Small Town Stories

Friday list: 27 January 2012

tomandemma — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:05:22 +0000

On Monday I thought that today I might hoe the weeds in the garden but it’s pouring down and while I don’t mind gardening in the rain, it’s time for inside jobs…

Make some more Emma Makes cards
Pack up a couple of orders
Go to the Post Office
Take the leftover books from the book clean out (that didn’t go to Arty Bees) to the op-shop
Do some op-shopping
Investigate/cut out my new dress pattern – I’ve bought a vintage-style pattern that I hope will make the process of dressmaking easier
Read some of my book: There is No Dog
Make dinner

A pretty relaxed sort of day today – the best kind.

Secrets of the Wairarapa pt.1

tomandemma — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:40:17 +0000

It’s a little known fact, but the distance from Featherston to Greytown is the exact length of November Rain.

Lunchtime yoga

tomandemma — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:36:08 +0000

Late last year I started doing lunchtime yoga once (ish) a week and really loved it. I began going because I saw a street sign on Lambton Quay advertising the classes and when I looked on their website it was cool. That’s right, that’s how the mind of a ~~sophisticated~~ consumer works.

This year I’ve decided to commit to once a week – I’ve made future bookings and cleared space in my calendar. I highly recommend it. I do ‘power yoga’, which is lots of dynamic stretching with not really any rest in between.

It’s challenging but never makes you feel useless and our teacher is wonderful. I do quite a lot of stalker breathing in the class (I hope nobody can hear) but find that over time I am getting slowly better.

And at the end of each class I feel equally stuffed and alive, which is the perfect mix for a very focused afternoon of office work.

Here’s the timetable if you want to join me – there’s also an online booking system.

Not my actual yoga studio

New toys from Emma Makes

tomandemma — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:29:04 +0000

Late last year I decided I wanted to make whales. I’ve really enjoyed making my stuffed kitten toys and wanted something new because I’m retiring my short-lived but successful dinosaur line.

After making a few drawings and creating a pattern I began making prototypes and adjusting the pattern. I ran some user-testing (comments and suggestions for improvement from Tom) and here’s what I came up with… I plan to offer other colourways throughout the year too. They’re available through the Emma Makes online store.

Blue whale by Emma Makes

Blue whale

Grey whale by Emma Makes

I'm particularly fond of the tail

Dear hydrangeas I love you

tomandemma — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:57:44 +0000

The Christmas before last my brother Tom and his partner Anna gave us a gardening voucher. I blew the lot on hydrangeas.

I love huge, blousey hydrangeas and after a good six months of looking dead, ours have flowered with gusto and seem to quite like their position. We’re also growing pink, blue and white right alongside each other – proving that Featherston does indeed have magical soil.

I also found this rather good-looking blog while writing this post.

Friday list: 20 January 2012

tomandemma — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:38:28 +0000

Make notebooks for an order
Organise postage for some Trade Me sales
Do a couple of Emma Makes orders
Pick up some new wool stuffing for new toys I’m making
Craft Country shop duty from 10am-3pm
Write letters to people I owe letters to
Cut out felt cat faces
Sew cat felt faces
Check my stock levels in the Craft Country shop
Make dinner – we’re having tomato soup and feta toasties

Photo by sassyradish on Flickr.com

Emma Makes Valentine’s Day special

tomandemma — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:16:46 +0000

One of my favourite walks to work from the station each year is on Valentine’s Day – I love seeing florists rushing around and piles of piles of flowers going off to loved ones.

This year I decided to do an Emma Makes Valentines special. For $15 you’ll get:

* A large (A5 size) Emma Makes red rose notebook
* Two Emma Makes pencils (let me know your choice at checkout).
* Gift wrapping in red tissue with gold or silver lame thread
* Postage anywhere in New Zealand, and
* No messages or receipts in your envelope so you can rip it open and it’s ready to give.

Full details here.

The great bookshelf organisation

tomandemma — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:40:10 +0000

Tom and I both love reading and have heaps of books. We get them for gifts, through work (me), from friends and like to buy them new and secondhand too.

During the last week of our holidays Tom announced he was going to ‘do the books’. He has screeds more patience than I do so pulled them all out, sorted them in contemporary fiction/science fiction and fantasy/non-fiction/poetry/New Zealand fiction, then alphabetised them and returned them to the bookshelves.

We’ve now got super tidy books, we’ve found books we forgot we had and also have a nice pile for the second-hand bookshop/op-shop. Here’s some photos…

David Mitchell books I didn't realise we owned

Candle by Tinker

One of the best reading spots in our house.

My non-religious shrine to the Virgin Mary

New Emma Makes purses for 2012

tomandemma — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:19:47 +0000

Here’s some new purses I’ve been working on lately. I wanted to create something that was more special than the run of the mill rectangle zipper purse so have created pocket purses and pleated purses.

Each purse is $18 and available in limited numbers from my Emma Makes online shop.

Blue floral pocket purse

Green floral pocket purse

Pink pleated zipper purse

Green cord pleated purse

Red cross stitch pocket purse

Retro floral and stripe pocket purse

Things I’d like to do in 2012

tomandemma — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:00:58 +0000

I don’t make New Year resolutions. Well, expect once in 2005 I decided not to eat any chocolate for a year. I’m stubborn so I did it and it was hard but also great.

I can count on one hand the times I’ve stayed awake to bring in the New Year; I just never thought it was that exciting. I think that everyday is a chance to do something new or better or to extend yourself or realise that you’re probably not going to get into running.

Anyhoo, in lieu of a list of resolutions, here’s one of things I’d quite like to do this year:

Making
- Make shortbread. My Grandma always made shortbread and I never have. I want to and each time I see Melissa post about it I want to do it even more. I like the fork marks.
- Make five new Emma Makes products.
- Add a doily pocket to something.

Wheeling and dealing
- Get three new stockists for Emma Makes (one to go – I’ve already got Blackbird Corner and Dorothy & Evelyn this year – both in Australia).

Eating
- Have high tea at Martha’s Pantry because it’s great.

Spending less money
- Wittle down my fabric stash, which means trying to create new combinations to sew out of what I’ve got, not just buying more.
- Take a plunger to work so I can make more coffee/buy less coffee.

Culture
- Read 25 books. Feel free to make suggestions.
- Find three new podcasts to listen to (working on that at the moment).
- Comment on more blogs – I read lots of blogs and lurke around and rarely comment. It’s nice when people comment – then you know it’s humans not spambots contributing to your blog visits.

Doing
- Visit Featherton’s Fell Engine Museum – apparently the most popular tourist attraction in the Wairarapa.
- Do yoga once a week. Last year I took a lunchtime yoga class that was difficult but enjoyable and I’ll like to make an effort to keep that up.
- Visit Kapiti Island (never have).
- Do an anonymous street art project – Helen suggested this and it sounds fun. I have NO ideas about what to do.
- Keep writing Friday lists.