tiny happy

Erin Gleeson's Forest Feast was a recent library find and already we've made some dishes from it. Keira had a friend to stay over the weekend, and I kept them busy with various activities including a recipe from Erin's book: Peanut Butter Balls. They were lovely and enjoyed by a succession of visitors over a couple of days. And very easy to make too, sweetened with dates and honey. Forest Feast is a beautiful book and I'm going to need to order a household copy as it features the kind of food we love to eat around here (simple, fresh, mostly plant-based, augmented with the odd cocktail and sweet thing).

I found the peanut-butter-ball recipe here on a different blog, (scroll down to the second image) so you can make them too if you like. All the recipes in the book are illustrated, and assembled simply. With added water colour inspiration.

I had a metre of some beautiful cotton: soft with grey and cream stripes. I thought that if I made pillowcases, I could use and see the fabric everyday, so that's what I did.

These were super simple to make, and have French seams for extra longevity. I made each case from a single length of fabric, even after/while drinking a couple of glasses of wine- I can't believe they worked out. Ha. I really shouldn't be advocating drinking and sewing, imagine the dangers. I will try and re-create what i did then post the pattern here. I think a pair of handmade pillowcases, from really good fabric, would make a nice Christmas present, don't you?

I've also been doing a bit of pencil + watercolour sketching of late- I've found it to be a very 'civilised' and relaxing way to spend half an hour snatched here and there.

I was commissioned to make a collection of project bags for the London knitting store Loop and I spent my winter evenings designing and embroidering them. It really was a good way to spend those cold and dark nights, and even more thrilling to walk to the post office in the spring sunshine to send them off in time for the Northern Hemisphere knitting season.

Susan of Loop sent me the beautiful washed Swedish linen to work with, and it was a dream to embroider on. The linen colours (earthy, berry-tones) inspired the free-form botanical patterns, and the bags have a rambling woodland feel, I think. Each one has a different hand-worked design (you might have seen some of them posted here over the past few months…)

And now the finished bags have arrived in London and are for sale in the Loop Knit Lounge. You can read about them here, on the Loop Knit Lounge blog.

I hope knitters and crocheters will enjoy keeping their projects in them. 

(photo by Loop, London)

Over the past couple of months, a friend and I have been going for evening walks in our neighbourhood. Primarily, this is about exercise and a chat (S' motivation) and exercise, chat and spying on other peoples' gardens (my motivation). 

These snowdrops and their scruffier impersonators, the onion weed flowers, are growing everywhere these days. I thought I'd embroider a snowdrop pattern but my walks have been giving me lots of other ideas too.

I re-joined Instagram recently (my cellphone broke and the new one I got was able to download apps and stuff) and have been enjoying posting little snapshots of the world and checking on friends' snaps too. The images above were taken with my trusty phone camera, which, I must admit, is somewhat easier to take on walks and outings than my 'proper' camera.

Do you hang out on Instagram? Please say hi if you do- my profile is here.

I have mixed feelings about the faster forms of social media (Pinterest, Twitter + Instagram, for example) vs. the 'older' (blogs, Flickr, mainly) because of old loyalties- I have been writing this blog for years and Flickr is really the only organised place I file my photos, but also because I feel the Pinterest and Instagram movements are about MORE stuff, MORE ideas, everything is faster and more plentiful. 

I find myself looking through my Pinterest boards and not remembering any of the images I collected there. They seem to have less meaning and endurance. Like flicking through a lifestyle magazine in a rushed moment. 

But one thing that does endure is the internet's ability to shift and develop and we are always finding new ways to connect with each other and express ourselves.

This is a really beautiful song that I've been enjoying lately and the video has flowers, interiors, a shifting and morphing landscape and sacred light. It makes me think of this painting. 

Thanks for entering the giveaway in the last post – so many great dinner ideas shared. If you're wondering what to cook tonight, take a look here. I drew a winner randomly and it was Caren. Will send it off soon, C.

It's been a happy few days here- spring has properly arrived, complete with changeable weather, but the other day it was my birthday and the sun shone and shone. It seemed as though all of Wellington was gleaming.

The photos above were taken recently- Tom and Arlo walking out to the edge of the Petone wharf with birds circling overhead.

And new books on the bedside table, courtesy of generous friends and family: a fresh journal for writings and sketches, the latest Selvedge (can't wait to crack this open), a new edition of The Mijo Tree by Janet Frame, Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, and a book of Sylvia Plath's drawings. 

If you need me, I'll be sitting in the sun reading.

My friend Nicola is a clever woman: she makes beautiful food and writes about it over on her blog Homegrown Kitchen. 

Her latest project is the 2015 food calendar. Printed on lovely thick paper, every month features a seasonal recipe, as well space for kitchen and garden notes (I love this feature.) Recipes I'll try immediately include the sourdough thin-crust pizza, plum and hazelnut cake and three-cheese quiche. Oh okay, I'll have to make all of the recipes.

The calendar even has an extra month (Dec 2014) with a recipe that is perfect for Christmas gifts: handmade salted caramels. Yes. I will be making and eating these. (You can also watch a sweet video about them.)

I reckon this calendar would make a perfect Christmas/end of year gift and it's only $20- you can order your own copy here. 

Nicola kindly offers one to give away to you. To enter, just leave a comment on this post, telling us what you're cooking for dinner these days. International entries welcome.

x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . 

We have a lot of lavender in the garden at the moment. The bees are happy. I've picked some bunches for drying around the house, to use in later projects.

Keira is visiting her grandmothers this week, and made these little gifts to take with her. They're lavender sachets made from a fine grey linen (recycled from an old dress) and filled with lavender from the garden. It was a great project for her to do- a good size to practice embroidery and handstitching, cutting, folding and pressing. She loves to make things (especially presents for people) – I really wish I made more time to do things like that with her.

Do you know about Fabricabrac? It's a sweet craft market that raises money for hospices, and is all about second-hand fabric. There are a few events coming up around the country:

11 October New Plymouth

18 October Wellington (I'll be happily rummaging for fabric at this one)

Out on my evening walk the other day, I came across an old willow tree that had been knocked over by the wind. It was lying in a gully but still covered in furry catkins, so I picked a few on the way home, for embroidery inspiration. We used to love those soft furry pearls when we were little, I remember wrapping them up in pieces of silk to keep them safe amongst my other treasures like shells and buttons and things.

Still do love them, of course.

I found Everywhere Antennas at the library and have been admiring its beautiful coloured-pencil illustration: you can see more of Julie Delporte's work here.

What do you do on a brilliantly clear Sunday? Make eclairs, and eat them at the beach, of course. Keira and I spent a couple of hours 'making stuff' over the weekend, the eclairs were all her idea (really) but they were fun to make, and delicious of course. We made quite small pastries, then the kids walked down to the shop for cream, and we melted a bit of dark chocolate for the top. Packed them into a big biscuit tin and ate them while sitting on a giant piece of driftwood and digging our feet into the sand. 

The (very simple) recipe Keira and I used was from the Edmond's cookbook, but this one is similar.

I've linked to this before, but I've just rediscovered (and still love it): 4 sisters take their photo every year for 36 years.