floral

I used to think that florals were a bit stuffy and dare I say it "granny" like. But my tastes have changed a bit over the years and I'm a bit kinder to florals these days. At this time of year it's hard to escape flowers and the images of them. I finally found a stool to recover at the thrift store. I was going to paint the legs of the stool white but in the interest of time and budget constraints, I'm learning to like the unpainted legs. I've had this needlepoint for quite a while (thrifted of course) and unfortunately it wasn't quite big enough to cover the stool. So I added a bit of denim on one end. Now I just have to find the perfect spot for it.

The weather was nice and sunny today, making me want to get out and get stuck into the garden. There are definite signs of that burst of Spring growth starting, not long now till the garden comes out of hibernation.

Happy weekend!

worldwide

I had no intentions of being away this long, but illness and other stuff has meant my time in this space has been scant lately. It doesn't mean that I haven't been busy, so I do have lots to share and hopefully I'll get around to taking some photos to show you what I've been up to.

One little addition to our home is this map, it was free in an issue of Frankie recently. We have a number of relatives and friends in far flung (and not so far flung) places and it's kind of an abstract idea to little ones. We get lots of questions about exactly where these people are and how far away from us they are. I mounted it on some foam board and popped it in a frame without glass so we can change pins around as people move and add in some if need be. I added a couple of hooks underneath with a sting line so we can peg up the postcards as they arrive in the letterbox. It's all quite exciting to a 5 year old and we anxiously await the next postcards!

sprung

It really seems like Spring has arrived! mr A and I spent the day with my Nana (Granny) to my kids. We walked home in the sun with some treats from her garden, freesia's and mr A wouldn't let go of the swede that he dug up with her. A perfect way to get in to Spring.

notes of crochet

I was gifted a single size crochet bedspread, it's really like a super sized doily. It's seen better days and it's probably a "cutter", someone has already been cutting it. But I really don't feel like I can cut it up. I think I'm going to try and fix it - crazy you say? Well yes super crazy! But I don't intend to stick to the pattern, I thought I could go through my doily collection and patch it with them and add some crochet of my own where patching won't work. It seems a giant task but here's the thing - there are NO crochet machines. So someone has sat there and crocheted this bedspread in superfine crochet cotton and it seems fitting to spend some time to fix it. Whenever you see crochet tops in a chain store (or any clothes store for that matter) it's been crocheted by a person ( there are no machines to crochet unlike knitting), I'm almost 100% sure that the person who crocheted it was paid VERY little to do so and that their working conditions weren't what you or I would expect. That is why I never buy any "chain store" crochet clothes, I just see some poor person crocheting their heart out to fill an order for some country far away. It's something to think about.

I was mentioned by a couple of lovely ladies on their blogs recently, Hanna from craftykin wrote a lovely post about some necklaces that I made for her and her sisters. Also Dee gave me a little mention about one of my necklaces here.  Thank you both!

Happy weekend!

as a wee note: I've searched for "crochet machines" on the internet and it seems that there are some, however when you go and look at what the machines can produce - it's actually knitting!  or a "crochet-like" trim.

magnet

I was totally inspired by this post by Dee, about using a tray from the thrift store as a magnet board. This wasn't however what I had in mind while searching for one. I was looking for something that might look good with a makeover of mod podge and fabric, but I loved the design on this one so much I didn't have the heart to cover it up - so the hunt goes on. This lives in my pantry now, the perfect place for my shopping list and recipes to try. Things I want handy but not necessarily on the fridge for all to see. For a hanger I used "liquid nails" and a pull tab from a tin can. I have a warning though, while you wait for the "liquid nails" to dry to leave it anywhere near a curious five year old, needless to say it doesn't look as neat on the back as I would have hoped - lucky it's just the back huh?

See that little certificate at the bottom? Well I recently made a scarf for my neighbour from her Angora rabbit homespun yarn and at a national rabbit show she went to, entered it into the knit/crochet garment section. It won first prize! I was certainly amazed as I didn't even know that she was entering it. What a nice surprise.

time

It's funny how time can sometimes slip through your fingers, I started this shawl quite a few months ago. Working on it a bit each week at a creative fibre group I go to on a Monday night. The bulk of it worked up very quickly but it's lay unfinished for quite a few weeks now. The thing is tomorrow I have to hand it in for a local competition. So all of a sudden after weeks of inactivity it's finished, washed a blocked and labelled. Only thing is I've got no one on hand (other than a two year old)to take a photo of it for me from behind as I intended it to be worn, so you have to settle for a terrible self portrait. It's shawl size but it's worked in lace weight yarn (50/50 silk merino) from Jess of "Spinning a yarn" so it can also work quite well as a scarf too (so you could easily wear it around your neck as I am here). The yarn is stunning, Jess dyes it and this colour way is lilac, you can find her etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/spinningayarn

It's great to have it finished, another item checked off the list. Now to get on to the rest of the long list of "to do's"

The pattern is an improvised one by the way - sorry no link :(

silver

Recently my local Salvation Army store was overflowing with silver, framed needlepoint and some fabulous vintage fabric in pristine condition. I got the feeling that they all came from the same person and perhaps a deceased estate, which seemed really sad. All these lovely collections ending up there, but it was nice for me to have a peek through all the collections. I picked up a little something from each collection, a lovely framed needlepoint of nasturtiums, some amazing fabric that I'll share once I get back into sewing mode and this silver centerpiece. I've been looking for a centerpiece for sometime and never seen anything that I liked or any centerpieces for that matter. Anyway I thought that this was perfect for what I was looking for, it's got a bit in the middle for pushing flower stems through but it can also be removed if you want to fill it with something other than flowers or float a flower in the middle. We celebrated my husband's birthday last week and the kids loved eating by candlelight, so much so we have been eating by candlelight ever since!

I'm really looking forward to bringing it out lighting the candles at many more celebrations in the years ahead.

for the birds - part 3

Each year in Winter we have been feeding our local wild birds - by local I mean the ones that visit our garden. We made pinecone feeders the first year.  Last year we made bird cake and hung it in bags, but this year I was inspired by something that I saw on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/pin/118534946/ . It was really easy to do and instead of using straws to make holes I just used the end of a wooden spoon. We hung them up using some hemp twine from Trade Aid. They look nice on the bare Winter branches, a bit like decorations.

No birds have taken advantage of the free food yet, but just like previous years I know that once they find it it won't take long till it's all gone.

Edith & I

I love Edith Holden's botanical work, it's stunning and I so wish that I could paint like she did. I recently purchased (from Trademe) a book about her life called " The Edwardian Lady", it was really interesting to read more about her life and to discover that we share the same birthday. Edith died tragically as she was gathering botanical samples to paint at Kew at the age of 48. Like many artists she found fame long after her death, in her case nearly 60 years later when her book was published "The country diary of a Edwardian lady".

I had a very tatty copy of that book almost every page had fallen out from it's binding and when I discovered a copy in much better condition at a local secondhand book sale it had sat quite forgotten on a shelf. It was hard to cut up the pages as I love the images so much, but as I do have another copy now it seemed a sensible thing to do. A friend is heading overseas and wants to take some of my stitched cards with her to give as gifts so I've made a bunch of Edith Holden ones for her to take. I also abandoned the sewing machine for some of them and hand sewed some of the images on for a very "rustic" look, I love how some of the images wrap around the card and the stitching shows through. I've bundled them up in groups, like birds and "bramble" ones and pretty wildflowers. I do have some spare that I'll hopefully pop in my etsy shop over the next few days.

After a very bad start to the week weather-wise, it even snowed (a teeny tiny bit) here in Auckland! It's a stunning day today, clear skies and lots of sun, I'm heading out into the garden to make the most of it. Happy weekend!