tiny happy

bluebirds

These little baby slippers were made on the weekend, finally utilising an old piece of hand-appliqued cotton I'd been hoarding for a long time. I think in the end it is better to use these fabric pieces, rather than keep them safe in a box. Letting them fly out into the world.

Also on the weekend we held a potluck lunch, walked on the beach (Arlo was given a metal detector and we finally found batteries for it), saw this film and I finished reading this book, which I found incredibly beautiful. Hope your weekend was a good one too.

poppy red blanket

I made this for a new baby in the family- a poppy red crib-sized quilt or blanket. My sister gave me a beautiful Indian woodblack stamp for my birthday this year, so I used it (and another, smaller Indian stamp I already had) to print all over a piece of natural cotton in red ink. After I'd heat-set the printing, I added wool batting, poppy-print lawn backing and some red binding. The surface is tied at intervals to keep it all simple and natural-looking. It feels pretty soft and snuggly, and now I'm thinking about making bigger ones for the kids' beds... it would be the perfect summer covering, I think.

I wish you a happy weekend ahead! Here is a song for you. 

they draw and cook

I first wrote about this great site- They Draw and Cook, sometime last year. This week I recieved an advance copy of the fabulous cookbook put together from the artwork submitted to the blog. They Draw and Cook, by Nate Padavick and Salli Swindell will be out in a few days and features 107 recipes illustrated by artists from around the world. I left my copy on the kitchen table and found myself stopping to flick through it all day. The kids enjoy it too- it's very inviting. The recipes are colourful and often funny and I found myself feeling inspired to draw just as much as cook something! The plan for dinner tonight is one of the spaghetti recipes from the book, but on another night I'll be intrigued to try 'Palt- Grey Lump of Swedish Goodness', 'Salsa Verde' (illustrated by Gennine) or perhaps 'Mormon Funeral Potatoes' (who could resist those?).

sunface

A handful of recently rained-on spring flowers in yellow and purple. Like miniature sun-faces. I've been doing more wool embroidery and this time was inspired by that bright and buttery yellow.

I embroidered enough wool pieces to make a set of cases for today's shop update. I've been thinking about gift-giving a bit lately, and trying to get organised this year (although I'm sure I must say that every year with no real results.) I'm thinking that it would be nice to make a few presents and buy the rest of them online or at the market.

I saw this little video clip by the sweet Pip yesterday- she shows great ideas for wrapping gifts and has me planning an expedition to the recycling centre to gather bits and bobs for Wrapping Excellence.

pea dot print

We have peas. Lots of them, growing and growing in the vege patch. There are peas at every meal, enough for the neighbours, even going to school in the lunchbox. And the podding job keeps the kids out of trouble for half an hour before dinnertime.

The little green pearls inspired an embroidered print on linen- green pea dots. I'd love to make enough embroidered dot linen for a pea dress. Wouldn't that be great? Hope your Tuesday is going well.

country fair

Here are some photos from a great little country fair I visited this weekend in a rural valley near our town. I do love the old-school NZ-style fairs with their abundance of ice-cream, crafts, strange games and bbqs. Not to mention searing sunshine and bare feet, folk music and all my nieces and nephews in one place. 

I hope you had a good weekend too, and happy Labour Day if you live here... I just heard a really good radio documentary about the working class hero Joe Hill. (You can probably hear it via podcast here by tomorrow.)

adventuring

The kids and I are heading up to our capital city for a little adventure. I'll be having a blog break until the end of this week.

I made the children some new notebooks to take with us- they can happily pass a lot of time with some paper and a pencil. These are so easy to make- just take a stack of plain A4, fold it in half, add a cover (I used some waterproof vintage wallpaper) and sew down the middle with a strong needle on the machine.

I hope you are doing well and surviving the school holidays if you're in the midst of them. See you in a few days!

.....

Thanks for all the birthday love. I had a really fabulous weekend which involved many family members, friends, new books (Tom bought me this craft-related one- it's a beauty), broad beans, lemon tart and live music. We went to see Bacherlorette at our local arts festival- she was wonderful. 

Thank you for all the great comments on my last post, as well- if you've not had a read, you should. There are music, book and film suggestions galore. Could be worth making a list for the year ahead.

I used the random number generator to find two winners- they were Elise and Mirva. Thanks for playing along.

And now i'll leave you with a link to my new favourite song- 'Tourist', by Radiohead, covered in bluegrassy style by Sarah Jarosz (and found thanks to my last post- thank you!)

friday giveaway

Hello! Hope you are well today. I thought I might have a little giveaway here because I haven't had one in a while, and it's fun. Also, I turn another year older tomorrow and I always like to give stuff away on my birthday. I have made up two packages to send (to anywhere in the world) and each has a digital print of a collage I made back in the wintertime, a couple of fat quarters from this fabric collection, and a set of watercolour postcards. 

For past giveaways, I've suggested leaving a comment telling us about your latest favourite record or film, and I still go back to those posts to find new things to listen to and watch! So if you wouldn't mind doing the same this time, that would be fabulous. What are you enjoying listening to/watching/making? 

Thanks for visiting my blog and being generally awesome, lovely readers.

kid friendly

The holidays are pretty great but I do feel as though an awful lot of food has been made and consumed... growing kids and their friends tend to do that, don't they? 

A favourite new thing we have been making and eating these holidays are these savoury pinwheel pastries. They are super-easy and quick to make, contain no special ingredients and get wolfed down very quickly around these parts. Especially with cheese and marmite/vegemite filling, which I realise is not to everyone's taste. Especially if you weren't born in the Antipodes. You could always put some chopped veges, or pizza-type fillings inside them if you'd rather.

Cheesy pinwheels

You'll need:

- 1 cup plain flour

- 3/4 cup wholemeal flour

- 1 1/2 tsps baking powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 50 grams butter, cut into small pieces

- 1/2 cup milk

- Something to put inside your pinwheels (marmite perhaps?) plus a good handful of grated cheese. Otherwise you could try finely chopped onion and tomato with crumbled feta cheese, or pesto and cheese, or anything else you can dream up.

Sift all the dry ingredients together into a bowl. Add the chopped butter and cut it in with a pastry cutter or your fingers, until breadcrumb-size. (Or you could make the entire dough in your food processor.)

Stir in the milk and knead on a floured surface until you have a nice dough. Roll the dough into a long rectangle, spread thinly with marmite (if you like it) then sprinkle your grated cheese over. Roll the rectangle length-wise and cut into pieces about 1-2" wide. Place cut-side up on a tray lined with baking paper, and bake at 200 degrees Celcius for about 10-15 minutes or until golden.