tiny happy

small but warm

Sometimes it's the little clothing details that make all the difference in cold weather. I have really bad circulation, so it's all about the hands and feet for me. I made another pair of fingerless mittens last night- this pair is from a piece of knitted fabric I bought at Oleana in Bergen. I think the piece was an imperfect sleeve, so these are rather mismatched- but i like them like that.
To make them I cut the fabric into two rectangles (approx 7" x 9") and overlocked all around the edges. Then I worked out where I wanted the thumb holes to be, and overlocked each rectangle into a tube, leaving gaps where I'd marked. Then I just wove in all the loose bits of overlocking thread with a darning needle- and voila!

And this is a new winter scarf for Keira, made from the leftover fabric from her coat: a long piece of brown wool jersey, and some green cotton lining. I fastened it with a snap-dome, disguised with a green felt flower shape. Easy for her to get on and off.

Hope you have a good weekend!

spooky-ish...

I don't know what was more scary yesterday: the children dressed up in their halloween costumes and face paint, or looking out of the window in the morning and seeing a white world. It snowed all day but today most of it is slush and ice and the falling snowflakes have melted into rain.

We had a school halloween party to go to last night, (our first- halloween is not such a big thing in NZ) and I made A and K some simple costumes. Keira went as Little Red Riding Hood- in a red dress, black tights and carrying a wicker basket. I made her the above cape from some red wool fabric I had- it was very simple to make. Just a lined hood attached to a bias-cut square of fabric, and a red ribbon to tie in the front.

And Arlo insisted on going as a bat- so I sewed him this funny little cap with big felt ears attached. He wore it with black leggings and a top, and a big shawl of mine safety-pinned around him like wings. Tom made him the 'claws': painted cardboard with elastic straps to hold them in place.

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that these are the first 'proper' (ha) dress-up costumes I've ever made for the children, although they've often used their own or my clothes/shoes, jewellery, etc in games. I felt especially bad when I saw this picture on Soulemama's blog. We've never been that into costumes or characters other than those we read in stories, etc. But they really enjoyed dressing up last night, so I plan on making more costumes for their toy basket. Sometime soon.

frida-inspired

A while ago the lovely Jannelle sent me a box filled with vintage embroidery wool. There was something about the colours of the skeins, and their paper labels, and I knew instantly I needed to try wool-embroidery. I've been dreaming of this gypsy-style, black felt bag ever since.

I think I mentioned a while ago that my grandmother used to have a black felt bag a bit like this, except hers was a round shape, and it had cane handles. I was inspired by both that bag, and the style of Frida Kahlo in making this one. My friend Helen got me thinking about it with this post, and corresponding flickr group.

I really enjoyed embroidering on a much bigger scale, and the front features a couple of mystery wildflowers, some leaves and a sprig of dandelion. But the actual bag itself is very simple- it's just a big plain tote bag. I used cotton to line it and for the handles though, because i wanted it to be as strong as possible. It's included in today's shop update.
And now I'm dreaming up another wool-embroidery project. But I'd better do some housework and finish two halloween costumes first. Sigh.

leaf-prints

Here are some leaf-prints that I made on the weekend, inspired by a project in the book 'Lotta Prints' that my Mum sent for my birthday. This is just the first of many projects I want to try from there- it's a wonderful book. I thought these would make nice gift-tags or labels on jam jars, etc.

These prints themselves are not so wonderful, but they were fun to do. I used leaves found in the garden and regular paint which I brushed on the underside of them. To print them, I laid them on a piece of white paper, placed some newspaper on top, and rolled them lightly with a rolling pin,before carefully peeling of the extra paper and leaf. I think next time I'd try with green leaves, proper printing ink, or maybe fabric ink on a piece of linen or cotton, for a clearer print. I've also had my eye on this lovely leaf-printing tutorial for while, at onegirl.

So this is the book, Lotta Prints:

It explains, in really clear and friendly language, how to print using a variety of techniques- potato printing, linocuts, screenprinting and many more, and gives ideas for very do-able projects. And it has gorgeous photos and design throughout.

It's definitely worth getting if you're interested in printing your own clothes, fabrics, walls, even! (one day, if i have my own house...)

And I was also lucky enough to receive, along with that book, 'Printing by Hand' by Lena Corwin. (beautiful blog here.) The styling and photography in this one is also exquisite, and the projects are very well explained. There is a lot of detailed information about the materials and techniques of printing given. Here are a few of the pages:

(wildflower bedding set- i'd love to try this one soon..)




step-by-step methods explained


small bags/travel pouches


hand-printed upholstery. can't think of anything nicer than that.

coffee break

Last night I was trying to find something to bake for the lunchboxes this week, and Tom reminded me about flapjacks. He said his Mum made them often when he was small, and I remembered that my Mum did too. Especially during hay-making season on the farm, when she would bake in bulk and take supper down to the hard-working farmers in the paddock. Actually, she'd often send us kids down there with all the biscuit-tins, plastic mugs and bottles of homemade lemonade for the workers.

So remembering about that, I felt I had to make a batch of flapjacks last night. Because the baking ingredients here in Norway are a bit different to those in New Zealand, I adjusted the recipe slightly and the overall flapjack wasn't quite the same. But it was still pretty nice.

They're so easy and quick to make, and I guess they're not great for the teeth, but they certainly give the illusion of being healthy because of the oats. There is a really good post about flapjacks, and a recipe here at yarnstorm if you'd like to make them. I used a little less butter and cooked them for about 20 mins at 150 degrees celcius, but I guess it depends on your oven and ingredients. And because I haven't seen real 'golden syrup' here in Norway, I used something called 'lys sirup' and that was a good substitute. (Also, I found this helpful Scandinavian-language food glossary which I'm sure I'll refer to again.)

Quite nice for the morning coffee break, and a wee read of my new poetry book which was one of the books my Mum sent for my birthday, (more books to show tomorrow!) 'Making Lists for Frances Hodgkins' by Paula Green. And coffee from an old, but new-to-me mug I found at a flea-market on the weekend. A good start to the week.

small portraits

some white things from the earth,

and some from the sky. (white thread on dark grey linen.)
happy weekend to you!

fabricated

I couldn't find anything nice in the garden to put in a vase, so I made my own- inspired by an idea i saw a long time ago on this blog. A small birch branch, with additions made from scraps of green linen, left over from sewing projects. I sewed the leaves on with needle and thread, but I suppose you could hot-glue them, too.

Just bringing a tiny bit of green onto the windowsill...
And a grey-linen one, too, for the children's room.

golden light

I think the nicest thing about this time of year is the change in the light; especially in the afternoon. When it's not raining and grey, there's a special quality of light shining through the windows of our little flat. I took this picture in the kitchen the other day- but I can never seem to capture the rich golden-ness of it.

I noticed a certain golden feel in some of the things I made for my shop update this week- there's just something so good about yellow, isn't there? Both of these little purses are made from vintage Norwegian linen.

And I couldn't resist making a couple more little linen satchels- like the 'foraging' one I made for K a while ago. I think I'll be sad to see the end of the chestnuts, mushrooms and acorns around here.

 

this and that

This is a Petoskey stone necklace that I was sent by Jen in Arizona to mark the opening of her etsy shop. I think it's beautiful- and I was interested to read about its history as a special fossilized coral found in Michigan. Thank you, Jen!

Some other things I've been meaning to blog about:

- I've been enjoying Shari's 'week of paths' and visiting many different paths around the world.

- I'm excited that soon some of my baby shoes will be available for purchase at the lovely Reform School, in Los Angeles.

- I was honoured to have a mention in this: the latest World Sweet World magazine- in an article written by Kimberlee about New Zealand craft bloggers. The fabulous illustration below was also done by K.

This is a great issue, definitely worth a look if you see it in your local bookshop (currently only available in NZ and from the WSW website.)  You can learn about sustainable, handmade coffins, sewing a hoodie from t-shirts, making a solar oven and baking bread.

stolen from the library

On my weekend visit to the library, I spotted this little mauve hydrangea flower growing behind a tree, so I stole it. I felt guilty, but it was rather hidden behind there, and it seemed to be wilting a bit. But by the time I had walked home, it was completely dead. So I did some small drawings of it, to preserve its memory.

And then decided to print a new set of note and postcards from that drawing with my gocco machine. Nothing like a bit of late-night printing on the weekend.

The drawing is printed in brown ink, and the block of colour at the bottom varies from card to card. I mixed up some different inks to achieve the purple and pink that I wanted, and then layered these both onto the screen, so that the end result is rather mottled.
Hope you had a relaxing weekend!