We've spent the day making and gifting shortbread, eating apricots, wearing our sunhats outside and stringing up lights: must be proper summer here now, and holiday time. I'm having a blog break because we're heading to the South Island for Christmas. I plan to be back here in this space in mid-January.  Thank you for…

This lovely old flowery fabric was given to me several years ago by Helen. I have admired it for a long time, not daring to snip into it. But I finally decided to, and made this dress for summer.  The pattern is this one, and the fabric is a vintage drapey rayon/cotton type. With a…

Do you remember this Japanese fabric I mentioned the other day? I gave it a gentle wash, and realised it was a very long length of fabric indeed. Long enough for a dress, but not really strong enough, if you know what I mean. The fabric had worn patches, holes mended with loose hand-stitching and…

This is what I've been working on over the past couple of days: a small floral design. It's just free-form embroidery on natural linen, in an all-over pattern. The colours were inspired by a pair of paper fans from Japan on the mantlepiece at a friend's house. I was sitting at her kitchen table the…

The kids and I had a spare hour to spend so we tried making marshmallows. They liked the idea of including them along with some other little treats as teacher gifts. I have been thinking about making them for ages, since seeing this post over on Angry Chicken one Christmas. We used rosewater to flavour…

Here are some old fabrics I found last week. At the top is a very old kimono silk in a narrow strip- I bought it from here (Wellington people- they are moving to Auckland after Christmas so you might want to visit before then.) I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet. I offered…

Here we have a stack of Scandinavian-style woven hearts- some are tied with ribbon to the Christmas tree and others are strung into a garland with baker's twine. They kept Keira and I busy after school today. We used old pages from a book, brown card and some wallpaper scraps.  Next up (probably tomorrow after…

The Christmas sweet-making has begun: first off we have the tried and true chocolate fudge (this recipe) and these favourite apricot truffles (from here.) Not a Christmas seems to go by without a batch of these packaged up and gifted to teachers, etc. This year, they're for the other journalists in my office as a…

I love old things. Especially household items. Here are two of my most recent finds, mostly acquired for their labels, if I'm being perfectly honest.  – an old Fanta bottle. It's made from really thick, heavy glass and I found it last night walking home along our road. Council workers had cut back a lot…

– Honey-scented South African flowers on the windowsill, for this amazing man. Also, a link to this beautiful song, with some sweet N.M dancing.  – Colourful vintage fabrics that I sewed into pouches and bags over the weekend. I'm having a renewed interest in old prints.  – Happy new week, dear readers.