I do all sorts of things in my spare time. Like make dresses, read, write, doodle, paint, and take photos.
I make dresses
My two favourite things to make are dresses and bags. I’ll tag my tweets and instagrams with #seamstressSophie, if you’re curious to see what I’m working on now. The blog has gotten me invited to an exhibition opening at Buckingham Palace, and to Regent Tweet (a bloggers event).
Pet peeve: synthetic linings.
Favourite thing: pockets!
I read. A lot.
You have no idea how long my 
Amazon wishlist is…
I log all the books I have read on Goodreads.
Here is my “books worth reading” bookshelf. It is what it says on the tin. A collection of the best books I have ever read.
I also tend to set myself a little reading challenge, as encouraged by Goodreads…
I write and doodle, every day
I carry a notebook / diary in which I write everything. There will be phone numbers of recruiters, sketches of bags I’m thinking of making, thoughts twirling in my head and needing a way out or notes from a lecture I’ve attended. Sometimes, even work-related sketches make their way in there, just because I had a good idea on the way home.
In more than 30 years of keeping a paper diary, I have developed a stationery fetish. My two favourite notebooks are moleskine daily diaries (A5-ish with great line height for writing), and Leuchtturm1917 (A5-ish, wider than moleskines! And they do dotted!).
Every year, since 2002, I also start NaNoWriMo. I have “won” (finished) TWICE: in 2010, and in 2020 I wrote 50’000 words in 30 days. My most recent attempt (2022), made it to 38’839 words. The biggest lesson from all these? Write about characters or a place you WANT to be mentally teleported to, or you’ll just want to quit out of boredom.
I draw and paint
Usually in a tiny moleskine watercolour notebook, that I can carry anywhere with me. Most of these tiny painting take about 2 hours to do. A blissful two hours of staring at beautiful scenery.
(there are several paintings in this one instagram post, scroll it like a carousel with the little arrow on the right)
I work with leather
I love working with leather. I’ve made wallets, bags, belts, bag straps, card holders, pencil cases, and even a watch strap! Leather smells good and is easy to assemble: just use a bit of glue and slowly saddle-stitch things together. My favourite leather is untreated, so that it will tan with the sun and harden as the time passes. It feels like it ages with me, like we are both alive. Most of the leather I use I have bought in Athens, in a tiny-looking leather shop in Psirri, where several hardware craft shops still operate. I have no idea where equivalent shops exist in London, I fear they have all died off.
I draw and paint
Drawing and painting are like meditation to me. The best way to calm down and find my centre. I’ve loved Arts my entire life, enthusiastically scribbling on walls as soon as I could walk, and by Uni time… well, if fine arts minors were given to computer engineering students, then I would have one! I wish I were kidding, that was a LOT of extra credits!!
I take photos
I like taking photos. Some end up on instagram as eurydice13. I also have a Rollei S35. I don’t use it often, but when I do, the feel of the shutter and manual winder makes me very very happy. I’ve also taken some photos of IBM executives for their social media profiles. One of them was so overjoyed with one of his pictures, he emailed me after I’d left the company to tell me that he was getting at least one positive comment every week from colleagues who had seen it on the internal systems. He’s now changed his Linked in photo to that one, and has left me
a recommendation!
I love knowledge, so I give back
I believe in the sharing of knowledge… And the Internet. So every year I donate to Wikipedia, one of the best things to be found online. Please, if you use it and can afford to, do the same. Keep the information alive.
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