Shop updates.....

I have been busy this week adding my new brooches to my shop like these cute little heart brooches with their mini heart safety pins. My favourite is the black and white one with the aqua stitching so if that one sells I might have to make one for myself to wear. I have also finally gotten around to getting my "Felt shop" up and running. "Felt" is the kiwi version of Etsy so if you're a local reader it will make buying my items easier.

I have only added my brooches so far to my felt shop but will add other items as time permits :-)

To visit my shops click on the buttons in my side bar. The Felt shop avatar and link is directly under my Etsy shop showcase button.

Hoping to get some more sewing done this weekend and maybe tidy up another part of my garden if the sun comes out to join me.

Wishing you a lovely weekend with whatever you have planned.

Harvesting....

Over the weekend I decided to finally get stuck into my poor neglected veggie garden. Full of weeds, dead tomato plants and stakes, and embellished with a dying trail of pumpkin plants. The above harvest of pumpkins was a gift from my home made compost which I added to the gardens when planting them out at the beginning of last summer. They almost took over the planters and looked slightly untidy but I'm glad I let them stay as we have enough pumpkin for soups, muffins, quiches etc... this winter. My girls don't really like roast pumpkin but they'll willingly eat it if it's baked in things.

 This is my veggie garden when I was halfway through the weeding with the pumpkin plants already gone.....

...and this is what it looks like now. Much better don't you think :-) Such a satisfying job and now I can move onto other areas of the garden to tidy up although I'm thinking I should probably plant out some onions and garlic plants in those empty planters. Don't want to waste good soil now....

Friday favourites

'Nature/nurture' by TheSewingAttic

Fern Leaf Bracelet- Mad... SilvanArts $49.00	Flower Photography, Dog... TraceyCapone $30.00	plum blossom with Flyin... NatureStyle $52.00	Butterfly Necklace, Nat... rainnua $14.45
LIMITED EDITION Butterf... JulieKatePhoto... $42.00	Red Baby's Breath w... SpottedDogAshe... $44.00	Green Daisy flower Line... kiranravilious... $48.00	Organic Deep sea HEMLOC... alittlelark $32.00
Very Cute Nature and ga... Lovelygiftfork... $80.00	BABY ELEPHANT PHOTO- 8 ... WildBabies $25.00	Jonas Baby Blanket Natu... BabiesofNorway $100.00	Love Bird in Green Diap... fantella $69.00
Rainbow Animal Alphabet... CisforColor $27.75	New Baby Gift Set. Grow... aewilder $72.00	Baby nursery decor. Nur... Wallfry $60.00	Elephant Nursery Decor ... OllieAndRose $25.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

For my friday favourite today I'm sharing an etsy treasury I created with the theme of "Nature/nurture". Hope you enjoy the inspiration!

Nurturing creativity..

A few weeks back my neighbour and her friend asked whether I would be interested in making some fabric flower brooches to sell at our local Breast Cancer awareness breakfast. I, of course, didn't hesitate and agreed to make as many as I could. This was just what I needed to kick start a flicker of creativity inside me again. 

 I was given quite a bit of various types of fabrics to work with but also used some from my own stash to add different textures. None of the flowers I made actually use that much fabric but just take time to complete. Some of the bigger brooches can take up to 2-3 hours work .

 I should have really started making these brooches as soon as I was asked and I really did have every intention of doing just that. However life somehow keeps getting in the way for me at the moment and before I knew it I had exactly 1 week to make something, anything. Once I started though I kept coming up with new ideas on what I could make. Funny how being creative feeds creativity... 

The idea for these hearts came to me when I had just one day left. I have a couple of old brooches that have a safety chain attached to a pin so if the pin on the brooch itself fails and comes undone the safety chain will save it from coming off completely. I made the 'chains' on these little hearts by threading on beads and knotting every few beads. These hearts are quite tiny (the bigger heart is just 6cm) so were a little fiddly but satisfying to complete.

The breakfast itself which was held yesterday was a sold out success and a fun event to be part of. I ended up selling about 1/2 of my brooches so will put the remaining brooches in my Etsy shop if any of them take your fancy :-)

How do you feed your creativity??

Mother's Day for me.....

 Brunch of french toast and streaky bacon cooked by Caitlin.....(with a tiny bit of help from me)

 3 magazines just for me to devour....

 Sharing the pleasure of baking for the week with Caitlin...

Listening to my REM collection of cd's throughout the day...

• sending off my very excited eldest daughter Amelia on a school trip to Wellington.
• enjoying the moment of  some 'one on one' time with Caitlin for the next few days, as is she.
• taking a spontaneous nap in the early afternoon.

I am slowly getting on with life after it was turned upside down a few weeks ago and would  like to thank everybody for you kind and supportive comments on my last blog post. I feel blessed to have gotten to know some lovely friends through my blog and feel each and every one of those virtual hugs that were sent. Thanks for being there :-)

Hope you had a lovely relaxing Mother's day too wherever you may be..

Sometimes.......

 taking note of the simple,

 and small things around us,

 helps take our minds off 

the bigger things that fill our heads,

and can sometimes feel too overwhelming.

If you have noticed my absence here lately it's because I am feeling pretty rough, raw and overwhelmed by some rather too big things happening in my life at the moment. I look at my blog as my happy space but I also need to keep it real and honest as well.

This song and this song (particularly the chorus) are very poignant to me at the moment from 2 of my favourite bands REM and Stellar*.

Stay happy and respect the people you love.

Spring flowers in autumn...

I'm in the midst of making fabric flowers today which remind me of spring and summer flowers even though it is in the middle of autumn here. It's cool and very blustery outside so I'm quite happy to be inside and up in my sewing attic happily absorbed with making these simple flowers, making them up as I go and working with some pretty pinks and reds.


Here is a sneak peek of a nearly finished project I am working on. I sewed these flowers on over the weekend with Caitlin nearby playing with the buttons in my button tin. I remembered being a similar age, enjoying the very same thing, picking out favourites, wondering where some of them came from and their past lives...

1. Spring/Summer Bags, 2. Klammern, 3. Crocheted cushion, 4. PTS 7 Sneak Peek, 5. hand quilting progress, 6. nannas patchwork, 7. Mimo..., 8. scrappy swap, 9. polly pinwheels block!, 10. zipper pouches , 11. granny bag - spring floral , 12. summer quilts-ready for a picnic, 13. Untitled, 14. zippered pouches, 15. little bird blue, 16. Sewing machine

I shall leave you with this mosaic of some pretty things found around Flicker recently...all very happy and pretty don't you think :-)