tiny happy

A few instagram photos from this past weekend. We tied some scrap fabric bunting in the mandarin tree for K's pirate party. Silly me- I got busy and completely forgot to take photos until everyone had gone home, but it was fun day. My sister came and helped (thank you Sarah!) and she made a chocolate treasure chest cake which was much admired (and quickly devoured). The only remaining evidence of the party are broken water balloons all over the lawn- what started out as quite a civilised occasion quickly descended into a water fight.

I was very excited to get a new Shabby Apple dress in the letterbox, (they kindly sent me this one) and I have tucked it away for an upcoming family wedding. Lucky me!

And some of Sunday was spent lying in the shade on an old barkcloth quilt, immersed in this book which I was given quite a while ago and just rediscovered on the shelf. It's beautifully written.

I hope you had a happy weekend too.

Some of today was spent getting ready for a pirate party which is happening tomorrow for K's 7th birthday- can you believe she turned 7 this week? The last weekend as a 6 year old resulted in a wobbly tooth coming out after a minor trampoline accident and so it was decided a pirate party would be fitting.

A special request from both A and K was a batch of afghans (not sure how these fit into the theme) and of course a bit of after school testing was mandatory. So tonight I will need to make about 11 or so eye patches (luckily, they are pretty simple- just some black wool felt and elastic). 

I made her the winter skirt for one of her birthday presents- I used a double-elastic waist and dark green corduroy with a bit of antique lace sewn around the hem.

I just realised that I've been blogging almost all of K's life- I think I started when she was 1 or 2. Crazy! Although this means she is quite a good poser for photographs, and she's not afraid to show her gappy teeth.

Happy weekend to you!

Today, a mixture of linen and silk, wool and leather. Picutred above are a few things I made for this week's shop update including some tote bags made from recycled textiles- old kimonos (I love their understated geometrics) paired up with herringbone wool fabric, and recycled leather handles which i bought from a bag maker going out of business. 

In other news-

I deeply admire these new surface (mainly textile, I think) designs by Sanderson that I found via Pinterest. The colours, the simple lines, the botanical stylings, all of it.

Also admirable, are these beautiful ceramic pieces handmade by Swedish artist Maria Kristofersson.

Been doing some work this week with this lovely old wildflower/weed print linen and made some bags plus a cushion cover from it. There's just something dreamy about those pale botanicals, but I'm not sure what it is exactly. Wild flowers are probably the only non-vegetable thing we have growing in our garden right now, so that could be why I'm drawn to them.

Here is a good thought for today: be yourself, bravely.

This deep red velveteen dress arrived in the mail today- I bought it from a vintage store on etsy and love it quite a lot. The shop is this one and I can recommend it highly. Tom and I have been obsessively watching Mad Men on dvd and we both admire Joan Holloway and her style. While I will never be as beautiful and curvy as JH, I like to think that by wearing this dress I can pay a small homage to her character. The dress was probably handmade in the 1940s and doesn't have a label inside, but instead a number handwritten with a marker pen so maybe it was once a costume for a theatre company. The crochet appliques seem to be handmade as well, and it feels very lucky to be the new owner of this garment. And now, of course, my eyes have been opened to the possibilities of buying old dresses on etsy, and I can tell you that there are many treasures just waiting on that website.

Unrelated- Thea of Spoonful Zine is running a fun little Easter competition here at her blog. You can win a sweet rabbit for your efforts, too. It's worth a go, I say! And everyone loves Easter time.

Thank you all for entering the Shabby Apple giveaway this week. I used the random number generator and picked Susan (comment #182) as the winner. The only thing I don't like about giveaways would be that there's usually just one winner. But congratulations, Susan!

The tickets for HANDMADE 2012 have just gone on sale and I've been checking out the classes and lectures on offer. Which one to choose? What a dilemma.

This year I've been asked to teach two classes, and each will be running twice over the weekend. I will repeat last year's class on making a locket necklace with inset embroidery, (in the heirloom section) and in the new class we will be carving our own stamps to print on fabric and wrapping paper, hooray! I was giving some of my handmade stamps a whirl this week and ended up printing some linen with various designs. My favourite was the finished red poppy linen and I used this to make a big feather pillow for our living room armchair. Should be a good reading spot, I'm thinking.

Have a lovely weekend! Here is a song I'm liking at the moment- Cat Power and the Dirty Three.

Inspired by the end-of-summer weeds and wildflowers in our garden, I embroidered these tiny little bouquets of plants in colouful threads on a dark grey linen. They were made into small, detailed brooches for my shop update today- appliqued onto wool felt for a sturdy backing.

Speaking of flowers, I loved this post about visiting a hellebore farm in West Virginia. Aren't they beautiful? It makes me wonder how the hellebores I planted last year are getting along in my previous garden- hopefully happily. 

Happy Wednesday to you, dear readers.

It seems a bit too cloudy and dark to take photos of finished craft work today- so I thought instead that I would post these pictures of gorgeous wallpapers I've been finding inspiring lately. These are pages from a wallpaper book- The Papered Wall– which I found at the library and have been poring over. Quite a few of the wallpaper prints are in black-and-white which I think must have looked pretty dramatic in a house once upon a time.

Certain wallpaper prints are nostalgic and can evoke rather strong memories- in much the same way vintage household goods are memory-laden and old textiles hold such meaning for us- especially childhood items like bedspreads and curtains. Looking through this book has made me think about the wallpaper in our house when I was little (pasted by my grandmother, I think- those big ornament-style gold circles with flowers and curlicues) and the yellow design in the home of my other grandparents- (this one) and then of course the floral Laura Ashley style my mum chose in the 1980's. 

I love wallpaper (and use it for other things such as wrapping) but feel a bit wary of pasting it up in our rented house- so I will admire it in the book for now.

Thank you for entering the dress giveaway over the weekend. If you haven't yet, you have until this Friday so there's plenty of time. I'll draw a random winner then.

Here are some rabbits that I made over the weekend. Two are for new babies on the block and one will go into the little shop. They are great fun to make and I love working with cotton velveteen fabric. But they're also quite fiddly and stress-making to sew up. Ah well. 

Happy new week to you! See you again tommorow. 

The kind folks at Shabby Apple asked whether I'd like to host a giveaway here for one of their beautiful vintage-inspired dresses, and while I don't usually go in for product endorsement (unless I genuinely find it myself) I couldn't resist this one. The winner of the giveaway will be sent the dress of her choice, you can have a look here to see what you'd like should you be the winner. The dress will be shipped anywhere in the world.

The reasons why I like Shabby Apple as a company: they donate a percentage of their profits to women's charities, they have a great training/intern programme, they have an 'especially for redheads' section, support up-and-coming designers, have good maternity dresses on offer and sweet international-inspired clothing (like this Pacific range, for example.) They also offer a 'practically perfect' sale whereby you can buy amazing garments at a much reduced price if you're prepared to sew on a button or fix a small hole somewhere (good for crafty types, don't you think?)

Shabby Apple are also offering all my readers a 20% off coupon – just add the code 'tinyhappy20off' at checkout and your discount will be applied. This is good for 30 days.

To enter the giveaway, you need to 'like' the Shabby Apple facebook page, and leave a comment here to confirm. You could also tell me which dress you would choose, if you'd like to. I will leave the giveaway open for a week and draw a winner randomly next Friday. Good luck and have a happy weekend!