It’s official, the heating’s on, winter is on our doorstep and here in Northumberland it’s already bitterly cold.

Even thought the nights are longer it’s not all gloom; here’s some of our favourite things about this time of year:

• Crunching Autumn leaves.
• Boots.
• Hand knitted bed socks from Hush
• Snuggling up on the sofa.
• Endless hot cups of tea.
• Fox Scarf from Donna Wilson (mr hunkydory please note, this is on mrs hunkydory’s Christmas list!)
• Winter Bird Hot Water Bottle from Hunkydory Home
• It’s almost Christmas!

Even though we love being here in the North East, sometimes we get a little bit frustrated that we are based so far from London and The Make Lounge gives us another reason to be!
The Make Lounge offers contemporary craft workshops with a stylish, social twist and also has a retail shop stocking haberdashery and craft supplies so you can carry on crafting at home. It’s probably just as well we are so far away or we’d be booking onto lots of their clases – we particularly like the sound of the Fashion-tastic Biscuit Decorating and the Crochet Amigurumi Toys.



On Sunday, July 18 from 3-5:30 p.m., The Make Lounge is holding a Blooming Great Tea Party to benefit Marie Curie Cancer Care with all proceeds from ticket sales going to benefit this wonderful and worthwhile organisation.
Hunkydory Home is keen to support this great event and is donating one of these clocks as a raffle prize, other prizes include a Janome Sewing Machine, Green & Blacks Hamper, Yoga Lesson, Crafty Books, and a whole variety of gorgeous handmade lovelies!
See full details here.

We’ll keep working on them to open up here in the North, but in the meantime (if you’re too far from London like us) you could always get crafty with one of our kits.

What a lovely morning we had today at the Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art. The hunkydory family is very fond of this place and we often visit before taking a stroll along the Newcastle/Gateshead Quayside, but today was all about ‘little miss’ as today was ‘Toddler Tuesday’!

Little miss is 3 years old and loves making things, sticking things, cutting things and being creative generally, so this was the ideal activity for her. Sitting in a cardboard castle (made in a previous session) we made colourful fish and bracelets taking comfort in the fact that the mess would be left behind instead of all over the kitchen floor and, despite it being a bit chaotic, fun was had by all.

After the organised activity we had a lovely time playing in the Quay area on Level 2 which is full of books, blocks, drawing/creative materials and even a rowing boat which is fantastic for imaginative play.

An art gallery isn’t the first place that springs to mind to take kids too, but we think the Baltic has the balance just right and it makes for a lovely trip for adults and children alike and just try to resist the gift shop on the way out!

I’m not the only sock monkey out there (though possibly the most handsome), my creator is the very talented Sian Hughes and you can take a look at some of my extended family here . Others are still looking for a home.