tiny happy

a fierce bad rabbit

Thank you for your nice comments yesterday! Here is a peek inside the book of Arlo's i mentioned: 'A Fierce Bad Rabbit', by Beatrix Potter. It surprised me when I first read it to him- I think your average children's story these days has come a long way since 1906, which is when this one was first published. It's a very thinly disguised cautionary tale that goes like this:

There's a mean bad rabbit who snatches a carrot from a good rabbit, but he doesn't say please, and he scratches the good rabbit very badly.

A man with a gun comes along, he sees the bad rabbit, and shoots at him- bang! But when he runs to where the rabbit was, all he finds is a tail and a half-chewed carrot.

The bad rabbit runs away without a tail or any whiskers. The End.

Arlo seemed to be quite frightened by the story when I read it to him, but Keira laughed. We'll probably stick with Peter Rabbit for a while longer.

I made Keira a little scarf today, as I think she silently disposed of her usual one from the side of pram one day last week when I wasn't looking. This one is made from some vintage cotton and linen scraps, and backed with cotton flannel. I added a velcro patch to hold it in place around her chest.

I asked her what she'd like me to embroider on the edge, and she said 'a rain cloud.' Turns out she had actually said 'a red clown' but she wasn't too disappointed with it.

seven things

Pip tagged me to play this little game: tell seven things about yourself. I hope I can think of seven things I haven't already rambled on about.

1. I've always loved going to the library. Now it's a rare treat to go alone, but this really is my favourite thing to do if I ever get the chance. As a child I felt as though I could spend literally all day there, I liked the smell and it felt safe. It still smells the same, I'm pleased to report! I went there last week, and now my bedside table looks like this:

Now I need to work on staying awake long enough at night to read them.

(The Beatrix Potter book at the top is Arlo's- have you read that one? Wow- children's books have changed a lot since then!)

2. I went to university to study music composition, but I left with a degree in art history and women's studies. After my first year, I realised I wasn't cut out to be a composer.

3. I was brought up as a Seventh-Day Adventist, strictly observing the Sabbath and following the dietry restrictions of of the church. I stopped attending the church when I was 16, along with most of my siblings. I never felt that i really belonged in the church, but I don't regret growing up like that- I feel that it gave me a unique outlook on life in many of ways. I was really interested to read that the NZ poet Glenn Colquhoun had similar feelings about leaving the Adventist church.

4. I've loved being a 'maker of things' since I was very small. Back in the 80s when I was growing up it was all about crooked knitting, cross-stitch and pressed flowers, sometimes made into bookmarks with a clear plastic covering. i also loved baking biscuits and fudge, then wrapping them up really nicely to give to people like my music teachers, family friends and neighbours. The biscuits probably tasted nasty.

5. I hate sport. I quite like walking, but that is truly the extent of my physical skills- I've never been able to run, never participated in organised sport, and would rather watch a blank screen than a game of soccer or rugby on the t.v. I've always thought it unfair that the 6 o'clock 'news' is actually half 'world news' and half 'sport news'. How is sport news, 'news'? i'd find half an hour of 'monkey news' just as relevant.

6. Even though we grew up just around the corner from each other in the country, Tom and I first met at University when he was organising a student protest and I was an enthusiastic volunteer helping out with painting banners.

7. I harbour a secret desire to be either a midwife or counsellor one day.

Hope I didn't bore you too much with that. I'll be back to the regular craft programming tomorrow. Feel free to join in the '7 things' game if you feel like it...

pancakes in bed

These are the flowers Arlo picked for me from the garden today. And I had pancakes and coffee in bed- what could be nicer? Hope you had a lovely mother's day too.

I like to think of mother's day as a day to celebrate all women. All the mothers of the past, present, and future, all the aunts and the honorary-aunts. All those who care for others and for our surroundings. Thank you!

colourful makes

I've been working on some cheerful, bright bibs this week using pieces of my favourite recycled prints. The retro green apple cotton was a gift from Amelia- i love it.

These are for my Saturday market stall, and I thought I might put a couple of sets of them in my neglected-looking shop as well.

It feels so good to have a reason to knit again! I've only been finding little pockets of time for it, but I'd forgotten how purely relaxing and meditative it is. At least, it is with the simple, instant-gratification kinds of projects I've been working on. Last week I made this little pair of fingerless gloves for my friend Kate, to keep her busy-journalist fingers warm this winter. I used a ball of Patons Jet wool/alpaca and this 'pattern'- if you can call it that- it is embarassingly simple but quite practical, I've found.

I adapted the pattern a little (cast on less stitches, and knit a few more rows than the pattern.) And embroidered some little sprouts in turquoise wool, because that's her favourite colour.

leafy walks

I love afternoon-walking now the air is getting cooler and crisper, and we can squish brown leaves under foot as we go. Yesterday we saw what Keira calls 'butterflies':

...a few determined leaves left on each branch. In the wind they do look like butterflies caught in a web of twigs.

And on the way home we always stop to look at this house:

It's set off the street a bit, with stone steps and a wrought iron gate, bamboo blinds in the window, rose bushes outside and a green door.  It's my dream house- something about its cute upstairs window and cream and red paint job makes me want to live there. If we ever have enough money to buy a house (unlikely) and this one comes up for sale (also unlikely), I'm moving in. Do you have a dream house you imagine moving into? I hope I'm not the only one who does this.

(fabric) mice are nice

We've got some extra flatmates- four- or maybe more- tiny brown mice. They live behind the fridge and in the pantry, mostly. We tried to catch them by putting out traps, but they were having none of it. They ate the peanut butter and cheese off them, though. These are nimble little mice! And they're not very scared of us anymore. They seem to be more relaxed now, darting from the fridge to the pantry in search of crumbs.

A and K seem to actually quite like having them around- and given the drafty, cat-less, hole-y nature of our old house, I'm starting to think we might have to put up with them for winter. Arlo even suggested we hold a little party for them, with walnut shells full of peanut butter and tiny party hats and a cheese cake. I don't think we'll go that far though.

Instead, we spent this morning making two little mousey friends from fabric scraps:

One is made from brown needlecord, with wool felt ears and some chenille yarn for whiskers and a tail. And the other utilised the wool felt scraps from this project and some grey yarn. I embroidered the eyes on. The children really got into the whole thing, and helped stuff them and choose the materials.

Looks like we're now a mouse-friendly house.

 

bits and bobs

My Dad took a break from his work as a digger/truck driver to join us for lunch last week. A and K were very excited to see his huge truck parked on our little street, so they both had a turn 'driving' for a while.

Actually, Keira didn't want to stop driving, and seemed to make more noise than a truck does as we dragged her back down to ground. A and K are the envy of many of their small friends- they can drive with 'Pa' on a tractor, digger, truck or motorbike whenever they wish.

I found out about this beautiful new shop 'Dusk' which opened in Christchurch last week- I'll be popping in for a visit next time I'm down there. It features the photography of Lenore Farrelly as well as some great New Zealand art + craft. I love shops like this springing up, full of handmade goods: 

 

And in crafty news: I'm hoping to start an embroidery project this week. I've always wanted to try some, but I've never had much success before. I think it was something to do with wonky/rushed stitches combined with my lack of drawing skills... let's just say some of the embroidery I've done recently doesn't look as good as the cross-stitch I used to do when I was 7. So, wish me luck!

p.s. look what just arrived in the post: some Rainbow Wool that I ordered from Marianne's appleseed shop. You can go here to see the beautiful colours to choose from, and this is a skein of Blackberry:

I can't wait to get some of this on my needles... 

in the river today:

Someone must really love J. That water is freezing!

Have a lovely weekend. xx

down-cycling

I've been collecting ugly old jumpers for a while- there's something about their muted colours and nearly-felted softness that really appeals to me. I never end up wearing them but rather, they're starting to pile up in my 'to-do-something-with' box. (Realising that one can 'do stuff' with nearly anything makes it hard to throw things away...)

Now the weather is getting colder, I decided to up-cycle (I guess making something so small called be called 'down-cycling?) an old felted jumper to make a warm vest for K:

I cut the two pieces from the main body of the jersey, leaving the hem intact which saved me a job. I found some stretchy, ribbed fabric that I had tried dying a long time ago, and used that around the neck and armholes. The felted lambswool is very warm and soft, so now i'm inspired to make more little things from adult cast-offs.

 

I'm thinking about this jacket next- sweet, eh? Actually, the whole of Voor Nop is pretty great, and for even more inspiration in this area you must check out Flobberdevotsky.

it's raining

It's been raining for a few days, and cold, but i'm not going to complain because the earth needs it. I love the way the raindrops cling to my succulent plants.

Inside, Arlo and Keira have been having a tea party in the living room. They used an upside-down box, some fabric, their chairs and K's china teaset. They were a bit annoyed that the teddies wouldn't sit up properly...

but fed them currants and breakfast cereal anyway.

While they were busy doing that, I finished off some work, including these bags to go into my shop. I used the last of this crazy-but-so-cosy velveteen, and some other vintage fabrics I've been hoarding.   

Hope you've had a peaceful but productive day, too!