prairie mouse

mish mash

a few photos of what has been filling my dance card of late.

a burlap bag for a very dear friend who was coming for lunch the other day and had just clocked up another year. 

you know i could have kept embroidering and embroidering till the whole thing was covered. the more you lay down the thicker and more luxurious it gets.

and the lining. another dearie gave me a truckload of fabric samples and they are perfect for this sort of thing. these are nina campbell designs and were perfect with the colours i had chosen for the outside.

ready for the dye pot. sadly the blue came out very pale so the effect was somewhat subtle so i won't show you the end result but thought this worthy of a look.

i love anything on a line. i made a little line on my deck so i could hang these two pieces of felt freshly dyed in coffee. i have an order for an acorn and this will be the cap - with tons of embroidery of course! this felt is beautiful - it comes to us from the states but originating in nepal. it is thick and so wonderfully handmade and a joy to use. it comes in a limited colour range hence the espresso!

this has been sitting on a tapestry frame for a very long time. gosh, it says 1990 on the canvas and i know it was current when i made it as i got my sister in law to get it in london for me and post back here. my aunt wanted to borrow the frame so i had the perfect excuse to get it off and wash it. i sort of pulled it into a bit of shape but wasn't too fussy as i figure it will become a squishy feather filled cushion. even on a frame my work pulls out of shape. tension. lets not analyze that one shall we! i love love the polka dots around the edge. its so happy and joyful lying there on top of the autumnal leafage. i might just go and look for suitable backing fabric and not let it sit around for another trillion years!

autumnal weekend

i have to concede that fall is here and i have to let go of summer. i found the first horse chestnut on the ground this weekend. the sign. so to welcome the season we spent the two days working in the garden, clearing deadwood and planting greens. i had a little play on the deck.....

thats a pepino plant in the hanging basket - something that is still fruiting, and i put some pots of herbs out there as well. the cushion is a kaffe fassett design i stitched a long time ago.

i made pumpkin bread with this great recipe - thanks jackie! it is such a staple in our house these days especially since we can now get the canned pumpkin.i have to make one loaf with cranberries (tommy and prairie though after tommy has eaten his there is always a remarkable pile of red things on his plate!) and the other with raisins (me and my boy) but thought it especially fitting for this weekend.

and lastly the latest 'gahn i have on the go. (i still have not taken pictures of the ripple 'ghan i started last winter but it went into service before i had even finished it - it still needs a few more rows then i can photograph it!) this 'ghan is one i have wanted to do for a longtime (with the black borders) and the only yarn i have bought is the black. i just love the way the black throws the colours out and make them all jewel-like. even at this little size it is getting used already - covering feet when the temps drop or a cat blanket. not sure about the fur at this early stage!

making stock

thanks to a great post here on how to make chicken stock in the slow cooker i got all my bits together last night and this morning i was able to strain it into jars! i seem to be crafting more with food than felt these days!

bananana

i like the children to have home baking in their lunchboxes. i do not like all the prepackaged stuff that is wrong on all sorts of levels. this morning there wasn't anything so i decided on banana bread thinking i had enough baking time but by the time it was ready for the oven i knew it would be pushing it to be ready by leaving time. i remembered i had some teeny little tins my friend jules gave me years and years ago - thanks girl! so i got them out and made sweet little 4" long loaves. the recipe was from the most beautiful cookbook - apples for jam by tessa kiros.

fresh out of the oven

cooling - ever so slightly!

a teensy slice (thats my baby knife - vintage!) prairie had a whole loaf for breakfast and took another to school with a little container of butter and a plastic knife.

the party

settle yourself in - there are a few photo to look at. its sunday morning and i am sitting in the aftermath. there is fabric, trim, buttons and thread everywhere and we swapped the dining table with the lounge furniture so we could all 17 of the stitchers in. but i couldn't wait to post the girl's beautiful work so all that can wait.

the birthday mantel

the birthday cookies - fun with an icing pen for me and prairie

the birthday cupcakes - vanilla and chocolate marble inside

i love the legs on the left and the hair on the right. i love the use of the letter 'o' bead as an eye and the gathered linen skirt.

i encouraged the girls to sew as much as possible but setting up the glue gun proved invaluable. these two must have sat together - same idea for the mouth! and the one on the right - that hair started out as a skirt - so cool.

whose daughter was glued to the glue gun? - why mine of course! this is her creation.

i love the way she turned this up to make the ears (as i saw them) into legs then make little stripy pants!

this was made by a darling girl a couple of years younger than the rest of the girls and sporting a broken left arm!

and this one was made by our neighbour who painstakingly sewed on the mouth. in all the busyness i forgot she wasn't a sewer but she did all by herself and never complained! after that i took her to the glue gun and she was away!

sweet little kitty doll. this was made by a new girl to the class who only arrived from spain at the beginning of the week and hasn't even started school yet. but she got in there with all the girls who made her feel very welcome. how nice that she will be able to walk into the classroom next week and it won't be a sea of unknown faces.

i told the girl who made this one that it was berry good - she indulged me by laughing at my lame humour!

this girl was one of the last to finish. the veil became a common theme! i love the little bag she made for the doggie button pet.

i was as usual, blown away by the girls efforts. they were so creative and worked so hard. so much so that when it was time for afternoon tea they cleared that table in a flash. i put out cheesy feet a la nigella (6x the recipe!) and my friend caro brought a plate of her gorgeous meringues - as requested by the birthday girl - thank you!!

i suppose now i should start the clean up though i think i'll still leave the rooms swapped around for a little while - i am enjoying the change. maybe another coffee and a read of 'bend the rules sewing' that prairie was given!! 

our potter

tommy often complains that i post more about prairie than him. fair call. she does however churn out more than him being of that age and crafty manner. but i am very happy to blog his pottery from school. he has really enjoyed the wheel and there is more to come, but this was the first to make it home. naturally i adore it and can't wait to see the rest. go tommy boy!

speaking of wheels - we went to see old crow medicine show last night (their most well known song being wagon wheel) wow wow wow - those tennessee boys sure can turn on a show. we were so lucky to see them in a small venue. they were raw and energetic. no fancy lighting, just them and their instruments and the craziest fiddle playing i have ever seen.

i digress, the pot.

miss chatelaine

our girl is 12 today. wow. a long time ago that she was born at home bathed in candlelight and kd lang. we bought her an electronic writing tablet but guess who has been playing on it all morning. i present my first piece! happy birthday prairie xxx

munk says the winner is...............

congratulations lisa and thank you so much everyone else who left a comment. i am sorry it has taken so long to draw - a few days - oh never listen to me. the birthday party is this weekend so i am getting ready for that. i have decided to have as little boughten (got that off farmer boy) food as possible so i have a lot of baking ahead. and lisa, e mail me your address and i can send a mabel your way.