Just wanted to share these two lovely second-hand finds of mine.
The ceramic dish will hold my hair clips or something similar. It's a Johnson Brothers pattern with the finest pinky sea shells and coral.
And a weighty tome: Plants and Animals, published 1974 in Prague. I'll scan some pictures in soon. I know you'll like them.
For some very beautiful botanical painting click on this: White Clover by Yasuko Enjyoji.
Hot chocolate season has begun again in our house. It's always a favourite treat, especially for when the kids have friends over after school. I think I've written about this every year so I'm sorry about the repetition. But I also wanted to show off these great new (to me) cups sent by Helen. They're perfect for small hands to wrap around.
I have developed a simpler way to make this drink. Into a medium-sized pot put 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 Tb cornflour and 1/3 cup water, plus a few scrapings from a vanilla bean and whisk together till smooth.
Slowly warm up on the stovetop and gradually whisk in 4 cups milk (this makes four good servings but you could add less milk if you prefer.) Heat the hot chocolate over a medium heat, whisking all the while to make sure it's smooth. When it's slightly thickened, pour into mugs and let cool a little before giving to kids. Or adults- everyone likes it!
The chandelier and ornate ceiling in the top photo are not in my house. They were in the most beautiful grand old villa I visited a couple of weeks ago. They're warming just to look at, don't you think?
Happy new week, blog friends.
Ended up with a bit of a crazy Friday today, rushing from one place to the next. But I did come across this feathery pattern of mine in an old book- I'd been using it as a bookmark. It's a faded watercolour on cream card.
If you're in need of some bright new music, you can find the newest album by Wellington band The Phoenix Foundation, Fandango, streaming live on the Guardian. I especially love the track Thames Soup.
Happy weekend to you!
This one has more of a late-summer theme: here I've stitched some favourite botanicals including faithful old clover. I made both this embroidery and yesterday's into small pouches for keeping precious things in, like jewellery or milk teeth. I wish now that I'd stored my kids' milk teeth separately- they've all gotten mixed up in a general 'tooth purse'- sharp little pearls gathered together.
I attended this poetry reading yesterday- it was beautiful to see my friend Helen read her work with Maria McMillan. Even though you might read poetry a lot, there's something completely different about hearing the poet read her own work aloud. This was one of my favourites- Poem Without the L-Word.
Yesterday was a pretty good one all around, actually. Last night, NZ Parliament finally passed the legislation to make same-sex marriage legal. Feeling very proud and pleased for future generations.
This is a small embroidery I did last week while the country was still in drought– lots of dry grass and hardly any mushrooms to be seen, considering it's April.
That seems to have changed now- the rain has begun in earnest. Which is a very good thing for everyone, our tiny garden included.
If you are in Wellington you might want to check out this year's HANDMADE event- it's always a great, inspiring time and it's happening again this June.
I'll be teaching two classes- making baby pants from my book (third class down on this page) and simple printing, (scroll down to see the class) which sold out last year and was lots of fun. The tickets seem to be selling out quickly this time around – I'd love to see you there.
This week's pattern was made with watercolour paints in my sketchbook- I guess you could say it's a fanciful imagining of cotton plants, that is, if they grew with indigo blue buds. I like the idea of interlocking branches in a pattern, like a wild botanical tangle.
Last weekend I saw Wilco live (my second time- lucky me.) It was a fabulous gig. And I haven't been able to stop thinking about this song– my favourite of theirs, for sure.
I came across some ageing hydrangeas on a walk recently, and they reminded me of these hairbands that I made a few years ago. Strangely enough, I got a custom order request for a pair of them the same day, so I knew a felt-petal-cutting-session was meant to be. Each headband is made from tiny wool felt petals cut by hand, and then sewn to black velvet ribbon. A bit of Liberty lawn stitched to the back keeps everything neat and tidy. There's also a piece of elastic to ensure a snug fit on any size head.
I made one for my own hair which is often unruly- and I have a new grey dress that needed a matching something-or-rather. Plus a couple were made for the etsy shop as well.
In other news. my upcoming book received its first review- here at Booksellers NZ. Exciting.
We took the kids to this great restaurant the other day for dinner. We all had roti + dhal and every last lentil was eaten up. I decided that we should make roti breads at home. And then, I decided to employ the children to do this. Arlo's now old enough to do the cooking while K likes a spot of dough-kneading and both can roll the breads. We had an extra child around after school today to help in the making, and one batch of these disappeared within ten minutes.
I'm sure you can think of ways to eat these. As well as eating them plain or with a little butter, we've also paired them with this vegan curry/soup for dinner. Recommended for cosy autumn evenings.
This is how we make the flatbreads:
1 1/2 cups flour (you could use a mixture of different flours if you like)
1 cup boiling water
2 spoonfuls oil (vegetable, olive, etc)
Tip the flour into a bowl and add the boiling water and 1 spoonful of the oil. Mix together into a paste. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes. (Dough might be too hot for kids- in which case do this step before enlisting their help.) Rest the dough for about 5 mins. Then roll it into a large disk. Sprinkle this with the oil and let the kids spread it all over the surface. Then roll the disk up into a long roll (kind of like when you make pinwheel scones.)
Divide the dough into about 10 pieces. Meanwhile heat a large frying pan on the stove- it doesn't need any oil or anything like that. Flatten each portion of dough with your hand and roll into a flatbread. Doesn't matter how round/misshapen it is. Then fling it in the pan. It should only take about 20 secs to cook on one side. Then flip it over with tongs and cook the other side until it bubbles up and gets a bit browned. Continue until you have a plateful of flatbreads.
It's that time of year for golden-syrup light pouring through the windows- it's mid-autumn. And therefore time for a little knitting on the needles. I made a hat but about halfway through it became clear there wasn't enough yarn to finish it. So I couldn't remain true to the pattern I was following- I won't link to it here because my finished hat has little in common with it. I've started another however and made sure I have plenty of yarn to do it properly.
'My version' is quite warm though and is shaped like a tam and seemed to ask for a pompom and embroidery. I was going for branches but they look more antler-ish. I used Jo Sharp merino in a deep yellow to make the hat.
A few pieces of embroidery were finished up- one has become a small purse for my shop.
Also over the weekend, I made myself a new website. It's just a general home for all my different bits and pieces- I'd been wanting to put it together for a while. Plus it's for book and work purposes. You can see it here.
An autumnal pencil-pattern today, done in my sketchbook on the bus ride home while listening to my new favourite track. The video is even better and features more beautiful Thom Yorke dancing.
Wishing you a relaxing weekend, dear reader. See you soon for some autumn knitting, a new website, the easiest and cheapest thing to cook for hungry kids, a project finally finished and another pattern, I'm sure.
tiny happy 