It’s starting to feel decidedly wintry here in Beastie Towers these last few days – the trees outside are almost bare, and the sun seems to be getting up ever later every morning, and having A LOT of early nights! So I’m sure you can understand why I was very happy to discover this last update from adventurous Irish Beasties Paddy and Plunkett in my inbox this morning… The final installment of their recent Croatian adventure! Care to join us as we take a sunny wander through the cobbled streets of Poreč, a pretty harbour town on Croatia’s Mediterranean coast?
Plunkett is certainly enjoying himself here – the back streets are so peaceful, and this place is brimming over with history. The town centre stands on the site of a Roman castrum (or fortified military camp), which was established there in the 2nd century BC. Then, a century later, Poreč (or Parens, to give it its Latin name) was officially declared a city, and it’s been continuously inhabited ever since. It hasn’t all been plain sailing though – during its lifetime, Poreč has survived almost complete destruction by the Genoese in the 14th century, a nasty brush with the Plague a couple of centuries later, and Allied bombings during the Second World War. Oh, if these streets could talk!
Meanwhile, Paddy is more interested in THIS…
However, since it was still quite soon after breakfast, he agreed that it was probably better to have a nice cup of tea instead.
But what’s going on over there?
It looks like they’re setting up for a wedding party!
“Oh Plunkett, let’s go! There might be some free cake and champagne!”
“No way, Paddy! Anyway, you can’t – it’s bad luck to show up at a wedding wearing white unless you’re the bride.”
“Ah, you’re probably right. I’d hate to upstage her with my beee-yooo-tiful smile!”
With that settled, the boys decided to take a stroll down by the harbour.
And then Paddy spotted this…
“Hmmm… Rent a boat? Yes please!”
“This one looks perfect… Nice and speedy!”
But Plunkett isn’t so sure.
“NO WAY am I letting you drive that thing, Paddy!”
Fortunately, Paddy has a plan up his woolly sleeve…
“Don’t worry, Plunkett! Meet my new friend Captain Jack… He says he’ll get us back to Ireland no problem, and it’ll only cost us 3 barrels of rum!”
Hmmm… Does anyone else think this might not be such a good idea? Hopefully we’ll catch up with Paddy and Plunkett again soon, but I’m not making any promises!
And before I go, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to some fellow bloggers, who have been keeping me cheerful this past (hectic!) week with their kindness and generosity. Check out this haul of happy mail!
The box of goodies is from Jan at The Snail of Happiness, who sent me something from her garden (I can’t say any more on that one until after Christmas), plus some incredibly soft Welsh wool (I’m mentally running through project ideas already), locally-produced soap and a lovely card. Best of all, everything now smells deliciously like zesty black pepper – glorious! Then in the front, there’s one of Tierney’s (from Tierneycreates) little wallets, which I was lucky enough to WIN in her 4-Year-Blogiversary Giveaway! She’s been making these little wonders from leftover quilting fabrics, and it’s such a neat, lightweight purse. Plus she also included a handmade card, made from upcycled old business cards! So once again, thank you both – your parcels have really made me smile this week!
I’ll be back next Tuesday with more monster adventures, so stay tuned! Have a great week, everyone!
For the sports fans out there, a couple of Hurling Beasties joined the team – one in Dublin colours, and one who appears to hail from Kilkenny!
I’d hate for anyone to miss out on Frankenstein’s Monster Beastie, for starters! I have to admit that I kind of love the bolts in his neck and the random lines of stitching holding his sweet green face together.
And yes, I still make these!
Next, how about we take a look at where these fibres come from? Now, I know that farming is hardly a squeaky-clean, environmentally-friendly enterprise. I realise that sheep are prone to all manner of parasites and diseases, and that the chemicals required to prevent against these nasties taking hold are probably pretty nasty themselves. But let’s not forget that synthetic fibres are extracted from crude oil, and held up against the oil extraction and processing industry, even the most intensive sheep farming comes out looking pretty angelic.
Explorer Beastie was tempted to freewheel down twisty Fishamble Street on this greenery-bedecked bicycle, but fortunately I was able to talk him out of it. Let’s just walk the rest of the way, perhaps?
And sure enough, it wasn’t long before we found ourselves in the narrow cobbled streets of Temple Bar!
And look… There they are!
The Beasties will be guests at Cow’s Lane Designer Studio for at least the next month, so if you’re in the area, please do pop in and say hello! All of them are eager to meet you, and maybe find their forever home!
Ta-daaaaah! The people have spoken, and they’ve come out in favour of a calendar gap year. Although I reckon I’ll really have to deliver on my promise to get something bigger, brighter and better together for 2019! It’s also interesting that the idea of abandoning the calendar altogether was the least popular option – I’ve been happy to discover that I’m not the last person on earth who depends one of these primitive devices to stop my world from descending into chaos!
Delicious! Burger Beastie seems to be especially enjoying the whole picnicking experience.
If you’re in any way craftily inclined, you’ll find so much to love on Melissa’s blog… Although her enthusiasm for all things woolly and yarny is really quite infectious, so even if you don’t know your knit from your purl, you might find yourself getting sucked in! What makes Melissa different from so many other craft bloggers out there is that she takes a look beyond her own works in progress, and taps into the growing community of people involved in producing the wool she knits and spins. This takes in everything from visiting farms (and getting involved in the sheep shearing!) to meeting indie dyers and pattern designers. One of my favourite recent posts was her interview with 
I love checking in with Shirley’s blog. I think it has a lot to do with the way she writes – her calm, warm voice just puts you at ease, and it’s like you’re meeting a good friend for coffee and a catchup. Shirley is another person who is all about handmade, and her posts are mostly about what she’s got on the go at the moment – she knits, weaves and is a super-talented illustrator. She also loves to read around her interests, and I’ve so enjoyed sharing in her library finds (or special orders)… Especially when she comes across something with a crafty theme! Lately, I’ve been avidly following her first foray into working with reclaimed yarn (
Wow, haven’t they changed? Unsurprisingly, this first post of mine got no likes… at least not until Noémie from 
Urrrgh, again with the terrible photography! Isn’t it lucky that I was trying to rehome Beasties that weekend, rather than photographs? That said, I was pretty surprised that I had to put up this sign on my table halfway through Sunday afternoon…
And thus, a Maker of Monsters was born! From there, it was a short leap to taking on my first commission…
… And by now, I’d picked up two of my longest-standing followers, who I still try to keep up with. Knitters will find lots to love on 
Look at him there, hanging out with Ampelmann in Berlin! And by the time he’d taken the first of many trips to Co. Roscommon, in the western midlands of Ireland…
… We’d picked up another BeastieBlog lifer,
Barróg Beasties (the name is the Irish word for “hug”) have gone on to become some of the most popular Beasties out there… Especially the ones with pints of Guinness or little Aran sweaters! Oh, and it’s around this time that
By now, we’d been joined by 
That year, I also found some great new blogs through WordPress’s Blogging 101 course – including one of my favourite travel blogs, 
It’s also been fun to see more people getting in touch with pictures of their own Beasties’ adventures – like 
Aaaand that’s probably enough gushing from me for one day! I hope you enjoyed this whistle-stop tour of Beastie history – it’s actually been fun for me to look back through the archives as well. It’s also made me realise that, although there are a good few people who have been with me since the early days, I’ve encountered a whole LOAD of interesting and inspiring bloggers in the last few months. So I’m saving my “who I’m reading now” list for a future post, coming up in a couple of weeks!
