Community classes.

For several months I have been going to pottery classes - every monday, just after lunch, with a mixture of women, at the Risingholme Community Centre.

I think I touched clay just a handful of times while at university and have always been very nervous around it - the cracking, oh the cracking! It seemed my hands could suck the moisture out of a watermelon. But now ... ho ho! I love it.

I've even had a go on the wheel and it feels like magic.





A couple more photos on my Instagram.. *bowls, and cups.



* I now understand why there is such ugly pottery filling the secondhand shops - glazing is a mysterious, uncontrollable, full-o-surprises beast. These turned out completely different to how I intended.  Learning, learning.

The last of the roses softness.
Making a scarf.

craft love festival

Last night from 6-9 I sold some cards at the Craft Love Festival at Mairehau High School.
It was a great night, a bit nippy outside, but I always have a blanket or two up my sleeve/in my car.




And I was super super excited because I had made a sock cat during the week, just one lonely little guy - and he sold within 10mins. Thank you dear customer.

I can't believe how happy it makes me when I sell something I have made. Just outrageously so.

Chips & Whetstones

Oh woops! I was so busy making the art I forgot to tell you all about the show. 



But let me tell you, putting this show together was a delight in every way. Art making has never been so stress free and dreamy. My dear friend Annie Matchsticks and I worked on this installation together, hand-in-hand, tea for two, mornings and afternoons, chatting and collecting, dreaming and drawing.

 


 
These are the words we used that made it happen...

pioneer, whittling, crochet, sheets, candles, twigs, homesteaders, the softening, wild west, petticoats, can-can skirts, delicious, dusty, shavings, camp ovens, boots scrapin, we're ok corral, haybales, whiskey, swing door, primus, beans, tooling, heirloom, turret, crepe paper, pancakes, champagne breakfast, scaffolding, climbing, road to california, steps to the altar, lattices...





 As well as the large, quilt-like extravaganza draped over my grandmother's washing line, we installed a garden gate, golden couch, a tree stump - alive with moss, and a tv playing some carefully edited youtube videos of whittling and Azalea Trail Maids.





And to top off this unashamedly swoony work, instead of the usual gallery opening in Christchurch - evening, black, booze and cigarettes - we wanted to soften it all up and create new conversations, add a bit of whimsy to the poor old town. So on the stormiest of saturday mornings we held a breakfast with sangria, tea, coffee and pancakes. Gareth flipped 144 of them.

Thank you Dog Park for having us, it was a blast.

300th post

The kittens feature in a music video made by my friend Hamish.
Celebratory!

Remember you can buy these little fellows at my felt store

More fundraising!

4 of these handsome gents/ladies are available in my felt shop.
All sales will go towards the Sendai/Christchurch Art Exchange.

Every little cent helps! It might help us fly to Japan, or hire a projector to show someone's work or even buy little Japanese pins to hang works.

Hope everyone is having a tremendous day.
I have been painting moons, admiring as-large-as-my-head hydrangeas, learning about claymation, ignoring the dirty dishes and poaching eggs.

90

Davina-Gin-Maudie-Minga turned 90 on thursday.



 

I made her a card, Gareth baked her some Anzac biscuits and we picked her a bouquet from her garden.

Lots of family came to visit from around New Zealand. We sang karaoke, drank numerous cups of tea, went to markets and geeked out on being family.

Happy birthday Minga - you are marvelous.

Update: Really is there anything more charming than a young man holding a bunch of blooms?

Napping, knitting, 96% full

96% full. Tomorrow we will wane.
We won't be waxing again until the 23rd of March.



E-wrap cast-on.



Someone ate all the macarons and fell into a sugar and egg-white dreamland.

(This last picture fits snuggly into Pip's Words and Pictures. And things just got warmer with the addition of a hot water bottle - first of the season!)

a reason to make the bed

Holy moley I found the most wonderful blanket.




It's a double! an adorable double!

It matches the lovely cushion given to me by Vanessa and Warren from Two Squirrels Vintage (go visit them - they are opening an online shop on March 5th where you can find all sorts of good vintage things!!) and also the little deer cushion I knitted in Japan.



... and introducing sock otters holding hands.

kittens take to the stage

Last weekend I stayed up for 24 hours making 9 new kittens.



I watched 3 movies, some terrible television and ate cooking chocolate.
It was well worth it though, looking at their adorable faces makes me squeal with happiness.



They have now flown to Wellington to participate in my friends glittery play "Space Bitches"

If you are in Wellington go and see it!

old socks

If you can't have a kitten .. make a kitten.

Do you know, one day we were driving down Edgeware Road and we saw a sign that said "FREE KITTENS".
It is the best sign you ever could see.

day to day

After our Japan adventures we haven't been doing much at all.
Gareth is learning carpentry and I am growing flowers/knitting dinosaurs.

It's quite nice really.

Year of the Rabbit

Knitted bunny pattern

Both these baked treats were filled with strawberry flavoured cream. Extremely delicious, but I am afraid after eating two I can never eat them again.

much love winter monday

Making up hearts as I go along, with Larksfoot crochet pattern.

Taking part in Much Love Monday

to market to market

I went to a flea-market with Sarah and Kumi. I sold two flying horses.

nya nya Jenga!

In Japan cats don't say meow, they say nya nya 　にゃにゃ

Here are some cats we know in Japan:

Recently, to my great happiness, I have started dressmaking classes. This occasion requires a celebratory pin cushion! A cat pin cushion with laser eyes NYA NYA

pinwheels

Pinwheels and Totoro's at the International Festival

crafternoon in Izumi

Among the Sendai ALTs there are several fellow crafters and on almost every Saturday since November-ish Gareth and I have hosted crafternoons: afternoon knitting, crocheting, felting, sewing, cross-stitch and treats! (It also forces us to clean the house regularly, which is very good for us).

We have three scarves being knitted at the moment, toys being made from felt, one blanket being crocheted, and all the countries flags in the football world cup being knitted - it's very exciting business.

Gareth has yet to pick up a crochet hook or knitting needle, so he spends his time playing on the computer and making cups of tea.

I have just finished a little stag toy for a friend in New Zealand, and remember that blanket I started so long ago...

Just big enough for me and some picnic food. I will continue to work on it for a while and hopefully Gareth will be able to fit on there one day.