A friend who does a lot of work in the Pacific brought me a gorgeous gift home from a recent trip to Tonga: a bag of giant vanilla pods. Ever since, I've been dreaming of a light, coconutty cake with a milky vanilla topping. I finally baked it (I used a plain cake and added…

Wild onion weed, or Allium triquetrum, is a familiar plant around Wellington. For many years, it was the only thing that adorned the outdoor areas of my student flats. It's still prevalent around the city. I went foraging for plants to embroider the other day, but all I could find was the notorious onion weed.…

I call this pencil-pattern 'drying herbs'. It's inspired by a big bunch of rosemary my friend Emma cut from her garden for me and tied up with string. It's hanging upside down to dry. I made a dish of rosemary potatoes to go with some other dishes last night. Simple and delicious. And speaking of…

It's amazing how greatly my mood can be improved by finding one small, pale yellow freesia growing in a patch of weeds near the letterbox. So, thank you tiny thing, for braving the spring rain and wind. Keira was given a sourdough 'bug' to make Herman the German Friendship Cake. Have you made one of these…

Happy new week, lovelies. It was a beautifully bright weekend here in Wellington, mostly because I got to catch up with many old friends on both Saturday and Sunday. That was pretty nice.  Yesterday I made the trip to Featherston to have lunch with Emma and Helen and also to attend a spring book launch.…

Today's pattern was inspired by all the apple/plum blossom in my neighbourhood until it got blown away in a wild storm this week. Blossom doesn't last long around these parts. But it was very nice while it lasted, like someone had decorated the streets for a wedding. Happy Friday! I am so glad to see…

A while back I received this sweet kimono felt kit for Mother's Day. I had a play with it one evening, and made these colourful needbooks. It's nice to do something different and use materials that you wouldn't normally have on hand.  The felt kits are made by Lucy Patterson from NZ, who has a…

The small embroideries from yesterday were used to make a few pairs of reversible baby slippers. I haven't found any old linen for the past couple of years. This is partly due to not second-hand shopping as much, and living in Wellington, where the opshops are very well patronised and linen/fabric is a very rare…

Two good things from the weekend: I found this beautiful hand-crocheted blanket in the opshop. In natural colours and with a sweet little tag in spidery handwriting: '100% handcrafted from wool'. Perfection. And some hand embroidery finished in the Sunday afternoon sunshine. I'll show you what I make with it tomorrow. Happy new week, lovely…

When I was making this pattern I was imagining it as a wallpaper, in my imaginary, 'one-day' kitchen. Maybe for one small wall, and the other walls would be painted yellow. A tansy kitchen. Yes, that would be nice (at least, before it got splattered with pasta sauce and cake mixture.) Actually, the kitchen we…