutique Facebook page and Etsy shop are finally up and running! I'm going to be working like crazy for the next day or two to get the Etsy shop jam packed full of new goodies, but in the mean time (if you simply can't wait that long) you can have a snoop around the albums on the Facebook page to see what's up for grabs!

What I wore and thrifty treasure

 

Blouse: Thrifted/Pennies

Wool skirt: Handmade

 Belt: Accessorize

Cardigan: Thrifted/A Wear

Shoes; Thrifted/New Look

Ring: Handmade

The last two Sundays we went to some fantastic carboot sales, Rathcormac and Castletownroche, where I found myself this very pretty six person coffee set (for *gasp* a measly twenty euros!)  and these two lovely shiny tacky ornaments for our ever expanding collection of kitsch. If you happen to live in Cork and love digging through piles of junk in search of unloved treasures as much as I do, then I can't recommend you check these two carboot sales enough. At Castletownroche there were even old ladies selling ham sandwiches and tea, such joy! Info about these two and many more around Cork and Ireland can be found at Collect Ireland.

Oh so quiet...

So I had great plans for posting something absolutely fascinating this week to compensate for my terrible lack of blogging of late, but alas I have succumbed to an absolutely miserable sinus infection that's being doing the rounds here in the south and am completely incapacitated for the foreseeable future :(  I've been in bed feeling horrible for the last four days now, dosing myself with refined carbohydrates and watching shamefully bad Disney movies from the nineties in an attempt to make myself feel better ASAP before I run out of holidays to actually have some fun with (I'm on two weeks holidays from work, woo!) Even though I feel like someone's beaten me round the sinuses with a sledgehammer I can't get over the incessant urge to get on with all the plans I had for my time off, so I'm probably working way harder than I should.  I'm just glad I got on with one or two things before I got all manky and sick. My to do list for the next two weeks looks something like this;

* Organize my craft space
* Get lots of tags and boxes made for my shop
* Figure out how to make decoupage brooches
* Spend a few days traveling the ring of Kerry with my boyfriend and visit my parents for a night or two on route
* Get my Etsy shop up and running, including taking lots of product pictures and figuring out postage  rates
* Get the Little Ruby Robin Facebook page up and running
* Finish a dress I cut out and left to gather dust months ago
* Write up a tutorial on altering thrifted dresses for the blog
* Do a decoupage brooch tutorial for the blog
* Visit friends in Wexford
* Make lots of stuff and then sell it all at The Fair Alternative on Saturday(I had a really good day there last week, so fingers crossed that it wasn't just beginners luck)

After a week of brutal decluttering and flogging of un-needed craft supplies at the flea-market it feels so good to have my craft space in a half-way civilized state. I got myself a little table and stool for my overlocker which has made a crazy difference to my peace of mind when I'm working. I absolutely hate working in a messy or disorganized space. Now my space is all ready to go I'm itching to get on with some  sewing so I am going to do my best to get the tutorials up for you all as soon as I'm feeling better.

After coming across this amazing Etsy shop and having a snoop around all her amazing designs, I really want to recreate this lovely little number for myself, only in red..

The one benefit to being housebound for the last few days has been that I have made lots of lovely little trinkets just in time for the Fair Alternative tomorrow, including lots of brand new designs! Here's a little sneak peak..

Decoupage brooches, this is my favourite, I'm obsessed with Blue-Tits, they're just so cute.

My new range of 'Key to my heart' pendants, featuring patina bird charms, Czech glass sparkly bits and tonnes of vintage charm...

And the piece I am most excited about by far, my new 'Time for Tea' rings, featuring a teeny tiny cup of tea (with lemon like your grandma has it) served in the most delicate floral bone china and two delectable little chocolate chip cookies, hand sculpted my moi! I spent all day yesterday fiddling about with fimo and glue and my oven which only has two settings (off' and way too hot) until I got these guys bang on. It took a while to figure out colouring the fimo and how to not burn the crap out of it in the oven but it was so worth the heartache in the end, they're so sweet aren't they!?

 

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 Miniature cups of tea side, my most exciting little bit of news is that we've decided to expand the fluffy portion of the family and fulfill our long term ambition of getting a miniature Dachshund :) 

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My boyfriend's been desperate to get a dog for ages even though I've been steadfast against it because of all the extra responsibility it would inevitably lead too but seeing as we have a lovely flat and garden, great neighbours and it would make him so happy there's not much to argue against it anymore. Not sure what the cats are going to think about it, but I'm sure a puppy will make great Bengal fodder for Sputnik upstairs!

I've had a soft spot for Dachshunds for years so it seemed like the perfect compromise as they are so teeny tiny (the Kaninchen type, which we want, stand a piddly 5-7 inches tall, seriously), cuddly and easy to transport on a bicycle. Seeing as they generally like snuggling under the blankets, they're also pretty much as close to a cat as a dog can get!

We want a black and tan long-haired female but it's seems to to be really hard to find one in Ireland, they're not a very popular dog here. I hope we find one soon, I'm not sure how much more anticipation P. can handle. I've been in touch with all the clubs and big breeders but haven't heard of any pups going any time soon. I guess we'll just have to be patient.

 In the mean time I've been shamelessly researching adorable little woolly jumpers to dress her up in, P. even wants to knit her little tiny scarves for cycling around town in the bicycle basket :D The pattern for this specially designed extra long dachshund jumper is available from Lenas Legacy HandKnits on Etsy.

That's it from me for now, I have made a promise to myself, that if I get nothing else done in the next week or two I will finally get myEtsy shop up and running, even if I only list one thing, so I'll keep ye posted on any updates. Hope you guys are having a satisfyingly productive week!