This is tierneycreates Beastie guest blog posting (if you are new to this blog, my story is on this post – I’m A Monster!!! and you can see all my posts at this link: Beastie Adventures).

You haven’t heard from Tierney or myself in a while as we’ve been in Ireland!

Tierney, John, John Beastie and I recently returned from Ireland and I got to see my maker Helen of Crawcraft Beasties & Knit with Helen; and Tierney got to meet Helen in person for the first time!

We had lots of adventures in Ireland visiting cities such as Dublin, Galway, Doolin, etc. I told Tierney I would get the blog posts on our trip started as she is still rather jet lagged.

Here I am trying to write this blog post (sitting at my desk that John built me, see post Guest Blogger: A Desk for Me!) while my dog Mikelet is trying to get attention from me as he missed me on my long trip (we did not take him for fear he might get misplaced during the trip).

We visited Ireland with Tierney and John’s friends Kathy and Matt who visit Ireland a couple times a year. Kathy’s family is from Ireland and she still has family there and Matt who is part Irish, is well versed in Irish culture and history.

Kathy also knows Helen as she has been working with Helen to get her husband Matt his very own Beastie!

John Beastie, Tierney, Kathy and I met up with Helen and visited a pub for a Beastie reunion with Helen. Here are a couple photos of our initial reunion, I could not decide which one I like best of my awesome maker so I included them all!

She was pretty pleased to see us again as she sends her Beasties out all over the world and rarely gets to see them in person again once they’ve traveled across the ocean!

After the pub, we all headed to Helen’s studio for a little tour of her studio, to meet the new Beastie for Kathy’s husband Matt, and to take a little knitting class (Helen is a professional knitting instructor) to learn how to knit cables (which scare Kathy and Tierney).

This is Helen’s new studio and although John Beastie and I were not “born” here but it was awesome to be in a place where our fellow Beasties are now “born”:

Here is a little photo tour of Helen’s bright and cheery studio:

After a little studio tour, it was time to meet “Matty Beastie” (and his dog Riley) the new Beastie Helen made for Kathy’s husband:

Matty Beastie comes with his dog Riley the Chocolate Lab (to see the Canine Riley check out the post Loved (or mugged) by a Lab, Tierney is Riley’s “Dog Godmother”), a pint of Guinness, as well as his PJs (if he gets tired of wearing his jeans) and his famous slippers.

Helen brilliantly added a magnet to Matty Beastie’s chest so he could hold up his pint of Guinness:

John Beastie and I took a group photo with our new friend Matty Beastie who we would now be touring Ireland with:

As you can see I was not sure where to look during the photo as Helen was also taking a photo of our group at the same time.

We got distracted during the photoshoot and Riley ended up sampling some of Matty Beastie’s Guinness!

I did take Matty Beastie aside and give him some tips on managing humans and how to get away with things right under their noses…

While John Beastie and I visited with our new friend, the humans Helen, Kathy and Tierney) had a cable knitting class. Below is a photo of the class sample and a photo of Tierney clumsily trying to knit her first cable (she won’t be whipping out a new Aran sweater for me anytime soon…).

I am sure Tierney will do a post about it whenever she finishes that headband.

After the knitting class, we headed back out to a pub (the humans visited a lot of pubs while in Ireland) to meet up with human John and human Matt so he could be surprised with his new Beastie!

John Beastie and I watched with anticipation while Matt excitedly unboxed his new Beastie:

Matty Beastie was a hit with Matt and John Beastie had raise a pint to toast the newest member of our US based Beastie family!

Sláinte!

More stories to come on our Ireland adventures. Tierney asked me to include this photo as proof that she and human John really did come on the trip:

I am also including this photo – Tierney captured in a moment of pure joy hanging out with my maker Helen in person for the first time:

Beastie Adventures, Books, Music, Podcasts, Library Adventures

Beastie goes to the library (and gets a Library Stack)

July 5, 2020May 1, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It was as if the gates of Heaven opened and I could hear the angels singing: Last week a neighboring library system (the one I’ve started getting books via curbside pick up from a couple weeks ago, see post The Library Stack Is Back!), OPENED ITS DOOR TO THE PUBLIC!!!

So the tierneycreates Beastie and I headed to the library to frolic among the stacks! (We did not bring tierneycreates Beastie’s dog Mikelet since only Service Dogs are allowed in libraries…even though he is very small and I likely could have hid him in my pocket…)

After chatting with the library front desk staff and introducing them to the tierneycreates Beastie and showing them her library card* (see post Beastie Outing to the Library), we headed upstairs to browse our favorite Dewey Decimal System section 700 (Arts & Recreation)!

*tierneycreates Beastie with her very own Library Card

Once again, like the other time I took my Beastie to the library, she insisted on trying to navigate the library stairs herself:

But she was not getting anywhere very fast so she agreed I could just carry her upstairs to the magical 700 section of the library.

Once we got upstairs, I let her do her own browsing and she eventually found her way to the knitting book section as she is always trying to learn more about how she was made in Dublin by her maker Helen@Crawcraftbeasties.

Beasties are sort of vain and she kept asking me to take her photo among various stacks of craft books. Here is a photo she did not want you to see but I told her I was going to share it anyway so you can see sometimes even Beasties take bad photos:

While I was browsing (note – this was the first time I’ve been inside this library as I joined this neighboring library system when they started curbside pick up a couple weeks ago since my local library is still completely closed) in section 700, I noticed this sign:

I was like “whaaaaaaaaaaaat?” I love Interior Decorating/Design books and this library has their own “Interior Design Nooks?!??! (insert sounds of more angels singing). So I wandered over there while the tierneycreates Beastie continued to browse through the knitting section.

The nook is both sides of this freestanding section and a built in bookshelf!

Unfortunately my arms were overloading with browsings from the other 700 sections and I could only select a couple books from this section to borrow (but I will be back!!!)

Here is the resulting Library Stack from our visit (or frolic among the library stacks):

tierneycreates Beastie just mentioned to me that since I was “keeping it real” by showing a photo of her earlier in this post with disheveled hair, I need to show you all what the Library Stack really looks like when I first get it home before I put it in a nice order:

Beasties keep you honest!

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger

Beastie Guest Blogger: Checking in on her progress

October 23, 2019August 13, 2020 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well Tierney on the road (well in the air) again, this time for a quick business trip to Portland, Oregon for a meeting. So I am going to be the guest blogger on this post.

Do you all miss me? It’s been a long since you heard from me. I was packed away along with Mikelet (I know, I know, you are thinking of reporting Tierney for Beastie-neglect but we should give her a break since she been through a lot this past year…).

Now we have a nice home in Tierney’s new studio:

2019-10-22_08-11-05_364 — It now Autumn in the Denver, Colorado area and getting kind of cold so it is sweater time!

Oh, but if you are new to this blog, I guess I should first introduce myself:

My name is tierneycreates Beastie and I am a Monster, but the good kind of Monster. You can read my story at I’m A Monster!!!. You can also check out the other posts I’ve had to guest blog on (i.e. when Tierney fell off the blogging-wagon) in the series of posts: Beastie Adventures.

I think the last time I guest blogged, I was complaining about the physical spot (in a box in the closet!) where she had me living in her first studio after moving to the Denver greater metropolitan area.

Here is that post if you want to be shocked and appalled like I was: Another Beastie Blogging Intervention: New Studio Tour, Part III.

I must warn you, Beasties are notorious for making things all about themselves (just check out the blogs Crawcrafts Beasties and Tammie Painter and you will see what I mean!) but I am going to try to focus on the primary subject on this post – an update on Tierney’s post from 10/13/19 – The “Madness” Returns (though a post just about me would be much more interesting!)

So Tierney has finished about 14 little wallets so far. It is not a very impressive number but at least she’s gotten off to some sort of start in replacing her previous stash:

2019-10-22_08-12-01_966 — Only 13 in the photo because she already gave one recently as a gift

I inspected her work and provided feedback that she needs a lot more color and fabric combinations:

Do like the fact that I could use one of the little wallets as a suitcase?

Of course I only have one other article of clothing – my warm weather shirt. Eventually I need Tierney to place an order at crawcraftsbeasties.com to expand my wardrobe!

Tierney does have other additional color/fabric combinations in progress:

I guess if she wasn’t flying around everywhere all the time she could buckle down and get a larger variety of little wallets done!

She won’t allow me to use the rotary cutter or scissors so I cannot help her. We won’t talk about the time one of her quilting friends loaned me a rotary cutter at a quilt retreat…(Guest Blogger: October Quilt Retreat Part I).

2018-10-25_15-03-23_912 — Perhaps not the best idea…

Postscript

As long as I am guest blogging, I might as well also give you a follow up to Tierney’s 08/30/19 post New Studio.

Tierney’s been moving things around and playing with a slightly different layout.

Most importantly, she put me and Mikelet on top of this “pre-cut bookcase” so that we are prominently displayed in her studio (where we can closely watch over her crafting):

She also moved some stuff around after sewing in the room a couple weeks, to make it work better for her.

2019-10-22_08-22-09_986 — So many precuts…maybe they are breeding when Tierney not looking…

Tierney loves this colorful display of books and recently found one of the books she was missing from the “Pretty Little” series, Pretty Little Pillows, at a charity yard sale.

Perhaps she’ll do something crazy one day and actually MAKE crafts and quilts from these books on display!

Oh one more thing – remember how Tierney mentioned in her 09/27/19 post A New Way to Organize My Fabric, that she had more fabric to organize?

Well she finally did: she organized her flannels, canvas, novelty prints and panels in the shelves in her studio.

So with the fabric above, plus the pre-cuts, plus the fabric below in this photo, Tierney should give up sleeping and starting crafting/quilting 24/7 (and we will not even mention her collection of fabric scraps at this point).

And I will supervise her!

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger, Special Events, tierneycreates

Guest Blogger: tierneycreates 5th Anniversary Celebration Giveaway

October 25, 2018November 15, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Hi there, this is tierneycreates Beastie and I am the guest blogger for today’s post. Below is a shocking photo of me, but I will explain in a moment:

First a little background if you are new to this blog: Yes, I am a Monster, but the good kind of Monster. You can read my story and see some of my adventures so far in the series of posts – Beastie Adventures. I was born in Dublin, Ireland and moved (well was shipped) to Central Oregon to join Tierney of tierneycreates in June 2018.

So normally I look like this:

2018-09-14_14-18-38_290 — In my hand-knit Irish cable Aran sweater!

Or like this in warmer weather:

2018-07-27_18-05-22_257 — Tierney made me a make shift desk so I could work on my first guest blog post back in July.

And often I am accompanied by my dog Mikelet:

But the reason why I am currently in a plastic bag is that Tierney of tierneycreates is letting me go to my first Quilt Retreat today. She is headed to a 4 day retreat with her quilting friends from Oregon, California and Washington state – and I get to go with her!

We decided not to bring Mikelet, we are going to let him stay at home with Terry the Quilting Husband (TTQH) and Big Mike the Miniature Schnauzer (well to Mikelet who is a couple inches tall, Mike is pretty big!).

I agreed that it would be safest to have me travel securely so that I do not lose my glasses or any of my other accessories (if you check out the post Beastie Adventures: Sisters, Oregon, you will see how once nearly lost my little boots when I was wandering around in a yarn paradise!) in route.

What I think is cool is I get to travel in Tierney’s messenger bag where she also keeps her laptop. Well I have a messenger bag too and a laptop (as well as a library card just like Tierney):

I am actually in this bag right now (and you might be wondering how I am managing to write this post. Well, you’ll just have to trust me that I am making it work…):

Okay, now what was this post originally about?

Oh yes, the tierneycreates Blog Fifth Anniversary Celebration!

The tierneycreates Blog Fifth Anniversary Celebration and Giveaway

Tierney’s first post was on October 27, 2013 and in two days the tierneycreates blog will be officially 5 years old!

Originally she started her blog as a vehicle for her now closed tierneycreates Etsy shop. Then she discovered she enjoyed blogging much more than she enjoyed running her Etsy shop and trying to sell handmade items online.

Tierney appreciates all her blog followers/readers and she asked me to recognize her longest, still active followers:

Bloggers

Claire @ knitnkwilt – nearly 5 years

Cindy @ A Quilter’s Corner with Cindy Anderson – nearly 4 years

Non Bloggers

Rianna (Tierney’s sister)

Pat T. (dedicated follower)

Terry the Quilting Husband (aka TTQH)

What does Tierney love most about blogging? Connecting with creative people all over the world! Tierney and I took a look at her WordPress stats and her blog has been visited by readers in everyone continent except Antartica.

Here is a screenshot from the tierneycreates blog stats page to show all the countries around the world from which people have visited her blog:

Screen Shot 2018-10-24 at 9.34.31 PM.png — Yellow to red = visitors from these countries

As you can see, besides Antarctica (which is not even tracked by WordPress) no one in Greenland cares for her blog!

For 2018, the top 10 countries for visitors to the tierneycreates blog are:

On behalf of Tierney, thank you so much to those creative people in these countries and to all people in all countries who spent the time to visit the tierneycreates blog during the past 5 years!

Tierney is very surprised that she made it to 25 days so far of daily blogging posts in honor of the 5th anniversary without pulling any posts from her archives. That is a lot of new ramblings! Over the next 5 days she will announce FIVE GIVEAWAYS in honor of her 5th Anniversary. Tomorrow’s post announced the first giveaway.

Here are the general guidelines and overall plan for the upcoming five days of giveaways:

Each day will feature a different giveaway and all items will relate to a tierneycreates blog post over the past 5 years.
One winner will be selected for each giveaway.
In addition to each of the giveaways a handmade little wallet will be included (see post Little Wallet Madness.) will be sent to the winner (so there will be two gifts).
Special instructions will be provided each day on how to enter the drawing (no worries, nothing complicated but there will be an activity related to commenting on the post).
Readers in any country are eligible, and like last year’s 4th anniversary celebration, Tierney will mail items to the winners at her cost in any country (note – you will have to use the Questions/Comments form to privately send Tierney your mailing address so she can get the item to you!).
There will be one special 6th giveaway announced at the end of the month.

Tierney and TTQH will use the same process as last year to randomly select names (see post Announcing the Winners of the tierneycreates Blog’s 4th Anniversary Giveaway), except unfortunately Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer passed away in December 2017 so it will be only Mike the Miniature Schnauzer officiating from the firm Schnauzer Associates, Inc.

Well I am off on the “road to retreat” and I am so excited about my first quilt retreat with Tierney and her quilting friends (and you know there will eventually be a blog post or two about it). Hopefully they won’t accidentally sew me into any of their projects.

And honestly, I cannot wait to get out of the plastic bag

– tierneycreates Beastie.

Thanks everyone for 5 years of reading these ramblings and musings – Tierney

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger

Guest Blogger: Monster Musings

July 28, 2018August 13, 2020 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Hello, my name is tierneycreates Beastie and I am a Monster, but the good kind of Monster.

The regular blogger Tierney, appears to be too distracted lately to write a blog post, so I told her I will take care of getting a post up this week. She did help me take photos since I am not very good at selfies due to my limited arm range.

Here I am ready to start a long overdue blog post:

2018-07-27_18-07-21_096 — Sometimes I have to look over my glasses while writing

But first – if you are new to this blog (welcome new readers, glad to have you join us!) you can read my story and see some of my adventures in the series of posts – Beastie Adventures. I was born in Dublin, Ireland and moved (well was shipped) to Central Oregon to join Tierney of tierneycreates in June 2018.

I am so glad my maker, Helen of Crawcrafts Beasties (crawcraftsbeasties.com) , made me a laptop so I could help Tierney with blog posts!

So what have I been up to? Well as you know, just like Tierney, I have locs in my hair (you may know these traditionally as being called “dreadlocks” but the current term is LOCS, as there is no “dread” in them!). Like Tierney, I am always wondering how to style my locs and sometimes I get lint in them as Tierney does with hers.

Tierney and I were playing with different hairstyles and she french-braided my hair:

2018-07-27_18-47-13_191 — French-braiding attempt

The cool thing about Tierney’s attempt at french-braiding (let’s be honest, she is not going to win any “French-Braiding Awards”) is that my adorable ears get featured:

My ears are normally hidden with my hair flowing free but here they are – popping!

Although I enjoyed showing my adorable ears, after a while the french-braid felt too tight and we returned to my regular hairstyle:

While writing you, my miniature schnauzer Mikelet (named after Tierney’s dog Mike) began staring at me and I suspected he wanted to go for a walk:

I was pretty sure he wanted to go for a walk when he got insistent:

I wanted to put the final touches on this blog post, so I told him to wait.

He got bored waiting and wandered into the living room.

Realizing he probably really needed to “go potty”, I went to the living room to get him for a walk before finishing my blog post and found him hanging out with “Big Mike”:

Big Mike’s beard was looking a little messy so Terry the Quilting Husband (TTQH) began combing it while Mikelet looked on:

Mikelet wanted his beard combed also (he wants to do everything Big Mike does), so TTQH attempted to also comb his beard:

Finally, with a freshly combed beard, Mikelet was ready to go on his walk:

Postscript

Tierney is not totally goofing off. She is still working on an art quilt for a special exhibit in which she cannot share photos until the curator announces the show.

But she did finish the little appliqué pillow she mentioned in this post – Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 2018, Part II: Visiting Crafters.

It was her first attempt at wool appliqué and next time she plans to do better stitching, but it was a practice piece.

Mikelet however appears to really like the pillow as I found him hanging out with it on top of the bookcase (how the heck did he climb up there?):

Beastie Adventures

I’m A Monster!!!

June 13, 2018June 21, 2018 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

(I am interrupting my planned post to share someone really exciting that arrived in the mail.)

Yes, I am a Monster. Literally. A Beastie Monster!

Blogging for the past 4.5 years has given me the opportunity to connect with people all over the world. I actually now have readers in every continent except Antarctica (hey Antarctica blogger peeps where are ya?).

I have many blogging buddies in the U.K. including the awesome person who made me into a Monster – Helen of Crawcrafts Beasties (crawcraftsbeasties.com) in Dublin, Ireland. Helen makes amazing custom knitted monsters (the cutest monsters ever) known as “Beasties”.

After following her blog for a while and following the adventures of various Beasties, especially Paddy & Plunkett, I knew I needed my own tierneycreates Beastie.

Monday’s postal delivery brought the tierneycreates Beastie all the way from Ireland!

Here is one of the photos of me on my blog that obviously Helen used as inspiration:

Here was the original drawing Helen sent me to approve earlier this year:

And here is my dreadlocked tierneycreates Beastie, with her little knitted hat and her miniature schnauzer:

She is approximately 6 inches tall, nearly 6.5 inches with her hair and hat!

The tierneycreates Beastie has some serious dreadlocks, very creatively done with wool:

She also has a nifty QUILTED BAG with her laptop (so she is ready for blogging) and Beastie Library card inside (because if you have followed my blog for more than a couple weeks you know about my love of my local public library!):