The friday letter....D....

Does anyone else find it hard to remember what day of the week it is at this time of year? I know I do, especially as I finished work a good 7 (or is it 8?) weeks ago. But, having checked, I found out that today is Friday and therefore it's time to post this week's Friday letter!This lovely 'd' was on a butcher's window. Being vegetarian (or more accurately, a vegaquarian), I haven't been into a butchers shop in years, but had the misfortune of doing so last week. My god, I don't know how you meateating types handle that smell!

Having said that, the smell of a roasting turkey yesterday was enough to make my mouth water - I felt so guilty! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day with family and friends and over indulged to just the right amount. Pop on over to Jen's blog to see her Friday letter! (Not up yet, but I'm sure it won't be long).

Oh, this is my last firday letter from NZ! It's so strange to think that this time next week we will have relocated to Australia. I still don't think it's quite sunk in....

Closed for business....

But only temporarily!Yes, my boxes were collected for shipping this morning. They're going by sea so they won't arrive in Perth until mid-February or so. All my stock had to go in the boxes as we already have so much to take on the plane (including 2 bikes! eek! excess baggage!).

I thought I'd take the opportunity to say a big thank you to those of you who have admired (and bought!) my things. In the 3 months my shop was up and running, I made 12 sales to happy customers, which isn't too bad a start for a complete beginner I think.

For those of you who have admired my plate set, don't fret! I intend to re-release the collection once I am settled and have played around with firing. Oh, and I have some exciting new ceramic designs for next year so be sure to stay tuned!

If I don't find a moment to blog again before Christmas, have a wonderful day! :)
a. x.

The friday letter....U....

Ooh, look at me! Posting on time for a change!I'd been spending the week scouting for a 'U' and when I saw this one, I knew my search was over. It's the sign for a cafe called Circus Circus which is in Mt Eden, Auckland. We've been enjoying the cafes that a city has to offer (though truth be told, we were sitting across the road in a bar when I spotted this letter).

Be sure to pop over to painted fish studio to check out Jen's letter!

Thank you Aotearoa....Queenstown....

Oh, Queenstown. This was my first time in proper snow. Sure, I'd seen the stuff when living in London, and I've seen photos of me playing in snow as a kid, but this was taking things to a whole new level! This photo just doesn't quite capture what it was really like....

I was determined to give snowboarding a go, and lo and behold, I was actually pretty good at it! It is highly addictive and I can't wait to give it a go again, though with the imminent move to Perth (west coast Australia), that's not going to happen in a hurry.

So thank you Queenstown, for a totally radical holiday, dude!! (Ok, my snowboarding lingo could use some work).

The friday letter....T....

Late again, yes. How many times can I beg your forgiveness?
What I like about this 't' is that it is undeniably a 't'. Does that make sense? It's not mucking about with some fancy font. But more beautiful is Jen's 'o'! Be sure to check it out.

Things are slowly getting organised here for the move from Aotearoa to Western Australia. With any luck I'll finish packing boxes today so I can forget about them, and I'm hoping we sell the car before Christmas. Flights are booked for New Year's Eve so things are falling into place!

This is my 3rd country relocation, so I guess I'm getting good at it!

Finally the friday letter....S....

Finally, here's my Friday letter. Late, but better late than never, right? Be sure to head over to painted fish studio to check out Jen's letter from last Friday!

No NZ report today, as I'm really snowed under with making arrangements to move to Australia in about 3 weeks. Between packing, shipping, selling cars, booking flights, etc, etc, things are pretty hectic so bear with me for the coming weeks. Things should be back to normal in 2009 - which isn't far away at all!

Sorry....

My friday letter is on its way.... Honestly!
I'm frantically in the midst of moving country so I'm hoping you'll cut me some slack.

Thank you Aotearoa....Whangamata....

Sorry for my absence (and hence the late 'Thank you Aotearoa' post). An impromptu trip up to Whangamata was in order. We're lucky enough to have a family bach (kiwi for holiday house) in the Coromandel, and after the stress of my partner's exams it was brilliant to get away. This photo is from Whangamata, but taken a couple of years ago. At the time, the cows on the property could come up and say hi to us on the deck. It was pretty cool as they're such beautiful beasts. We nicknamed this one 'Fiddy'.

For interest's sake, the town is pronounces 'fong-ah-mah-TAH' which makes sense in NZ but not to me when I first arrived from Australia.

Thank you Whangamata, for the memories to date, and those to come in the future.

The friday letter....H....

Oops, running a little late again this week. This time it's not my fault though - damn internet connection....This was taken a while back in Oamaru when I headed down there for work. I won't go on about Oamaru again - I spoke about it way back at the friday letter 'E'.

I love Jen's letter 'P' this week. Great colours.

Last day for international airmail from NZ today everyone, so if there's anything you like in my shop, you better be quick!

Pleased to meat you....

Finally, you can exhale....I am very excited to be showing off my first range of ceramics, a set of 6 plates called 'pleased to meat you....'

I am really happy with my designs, but have had a few problems getting the finish to the standard I would like. I'm putting that down to a combination of the firing and the fact that I'm new to this, so still need to improve my application technique. You can take a closer look at them at their very own flickr page or click on the image below.

The exciting news for you is that they're for sale! And due to the minor flaws, will be a bargain! I hope to have them in my etsy shop later today. In fact, I had better get a move on, because tomorrow is the final day for international shipping to everywhere except Australia.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say a few thank yous. These plates have been a long time coming. Thanks to mum and Elly for giving me feedback on my designs and helping with the shortlist. A massive thanks to Jesse for answering my many questions, and to Skinny laMinx for her brilliant tutorial. It's the work of these 2 lovely ladies that inspired me to try this in the first place. Oh, and a HUGE thank you to Leon who basically taught me photoshop via email to make this possible.From the mind of a vegetarian....
Who'd have thought....

**post note: turns out there was a problem with the kiln. I knew my technique was perfect. :P

Hold your breath....

6 hours until I can collect my first range of ceramics....

Thank you Aotearoa....South Island....

I'm sorry I can't be any more specific as to the location of this shot. It was taken on a drive from Alexandra to Christchurch, and all I can tell you is that we went up the coast, passing through Oamaru and Timaru. It was my first time to the South Island which is as breathtakingly beautiful as the rumours suggest.

For a photo taken out of the window of a moving car, I think it turned out beautifully, though I think the credit goes to the landscape rather than the photographer!

(I've changed the title of this weekly post to 'Thank you Aotearoa' because I think Aotearoa sounds nicer than 'New Zealand'. It's the Maori name for the country and, according to some, means 'land of the long white cloud'. See this article for other translations and pronunciation. This weekly post is intended to show the beauty of the country I've called home for the past few years).

the post age comes to an end....

For those of you who've been following the postcard swap between me and my good friend Elly, this is the final postcard. It arrived today with my BIRTHDAY PRESENT! Before you inundate me with birthday wishes, I should let you know that my birthday was three and a half months ago - Elly was just a tad late with posting. Isn't it purdy?! You can see all the postcards we sent to each other here.

In other news, light stitch is now in my etsy shop. It photographed really well, I think. And my plates are waiting patiently by the kiln to be fired tomorrow. Please come back and check them out later in the week - they're looking good already! (Please bring strange sense of humour, or at least a little bit of quirk).

Until then....

Light stitch....

At last!....

Yes, here is the bright idea finally. I originally made these panels for a cushion but somehow they've ended up stretched onto a canvas frames and they look brilliant (if I do say so myself).

The orange fabric is a remnant from my local fabric store. I'm not sure what it is, but it feels quite natural and has a lovely texture. The grey fabric is ol' faithful - yep, that black denim I seem to use a lot off (I've bought my fabric shop's complete stock). I screen printed the basic shape of the light bulb and switch and then machine stitched over the top using a combination of straight stitch and freehand stitching (no fancy embroidery machine here people!).

This is a Christmas present for someone, but I'm so happy with the result that I think I'll pop a set in my etsy store this week.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!....

Eek!....

My decals have arrived! Of course, I was too nervous to even cut them out yesterday, but bit the bullet this morning. The next step is to apply them to my plates and get them fired next week. I'm nervous and excited all at once! Watch this space!

(All the decal excitement has meant my bright idea is on the back-burner for today. But in its hiatus, it's become even brighter. Fingers crossed for tomorrow)....

The friday letter....S....

Welcome to this week's friday letter. I assure you that this is a letter 's' rather than a number '8'. Would i lie to you?.... This week Jen has chosen a 'y' and you can see it here!

If anyone's stopped by to see what the bright idea is, you're going to have to wait until tomorrow I'm afraid. The photos just aren't up to scratch....

Until then....

What's the bright idea?....

You'll just have to come back tomorrow to find out....

Thank you New Zealand....Napier....

Well, with my time in NZ drawing to a close, I thought I'd share some of the beauty of the country I've called home for 3 years (on and off) with you each Wednesday.

Admittedly, today's photo doesn't show off the landscape, but it is a reflection of the Art Deco town I live in, and was taken at the Art Deco Weekend a couple of years ago. I took so many photos of hood ornaments that day, and this one stands out as the highlight. Everyone dresses up in appropriate fashion, and picnics on Marine Parade. The effort some people go to is fantastic.

Thank you Napier....

Mission accomplished....

Well finally, after being sidetracked with my bacon and egg cushions (posted below), I got back on track to finish my GRiD cushions. And they turned out so beautifully that I thought they deserved an outdoors photoshoot, so off we went the botanical gardens just around the corner from home. It wasn't all fun - Daniel took notes to studying for his final exams which start tomorrow (eek!), and after photographing cushions (to the amusement of a nearby picnicking family) I helped out with a little bit of engineering. urgh....

I've got another screen print in mind for this week. It's not quite as odd as bacon, but I'm pretty optomistic it'll work out well....

Breakfast anyone?....

Well, I was supposed to be finishing off my GRiD cushions but I just couldn't help working on my new cushions, the bacon and eggs pair. I'm REALLY happy with them....

They're screen printed onto black denim from paper-cut stencils, and I'll be doing each one as it's ordered so they'll all be unique. I'll be listing them on etsy this weekend, and they can be bought individually or as a pair....

Right, back to those GRiD cushions....

The friday letter....I....

Oops, running a little late this week, but its still Friday in some parts of the world right? So that means you won't mind if I backdate this post to yesterday.

This week is the letter 'i' (obviously) and comes courtesy of the sign directing tourists to the information centre. They must be getting busy now that the sun is out in this beautiful part of the land. And don't you love it when you capture a bird without realising at the time!

Jen's letter this week is 'a' and you can check it out here. It's a doozy! I love the alliteration of "alex's a on the ice" and will probably have it stuck in my head for the day....

Another sneak peak....

I've been working on some more cushions for the GRiD series. I'll have them up on etsy as soon as my internet connection returns to modern-day speed. (It's reverted to dial-up!!).

Always open to feedback....

The post age no.9....

This postcard is made from the selvedge of the black denim I'm using to upholster my chair (see the Pania print in the post below) and which I use for my GRiD cushions. It's so soft that it feels like possum fur.

I'm pretty sure this postcard swap is drawing to a close, if only because Elly stopped sending them to me months ago so the 'swap' part has pretty much fallen by the wayside. But in her defense, she has been very busy preparing for a group exhibition which opened on Friday night. If you're in Perth, Western Australia, you might like to check it out at 48 Watkins Street in White Gum Valley, until the 16th of November (12-6pm daily). Here's some of Elly's beautiful handmade brooches....

Hmmm, Pania revealed....

Well here she is....
And truth be told, I am undecided whether I'm happy with her. Never one to do things the easy way, I printed the second colour alone (not easy when the image is larger than the screen), using a stupid technique that I seem to have made up on the spot, resulting in the colour bleeding. So, once it was dry, I decided to hand paint some of the messy bits, only to find I'd mixed the colour slightly wrong so I needed to hand paint all the light colour. So now the light bits are a bit blotchy. And the dark bits are too think, so it has a plastic-y sort of feel. Honestly, why did I think this would be easy?!

I'm not sure if she's good enough to use for covering my chair. I've got her pinned up on the wall to contemplate. We shall see....

The friday letter....F....

Another photo from my recent trip to Wellington. I must admit, I spent a lot of time looking at fonts. Once you start it's hard to stop. Next week will be a return to local letters....

Jen's found a brilliant 'd' over in Minneapolis and you can check it out here.

It's been a productive day - ceramic designs made it to the printers, some Best in Show brooches were put together (new tartan styles in store soon!) and fabric was prepared for GRiD cushions. Brilliant....

Pania revealed!....

Well, not quite yet, but here she is with the first colour printed and the stencil for the second colour in place. A huge thank you to Jen for sending me a roll of freezer paper! I did end up finding some here, but it's so expensive. I'll be doing a lot of stenciling from now on, so stay tuned! I think I really want to show Pania off at this stage so you can see how much work went into cutting the stencil. It was painful (literally), but hopefully it all turns out ok.

I'll be printing later today so that she's ready to take to my upholstery class tonight. Exciting times! Stay tuned for the finished piece....

Anonymous postcard....the REAL finale....

Well good golly, imagine my surprise when I popped onto the Aroha Lamour website and found myself there!

Aroha Lamour were the recipients of my anonymous postcards (well, photos of them) over the past couple of months and found me out! It was great to find out that they'd enjoyed receiving my postcards, and on that basis, I personally delivered the original postcards yesterday and introduced myself.

If you head over to their site to check me out (and why wouldn't you?!), be sure to take a look at their other posts. Whoever takes their photos does a brilliant job, and most of the photos are taken in the shop, so you get a peak of how beautiful it is. And in exciting news, they're about to open an online store. Now THAT will be temptation....

Ceramics....

For a while now I've been designing some ceramic decals after being inspired by Jesse and Skinny laMinx. I'm very slow and somewhat inexperienced with Photoshop so the tedious part of the process has been converting my designs into the correct format to send to the printers. After a final push over the last couple of days, my designs are complete and ready to go tomorrow! I'm very excited and am hopeful they'll turn out well. I don't want to ruin the surprise, so this "hello?" is just a tiny snippet of what I have in store. Unfortunately, it'll be another 3 weeks before the results are available (all things going to plan), but I'll be sure to show them off!

A huge thank you to Jesse for answering all my questions about the process!

Oh, and swing by in the next few days to see how the Pania screen print turns out....

The friday letter....D....

Ah, Friday at last. Not that it makes much difference to me now that I'm officially unemployed. I was hopeful that this would mean plenty of free time for the sunday project, but it looks more like I'll be busy helping my partner prepare for his final exams and then packing to move up to Auckland for Christmas, followed by.... who knows! But the sunday project is moving countries in January, most likely to back to Australia, if only for 6 months. There's something quite liberating about being so up in the air, but it's also quite irritating when all I want it a studio! Anyway, back to matters at hand....This D was taken in Wellington a couple of weeks back. It's on the top of an old building on the corner of Cuba St and some other street. I love the old yellow paint. If you're in that area, you should really get along to Ernesto for breakfast. We knew it must be good because it was sooo packed. When we finally got a table we were not disappointed. Try the scrambled eggs and spinach on homemade hashbrowns. Delicious!

This week Jen of painted fish studio is delivering an N. You can check it out here. Have a great weekend everyone!

Anonymous postcard....the finale....

And so it comes to an end.... This is the last postcard I've made for Aroha Lamour and it's my favourite. I've beaded it with glass beads in a grid pattern, which is an idea I borrowed from Eveline Kotai, an artist who's studio I used to potter about in trying to be of assistance (and drinking lots of cups of tea). Her work is beautiful and I'm lucky enough to have a few pieces.

What I particularly love about this postcard is the feeling of the beads. It reminds me of braille.

Well Aroha Lamour, I hope you've enjoyed the postcards I've jammed in your door each fortnight for the last couple of months. I'm considering doing this again with another business, but first I have to find a worthy one (who makes lovely postcards that I can steal and play with).

If you'd like to see the other postcards I made for this project, click on the 'anonymous postcards' label somewhere over there. No there, to the left....

Etsy shop update....

Well, it's been a while coming, but my cushions are now in my etsy shop. I've only listed one of each, but will get some more up during the week. They really are special and I'm not truly convinced I want to part with them!

In other exciting news, I had my first etsy sale today. It was my very favourite Best in Show brooch. A fine choice.

Project chair....

I've had to put the Pania stencil for my chair on hold for now (which is frustrating!) so I've moved on to the frame of the chair. I sanded it back yesterday and this afternoon I waxed it with some delicious smelling furniture wax. It obviously wasn't a very fancy chair when it was produced as a couple of different types of wood were used. I think it's come up well though, and quite like that it's a bit of a hodge podge.

I really want to get started on cutting the Pania stencil but I need to print it first, and it's an A2 stencil so I can't do anything until Tuesday (no Sunday trading plus Monday public holiday)! I've decided to use a combination of screen printing and freezer paper stencilling, so I also have to track down some freezer paper too (not as easy as I thought). Then, with any luck, the whole thing will be sewn at upholstery class on Thursday. (I can be such an optimist).

I'm feeling very impatient. Perhaps an afternoon beer will take my mind of things....

Inspired goodness....

Thanks to Inspired Goodness for lovin' my brooches enough to promo them....

:)

The friday letter....E....

I headed into town this morning (to take a photo of Pania - see below) and found the place swarming with photographers. It's a long weekend here and I think they must've been a national photography group having a holiday. So, wandering around with my own camera, I felt like a bit of a tourist myself.

Anyway, I took the opportunity to take my friday letter while I was there. This one comes from outside the Hawke's Bay museum which is currently showing an exhibition called 'Raising Boys', featuring works by 5 New Zealand ceramacists/potters. I'm only familiar with the work of one - Martin Poppelwell, and I think his stuff is great. In fact, his style has influenced the designs I've come up with for some ceramic decals (which I look forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks). Hopefully I'll get down there over the weekend to check it out.

Getting back to the friday letter.... you can check out jen's letter here!

Pania....

I started an upholstery course a couple of weeks ago and my project is a one of 2 chairs I found on the side of the road. It's not really the best chair for an upholstery class, as it's more of a re-covering job than full upholstery, but that's just the way things turned out. I'm optimistic I'll be able to do a second chair anyway.

Anyway, with our imminent departure from Napier, I thought it might be nice to create something to remind me of our time here, and this chair is going to be it. I'm covering the chair in black denim, but using the soft grey 'inside' side. It's the same fabric I used to back my cushions, and I love it.

I decided a screen print of Pania would be perfect. Pania is a maiden in Maori mythology who lived in the sea off Napier and there is a statue of her down near the water. You should check out this wiki link for her lovely but tragic story.

My photoshop skills are EXTREMELY basic, but this morning I took a photo of Pania and have now created a 2 colour stencil to paper cut and screen print (stages shown below). I'm pretty pleased with myself! Of course, I still have to do some work to turn it into an actual stencil and am considering doing a headshot (as above) because just looking at that grass skirt makes my hand cramp!Best get started....

Ruby tiki....

Well, following the success that was the label for Porto de Sorrell, I created a label for another student. And how could I not? - Beaker (as he's known) provides us with delicious homegrown asparagus, herbs and walnuts (plus the occasional bottle of wine) so of course it was nice to be able to give him something in return.

Unlike the Porto de Sorrell label, this one only took a couple of hours. I'm still not sure about the colour of the font, but time was short so it ended up having to do. (For some reason this image is blurry, but I assure you it's crisp in reality).

I need to note that the photo I used on the label was taken by a New Zealand artist called Fiona Pardington. Her work is beautiful and I hope she doesn't mind me using this image for what is a tiny run of homemade port for personal consumption only!

Drink up....

The post age no.8....

Hmmm, I thought I'd already shared this one, but it appears not. It's hard to keep up when postcard monday rolls around so often (every 14 days to be precise). I hand stitched some canvas while yapping on the phone to my monday postcard swapper and then posted it to her. I think we can all assume that Elly won't be taking part in the postcard swap anymore, apart from being the lucky one who receives them. I'm starting to wonder if this was her plan all along. I guess she's just too busy planning a wedding. Congratulations El!

This one was from 2 weeks ago, and I haven't done today's. I'd feel bad except for Elly's formentioned inability to take part in the swap she started.

Best get something started though....

(If you want to take a look at some of the earlier postcards, just click on the 'postcard' label to the left).

Porto de Sorrell....

Please, could someone tell me how to photograph dark glass bottles without getting annoying reflections! I think I've taken about 100 photos of this bottle today and have settled on this compilation, though it's still not great.

This port label has been a work in progress for a while. My partner recently made this port for his wine science degree. Initially I tried some classy looking labels, but instead settled for this pirate-esque look as it suited the bottle shape and, considering the limited resources available to students, the port has an element of haphazard pirate luck in it's making. Having said that, it's pretty damn delicious.

I'm a photoshop novice, so it was a good learning exercise. I'm not sure this photo does it justice, but you're just going to have to take my word for it.

Cheers, me hearties!....

The saturday project?....

Yes, the plan was to post these cushions as my sunday project, but I've been so productive this weekend, that they can be a saturday project.

I started by dying the white cotton squares which make up the 3x3 grid in the centre, then stitching them onto fabric I cut from my collection of wool blankets. The back of the cushions is a delicious black denim, but I've used the 'inside' of the fabric so it's actually a soft dark grey. I'm not sure if you can see, but the stitching to attach the dyed squares goes right to the edge of the cushion. It might be clearer if you click on the photo.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these. Without an overlocker, the internal finish is a bit amateur so I'm not sure that the finish is good enough to pop them in my etsy shop. Then again, I am a perfectionist so I'm probably being a bit hard on them.

Until tomorrow.

The friday letter....T....

I'm so on schedule this week, that it's still Thursday at painted fish studio. I'm on the ball because I took this photo a while ago in an airport on my 3 leg return from Queenstown, and I've just been waiting for the right moment to share it. Yes, it's a little blurred, but I was waiting for my final (extremely delayed) flight so was a little tired and grumpy.

I believe that this week Jen is doing an 'S'. You can find it here, but not until it's Friday in Minnesota.

Have a great weekend....

Sneak peak....

Here's a little preview of the cushions I've been making. I should have them finished on the weekend so I'll show you more then.

Until then....

Hold the press!!!!....

Thanks to Jen for alerting me to my inclusion on the etsy homepage last Friday! And a huge thank you to spongetta for liking my brooch enough to include it in their Treasury.

I am beaming....

Ooh, look at me....

In exciting news, look where one of my brooches turned up! Yes, look here! I had been wondering why the views on one of my brooches in my etsy store jumped from 30 to 450 in one night, and after a bit of clever googling, I found the reason!

It was another case of being reminded that I'm out there.... Most exciting and of course flattering. I still haven't actually sold any, but I'm down with that.

So thanks very much Creature Comforts!

(A not so) anonymous postcard....

Well yes, my anonymous postcard recipient has found my blog, but that's not going to stop me delivering the postcards I've made for them! Again, I dropped this off on my way to work this morning, bright and early when only the street cleaners and a few mad joggers were about. If you'd like to see the other ones I've made, you can take a look here and here. Next fortnight will be my last postcard drop to Aroha Lamour. It's been fun, but it's time to harass someone else.

In other news, I've been busy working on some cushions and should be able to share the results later this week. There was no specific sunday project report yesterday, as I had a much deserved weekend break in Wellington. I managed to catch the Craft 2.0 fair. Brilliant to see such talent right on my doorstep! I wish I'd been organised enough to take part!

Until later....

The friday letter....N....

I couldn't possibly not include an Art Deco letter in this collaboration. I do, after all, live in THE Art Deco capital of the world! Well, allegedly. There are some absolutely amazing buildings in town. Why you ask? (Come on, humour me). Well much of the city was rebuilt after the 1931 earthquake which killed 256 people, and injurred hundreds more. It was hugely devastating for Napier and neighbouring Hastings, but as a consequence of the rebuilding in the 1930's, there is today an impressive selection of Art Deco and Spanish Mission style buildings in the region. End of history lesson. But! If you found that interesting, you can find out more from wikipedia. it's actually a pretty good read!

This week Jen photographed an 'E'. And you can check it out here.

A stitched fish for the painted fish....

(Admittedly, I'm not sure if he's dead, drunk or asleep).

A huge thanks to Jen over at Painted Fish Studio for featuring my etsy shop on her blog. It was a bit crazy to see a big photo of me on a website! When you just type away at the dining room table, yakking on your blog or doing your etsy shop, it's easy to forget it ends up 'out there'. But when you find yourself on someone else's site it kinda hits home! And I got some lovely compliments so I had a pretty sweet smile on my face to carry me through the day.

Thanks Jen!

Here's one I prepared earlier....

Back when I was the production manager for a high profile exclusive label (I may be exaggerating slightly), my good friend and fashion designer, Elly, dyed these squares of fabric for stitching onto tops. Somewhere along the way, I inherited the leftovers. I stitched some onto this beautiful yellow wool blanket some time ago and today I dyed some more squares. Admittedly, the ones I did today are far more dyed than the originals (not necessarily intentional), and I'm not sure which I like more. (Feel free to give your opinion - I'm keen for some feedback).

The plan is for this idea to be turned into some some lovely cushions (which will feature in my etsy shop!!). I have a collection of pure wool blankets which are begging to be cut up and reused, and who am I to say no? Alas, my wool blanket collection resides 5477 km (that's 3403 miles) away. Thankfully, my assistant is going to send me some panels to play around with (thanks, ma). Stay tuned for the results....

In other news, I've been super inspired by Heather and Jesse's ceramics for quite a while now. I've started making contacts locally and designing my own range. I'm really excited about what I've come up with. I look forward to showcasing my wares in (hopefully) the not too distant future.

Until then....

The friday letter....I....

That's a capital 'I', not a lower case 'l'. In case you were wondering....This is from a sign I've passed over and over again for the last few years. Would you believe that today, on the day I decide to photograph it, I find it's been repainted?! Outrageous, I tell you. Having said that, I hope you can tell that it's an 'I' masquerading as a painted vertical line. I promise it's an actual letter though!!

The thing about living in a semi rural area (Hawke's Bay is known as the 'Fruit Bowl') is that you get to see handpainted signs, which is something lacking in the cities I've lived in. They're lovely.

This week Jen has the letter 'H' to photograph, and you can see it here.

Until next post....

The post age no.7....

Well rather than wait for the postcards to build up I'm going to share the postcards Elly and I send each other more regularly. Mainly because, quite frankly, my long rambling posts probably don't get read. It's ok, I can take it.

This is the last postcard I sent Elly. Number 7. I'm going through a bit of a yellow phase at the moment. And a button thing. Alas, Elly still hasn't worked through her fear of postboxes, so is a little behind on her end of the deal. I'm sure I'll have something to show from her soon.

Catch you tomorrow for the friday letter....

I've been sprung!!!

My anonymous postcard drop recipient has found me!
They seem to have followed me back from the link on my page. What a fool I am!!

Well if you're reading, hello Aroha ladies.... :)

skinny laminx....

Skinnny laMinx is a blog by Heather Moore in South Africa. I think I found it through Jesse's blog. It's one of those blogs I take a look at every few weeks, and each time I do, I wonder why I don't look at it more often. She is one talented lady! One thing I particularly like about her blog, is that she shares her methods and occasionally puts together an easy to follow tutorial. Very inspirational!