Sweet Mary

Making Christmas hearts to deliver to Redcurrent in Havelock North. The heavy cotton fabric used for the front is printed with colourful holly leaves and berries. Bright green ribbon, red spot fabric and a Merry Christmas label complete the look. Nearly forgot to mention - they are filled, as always, with New Zealand grown lavender. These hearts will only be available in Redcurrent, Havelock North and not on my Sweet Mary stalls. At the end of my working day, I wandered around the garden and took a few photos. My husband had picked broad beans from the garden and was podding them at the garden table. We had them later for dinner as part of a pasta dish with red peppers, bacon and mushrooms. I find these thrown together meals can often be the most delicious ones ( occasionally not!). Not a great photo to show the bronze to salmon pink colours of these Westerland roses. I love the rich green parsley and red geraniums underneath. This is the view I have from the kitchen window and it ...

A completed Sweet Mary order soon to be on its way to a special customer in Sydney.

Packing up for The Hereworth Gala this Sunday - see top left or here for details. Alongside my regular Sweet Mary handmades I have also added a few extra lines: bunting, Easter egg cups and cozies, lavender bunches and ribbon hearts. See you there !

Twenty new lavender hearts on their way to Redcurrent in Wellington - bye bye hearts x

We are having lovely spring weather here in Hawkes Bay at the moment. Our home is surrounded by tall trees and those tall trees seem to be filled with all the local bird population. Those birds are just singing their hearts out with the joy of this milder weather and the promise of the beautiful days to come. I hear them early, before I even notice the light and right now I can hear them at dusk in the bamboo. So loud when we first came to live here and almost a bit "Birds" but now I love the sound and enjoy it. Back in July I blogged about my room with a view - its dusk right now and from that room I can see the full moon high up through the trees - magic. The photos above and below are of our vegie boxes. The lettuces, though slower, have grown throughout the winter and we still have cavelo nero, coriander and one lone brussel sprout plant. My weekend work also involved planting out the broad bean seedlings, a real favourite for our family. I love the garden work in the sp...

At work this afternoon making lavender hearts in bulk for the spring and summer fairs coming up where I will be running my Sweet Mary stall. I will post dates and venues as they get confirmed though I do know the first one will be Porangahau Spring Fair at Chapelwick Coastal Estate on Sunday 27th September. These are the first two quilts I ever made. The left for my daughter and the right for my son - as they are 20 and 23 now I can happily say that my sewing and quilting skills have greatly improved over the years. These quilts have been washed and used many times and bring back such a wave of great memories. I was inspired to post this photo after looking at this blog - click here . All winter I have been keeping a look out for fabrics to use in my Sweet Mary business - these gorgeous ones arrived today from the U.S. Shopping for fabric online opens up a whole new world but one where you have to have to be a tad careful. It can feel a little like being a kid in a sweetie shop. L...

Linens to Love on the corner of Tennyson and Market Streets in Napier are stocking this exclusive line of Sweet Mary lavender hearts - made from a black and cream printed linen with striped ticking back. Black satin ribbon to hang in wardrobe, as a decoration or as a special gift.

Kate Newton included me in her "Wishlist" column in the last issue of Hawke's Bay Weekend. I was delighted with the recognition of my handmade treasures. The writing is awfully small or my photography is not very good (more likely) so here is what Kate wrote: "Even if you load them up with bills that arrive in the mail or lists of things to do, these padded noticeboards are guaranteed to put a smile on your face when you see them hanging in your home. They are made by Keriann Lancaster, a crafty Hawke's Bay lady who also stocks Redcurrent with beautiful lavender-filled hearts. To buy the boards ($65) visit her blog........but try not to form an addiction, it's easy with all the pretty things she posts. Or buy the hearts, in time for Valentine's Day or beyond, from Redcurrent.

After reading the last few posts from The Vintage Magpie , I felt inspired to make some lavender hearts with a Valentine's Day theme. These ones are made with a red and white linen top and a wool felt bottom. They are finished with a vintage style button and my Sweet Mary tag. They are a limited edition and will be available only from Redcurrent in Wellington and Havelock North.

Early evening with dinner cooking in the oven I went out to water the pots. We have a cute courtyard that has been created within the confines of the L shaped house and two outside rooms called "sleepouts" here in New Zealand. Its warm and sheltered and everything grows very well so I find I have to cut back on a regular basis to keep it looking nice. Watering done, I thought the pretty lavender against the wall could do with a trim so that I get another show in about 6 weeks time. I did mean to do this a couple of weeks ago so they would be flowering for Christmas but oh well... So pretty - it does seem a shame. Piled up on the table ready to be bunched up for drying in the airing cupboard alongside the rosemary and rose petals already there. I use the rosemary in my Sweet Mary "men only" sachets. My lavender goes into my Sweet Mary lavender hearts topped up with lavender that I buy in from a beautiful New Zealand lavender farm as I don't produce enough. Th...

Last April my friend Nic gave me a gorgeous piece of fabric as a birthday present which I thought was a great idea. What could be more perfect than a piece of fabric for someone who loves it so. The weekend just passed, I used that piece of fabric to cover this pinboard in my play room and I am very pleased with the result. I will be selling my pinboards (different fabric!) along with my lavender hearts from my stall at the Holly Trail which is coming up soon. There was a small piece of the fabric left so that got made up into a few lavender hearts to add to my stash that I am building up for my stall. One went to Nic of course. The first rose to flower in our rose garden. I counted over 50 bushes in the three rose borders. It is going to be a wonderful sight when they are all in bloom. Below is the rose garden two days ago with the single rose on the far left side. Just imagine...

A new order for a new shop - Verde in Takapuna, Auckland.

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.

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.

This is the blog I should have written last week after hubbie and I had an overnight break at Lake Taupo less than two hours drive from where we live in Hawkes Bay . We set off early one sunny winter morning - a lovely drive winding along the scenic Napier-Taupo road and a delicious takeaway coffee to enjoy on the way. We talked and listened to music, two things we don't get to do too often without interruption. After checking into our "very ordinary" motel (why do they have to be so bleak?) we went straight to a favourite cafe for more coffee and cake. Well, I had the cake and hubbie smiled sweetly. Next stop was a quick scout around town to see if there might be a suitable shop to approach about stocking my Sweet Mary lavender hearts. This was all completed pretty quickly to allow us enough time to go for a long walk around the lake - look how clear the water is. All the photos in this post were taken by my hubbie who is an excellent photographer. It did involve a lot ...

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.

The photos above show one of the reasons I haven't blogged all week - I moved my sewing room from the sleepout (outside room) to a room right in the middle of the house, with a sweeping view over the front garden. Now this new room was actually my son's bedroom but as he is at uni most of the time, he very reasonably said he wouldn't mind moving to the small bedroom next door to this one. I am delighted with this move, not only did it give me a much bigger work space, I also got a chance to sort through all my stuff which was a bit of an eye opener - I had truly forgotten about some of my treasures. It was an exciting few days making these discoveries. Also nice not to be tucked away but to be in the centre of everything - phone and computer access, not to mention kitchen for hot drinks and the loo! Spot the order of freshly made lavender hearts waiting to be packed up and sent off. We live in an old farmhouse which often seems colder inside than out. Lovely in the summer b...