Sweet Mary

Just four more days until we open the door to Pop . Click HERE for Facebook.

Last week a mini road trip with Nicola of Coulter&Coulter produced some great finds including beautiful retro New Zealand crockery to add to the goodies for sale in our pop-up shop due to open Monday 30th September - click HERE for details and to like us on our Facebook page.

Be there!

French vintage buttons Today was the first day I presented my vintage buttons collected from markets in the south of France. Thanks for all the hard work sis! The packets sat nicely beside the Sweet Mary button cards I make up from buttons found in Hawkes Bay secondhand and charity shops and others gifted by friends. It was a gorgeous sunny Spring day, lots of people visiting the market and a good few with an eye for the beauty of vintage buttons. I overheard myself being referred to as "the button lady" which was music to my ears really. Collecting and presenting the buttons is a joy but being appreciated is the icing on the cake! I sold mainly from "the button box" but also a few lavender filled doves and hearts and one or two other handmades. I missed the last monthly market so it was nice to be back in my usual spot, greeting the regulars and hopefully enticing the new visitors. Keep coming back to the blog as I will soon be posting up details of our ...

    I have jobs to do but still find myself moving slowly after having the stinkiest of head colds for the past 10 days. Even though I have felt pretty awful, apparently I have not had flu, just a cold! I have a quilt to finish for a special person but luckily not under pressure. Just handquilting to do so once I have sandwiched the three layers together I can get started, each night doing a bit more until its all stitched together. This is my favourite part of quilt making so I'm keen to begin. I made the quilt top last year with no-one in mind but a few weeks ago I realised it would be the perfect gift for a close family member. There are signs of spring throughout the garden, with a few tulips and daffodils flowering today in the pots under the dining room window. The grape hyacinths have produced lots of lush greenery but strangely no flowers this year. Lots of fat buds on the hydrangeas but none yet on my new limelight ones. I hope I didn't "trim" t...

Vintage Buttons Over the last few weeks, very interesting parcels have been arriving at my Hawkes Bay front door. Vintage buttons, mainly French and a stack of precious Soulieado offcuts, all found by a special sister living in Uzes , on a personal mission to top up my stash. When I have finished dreaming about these beautiful treasures, I am going to package some of them up to sell on my Sweet Mary stall. In the meantime I am off on holiday before taking part in the next Craft&Design Market on the first Saturday of September. Enjoy the spring weather!

Tea party pretties. Only one week to go until "The World and a Teacup" pop-up shop opens at 9am on Tuesday 23rd July. We three friends are only running it for 2 weeks so do make sure you put those dates in your diary. Click HERE for detailed opening times and days - closed Sundays and Mondays, same as The Photographers Gallery.