Monday, 9th January: Day 9 & Tuesday, 10th January: Day 10

Again, a bulletin of several parts.

Firstly, the Knotty Knitters returned today from Christmas Vacation - YAY!

While a small meeting, everybody was on fine form and many have completed projects over the break and are about to start something new. For my part, I finished one of a pair of Gents wristies for the shop, and began the pair.

Also, Eugenie has given the nod for a second, complementary club, which will run Thursday afternoons, starting from 14.00 on a drop-in, drop-out basis, in the Cultural Quarters and will be open to all knitters and crocheters who want to come, whether they already go to Knotty Knitters or not. The Tearooms are also open during this time, so come on in and enjoy some stitching and socialisation.

The second piece of creativity for yesterday and today was, the creation of The Cultural Quarters' own blog, which is located here: http://ballinamoreculturalquarters.blogspot.com/

and will be the best place on the web to keep up with all the busy goings on in this fabulous new project right in the heart of Ballinamore.

Last, but by no means least, I did promise you a mini interview with dynamic project leader Tracy Murray, who is spearheading the whole Cultural Quarters development, and here it is:

* So, all this activity and excitement has the town buzzing. What exactly are we doing with the place?

We have been given a fabulous opportunity to open up this historic building as a place for everyone, a venue for arts, crafts, music, poetry, pretty much anything that people want (within reason). The main idea is to keep the centre of our town vibrant and to provide interest for both locals and tourists alike.

* You mention it's a historic building. Wasn't this the old police barracks?

Yes, in fact John McGahern's father was stationed here during that time. The premises were then taken over and operated by Deirdre as a bakery/cafe with a clothes shop above, then later it's returned to those roots with the vintage clothing shop and tearooms now both on the ground floor (with outdoor seating for the tearooms coming this spring) and it has also become an events space as well as the home of the Ballinamore Free Fringe Festival which launched last year.

* It really is great down here! (and anyone who's not already been in to look around and have the "grand tour") So how can people get involved?

There are so many ways that people can help. Broadly, these fit into two categories - material and non-material things that we need. This is our current wishlist:

Material items ~

• Paint
• Furniture (especially tables)
• Plants
• Money

Other, Non-Material Items ~

• Ideas (we have the space, now lets use it. - Every suggestion within reason will be considered and we will support as many ideas as we can)
• Plumber(s)
• Gardeners
• Skilled and Unskilled Volunteer pairs of hands

* Sounds great! When is all this taking place?

We're open every week, Tuesday - Saturday from 10.00 to 18.00 and at other times by arrangement.

Drop in any time or reach us through the Cultural Quarters' page on facebook or through our blog at http://ballinamoreculturalquarters.blogspot.com/

As each room gets finished, it will be up and operational. We currently have the Vintage Clothing Shop, the Tearooms, Antiques Shop and Reading Room all open. The events room upstairs is hosting the regular Saturday Flea Market (10.00 - 15.00) and is available to book at other times.

* That's a lot of things already. What are some of the other things we can look forward to?

• Burns' Night (January 25th)
• Craftsy Crafters Day Party (January 26th)
• Flea Market every Saturday
• Music and Spanish Classes with Leo
• Italian Classes with Al
• Textiles classes
• Knitting Club
• Poets' Breakfasts
• Gigs (Music, Comedy,... you name it!)
• Free Fringe Festival (Annually in August)
• Astronomy Club
• Spiral Scouts International (local level)
• Spaces to curl up with a book or to study
• Indoors and Outdoors spaces to enjoy a cuppa (outdoors coming later this spring)

Sunday, 1st January: Day 1

So, to kick us off, here's a picture taken in the new reading room at Murray's (as is, it will have a new name really soon) - what do you think?

I've got a full panorama of the room going up on Facebook as soon as I finish this post. You'll be able to see it at:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150450958836752.354320.580876751&type=1

I'm including this shot because this is one of those spaces that just oozes creativity! - It's quite difficult to explain, but being in this space gives you tingles - almost crackles of some kind of creative static electricity. It would be hard not to be creative in this space. Which is extremely handy given that the various rooms are open for projects, as well as tea/coffee/cake from the vintage tearoom in front. There's also a flea market on every Saturday where crafters and artists can come to showcase (and hopefully sell) some of their wares.

We were up there this afternoon for a little drink to toast in the new calendar and the start of all the wonderful projects this space is affording for our town. It was a great afternoon with good company and great craic (fun, the Irish way). We even took some of the silver streamers from the party poppers and danced in the fizzy energy of the place. (That was wee Olivia's idea - it made me think at the time, while trying to work out how I would explain the whole feeling of the place to you, how interesting it is that children seem to have an instinctive 'feel' for these things and always seem to know the right way to respond to it.)

One of my aims for this year is to use my Teaching Certificate more. As soon as there are people interested, I'm going to be offering classes and one-on-one workshops in Textiles and related crafts from somewhere in here.

***

On the creativity front, I'm really chuffed to have managed to complete TWO small items today.

The first, was this adaption to my watch. (left)

Our littlest cat, Shadow, (below left) has had a thing for my watch for quite some time now and regularly steals it in the night. The upshot of which is, as of this morning, the strap was completely unusable through the sheer amount of being grabbed in kitty teeth and hauled about.

I removed the old yellow (my favourite) faux leather strap and upcycled the watch itself with this keyring fob to give (I hope) a slightly more durable piece that I can interchange between belt loops, or even attach to my bag strap or purse when I'm out and about.

Left is the man himself - our wee stowaway who we discovered had moved in when we got back from our summer trip.








We've established he's about the same age as our other kitten, Mogwai and was roaming ferrol having lost/left his Mum around 6wks. Now that he's been treated for the worst case of worms I've ever seen, he's healthy and happily become a part of the family and is now more at home in a cosy domestic setting than out roaming.

The second thing that I have made today doesn't look like anything very much does it? (above right)

It's actually the start of a much bigger piece I've been putting off for MONTHS now, on the grounds that I "can't justify time working on that because it's for me" (- a habit I plan to loose for good this year!)

We were given a new (to us)

three-piece-suite about four months ago. It's ridiculously comfortable, but as you can see in the background of the photo, it's a very, shall we say, 'particular' sort of colour scheme and pattern, as well as in some hidden away areas, really rather worn. (Not to mention we'd just finished redecorating the living room, with a predominant palette of plum and yellow-gold-ish) So the plan is, that I will gradually recover it.

Having played about with various ideas, we've settled on making large patchwork throws that will either remain loose, or may be fixed in place to cover the suite.
The reason we're opting for patchwork, is that we have large blocks of colour on each wall, so any more big blocky colours would start looking wrong in our small room, so the patchwork will be made of very small pieces, in varying shades of both purple and yellow, to complement the other decor.

This piece then, will become the core piece of the settee cover. I've incorporated some left over streamers from our trip out this afternoon. Not sure why I did that - it was a whim. Perhaps I'm trying to conserve some of that wonderful creative energy we danced in this afternoon.



I'll be putting the rest of the photos up on Facebook in the next few minutes.
Tune in again tomorrow to see how we can build on this flying start!