have you ever heard of mandalas? they’re beautiful and intricate patterns that some buddhists make using coloured sand. they work on them painstakingly, sometimes for days at a time, in order to focus the mind and the spirit. then they blow them away.

delft tile cookies made by the incredibly talented zoe lukas of whipped bakeshop may not have the same spiritual significance of a mandala (i suppose it depends how you feel about baking!), but there’s something wonderful about the idea of demolishing something that beautiful…

i found this vintage hand-embroidered doily at a little market stall a few months ago. now it’s sitting on my dresser with my fragrance collection on top of it. the combination of shapes and colours makes me happy every time i look at it:

i love the photo propped up behind all the bottles. it’s of my mum and my brothers, who are so precious to me:

i’m certain i got my love of handmade things from my mother. she is an avid op-shopper, and has a real eye for picking out hand knitted cardigans, crochet shawls and the like, in thrift stores and vintage shops. it used to make me roll my eyes when i was a kid, but not so much any more. maybe we all turn into our mothers in the end!

i don’t know if i should be impressed or alarmed that heather gilson and jon almeda of one love photo managed to sum up my entire aesthetic on one photo, but either way here it is:

i wish we could book them, for a certain celebration my partner and i are having next month, but the intercontinental travel might be a bit of a stumbling block!

no craft this time, just something pretty:

i think the antique roses are the best - their fragrance, the elegant shapes, their heavy heads nodding on the bush… delicious.

a few of my friends are expecting babies in the not-too-distant future, so i’ve started thinking about handmade gifts for newborns. then, a couple of days ago, a little man who seemed to be a newborn last time i looked turned one! i made these booties for him a year ago…

…and that reminded be about what a great pattern they were made from! heather bailey’s ‘bitty booties’ pattern is easy-as-pie to follow, and is free to download from her blog. better yet, she has a flickr group full of photos of all the different ways that people have made these booties up - it’s full of inspiring ideas!

i have a feeling i’ll be making a few pairs of these in the next little while. i’m thinking i’ll steer clear of pink and blue, and go for bright purple, yellow, green, and maybe even orange.

essie xoxo

i’ve been a little quiet of late. this is partly because my life has been a bit nutsy (we’ve been rearranging and painting our house - it was a big job!), and partly because i’ve been thinking about the direction i want to take this blog in.

i really like blogging about my crafty adventures and i am definitley going to keep doing that, but i’d like to expand on this a bit. i’d like to use this blog as a bit of a scrapbook of inspiring images and ideas from all over the place. i’ll probably also rant about fabric that i love, and things like that too.

so i’m going to take this in a few more directions, and post with a lot more regularity from now on. just so’s you know!

and just to get started, here’s a photo i took in one of my favourite places on earth - the chapel at christ church college, oxford:

there’s something about seeing old tapestries that makes me feel like i am participating in something bigger than myself when i do my own stitching. i love that feeling of connectedness.

essie xoxo