I've been doing a bit of embroidery today, inspired by bits and bobs from the winter garden. Slowly but surely making some linen needlebooks for my stall at the Auckland Art and Craft Fair. I've been feeling a little reluctant to venture into my sewing room these days – it's much warmer by…

        The children and I discovered a rough walking-track near our house which had recently been cleared. Growing wild next to a tree stump, I found a strawflower plant. I haven't seen these flowers in a long time, but I remember them growing in my Mum's garden when I was a child. They are…

    A good thing about our new house is that it has two lemon trees in the garden and they're fairly laden right now in midwinter. The kids are on holiday from school this week, so we've been doing a bit of baking. This morning we made lemon cookies with our own lemons.  We…

    Keira's been asking to learn the violin for months now, so I bought a tiny 1/4-sized one online and my Mum has kindly offered to give her lessons. So far she is practicing holding the bow and instrument, putting rosin on the bow, and opening and shutting the case. It's all very exciting.…

      Well here we are in our new house. We're mostly all settled in now, but still getting used to small things like, where the light switches are, and the different sounds we can hear at night. Our house is a wooden one- a classic 1940's NZ style with lots of big windows.…

          Thank you for your kind words on my last post! I'm looking forward to sharing our new place here on  my blog. Here are a few favourite corners of our house over the past year. I always find it a bit sad to shift- I know we'll all miss this place.…