mad granny

I have an addiction. These square gems are meditative to create and bring little leaps of excitement seeing them grow in number. I'm thinking a blanket? I love the retro styling and appropriate name of 'granny squares'. I do feel like a granny, ferreting away with my crochet hook on the couch!

Summer must be here, it was gloriously hot today - in retrospect we should have gone to the beach for the first swim of the season. Maybe next weekend?

Here are some more granny square treats I found on pinterest for inspiration:

Source: copyepaste.com via Wayward on Pinterest

Source: canadianliving.com via Wayward on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: rosylittlethings.typepad.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

DIY 1940s fascinator

If you're heading to the races or perhaps a wedding or other special occasion this fascinator is a great way to accessorise. It's really simple to make and should take around 2 hours. You will need:

A strip of netting
One shoulder pad or other base
One hair clip
20 strips of the fabric of your choice (50cm long x 4 cm wide)
needle and thread
scissors

Start by sewing your hair clip onto the reverse side of your shoulder pad (the inside curve).

Turn the pad over and sew the netting along the straight side with some overlaps.

I recommend trying the fascinator on at this stage to make sure the netting is sitting correctly. You want some of it sitting over your face - more so your eyes than your mouth (you want to be able to eat and drink!).

Get one strip of fabric and iron the long sides together to create a fold down the length.

With your needle and thread do a running stitch down the length of the fabric about 1cm away from the open edges.

Once you are at the end, gently pull the thread so the fabric bunches into a flower shape.

Pull it tight and sew the ends together so the "flower" holds its shape. Choose its positioning on the shoulder pad and sew directly on. I suggest starting on the edge with the netting.

Repeat this process with all of your fabric strips, placing them closely together, until you are finished. Viola!

Position perfectly on your styled hair and you're done - use some bobby pins for extra hold if required.
You can easily add jewels, feathers and other embelishments if you desire.

Here are some beautiful ideas for inspiration.

Source: 100layercake.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Sophie on Pinterest

ginger

 

I love this ginger loaf, when smeared with butter and consumed alongside a hot cup of tea it is the ultimate heart-warmer. It's super simple to throw together too!

This recipe is enough for a small loaf.

50g butter

1tbsp golden syrup

1 egg

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1tsp baking powder

2tsp ginger

1tsp mixed spice

1tsp baking soda

3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celcius.

Melt your butter and golden syrup on a low heat in a small saucepan. Pour into a mixing bowl.

Add the egg and sugar and mix well.

Add all the dry ingredients except the baking soda and mix well.

Mix the soda in the milk and then slowly stir into the rest of the mix.

Pour your mixture into a baking paper-lined loaf tin.

Bake for 30-40min until a skewer comes out cleanly. Leave on a rack to cool.

Also featured in the pics is my new blanket that I picked up from Retropolitan. I love the colours and is perfect for sitting on in the sun with a good book (which I did this afternoon!).

turquoise spring

Yes yes I have been lacking on the crafty updates of late but that's because I was saving up for something big! Here is my project from the weekend - my new spring dress. It has my colour of the moment - turquoise. If I were to perform a post-mortem of the project I would have to say that I would be less generous with my sizing as I do have some trimming to do. I have the perfect (you guessed it!) turquoise belt to go with it too. (It wouldn't sit on the dress for pictures). Also theres a pic of my latest turquoise purchase - button earrings by Ella Amalie! Picked those babies up from Encraftment a couple of weeks back.

In other news I have found a stockist of Frankie in Christchurch. The lovely gentlemen (honestly, just adorable) at Canterbury Magazines in Addington keep each edition aside for me to pick up at my leisure. I think I've gone cover to cover with this issue about six times and counting. And look who's featured:

Vicky Lang from Follow the White Rabbit has a chat about trying to keep her business moving through the quakes.

Promise to pump out the posts more frequently as now life/bills/work/lack of motivation is reducing and vitality is increasing. Love blossoms, love daylight savings, love spring!!

go retro

Source: amyallsopp.com via Wayward on Pinterest

Source: wearcolor.tumblr.com via Wayward on Pinterest

Found these on pinterest. They also reminded me that I have been meaning to write about this article  for a while now. Great news on the 'living like your nana' front - the fact that it can make you feel younger (hmm seems contradictory..) certainly increases the concept's appeal. So turn off your teles, have a convo and play some cards.
Back to the dresses for a moment though, they are getting me quite excited about the love vintage fair in October where Kelly Doust will be signing books and there are ACRES of vintage items for me to spend a whole day in. woo.

I am exhausted from the week,  I have been in corporate training (joy). Looking forward to the weekend ahead with some projects and web-wasting (my new terminology for surfing your time away). What are your plans? Whatever they are I hope you find joy in them.

all zipped up

The little zip purse! This one I put together in the french provincial-style fabric to hold all my little goodies (perfume, lip balm, mints) in my bag. This is probably one of the most simple sewing projects you can do, all you need is some fabric cut into squares, a zip and a sewing machine - with a zip footer. If you'd like me to put a tutorial on here, do let me know.

We've had a busy weekend with dinners, breakfasts, dvds, library visits, craft fairs and thrifting. One of my favourites purchases was this book

Fantastic reference guide for (just about) everything. As you can see it's got Earaches to Earthquakes to curing forgetfulness (I need this one! My long-term memory is especially bad).

Sadly now I'm suffering from sunday-itis and feeling impatient for the next weekend to roll around.

Oh and it's Keep NZ Beautiful week! Sign up for your local clean up event or start your own. We have signed up to clean up the river on saturday morning, maybe I'll see you there.

north

While I'm not feeling my best one thing that helps me escape the mucus is remembering the weekend we had up north.

C and I made the ferry trip on an overcast friday morning to the highly recommended Waiheke Island. A $1.50 bus fare got us from the ferry terminal to the small township of Oneroa. To stretch our legs after the ferry ride we wandered around the town to decide where we were going to have lunch and to take a look at some of the local artisan stores. We came across a clever little store that I could have spent hours in (reduce, reuse, recycle - can't find a website sorry). Not only does Waiheke have an art gallery, it has a full arts centre, with artists in residence and exhibitions from local and international artists. On an after lunch walk we began to understand why this space is so inspirational, the golden beaches, tropical flora and relaxed lifestyle all contribute to an escape from the everyday and allow the locals to find their creativity (or so I assume).

Wishing we could stay longer on our seat on the beach we were dragged away with only having seen a small portion of what Waiheke has to offer but enough left to justify a trip back soon!

While we were in Auckland I had to take the opportunity to do some shopping as there is little to offer in Christchurch of late. Two purchases that are now brightening my wardrobe are

Sheer fabric that will need to be taken in at the waist, but there's no way I could have said no to that colour!

This skirt got my attention straight away, the fabric is a thin corduroy with vibrant reds, so comfy too!

Thanks K Rd, hope to see you again soon.