The latest from the shop

A re-stock by Kate Boxof her popular wrist warmers and neck warmers

A golden wreath that will last. Love this one by Brenda Tilbury

New plant pots from Samantha Robertson.

The last of my tiny fairies still available in the shop.

Catching up

New business cards for the shop

The sparkly Christmas shop window

New jugs and mugs from Justine Jenner

New baby girls' knitted tops by Jenny Drant with my cashmere bunnies

A beautiful embroidered card byt Sheila Barrow. Sheila brought in lots of new work to Handmade Happiness just before Christmas.

Late night shopping tonight!

One of the handmade invitiations I've been giving out for tonight's late opening

An opportunity for people who can't visit during the day to browse in the shop at night!

Parking directly outside the shop is limited but Marks and Spencer car park off St Peters Road is literally just around the corner. If you live near Petersfield come in and say hello!

More from a Winter Brocante

Exquisitely handmade pieces by Ayres and Grace. I would love to have this clever lady's work in my shop!

An interesting Christmas tree. Sorry I don't know who decorated it.

An eye-catching little lamb used as decor....

The experience of being at the Country Brocante's Winter sale in Cowdray Park, Midhurst continues to lie in my imagination. When I visited on the Friday it was packed with people who had travelled from all over the country to be there.

All credit to the organiser, Lucy, who has a shop in Midhurst, who had styled the event beautifully with large calligraphy signs on blackboards and had found so many people with attractive things for sale.

I look forward to visiting again- there's a Summer brocante, also in Midhurst...

A Winter Brocante

On Friday at Midhurst's Winter Brocante I bought a label hand written by  Kate at Oyster Bridge; a fairy made by Ayers and Grace and a heart made by Suzi Hearts with cards (top) by Liz Jones Makes.

Liz Jones' Slow Stitching stand with really pretty French vintage fabric kits.

The Snow Jewels stand

I visited the Country Brocante's Winter Fair on Friday and found some lovely handmade items.

One of the pictures has been eaten so I'll do another post soon.

Are you getting excited about Christmas? Handmade Happiness is opening from 6 til 8pm on Thursday this week to give more people a chance to visit.

Meanwhile keep warm and I hope you are enjoying this run up to Christmas as much as I am!

Making

Gorgeous colours of hand dyed wool

Making wool stockings with needlefelted patches

Necklaces using textile bits and pieces. I call these strings.Making lots of different ones now.

Its the busiest time of the year in the shop and I'm making as much as I can between customers.

The shop is open Tuesdays to Saturdays 10 to 5 and in addition will be open late on Thursday November 30th from 6pm to 8pm.

Happy making everyone!

New in the shop

New elephant in a tutu and guinea pigs in Santa hats designed and made by Sue Inglis of  Egg and Spoon studio

Penny Seume's 'Cityscape' silk scarves

Reversible Scandinavian style stockings made by Jenny Stacy

Part of my fairy inspiration board including fairies I have made in the past

Making for Christmas

Making simple faiies for tree decorations.

They all have different dresses. Fairy peg doll by Jenny Stacy

New! Textile art specs pockets made by Bee Mellor

New! Specs cases made by Bee Mellor

Someone said it's only eight weeks til Christmas. Help! So much to make so little time.

 I need to make jewellery and it's something I never seem to get round to. I've been making Fairy Boxes - just need to finish those off and those fairies pictured above - 12 done, eight more to go. I've done childrens' jewellery - all the easy stuff. Jewellery seems to require a lot more thought but while I'm actually making I love the feeling of time standing still. Totally absorbed in what I'm doing. I think lots of people experience this, it's like a form of meditation...

This year I have some truly gorgeous handmade items from makers new to the shop. I'll share those beauties and more about the makers in my next post. 

The Knitting and Stitching Show 2017

21st century yarns hand dye silk thread and fabrics. Love their colours.

Elizabeth Ashurst made these stunning pieces

This stand 'Bazaar' was like visiting a bazaar in India

Ann Small had a stand with lots of textural wall art.

Felting techniques shown in this piece by felt maker Clare Bullock

I love my annual visit to the Knitting and Stitching Show in October at Alexandra Palace in London. So much to see including students' work, the work of established textile artists and lots of tempting craft materials to buy.

From today on Handmade Happiness  will be stocking  21st century yarns who make the wonderful hand dyed craft materials so loved by textile artists and everyone who just loves the inspiration that looking at artistic colour combinations brings. More pictures and information in the next post.

New in the shop

Tanya Williamson made a big delivery of her wonderful stitched applique cushions 

I designed and  made a cashmere bear and dog to add to the popular cashmere bunnies.

Karen Boller has made this charming bird on a cotton reel. Pictured with party earrings made by Annie Sherburne.

After nine years of blogging I'm wondering whether I should continue this blog or start a new one with a different design and slightly different subject matter. I'd love to know your comments. I know the comment thing under is hard to use so please feel free to email me: jennystacy6@gmail.com Thanks.

Happy Birthday Blog! You are NINE years old!

I knitted this mouse from a pattern by Sue Stratford for a gift.

Playing around with Christmas ideas, this is my own pattern but the antlers need imrproving..

Love this dog from a pattern by Sandra Polley.Again not for sale.

I wrote the first blog post on September 22nd 2008. That was long before I opened a shop of my own. Having a shop was a recurring  fantasy that I used to write about about with no real hope of ever achieving. Rents were too high.

 I wrote about what I was making, how I was preparing for the Country Living magazine show in London and often about the clothes I liked in Tricot Too a shop I worked in and made jewellery for.

Then I moved to Petersfield and, six years ago the dream became a reality and I opened Handmade Happiness in Dragon Street. Since then this is the 'blog that became a shop' and its now all about promoting other makers whose work I sell in the shop.

Strangely, if the statistics are correct, the chances are that if you are reading this you live in France. The blog has more readers than ever before but most of them live in France. To start with I could rely on readers living in the UK or the USA. But recently lots of readers are from Russia, and above all from France. Since I have always thought that the French have excellent taste I am happy about this!! But the chances of them ever visiting HH the bricks and mortar shop are slim!
As its the blog's birthday I thought I'd share what I'm currently making. A bit of self indulgence from me... I have a large family to make for now that all of my children have produced children of their own and I feel very blessed!
It's important to me that the shop offers the very best of handmade. Most of it local although I am now looking further afield ... after 6 years it is time to spread the net a bit wider but everything in the shop is made from scratch and made in the UK and if I love it then I hope that you will love it too! 

New things in Handmade Happiness

Niloo brought in more beautiful pots she has made and these delicate ceramic plaques

These are Annie Sherburne's handmade bug brooches

Frank Higgins delivered more of his fantastic handmade kaleidoscopes. This is what it looks like when you look through one!

Every Saturday visitors to Handmade Happiness are blown away by the sheer talent of the makers whose work is sold there. I say Saturday because it is normally the busiest day. One of these is Frank Higgins, a scientist whose kaleidoscopes are works of art he has created from scratch. To buy a kaleidoscope or one of his teleidoscopes, which multiply and fragment everything you look at through one) is to buy a family heirloom that will delight young and old alike.

Niloo is another maker who is proficient at pottery and at needlework. Everything she makes is done to perfection and yet I have yet to meet a more modest and unassuming person.

Annie Sherburne is one of the very few makers who does not live locally. She lives in London but I've always admired her colourfilled pieces - she is particularly known for her rag rugs. We used to both sell through the Country Living magazine shows years ago.

Every

Sharing new things

These are a few of the paper bags I make for the shop frommagazine pages.

A sweet pair of baby bootees 

My needlefelting and cashmere bunnies made for the shop

Bee Mellor's wonderful bird decorations.

Samantha Robertson has just re-stocked Handmade Happiness with her popular ceramics

It's a busy time right now with a new baby in my family and the shop and continuing house renovations. All a pleasure and I feel extremely lucky but I have forsaken this blog recently. I plan to get back to writing longer posts now and, if you have the Instagram app you can see many more pictures @jenny_handmade_happiness

Back soon!

Inside Handmade Happiness

Love this giant cup and saucer made by Justine Jenner. Seen with Pam Dew's quilt.

Clever embroiderer Ann Hutchins made these butterflies for a local exhibition

Justine Jenner's grey pots in Handmade Happiness.

I knitted this alpaca cardigan for my grandson born on Sunday August 27th.

Carol Smith has just made these colourful cacti badges. 9-50 each

Apologies for not having blogged for so long. I'm now back and thinking about Christmas, when Handmade Happiness makes most of its money!!

I hope makers are  storing box loads of beautiful things to keep the shop well supplied!! It's hard to think about Christmas when the sun is shining brightly but I noticed when I went to Chichester recently that the charity shops already have Christmas cards on display!!  I reckon August is far too early but by the end of this month, September, I hope to have lots of gift ideas and maybe even a few Christmas decorations available in the shop.

Now is the time to think about handmade gifts and handmade cards if you want to make things yourself this year. A gift made with love while you are thinking about the person you are making it for is so well received! If you haven't got time to make things the next best thing is to find beautiful things that someone else has made. First stop - Handmade Happiness in Petersfield!!