Do you like colours and inks and papers and shapes? Yes? You need these books on your craft table. A couple of weekends ago I met Anna, who runs Qwerky Home from here in Wellington. Q.H is a funky little shop that stocks homewares, craft supplies and stationery from all around the world… including products from…

A spot of knitting by the fire this week resulted in this green neck-warmer, or cowl, which I made for a friend's upcoming birthday. The (free) pattern is the drop-stitch cowl by SpiderWomanKnits, the simplest and loveliest little project I can think of to warm up a June evening. I used super-bulky yarn (100gms of…

Last week I was given a coupon to try out 'Printic', which is an smartphone app. Love your phone photos but long for real prints to pop in your wallet or stick into your journal? This is a great solution and blends old and new school technology in a pleasing way. Printic works on iPhone,…

Some small, delicate leaves for this Friday. Much easier on the eye than the office work, dental work and housework that filled my day…  I have grand plans to do some knitting this weekend. Even if it's on the side of a soccer field in a storm (which is quite on the cards.) I started…

"Oh, I have learned when things are beautiful, to just keep on, just keep on. When things are beautiful, just keep on." – Bill Callahan, Winter Road.

I've just finished unpacking my boxes and bags from Handmade which was held over the weekend and was a lot of fun. I taught some classes, made some new friends and reconnected with old ones. Also, I ate some pizza, drank some wine, talked a lot and did some knitting. The best thing about the weekend…

A few papery bits and bobs made lately include these small envelopes (template here)- I used some pages from an old Frankie magazine for these pretty pastel ones. And instead of glueing, I was a bit lazy and fastened the edges with Japanese paper tape, but I like the effect- like a paper patchwork. I…

I saw some really beautiful linen bedding in a homewares store a while back: it had an all-over pattern of dark yellow dots and was very expensive. Then yesterday, while organising supplies for my printing class (come along! it's this weekend) I wanted to test my fabric inks, and remembered some linen pillowcases I'd op-shopped…

Feel like a quick flick-through of this book with me? It's 'Sweet dress book' (English version of the original Japanese), by Yoshiko Tsukiori, Laurence King Publishing. I wrote about another book by the same designer here in March. This book is similarly beautiful and quirky, with lots of great styling that could only be found…

Got some more cards printed, to fuel my determination to keep sending snail mail this winter. It's working, and I do love sticking on the stamp and dropping notes in the letterbox. I printed some extra sets for my etsy shop too (along with some freshly minted new copies of my book, in case you…