tiny happy

sweet william

That beautiful bunch of flowers, which includes waratah, freesias and sweet william, was a gift from my dear friend Jenny who has been visiting for a few days. Lucky us! Much lego, coffee drinking and craft discussion took place. And my sister T and her family have been staying, too. Beautiful kid-chaos and happiness. Quilts, pillows and toys everywhere. Popcorn under the couch.

The stack of fabrics in blue, pink and grey is sitting on my worktable, ready to be, well, worked. I'm hoping to cut into them tomorrow. But in the meantime, they are very gorgeous altogether like that, don't you think? They'll become embroidered project bags for Loop.

Our local city council has set up a live-streaming camera inside a kākā nest: if you have kids, they might enjoy checking in on the mother and her chicks.

Here is a song I find myself listening to often these days: Blur's My Terracotta Heart.

weekend tales

I won a box of seedlings from Awapuni Nurseries on Instagram last week, and this weekend was able to get them all planted in newly-prepared raised beds in time for warmer weather. I've been buying Awapuni seedling bundles for years - I love them because they're wrapped in newspaper rather than plastic pottles, and are stocked in the supermarket so I can buy seasonal plants year-round with the groceries.

While I was planting and digging, Tom constructed a beautiful new wind-break around that part of the garden (last year's one was torn to shreds and so nothing much was growing.) I'm very excited about this. Thank you, Awapuni!

In the second photo you can see my new (old) find: a 1950s-era Swiss watch. (You can click on the photo to see it more clearly.) My childhood watch died recently and I'd always thought it would be cool to wear an old wind-up one rather than look at my phone whenever I need to know the time - like functional unfussy jewellery. Also, I love its quiet and tidy ticking.

a silk dress

Thought you might like to see this dress I made a few weeks ago, from some silk-blend fabric I found at The Fabric Store back in the coldest days of winter.

I set it aside specially for a springtime project, and so far it's been a useful thing to wear to work (unfortunately it also requires an underdress, wool cardigan, tights, shawl and coat because this is Wellington spring we're talking about.)

The pattern is 'D' from 'Stylish Dress Book 2', a Japanese sewing book, bought a few years back. (It's a favourite - I've also used it to make this and this recently.)

Three things i love this week:

- friends announcing pregnancies (new babies!) (knitting projects!)

- this music video (jumpsuits and mirrorballs and folding the washing)

- this page: Famous advice on writing: the collected wisdom of great writers.

weekend diary

Much of the weekend was spent looking out the window at the driving rain, feeling grateful to be inside. Springtime in Wellington..!

But there was also pizza with friends, a dinner party, shopping and reading achieved as well. And a spot of knitting.

Made this cake and sliced it up for some hungry kids who ate it by the fire. It's a great recipe- thanks, Nicola. I substituted some of the ingredients for things I had though, including cream-cheese for the icing. I'm keen to try labneh next time though.

sunlight dose

What a beautiful day it's been today. I managed to get some work done, tidy up some things that had been worrying me, and get a dose of sunlight too. I hope you've had a good Friday so far.

Those beautiful white flowers are native clematis, and they're sprawling all over our fence soaking up the sun. At first I thought the vine hadn't flowered this year, but then I realised it was tangled up in another plant, behind the fence. Silly old thing.

In the first photo above, you can see my very-slowly-in-progress knitting project: I'm making a '3-color cashmere cowl' - the design is by Joji Locatelli. I loved the idea of starting this, but haven't been making much time for knitting lately. Hope to remedy that on the weekend.

The first batch of photos from this year's Craft Sessions is up on the TCS blog - you can check them out here.

This delicious thing is on my baking list for the weekend. Will keep you posted!

I'm loving this beautiful clip from a local band I've heard live quite a few times now - Sun by Eb and Sparrow. I'm pretty sure it was shot in the trees near our house - and if it wasn't, it reminds me of them very much. 

wattle and gum

Images by Felicia Semple, from here.

When I got home from The Craft Sessions and unpacked, I realised I had not taken any photos of the event. I do that that every year - get completely immersed in what's happening with my classes, and forget all about recording them.

Luckily Felicia takes beautiful pictures. These are some of hers, from last years' event, but I'll steal more for my blog when I can. ; ) The plant clippings on our worktables this year looked pretty similar. In one of my classes, we went walking in the bush to collect them, then sketched and stitched our favourite pieces. And the botanical book is one I take with me to my classes for inspiration. I believe it was a gift from this lovely woman.

It was a really special few days filled with making and thinking, laughing and talking. So many like-minded people. So much communal knitting and craft-talk! I loved every minute of it.

To see more photos of the event, you can check this page on Instagram, or this one for the participants' photos. 

New ideas and inspirations are whirling around in my head... Thanks so much to everyone who made it happen this year. 

thread palette

I've been winding and sorting a big tangle of threads into a respectable order, in preparation for The Craft Sessions which starts tomorrow. Tomorrow! I'll by flying out of Wellington extra early to get there in time.

I love it when all my craft supplies are organised and tidy, but I can never keep them that way for long.

Can't wait to share everything with those taking my classes, talk crafts and handmade stuff and see my friends again and make new ones. And hear some Australian birdsong too.

Are you on Instagram? I've been using it for about a year. I will try and take some photos of the event - my account is my name with a dot between first and last. If you're curious about the kind of work we do there, I'm sure Felicia and the other women will share the event too with the hashtag #thecraftsessions.

Hope you have a great weekend ahead. See you next week,
M

 

spring floral

Here's a little bit of spring floral for your Tuesday morning. 

I love these tiny little bulbs that come up in the garden every September. I don't know what they're called. (Maybe you do?)

Inspired by all this floral activity going on outside, I've been doing some embroidery work. I sent a parcel of completed project bags to Loop, London a couple of weeks ago. My goal is to have some more to send by Christmas. 

And, at the end of this week I'll be heading to Melbourne to take part in this beautiful event, for the third time. I am a very lucky woman.

This year there'll be a small display/stall of items made by the teachers. I've made a few things, including these needlecases you see above, made from my stash of linen offcuts. I'll be teaching two different classes: one called 'embroidery from the natural world' (read more about it here) and another, similar but more structured class.

d-i-y dad

Good morning! Thank you for your thoughtful comments on my last post. And for understanding.

I thought you might like to see some projects that Tom and I have been working on, with the help of some builders and our mate Dan.

The project has been going on for most of the winter, and involved removing a wall between our kitchen and dining room (thank you, clever builders.) Then we painted the new double-room in a creamy colour called 'Sandfly Point.' (Thank you, Dan.)

Among other things, Tom has been getting in touch with his d-i-y side and building shelves and cupboards and laying tiles. I love the little recycled floor-board shelf he made for (what turns out to be my rather extensive) collection of green and blue vintage coffee cups. We love making coffee around here, especially for a big group, so that I have an excuse for amassing so many green cups.

Renovation-wise, I haven't been that helpful, really. But I did make some new curtains (you can see them in the middle photo above), from some very beautiful linen bought from here, a lucky find one day walking home from work. 

We also did some work in another part of the house, to build a mezzanine for children to sleep on with their friends, and some storage cupboards. I'll show you that when it's all finished.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads and grandads, if you celebrate it where you are. We brought Tom breakfast, and kid-made cards, coffee and newspaper in bed. A treat he never gets tired of.

planting seeds

It's nice to be back in the blogging spirit. I'm not sure what happened over the past month - I suddenly couldn't bring myself to find the camera, think of what to write, or even log in here at my site. 

With so many horrendous and heartbreaking things happening every day on earth, I found this blog (and if I'm honest, most blogs that deal with the minutiae of a comfortable life) nothing more than an examplar of how unjust the world is.

In addition, I struggle to see what I might have to add to any conversation about any thing in particular. 

But that's not the point of this online project; if I can call my blog that. It's only a place to collect small and peaceful moments. Just a scrapbook that anyone can look at. 

My above comments are not meant as a criticism of anyone, but merely an attempt to describe my absence from this space.

Thank you, though, for your interest and kind emails and messages. I'm really happy you like checking in here from time to time.

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It doesn't feel much warmer outside, but seedlings are pushing up through the soil in the vege patch and a few bulbs are flowering. I hope you are enjoying the change of season (or not), where ever you are on earth.

I've got some more finished and in-progress projects to show you very soon. In the photo above you can see one that I finished over winter, with an optimistic summer-heart: a silk top to wear to work, with tiny blue and white stripes. I used this pattern, which has become such a favourite.

And music is something that I've been thinking about a lot these days. My current spring listening treasures are: 

- Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca

- The new Phoenix Foundation album, Give Up Your Dreams

- Frazey Ford, Obadiah

- This crazy-beautiful new Joanna Newsom song: Sapokanikan