– Bought an old, worn blanket at a fundraising flea market- it's a traditional, cream wool one with blue and yellow stripes along the edges. I plan to sew it into draught stoppers for our big old windows (the idea comes from this book by Lotta Jansdotter) – This is some coriander I grew. Completely…

Hope you have a great weekend!

I made a handy thing over the weekend: a little fold-out bag for grocery shopping. My current schedule involves buying milk and bread on the way home from work, and carrying them home on the bus. But I often forget to bring a bag with me. This new one neatly folds into a little parcel…

I found this tiny book, published in 1957, at a South Island flea market on our holiday. The design and illustrations are really great- and there is a lot of practical information about different plants – I am excited to order some seeds and get some of them started in our garden. Reading the preface…

  You didn't see me I was falling apartI was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the parkYou didn't see me I was falling apartI was a television version of a person with a broken heart – 'Pink Rabbits', The National (a great song to listen to through the headphones while…

This is a dress I made to wear to work this year. I used the same pattern as this one, because I like the fit and pockets and it was already sitting on my desk, cut out, from last time (might as well admit it.) For this dress I used a drapey kind of linen/cotton…

  Three old soda bottles arrived in my letterbox from Kelly (after this post) and they boast that lovely thick glass and interesting texture like that first one I dug out from the side of the road. Tom's Mum, Clare, stayed with us last week and bought red gladioli to display in each bottle. Elegant,…

We have a new family table. This is a piece that was constructed by Tom and his Dad (who is a fine furniture designer and maker) in his workshop over the summer holiday. A few years ago, with such a table in mind, the pair selected and put aside some elm planks. They started designing…

Over the summer holiday, we spent a day at my sister's farmlet, an hour's drive away from town. Her family home is a small wooden cottage that was a public-school-dental-clinic in a former life. Together with her husband and four daughters, she takes care of a wide variety of farm animals and birds. She also…

These beauties are hidden wallpapers at my family's beach house. In the 1970s, my grandparents built the house and wallpapered every room and cupboard with bright prints (There were also curtains with different prints but they are long gone now.) Most of the house was painted in neutral colours in the 90s, but inside the…