Miss Millie | Monkey Maker

Apparently it's a week for positive feedback.

Just in case your interpretation skills aren't sharply attuned to child here's the translation:

Dear Miss Millie

We have made our sock monkeys and they look really cool.

Lily (that's my twin) has named her one Slinky and hers is a boy but I still am deciding on a name but my one is a girl because her one is the darker colour and my one is more girly pink.

So thank you for the lovely kits.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte and Lily

It's good to see love hearts and peace signs are still popular doodles for little girls on the sides of their notes!

Millie x

Jocelyn Road

Contrary to popular belief I do actually have a surname. That surname is Jocelyn. It has blessed me with a lifetime of first name as a last name situations and is particularlly problematic for call centers.

But who doesn't love the photo opportunity afforded by a road sign with your name on it!

Truth be told, I actually grew up on this rural Central Otago road. I stopped in for a visit last weekend.

Next stop: Miss Millie Street!

Millie x

Heather's Sock Monkey

I recently had the pleasure of this lovely message and cute photos in my inbox.

I especially like Heather's comment about her husband. I think many of us can identify with the long suffering husband or boyfriend for whom the very word "craft" strikes fear into both the heart and the wallet!

Hi there

You don't know me but I already know a little about you thanks to - an article in a magazine my mum gave me, and your blog.

I'm a 38 yr old sewing addict and came across an ad at xmas for one of your sock monkey kits from Save the Children in a mag I was given. My husband is very supportive of my craft addiction but doesn't usually encourage me to spend money on it like he did when he saw the kit was being sold through Save the Children, he said, "That's a great cause!" so I bought a kit wondering what colour I would receive. To much delight this monkey blends in extremely well with my son's soft toys, but goes just as well with my quilts and I could even have him in one of my designer handbags and call myself Paris Hilton, except I look nothing like her and this is a well behaved monkey, not a spoilt toy dog!

My son Joshua is very happy with him and although he already has about 8 soft toy monkeys he seems to think this one is his as well. I read on your blog that you don't get to see many of the finished kits so I have included some fun photos for you.

Thanks for sharing your crafting skills, it is so good to see.
Heather

Millie x

Post Christmas Organisation

I took our Christmas Tree down this weekend. It's funny how the house suddenly feels a little dull without it's twinkling presence.

Exhibit A (below). A festive little scene of highly satisfying organisation. Historically I've been a throw-all decorations-in-a-big-box-and-worry-about-it-next-December sort of a girl but this year's approach to tree deconstruction was almost as enjoyable as putting the tree up in the first place.

Millie x

Sock Summary

I've finished several pair of socks lately that hadn't made their way in front of a camera. Me, the socks and the camera hit the brief Sunday sun yesterday.

These ones are the ever popular 'Monkey' pattern by Cookie A. In fact, both of the patterns shown in the photos below are Cookie A - she's a sock knitting rock star!

This excellent shade of mustard I picked up while on holiday with my friend Laura in Denver, Colorado.

This tropical shade of blue is from Knitsch - it's called 'Days at the Bay'. These ones are off to a good friend in the US for her birthday. She lives in a climate where socks probably only make an outing for about 10 days a year but she's a big traveller and there's nothing better than shoes off, cozy socks on for plane journeys if you ask me.

And I can't quite remember the composition of this yarn but it was some sort of fancy combo from 'Joy of Yarn' in Greytown.

Millie x

Lauren's Sock Monkey

I love it when people send me photos of sock monkeys they've sewn themselves. I get so use to seeing the faces of the guys I make but other peoples monkeys have a whole other personality of their own.

I sent a kit to Pauline (Mrs Smythe to her students) a while back and like a good educator she saved it up to use as a reward for a student that deserved it. 

She found that student in Lauren who managed to whip this up over the weekend including banana! Cute aye?

  

Millie x

Then there was the day I met Martha Stewart

In my youth, I was quite the consumer of Rolling Stone magazine. I remember reading many articles where the writer had been given the opportunity to interview some musical god or other only to leave the interview intensely disappointed that their expectations of the person or band had not been met. "Never met your idol" was not an uncommon conclusion.

It's no secret that my living hero is one Martha Stewart and by amazing good fortune Martha was doing a book signing in Beverley Hills on my most recent trip to the US this month. I arrived early and lined up with a host of fancy, surgically enhanced Californian housewives. Waiting patiently in line, Martha's assistants informed us that there would be no posing with Martha, no requests for dedications in the book signing and by absolutely no means shall we have a flash turned on our camera.

I get it. Martha is a busy lady and no lady young or old looks good under a daytime flash. But no dedications? No posing? Oh Martha. I still love you despite your high maintenance behaviour. You're just lucky I wasn't writing for Rolling Stone.

Here I am, in brief conversation with Martha about roses gardens and Russel Crowe.

Millie x

The Perfect Egg

I love cooking classes. No matter how complex or how basic they are, I always learn something new. Gagganeau (a German appliance brand) have sponsored a series of 2-hour cooking classes on a Sunday morning at the City Markets. They've secured a host of Wellington's star chefs and restaurant owners and packaged it up to look like a cooking class while really being a thinly veiled advertisement for their appliances. The approach has worked well for them to date though today's class was more a testament to the lesser known complexities of their product than it's virtues but that's really a whole different story.

The classes to date have been excellent and I've learned how to cure and smoke my own bacon, how to make sushi and today; several ways with eggs.

The instructor, Zelda Haines from Nikau Cafe - which is a bit of a Wellington breakfast institution - taught us her famed sage fried eggs, scrambled eggs (the M.F.K. Fisher way) and proper egg custard. All delightful.

Did you know that eggs cook way before boiling point? The different proteins in an egg cook at between 62 - 78 degrees so no more cracking my eggs into a boiling pan of water or pouring scrambled mixture into a heated pool of butter!

Millie x

Celebrity Monkey Squares

Craft 2.0 is but days away and for the first time ever I actually feel prepared for a show. Monkeys are sewn, kits assembled, Perky Nana's procured.

There are so many good reasons to head down to the show on Saturday but if just incase you need another here's a $5 Off voucher that you can use at my stall.

Download Craft 2.0 29_10_11 Voucher

Millie x

My most ambitious knitting project ever. Finished!

Almost 28 months to the date I've finished my lace baby blanket. You know what they say about good thing taking time. heh heh.

Millie x