Sweet Mary

Over the last few years I have read bits and pieces on blogs about "no-knead bread". The idea of not having to knead the bread is strangely attractive to me. Unusual I know, as most people love the kneading bit and feel they can meditate while doing so. Today, I finally baked the loaf pictured above. I started it yesterday, checking occasionally to see what interesting things were happening. It only has 1/4 teaspoon of yeast so its a slow riser. Its mean't to cook for 30 minutes but it looked so brown at 25 minutes that I took it out early. Its delicious but probably should have had the slightly extra time as it is very moist. If you try this recipe you may need to play around with the timings a bit. The men in my life have declared it a winner though so I will be cooking it again, quite soon. Click here for the recipe but also read Jane Brocket's post on the same bread - find it in her Archives section, August 2010. Scroll down to August 21st and do read more of h...

A private order, about to be wrapped and sent off. Orders of single hearts can be taken at my online shop. This order was a special request for something black and white (background ribbons not part of heart) - I try my best to fulfil special fabric requests out of my stash of mainly Cath Kidston and Laura Ashley fabrics. If my FELT site is not showing what you want ( its a little depleted at the moment ) just - email me through FELT with your query. If you go back two more posts to 'Prettiness' you will see some of the fabrics I stock.

This is a completed order for one of the Redcurrent shops - twelve pretty hearts, made from Cath Kidston and Laura Ashley fabrics filled with locally grown lavender. It gives me a real buzz to see my handmade hearts selling so well in New Zealand shops - see my shop list on the left to see where. I try and add a new one each month.

I bought this pretty Laura Ashley dress for my daughter's second birthday - she is now twenty one ! Over last weekend I decided to sort out a few boxes and came across lots of great memories in the form of my children's baby clothes and daughter's collection of dresses. All of the dresses below, except for the Laura Ashley one were lovingly hand-made by my sister . The fabrics and trims used are beautiful and the smocking is a work of art. And the great thing is that nearly twenty years down the track you could still put a child in these gorgeous creations and they would be much admired and appreciated. The tiny knitted creations above and below were knitted by my mother who has doted on each and every grandchild in her family. Each grandchild received a fabulous handmade bear and lots of other soft toys and even though knitting wasn't her greatest love she did knit these treasures simply because I asked. From memory, the patterns were from a French knitting book, bu...

Three orders of lavender hearts to complete and send off by the weekend but thought I would just take a photo of one of the orders on the back porch to show how pretty they look on mass. Here are some displayed for sale in a local shop - makes me smile every time I see this photo. I have made things all my life and it is now the icing on the cake to be able to sell them and earn money from doing something I love.