Tag: Holidays

Paddy and Plunkett Head to Portsmouth

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Beastie Family

Paddy Over Portsmouth! CrawCrafts BeastiesThese adventurous little monsters can’t seem to get enough of life on the high seas! After their recent visit to the National Maritime Museum in Co.Dublin, Paddy and Plunkett have resurfaced in Portsmouth – a city with centuries of naval history to its name. Coming as they do from an island nation, it’s little wonder that they felt immediately at home here – Portsmouth is the only island city in the UK!
Paddy with the Spinnaker Tower - H Crawford/CrawCrafts BeastiesEver eager for excitement, the first thing they did was to climb the Spinnaker Tower (that’s it in the background of the photo) and get a bird’s eye view of the city. This is always especially thrilling for a Beastie, since they spend most of their time significantly closer to the ground. Check out that view!
Plunkett Inside the Spinnaker Tower - H Crawford/CrawCrafts BeastiesMind you, I nearly had kittens when I saw this next photo…
Beastie Freefall! H Crawford/CrawCrafts BeastiesFortunately there’s a nice thick layer of glass floor to keep the boys airborne – for a moment there I was certain they’d decided to take up BASE jumping!

Their next outing was a bit more sedate – a trip over to the Isle of Wight by hovercraft. They got a great day for it… Here’s Paddy posing with The Needles, a line of chalk stacks that’s one of Britain’s most famous natural landmarks.
Paddy on the Isle of Wight - H Crawford/CrawCrafts BeastiesThey made some friends while they were there too!
Paddy and Plunkett with their New Buddies - H Crawford/CrawCrafts BeastiesPaddy with his Isle of Wight Friends - H Crawford/CrawCrafts BeastiesPlunkett's Dinosaur Collection - H Crawford/CrawCrafts BeastiesWith all this exploring, the afternoon just zipped by! So much so that… uh oh! Is that the hovercraft heading back to the mainland without them?
Paddy watches their lift home vanish over the horizon! H Crawford/CrawCrafts Beasties

YIKES!

Will Paddy and Plunkett ever make it back to Portsmouth? Or are they going to be marooned indefinitely on the Isle of Wight? You’ll have to wait until next week to find out…

Beasties, Beans and Banners… My Market Day!

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Info, Knitted Beasties

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)!

 

Explorer Beastie Rocks!

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Explorer Beastie at the Volcano

Another postcard from Explorer Beastie this morning! It turns out he’s quite the amateur geologist, and he’s been spending a few days checking out all the exciting stuff his destination has to offer. In the main picture, he’s peering into the caldera of an extinct volcano. There seem to be plenty of those around!
Volcano

He’s also been scrambling through the lava fields…
Beastie Climbing Lava

… carelessly.
Tumble in the Lava - Oooops.

He even met some of the local wildlife in amongst the rocks…
Explorer Beastie with Lizard

… and discovered some interesting Beastie-sized caves.
Beastie Caves?

Later on, he found some more elegant rocks – a local green gemstone called Olivina, polished and teamed with black obsidian (volcanic glass) to make some pretty spiffy jewellery. Maybe I can expect a present…
Olivina Shop

Anyone know where he is yet?

So That’s What He’s Been Up To…

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Explorer Beastie Reappears!

At last! After nearly a month of waiting by the phone/computer/letterbox, I have finally had word from Explorer Beastie! It seems he has taken himself off for a bit of a holiday, and I was worrying over nothing. It would have been nice if he had invited me too, but I suppose it’s a lot easier (and cheaper) for Beasties to travel alone. He made it to the airport without incident…
Airport Beastie

… and hit the Duty Free, where he made some stripey friends.
Explorer Beastie With Tigers

He must have slept for the entire flight, because the next photo I have shows him enjoying a coffee in a distinctly un-Irish location…
Beastie Coffee Break

… then he checked into his hotel…
Explorer Beastie at the Hotel

… hit the beach for a while…
Catching some rays, Beastie-style

… and then worked up an appetite before dinner.
Cactus Climbing

Apparently Beasties get a real kick out of climbing cacti! You learn something new every day…

The only thing is, I still haven’t been able to figure out exactly where Explorer Beastie is. He’s promised some more photos over the next couple of days, which should help, but are these surroundings looking familiar to anybody yet? Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas!

Beasties in Berlin

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Explorer Beastie

At last! Explorer Beastie has finally had a chance to venture off this windblown, rain-soaked island on the edge of Europe and see the wider world for the first time! As you can see, I didn’t let him go unprepared – he got a handy guidebook to help him find his way around.

Top of the TV Tower

First stop – a look at the city from the top of the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) in Alexanderplatz!

Fernsehturm

We also had a photo opportunity once we got back on the ground… and then Explorer Beastie made friends with Ampelmann, the “pedestrian crossing guy” unique to eastern Germany.

Ampelmann

And that was just on our first day. Unfortunately, these are the only photos from the trip that survived. I’m not sure whether to lay the blame at the feet of a temperamental memory card or a faulty reader, but somewhere between camera and computer everything was lost and it’s only thanks to my hard-working, tech-savvy boyfriend that I have any pictures at all! Oh well, I suppose we’ll just have to go back…

It’s Market Day!

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Info

My Craft Fair Stall

The Beasties and I had a great first day at the Ranelagh Christmas Craft Fair! This is how my stall looked just before the doors opened this morning, and a good few of these are off to new homes tonight! Not bad for a first attempt… We’ll be heading back tomorrow, and I’m going to have to try VERY hard not to spend too much money at the other stalls.

Here are some of the Beasties who left with new parents today:

Ghetto Blaster Beastie

Ghetto Blaster Beastie – inspired by 80s films and my ongoing love of cassette tapes.

Punk Beastie

Punk Beastie – shown here in close-up so you can admire his safety pin piercings and blue mohawk. I love this photo, it cracks me up every time I look at it!

Schoolboy Beastie

Schoolboy Beastie – since the Craft Fair is being held in a school hall, it made sense for me to include a school-themed monster! As well as the official uniform of felt tie and cap, this guy has a hand-stitched leather satchel.

Carrier Bags

I also spent a bit of time yesterday making my own carrier bags – not very high-tech, but they were fun to do. And that’s all that matters! More tomorrow…