I'm a Cover Girl

Me ... a cover girl !!

If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram you will already have seen this and are probably saying "Oh not again!"  But for those of you that missed it I made it as a cover girl last week!

I was interviewed by the lovely Maria Moynihan from Irish Country Living (a supplement of the Irish Farmers Journal) and photographed by the lovely Carol Dunne a few weeks ago for what I thought was going to be a small 'piece' in the supplement.  However, the day before it hit the shelves I was met with a picture of my kitchen shelves on their Facebook page and a hint of what was to come.  

The next morning my mum was up at the crack of dawn and arrived at my house with three copies, and crusty rolls and cooked sausages.  Gosh we were far too excited to cook breakfast!  The kettle was switched on, Dad was called in from the shed and we all flicked through the pages to read my article.  I have to admit I was totally shocked when I opened the paper and seen a page and a half spread, as if the cover wasn't exciting enough!  

As with all these interviews one does feel slightly nervous coming nearer to the publishing day as you never quite know how what you have said is going to be interpreted.   I need not have a worried a second.  Maria wrote the loveliest of articles and nothing was embellished nor wrong.  Everything was just as I had waffled on to her on the day she came to the cottage.  As for the photos, Carol was spot on.  It;s funny, not one of my friend's could work out the where the rusty red galvanised background was!  Everyone is so used to seeing me in my kitchen or at the front of the house.  My Dad was quite pleased with himself at getting mentioned in the first few sentences and my boyfriend slightly embarrassed, but I'm sure equally chuffed all the same at getting a mention.

  

So there you go.  I may be the plumpest I have been in all my life (crusty rolls and sausages obviously don't help with that) but I made it as a cover girl! 

I've had such a lovely reaction to the article in the form of emails, facebook, twitter, instagram and over the weekend of the Lamb Festival so many people came up to me and congratulated me.  It's been just lovely. By the way, my dress, as I've had so many questions, was 5 quid in Asda :o) Slapping my imaginary back pocket with a smile. 

But now I must pass the baton on to the next lovely cover lady and look forward, as always, to reading the inspiring stories of fellow entrepreneurs in Irish Country Living.  I hope you do to.

Before I forget the article included a competition to win a weekend break for TWO to Roscommon, with two nights B&B in Gleesons Townhouse + 1 evening meal, including a full day workshop with yours truly.  So if you haven't got your copy you better rush out and get one now to enter.  Otherwise the details of the competition are here:

Thank you again to Maria and Carol for a lovely afternoon and all the lovely lovely lovely people who have been in touch.  The most common question is "Can we come and visit your house".  I'm afraid not.  I'm not open to the public, apart from random events I host.  If you would like to be kept informed of these you can sign up to my newsletter (follow this link).  Otherwise details of my workshops, products and events will appear on my website. 

Ta Ta for now !

Roscommon Lamb Festival

It's that time of year again, can you believe it !?

The Roscommon Lamb Festival is just over a week away. 

This year you will find me at the launch of the Festival in Roscommon Mart on Wednesday 1st May from midday with Frances Crowe Fibre Artist where we will be launching our very own event called 

Fleece to Piece 

On Thursday 2nd May Frances will be hosting a free workshop at her studio in Four Mile House demonstrating spinning and weaving from 11am-1pm.  Then from 2-4pm I will host the second part of the event at my cottage where we will use the wool created that morning to put together a final 'piece' (which is top secret for now) to be unveiled at the Wool Craft Village during the Family Fun day in Loughnaneane Park. 

As you will see from the pic below it promises to be a fun filled fibre day!

The Wool Craft Village is moving from it's usual location and this year will be part of the Family Fun Day in Loughnaneane Park.

We have a variety of crafts people on hand to demonstrate spinning, weaving, feltmaking, knitting, crochet and wool embroidery.

there may even be some live sheep shearing !!

As if that weren't enough I will also be exhibiting at the Festival.  I will be taking a stand in the Made in Roscommon tent (situated in the town square in front of the Bank of Ireland) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday selling all my handmade, homemade lovelies.  I have been very busy working on lots of new stock over the past few months so I'm excited to showcase it all at the Festival.  

Don't worry there will still be lots of my usual items including baby onsies with farm appliques 

and lots of knitting themed items. 

Hope to see some of you there!

It's May Bank Holiday Weekend 2nd-5th May

It's not all about craft though the festival celebrates lamb in many forms - this year there is a food trail where lots of local producers are opening up their premises for you to come and visit, there's music, entertainment, the infamous Brazilian BBQ and the Aileen Cust Memomorial Celebration celebrating the first female vet in Ireland.  That's just a snap shot though.  Check out the website for more details. 

As if that wasn't enough excitement, the talented young chef Donal Skehan will be popping by the Festival too with his new vintage van, Gertrude.

So what are you waiting for!?  Get online and check out the website for the festival and plan your fun filled weekend in Roscommon.

Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeep Stitching !!

Midweek Madness at Midday

Hello all my lovely bloggers

How are you all doing?

Sitting here beavering away at my laptop with the sun shining in but with fingers and toes that are as cold as ice.  When oh when is the weather going to get better?

Hopefully this will put you all in a bit of a good mood ... I'm having a bit of a 

Midweek Madness 

clearout/sale on Wednesday at midday so if anyone fancies popping along you can just head on over to my 

michellemadethis facebook page 

I'm going to sell off some of my old stock, and even some new stock to make room in my already bursting at the seams cottage for new supplies and new stock.

I expect to be selling most items at half price so there will be plenty of bargains.

If you could share this with any of your fellow bloggers/friends/facebook pages etc I would  be every so delighted but appreciate lots of you also sell your own handmade goodies so it may not suit.

In the meantime hope you're all having a magnificent Monday!

I'm off now to ...

Chat soon x

Thank you to all the Daffodil Knitters

Just a quickie to say a gargantuan 

T H A N K   Y O U 

to all the fabulous ladies who joined me and my mum in a marathon knitting session to knit up daffodils for Daffodil Day. 

Thank you to the ladies in my Thursday night & Friday morning Knitting groups - Mum, Phil, Kathleen, Mar, Maura, Christiana and Florence especially who knit bags of daffodils!  All the ladies who came to my Knit a Daffodil Night including Kathleen, Brid, Theresa and Phil from Kilteevan ICA who knit bunches of daffodils!!

You're all amazing because without your help and effort we wouldn't have raised so much.

The plan was to knit 100 daffodils and sell them for 5 euro each, all of which would go to Irish Cancer Society.

I am totally thrilled to say that we raised a whopping

730.00 euro

Not bad considering we did this in a matter of weeks.  

We're still knitting them at the cottage on Knit Night so next year we hope to double, maybe treble that amount!

Thank you again to everyone who knit and donated daffodils and wool and to all the people who sold the daffodils, especially my mum who really did most of the selling.

Unfortunately due to the terrible weather on Daffodil Day funds were very low so you can donate directly to the Irish Cancer Society via their website. 

I am still selling the pattern on my site which you can purchase and knit your own daffodils.  1 euro from each sale will go to Irish Cancer Society.  If knitting isn't your thing you can buy a completed Daffodil for 10 euro, again 1 euro from each one sold will go to the Irish Cancer Society. 

Keeeeep Stitching!!

Lovely bunch of daffodils

Is there anything nicer than a bunch of daffodils?

They just brighten up the dullest day.

God knows in the past few weeks we've needed something to brighten us up.  For me it's been a bunch of daffodils in my kitchen.  

What do you do to cheer yourself up in the dull days?

Featured in Yarnwise magazine

Remember me sharing a pic of my chick around Christmas time?

Well this is what it was for.

I had the above piece featured in Yarnwise Magazine.

The full piece can be seen here

The Great British Sewing Bee

Were you watching last night?

I was glued to my tv.  Love the new show, The Great British Sewing Bee.  Like Bake Off, the show puts  amateur enthusiasts against each other in a highly pressurised setting, the only prize being the honour of being crowned the winner and a trophy.

The judges are WI academy's May Martin and Savile Row's Patrick Grant also known in my house as the Mr Darcy of sewing.  He is simply dashing!  

I have to say I just love Claudia Winkleman in anything so the fact that she is presenting the show is an added bonus!  I love that she said when asked to do the show that she can't even sew. it makes her even better to present as she asks questions that I think lots of viewers watching would want to ask. She's also incredibly funny and I'm sure the contestants were happy to have her around to keep things from getting too serious.  I would hope.

Surprise surprise there's already a book available for the show.  You can find it here 

I'm hoping to get my mitts on it soon.  Hint hint - my birthday's in June :O) 

Keeeeeep Stitching!

If you missed tonight and you are not in the UK i.e. can't watch it online, it's repeated on Saturdays 5.05pm BBC2.  Next show is on Tuesday, 8pm on BBC2.

Easter Makes

Hello my lovely bloggettes

Hope you all had a lovely Easter break

It has to have been better than mine ... most of which was spent curled up on the sofa feeling very poorly :o( But I can't complaign as it was rather cosy

And I did get to make lots of lovely Easter themed decorations.  My favourite of all are these Easter Eggs on my tree ...

They were made using polystyrene eggs which I painted in ice cream/Spring colours and then decoupaged rose printed napkins onto them.  I'm super pleased with how they came out.

I also got to practice my crochet skills and made lots of pretty flowers

I was quite pleased with the final result

I also made a little wreath for my door.  I didn't dare put it outside as the weather has been horrendous!!

So what have you all been up to?  Did you make lots of Easter Decorations, would love to see.  Share a link in the comments and I'll come visit. 

Have a great week peeps x