I was given a present last week, wrapped by Helen in this amazing vintage botanical wallpaper. Those pop flowers and general cheerfulness of the colours used inspired these wool cases, all hand-embroidered in brightly coloured wool. I used scraps of wool fabric in dark colours for the actual purses. They are all a bit different…

This week I made up a stack of bright and new cotton clothes for children in Uganda. I was at the library the other day when I saw a poster for Make a Difference as part of the Global Volunteer Network, which appealed to me- after all, I always have my machine set up and…

As promised, here are two more salads from the spring-time kitchen. Thank you for your suggestions last week– they all sound brilliant, and quite a few are now in my hand-written recipe book. Will be sure to report back soon. Here are two new salads I made over the weekend. The first was inspired by…

This week I've been finishing these little embroidery needlecases, or I suppose embroidery cases, as I've been dreaming of adding in pockets they could include for little scissors, threads, etc. Maybe my next batch will have those. This lot of ten is to take along to the next Craft 2.0 fair, which will be at…

Now the weather is getting warmer I've been trying to mix it up a bit with the evening meals. My goal is to try some new salads and vegetable dishes but here are two I've been making quite often. I will try and find another two favourites to post here next week. The first salad…

Thank you for entering the giveaway in the last post. I drew a random number for the book and it worked out to be Rach's entry. So well done R, I will pop it into the post for you. I've been noticing the lime-green here today. It's pretty grey outside, so limes will be made…

I was honoured a while back when Jennifer Forest interviewed me for her book Crafty Girls Talk, which is fresh off the press this month (you can read more about it here.) The book is like a craft group on paper- in it, Jennifer chats to 20 different crafty women about their work and inspirations,…

It's been a quiet Sunday around here so far, it's cool and dark inside our old house but the sun is shining outside. I've been reading this book in the sun with my childhood quilt (made by Mum many years ago but still used every day.) And I found an old piece of embroidery I…

These tiny botanicals were found on a recent walk home, and I was inspired to make them into pins because I had just been to this store and stocked up on wool felt in purple, yellow, green and red.  The pins were a lot of fun to make- sort of like miniature textile collages inspired…

I've been making things to send to Japan for a while now, to a little design store called Tapiiri which is located in a forest in Yamanashi. I had a bit of free time yesterday so I managed to finish this latest order for Sayaka, who runs Tapiiri. An autumn-winter coat, and some wool embroidered…