Please say ‘hello’ to Princess Esmeralda…

…the latest edition to the Happy Sisters family!  She’s the reason why I’ve had another eBay purge and why I set up my Etsy shop.  Isn’t she beautiful?

Sigh, I love her so much! She’s also made a wonderful model for the shop, and is wearing the latest line in the last two pictures I’ve sold 12 things already and am super pleased. I do hope that the recipients are equally as happy!

Keeping the post brief as had a mini-asthma ‘event’ when running tonight. I have heard that Chinese takeaway has therapeutic properties…

Who lives in a box like this?

I’m opening an Etsy shop!

That’s right! It’s opening on Monday night and will be full of wonderful goodies for that special Blythe in your life.   It’s called Millie Made…  Just for You  in honour of my special seamstress, the Tailor Gibson. The first things for sale will be these lovely crochet bonnets for Blythe. They’re made out of Debbie Bliss cotton angora and are super soft and gorgeous. In case you can’t wait until Monday, there’s a few for sale on This is Blythe at a special discounted price

I’ll be adding to it slowly but surely over the coming months with new designs – my head is overflowing with ideas to the extent I’ve dedicated a little notebook to jotting them down! Needless to say that only the very best yarns are being used – Debbie Bliss, Rowan, Louisa Harding and Lain du Nord to name but a few. But surely Blythe is worth it?

A l’il eBay purge

Yet again, I am peddling all my extraneous worldly goods on a ‘well-known internet auction site.’ I started with these shoes.

I only wore them once. (To a funeral, with a striped pirate style cardigan, corduroy skirt with straps and a Vivienne Westwood skull and cross-bone necklace. I was the best dressed mourner in town, although slightly in the vibe of a Michael Hutchence girlfriend). And then when I put them on this weekend, I realised that I towered over poor l’il John, looking more drag queen-esque than statuesque. Those babies gotta go, girlfriend!

And then in a strange twist of fate, I have ended up selling a fair few other bits and bobs. I’ll keep the reasons why quiet for now, but if you really want a clue, check out my Flickr…

Doin’ it for Charideee!

After Christmas I do tend to find myself quite poor, as I’m sure a lot of us do. But this year’s even worse as, technically, I don’t have an income! For the past year I was aware of this pending situation of doom and – get this- stopped spending and started saving. I’ve always spent too much on stuff. I have designer handbags, fancy costume jewellery, and a wardrobe bursting at the seams. And this is after selling off the excess on a ‘well-known internet auction site’ (as they say on TV). And if you read my blog regularly, you’ll know that I have a penchant for fancy wool and the stuff in my house could is more Selfridges than Argos lol! To be fair, I’ve worked extra hours for the goodies and have not had other things such as holidays (carbon footprint – hello?!?) and meals out (I’m on a diet anyway). But despite this terrible shopping-based affliction, I managed in January 2007 to cut the umbilical cord and separate myself from the plastic inside my purse which had been feeding my spending. I stopped going to shops, and I started to buy all my clothes second-hand off eBay. Then I stopped this and actually sold a tonne of stuff! Such sacrifice! Such willpower!

Last year I also discovered charity shops. If you haven’t been in one in years, do try them again – they’re ace! And most of them now use air freshener too (although perhaps too much – a hazard for us asthmatics!). You would not believe some of the bargains I’ve found over the years. My digital camera (Nikon Coolpix 5000) was found broken for £3 and only cost £25 to repair. The vintage B&O radio in my bathroom, £8 broken, with £50 of repairs making it worth £140 (that was a real Antiques Roadshow moment, I tell you!)!!! The glass bottles in my kitchen a tenner for the lot. Tons of vinyl, personal favourites including Gazza’s Fog on the Tyne and Anita Dobson’s Anyone Can Fall in Love (to the Eastenders theme tune). Honestly the list goes on!

You have to be patient with charity shops as there’ll often be nothing but novelty mugs and royal memorabilia. But this patience does pay off, as yesteday’s haul shows!

Wonderful CDs (Guns n Roses, Supergrass and The Doves) and an amusing book about the perils of Labour Party activism (of which there are many, let me say, lol!). But best of all, this wonderful, fabulous, super-duper Miffy Stationery Box. Isn’t it brill?!?

It’s jam-packed with writing paper, envelopes and greetings cards!

As much as I love the World Wide Wait, there is something to be said about an old-fashioned letter and I can’t wait to use it. Although it might be like when you’re given fancy soaps, staying in their wrappers because they’re just too lovely to use… But best of all, all this stuff came to a tenner. Now that’s how I like my spending to be nowadays!

Knitting traumas >:(

Arghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!  I have been doing several stitched the wrong way round forever.  Ssk - I passed the stitches purl-wise.  Ditto sl, and probably a whole host of others I haven’t realised yet.  I am hoping that I haven’t screwed up anything previously made with this schoolboy error, and am not entirely sure what difference it makes.  However I am concerned re the lace scarf, as this will literally be riddled with mistakes.  As I’m making one for my mum (the right way), I’ll be able to compare.  I feel so p*ssed off with myself, but I guess it’s better to realise now that at the end of a full length cardi or double bedspread Glad to have got that off my chest!

The next David Bailey?

Dahlings!  I am a published photographer!

Ok, so this isn’t as exciting as it sounds. This photo has been published in an e-guide to Leeds, but that’s exciting to me!

As this picture shows, Leeds is every inch the glamourous cousin of London, lol! But if you would like to visit Leeds International Pool, you’ll have to be quick – it’s actually closed for demolition and the wrecking ball is imminent. That’s poor research on the behalf of the e-guide authors The only fat burning you’ll be doing there at the moment is running away from muggers lurking on the fly-over.

First WIP of the Year

And it’s only 3rd January!  Bloody hell!  Actually, I did start the project over my Christmas break, and the only part I’ve technically done this year is the casting off and blocking.  But, hey, it’s good to hit the ground running  The project in question is the Branching Out scarf on Knitty, which literally thousands of us on Ravelry have had a bash out. Fortunately no-one else lives in Pudsey, so I should be okay next time I do the quiz at the Fox and Grapes I did try to take an arty photo to show off my handiwork, but my ‘assistant’ had other ideas.

This photo shows you the lovely lace patter better. I used Rowan felted tweed (intended to get storm grey but the pink was so pweeettty!), and it only took one ball. I’ll be using the other to make another scarf for Mum’s Mother’s Day present, although I’ll be investing in sharper needles to speed things up.

I’ve also started another project!

No, it’s not a thermal warmer for John’s man bits; the dimensions are far too out of whack for that (which way I will leave to your imagination ). It’s for one of these! My very own Archie Anaconda and Marvin Mouse. And one day I will put my knitting skills to good use and actually make clothes rather than toys, lol! 

I’m only two days back at work, and I’m already looking for a way to skive off and spend more time knitting and sewing. At the moment there are two potential options on the horizon:

a) Snow. Pros – doesn’t hurt. Looks pretty. Cons – Can’t go anywhere. Shops run out of food.
b) Norovirus – Pros – Instant weight loss. Opportunity for extended quarantine. Cons – Can’t go anywhere. Hurts.

Hmmm – a bit of a sh*t sandwich as my ever-eloquent man might say. Oh well, I’ll console myself by sharing this lovely photo of little Connie in the snow today

So long 2007…

You sucked.  Here’s to 2008 and if it’s not any better, someone’s getting sued.  

Sorry for the slightly grumpy tone, but New Year is always a strangely melancholic time for me. A chance to reflect on life successes and failures, to work out what you could do better, what you need to do better, and where you’d like your life to take you over the forthcoming twelve months. And when you’ve had a tough year, like I have, this is not a rosy memory-filled process.

It’s been a queer sort of year on so many levels. It started with the death of my Mum’s parents and the subsequent sadness and hard times that this brought to my favourite woman, which seemed to also set the tone for the year in terms of relationships with family and friends. In 2007 I aspired to finish my thesis, and John aspired to change jobs. Neither of those happened. But we did trade in one life in Sheffield for a new life in Leeds – that so wasn’t on the cards on 1 January 2007. And, to be fair, the thesis is ticking along (I can’t see the wood for the trees a lot of the time), and John’s work-life is much more manageable now the insane 3-4 hour commute has been removed. But the move itself brought a load of additional stress, including the most obnoxious, smart-arse buyers known to man, £9k of legal fees (!) and doing some serious damage to our backs when we hired a pickup van to do the move rather than paying a firm (we only weigh 19st between us and we own a lot, lot, lot of stuff). Oh yes, and the floods! The Sheffield floods! Lack of power, flooded carpets and garden, closed roads, no food in the shops. There was seriously no other option than to drink vodka to a) keep warm, b) pass the time whilst sat in the dark, and c) ingest calories as there was no food in the shops! And then towards the end of the year there was the problems with the cats, including the fleas, the tumour and the senility (Sol is having some feline mental health issues at the moment).

There have been some good times. Since we moved, John has been significantly less grumpy, unhappy and stressed, which has made things much better between us. I have discovered several new hobbies including knitting, crochet, blogging, Flickr, Blythe and, most recently, sewing. All of these have brought me a great deal of comfort and satisfaction, and have helped me to realise who and what I want to be. Knowing oneself and having the courage to go with it is a Very Good Thing. And whilst the list of positives is small, getting to the end of 2007 has meant that we can look forward to 2008 and all that it promises to behold. There are going to be some big changes around here over the coming twelve months, so watch this space

I don’t do resolutions. They end up being a stick with which to beat myself rather than a positive aspiration to work towards. Plus I’ve lost the weight and quit the cigs, so there isn’t that much to resolve to do. But if I had to be pushed into making a resolution for 2008, it would be to just have a quiet life and minimise stress wherever possible. Oh, and I must go on holiday with my man this year. In fact, we’re going to spend the afternoon planning our little driving tour of Devon in the spirit of positivity for the forthcoming year.

I’m sorry for this slightly maudlin and bittersweet post; perhaps I should have inserted a warning or disclaimer at the start of this post. But sometimes a bit of navel-gazing introspection can be quite cathartic. I for one am grateful for the opportunity to get these things off my chest, although I may have left you so depressed that you feel somewhat different But I would like to wish all of you a wonderful New Year, and a healthy, wealthy and happy 2008. May it bring everything that you want and more. Lots of love xxxx