Natures Treats

We went to view a section for sale on the weekend and although it was mostly hectares of gorse and weeds... we also discovered some colourful treasures. I thought you might enjoy them too!

Blue forget-me-nots, amazing orange fungi and delicious looking red wild strawberries.



Lucky me there was also a lovely old cherry blossom tree amongst the wilderness! I can never get enough of the blossoms in spring. (Yes, there will probably be more blossom pics in the weeks to come!)

Vintage Christening Shoes

Last week I came across an amazing find at the thrift store - a vintage satin wedding dress for a bargain price. I have wanted to make some little christening shoes for a while and the concept of recycling from a wedding dress sat nicely with me.

I wasn't sure exactly of the style until I was chatting with my friend Elizabeth the other day, who showed me how to make little hand made fabric roses. The idea was born and I set about creating some sweet satin flower shoes for a special little girl.


Attaching the flowers to the toe was challenging, but I eventually got there! The trick is to hand-sew all layers of the flower to the shoe and not just the outside, otherwise it seems to untwist itself.

The traditional mary jane style strap looked a touch heavy, so I changed it for pretty satin ribbons. I thought they could be tied in a bow, or criss-crossed around the ankle for a ballet slipper look.

They are waiting in my shop ready for your favourite girl... perhaps a lovely baby shower gift?

Honey Bees

My "honey" was sweet enough to purchase me this amazing book when he was in London a few weeks ago and just gave it to me as a little present. I love it. It is called the Collins Beekeepers Bible and I totally recommend it if you are anything like me and enamoured with our tiny little pollinating friends.

For a long time I have had a fascination with bees. Especially since I started edible gardening and realised just how important they are in order for me to get my lovely heirloom tomatoes!

As I don't have much garden space at the moment, bees are out of the question, but they are definitely on my "to have" list when we are able to purchase our dream of a lifestyle block in the countryside. In the meantime I will get my kicks from pouring over these beautiful pages and encouraging bees naturally into my vegetable patch with lots of colourful flowers.

It says that honey is the only natural food that does not spoil. Come to think of it, I have never seen mouldy honey! Curious and wondrous.

Snow Flakes

I hope my post the other day on spring blossoms didn't prompt the wild weather! It has done nothing but blow for four days now, so making something snuggly and warm from a beautifully soft lambswool and angora sweater was a perfect project.


By washing the sweater in the machine and drying it on hot in the dryer makes it shrink and the fibers bond together for extra warmth. I started with the little reversible slippers, then decided to make a little snowflake pixie hat to go with them. (Shown on my adorable little friend Macy).

I lined it with the same fabric as the reverse side of the shoes - a cream and white patterned cotton. Cutting out the snowflakes was a bit of a mission - they are so fiddly! They were very carefully hand stitched on with sparkly silver thread.


The little ties are simply hand spun New Zealand wool, which I braided and sewed in.

There was a little bit of the jumper left over - just enough to make a pair of sweet little mittens! These will be part of my shop update this week.

I really enjoyed working with the soft and cosy jumper and almost wished it was still winter here... but not quite. Roll on spring!

Cherry Blossoms

Daffodils and lambs are the classic indicators of spring, but for me, spring truly starts when the cherry blossoms start to bloom.

I was delighted to find this little blossom down our little street - I had to zoom in on the blossom as it was the only one on the tree! (Ok, ok, I know I am trying to rush spring, but I was so excited!) It inspired me to craft some items celebrating spring for my little shop.




I made these little reversible heirloom baby booties from a lovely hand embroidered doilie featuring spring blossoms. The reverse side is a happy yellow spring stripe, with soft corduroy soles. They will be listed in my Big Little Shop on Etsy.

I have also started on some white and pink satin ones which will look almost like miniature ballet slippers. They will feature a spring flower made out of some pretty silky vintage floral fabric I found a few weeks ago.

They are a new design for me so when finished I'll post the pics here so you can take a sneaky peek!

Vintage Buttons

Buttons just make me smile. Today I was lucky enough to receive a bag of gorgeous vintage buttons from my friend Rosie.

Buttons have been a part of our lives for so long and they still do their job so humbly. Don't you just enjoy the simplicity of the concept!

I am loving the little rose ones - the detail is just beautiful. The lovely blue one is destined to be the feature button on my next baby cape. (The cape is blue with a winter wonderland theme...)


The toggles remind me of Paddington bear and the spiral seashell ones are just exquisite. Thanks so much Rosie, and keep your eyes peeled for some of these beauties on my creations coming up soon!

Vivid Violets

I was lucky enough to have received a box of my late Grandmothers embroidery thread a little while ago. My Gran loved bright colours and there was a lot of different purples in there! Perfect for stitching violets...

These violets I found growing along my mother's path are so little and yet so lovely with their delicate details and vivid colour. I decided to try and capture their magic in my embroidery today.

I loved using Grans' thread, I somehow think she would be very pleased to see it used for violets! I decided to make this violet embroidery into a sweet little zippered purse. It is available in my Big Little Shop.