tiny happy

little scissors

My little scissors have been busy again, ever since reading about Mary Delaney and her Paper Garden. 

These collages on black card were cut from the pages of an old magazine. They were very enjoyable to make late one evening, and I must admit that they indulge any OCD tendencies whilst providing convenient procrastination from shorthand practice, which is what I'm actually supposed to be doing in my evenings.

I'm loving the little bursts of plantlife out there right now and appreciating every new leaf. I've seen lots of snowdrops on my travels, but no lilies-of-the-valley, yet.

citrus fresh

I don't really understand why citrus trees come into fruit in winter, but in any case, we are enjoying our little mandarin tree right now. And the lemons, of course. My Dad came to visit and brought some limes from his orchard, so we are doing very well, citrus-wise.

We went to the christening service of a new baby on the weekend, and I made some little linen slippers in citrus shades for her, as well as a few others. I love the poppy-style flowers on this particular pair, and the linen is so old that some of the stitches are coming away, which I think adds to the whole antiquey feel of them.

Happy new week, readers!

slow burgeoning

There's been a slow burgeoning outside and pale blossoms are starting to bud here and there. To celebrate this exciting new growth, I cracked out the basket of embroidery yarns I was given in Norway and did a bit of free-form embroidery onto pieces of old wool fabric (remnants from coats, I believe.)

And then I made them up into these little pouches. You can never have too many botanical-patterned things around, at least, I don't think so.

Inspired by pinterest, I thought I would give this recipe a try over the weekend: slow-cooker coconut ginger, etc curry (I was given a slow cooker and still have not tried it yet- shame!) even though I would much rather be making this: red clover lemonade with honey but will have to wait for clover season.

 

paper garden

I've been reading The Paper Garden, by Molly Peacock, which details the life and art of Mary Delaney, who made intricate botanical collages from coloured paper in the 1770s. The book is beautifully written, and there are quite a few coloured plates of her work, which inspired me to try a bit of collage myself. I copied Delaney's idea for a black card background, but I used some glossy circulars from the letterbox to cut out the plant itself. I'm guessing Mrs Delaney might have used a superior paper herself, but I liked the idea of recycling. The whole project was quite a therapeutic way to end the week.

The starting-point branch of apple blossom was cut from the tree in our back garden. Hooray for blossom.

You can see some more of Delaney's work here at the British Museum website.

lemon yellow

The little one got a chance to bust out her spring blouse (the one I made back here) when we had a bit of sunshine on the weekend. And those beautiful spring flowers were a gift from my sister-in-law (she also gave the kids a bunch for their own room- such a nice idea!)

Basically this post is a homage to lemon yellow, which is really helping us get through this last blah bit of winter. 

That, and this evocative Super-8 style music video which I imagine to be somewhere near the French Alps- if you're in Europe, maybe your summertime is looking a bit like this?

velvety

I had to adjust a gorgeous old velveteen skirt to fit better and, with the strip I had left over, I made this little pen case and patched K's favourite jeans. She is very much a jeans-and-hoody girl these days, but her jeans are always getting holes in the knees so hopefully these thick, velveteen patches will be sturdier than most! She is very pleased to be wearing them again- they'd been sitting by my sewing machine for weeks.

I think printed cotton velveteen must be the best fabric ever.

I came across this video last night- the oldest flash mob ever, which just happens to be in Auckland, NZ. Very cute, and it just shows there really is no excuse for not moving around more.

Have a great weekend.

crunchy oats

We stayed in an alpine hut over the weekend, and the kids did some skiing. I loved the shape of the mountains. I spent quite a lot of time staring at those outlines (I'm not a skiier, but I liked knitting and watching.) 

I was thinking that some home baking would have been a good idea, but I ran out of time before we left. So I had to make amends upon our return- above we have flapjack, which is the current lunchbox favourite around here. I think flapjacks are also a kind of American pancake, but my Mum would always make us this oaty version in a giant roasting pan, and we would carve chunks of it for our lunchboxes or to give to the hungry farm workers when they were having a break from haymaking. It seems healthy, what with all those oats and all, but actually it is a bit of a homage to butter and sugar (or golden syrup, really.) I use this recipe, but take care to cook the butter mixture for about ten minutes or longer, until it is dark brown in colour, and that results in a firmer end product. Although it's still quite crumbly, in a delicious sort of way.

anemones and comics

All this cold winter weather made me think of wool embroidery, so I worked some anemone-type flowers onto some vintage wool fabric I had lying around, and voila- the result was this bag and matching case. It was rather therapeutic to work by the heater while looking out the window at the wind and rain.

Another cheering thing right now is the public library, which we visit as a family every Sunday. It's great now that the kids are old enough to sit down and read while Tom and I browse for books. Very civilised, don't you think? Anyway, on my last visit there, I found this graphic novel by Vanessa Davis: Make Me a Woman. It is brilliant, and I felt it completely spoke to my sense of humour. I recommend it highly.

Enjoy your weekend, lovely readers.