The Help

Last night my pal and I went to see a freebie preview of the film of the book - The Help. We loved it. It made us laugh and it made us cry. The movie is set in the town of Jackson in America in the 1960's and focuses on one girls ambition to tell the story - from the perspective of the maid - the help. The women who employ the maids are often not kind. It is a longish film - about 2 hours 15 mins, but it doesn't seem it. If you get chance to see it - do. I highly recommend it.

I believe it is out on general release on the 26th October.

Imperial Buildings Rotherham

Ive mentioned before that my nearest town, Rotherham has suffered greatly over the last few years as new out of town Malls have spring up around it, and all the big name shops moved out leaving only mobile phone shops, betting shops and several Greggs! It has an OK market, but the town centre can often seem like "Chav Central" as there isn't much for the ordinary shopper. However, the council have spent money renovating the beautiful Edwardian Imperial Building which is right in the centre of town, and a few very individual shops have moved in.

I'd heard good reports about this shop and thought I might have an early Christmas shopping trip for stocking fillers.
A lot of the original features have been kept throughout the building.
And the interior of the Yella Brick Road is very funky.
They sell vintage and accessories and I could have spent ages looking at everything that was on offer.

Hubby thought that the sign outside was funny.
We also called into the Yorkshireman Deli for refreshments. The lovely gent who runs this had been made redundant and has taken a risk starting up a business - despite of the recession as he says it better than being on the dole. I wish him all the best.
We also called into the new sweet shop and bought a selection of our childhood favourite sweets. The lady in here told us that they had recently had a visit from Mary Portas who was impressed by the friendliness and service she had received.

If you are local and what to pop round for Halloween, she is having a toffee apple making session on the 31st October.
There are still plenty of empty units in the Imperial Buildings, but I hope it does really well.

We just had enough time for a quick zip around the minster (as we had never been in before!) and discovered that a few local history groups were having a get together and showing off some of their findings which was very interesting.

Nights out

Ive had a few great nights out recently. On Saturday night, we went to see Sheffields own "Everly Pregnant Brothers". These are a great Ukelele band with a great lead singer that sing tunes you all know, but amend the words to make them very significant to Sheffield - and hilarious at the same time. They were playing their first BIG gig at the Lyceum Theatre and it went very very well for them. My favourite songs were about the "Hole in the Road" (or "Oil in ruard")a Sheffield landmark that we no longer have, and one about "Hendersons Relish" our local sauce!

If you are local, try and catch these at some point - If you're not, you probably wouldn't have a clue what they were singing about!

(Photo from their website)

Earlier in the week, we went with our WI group to a local small theatre to see the musical version of "The Full Monty". It was highly entertaining as you can imagine and we all had a great laugh. However, I did notice that one of the strippers was a guy who delivers stationery to us at work. I shan't know where to look when he calls next time!
You all know that I like a freebie night out, and so I signed up for "An Inspirational talk" to coincide with Fashion week in Sheffield - something organised by our local Business Link. In the past, these events have been accompanied by a great buffet and a couple of glasses of wine, but on this occasion it was disappointingly only nibbles and fruit juice. Business Link is being disbanded next month though, so I think they maybe saving the budget for a farewell party! Any way, the night out was great. It was held at the newish swanky St Pauls Hotel in the middle of the city.
The first speaker was Eric Musgrave who has been a fashion editor for some time. He talked about the decline of manufacturing fashion in the UK - something that hit hard in this area, and also how most of what is still manufactured is very high end fabrics and garments which are exported abroad.

Then we had a talk and fashion show by one of the directors of a company that manufactures clothing for many of the high street stores - Phase Eight, Hobbs, Laura Ashley etc. They have launched their own brand which can be currently bought at some John Lewis stores and also on line. The brand is called Damsel in a Dress. The brand is aimed at the professional woman who wants more than the high street, but can't afford designer. Way out of my price range - but I was impressed by the fabulous fabrics they used, and treated myself to something from their sale range (which I have to say I am highly delighted with!). The whole evening made me realise that slip into "Waynetta Slob" mode far too easily, and I need to rethink my entire wardrobe!

Heartshaped Inc Update

Its been like a sweatshop in the heartshaped house lately as I try and build up stock for my forthcoming stall at the Christmas shopping event in Sprotbough (details at the end of the post).

I have made a fair few bags. I love this Clarke & Clarke Beach hut fabric which I have lined with denim and added a pin featuring a postcard charm.

I also lined this lovely autumnal cord bag with denim and added a Suffolk puff brooch with a shell button.
This is currently one of my favourites. A beautiful Italian suiting fabric, lines with Liberty fabric with a vintage brooch.
Stunning Flannel - made locally still in Huddersfield with a ribbon tie and a vintage bow brooch.
The addition of vintage brooches or hand made pins etc makes each one an individual piece.
A beautiful Huddersfield produces tweed lined with Italian silk and vintage brooch.
I have also made a few summer bags as I love this American glamour girl fabric and I have used the patchwork that I made earlier in the year too.
I have been searching for lovely beads to make earrings and working on my packaging.

And I have been beading the centres of my Rose Corsages.

I thought I might take along some of my patchwork cards to (featuring vintage Liberty, Laura Ashley and Cath Kidston prints)
A big dilemma I have is one that I know crops up time and time again with crafters - how much to charge. I am hoping to keep the bags well under £10 (possibly £6 for the smaller ones and £8 for the larger ones). £3 for the earrings and corsages and £1 for the cards. What do you think?

The shopping event will be held at Sprotborough Country Club on Wednesday 16th November at 7.30pm. I will let you have more details when I have them, but as usual, I hope you can come along and say "Hi".

Season of mists

We have been stuck in a mizzley, murky and very grey week here in this part of Yorkshire, so I thought I would share a stroll that hubby and I took a week ago.

We didn't have much time as he was between night shifts, and the walk down through the park in Wentworth is always a favourite when time is short.

I know some of you saw the Dan Cruikshank programme this year which featured Wentworth Woodhouse - one of Englands secret stately homes. We locals are waiting with baited breath for renovations to start so that we can get a peak inside the house once more. I noticed on this walk how blackened the house is after standing in the Yorkshire coal fields for so many years.

The park was wearing her Autumnal colours and finery.


The skies were very grey, but it was the weekend that was also very warm.

There are a couple of big fishing lakes at the bottom of the park that are always very well utilised.

Hope you enjoyed the stroll.

The Hepworth Wakefield

We had been waiting for a rainy day to visit the new Hepworth Gallery in nearby Wakefield, and Saturday was a perfect day for the visit. The greyness of the sky matched the colour of the building and both matched the colour of hubby's mood after he had gotten up early and made breakfast in bed for everyone, before settling down to watch the rugby with the young man. I had to shout out several times from the comfort of my boudoir, to tell him to mind his language, and I assessed correctly that the French might have put him in a grumpy mood for a while!

Love it or loathe it, I'm glad that they chose to build this new gallery here in the north. I was looking for colour all day and the barriers on the river Calder provided a good splash.
I think the building is stunning.
It is part of the regeneration of the riverside - I love projects like these.
The buildings here are full of character and history and deserve to be brought back to life and used again.
The boats were colourful too.

The gallery is in stark contrast to the Hepworth Gallery in St Ives that we visited in June.

but is the perfect space to display these masterpieces so that you can inspect them close up.


I thought the pink coat added a colour splash to this shot.
The gallery is fairly child friendly and was full of kids drawing the exhibits. They also had a free workshop running for making a sketch book which looked really popular. It also had an enormous play area outside for less wet days!
As well as Barbara Hepworth exhibits, they also had some other St Ives artists work. One of my favourite is Alfred Wallis and I was delighted to find one of his paintings on display.
I love his naive style, and also the way he captured the exact colour of the sand on Porthmeor beach.
The biggest disappointment of the visit was the Gallery Cafe. It looked fabulous and the food looked and smelled amazing, but it was chocca block full, so a revisit - just for food - is planned.

The gallery is free to visit, so if you are near, make sure you visit.