A handful of cuttings from the garden inspired some wool embroidery today. I hope you're having a good Tuesday, too. 

   I found this great little craft book, Lovely Things To Make For Girls of Slender Means by Eithne Farry, at the library the other day. It is divided into 4 chapters of projects that reflect the seasons of the year, and in the Summer chaper (along with designs for a kaftan, a necklace made…

I made this rabbit for my baby nephew Leo, who turns one tomorrow. He and his sister live on a farm, so are more likely than I am to see a live rabbit in their garden. Leo is one of those beautifully squishy, jolly babies and I'm looking forward to seeing him tomorrow. I wanted…

A few weeks ago a friend and I went to hear Alexa Johnston speak about her new book, 'What's for Pudding' which is fresh in the bookshops now (I wrote about her other great baking books here.) She was a very interesting woman and so passionate about food, but one of my favourite things she…

Inspired by a mixed assortment of flowers from the garden this week, I have been doing a bit of wool embroidery. It's quite a thrill to have things pop up in the garden that I planted the seed for a year ago…. my current favourite is honeywort (cerinthe) which you can see better in the…

One rainy Saturday afternoon recently, the kids helped me make this wildly striped sock monkey. He was inspired by an old blue-and-grey one of Keira's that she'd found in an opshop. Our sock monkey suffers from a rather dated colour scheme, but we were limited in our sock choices. He was great fun to make-…

The viburnum tree is my favourite in our garden, and it's happily flowering now it's springtime. At this time of year the tree really seems to resemble a mass of giant white pom-poms but they don't last for long, so I thought I should capture them on linen while I could. I hope you've had…

These little pansy or viola flowers are popping up in the garden this week, showing their cheerful faces and not seeming to mind the spring rain. I'm starting to feel better after nearly a week with the 'flu, which I don't recommend to anyone. Seriously. But something that did help was sitting very still, calmly…

I discovered the work of British textile designer Lisa Stickley sometime last year, and since then have become an admirer of her beautiful style. I ordered her first craft book, Made At Home last month and have been enjoying flicking through it- there are great instructions for a roman blind that I want to try…

  It will be poppy season here soon- I found lots of baby plants springing up in the garden last week. I made a poppy stamp by carving it from an eraser, and used it to make these lavender sachets for a friends' birthday. The poppy stamp was used to print loose-weave linen (so lots…