tiny happy

season's greetings

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and new year season.

It's the end of the working year here, so I'm signing off for a few weeks. 

Thank you for visiting my blog this year. See you in 2018.

Melissa

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last-minute making

It feels like life has sped up over the past few weeks, and now both kids have finished school for the year and all the events that came with that are done and dusted. Hooray!

Tom planted a small native daisy when we first moved into this house, and over those years it's sat on the hillside, a small, slightly dejected-looking clump of leaves. But this week it finally seemed to come alive, and is flowering! I love these plants and am so glad to see it doing well in our garden (not many things do, unfortunately). 

I can't have been too flat out lately though because I finished knitting a pair of socks (mind you, they did take me about a month of slow knitting to complete) and I'm looking forward to wearing them when we get some cooler weather! I used Vintage Purls sock yarn in various shades of grey and blue to make these. (Ravelry notes are here).

I also binge-watched the second season of Better Things which I loved, and most of the sock knitting was done during those episodes. 

And in the last photo you can see a new top I made for myself with the thought of the hot summer ahead. I used a vintage pattern lent to me by a friend, it's Style #3896 from 1983 and includes four different top designs.

This one has dropped sleeves and quite wide facings sewn around the armholes and neckline. It's sewn from silky fabric with a watercolour-style print and little gold dots scattered over it. I actually cut the fabric from a pleated designer dress I loved but never wore because it didn't fit comfortably, and was just sitting bored in my wardrobe. I'm so pleased with the fit of the top that I bought my own copy of the pattern online and will no doubt make lots more of these.

Happy making and celebrating to you!

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flowering season

Hello! It's most definitely flowering season here, but there hasn't been much rain to keep everything thriving. I hope this finds you well and keeping warm (or cool, depending on your hemisphere).

Last week I found an old wooden flower press in a second-hand shop and cleaned it up for a friend who has been on the look out for one. It had stickers on it and had seen better days, so I treated the wood with beeswax and painted some sprigs on the top over the sticker marks. It was fun to give it to L and her toddler daughter because they go for a lot of walks and foraging expeditions together.

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In other making news, I've been continuing my mission to use long-hoarded fabric and this week I made some things that had been sitting unfinished on my work table, including needle-books (some from vintage linen and some from my own embroideries) and a few more project bags. The one you see above was a tea-towel and a place-mat in its former life. 

I was inspired to make the needle-books after watching the Netflix mini-series Alias Grace. It's a beautifully told story and includes themes of hand-work - quilting and patchwork in particular. In one scene, Grace and her best friend Mary exchange Christmas gifts of embroidery and a needle case.

Apart from some late-night TV watching and a lot of work, this time of year brings with it many parties and other occasions and treats. I've discovered a love of mojitos and whiskey sours and learned to make rum balls and apricot fudge truffles (using this recipe which is not nutritious but definitely delicious and fun to serve at a Christmas party.)

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There are a few things in my etsy shop but I think I will close it for the year at the beginning of next week. I have lots of ideas and thoughts for what I might make next year, but am looking forward to having a break from my work desk for several weeks.

I hope you are enjoying this part of the year, wherever you are in the world. 

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stylish espresso

Hi there, I hope this finds you well. It's December already!

Despite having a thousand things on my 'to-do' list this weekend, I found myself sewing together all the scraps of fabric that were stacked in piles on worktable (to be fair, 'tidy up worktable' was on my list) which took the good part of an afternoon. These particular scraps I thought looked beautiful together, so I've pinned them to the wall as a temporary installation. The fabrics are nearly all recycled from clothing or similar, and quite a few of the pieces come from the boxed corners of project bags I've made lately. Not sure what I'll do with these patched-together strips yet but have a few ideas.

I bought a box of my books earlier this year and thought it might be fun to have a half-price sale on them before Christmas. I announced it on Instagram over the weekend and wanted to say thank you for all the orders! There are still a few copies left in my etsy shop, if you're after one for a gift for someone (or yourself). It gives me joy to think of these books out in the world, being used!

Last week I visited my friend Constança who lives in a rural town a couple of hours' drive away. I've been talking about doing this for ages, so it was lovely to see where she lives and go for a walk around her community. I also got to meet her boys Rodrigo and Pedro who I adore. C loves to collect vintage linen and china, and I snapped a picture of the coffee she served after lunch to show you - check out that beautiful little espresso cup! She had a matching set of 4.

I ordered some photo calendars as gifts for family, and snuck in an order for these cards with one of my embroideries while I was at it. I love having nice notecards to send off with orders and mail to friends. Viva la snail mail!

Hope you have a lovely week.

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