Sweet Mary

This was Sweet Mary HQ one night earlier this week. I had an order for twenty lavender hearts to be made for Redcurrent Wellington and a new order for ten to a beautiful shop on Auckland's north shore called Primrose Cottage. I love to spend time in my workroom - the radio on, heater on also at this time of year, surrounded by fabric, mum's beautiful paintings and sometimes even my cat curled up in a corner basket. My order for ten all completed and ready for wrapping and posting.

Yesterday, I drove into town to run a few errands and on the way home I just had to pull over and take a few photos. Yes, I did have the camera in the car - something my dear hubby has insisted I do. He says you never know when a photo opportunity will present itself and how right he was. It was a mild autumn day, a bit cloudy and a bit sunny. We have so much space around here, its one of the many things I love about the New Zealand countryside. If you drive to the end of this road and turn left, drive a few kilometres you will come to our house. The views there are still similar to this one - overhead powerlines, vineyards and trees currently in their autumn colours, background hills and very little road traffic. I even like the rickety fencing. More beauty - actually a close up shot from the same position as the above one. I think these vineyards belong to the Te Mata Estate which makes very delicious wine. Only a few hundred metres from home and I had to pull over again. When I t...

Linnea left a comment on my Autumn in the Garden post wondering if she could have the Lemon-Raspberry muffin recipe. Its a Nigella Lawson recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess. LEMON-RASPBERRY MUFFINS 60g butter approx. 120ml milk 1 large egg 200g plain flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda 150g caster sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt 150g raspberries juice and finely chopped zest of 1 lemon 12-bun muffin tray lined with paper cases Pre-heat oven to 200c/gas mark 6 Melt butter and set aside to cool. Stir together, in a largish bowl, the flour, baking powder, bicarb, sugar, salt and zest. In measuring jug, pour in lemon juice then enough milk to come up to the 200ml mark (and it will curdle, that is fine), then beat in the egg and melted butter.Pour into the dry ingredients and stir briefly, the batter should be just combined. Fold in the raspberries, spoon this lumpy mixture into muffin cases and bake 20-25 minutes. When cooked, tops should spring back to your touc...

Fabric brings out the best in people, well it definitely does good things for me. In the past two weeks five lots of fabric have arrived to live in Sweet Mary HQ for a while. The first to arrive was the gorgeous piece hanging from the rail, the one with blue spots and red roses. It was a birthday present from my friend Nicola who had gone to the trouble of importing it in from the US. The piece beside that was also a birthday gift from my sister who bought it on a recent trip to Rajasthan. Its hand blocked in green, red and brown and very beautiful - and also very reminiscent of her. I would like to make a summer skirt out of it but think the pattern would have to be just right to avoid the wrong look - it could be my Christmas skirt! Last weekend my friend Jane, dropped off an unwanted bag of Laura Ashley fabric scraps. By looking back in my old LA catalogues I have discovered the fabric names. That was so much fun and brought back fond memories of my years in the UK and the many ho...

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day in the Hawkes Bay. We were up early as part of our "autumn/winter project" to get the house and garage sorted and de-cluttered. It will take us all this time because there is so much to do! We spent most of the morning in the garage and after the third and last load was hauled off to the tip - recycling where we could, it was all looking pretty good. Coffee with raspberry and lemon muffins while looking out over the garden was our reward. Holly tree in a pot in the foreground still decorated with fake red holly berries from Christmas time. It even fools the birds! Its actually a holly that has yellow berries and only in winter which is nowhere near our Christmas time in New Zealand. I spent many years living in the UK and still miss the "specialness" of the celebrations there. Thats not to say I don't enjoy myself here, there is just something about Christmas in a cold climate that is magical. This is the tree that Annie loves ...