Monday, October 28, 2013

wandering and pondering

 
"She left pieces of her life behind her everywhere she went. It's easier to feel the sunlight without them, she said."

- Brian Andreas, Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

the importance doing nothing

thanks Kinfolk magazine and Nikaela Marie Peters for sharing x

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

a lovely message from a very dear friend xxx

I had a dream about you last night. I was walking up and down all the hills in Wellington looking for you. I finally found you on the top of the highest hill and you were crying because you had made something so beautiful it hurt. I miss you.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

here's a peek inside

New Zealand Quilter, issue #84

This is the NZ Quilter article that Anne Scott so very kindly published about my latest textile work and award win. If you'd like to read the article, it was first published by the DIA and you can find it online here.

ps. I'm just a little teeny tiny bit more than pretty excited!

in all the world

one of my most favourite things IN ALL THE WORLD is when you spend so long in the bath your finger tips turn into wrinkly raisins x

Friday, July 19, 2013

life is chaos!

Everything is happening all at once. Life usually does that. Ebbs and flows...

Hannah and I (mostly Hannah, but I took the photos so totally claiming it too!) have just been featured on a fashion blog about our project with NZ Eco Fashion Exposed. Pretty cool!

Here's the link!

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

a little project

Me and my dear friend Hannah have been working on a little project and getting involved with NZ Eco Fashion Week Exposed. It's just a TINY bit exciting!

Over the next few weeks... we are making simple garments with sublimate printing, natural dye, and shibori patterning. Hopefully!

At the moment... we are sorting out garment patterns (mostly Hannahs job thankfully!) and testing colour with natural dyes. Here are a few of my initial experiments x



Dye colour test swatches with a lovely pink from madder root 

Collecting onion skin from generous Mr. Wilson

Onion skins create a warm golden yellow 


Silver dollar eucalyptus from Mt Victoria

Soft orange and pink colours from the eucalyptus dyebath 

 And even softer colours with mordants

Have a look at us on Facebook!

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

not too far from penniless and wandering the streets of auckland


"Money is what people think is the most important thing in the world. It comes from the Government."

Friday, June 14, 2013

Friday, June 07, 2013

Winning!

I just won the Australiasian Graduate of the Year Award - 1st prize!!!! BOOM! So excited! Hurrah!



There are so so so many amazing people that have helped me over the last couple of years and I'm just so grateful x

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

goodnight

sometimes i like to fall asleep mid-sentence with my hand on your heart and your lips on my forehead.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

The smile of a great man

"He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in your life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."


from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, page 49.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Pom Pom Pom

Last Sunday I visited a friend for the evening... we watched Cry Baby, drank coffee too late at night, and made things with balls of wool. I crocheted this tenny tiny hat for my cousins brand new little man, Tom.




Pom Pom Rug Update: No progress. But how cute is this baby hat with a pom pom on top?!

Sunday, May 05, 2013

a handful of radishes

I'm a big fan of radishes. They're just so yummy and healthy. I think of them as beautiful winter strawberries.

Friday, May 03, 2013

welcome May

Oh Hello, it's May don't you know?

Have I told you how much I love Autumn? I really really do. And I think it's one of the very best things about it already being May. I just can't get over how crazy fast this year is flying by.

This was such a beautiful morning...
just after the dawn service on ANZAC day.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

after midnight in real life

The rain in Wellington today makes me think of this moment...
The Sunday before last, when I was home down in Christchurch, I took a little time away from everything to visit the '185 Empty Chairs' memorial on Cashel Street. There are no words, only a horrible aching silence.


Sunday, April 14, 2013

i miss autumn

One of the things I miss most about living down in Christchurch is autumn. It's so beautiful to walk through Hagley Park, in the crisp April air, carrying a handful of crunchy leaves home in my pockets. I'm a little sad that Wellington doesn't have the same gorgeous Autumn leaves and I always find it surprising just how colourful the city becomes when I go home.



Pretty Autumn leaves in Tuam Street, Christchurch



One of my favourite words is 'autumnal' it just has a warm and soft sound and it's especially wonderful when my dear friend Laura uses it to describe something lovely.


Still... we do have stunning bright red pohutakawa trees all through summer in Wellington. It helps a little.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Then, shaken, her heart strangely stirred, her mind chaotic, she walked slowly homeward.

from Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie, p.82

earl grey and chapter twenty three

The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.
-  Alan Bennett

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

on sleeping with the hallway light on

so just lately, I've been reading a few too many murder mysteries. It started with old Agatha Christie and now that I've been introduced to the charming Mr. Lennox I shall never get away. I started 'A death in the Small Hours' by Charles Finch very quietly late last night. I'm on page eleven and it's wonderful.


An honest pom pom rug update: no progress... to busy trying to discover who killed the housemaid.

In the words of C.S Lewis, "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."

Saturday, March 23, 2013

hello

I've been busy busy busy down at the bookshop lately and I'm loving flicking through all the books and magazines for inspiration.

Photograph by the stunning Charlotte Howard


I thought I'd start posting a few of my projects on here as a little extra incentive for me to keep creating and making this year. Anyway I've just started making a rug for our new living room so I'll post a photo next week when we have internet again. Yay!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Campbell Street at 9.06pm

Last night I was walking home and I stopped to look a few white roses growing behind an old white picket fence. I love breathing in the sweet smell of roses, taking a step out of the world around you, and letting the petals tickle the end of your nose just as if you are five years old. When I stepped away and continued walking a beautiful thing happened... the couple walking behind me paused, and stopped to smell the roses too.

Friday, February 15, 2013

on april 24th


i am soooo excited about this film! it's by the writer/director of The Science of Sleep and has the same surreal and strange 'no idea what's going on' quality. i can't wait for Mood Indigo. eeek!