tiny happy

I haven't had much luck taking photos lately. I'll blame the grey weather, rainstorms and office work. So I thought I'd look through my flickr photostream to see what I got up to in other Julys. There are so many projects and moments documented on that page. I was surprised! And pleased that I had put them somewhere. Mostly they make me long for more light and warmth. 

1. Tomato soup for winter- recipe can be found here

2. Keira starts learning the violin

3. Chevy our dog-neighbour comes for a visit

4. Lemon shortbread (more about that here)

*****

– Registration for The Craft Sessions is now open- exciting!

– I'm looking forward to this event/book signing next Thursday night and the tickets have all sold out.

– I'm also speaking at this Pecha Kucha evening as part of the Winter Arts Festival. It's my first PK and I'm planning on talking about MAIL.

– Have you seen this rubbish bin couple music video by the Magnetic Fields? I think you should.

I have a few vintage embroidery books, but I don't spend enough time learning new and interesting embroidery stitches. But this is something I'd like to try – there are countless stitches to learn. Also I like their old-fashioned names.

One of the workshops I'll be doing at The Craft Sessions will involve learning new stitches and making a beautiful sampler to take home and frame. Learning some different stitches can really boost the embroidery confidence, I think.And the stitches worked on natural linen in one or two colours look really gorgeous and I like the slightly hand-made aspect to them- (not too perfect- there has to be a bit of the 'hand' stamped on them).

In this sampler I worked some of my favourite stitches. These include herringbone, feather, fern, and one I made up which is kind of like polka dots.

Another embroidered pattern for today. This one was inspired by colourful everlasting flowers which didn't last long enough but at least I have proof that it hasn't always been rainy and freezing here. It's easy to get stuck in that wintry feeling.

I stitched the little bouquets of flowers freehand onto striped linen and sewed it up to make a project bag for my etsy shop which is feeling a bit neglected these days.

Hope you are keeping warm and dry. 

Do you know the most recent Beth Orton album? I've been enjoying this folksy tune lately.

See you next week.

I'm teaching 2 classes in Kilbirnie at the beautiful Stitchbird store (Lyndy has secured a great nearby location for teaching in.)

Come and make an embroidered needlebook with us- Monday 22 July- 7-9pm

Or carve some rubber stamps and print some fabric or papergoods: Thursday 18 July 7-9pm

You can find more details at the Stitchbird site.

Would love to see you!

This is a bag I made for a friend who had a birthday on the weekend. We often meet up at the library, so I thought the shape and size of this might be good for lugging her family's books around. 

I used some vintage tweedy woven fabric for the body of the bag, which also has a panel on its base so it can fit books more easily. And on the front I sewed a 'Birds of NZ' screenprinted traycloth in a matching dark grey. Both of these fabrics (along with some other great stuff) were kindly sent to me by Dee. I took part in Emma's 'postal stash rehash' (NZ fabric swap) and have felt like making new stuff since switching around the supplies on my shelf. So thank you to both Dee and Emma!

p.s. just in case you haven't heard 'put a bird on it' before… 

My friend Helen sent me this bird-garland. She used cotton string and old maps for the birds themselves. They are currently flying along my kitchen window and cheering up jobs I do underneath them such as the dishes, or making soup. They also cheer up that eyes-half-closed-shock-of-the-morning feeling I have most days at 7am.  I love them.

In the paper the other day, I saw this quote which seemed rather obvious at first, but has stayed with me since. It's not particularly deep or philosophical and I can't remember who it was credited to, or in what context, and yet:

It's taken me a long time to realise that the purpose of being alive is to enjoy it.

Lemons are good in winter. Lemon cake is practically medicinal, right?

I made a lemon cake for Sunday morning tea. I like my cakes to be really dense and lemony, which involves a lot of lemon juice and a very classic, plain cake. This is how I made it.

LEMON CAKE

150g butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

3 tsps baking powder

3/4 cup milk

3 lemons

Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs. Then sift flour and b-p together, fold into creamed mixture with lemon zest and milk. Bake in a smallish tin (lined with baking paper) for about half an hour at 180 degrees celcius.

In a small saucepan, put 1 Tb sugar plus the juice of the 3 lemons. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. When the cake is cooked but still warm, pour the syrup all over the top then remove from tin and onto a cake plate. Nice with natural yoghurt…

Today's pattern is an embroidered one- miniature lily-of-the-valley sprigs on oatmeal linen. I embroidered the pattern to make a linen project bag, the kind of thing that might be nice to keep your knitting or crochet in. 

I'm interviewed on The Craft Sessions blog today (the first of a series of Teacher Features plus giveaway from each) and if you'd like to go in a draw for an embroidered bag, all you have to do is sign up to TCS mailing list. 

Wishing you a happy weekend, dear readers.

I'm heading to Nelson at the end of July – do you want to join me at this event?

Nicola is an old friend of mine and she's helping me organise this cosy wintry evening at Prego cafe. She's a cookbook author and keeps a beautiful blog called Homegrown Kitchen. She'll do a little cooking demonstration (chocolate will be involved) and ask me some questions about craft writing, blogs and books. I can also sign books and they'll be for sale at a special price.

Tickets are $10 from Page & Blackmore, my favourite bookshop of all time- (they stock both mine and Nicola's books) and have just won the 2013 Independent Bookshop of the Year award. Your ticket will include a drink and tasters of Nicola's cooking. And you're free to bring a project to work on/share, of course.

I found this fab fabric one day at Stitchbird Fabrics and knew I had to have it: it was just something about the mustard yellow and olivey green details . And happy-looking forest animals too, of course. I made a cover for a giant feather cushion and backed the linen in olive green wool. 'Lucky' for us, we have the perfect mustard pleather armchair for it.

And I discovered that 'mustaherukka' means 'blackcurrant' in Finnish. Even better.