Happy new year.

I Sit here in bed this new years eve night looking at all these photos I took of the snow a couple of days ago. It is all gone now and the world outside looks duller for it.
The rain is hammering down again and the wind howls as a Yorkshire wuthering heights evening should.
New years eve . Well the Christmas thing is nearly over and then I can have my little life back.
We got away with it all really lightly this year and I have no serious stories to tell of rudeness or rejection form the season of good will at all this year. The time was well spent keeping out of everyone's way and buying all my own presents to avoid disappointment.

 we even had snow briefly which added to the romance of the season for once. I worked new years eve day today and then came home to an excited Monza and Lee who had both missed me. That was nice at least. So we ate dinner that had prepared itself in the slow cooker and watched a bit of the movie "School of rock" . We have seen this so many times and laughed at the same old same old...anyway we then went to bed in the hope of avoiding the fireworks and shenanigans going off at mid night.
another reason for going to bed is to avoid watching the new year come in on the telly. now that is sad. so we do not really bother with it all and just wake up to a lovely new year in the morning.

 So here I am in bed with my feet on a hot water bottle. It is warm here. Monza Has long since evacuated to the floor cushions and is huf puffing as I look at these snow pictures I took at the Tarn.
This one is the" Model boat club" hut. this is where all the old guys congregate with their treasured boats, which they display on stands whilst drinking tea. Some people are a member of this club just so they can get a cup of tea. No interest in boats at all, just the tea and a yarn.

 Lee and I went out to take these pictures after Monzas short walk. We took him home and left him in the house whilst we went to the shops the long way around....

 when we got back, just as we walked up the path to the front door we found neighbours out clearing the snow. These ladies had just returned from South Africa....about two hours previous....come from a drought they had. Spent Christmas in Cape town with family and been rashioned on water.  any way now they are back in Yorkshire and shovelling snow.

Nothing much has happened in their absence except Christmas, so we carried on into the house. They did say though that Monza had been howling whilst we were out. It would have been about an hour and a half I suppose. That would be a long time to Monza as he usually goes every where with us.

we dared not take the car out. We were used to rusty van in these conditions and that rusty heap could get through any snow or ice with no problem...started first time too. The car is lovely...but it is just that. a car. we now see why people are flummox by a bit of snow!!!

So I put on my big hairy yetti boots and off we went.

I wanted to take a doll with me to photograph for this blog. Lee drew the line of embarrassment with the Yetti boots.

There we have it Christmas is over. And a new year will begin in a few hours.That is that for 2017.

new year resolutions? no not really...but note to self....Keep off bloody social media!!!tempting as it is to post photos and blogs....who can be that interested? I see others posting winges and wines about their health and life in general....or lack of it in a lot of cases.....try and keep away from social media. caused me loads of stress this year, mostly my own fault as I should know better than to put "customers and acquaintances" on my friends list. I never learn do I!? there was the instance from a different employ with all the people I worked with on messenger causing problems too. I even dumped the job of supervisor because of it. So learn sally and just stay off it!!! And whilst we are at it....do not message ex husbands. It is a real downer. They just are not interested. I made this mistake too a few days ago. I saw he had commented on a mutual friends post....so I messaged him to find out how he was..... basically he has achieved a lot since our parting of ways, but is still finding the time to winge about it. He always wanted something other than what he had. What he had was never good enough for him and so he complicated his life and everyone elses with himself.this trait has not changed one bit. He has a great life now. AND still he is wanting something other (probably someone else too)   . so as ever when he gets what he thinks he wants he will then want something different.
So in short move on . Do not dwell on the past. Never go back. I have proved this to be true here. take my advice.

I love writing this blog and taking photos for it. However I do not have to bore the arse off everyone else with it. So I will not be publishing this onto facebook either. That possibly means with that that I have "no readers".

Does that really matter? nope not at all. I shall write it any way.

Now 1st January 2018 and we have woken up (again) to a non frosty non rainy world and Lee has brought up a big mug of tea whilst Monza dog takes his place on the bed and lays out eating his biscuits.
I am not working today as it was given as a choice not to , I took it and am still in bed. HA!!!!
" you going to regale me? oh goody first blog of 2018" said Lee turning on his tablet to watch utube videos. he is just checking to see anything new from his faves now that the complicated season is over he can conscentrate on making hollogrames and looking for a new vehicle.

We or I have more or less decided that I do not want another van to work with as "a man with a van" .........however both of us would like another vehicle for holidays and days out. the car is lovely but just a shade boring. and we no longer have the white van "laws of the road" on the road or pavement...take your pick.... and junctions are such a night mare in a car!. Ever noticed van drivers? had a run in with one? well you will know what I mean then. ......

we miss old rusty van a lot. Lee has been looking at Animal pick up trucks. This is going to be a fixer upper as I know we do not have enough money to get a fully working vehicle complete with MOT certificate as well. So this will involve finding a work shop to rent as well. The Yorkshire weather will have anything worked on outside into a rust heap in mere weeks. so this needs to be a serious consideration in our next purchase, otherwise our little bit of money will simply turn to rust.

I have my first day of 2018 planned and Have printed and laid out ready all my doll patterns I want to sew. Some are cut out and some have already been stuffed and painted.
Happy new Year if you manage to find this blog as I am not putting it on Facebook anymore.....there will be a new website soon too.

lee is or the opinion that I should continue posting on facebook. As I go to the trouble of writing this it should be read. otherwise why write it?  a point I sup....pose...........

1st January 2018. So here it is new years day. I guess if you do not want to read it you just cruise on by. So here is the choice.
Happy new year.

Then I got more.

 These are the new dolls I got for Christmas presents..........They were all new in boxes which is unusual for me.

 This one I found in an "old curiosity shop" in Otley and bought her. She is from the late 1960s early 1970s.
I was just about to take some of them out with me this morning to photograph. Then I looked out and the world was white over with frost. So we drank a lot of tea, deiced the car and took Monza dog for a scud around for a walk.
We parked the car up in Yeadon and thought to get lunch and some milk only.

 We quickly visited the charity shops. On looking in the window of the one I volunteered in...I heard squealing and a voice stating  " The doll lady is here!!!"
This set the manager running into the back stockroom to fetch a carrier bag full of dolls and clothes. The label said simply " Sally dolls"


  
 There were loads in the bag. Some I gave them back to sell on...as I have tried (and failed) to slim down my collection by giving similar to charity myself.
So I just kept the Bratz and monster high.....and in amongst them were some little dolls too

 a monster high I do not have and some Bratz dolls.....

 Three of them are not in good condition...but never mind I can always restyle the hair. AND a Bratz doll is a Bratz doll !!! the new ones do not have the same appeal......

 There was a Ken and some modern Barbie dolls but I left them, and kept the Ken and some clothes as I do not have that many Ken dolls.

So I got loads for Christmas and then we went out for a pint of milk and I got more. Lee found a hologram kit in the last charity shop....not sure what this involves, but he was excited enough to read all the instructions and download an app for his new phone.....

so two big kids had quite an exciting afternoon. My emails came through with all the E patterns I ordered too.......

from Happy heart patterns.....



From Cat and fiddle patterns........I have new patterns... I have fabrics and I have stuffing. The weather forecast is for snow the next couple of days. Hopefully I will be snowed in and can start making up these patterns. How perfect would that be?

The funny space ....

 
 It is the funny space between Christmas and New Year. Nothing much has changed and life after Christmas has not yet begun. Shops all full of tat in sales and people spending as little as possible...well I speak for Lee here. I am going fabric shopping. Lee plans to spend nothing. We sniffed the air towards the retail parks and went in the other direction very quickly.

 We went to Ilkley after much debate and a doggy walk in the cold cold cold. The photos are a bit boring today too. I took them really quickly whilst waiting for my Gregg's pasty to cool down at lunchtime.
We spent ages in Boyes department store and bought a lot of thermal wear for Lee. Who was being awkward about it all as he did not want to spend the money on such stuff.
I found some fabric in the haberdashery...not much but some hearts printed in pink and calico for  rag doll bodies.

 We checked on all the charity junk shops and found the same unsold stuff from before Christmas. most of it looked like unwanted stuff from other years that no one wants this year either....Betty's tea rooms we passed still with the same displays...only Barkers the dog shop was taking it all down, There is life after Christmas but not yet.

 The Crescent hotel and restaurant. I stopped just here and took some photos and then looked towards the church we always go to and decided I could not be bothered. so that was that for Ilkley this time.

 And I noted Ilkley now has a trendy Gin lounge. Gin is soooo in at the moment. The 1930s all over again. times of austerity and Gin are back again or if you were born a lot later than me it is the 1980s ...is that about right? I think there was a gin trend in the 1980s. There certainly was with my then mother in law.....Sunday dinner....gin and tonic. The recipe consisted of.....one glass   three lumps of ice followed by gin almost to the top.....a fill up of vermouth and no room for the tonic. This had the effect of blowing yer head off. I remember that she got this recipe out of an American magazine..."drink of the month" or something...
Three of these Gins followed by starters and wine at the table, followed by roast beef and "Yorkshire brick " (no one could ever eat this. baked Yorkshire pud ....hard as hell. Cut into chunks with an electric carver...... I tried soaking it in gravy too to no avail.... they were from Cornwall. This is how it came) ... then more wine  with usually a desert of  ice cream then...port and cheese. now if you were still on your chair at the table it was brandy and coffee. as this stage and false move could end you on the floor or tip backwards was common.
Monday morning back to work.(if you woke...) I remember father in law had a really good job designing nuclear war submarines for the government. He often had to take off Mondays as he was incapable. The civil service expected it . On that level it was the norm.
so the 1980s are being relived as respective. I bet not ..... 

Home we went and fed Monza, lit the wood burner and I ordered lots of new patterns for raggy dolls.
E patterns....waiting for the emails back...and then we can get started on all these raggy dolls.

the day after and then ..........

 This is as far as we got on this audisious day. Dick Hudson's on Bingley moor. That is to say we availed ourselves of their car park and I got out of the car into the cold world to take some photos. Lots of others were already parked up and heading inside. Not us. I had wanted to go out to lunch this Christmas but no...this was not it. Boxing day 2017 we decided to head over to Howarth. I had been given a copy of Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte by a fellow doll lover and thought of going to Top Withens which is supposedly the farm house that Emily based her book around. Now a ruin. a ruin for as long as I can remember.

How come you dont have a copy of this book already? well I do ....a few. Each one is different. This latest one is actually from the house by the grave yard in Howarth. I have another I stole from my old school library and another from THE 20pence shop in Otley (this one is a bumper door stop including all of the Bronte sisters famous works...)

 We set off in the fonz car with a bored Monza dog in the back. He just wanted his walk and then dinner. He wants his little life back...not too sure about this turkey malarky at all. Any way today it is cold and raining so we went for the drive first in the hope that the rain would stop later on.
as I say we got as far as Bingley moor. It all looks beautiful but it is freezing cold, and a trip to Top Withens which is named this for a reason is in the middle of absolutely nowhere with a lot of wind. this did not appeal. I think searching out the Wuthering heights romantic scenes is for the summer months perhaps. I do know that Wuthering heights is heralded as a love story. I can tell you that it is nothing of the kind and times would have been bleak at Wuthering heights. It is a tale of revenge taken by the devil incarnate and make no mistake about it...there is no romance here.

 I had taken out one of my Christmas presents and I satisfied myself by photographing her instead waiting for warmer days we are

 so boxing day 2017 we went to Bingley moor then back through Hawkesworth and Saltaire then ...

 To saltaire

 Salts mill was closed and gated so I had to make do with this one which is a bit further along. We moved a customer in here when we still had the van business. It is now flats.

 Esholt. The original woolpack from Emerdale farm. The sets are now all out at Hardwood estate. This one is the original. We did not stop here either as Monza was now we'll fed up and wanted his walk and lunch.....

 The old post office.....a whizz drive by here...

 And then at last Monza got his walk.

Once home much to monzas disgust we put on yet another old movie and proceeded to be really boring as humans can be.

Now a fan of this Christmas thing is Monza dog.
The morning after now and neighbours are all going back to work. We are drinking a lot of tea before setting off to Ilkley.
Boyes haberdashery beckons and a fabric buying frenzy as I intend making some new Raggy dolls for a new website I hope will be begun.

Wednesday night.

Back from the Haberdashery and I bought some new fabric and am ordering some new patterns for raggy dolls. So...why don't I use my own patterns then? well I will, but I want to make something different to the dolls I made before. I expect that I will make more of my old ones too when I get bored with patterns. AND I can not find my own patterns just at the moment. Have to start somewhere I do.