A new shop for me!

Hi there!

Once again it has been a long time between posts, I don't know why, but I haven't really found my blogging rhythm this year, but there has been plenty happening behind the scenes!!  

I guess the biggest thing that has happened since I last posted is that I've moved Little Woollie Makes Yarn Store into a proper shop in Hastings, a town not far from my home.   I no longer run it from home and it feels much more legit!

It has been a big decision to move into a shop.  Would it be the right move? Could I cover my rent?  Plus all the other expenses that crop up with a lease?  Would I find more customers?  Would they buy from me?  Would I get bored being tied to a shop all week?   There were plenty of unknowns!!

In the end I just decided it was time to give it a go,  if it doesn't work at least I will have given it my best and will not die wondering!  So the last few months have been a whirl wind of leasing a shop, setting it up, moving everything from home to here, and getting open!  Luckily I have an awesome family that have given me a lot of help and been very encouraging and supportive, it would have been a lot harder without them!

So you know what?  I am now running a local wool shop!!  Yay!  I can hardly believe it myself!!

Little Woollie is no longer just an online shop,  people can come and give the yarns a squish and see all the beautiful colours in the flesh, much better!! :)

I have to say, I have had so much fun over the last few weeks, setting everything up, meeting lots of gorgeous yarn loving people who all get what I'm trying to do here, it is so good!!

I have a lot more space than I did at home, so I have been busy sourcing new stock and approaching suppliers on my wishlist, so many new things coming into the shop over the next few months, it's going to be great!

So here are a few pics I took of the shop this morning, it is looking nice and colourful at the moment, I really like coming here to work each day! 

......my green table and chairs is a nice place to work at, and I popped my 'little woollie' sign up too, it still gets lots of nice comments even though it's looking a bit the worst for wear these days! 

....there is pretty much yarn everywhere you look! :) .......

......I am trying to get  more patterns in store, I didn't really stock patterns when I was at home, so it has been fun seeing what I can find.

....My dad made me some great peg boards so I could hang up the skeins of Ultra Pima Cotton, I am so happy with how this looks, so good to see all the colours in one glance!  there are a few holes where I've sold out of some colours, but I have more stock coming so it should be refilled soon! :) 

The shop is at 1/99 High St, Hastings, Victoria, on the Western Port side of the pretty Mornington Peninsula, if you are ever down this way, pop in and say hello, I'd love to meet you! 

(One other good thing about working in the shop is that I don't get distracted by home things, so  I am trying a new thing where I write a blog post every few days, we will see how it goes!  I have lots of things to share with you! ) 

Have a great day everyone, signing off from Little Woollie headquarters in Hastings!

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Friday Finds #44

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Hello :)  

It's been a long time since I did a Friday Etsy Finds post, but here is it back again! 

I have found a lot of new shops on Etsy through Instagram, so I thought I'd share a few of these talented peeps! 

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1. thedollsunique  I adore the whimsical dolls in this shop, all so individual and so so cute!  Beata is the creator of these beautiful dolls, I think she does an amazing job! 

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2.  I love the interesting animals and the level of detail in the artwork of  AshleyPercival.  There are so many quirky art prints to be found in this awesome shop! 

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3. I recently came across the gorgeous  patterns for felt embroidered decorations at mmmcrafts, this is the shop of Larissa Holland, she is in the process of producing a set of patterns for the 12 days Of Christmas, it is a work in progress, but the first 6 or 7 patterns are available at the moment.  I would love to make these for next Christmas, I think it will probably be an all year project! Aren't the beautiful! 

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4. CraftywoolFelt This shop has a great range of colours in 100% wool felt, I'm keeping them in mind for when I start making my felt decorations! :) 

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Thats it for today, I hope you all have a great weekend! 

I'm off to the Twilight Emu Plains Market tomorrow, although they are predicting a very hot day, 37C if they are correct, I am thinking of pulling out of the market if it's going to be that hot, I'll have to decide in the morning...... anyway, stay cool if you can in Melbourne, 

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Little Woollie at Pomme

Hello! How has your day been? Good I hope! 

I have lots of things to share with you and have a backlog of posts in my head, so  I thought I would start working through them and  show you something exciting that happened a few weeks ago.  I was asked by the lovely Sue if I would like to do a window in her gorgeous shop Pomme in Mornington.  

I said yes please!! :) 

So I packed up some of my Little Woollie Makes and on a Friday morning a few weeks ago I went to Mornington and we installed a window of colourful woolly things to cheer up the chilly grey winter we are having.  The girls at Pomme know how to display things so well, they made all my things look so good! 

Its all coming down later this week, so if you're in the Mornington area, pop in and say hello to Sue and Lisa and check out all the gorgeous things they sell from other artists and designers, there are so many beautiful products in Pomme, I feel very honoured to have my woolly makes along side them for a while! 

For everyone who lives too far away to visit in person, here's a few pictures of the window looking quite bright and lovely! 

 

....and here how it looks from the cosy inside of Pomme. :) 

Anyway, it has been an interesting experience and I've enjoyed seeing how my work can look all together, I had thought there might be too much clashy colour, but they actually all work together quite nicely!  Who'd have thought! :) 

Have a great day people!  xxxxxxxxxxxx

5 Friday Finds #43

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Hello there! 

I have another Friday Finds post for you today, it's been a while since I've done one of these, but I found myself browsing through Etsy and found a few lovely new to me shops and also some great new work form some old favourites! 

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1. I love the wood blocks that Nora Leschinski carves and paints, and she has a lot of new blocks in her shop leschiwelt.  I think they look great in a little group or just as a beautiful individual piece. I think I might have to add this gorgeous green and white flower one to my collection!

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2. Aren't these hand painted speckle skeins just amazing! They are from the shop supercraftygirl, by Andrea Karcher, with great names like 'Special Snowflake' and 'Participation Trophy' . 

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3. These fabulous knitted vegetables are the handiwork of Anastasija and are for sale in her shop MapleApple.  There are lots of different veggies here, eggplants, leeks, beetroots, potatoes, radishes, sweetcorn and many more!  They are perfect for little peeps pretend play or big girls just to admire and display!! :) 

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4. I also had a peek at erinswindow, one of my favourite ceramicist, she has a shop full of sweet bird charm necklaces, plus a few of her whimsical bell people, just so lovely! 

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5.I really like the street and cityscapes that I found in the shop lauraamiss, Laura Amiss is the talented artist whose work can be found here, there are lots of different cities from around the world represented in her shop, plus some lovely whimsical pieces.  Here prints are available in lots of sizes, so there's something for everyone here! 

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So that's my 5 finds for this week! 

Have a lovely weekend everyone, I hope you get to do something fun or relaxing or exciting or interesting! 

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A Very Cute Shop!

Hi there!  How has your day been?  Good I hope!  

It's been a nice day here too, a bit of crochet, a bit of shopkeeping, a bit of cooking, and a bit of housekeeping, fairly cruisey after a busy day of wool orders yesterday. 

Over the weekend we went on a little road trip to Ballarat and I had a look round some very cute shops.  I thought I'd show you some pictures of The Crafty Squirrel, a super cute shop filled with crafty bit and pieces and so many things to look at.  I had a nice crafty chat with the lovely owner Morgan, and really admired her patchwork curtain doors. I think I might have to make some patchwork curtains for my studio, something colourful and crafty, just what I've been looking for! 

Needless to say I found a few things (quite  a few!) that came home with me!  I always like to buy a few souvenirs to bring home and remind me of our road trips. :) 

We also visited Playing in The Attic, Trudy's lovely stationery shop that used to be in Meeniyan but is now in Ballarat. I bought a few things there too, but I forgot to take pictures of all the pretty things while I was there! :( 

So, what did you get up to on the weekend, or is it already too far away now that it is Tuesday night!

Have a great night/dayeveryone, I'm off to watch some mindless telly and do a bit of hooky! 

Talk soon! xxxxxxxxxxx

5 Friday Finds #40

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Hello! How has your week been? 

It has been a busy one around here, I am always so surprised how quickly Friday rolls around! 

I am feeling quite organised that I have managed to get a Friday Finds post up on a Friday!  That hasn't happened for a while. :) 

I'm hoping next week that I'll have lots of newsy posts to get up here, lots of new things in the shop and I have been making lots of things for the up coming market season that I'd like to share with you all. 

Anyway, today my 5 Friday Finds from Etsy are here ! 

Enjoy! 

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1. Michelle Robinson from PoppyandBliss has done it again with this gorgeous geometric pattern made using tunisian crochet.  I'm loving the colours, and I have been wanting to give tunisian crochet a try, so here is the perfect project fro me! :) 

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2. EEchingHandmade is the shop of a very talented doll maker named Kho Tain Ching, I just love these amazing characters! Have a look in her sold section to see how clever she is and for lots of gorgeous dolls that have found new forever homes.  She must have trouble keeping her shop stocked as I think new dolls would be snapped up pretty quickly! :) 

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3. I love the range of laser cut buttons for sale at katrinkles, Katy Westcott's shop is full of very cute buttons like these leaves, that can have simple embroidery added for a lovely touch. :) 

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4. These rainbow spotted bowls from  Baskakova caught my eye, I do have a soft spot for colourful ceramics! Anna Baskakova is the talented ceramicist from London who makes these lovelies! :) 

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5. Speaking of colour, I love the slightly retro feel to the colours in this print found at hillarybird , the shop of illustrator Hillary Bird.  There are lots of other gorgeous prints to check out in this beautiful shop! :) 

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That's it for today! 

I hope you have a lovely weekend and do something that makes you happy. :) 

Talk soon! 

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5 Friday Finds #39

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Hello there! 

I thought it was about time I got back into my Friday Etsy Finds posts, I've been giving them a little rest, but I think it will be nice to start them up again for this second half of the year.

So here's what I've spotted for this week! 

1.Allison Hoffman's amazing shop craftyiscoolcrochet  is full of patterns for the crochet geek in all of us!  I love these Wild Things characters, and her Doctor Who crochet patterns are fantastic! :) 

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2.I love the simplicity of the ceramic apples and pears found at Lilyceramic.  Akiko Honda is the talented ceramicist behind this shop, isn't the colour beautiful in this pear ! :)

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3. Speaking of colour, check out the gorgeous shades in this had dyed yarn from PeepalooFields! 

So many beautiful vibrant yarns to drool over in this shop! Shari Scheider is the dyer behind this piece of yarny heaven, what a clever lady! :) 

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4.There are lots of little felted vessels at theYarnKitchen, Stella Melgrati makes these super cute succulent containers and felted bowls and other eco friendly homewares.  lots to like in this shop! 

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5.I couldn't resist visiting one of my favourite artist's shop thisisalliknow, I just love the work of Amanda Blake, there are quite a few new pieces here since I last visited,  so many beautiful images!! 

I know I have shared Amanda's work before, but this is such a pretty picture!!

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So that's it for today, I hope you're having a good weekend, we have just spent the day in Bendigo, I had a lovely couple of hours at the Sheep and Wool Show, but that is a whole other post for tomorrow!! 

Talk soon! 

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weekend road trip...

beautiful cards at Playing in The Attic

Hello there!  I hope you all had lovely weekends and got to do something fun.  

I had a little weekend away with Gary, well it was really only 24 hours away from home, but sometimes that's all you need to feel like you've had break.  My husband is partial to the road trip and enjoys driving, which is fine by me, I enjoy watching the scenery change and doing a bit of car crochet, so we are a perfect match really! :)  

We went down the South Gippsland coast and stopped in the town of Meeniyan for lunch. I also got to visit Playing in the Attic, the lovely shop owned by Trudy.  I have been following Trudy's blog and Instagram accounts for a while now, so it was lovely to meet her in person and indulge in a bit of retail therapy in her gorgeous shop!  So many beautiful things, stationery, magazines, washi tapes, art supplies and so many other cute things, it is a really lovely space!  I ended up bringing quite a few things home with me!  

Actually, there were several beautiful shops in Meeniyan that I couldn't resist, I added to my cute crockery collection with some very special floral cups from another shop ( I can't remember what it was called now :(  ) 

Here's a  few photos of Trudy's shop. 

.......I got a fair bit of this blanket made as well, so bonus there! 

.......we stayed the night in Inverloch on the South Gippsland coast, this was the view from our room's verandah, it was a chilly day and sea was quite wild, I love how the wind has made the gums grow twisted and spindly, a typically coastal landscape.....

.....I went for a nice dusk walk, it was getting very cold by then, so I didn't venture too far, but the sky was quite beautiful.  It was great to get away from the routines of our normal life and we had a lovely dinner and some good chatting over a few relaxing drinks. Noice.

......I tend to go a bit of a magazine binge when we do road trips, don't really know why!  Here are a few of the mags I bought over the weekend! ( Also found a newish copy of Simply Crochet in a newsagency, we don't get that locally so I had to buy it! :) )  Lots of good reading here, and I guess the colouring book isn't really a magazine, so that doesn't count. :) 

Now it's time to get on with this new week, I have quite a busy one planned, although my car is playing up so I might be more house bound than I intended.  I have a newsletter to get out, a yarn club to plan (exciting!!), a blanket to finish, crochet classes to run, and new stock to source and order!  

Lots of fun work to be done. :) 

What's on your plate this week? 

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