Petals are the best thing about September around here; they stand out after a long winter like stars in the sky. My friend Kate brought me these hellebores the other day, aren't they gorgeous? They were growing under some trees at her house.  Inspired by all the botanical goodness, I sewed up some new cushion…

I made this amazing chocolate and apricot fudge cake as a school fundraiser, and we had enough left over to take a few pieces on a beach walk today (it turned out to be a handy bribe and distraction when someone small cut their foot on a sharp rock so for that alone it was…

I had to recycle my marigold photo for this post, as the plants have been drying out for a while and there are no flowers in sight. I collected their seeds while digging over the garden and this is the result: a heap of organic seeds ready to be dispatched to gardening friends and family.…

Arlo actually has a 'real' bow and arrow set which he uses at his grandparents' rural place (less chance of injuring anyone) but on the weekend he and his sister devised this alternative for using here in the big city. We are lucky enough to have a wild and overgrown bit of our garden, and…

Some more brooches were made- this time from pieces of hand-embroidered linen that were left over after cutting out baby slippers- and I didn't want to throw these remnants away. Some of the handwork is very old, and starting to come away from the linen a bit, which is quite characterful I think. Yellow is…

Thank you for leaving a comment on my last post! I drew two names for a set of cards- and they were Sera and Marilyn.  Here are some pins I've been working on this week- little bird brooches. I made them from flat brass frames that I found on etsy, and lacquered on top some…

I am really happy it's September. I challenged myself to a sugar-free August (I picked something I knew would be hard to relinquish as I am a lifelong chocolate devotee and wanted to see if I was tough enough to go without something I loved. And surprisingly I was- hooray!) So while that was all…

Spotted on our windswept beach walk today: an owl and a buffalo, stationed along the edge of the walking track and watching over us.  Hope you've had a good weekend, dear readers.