tiny happy

Arlo actually has a 'real' bow and arrow set which he uses at his grandparents' rural place (less chance of injuring anyone) but on the weekend he and his sister devised this alternative for using here in the big city. We are lucky enough to have a wild and overgrown bit of our garden, and over the fine parts of the weekend, they played with this homemade 'bow' (a stick bent into a curve with a piece of waxed thread) and 'arrows' (random bits of branch found in the undergrowth) endlessly. The arrows needed a quiver of course, so after presenting me with a detailed design right down to the measurements and type of strap required, I made this for them. It's just a simple lined bag with a leather strap. Keira especially enjoyed carrying around her arrows, and even wore the quiver while eating dinner one night.

It makes me happy that the kids are still so into their pretend play these days, and get any visiting friends into it, too. 

I hope you're having a good week so far. We have had a few dinner parties, my Mum to stay for a couple of nights and fun shopping at this beautiful little store which is just down the road.

And I was honoured to have some of my photos featured on this British blog– thank you Natasha.

Some more brooches were made- this time from pieces of hand-embroidered linen that were left over after cutting out baby slippers- and I didn't want to throw these remnants away. Some of the handwork is very old, and starting to come away from the linen a bit, which is quite characterful I think.

Yellow is all around these days- the lawn is covered in daisies and we went for a coastal walk last week and there were huge bushes of glossy bright wildflowers like the ones in the top photo. And spreading gorse, of course.

Have you heard the new Bob Dylan album? I'm into it, especially the song Long and Wasted Years (can't find it online anywhere except spotify) and I think it will be playing on our stereo all summer. He seems to be getting even better with age.

Thank you for leaving a comment on my last post! I drew two names for a set of cards- and they were Sera and Marilyn. 

Here are some pins I've been working on this week- little bird brooches. I made them from flat brass frames that I found on etsy, and lacquered on top some tiny illustrations from an antique science book I've had for a while (it fell apart long ago so I had the pages tied together with ribbon. It's nice to give the papers a new life.)

I made a few for my shop and one for my favourite spring cardy.

And now it's the weekend, well soonish. We have a dinner party and some other social engagements planned because it's really starting to feel like friendlier weather for such things.

If it rains though, I thought I might give one of these watercolour projects a go. What are your plans?

See you next week.

I am really happy it's September. I challenged myself to a sugar-free August (I picked something I knew would be hard to relinquish as I am a lifelong chocolate devotee and wanted to see if I was tough enough to go without something I loved. And surprisingly I was- hooray!) So while that was all good, I must admit I was happy when September rolled around. I had some chocolate gelato to celebrate.

Also, because it's early spring, I'm obsessing over forget-me-nots again. Just like I did last year twice and two years before that, it would seem (it's handy to have this blog as a reference to past obsessions.)

Anyway, the other day I completed my paper-cutting work by making a collaged forget-me-not. Then I got some sets of postcards printed up in town, so that each set comes with a print of each botanical collage and matching envelopes.

I popped some in my etsy shop, but thought that in order to celebrate spring arriving here, it would be nice to give a couple of sets away too.

So if you would like to be in the draw for a card set, just leave a comment below and tell me why you love September where you live.

See you in a few days.

Spotted on our windswept beach walk today: an owl and a buffalo, stationed along the edge of the walking track and watching over us. 

Hope you've had a good weekend, dear readers.

My little scissors have been busy again, ever since reading about Mary Delaney and her Paper Garden. 

These collages on black card were cut from the pages of an old magazine. They were very enjoyable to make late one evening, and I must admit that they indulge any OCD tendencies whilst providing convenient procrastination from shorthand practice, which is what I'm actually supposed to be doing in my evenings.

I'm loving the little bursts of plantlife out there right now and appreciating every new leaf. I've seen lots of snowdrops on my travels, but no lilies-of-the-valley, yet.

I don't really understand why citrus trees come into fruit in winter, but in any case, we are enjoying our little mandarin tree right now. And the lemons, of course. My Dad came to visit and brought some limes from his orchard, so we are doing very well, citrus-wise.

We went to the christening service of a new baby on the weekend, and I made some little linen slippers in citrus shades for her, as well as a few others. I love the poppy-style flowers on this particular pair, and the linen is so old that some of the stitches are coming away, which I think adds to the whole antiquey feel of them.

Happy new week, readers!

There's been a slow burgeoning outside and pale blossoms are starting to bud here and there. To celebrate this exciting new growth, I cracked out the basket of embroidery yarns I was given in Norway and did a bit of free-form embroidery onto pieces of old wool fabric (remnants from coats, I believe.)

And then I made them up into these little pouches. You can never have too many botanical-patterned things around, at least, I don't think so.

Inspired by pinterest, I thought I would give this recipe a try over the weekend: slow-cooker coconut ginger, etc curry (I was given a slow cooker and still have not tried it yet- shame!) even though I would much rather be making this: red clover lemonade with honey but will have to wait for clover season.

I've been reading The Paper Garden, by Molly Peacock, which details the life and art of Mary Delaney, who made intricate botanical collages from coloured paper in the 1770s. The book is beautifully written, and there are quite a few coloured plates of her work, which inspired me to try a bit of collage myself. I copied Delaney's idea for a black card background, but I used some glossy circulars from the letterbox to cut out the plant itself. I'm guessing Mrs Delaney might have used a superior paper herself, but I liked the idea of recycling. The whole project was quite a therapeutic way to end the week.

The starting-point branch of apple blossom was cut from the tree in our back garden. Hooray for blossom.

You can see some more of Delaney's work here at the British Museum website.

The little one got a chance to bust out her spring blouse (the one I made back here) when we had a bit of sunshine on the weekend. And those beautiful spring flowers were a gift from my sister-in-law (she also gave the kids a bunch for their own room- such a nice idea!)

Basically this post is a homage to lemon yellow, which is really helping us get through this last blah bit of winter. 

That, and this evocative Super-8 style music video which I imagine to be somewhere near the French Alps- if you're in Europe, maybe your summertime is looking a bit like this?