tiny happy

childhood memories

Part one: the 50-cent Mixture.

A white paper bag with treats inside: twisted or sometimes stapled at the top. My Kiwi grandmother called them 'lol-lols', kids at school called them 'lollies', my British grandmother called them 'sweets'.

The dairy near the bus stop had stickers and bubble gum in their bags. And sometimes you got sherbet with a little straw, or tattoos.

Yesterday, we got one set of false teeth, two jubes, a milk bottle, pebble, marshmallow, blackcurrant and a chocolate heart.

rolling pin fun

Yesterday I drove out to the country to meet a blog-friend, Gill and a small group of women who were keen to learn about making prints on fabric using freezer-paper. I had a wonderful crafty time away from my own small people, driving for an hour alone in the car (listening to the Arts on Sunday programme uninterrupted- bliss...) and joining in with a new group of women talking about their lives and craft interests. I'd forgotten how enjoyable it is to be creative in a group- I am usually quite solitary in my work.

For organising the supplies, Gill very kindly gifted me this beautiful market bag, as well as some of her retro jam. I'm looking forward to using them both.

We've been doing baking this morning. My children love anything involving a rolling pin, and they each have their own small ones, so I made a batch of homemade crackers and they rolled some of the dough and cut it out into shapes. Not that different from play-dough really, except that the finished product is edible, of course.

We get through a lot of crackers in this house, so this is one of my favourite recipes to make during the week. I think it originally came from an Alison Holst Kitchen Diary belonging to my Mum in the 80's. The directions are for mixing the dough by hand, but I usually use a food processor, because I'm lazy.

Homemade crackers

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 cup plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

50gm cold butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup cold water

toppings- rock salt, poppy or sesame seeds, cracked pepper, etc.

Sift together the dry ingredients, rub in butter until it resembles breadcrumbs, then gradually stir in water until a firm dough is achieved (you might not use all the water.) Knead the dough for a minute, and roll very thinly on a floured surface. At this point, you can sprinkle any topping- seeds, salt, pepper, etc over the dough, then roll it again to press them in. Cut the dough into rounds, or squares, transfer to a floured baking tray, and bake at 190 degrees Cel for 10-15 mins. Cool on a rack.

They're nice with butter or cheese.

a sketchbook of nz birds

This is Keira in her new Fold Top - a beautiful, stylish garment made by Alison from very fine, soft wool fabric in charcoal grey. I'm a bit jealous of Keira as I wouldn't mind one of these myself. It's a generous, loose fit and I love it.

(The packaging was pretty special, too.) Thank you, Alison.

This is one of my favourite 2nd-hand book finds ever, 'A Sketchbook of New Zealand Birds' by Molly Falla (1966). Its layout and cover feel like a genuine sketchbook, and there are a few loose, original sketches on cardstock by the artist tucked inside too. Most of the birds are native to NZ, and they're often perched on native plants, too. Molly's love for them comes through in her writing- there are lots of anecdotes about different birds she found in her garden or nursed after injury.

I like the watercolours done on brown paper like this one, of little wax-eyes perched on a rata branch...

my favourite bird- the tui, shown here on some kaka beak:

and this is a bellbird, on a kowhai tree:

 

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Anna gave me this vintage embroidered tablecloth. It's so wonderful to see some NZ-specific embroidery being done on linen- it's a rare thing, I tell you! Two corners of the cloth have both kaka beak and kowhai flowers stitched on, with the distinctive fern-like leaves. How could I not make some shoes from it?

I did a little shop update today- just baby stuff...

...but I have some things for grown-ups which I plan to add over the next few days. Hope you have a lovely weekend- see you next week!

hope springs

Snowdrops are filling up the front garden this week- little shocks of white in a jungle of green leaves. It feels as though warmer weather is on its way.

A very cheering package arrived in our letterbox on Monday, from Kelly. We first met in Wellington at Craft 2.0 and agreed to do a little swap sometime in the future. And Kelly recently opened an etsy shop- cloud of birds- that I've fallen in love with- it's something about that mixture of vintage fabric, fanciful imaginings and old photographs - each toy is so unique. Thank you, Kelly. She sent the beautiful badges above (old drawings printed onto linen), a bird (now adopted by K):

a little tooth fairy doll complete with tooth/coin pocket:

And this bunny fellow...

who is now residing on the shelf above my sewing machine, and keeping his one eye on me and checking I'm doing my work. Can't get up to any trouble now.

last night

I want to say that this was the moon through our kitchen window, but i think it was a streetlight.

The first time i've seen K asleep somewhere other than her bed.

I finally gave the print gocco a go, and made these poppy notecards. I love that gocco.

garden soup

It's a beautiful warm day today- one could almost get ideas that spring is on its way. Don't want to tempt fate though. Today's activity has been making 'garden soup'- do you remember doing this as a child? Just take a mixing bowl, add some ingredients from around the garden- dirt, leaves, stones, water from the hose...

and stir liberally with a wooden spoon or stick.

This kept A and K busy for an hour or more. If only we'd had rose petals, we could have made 'perfume'- my favourite childhood activity. Must start saving my empty vanilla essence and medicine bottles for this purpose.

I made a few adult scarves as a special order last week. i'm usually quite nervous about making grown-up things but I really enjoyed doing these. I used pieces of cotton and light wool fabrics patched together for one side, and backed them in matching stretch cotton which gave a bit of weight and softness. I also decided to make them quite wide, almost like a wrap/shawl design for extra cosiness. I might make some for friends over the next couple of days.

Hope your weekend is the kind that allows for some crafting and/or chocolate for breakfast.

chocolate for breakfast

Yes, that's what I had today. The morning is a surprisingly good time to have chocolate- i figure it will set me up for the day- there's a lot to do...

At the moment, I'm working on a design for a loose-fitting child's cardigan/sweater with a square neckline. As always, Keira is my guinea-pig, so I have to bribe her with a piece of chocolate every now and then when I want her to try something on. It seems to be a good arrangement for both of us. The design is almost right, I think I might need to make the arms a bit smaller though. I used some hand-dyed stretch cotton for this and lined it in a vintage flannel cotton. I like the stretch cotton because it's warm and soft, but I might end up using a firmer fabric for ease of sewing.

Yesterday a dear friend visited and brought with her a stack of craft supplies to entertain A and K. I hadn't thought about adding jewellery-making to our craft activities, but it was a big hit. Arlo really enjoyed threading the beads and making this little bracelet:

... but Keira was more interested in sorting the beads into the compartments of the ice-cube tray.

Amelia also showed us how to make little gift boxes with lids from craft paper, in which to keep our treasures. We used a method similar to this one. I'd always wanted to know how to make those, and she makes everything look quick and easy. I'll be trying them out myself the next time I package up a present.

 

A and K are playing with the beads again today (thanks, Amelia) so I've had time to update my etsy shop with a new set of baby shoes. I had planned to add some more wrap cardigan as well, but they weren't ready in time. Oh well, perhaps next week. I've also got a new stockist in Australia- the  beautiful evie lala. I love their website and they have a great selection of boutique goods for babies and mamas- I really like the look of these 'baby legs' - might have to order some for a certain girl I know who doesn't enjoy taking her tights on and off in this cold weather...