tiny happy

crafting heroine

This is my mother, Sally, and I in 1981- outside the farm cottage we lived in. Our spaniel dog, Bonnie, is just walking out of the picture, but that's her to the right. By the end of the 1980s, my Mum had trained as a nurse, given birth to six babies, was a prolific crafter and had inspired much creativity in me, my younger siblings, and any friends that visited our busy home.

Today my Mum turns 51.

She's my crafty heroine. She's a mother of six, and grandmother of five (nearly six!)

She's a full-time quilter, embroiderer, spinner, dyer, knitter, baby-blanket-crocheter, pianist, violinist, gardener, avid reader and small-dog-lover. She has a scary amount of amazing fabric and yarn and instills the belief that a gigantic collection of material is just a important to a crafter as a full selection of paints is to a painter. Like me, she doesn't care much for exercise, but you'll never see her sitting still. She makes sure there's a sock-knitting project in any car she might have to travel in. And yes, I'm sure she knitted that white pixie outfit I'm sporty- gosh, I hope it was winter, Mum!

I made her a new handbag for her birthday - using *nearly* the last of that waterlily linen-

...and now we have cards, curry and cake to make, for our dinner with her tonight. Happy birthday, Mum! We love you lots, and thank you for everything you do. x

impatient for autumn

:: My friend Claire has organised the Carlos Fund Auction, which has recently gone live on e-bay. Please check out the auction site to see the beautiful work donated by 23 different artists. All funds raised will go directly to help fund the medical care of Christian Flores Carlos, a four-year-old boy who suffered terrible burns in a car crash in January of this year. His mother died the day after the crash. Thank you, Claire, for putting the auction together- it looks wonderful ::

A while ago Marianne and I organised a barkcloth bag swap, after realising we both shared a passion for this fabric. Over the weekend, Marianne's parcel arrived, and I felt so lucky to not only receive the beautiful bag made by her, but also this crochet scarf, in browns and pinks. That's why I'm feeling impatient for autumn. The bag is beautiful, too- vintage blue and brown barkcloth with brown wool crochet on the bottom, for a basket-like effect. The shape and design are just perfect. You can see the bag I made for Marianne here.

She also sent some sweet little frogs (I couldn't do better than this cute photo she posted) for A and K, and a Knitting Nancy for Arlo which he has been practicing knitting with. He even said 'Now i can help you with your sewing work, eh, Mum?' I can't wait.

More crafty goodness from Marianne. I'm a serious fan of her paper packs  and she even included a children's version. Some crocheted flowers for embellishing our jackets and scarves (she shares her pattern here), hand-embroidered linen bookmark and a handmade bowl from wool felt (her pattern for a little felt box is here.) Thank you Marianne, for sending us your beautiful work. xx

outdoor eating

It's all about outdoor eating at our place right now. We have the hot weather, long balmy evenings, and cicada accompaniment to entertain us. And we still have some summer left.

We've had picnics at the park, barbeques at the beach, and dinner at camping grounds. Quite often A and K and I pretend we're at the beach, and have our lunch on the picnic rug in the garden. Arlo pretends to chase seagulls, so it's all very entertaining, and we don't even have to worry about sand in our sandwiches.

The other day after cooking dinner, Tom carried our dinner table out into the garden, and we ate our pizza out there. I couldn't believe we hadn't done that before- it was lovely.

(As you can see, Keira doesn't feel the need to wear clothes at the moment, ever.)

In celebration of this style of eating, I made this little tool for taking on picnics and barbeques. We actually have a very nice picnic basket with compartments for plates and cutlery, given to us by Tom's brother and his partner, so this one is for some friends who like to go on picnics. I saw the idea in a magazine a year or so ago, I can't remember which...

This was very easy to make, I just used one cotton tea-towel (I think these are called 'dish-towels' in the States?) and folded then sewed the bottom half of it to make smaller compartments for the knives and forks. Then I sewed another panel at the top so this piece can be folded over the cutlery before rolling up. Then I added some tree-appliques, in the hope it will inspire forest expeditions.

The idea is that after using the cutlery to eat pies and cakes, you can simply pop them back in here, then throw the tea-towel in the wash upon returning home.

Wishing you outdoor eating, in whatever weather...

we're granola-types too

Did you see this recipe over at little birds a couple of weeks ago? It reminded me of how much I loved making muesli (we don't use the word 'granola' here in NZ, i wonder why not?) through my childhood and while at university, too. The best part is the wonderful smell permeating the house as it bakes.

So I had to make some, of course.

I made my batch nearly the same as Stephanie's, except I added in some chopped dried apricots, almonds and a few yoghurt-covered raisins. Which I might not do next time, because, apparently, once they are eaten from the bowl, the muesli seems to lose it's 'shine', according to Arlo and Keira. But for me, a bowl of this really is a happy start to the morning.

And another happy thing: realising this sweet little linen dress from the 1950s I found last summer still fits Keira, but now as a top. If I could find blue and white polka-dotted linen like this, I would have to make myself one just the same.

print and pattern

I love the design site print and pattern. I think it was the Japanese prints here that won me over this week.  Oh, and the Orla Kiely store shots.

Inspired by that site, here are some of the lovely vintage cotton fabrics I found this week while op-shopping. There seemed to be an abundance of blue and brown:

I'm thinking handbag linings, more baby kimono dresses, and pants pockets. What do you think?

random acts of kindness

I received a beautiful shawl today, all the way from Vienna. At first I thought, maybe it's a mistake, it might be for the neighbour instead, and do I know anyone in Austria? But then I read the letter- Leandra, who reads this blog, sent it as a surprise gift. She even emailed a blog-friend for my postal address to make it completely unexpected.

   

The shawl is garter-stitch knitted in dark earthy-browns and greens and there's a sweet knitted flower on the bottom point. The design is 'Josephine'- she blogged about it here.  It's enough to make me look forward to autumn, so I can use it on this garden chair while reading a book. I truly can't think of anything nicer, and some leaves are falling to the ground already- a hopeful sign. Thank you, Leandra.

Meanwhile, I've been keeping out of trouble by spending every spare minute behind my sewing machine. It's been enjoyable work, though, as long as I'm positioned near a window. (it's the kind of weather when your secret stash of chocolate melts inside the pantry. So disappointing.) I've made a new batch of bags to send to Beckon along with some that last week went to the Babylicious website.

new baby on the block

I've got some links to share this afternoon:

Have you been following the photographic collaboration of Stephanie and Mav over at  3191: A year of mornings? I've been enjoying it very much. The photography is simple, stylish and beautiful, it's been inspiring me to learn how to take good pictures.

And look at this beautiful bag made by Rhiannon. It reminds me so much of one my Mum used for her knitting when I was a child, but with a modern feel- isn't that applique beautiful?

Over the weekend, I also found the site Love Letters. If I had a couple of hours free, I would sit down and read them all. It feels slightly wrong to be doing so, but I'm a naturally curious (some might say nosy?) person, so I soon got over that.

Yesterday morning, a new baby girl was born to a family who live very close by. I can't wait to meet her. But in the meantime, I made her a little outfit. This is a matching gingham apple set: soft grey pants and a t-shirt with pink appliques. Yep, still thinking about how many times I can sneak gingham into the things I make.

more cardinal love

I found this bowl at the Recycling Centre and it makes me happy. It's an old J. and G. Meakin pottery piece with grey cross-hatching and coloured polka-dots on it. I vaguely remember seeing an entire tea-set in this pattern at one of those trendy vintage/antique-type shops in Wellington once, and if that happens again, I'm putting it on lay-by.

And something else making me happy: this sweet little necklace arrived in the mail from Arizona, as a complete surprise from Kelli. She remembered how much I loved cardinals when she saw it in such pretty colors' etsy shop, so now I can carry a little cardinal with me every day. Thank you, Kelli!

no more plastic

Even though I know plastic shopping bags are bad for our environment, it seems most times I go shopping, I return home with another bag or two, without even realising it. If there's one thing I want to try to change this year, this could be it: no more plastic bags. I made this heavy-duty shopping bag this morning in the hope that because I made it myself, I might be more likely to remember to bring it with me. This, and a couple of others I've made, will live in the glove-compartment of our car, and a couple can stay in the parcel tray of the pram, too.

I think the problem I've had with them before, was that when I produced my cloth bags at the check-out, the person packing my groceries would often seem annoyed and flustered as she/he tried to carefully pack my things in a bag that kept flopping over, and was probably too small for the job. That was if I remembered to bring my own bags with me. Usually it completely left my mind until I made it to the check-out. Hopefully my new and improved shopping bag will be easier for them to use. And according to many sources, New Zealanders are on the whole quite good at re-using their existing bags: using as rubbish bags, donating them to op-shops to be re-used, and putting them out with the plastic recycling. But our true aim needs to be source minimisation.

There's a Plastic Bag report with links and a photo exhibition, here at Zero Waste New Zealand. And I found a scary thing while I was browsing the internet for information on plastic shopping bags. At the top of the Reusable Bags  website (an excellent resource on this subject) is a counter keeping track of an estimated number of plastic bags consumed this year. Especially considering we're only in February, that number is getting pretty huge. I really don't want to add to that. How do you try to cut down on your plastic bags?

love notebooks

I was going to write a post about Valentine's Day today, but then I read Helen's post, and there's nothing left to say. So beautifully put, as always.

Instead I made some little notebooks as wee Valentine's presents for a few friends I'll see today:

To make these I just covered blank notebooks with scraps of vintage wallpaper I had lying around. But you could also use pieces of fabric, plain brown paper, pages from old books, anything, really.

Inspirational notebooks: for sale here at operation papercut, lovely old-wallpaper-covered books at willow house and a tutorial to make your own here at moonstitches.

You could use a blank book for impromptu poetry, collages, crafty ideas when inspiration strikes, recipes, gardening records, list-making, recording overheard snippets of conversation, or love notes...