It’s Saturday evening, June 1st and for those of you out there who are football fans, you know the significance the date. Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool are in Madrid playing in the Champions League final.

So what has this to do with Lil and Daise? Well history…

Lil&Daise, my Etsy store is named after two wonderful sisters that I had the privilege to know when I was very young. Always old ladies in my head they were probably only in their 70’s around this time.

They lived up the road from us as I was growing up and as a child of about 4 (yes I know, times have changed) I was allowed to run out the back of our garden, through the allotments, up the football field behind the houses to visit Lil and Daise. My first taste of independence and adventure.

These sisters lived in a very humble 2 up 2 down house, with an indoor downstairs toilet but no bathroom. As small as the house was though even my young self recognised that it was stuffed full of polished antiques and very loved furniture.

So back to football. Here’s the first football link, the town football pitch behind our houses, where I learnt to ride my bike without stabilisers, where the town carnival was held, bonfire night fireworks were set off and local football games were played and watched from the touchline.

But these wonderful, very humble, respectful sisters came to life watching football (and wrestling and racing!) on the television. Saturday afternoons were always an adventure. But it was the FA cup final that was a day to look forward to. A day that had a change in routine to accommodate the schedule. A day when everything else stopped to watch the game. A day when these church going sisters, would become so animated and cheer and shout and clap for the love of the game. I’m not sure now if they actually had a favourite team or if they just loved the sport. But the 4 year old me certainly loved watching football with Lil and Daise.