Time For a Little Monster Magic…

Harry Potter Beastie, by CrawCrafts Beasties
It really has been wall-to-wall commissions for me these last few months! With so many awesome requests coming in, it does make me wonder if I’ll forget how to come up with Beastie ideas by myself… but I’m not going to worry about that too much. Especially if all my special orders are as fun as this one! Please welcome Harry Potter Beastie to the BeastieBlog!
Harry Potter Beastie (without his scarf this time), by CrawCrafts Beasties
Harry Potter Beastie is just like his namesake – from his spiky black hair to his trademark glasses!
Harry Potter Beastie Closeup, by CrawCrafts Beasties
You can also just about see his famous lightning-shaped scar poking out from under his hair – definite proof that he is indeed the “Beastie who lived”!

And of course, he could hardly head to Hogwarts without his trusty wand…
Harry Potter Beastie's Wand, by CrawCrafts Beasties
Although it looks similar to human Harry’s wand from the movies, this special Beastie edition is made from feltwood, with a core of rarest Polyfill fibre!

Beastie Harry has also brought along his favourite school textbook to show you… Yes, that is indeed “The Monster Book of Monsters”!
The Monster Book of Monsters, by CrawCrafts Beasties
Just be careful not to take the…
The Monster Book of Monsters Attacks! (CrawCrafts Beasties)
… belt off it. Ooops!

Still, with a little magical wrangling…
Harry Potter Beastie Recaptures The Monster Book of Monsters! (CrawCrafts Beasties)
…This badly-behaved book can even be made to pose nicely for the camera!
The Monster Book of Monsters (1) by CrawCrafts BeastiesThe Monster Book of Monsters (2) by CrawCrafts Beasties

Harry Potter Beastie in full Gryffindor Uniform, by CrawCrafts Beasties
And finally… yes, I know it’s summer term, but I couldn’t resist knitting a cosy Gryffindor scarf to complete Harry Potter Beastie’s uniform! After all, you can never tell where his adventures will take him next…

By the way, if you want to accompany him on these adventures, you can! Within minutes of meeting his new Beastiebuddy, Harry Potter Beastie had his own Instagram account. You can find him there as @harrypotterbeastie, or non-Instagrammers can take a peek here!

In other news, the rest of the Beasties were so taken with Harry Potter Beastie’s online antics that they insisted I join Instagram too! If you don’t have enough monster madness in your life already, come and join the party – we are @crawcraftsbeasties!

Ooops! Or, Liebster Award – Part 2

Oh dear. I knew there was something a little off about my post yesterday, and it’s taken me until this morning to realise what it is… I somehow managed to leave one of my favourite blogs out of my Liebster nominees list! So please, drop everything you’re doing and go and visit Stitch Boom Bang! immediately. I’m a big fan of Heather’s work, and her witty, interesting posts always make me smile. You can also pick up some of her pieces for yourself at her Etsy shop!

Now that’s fixed I can go to work with a clear conscience! Have a great day, everybody 🙂

Oh Looky! A Liebster Award!

About two weeks ago, the very lovely Roma at Craft Odyssey nominated me and the Beasties for a Liebster Award. While we were all supremely grateful – her adventures in cottage renovation, crafting and keeping a neurotic cat and exuberant puppy in check never fail to make us chuckle – time to consider her questions and pick out some fellow bloggers to nominate always seemed to elude me. Until now! Well, better late than never…

Now, bring on the questions!

1 Tea or coffee ?
TEA. With a capital T-E-A.

2 What was the first book you remember reading ?
Possibly “The Nickle Nackle Tree” by Lynley Dodd. A few years ago, I was working in a bookshop and a new edition came in. Before putting it on the shelf, I opened it and had a flick through… it was like meeting an old friend again!

3 What is your favourite pastime ?
Hanging out with Boyfriend, watching horror films and knitting monsters. Yes, I can do all three at once!

4  What one item would you buy if money was no object ?
I wouldn’t buy a thing… but I would take A LOT more holidays.

5 Name an ambition you harbour
I’d love to have my own craft studio. Although I suspect it would end up looking like this:

(Image of Francis Bacon’s studio sneakily borrowed from http://www.francis-bacon.com)

6 Describe your perfect day
Cold and rainy outside, warm and cosy inside and no reason to leave the house! Extra bonus perfect day points would be awarded for the inclusion of copious amounts of tea, home-made tasties and craft beers. Oh, and if I were to try out a whole lot of new ideas for Beasties and have them all work out exactly as I imagined on the first attempt that would be AMAZING.

7 Describe yourself in 3 words
I couldn’t possibly.

8 What can you see from your sitting room window?
For now, more houses. But when the trees get their leaves back in a couple of months, it’ll be a jungle out there!

9 What made you start a blog?
I just wanted a place to showcase and archive pictures of my Beasties. I never imagined for a second that I’d end up as part of this great online community!

10 How did you come up with your blog’s title?
I stole it from the name of my little crafting business!

11 Where will you go next time you leave the house?
It looks like it’s going to be the supermarket. I lobbed everything in the kitchen into an improvised stew last night, so the cupboards are officially bare. Oh, the glamour!

Next up – the random facts!

  1. I can’t drive a car.
  2. I speak a little bit of Japanese.
  3. I lived in France for a year when I was a student.
  4. I wasn’t won over to the merits of beer until I was in my early twenties.
  5. I walk everywhere. Well, within reason.
  6. I grew up in Northern Ireland, but I’ve spent pretty much my entire adult life in Dublin.
  7. I once worked in an office for a year. That was enough.
  8. I’m a real wimp when it comes to spicy foods, but I LOVE mustard and wasabi.
  9. My one big indulgence is holidays.
  10. I’ve seen the Northern Lights.
  11. I still have real difficulty making lists of random facts about myself.

Thanks for reading! Now, the important bit – the nominations! I choose…

The Snail of Happiness – A blog about all the things that are good… handcrafts, living sustainably and, most recently, cheesemaking!

Funky Air Bear – For divine hand-knits, homebakes and life in Canada.

Make+Do – Lovely handcrafts and savvy business advice.

A Rottweiler at The Cottage on the Green – Okay, this one is a VERY new arrival… but I have a feeling Oscar the Rottweiler has a great blogging future ahead of him!

I’d also like to give honorable mentions to Tatie’s World and Beak Up Crafts – Roma already nominated them, so I’m sure they don’t want to have to come up with another 11 interesting facts about themselves just yet, but if you haven’t checked these blogs out already, you really should!

Nominees, your questions aaaaare…

1) Christmas or Hallowe’en?

2) Trip to the cinema or night on the town?

3) City break or sun holiday?

4) E-book or paper book?

5) Ghost stories or fairy tales?

6) What’s your favourite treat?

7) What’s the first thing you ever made?

8) What do you like most about where you live?

9) What’s the most interesting (or weirdest) job you’ve ever had?

10) What’s your favourite childhood memory?

11) What, for you, is the best part of writing a blog?

Should you accept this award, you’ll need to know the rules, which are:

1: Acknowledge and accept the Liebster Award by leaving a comment on the blog where you were nominated.
2: Copy and paste the Liebster logo onto your own blog.
3: Link back to the blogger who awarded you.
4: Answer the 11 questions put to you by the person who nominated you.
5: List 11 random facts about yourself.
6: Nominate and link to 3—11 other blogs you enjoy that have less than 3000 followers
7: List 11 questions for your Liebster Award nominees on your blog.
8: Inform your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog.

And that’s it… looking forward to hearing from you all! Have a monster week…

Taking Care of Beastie Business!

Winter Beastie by CrawCrafts Beasties

Ah, January! Cold, dark days, nights that begin at 4.30 in the afternoon and the Christmas lights in the streets haven’t been taken down yet, but they aren’t being switched on any more either… Well, that’s what’s happening in Dublin, anyway. So, what better time for me to tackle one of my New Year’s resolutions head-on, and get the Beasties’ Etsy shop going again?

Etsy Shop Window

Ta-daaaaaah! My first three listings went live this morning, and I’ll be adding more over the next few days. If you have a spare second, please pop over and visit the Beasties in their new online home… Etsy’s such a massive place these days, I’m worried they’ll get lost in there! I’d also love to hear any feedback you might have about the shop, or your own experiences of buying or selling online… tell me all about it in the comments!

Happy Friday everybody, hope you all have a monster weekend!

Beasties, Beans and Banners… My Market Day!

Market Stall with Banner

Yikes! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last posted something! I’ve been pouring all my days into preparing for my latest market, and it didn’t leave much time for anything else… between the knitting, stitching and coming up with some new ideas to freshen up my display, I’ve been somewhat reclusive these last few weeks!

But the madness is over, and now that I’ve taken a couple of days to catch my breath, tidy up the stray balls of wool and (GASP!) start my Christmas shopping, it’s really high time I sat down and shared all my news.

First of all, for any of you who haven’t stumbled upon the Beasties’ Facebook page yet, I’m proud to introduce my new Santa Beasties – freshly arrived from Lapland!
Santa Beasties!More Santa Beasties!

We’ve been experiencing some pretty polar-type weather here lately ourselves, so I’ve also been wrapping up some of my new Beasties in cosy hats and scarves…
Winter BeastieChristmas Gift Beastie

…And I couldn’t resist making a Christmas Fairy Beastie to sit at the top of my Christmas tree!
Christmas Fairy Beastie

But the surprise hit of the day was my new range of cuddly toy beans!
Beasties and Beans
I got the idea for these from my friends Stephen and Yayoi. Before they picked out a name for their baby girl, they called her “Mame-chan”, which means “little bean” in Japanese. I thought it would be fun to make a little toy edamame (soy) bean from some lime green fleece fabric I had in my stash, and I actually sold a couple of “Mame-chans” at my pop-up shop back in May! For this market, I decided to add a couple more characters – a sassy pink Jellybean and a Chilli (or, more correctly, chilly) Bean with a woolly beanie hat and a big chilled-out smile. And the kids loved them! I’ll definitely be making more of these… I’ve already got a few ideas for some more beany friends!

While I was getting my team of Beasties and Beans ready to go, I started thinking about my display. A while back, a friend of mine suggested I make a banner to help make my stall more visible. I liked the idea, but hadn’t a clue what to put on the banner. Then finally, inspiration struck…
Banner Sketch
… and after an afternoon of literally watching paint dry in the freeeeeeezing underground car park of Beastie Towers, I came up with this!
Finished Beastie Banner

I’m still trying to convince Boyfriend that this masterpiece of monster art deserves a place on our living room wall…

Aaaaand finally, something else I’ve wanted to do for a while is to try my hand at making some Beastie t-shirts. What better opportunity than the flurry of activity/panic that comes with preparing for an upcoming market? Since my mum had very kindly agreed to help me on the day, and had said, “Yes, I’ll wear anything!” I went ahead and created these…
Beastie T-shirts
And here I am modelling mine on market day! This won’t be the last time I wear this shirt… I kinda love it!
Me and my Beasties
Thanks for stopping by… more Beastie adventures coming soon (I promise)!

 

Sweet Charideeee…

Indie Rock Beastie

A UK-based Beastie enthusiast contacted me recently to ask if the Beasties and I would like to help her out with a little fundraising. She’d already done all the hard work, by taking part in this year’s RideLondon, an 86-mile long road cycle through London and Surrey, to raise money for three charities that are especially important to her – Ebony Horse Club, North West Air Ambulance and The Injured Jockeys Fund. Despite occasionally torrential rain, she managed to smash her target time of 8 hours, making it home in just over 6. Even reading about it made me feel exhausted, so I was happy to get involved in a more crafty, sofa-based way!

So, where do the Beasties come in? Well, if you pop over to Suzanne Allen’s Ride London, you’ll see that she’s very generously offering donors the chance to win prizes… one of which is Indie Rock Beastie, pictured above! Indie Rock Beastie has been out and about on the festival circuit for the entire summer, and figured this was a great opportunity to give something back.With his artfully tousled mop of black hair…
Indie Rock Beastie closeup

… And awesome hand-sewn checked shirt and guitar…
Indie Rock Beastie Shirt and Guitar

… he’s sure to draw a crowd to his first-ever charity benefit gig!

Anyone who donates a unique amount between £5.01 and £29.99 will be entered into the prize draw, and Indie Rock Beastie is looking forward to heading to his new home already! Go on, try your luck!

 

 

Come dive with me…

Diver Beastie

Every now and again, Beastie development takes a bigger-than-usual leap forward – often when I take on a commission, which pushes me out of my comfort zone and gets me thinking of new methods and accessories. And this was definitely the case with Diver Beastie! He taught me a lot about diving equipment, and encouraged me to experiment with some new materials in my quest to shrink human-sized tanks, regulators and dive masks to Beastie proportions. So, without further ado, I’m delighted to introduce Diver Beastie! Let’s take a look at all the cool stuff he has…
Wetsuit, Line Cutter, Dive Knife and Watch

Diver Beastie lives in his wetsuit. You can just about see the snazzy yellow flashes down the side of his legs in this picture! The red thing hanging from his belt is a line cutter –  although he’s also carrying a dive knife (inspired by every James Bond film I’ve ever seen), knives aren’t permitted in some diving sites. The line cutter is a safer tool, which can be used to cut through tangled or snagged lines. It’s always best to be prepared! Diver Beastie is also very proud of his watch/dive computer, which you can see on his left wrist. He also has…
Diver Beastie Flippers

… Felt flippers…
Diver Beastie Tank

… An air tank…
Diver Beastie Mask and Regulator

… A dive mask and a regulator! Put all that together and you get…

Finished Diver Beastie!

One Diver Beastie, ready for action!

Then it was time to send him off to his new home… in Texas! He was very keen to swim there himself, but I managed to talk him out of it… the last thing I wanted was for him to end up as a shark’s lunch. Also, going by plane is a lot quicker. And it looks like he arrived safely! He now lives with two fellow diving enthusiasts, and enjoys borrowing their equipment…
Diver Beastie in Texas

…Marvelling at their enormous human-sized dive tanks…
Diver Beastie with Tank
… And scooting around in a conveniently Beastie-sized Landrover, which also came over from Ireland!
Diver Beastie with Landrover

Thanks to Tracy for sharing photos of Diver Beastie in his new home! And to everyone else for keeping up with the Beasties and their adventures – talk to you again soon!

Exciting News!

Beastie Group

Oh dear! I have been a rather lazy blogger these last couple of months! But there has been a lot going on behind the scenes, and now I have news aplenty to share!

First of all, a while back I selected an elite Beastie crew, which included most of the monsters you can see in the picture above, and sent them off on a top-secret mission. After bundling them up in bubble wrap to protect them from the whims of the Irish weather (and also to keep them entertained on their journey)…
Goth Beastie, ready to wrap!

…and tucking them in with plenty of colourful tissue paper…
Beasties away!

…we were ready to take a trip on the Dart!
Box of Beasties!

The team was dropped off at a strategic location, and then all I could do was sit back and wait to hear whether or not their mission had been successful. There were tense moments, sleepless nights… but hurrah! On Friday I received word that all has gone according to plan.

And what was this top-secret mission, you ask?
Beasties go online!

Only a move into the world of high street and online retail! The lovely people at Opening Minds are now selling Beasties on their website, and will be introducing them into their Dun Laoghaire store in the next couple of days! I could not be more proud of my little monsters!

Meanwhile, all has not been quiet on the home front either. Because Beastie Towers has relocated! Beasties, Boyfriend and I have been settling into our new home in a surprisingly quiet part of Dublin’s city centre. We are now enjoying an unprecedented amount of natural light (excellent for making fiddly Beastie accessories), greenery and – SHOCK – birdsong instead of traffic noise! I’ve also finally been able to liberate the rest of my crafty supplies from storage, giving me so much more fabric and yarn to play with. I can’t wait to get started!

Speaking of which, my knitting needles are calling… I should have a heap of new Beasties to share with you soon!

Been a while…

New Big BeastieHoly moly! Where has the last month gone?!

Well, for starters, I’ve been taking a few steps towards making my largely sofa-based cottage (or, more accurately, apartment) industry into a more business-shaped concern. I’ve started keeping proper accounts, declared myself to the taxman and put together a Beastie information leaflet, so I can share their stories with even more people without having to leave the house!

Unfortunately, while these things are significant, they don’t make for particularly interesting reading. I’m also reasonably confident that my readers would soon tire of photos of me sitting in front of my computer. So, that takes care of the first couple of weeks of my absence.

The OTHER reason I’ve been away is…
Creative Collective Shop…We have a new shop!

This beautiful, quirky little gallery space in Dalkey, South Dublin was offered to Creative Collective Ireland in the middle of this month. They very kindly invited the Beasties to take up residence there, alongside an all-star cast of gorgeous jewellery, fashion and homewares. Of course, we all jumped at the opportunity! After a  hectic few days of painting, furniture moving and shelf installation, we opened our doors to the public at the weekend. And the best part is that we’re here for the summer! The shop will be open every weekend (Friday-Sunday) until the end of August. So if you happen to find yourself in Dublin, drop in and pay us a visit! Even if you can’t make it, you can still find out more about Creative Collective and the shop on our Facebook page.

Of course, a new shop means new Beasties! I decided to put together a couple more All-Irish Beasties to get the ball rolling…
All-Irish Beastie - PintPint Beastie Close-Up

I couldn’t resist making one with a pint! And I also took the opportunity to break out some classic book-based puns…
All-Irish Beastie - Wool-lyssesWool-lysses Close-Up
All-Irish Beastie - Woolly-ver's TravelsWoolly-ver's Travels Close-Up

I also brought along one of my super-cuddly Big Beasties, just to look after the smaller ones…
Big Beastie

I’ll be sending more Beasties down to Dalkey to join these guys soon! Stay tuned for pictures…

Chef Beastie Revisited

New Chef Beastie

At the last market I did, one of the Beasties who attracted the most attention was my Chef Beastie. Oh look, here he is:

Chef Beastie

So when I was deciding which monsters to include in my line-up for the Pop Up Shop I’m doing at the minute, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to revisit a classic Beastie and make a few changes. All my Beasties are unique, after all! As you can see from the main picture, New Chef Beastie has a more fitted apron to protect his stylish red trousers, and he’s clearly not going to the same dentist as my first one. I also thought I’d update his accessories…

Carrot and Knife for Chef Beastie

Well, only a little bit. The felt carrot was such a hit last time that I just had to give him one of those. But since I have spent the last while honing my weapon-making skills, I thought I could probably trust him with a felt kitchen knife.

Et voila! Beastie is served!