Relaunching my blog!

Wow!  I can't believe it has been nearly 4 years since I last posted.  A LOT has happened since then - some good and some bad.  The good news is that last year we made the decision to sell the majority of our business and this we achieved at the beginning of this year.  We came to that decision finally after realising that the stress and worry of it all was making us unhealthy - I won't go into too many details but I can tell you it has made a HUGE difference to our wellbeing.  We are now just operating our business from home just the two of us and are so much happier.

The bad and sad news is that we lost our beloved Tillie greyhound in February 2017.  After a short illness she an over the rainbow bridge at 12½ years old.  We miss her terribly but gain comfort in the knowledge she led a happy and fulfilled life with us once she came to live with us.

Tillie   June 2005 - Feb 2017

Raven has taken losing his bestie in his stride and continues to snooze most of his days away!

Anyway I hope to see you all again soon as I plan to start posting again after all this time.

Best wishes Sara x

Happy Halloween!

Greyhound Christmas Cards 2013

It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to buying Christmas cards.  Nigel has drawn 3 new designs to go along with the 2 from 2012 to make a superb pack of 10 cards (2 of each design) with envelopes, with the greeting inside ‘Seasons Greetings’.  Each pack of cards is £5 each plus £1.50 UK postage.  Due to Royal Mail’s ever increasing price rises shipping overseas is £5 for one pack and £8 for two packs!  If you are interested please email me. Don’t worry – the cards come without the crafting4greyhounds watermark!  £2 from each pack will be donated to A New Day Spain Dog Refuge.
My favourite has to be the greyhound nativity scene – don’t you just love the sheep?

Come soon Spring…….please!

I normally love each season – the brighter days and new life brusting forth of Spring, the warmer, balmy days and longer evenings of summer, the changing colours of Autumn and the crisp days and cosy nights in front of the fire of winter, but I am positively longing for Spring to be Sprung.  Last week, I though hurrah, at last it has arrived.  We had some lovely sunny days and there was actually warmth in sun.  This was short lived as from Friday evening until Sunday morning it rained and rained and turned icy again with frequent wintry showers.  We live by and work by the river and the continuous rain has played havoc with the water levels of the river.  It is very high and covering our access road to our house, so we with wellies on, and the dogs without wellies have to wade through it to reach drier ground.  This is the same for the boatyard where the access road and most of the boatyard is under water.  I hate walking in wellies, it makes my legs ache but imagine being Tillie and Raven wading through icy water, poor doggies!!  Apparently next week, Spring is supposed to arrive….I can’t wait!!

So to cheer myself up and to remind me of the distance memories of summer I found this pattern for sunflowers here and made a few. 

Thats better!

Sunday was Mothers Day and Sam made my day by sending these beautiful flowers.

I made batches of cupcakes for my Mother and Mother in Law.

 

Christmas Rush

Now the chrimbo festivities are truly upon us, it times to have a breather.  Since the end of September mine and my Mother’s needles haven’t stopped.  I can only guess the miles of yarn we have used in the last 2 – 3 months.  Sales from my etsy shop picked up and since I introduced a new line, the pixie hat, we couldn’t keep up with the demand.  This is extremely good news for the 2 groups that I raise funds for Action for Greyhounds and A New Day Spain.

We are on our fortnight Christmas shutdown at work so I have 2 weeks off, plenty of time to catch up on the accounts I do for AFG and complete some orders, two of which are the large crocheted greyhounds I make.

Tillie, Raven and I have also been collecting outside shops in November and December and our last venue is one of the Pets at Home in Norwich on Christmas Eve.

We would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays and a Peaceful New Year.

Greyhound Decorative Wreaths

I have been having fun making these wreaths for my shop.  I loved how the black hound one came out but then I am a little biased about black beauties.  Black is the only colour I have trouble working with these days, its my age you know, the old eye sight isn’t up to what it used to be!

Charity begins at home

You may recall that I started a once a week charity donation called Fridays Fiver.  Unfortunately due to work pressures over the summer I wasn’t able to keep this up, blogging wise.  I have been donating throughout the year to various causes.  Here are some of the great causes I have donated to:

A dogs life – “A Dogs Life is an non-profit group whose volunteers work hard to give pound dogs the chance of a better life. We rescue stray and surrendered dogs that are not reclaimed or rehomed from Dunboyne Pound.”

Galgos del sol – “Galgos del Sol is a small rescue based in Murcia. GdS rescues abandoned and injured galgos (Spanish hunting greyhounds), rehabilitates them and finds them forever homes in the UK & other parts of Europe.”

Scooby Medina – “Scooby started out in 1987 as a shelter under poor conditions, providing refuge for the stray cat and dog population and the numerous Galgos (Spanish greyhounds) discarded mainly by the local coursing fraternity in the area of Medina del Campo, Valladolid.”

Many Tears Rescue – “Many Tears Animal Rescue (MTAR) is a small rescue based in South Wales but has dogs in foster homes throughout the UK. We take in and rehome primarily ex-breeding dogs who are no longer required; those on "death row" in the pounds and those whose owners are no longer able to keep them. MTAR also has a small cattery which enables us to take a small number of cats.

As well as my on going commitment to Action for Greyhounds, this year at the boatyard, my knitted and crocheted items that are on sale in reception raised £500 which I am donating to The Alzheimers Society in honour of my Father, Peter who was diagnosed earlier in the year with the disease.

After seeing a request on a knitting forum, I have been crocheting dog coats of various sizes and snoods and sent them to a small rescue in Spain called A New Day Spain Dog Refuge which is run by a tireless couple Keith & Maria Bradford who retired to Spain but ended up setting up a refuge for unwanted and abandoned dogs in Spain.  Please consider donating to them, however little, as they are really struggling at the moment due to the heavy rain.  They are in desperate need of money to fund concreting the pens the dogs are kept in.

I am currently selling knitted greyhound pixie hats in my Etsy shop to raise money for this wonderful couple and next year, they will be the recipient of the sales of knitted items from the boatyard.

Greyhound Christmas Cards

Nigel kindly produced 2 designs of Christmas cards for fund raising for Action for Greyhounds featuring Tillie & Raven.  I think you will agree they are super – Can you spot the sweet greyhound angel on top of the tree and also where Tillie has set fire to her tail?

There are 8 cards in a pack (4 of each design) blank inside with envelopes £3.50 plus postage.  You can order your packs from the merchandise section of the Action for Greyhounds website HERE