January Crafting & Creativity

Greetings lovely friends & readers

 On my table this week, a sweet enamel kettle filled with flowers from my Garden ... hydrangeas, alstroemerias. lavender, zinnias & pompom dahlias.  

Using some Christmas money I treated myself to a new length of Oilcloth for my table ... this one is so pretty.  

If you look at the right hand photo, you can see by my arrow that I still have "my display piece" from last weeks 

post  🐈‍⬛😮 !!

On this dull rainy day it is hard to photograph & do it justice - it is the softest dusky pink - called Elise Pink Blush. 

I have made a determined effort these school holidays to restrict Sid's screen time.  Some days I succeed & others not so - we have crafted lots!!  He was gifted some Gem Art kitsets & these have been a LOT of fun to create with.

One of the kitsets made up 3 bookmarks, we finished the 2 on the left & the right hand one is still to complete.  Granny especially enjoyed these crafts 😉

Although it feels like I have done very little crafting myself, looking back through my photos shows otherwise. 

 I found this tray in my sleepout & decided to chalk paint it for my bedside table.  I wanted to be able to pick up the tray with everything on it, not individually.  

Lightly sanding it showed up the detail in the handles 

Using pale duck egg chalk-paint, I am thrilled with how it turned out & lightly sanded it once dry.  A couple of coats of wax & it was complete.  

Since the New Year I have been on a sorting/decluttering mission, slowly going through cupboards & drawers.  This cross stitch was attached to a card & I kept it because it really appealed to me.  I made it up into a simple pillow backing it with some Tilda scraps & then stitched a fluffy yarn around the edges.

 

I filled it with crushed walnut shells so it sits plumply, also added an old broken earing of Mums to the bow.  

I am waiting on my 2026 charms to attach to the back - they are currently in-the-post.

In another cupboard I found this broken Angel, which I still loved. Her dress, wings & body parts were badly fly marked so I removed the dress & very gently washed her body before glueing her back together again.  

I sewed her a new skirt & gave her new feather wings ... I thought she looked so much better.  I have yet to find just the right spot to hang her. 

 I found * this blog post * from 2013 which was when I first purchased her (!!)  

My Hoop measures 33 cms across in diameter

I have long admired the hoop art that you see on Pinterest & often purchase hoops when I see them in the Op-shops.  I decided it was finally time to try & use them up!  I found a piece of old linen to fit my hoop & then sewed lengths of vintage lace across it, leaving little openings to act as "pockets".  I had lots of fun adding bits & bobs, some broken jewellery of Mums & buttons from Theodora Cleave tucking in tags & postcards here & there.  I gave mine a Sewing Theme as I plan to hang it in my sewing room.

This has sat on my sewing desk for the past two weeks while I added bits as I had the time or sat & studied it, changed my mind, removed things.   Once I was happy I sewed all my bits on & then backed it with a piece of wool felt.  Once again, hard to photograph on this rainy day, hence I've taken it to the deck table.  

I love projects like this that just sort of evolve.

So it seemed timely when I saw this Verse on Instagram yesterday & saved it ... I thought it was very true indeed, although I imagine you could say this about any year.

This little collage is titled A Day in the Life Of Pippi ... she moves from my potted Rhodohypoxis, to the suns rays in the lounge, to a drawer in my sewing room ... all in the course of a day (!!)  What a stressful life she leads  😉

Thank you dear friends, for your ever-welcome visits here today,

Wishing you a wonderful rest-of-the-week,

Sending much love & friendship out to you all,

Lake Taupo, A Rope Bowl, Dishcloths & A New Display

Greetings lovely friends & readers

I picked the arrangement of flowers above for my daughter-in-law Sarah, who had a birthday recently.  A mixture of dahlias, alstroemeria & perennial phlox, all from my garden.  I wish I knew how to arrange flowers properly ... I am more of "a plonker" when it comes to flowers in vases. 

 

Sid was here last week & we made two banana breads, one for him to take home.

  He is such a delight when baking.  I am always in a hurry & toss everything in - he reminds me to find Joy in the process ... "look Granny, 3 of the egg yolks are still whole but one is broken & it's running into the others" ... how precious this is. 

After he went home I made Caramel Anzac Slice as I was heading to Kinloch, Lake Taupo & this is my daughter in laws favorite slice.

In the days after Christmas I sewed Sarah a Rope Bowl as I wanted to fill it with lovely body products to gift for her recent birthday.  Sarah is a minimalist girl so I struggle at times with what to give her.  I used a soft palette of grey fabrics as she has these tones in her decor.

  

I placed body products,  Gourmet choccies & packets of seeds in the basket & cellophaned it all up ready to take down with me. 

The next day I drove down to Kinloch, Lake Taupo, to visit eldest Grandson Alec & his family.

We had a picnic lunch on the Lake edge - it was very busy as it is holiday season & the weather was nice.  The Lake is always so crystal clear - Sarah swam but Alec & I both just paddled.

Sarah told me about a walk to a waterwheel not far from their home so we headed off there in the afternoon.

It was such a pretty spot with a stream running right through it, crystal clear - & often the trout swim down the stream but you are not allowed to fish in here.  

(This is part of the Whangamata Stream Trail, Kinloch for anyone wanting to google it) 

A short walk from the water wheel is a fairy grove.  I just found it so delightful & could've stayed there for several hours.  It is a large clearing beside the stream, where people have been allowed to put fairy houses in the trees or on the ground & create a little village.

Sarah told me that nothing gets removed but there are rules about what you are allowed to put there, no plastic etc.  Also children have painted rocks & stones & used these to border the area - it was just so sweet & made my heart feel full.  

And you know what I want to do now don't you dear friends .  .  .  .  make my own fairy house & put it there 😃!!

There were a few of these hut-like structures built from the fallen tree branches. 

Alec & Granny & Alec & his Mum Sarah.  The wee dog belongs to the neighbors. 

At Christmas I was gifted a very nice bundle of new tea-towels which excited me immensely because mine were ready for the rag bag. 

 I decided I now needed some new dishcloths as these too, were ragbag material.  

I've used up all my ends of bamboo/cotton yarn & knitted 6 new ones ... they are an eclectic mix of colours but will be wonderful to replace the tatty old ones.  I can now knit * this pattern * off by heart so it's great to sit & do at nights.  

After I pack the Christmas decor away the house always feels large & airy & I like to give everything a good clean, move furniture & vacuum.  Often I wish I had new-to-me decor to do some different displays with, but this is not the case - we use what we already have.  I saw this on Instagram & it reminded me, we surely do need to love & care for the home we already have.

Longtime readers of my blog will know I have a vintage Singer Sewing table in the corner of my dining area & like to change out the displays on this for the different seasons.  

I've done a wonderful new display here for the summer season .  .  .  would you like to see it friends ???  😖😠😬

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😖😖😖 I think it may be called Fat Black Cat in Slumberland .  .  .

Thank you as always dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

Wishing you a wonderful rest-of-the-week,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,

Happy New Year 2026 ❤️

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Wishing you all a happy & healthy (& creative) 2026.

Today we have a jug full of Alstroemeria (Christmas Red) & white Penstemons. 

 

Well Christmas & New Year came & went for another year.  I hope it was a time of contentment for you all.  

Even though I got very organised early this year - it still felt busy as it drew closer.  

Sue came over one day & we visited the Lavender farm just around the road from me.  

Sue gifted me a piece of her gorgeous Daisy Chain Pottery & a wonderful fragrant candle.  I was most excited about the angel wrapped around the gift - Sue had made this from egg cartons & toilet roll wings  💓😇

The Sunday prior to Christmas day we had my Stepson & his family over for lunch.  My step grand-daughters Juno & Sadie opened their gifts & we all enjoyed a lovely time together. 

A rare photo taken in the garden - this is my stepson Jared, The Mr, myself & the two girls.

 

On Christmas Day itself, Sid & his family came for a roast lunch & he opened his stocking.  It is always special when they send me photos of what he has made using what I gift him - I enjoy this.

A little tradition that Sid's Mum has started is to give me a handmade card with a photo of Sid each Christmas & I have kept every single one.  The bottom right one is this year's.

  I hang these in my sewing room & enjoy them so much - he always writes me a message in the card.  It is wonderful to see how he grows each year. 

We have not seen (eldest grandson) Alec's family as yet but I hope to travel down to Kinloch in the next week & catch up with them all.  

I haven't taken any photos of my Christmas decor this year but if you are on Instagram  go * Here * & you can watch a video of my lounge that I uploaded.  It is over 2 minutes long.  

My decorating was very similar to previous years but my favorite this year was this wall in my dining room. 

Some of you may remember the Woodland Santa that I made back in this post in July.    He needed his own special place so I hung a vintage sieve on the wall & sat him on top of this.

Some days he was on a bit of a lean so I'm not sure if he had a hip flask hidden in his jacket (!!)  😳

The Angels beside him have all been handmade by myself over previous Christmas's. 

Christmas has all been packed away now for another year.

It took two weeks to set it all out to my satisfaction ... & two days to pack it all away.  

I think I could probably manage to pack it away in one day if a certain ginger fairy 😺 didn't insist on going to sleep in my storage containers (!!) 😖 

All that remains of the Kauri stump is the pale trunk broken off.

Four days after Christmas Day we had a nasty wind storm go through our area & lost power for 8 hours.  We had trees down between us & our depot yard, though this was not the cause of our power outage.

A large old tree simply uprooted & blew over & unfortunately broke a lovely native Kauri tree in its fall.

That is the Kauri lying to the right.

This saddened The Mr & I a great deal.  We have not begun the clean up down here as yet, though I have managed to clean up the damage up closer to the house.

While the storm raged for many hours the furry three took up residence inside - 2 in my sewing room & Little One on the bedside table ... The Mr put a blanket down for him.  

New Years Eve was spent drinking Christmas tea, eating fruit mince tarts & reading my book.  I was in bed by 10 & it was quiet all around as the weather was still nasty. 

I have been harvesting vegetables most days - I picked the last of my cauli & baby cabbages yesterday ... I will blanch the cauli & freeze it for winter stews.

This above was picked this morning - my tomatoes in the hothouse are growing well & we have had good success with cucumbers this year - The Mr prefers the apple variety.  I have been able to share a lot of produce with friends & family.

I wish you all the very best for the coming year dear friends.

Thank you for your ever welcome visits here today - I still really enjoy my blog after all these years & the friendships I have made,

Sending much love & friendship out to you all,