I got some card sets printed with a yellow floral theme, since that is my favourite at the moment. In each set, there are two chamomile cards (taken in the South Island over Christmas) and two cards with this yellow South African Leucospermum flower, which smells like manuka honey. Happy new week, friends.

The coriander plants have quickly gone to seed in the summer heat. They are coordinating with the wallpaper print in the kitchen. Have you seen these beautiful photos? A mother in Russia captures her two young children with their animal friends.

I made this simple garment with the office in mind. It was actually something I had been looking for when out shopping: a plain black linen top. It was a happy moment when I realised I could just make one and there was even some linen waiting on the shelf (love it when that happens-…

a) a tangle of wildflowers in a field at my sister's place b) I made this new summer blanket: it's a secondhand candlewick cotton bedspread, washed a few times, then mended in a few places with Liberty lawn patches. Cosy and cool at the same time. Thank you for your kind and thoughtful comments and…

Happy New Year, friends. Hope you had a happy end-of-year break and you found some time to relax.  I had a nice holiday with the family, and managed to do some reading, some walking and some thinking. Also I spent time by the sea, including the place you see above, which is somewhere I've been…

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…