Sweet Mary

If you walk down to the left, outside Bay Espresso in Hastings city centre (Market St. South) you will find a fabulous shop called Coco and Co. Its the latest venture by Jess and Jo of Fruit Bowl Craft Jam. The contents are an eclectic mix of vintage and vintage style homewares, clothes, gifts, toys etc. There is just so much to look at and bring a smile to your face. Shop hours are 10-3 on Thurs,Fri and Sat. each week. Click HERE to see the website. From late next week I will have some Sweet Mary products for sale at Coco and Co., including these beautiful pincushions stuffed with wool and lavender. There is more of a story about the wool but that is for my next post in a day or two.

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 ...