I’m so enjoying reading the comments you’re posting for the giveaway about what you’re loving this time of year. Don’t forget you can enter the giveaway right up until Tuesday morning (NZ time), so keep sharing your seasonal loves and go into win!
Here’s one of my biggest Spring loves: magnolia blossoms.
Sunrise-shaded bud bejewelled with morning dew drops….
Layers of origami petals unfolding…
…palest pinky-white to deepest fuchsia with a russet crown at its centre.
So beautiful!
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been two months since I last posted. Ouch. I’m afraid I somehow managed to get myself stuck in a great, fat, muddy blog block and just couldn’t get myself out of it.
Thank you to all you lovely people who hung in there and kept coming back to check in on me, leaving me comments and sending me messages, letting me know you missed my posts and were wondering what had happened to me. You’re wonderful!
Well, Spring is here, the season of fresh starts, and I’m beginning my blog Spring with a competition giveaway as a way of thanking you all for joining me on this (sometimes rocky) blog journey I’m on.
The competition prize contains one set of my Paper Fan Inspiration Cards (in the little black purse), one pack of my Kimono Paper Tape, two sets of my vintage kimono postcards, and a fan-shaped decoration I made out of a piece of a 1930s brightly coloured girl’s kimono.
To enter: simply leave a comment by the morning of Tuesday 7th September (New Zealand time), saying where in the world you are, and something that you’re loving right now about this time of year. I’ll choose a winner at random and am happy to send the prize anywhere in the world. Good luck! Here’s a few more pics of what’s in the giveaway.
The set of Paper Fan Inspiration Cards (below) comes in this black, salmon, ochre and sky blue kimono fabric purse.
The Kimono Paper Tape is a pack of ten different strips of lusciously coloured sticky tape printed with real vintage kimono fabric prints.
The giveaway also contains two sets of these 100% recycled postcards. Each set has three different vintage kimono designs.
Over the next few days I’m going to be showing you some things I’m loving about this time of year, and I look forward to reading your comments and finding out what you’re enjoying wherever you are.
Oh it’s good to be back in blogland! Till tomorrow…. Lucy x
I’ve been quietly celebrating a few things this week: Monday, of course, was the Winter solstice; on Tuesday my man returned home to me after several weeks away visiting his family on the other side of the world; and on Wednesday my lovely friend Amy had her birthday… So this mandarin lantern is a warm, glowing, citrus-scented kiss sent out to cosy winter nights in front of the fire, to loving and being loved, and to dear women friends.
Here’s what you need for making a mandarin lantern:
Start by cutting the mandarin horizontally around the middle about a third to a half of the way down. Try not to cut into the fruit too much, although if you do, it’s not the end of the world (just a little bit messier later on!).
Gently ease your fingers under the rim of the top part of the skin and remove it, being careful not to split the edges (this took me two attempts).
You now want to lift all the segments out from the bottom half of the fruit. I found the knack to doing this is to hold onto the inner corner of each segment and pull outwards. Again, be careful not to tear the peel (and again this took me two attempts!). Note: The internal pithy “stalk” will become your lamp’s wick, so try to leave at least a little stub inside the base of the lamp.
This last step is where your husky-dog-with-a-penchant-for-fruit comes in handy. Our magical, David Bowie-eyed husky-cross dog, Silver loves most fruit and was a devoted helper during this part of the project.
Cut a chimney hole in the top of the lantern as shown. Your lantern is now finished and ready to be filled with oil and lit!
Trim and pinch the central pith bit in the bottom of the lantern so that it resembles a candle wick. Pour a little vegetable oil in and light the wick. It may take a few moments for the oil to be absorbed into the wick so don’t worry if it doesn’t light immediately.
Put the lid on the lantern, place on a plate (I used a vintage Art Deco plate with Chinese lantern fruit on it), and enjoy! As the lantern heats up it releases a delicious, citrus aroma – perfect for dark, wintery nights. I love how each individual skin cell glows. Isn’t it beautiful?
Did you celebrate Midwinter in a special way? Or Midsummer of course, if you’re reading this from the Northern Hemisphere! If you posted about it on your blog, please do put a link in the comments. I loved reading Maya Donenfeld’s Summer solstice post on her blog maya*made.
You might remember from my original Pirate’s Treasure Bag post that I was making the bag as a 5th birthday present for a little boy that we know. Unfortunately in the end we weren’t able to go to his actual party, but on the plus side it’s meant that I’ve been able to do more work on the bag and its contents before giving it to him.
Thanks to Amy and Tipsy for the feedback on my original post and for their helpful suggestions of ways to do the skull’s face.
I followed Amy’s suggestion of embroidering the teeth with one long horizontal line and then several vertical lines, and I did Tipsy’s suggestion of doing the skull’s eyes in reverse applique: sewing an outline around the eyes and then cutting the felt away within the outline (very carefully, while not breathing!), so that the fabric underneath shows through. I have to admit I was a bit nervous about doing this. What if I cut a hole right through the bag?! But it was actually much easier than I thought – using very fine and pointy scissors – and I’m really happy with the result. Thanks, girls!
Now onto the treasures inside the bag!
I cut out a square from some Japanese-Hawai’ian rayon print fabric that I have, and hemmed it to make a headscarf. To that I added a bought eye patch and clip-on pirate’s earring. Arrr!
I then made two little pouches out of the same fabric as the headscarf, sewed simple ties on the sides, and filled them with “pieces of eight.” In one of the pouches I put a collection of cool foreign coins (picked up on the pirate’s various voyages, of course!), and in the other pouch I put a few chocolate coins. Once the chocolate’s been eaten, the empty pouch can be filled with whatever treasures the little boy finds to put in there himself.
Time for a sea shanty, me pretties!
I didn’t do a Monday’s Inspiration post this week, but I did pick a card and I want to share it with you now (even though it’s now Tuesday – Oh, actually Wednesday morning now, according to my clock! Time for bed!).
Gratitude
I am grateful for all the gifts life gives me
even those I don’t yet understand
It’s been a painful week in our family and this card feels like a sweet gift to my heart. It reminds me to notice all the many blessings in my life and also, that even in dark moments there may be gifts that we can’t see yet but which will reveal themselves to us as events unfold.
So, here’s a list of the things that I’m grateful for right now (in no particular order):
For wonderful family, near and far
For being loved and cherished
For two crazy dogs who are always happy to see me
For a warm fire and snug house on a wild and stormy night
For a wonderful email from a friend I haven’t seen for years (hi Deb!)
For being forgiven when I let others down
For a good friend to phone up and cry to when it all gets too much
For singing!
For laughter and praying mantises
For macaroni cheese cooked with love by my man
For my teenage nieces (I’ll write back soon!)
For TOAST catalogues arriving at the perfect moment
For dreams of Morocco
For lovely travel agents when you need emergency flights
For “coincidences”
For thunder and lightning
For Reiki hands to soothe anxiety away
For inspiration and beauty
For THXTHXTHX: a thank you note a day for always making me smile
For Hawayo Takata for reminding me to “count my blessings”
What are you grateful for today? I’d love to hear your list of gratitude.
Have a great week.
Lucy xx
PS You can read more about my Paper Fan Inspiration Cards here on this new page, and I’ll hopefully have them in my brand spanking new Etsy shop this week! Watch this space… : )
Here are some photos from our garden this week, focussing on some of the kinds of little magical details that are always there waiting for us to find if we look carefully enough.
Autumn leaves fall round Buddha’s head.
The spiral of newly opening banana leaves.
A paua shell catches canna lily petals like a pair of cast-off butterfly wings.
Early morning sun highlighting the strands of a spider’s web.
Flowers laid by the grave of a special little rooster that died this week. His name was Cross Beak because he developed a deformed beak as he matured. He was small and runty and life wasn’t always easy for him, but he had a huge, plucky, engaging personality and never gave up on life. We did the best we could for him, spending extra time with him hand-feeding him, giving him Reiki, and making up extra food for him when he needed it. He lived for a year and a half, but was finding it harder as the Winter approached, and one night just didn’t make it through till morning. He was bold and chatty right to the end, and always a joy to be around. We miss his lively company.
This week has been very busy for me, and I’m afraid it’s meant I haven’t managed to post as much as I wanted to.
This afternoon I grabbed some time to make a present for a little boy whose 5th birthday party we’re going to tomorrow. Mum had the idea of making him some kind of treasure bag that he could put small, precious things into. I developed the idea further into a pirate’s treasure bag. We’ll put some old, foreign coins into it -”pieces of eight” if you like – and he can add his own treasures after that.
I started by creating a skull and crossbones pattern from a piece of scrap paper, which I then cut out of dark blue felt. I then gathered together various fabric scraps: denim, vintage kimono silk, indigo Japanese print, some red and white linen upholstery fabric… The idea was for the bag to look like it was made out of various bits of old flags. I then sorted through my metal buttons and mother of pearl buttons for added embellishments.
I wanted it all to look like it had been roughly patched together so I sewed everything a bit wonkily with stitches showing in contrasting colours. I sewed a little hidden patch pocket inside. The skull and crossbones I sewed on by hand with small red backstitches. I then added little brass beads from India, vintage mother of pearl buttons, and three old metal buttons. The bag closes with a blue zip, and has a long strap so he can wear in slung diagonally across his body.
Here’s the (almost) finished bag, front and back. The strap is actually only held on by pins but the light was fading and I wanted to photograph it in natural light! I’m still undecided whether the skull needs eyes or not. I’m thinking of maybe embroidering them on in red. What do you think?
Yesterday we went to the first birthday party of a little man called Arthur Bunny. I’m all for making presents (more personal, saves money, more fun!), and Mum and I thought that the obvious gift was to make a bunny, for A. Bunny!
I made a very simple pattern from scrap paper (uneven peanut shape for the body and long ovals for the ears), and chose two different green polka dot fabrics.
While I cut the fabrics out and sewed the ears, Mum embroidered some green felt with a. bunny to go on the front. Then, while she turned the ears right way out, I zigzag stitched the felt onto the bunny’s tummy.
I then sewed the front and back together (with the ears pinned inside), turned everything right way out and pressed it all.
The ears somehow ended up a little wide and just needed a couple of stitches to give them more shape and reposition them.
Then stuffing and sewing closed, button eyes, embroidered mouth and a jaunty little rick rack scarf…
…and voila! One cute little bunny.
A bunny for A. Bunny! Happy birthday, little man.
I just wanted to post a little thank you note to all of you who have found my blog and are taking the time to read it, and especially, to those of you who have been kind enough to tell me that you’ve found something inspiring or informative that I’ve posted about. You don’t know how much it means to me! All this is still really new to me, and I kind of hold my breath each time I hit the ‘publish’ button, and hope and wonder if people are actually out there reading what I’m posting.
I love creating my blog (ok, I’m actually obsessed by it and dream about it all the time!), and it fills my heart with joy each time I receive a sweet little comment from someone in response to a post I’ve made. It truly makes my day.
I’ve made you some electronic vintage kimono bunting to express my gratitude to you all for sharing this ride with me, and below are pictures of the original pieces of kimono from my collection.
Have a happy weekend!
Lucy
I have always loved Russian Matryoshka dolls. I’ve had one since I was a child and, even though it’s now a bit cracked, and the dolls don’t fit together so well anymore, it’s still one of my most treasured possessions. It’s the magic and delight of opening up each perfectly painted sweet doll, and revealing yet another equally perfect but smaller sweet doll inside. Mine also has a certain smell of wood and lacquer that instantly transports me back to my childhood.
I also love vintage kimono fabrics (as you may have gathered!), and had the idea a while ago to combine these two loves of mine together into Matryoshka doll cushions.
The dolls below are ones I made for Christmas presents a year ago for my closest friends. The faces were simply hand drawn, then scanned into Photoshop and finished there. They’re then printed onto transfer paper and ironed onto white cotton fabric.
Most of the kimono pieces are from the 1930s. Probably the most time consuming part of making these dolls is choosing the fabrics and cutting them out. The kimono is then appliqued onto a cotton background.
