We went blackberry picking. They were growing wild along a river north of the city.
Coming home with half a lunchbox full of juicy little fruits was worth the minor injuries caused by prickles. There weren't really enough berries to make pie, margaritas, bars or anything like that. So I just cooked them up with a bit of water and sugar and made a lumpy sauce for waffles and yoghurt.
I like the taste of late-summer.
I quite like mending, and it seems to be the only kind of sewing I've done for a while. I had this cardigan which needed some new buttons and some minor surgery but is comfy and has good pockets. The elbows were also a bit worse for wear, so I patched them up with some old-school leather patches.
I used soft leather scraps and a thick darning-type needle and waxed thread, and sewed them on with blanket stitch. The leather was soft enough that I didn't need to punch holes in the patches before sewing, but I guess you could use an awl or similar- there's a handy how-to here.
Now I can see lots of other clothes that might benefit from this treatment. How many patches are too many, I wonder?
I've been thinking about clothes (and other things we use and consume) even more than usual. Ever since I read about this Zero Garbage Challenge. I aspire to be like this woman- the thing holding me back is food packaging. Elbow patches and mending, I can do.
Second installment of pattern friday today- this time the pattern was the result of playing around with oil paints with the kids. I used an old photo of swans I took in Germany a few years ago as inspiration.
Last week I noticed that Susie of Flowerpress joined in with her bright weaving design- if you feel like taking part too just leave your link in the comments section.
This album has been fueling many of my creative endeavours lately- it's a good one for these golden autumnal days.
Wishing you a peaceful Easter break, if you have one ahead of you.
I forgot to show this brooch I made from another button sent by Sarah– this one is quite large and has a shank fastening and an engraved geometric pattern. I made it into a rosette-style pin using some wool felt and vintage ribbon, to fasten to my best dress.
Thank you for entering the button giveaway on my last post. I drew a winner- Sarah Jane. Happy buttoning!
These handmade buttons by Sarah of Fulton and Co arrived in the letterbox over the weekend. They are made from pearly smooth ceramic, slightly earthy and delicate at the same time. I think they look beautiful on handmade garments- if I was more of a knitter, I would knit a stack of winter cardigans and adorn them with these buttons.
But being a very slow knitter, I sewed some buttons onto a cardigan for Keira. This is a pale blue cashmere garment that I sewed as a project for 'the book'. The project is for a recycled knit and uses fine cotton to make bias binding for the edges. It was a tad big last year, but should fit this coming winter.
o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o…o
Sarah also sent some of these beautiful little pearls for you, dear readers. A set of small, creamy grey buttons and a bigger set too.
Would you like to win them? (I'll post them anywhere in the world.) Just leave a comment below and tell me what you'd do with them, and I'll draw a winner in a couple of days.
I bought myself a new sketchbook the other day, and (to make sure I actually use it) I'm challenging myself to drawing a pattern every Friday to cheer up the blog.
So here is my first 'pattern friday'- feel free to join in if you like!
This pattern was made with watercolours, listening to this great track, and thinking about juniper berries on Norwegian hillsides.
Birthday celebrations went on all weekend for Miss K with a surprise visitor from down South (thanks, Dad) and family and friends dropping in for coffee, outdoor eating and fun times.
I noticed a bit of a golden-yellow theme going on. While waiting for her friends to arrive on Saturday afternoon, K and I made a bunch of these tissue paper flower decorations. We used yellow and white paper, because that's what they had at the local supermarket. We followed these instructions, and hung them from the windows with sewing thread. Easy and sunshiney.
Other weekend makes (that I didn't think to photograph) included cheese straws, blueberry lemonade (diluted with soda water), hand-painted seed packets plus many beaded bracelets made by K for her visiting friends.
I also made a garland/bunting from scraps of yellow and cream fabric but ran out of time to finish it all weekend which was typical. K can hang it in her room instead, it matches her new ukelele. Happy times, and the end of the golden weather I think- the long-awaited autumn rains have begun.
I painted a birthday card for Keira- she turns eight today! Because this blog has really grown up with her, I dug out a few of my old photos to make her a birthday post. I believe I started writing here when she was about one or two. Watching a child grow is a good, yet strange, way to mark time, watching it physically grow in front of your eyes. It's like she's just been born, and yet been around for ever.
The iceblock obsession continues around here with recipe testing (me) and taste testing (children + friends.)
This latest batch was requested by Tom, who remembers eating pina colada pops when his family lived in Australia for a year when he was 10 years old. But he'd not seen them anywhere since. So I made these by whisking together equal parts coconut cream and pineapple juice. They're quite delicious: creamy and juicy at the same time.
The first photo above is a page in this beautiful old book that caught my eye. A tree filled with small birds of the palest blue and yellow, I wish we had one of those in our garden.
tiny happy 