Sweet Mary

A friend kindly gave me her lavender clippings from a tidy up day in her garden. I was delighted with the large bag of already dry English lavender as its my preference to use this lavender in Sweet Mary products . It drys hard as opposed to the soft but 'oh so beautiful' French lavender and has the most intense fragrance. I have not yet planted lavender in my new garden and although happily using quality rubbings from here , I am very pleased to have this local lavender in my stash. My mum is visiting for a few weeks and because of her macular degeneration finds her creative urges very curtailed. Its hard to see detail so no more fabulous paintings, sewing her own clothes or embroidery but I think the worst thing is not being able to read a book. Vision Australia have provided her with a DAISY machine so she can listen to talking books. She is listening to The Book Thief this week and I find myself hanging around to listen as well - its very addictive. While listening she ...

A week ago I was all set up and waiting for the start of the Hospice Holly Trail Fete which was held at one of the beautiful gardens and homes open to ticket holders. The fete ran for the three days of the trail and was a great success as usual. There were about 30 stalls with a mixture of food, crafts and homewares. Not everything is home-made but its all of a high quality and a fun shopping experience for the mainly female shoppers! I sold a few of these and lots of those (below). One of my five Heart cushions sold so I have a few left for my next two Sweet Mary stalls. I am so pleased with my cushions that I will be very happy to keep them if they don't sell. Thats the nice thing about making stuff that you would love yourself. I will be at the Hawkes Bay Design Market this Sunday. It starts at 9.30a.m. and is being held at Ormlie Lodge. See the link, top left of my blog.