Here are three good stitch patterns that have come my way lately: – a beautiful vintage embroidery that was a gift from Louana. There are poppies, daisies and cornflowers stitched onto velvety fabric. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet- I wonder if it might have been a tea-cosy at one time? –…

I just discovered that my camera can take black and white photos, and I never realised before. I took a few monochrome pictures of the children playing in the garden. It's fairly unkempt and hardly ever warm or dry enough to play in these days. There's an expansive wild bit down the end of the…

I went to see this documentary the other night at the Embassy with some friends. Herbert Matter was a great artist and designer in my opinion, and his work has inspired me to get collaging and using my camera more. Which is exciting, because I've been feeling a bit uninspired by both camera and craft…

I had a few almost-finished jars of jam in the pantry, (does your household also suffer this problem? noone ever seems to want to finish the jar), so I made some Louise Cake. I've written about this before on the blog but the recipe link is no longer working. I used this one yesterday. In…

I wrote a tutorial for the embroidered needlebooks I make for the NZ magazine, Sweet Living. You can visit here to see it and make your own. Have a great weekend, lovely readers.

Thank you again for all your support on my last couple of posts. I'm lucky to have you cheering me on!  The first week of my new course has been great. I've learned some newsroom writing protocol, and reckon I might be ready to write a real story in reporter-style, pretty soon. It's great to…

Thank you for your comments on my last post. They mean so much to me. Truly. Wish we could all have waffles and coffee together. See you soon!

I got out the ceramic paints a while back, and worked on these tea cups in black, mustard yellow, and green. A few little winter trees and some dandelions. I put them in my felt shop, which I don't think I've mentioned before, but I opened it with the intention of listing some more locally-themed…

We went walking on Monday, high up in the hills at the edge of the city to look at the windfarm there. When we got home I stitched some of those amazing wind turbines- they looked so graceful working away in that rugged setting, a bit like wild sea birds. Pretty amazing when you see…

I had a great time at HANDMADE 2012– thank you to those hardworking organisers and fellow teachers, and of course to all the people who came and joined in with the classes and talks. I did bring my camera, but silly me- these are all the photos I got of the entire weekend (I got…