Category: simple pleasures
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fresh inspiration
When is an ‘inspiration wall’ not an inspiration wall? When it’s been up for almost two years and you’ve stopped seeing it anymore… I have a creative room out in my backyard. Our garage was converted to a sleepout by previous owners and now we’ve set it up so half of it is guest-room (well,…
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gifts from the thrift
How is the first official week of winter treating you? (Game of Thrones fans will get the reference here….) Here is some vegetable bunting I made for the kitchen because….well, just because: Here’s some stuff from the op-shop lately. (I buy most of my clothes from the op-shop also, but they aren’t all that exciting…
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Interview with Johanna Knox author of ‘A Forager’s Treasury’
As a keen forager myself, I was so excited to hear that my friend Johanna Knox was writing a foraging guide for New Zealand, but despite the fact I was pre-disposed to like it, I am truly impressed and in awe of what she has produced. It is a beautifully written, helpful and down-to-earth book…
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Pioneer cooking for energy efficiency
In an effort to be more energy efficient, save money on bills and be more organised with food practices, for the last few years I have gotten into viewing a warm oven like a pioneer woman would. What do I mean by that? Well, as anyone who has read ‘Little House On The Prairie’…
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the creativity muscle
I’ve spent so little time in my studio this year that I’ve been jokingly calling it “the cave of forgotten craft”. What with the new day-job and the intensity of the yoga-instructor training I’m doing, plus my general feeling of knackeredness which I’ve written about lately…the time and inclination to make stuff kind of ebbed…
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poetry-nerd-gasm
The Red Cross hold an annual book sale here. It is amazing – two giant halls filled with books, magazines, music. It is so big and so busy it can be more than a little overwhelming! I go every year and always find incredible things. This year I decided to focus just on vintage children’s…
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inspiration books
I get a lot of magazines passed my way from family and as I read them I snip out anything which catches my eye and fill blank journals with pictures. I’m a very visual person and this practice inspires everything from poetry to life habits to cooking to gardening to craft to how I set…
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Graft is launched
I went to a lovely poetry event in Paekakariki last Saturday – the launch of Lynn Davidson’s ‘Common Land’ (VUP) and a local celebration of the recently launched ‘Graft’ by Helen Heath (VUP). Both poets were interviewed by Paekakariki poet, Dinah Hawken. It was a lovely laid-back affair with mood-lighting, a traditional ‘hall supper’, wine,…
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there is no cure for curiosity
A friend sent me a little card with this quotation on it: “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” -Dorothy Parker I am an eternally curious (nosey?) person. I often follow the path of curious things, which sometimes leads to adventures and happy accidents…and sometimes to wasted time and dead…
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i am back in town – do you hear me
The new chair sits next to the older chair and it looks like they are having a conversation. (Maybe I have been reading THISÂ book too much?) * I find this slid under my door. How intriguing! Except it isn’t. It turns out to be from a religious zealot, just letting me know if I don’t…
Helen Lehndorf 