Meet Bella!

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce....

Bella!

Just finished today, she's the Monkey with the Mostest - in terms of cheek and attitude, at any rate! 

She started life as a pair of brown socks, with pink heels and toes.  Her head, body and legs are all one sock... Her nose is the heel part of sock #2 and her arms and loooong tail are also cut from the second sock.

The tail is cut from the whole length of the sock, toe to cuff, using the part that was left after the heel was cut out.  It is stiffened with a long chenille pipe-cleaner and has a little stuffing to give it more shape (boy did that stuffing take me ages - sitting with a long bamboo skewer, using the blunt end to push tiny bits of stuffing doooown that tail!).

That tail is long and bendy, can be twisted into shape and will stay there.  Bella can swing it and swing from it too. 

That tail is going to get Bella into a whole lot of trouble - I can just tell.

I introduced her to the Boys... Bro', as ever, was cool about it, but Mon looks pretty fed up in the photo. I don't think they hit it off very well.  I mean, you've heard of "Boogie in the Barnyard"?  Well, we've had "Dancin' in the Dinin' Room" and "Swingin' in the Sittin' Room", followed, I'm sorry to report, by "Chaos in the Craft Room". 

No-one is impressed (except Bella).  Even Sherlock is not happy - she biffed him in the nose and he sent her to Coventry!  Bella doesn't seem to mind though - she's happy in her skin (or should that be sock? hmm...).  She loves her green hair-bow and kneck-tie; she's happy with her ear-rings and her tail makes her squeal with glee.  She's a Happy Sock Monkey and intends to live life to the full. 

I daresay she'll settle down in a day or two.  The other Sock Pets will see to that - she'll be squashed a few times and that will sober her up a bit!

But you have to admit, she's cute!