a sense of history...

this is the back of the sewing machine manual for my new/old machine, a lovely bernina 1005 that belonged to my husband's nanna... she was a dressmaker who sadly i never got to meet... i was delighted to see that she had written on the back of the manual "(Exhibition) August 1989" - the place where she perhaps first looked at the machine or maybe even purchased it... it seems like such a nanna thing to do... i'm taking it to be serviced in the coming week and it pleases me no end that i will soon be sewing on her machine, hopefully some of her skills will rub off...

small things...

it's little projects that entice me at present...


peg dollies for little friends...

the joy of confetti...

i finally got around to trying my hand at making paper with confetti and waxed lunch paper... perfect for wrapping up little easter bundles... please don't laugh at me when i tell you that i did momentarily think about colour sorting the confetti for a more refined look... an idea that was quickly dismisssed as folly because surely to embrace the confetti-ness of this project is part of the joy...

update... this really is very easy, just position the confetti between two sheets of waxed paper (waxed sides together) place a teatowel over the top and gently iron together...

a gift...

from miss j, who has quite a talent for such things...


it's tiny, almost the size of a little matchbox...

what's inside you ask...


three little peas in a pod...

delightful, no?

thank-you all for your warm wishes for my blogging break,

it has been just the thing...

days...

"You will find that it is all very familiar...the strange and faraway places where you've never been. The wild unknown leads you to a place just around the corner. Take a picture when you get there...the road is you."

"The Road"

J.Bebe - R.Hammond

i read these words one day, they are written on the cover notes of a compact disc... the journey doesn't always take us where we expect, this i truly know... i remember a trip to the mountains... my baby looks all grown up in blue jeans and a piece of red plastic endlessly entertains my grown-up boy, it twists and turns and flutters to the ground...

we travel to the sea where we hold hands and walk across the sand... at night my head is filled with words floating in and out but when morning comes they are gone... although i love these autumn days i find myself impatient for spring, for new growth and silver linings...
but i will wait in this moment and take comfort in the motion of my hands,
in the rise and fall of my breath,
in the feel of fabric beneath my fingers,
in the sound of the world moving around me,
in the fall of my pen as it scratches across the page...

waiting for words...

there is so much to say that i hardly know where to begin...

a little blog holiday is in order i feel, not for too long...

just some time...

to make space for sewing...

and for sending mail...

to write daily in my journal again...

and to observe the change of the season around me...

retro food...

if my gorgeous sister were to start a blog it would definitely need to be a food blog... i neglected to mention that the sixties hors-d'oeuvres in my last post were her handiwork and tasted delicious in a retro kind of way... as you can see they looked fabulous on jackie shapiro french bull platters, take a peep at what they look like here and here...

forty years friends...

last weekend was the 40 year anniversary of the arrival of my dad and his best pal in australia... they came here as ten pound poms on the MV Aurelia back in 1966, we celebrated in style with a meal from one of the original ship menus...


and reminisced with a slide show, for which we had old fashioned mixed lolly bags...


a lovely time was had by all...

junk mail jungle...

and a bamboo hook...


what's a girl to do when the local mega-craft store has every size crochet hook but a 4.00mm... understandably i just have to drive over to threads and more to fetch a lovely japanese bamboo one (all the time repeating to myself that i will not even glance at the habu yarns or the new jo sharp book... yeah right!)

meanwhile the love affair with crochet continues... i'm currently working on the round string cushion from simple crochet by erika knight...

the comfort of crochet...

my mum crochets beautifully and after reading this post at show & tell
i decided it was time to learn... though it has taken a while to get used to the technique, i'm now taking great comfort in working small simple pieces... bath mitts of string and this cotton wash cloth, a gift for a friend...

more than words...

japanese craftbooks continued...

sorry it's taken me a while to get back to the books...


i first saw this book over in the inspiring images from craftbooks group pool on flickr, such a great place to while-away a few hours... and then the finder of all things cute posted a review here... the rest as they say, is history...

crazy happy...

firstly because we've been playing with paper dolls all day long... and secondly because staying up until 2.00 am in the morning for amy's mailorder was so worthwhile...

habu = love part II

and the day just got better...


a gorgeous parcel of the yummiest biscuits from the lovely bel...


also perfect for luring little hands away from the habu...


thanks bel, we all loved them!

habu = love

from the first time i caught a glimpse of habu i've been dreaming of the moment we might meet, resigning myself to the fact that it would probably be a long time coming... little did i suspect that the moment was close at hand... there i am, standing at the counter at threads & more... i'm about to pay for some buttons and yarn for a hat, when i look down and there they are... tiny bundles much more special than i could have imagined... it's love at first sight and almost impossible to choose, i want to bring them all home with me...

and i'm not even a knitter...

four things...

thanks to pyglet, eireann, bel and christy for the tag, i've been trying to get to this for ages so here goes...

jobs i've had...
-library assistant
-shop girl
-sometimes display girl
-only three so far, i would love one day to be a bookbinder...

movies i could watch over and over...
-the royal tannebaums
-amelie
-lost in translation
-funny face

places i've lived...
-nottingham (fleetingly at the very beginning of my life)
-melbourne
-brisbane
-that's it, only two and a half places... quite fancy living somewhere exotic for a time but we really are perfectly happy here...

television shows i love...
-seinfeld
-the oc (i just can't help it!)
-charlie and lola (it's back on in the mornings)
-i do love a good british drama, "the forsyth saga', "in a land of plenty" and "the house of elliot" are among my favourites... (ooh and "cutting it")

places i've vacationed...
-paris
-prague
-new york
-new zealand

favourite dishes... (more like my favourite flavours)
-fresh pasta
-anything thai or vietnamese
-lemon delicious (my gran made the best ever and i still pine for it)
-dark chocolate and peppermint in any shape or form

sites i visit daily...
-bloglines, to visit all of you!
-flickr
-gmail
-go fug yourself (again i just can't help it)

places i'd rather be...
-somewhere in japan
-shopping at liberty
-holidaying in new york
-walking down the high street with my auntie darling whilst eating a "birds" egg custard tart!

people i'm tagging...
-i'm sure everyone's already been tagged for this one, so pick it up if you want to and instead i leave you with four books that i adore...


have a lovely day...

on japanese craft books...

as you know, the postman has been exceedingly kind this week... i can't possibly show you all the books at once for fear that you will think me terribly extravagant!
so here is the first...

isbn4277311474...

i love all the little inspirations in this one... lately i am finding myself drawn to the idea of embroidery and daily details, snippets of this and that...

great excitement...

there is great excitement around here, one of miss j's exquisite plates has been featured in the new issue of inside out magazine... go and have a look, it's on page 38...

oh and there has been a delivery from you know who...

sometimes things aren't ready to be finished...

or perhaps it's just a romantic way of thinking about some of the unfinished objects around these parts...


this weekend i've been playing around with pulled ribbon & fabric ruffles and it seems they are just the thing for this patchwork scarf that i made last year and that never seemed quite right...


i'm quite pleased with the unfinished look, with the depth of the charcoal grograin...


and especially with those frayed edges again...

mannered...

i've oftened wondered, but never enquired of anyone if there is such a thing as comment ettiquette in the blogging world... i like to think of myself as well-mannered, but i must confess to sometimes floundering about in pursuit of the best way to respond to the lovely comments received... blogger certainly doesn't make comment response easy, and while i'm aware that there are probably things that would ease my way, i find myself without the precious time and know-how to implement them... so, i try where possible to email a response and failing that leave a comment in reply... knowing what a thrill it is to receive comments, i figure this is probably alright...

in the mean time, all this blogging and sewing has seen some serious deterioration in my eyesight... so i am sporting new spectacles and am about to consult miss spade who i know will advocate the virtue of the hand written thank-you note... let's hope such traditions never leave us...