"Why are you so far away?" she said.

As I've mentioned, we're closed today due to it being

Darby Street Festival.

This is not in any way meant to be a thumbing of our noses to all of the hard work the Darby Street Precinct Committee does!

They're doing a great job trying to promote our lovely Street and deserve praise & appreciation!

I personally have been connected to the Street for over 25 years when my Mum & her then partner David established Cooks Hill Books. My teen years/early twenties were actually spent living in Council Street then Darby Street itself. Then I stayed living in Cooks Hill (with my Sean) and opened the street's first clothing retail shop called Spinster Wares. There was only one cafe on Darby Street in those days - Goldbergs! What I'm trying to say is that I love Darby Street and how it has evolved. And that I hope the horrid weather stays away so my fellow retailers have a really successful day!!

We did try opening for the first few Street festivals and our poor little shop suffered spillages; thefts & general disrepair - selling no where near as much as our usual Sundays to add insult to injury! We put this down to our Regular Customers staying away, the people coming to the street for the day being in carefree Festival mode, and our tiny shop being a tad too fragile to cope with crowds!

Also the stalls of items lining the street directly competing with our range of wares kind of defeats the purpose for us!

So. We've made a decision that makes sense for our particular Business and declared it an Annual Leave Day! Hope you understand & don't take it personally.

Here are some shots of items in our windows & recent creations to tide you by!

Not True in Newcastle Zine has SOLD OUT.


Hee hee I made bunting!

Jenni from Hex(6) is officially addicted to embroidery!

By the way (and completely incidentally) it is Sean & my 17th Anniversary on Thursday the 3rd of June! SEVENTEENTH.

Isn't that crazy!!

xxx