tiny happy

The quest to keep warm has begun here in earnest with all the winter wool clothing and blankets dragged out of cupboards and from shelves. I sewed Keira a new sweater: purple wool with pink stripes. I cut it from one of my old jumpers. She does love those colours, pink and purple.

Hope you are warm and cosy wherever in the world you might be.

We had another rainy start to our weekend, so I stayed inside with the children and did some knitting. I made another hat for Arlo, because the last one I knitted ended up being a bit small. To make this one I used a skein of really lovely yarn that my Mum gave me a while ago- it's a mix of merino wool and possum fur (you can read more about the environmental benefits of using possum yarn here). It's just a simple garter-stitch hat but does the job and the fur blended with the wool, makes the hat super-soft and lightweight.

There's a small interview with me today over on the Craft 2.0 blog– at the moment there are interviews each day with the various 'makers' who will be part of Craft 2.0 show at the New Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt, June 12th. I can't wait to do some shopping there!

I was having a browse on trade me (NZ's version of ebay) the other day when I came upon these stray black-and-white photos for sale. I don't know why, but I felt straight away that I had to buy them and so I did. Something about them seemed sad to me. It must be to do with the fact that family photos are usually treasured and kept safe, but somehow these ones lost their way and the people to look at them and say 'look, there's great-aunt Margaret when she was a baby.'

So I dug out an old photo album that wasn't being used and have pressed the pictures into it. And given them titles, as per the handwriting on the back of the photographs. The first one is called 'Stan and Margaret at the beach.' I love Stan's upright pose, so formal and responsible. The next photo was simply labelled 'At Whare Flat' which is a place in Dunedin. I like the expressions on their faces. And the last photo is for my friend who collects old dolls. It's of a small girl pushing a doll in a tiny pram. I think that was in the days before housepaint was affordable, and she's wearing a scratchy school uniform but she looks quite happy.

I seem to have so many projects on the go these days, which is how I like it, but it does make rather a mess around the house. So I made myself a couple of these Project Bags to contain some of my knitting and embroidery work, library books to return, etc. They're very simple- just good vintage fabric with denim on the back, soft cotton lining and sturdy recycled leather handles. And just the right size for hanging on the door or over the back of chair, on taking in the car for any knitting opportunity that might present itself.

I also made a couple of these for my etsy shop update today. I hope you have a good Wednesday! If I finish all the jobs I have lined up, I'm going to try to sneak in some rows on a winter scarf I've just started knitting. See you tommorow.

We have this native New Zealand shrub growing in our garden, and I love its tiny, slightly silvery leaves. Today is very rainy and grey, but these leaves shimmer against the garden wall. I wish i could remember the name of this particular plant, but it escapes me. (do you know it?) (The top image is from my 'botanical NZ plants' diary, and it's a painting of a kakabeak branch.)

I did some embroidery today, inspired by these tiny leaves, all the while thankful for our beautiful native plants that remain green and lush even in wintertime.

Thank you for all your kind comments on my last post. It was great fun to get to know some small things about you and of course, get so many new music recommendations. If you're looking for some, you should check out the comment section, too…

I used the random number generator to pick someone to send the book to, and that person was Emily. I actually made a mistake the first time, so then I re-entered the number of comments into the generator and Emily's number came up again! So she is most definitely the winner.

When we first arrived in Norway at the beginning of 2008, Emily (who lives in Oslo) was so kind and welcoming to us. She also introduced me to the world of Norwegian loppemarked (flea markets), for which I was very grateful. We really don't have anything as cool as those here in NZ.

The weekend here was rather grey and cold. The children and I stayed inside yesterday afternoon and watched Where the Wild Things Are and I knitted this new winter hat for Tom. I used a pattern called 'Regular Guy Beanie' which you can download free from Ravelry here and alpaca/wool yarn (Patons 'Jet') in a dark grey shade. Simple, cosy and, well, regular.

Happy fourth birthday to my blog! I can't believe i've been doing this blogging thing most days for the past four years, but I love it and don't want to stop just yet. Thank you very much for visiting me and for all the emails and comments and real mail you send my way. This blog has really enriched my life. I mean it.

So, to say thank you, I thought I'd offer a small giveaway. I recently bought a copy of this book, The Handmade Marketplace by Kari Chapin and it's great! It's so nicely put together (including illustrations by Emily Martin) and is chocoblock with ideas and advice about selling your crafts and artwork. Now i've finished reading it, I thought I should pass it along to someone else who might enjoy it. I'll package it up with a set of my newly-printed watercolour postcards and another small handmade something. 

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post, telling me something about yourself- anything you like but it would be interesting to hear what music you are enjoying these days. Thank you again for reading my blog and supporting my work over the past four years.

p.s. I'll send the parcel anywhere in the world, and i'll leave this open until Monday morning. Have a good weekend!

Some new ceramic coffee cups I illustrated, after visiting the beach the other day and admiring the gulls swooping and diving. I used vintage cream mugs that I found second-hand, because I like the shape and form of them better than the new ones you can buy. And this ink, as described in my post here. I was kindly sent this link this week with a how-to, and more detailed information about the ceramic ink. (check in the comments section too if you're interested.)

Hope you're having a good week so far. See you here tomorrow for a little giveaway I'm planning…

I was unpacking a box of old things the other day, and came across a vintage book of fairytales that I distinctly remember buying with my own pocket money when I was a child. I think it was from a secondhand book shop, and I bought it pretty much exclusively for the illustrations. The book is called 'Golden Book of Fairytales', published by Collins, 1966. On the front page there is a small squashed spider and the inscription 'To Andrea with love from Auntie Violet, Uncle Bert, Sharon and Janice.'

When I showed Keira the book, she was really into the illustrations and we discovered that many of the fairytales are about a brother and sister setting off in the woods for an adventure. (She liked the idea of that very much.) I liked all the woodlandy themes and illustrations of deer, mushrooms, vines and roses. And those are the things that I based my etsy shop update on this week- vines embroidered onto a linen bag, wild rose printed cards, a rabbit-embroidered needlebook, and a silverbirch forest pin.