Hey there everybody, and happy new year to you all! I hope you had a lovely Christmas/Beastmas/holiday season, and that you’re all ready to tackle 2020… We certainly are here at Beastie Towers!
So, it’s been a while – what have we been up to since we last sat down for a chat together? Well, the headline is MARKETS!
In 2019, I took a big leap and had a go at organising my own craft fair! I rounded up a group of my favourite local craftspeople, and met some awesome new makers as well.
It was A LOT of work, but I really enjoyed the challenge. Heck, I’d even consider doing it again in 2020!
I also had a few other market dates in the calendar as usual – the Beasties and I always love to get out and meet our public. Here we are at the Dublin Cat Fair!
And of course, there were a few commissions in the mix, just to keep me on my toes! I can’t wait to introduce you to all these new additions to the Beastie family over the next couple of weeks!
But before the Christmas madness set in, let’s not forget that Explorer Beastie and I skipped town for a couple of days to visit friends in London! He’s looking forward to sharing his holiday snaps with you all.
Finally, with everything else that was going on in the last few months of 2019, creating a 2020 Beastie calendar didn’t quite make it onto my to-do list. That said, I depend on mine so much that I ended up rejigging the dates from last year’s so that I could reuse it! I was just going to keep it all to myself… But I’ve decided to add it the Beastie Store as a free download if any of you want to grab a copy. Click here to go directly to the listing!
Well, hopefully that’s whetted your appetites for a fresh year of monster mayhem! Now I’m looking forward to catching up with all of your news… Be sure to say hi in the comments so that I remember to swing by your blog!
We’ll be back next week with more from June Beastie, who made a surprise visit to Paddy and Plunkett at Beastie Towers a couple of months ago. If you missed it, you can pick up the thread of the story here and here.
“Oh yeah! Look at that!”
Then…
Alright, time to get back to the studio! We’re heading to the 
…But there’s still plenty left for curious Beasties to explore! Let’s join them as they’re taking a breather in the peaceful environs of the arboretum. What great, deep conversations are they having on that elegant stone bench, I wonder?
“Reminds me a bit of the scenes on Endor from Return of the Jedi, this place.”
Or how about a round of hide and seek? There must be millions of good hiding places in here!
“Found you, Paddy! Now it’s my turn to hide.”
“…I’ll be able to see everything!”
It originally graced the entrance of Bamberg Cathedral in Germany, and is 240 years old! It also recently had a facelift, and even the attendant eagles on the pillars got a shiny new coat of gold paint.
“Come on, Plunkett! Nearly there!”
“This had better be worth it… Oh, look at those statues!”
“And what’s that up on the hill?”
And, at journey’s end, they find themselves in a very peculiar place.
It’s the old family pet cemetery! Much less scary than the one in the Stephen King story, this one has memorials to faithful hounds and, if you look at the older headstone on the right, less conventional “pets” like cows get a look-in too.
“Greetings from Powerscourt House, everyone!”
Powerscourt House is in County Wicklow, and it’s only about half an hour south of Dublin. You wouldn’t think it, would you? The house is set in spectacular and varied gardens, and has made Lonely Planet’s list of the 
So, while Plunkett has been enjoying the spectacle of the house, Triton Lake and the Italian Gardens, all set against the backdrop of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, where has Paddy gone? I thought he’d at least be trying to persuade one of those winged horses to take off and give him an aerial view of the grounds… Oh wait, there he is.
… And wait by the stone lantern for Plunkett to catch up!
The Japanese Garden was created in 1908 by the 8th Viscount and Viscountess Powerscourt, making it one of the newer features of the grounds. But funnily enough, the boys stumbled on one of the oldest parts just around the corner – the grotto!
“Paddy, look at all this wonderful moss!”
“Paddy! It’s a Beastie-sized waterfall! I could stay and watch it all day…”
I found Knitter Beastie hanging out among the plants in my studio, on the day I was going to meet one of my long-term knitting students for a goodbye coffee. This student had been a regular at the classes for a while, and we’d worked through some awesome and ambitious projects together. But alas, her time in Dublin was coming to an end, and she was moving home to Germany to continue her studies.
“Reeeeeally? I’ve always wanted to see Germany… And I could probably use a bit of help with this project, too.”
And with that, it was decided. Knitter Beastie hopped into my bag, and pretty much insisted on leaving the country with my student. I hope they’re getting on well… And that Knitter Beastie hasn’t been raiding all the local yarn shops in the hope of whipping up a few woolly monster friends!
We’re just down this passageway, in the open-plan Back Loft area! Turn the corner and…
Please excuse the mess… I’m still in the process of moving in! A bit of that craftsplosion I mentioned earlier will definitely take care of those empty walls and clear tables, too.
… While still having a separate fabric-cutting and ironing station!
And here’s a sneaky peek at some of the communal spaces. I’m really looking forward to relaxing in the roof garden this summer.
Today, I brought along the first (and most important) decorations for my studio walls as well – pictures and cards from some of my Beastie friends! Perhaps a few of you will spot something familiar in here…
Oh… And one more thing. This studio comes with a free feline friend! Hey there, Ophelia!
Isn’t she pretty? Expect to see a lot of her in future posts! Apparently she has a bit of a thing for yarn though, so I’m making sure all my storage boxes are kitty-proof!
Ooooh, look at that Christmas tree!
Then I lost him for a moment – I could have sworn he was right next to this leaf and berry arrangement a second ago!
Aha! Found him. That’s some pretty good camouflage, though.
That’s better!
