On the Move

It's done:  after months of being on the market we've just gone unconditional on the sale of our house.  Hurrah!  Now that it's all behind us, I can see in retrospect how stressful and all-consuming this process has been.  I've felt a complete lack of creativity for some time now, but as soon as we got the final word, I felt a sudden urge to get back into the studio.  If was as though I was putting all of my energy into the project of selling the house, and as soon as I was able to put my mind at rest, everything else relaxed and opened up.  I'm spending as much time out in the studio as possible before we go -- tying up loose ends, finishing WIPs, and working on one last custom order.  A bittersweet leaving.  Feeling happy and lucky that this move has all worked out and sad to leave the spaces that I love so much.

We'll move into a rental now while we begin the long process of looking and saving for a piece of land in the country.  While the rental we've found is incredibly beautiful and has many wonderful merits, it does not have a studio space.  I'm not sure where exactly this leaves Seedling Clothing -- whether I will be taking an extended hiatus, or whether the business will evolve in some other direction.

 An enormous thank you to everyone who has supported me here on the blog and also in other venues like Facebook or through my Felt and Etsy shops.  You've been amazing!  Will certainly keep you updated as my ideas develop and we've resettled.

All the best,  Jen  xx

In the Kitchen....

I've recently been enjoying a renewed interest in back-to-basics cooking: learning to make everyday things from scratch.  After getting a bit lazy over the holidays, we're back to making our own bread, and I'm making yogurt again.  This weekend, I felt like I was in the kitchen for entire afternoons.  A bit ridiculous, considering how insanely hot it was.  I thought about the women of our great-grandmother's generation and how they would have spent long days preserving and making sauces and jams in the late-summer heat.  I was lucky to be in shorts and not a long Victorian skirt, no?

At any rate, two of my new ventures were making homemade crackers and tomato relish.  I'd never experienced tomato relish in the States, but in New Zealand, it seems to be a pantry staple.  You can use it on crackers with cheese, in pasta sauces, or anyplace you would use ketchup.  Believe me, it is soooo much better than ketchup.  Heinz is out.  Tomato relish is in.

Our family's lovely auntie talked me though the final steps, and in the end, I felt quite proud of the joint effort (Jake for growing the tomatoes, me for preserving them, and Auntie Shelley for teaching me how.)

And crackers -- really pretty easy.  I've become aware recently of how many ingredients even the healthiest crackers have, and in the interest of simplifying and eating fewer preservatives and additives, I think homemade crackers are the way to go.  Hopefully I'll have the patience to keep these going -- they were delicious and felt like much more of a special treat than store-bought crackers.

I used the recipe from Alison Holst's "Dollars and Sense" cookbook -- one of my best and most often used purchases from the flea market.  She calls for two cups of white flour, but I used half white and half wholemeal (wholewheat) flour and that worked fine.


Homemade Crackers
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
25 g cold butter
1 Tbs golden syrup or malt
about 1/2 cup water (I used more)

Mix dry ingredients well.  Rub in cold butter.  Mix the golden syrup with the water and add in slowly until the mixture is damp enough to form a roll-able dough.  Roll out thinly, using flour to keep the dough from sticking.  Cut into shapes with a cookie cutter or knife.  Prick each cracker in a few places and bake on a lightly greased tray for 10-15 minutes until golden.  Cool and store in an airtight container (if you don't eat them all first.)

And finally, I found myself out in the studio a few nights ago really and truly intending to do some serious work.  But I was confronted by my stack of thrifted plates and some leftover paint that would have dried out had I not used it immediately (I swear!).....so I played around a bit more, with better results than the first time.  Rather than fight the tacky, quick-drying texture of the paint, I just avoided layering all together. I have to remind myself that complicated doesn't = good.  Sometimes (meaning usually) simple is best.

I hope your week is off to a good start. x Jen

Wordless Wednesday (ish)

Thank Goodness It's Sunday

Sunday seems as good a day as any (perhaps even a better day than most given its slow, laid-back nature) to reflect a bit on some of the little things I'm grateful for.  Of course there are the big things (clean water to drink, my wonderfully supportive husband, a healthy family....) but the minutia of the day to day are also worth pausing over and giving thanks for.  Here are some of the small things I'm grateful for today....

:: Pancake breakfasts and the rare chance to sleep in (thank you, wonderfully supportive husband.)

:: Our first monthly menu plan and monthly grocery shop, completed.   There's something very survivalist and satisfying about attempting a monthly shop -- it feels reminiscent of time spent playing "Oregon Trail" in grade school.  Will we lose our oxen?  Get dysentery? Run out of pasta spirals?  Hard to say, but to be sure only the most resourceful and thrifty survive.

:: An afternoon spent planting and weeding.  It felt so good to get outside and put my back into some heavy work.  Thank you to Aya who slept, making the garden work possible. And thank you to Solomon, who played beside me, befriending a family of snails and making "building sites" in the dirt.  Hooray for dirt!

:: Our first bbq and evening meal outside.

 :: This great project, commencing on 10.10.10.  "One Day on Earth"  -- I'm so excited to see some of the footage.

::  You!  Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read what I write here.  I really really really appreciate you.  When I began the Seedling blog last February, it was purely as a link to my business.  But in the past months I've learned an incredible amount and I've come to really value the community that's available here.  Thank you for reading and thank you for occasionally talking back via comments -- it's wonderful to know you're here.  As a token of my appreciation, I'm planning an exciting giveaway; just waiting for the magical numbers of 100 readers on the blog and 150 likers on Facebook.  Soon!

Hope you've had a fabulous weekend with much to be grateful for as well.

My Creative Space

Has looked a little like this....

But far more like this....

  It's school holidays, and even though neither of my little ones is in "school" per-se,  S does an afternoon Montessori program a few days a week, and all of our other potential activities (like music, library or gymnastics) are on hold during the break.  So we've had a lot of home time; I've intentionally let go of any print-making expectations, lest I get frustrated when they go unmet.  So we've colored, we've painted, we've play-doughed, we've baked, we've gardened, we've made little homes for the worms we've found, we've built train-tracks, and we've gone to the park.   I've really enjoyed creative playing without any focus on "making" or "getting done."

If you have the time, please check out Kirsty's blog Kootoyoo for many wonderful creative spaces.  Happy to be joining in....

PS, still ticking along with Blogtoberfest!  So far so good....though I may sit down tonight and do a little planning to keep the momentum going.  Have already found so many amazing blogs through the sign-up list; if you have time, take a gander.  Find it here.

At My House....

....we've been working on this house!

The latest treasure from the flea market, I picked up this sturdy, handmade doll's house for a scant ten dollars over the weekend.  I happened to arrive just as its seller unloaded and I pounced, inordinately excited by my good luck and timing.  As a little girl, doll houses completely captured my imagination and I loved creating small spaces of my own (call it pre-nesting.)  I've so been looking forward to this kind of play!

The kids and I spent some time removing the stickers that the previous owner had liberally decorated with and cleaned up good thick layer of dust and grime before we moved it indoors.  Last night, I pulled the sewing machine from where it's been malaising under my desk in the studio and got to work.  I made a bed set with dual-sided covers, a pillow, and a carpet.  Simple, but a beginning.  I can't wait to get some test-pots of paint for the interior and exterior, make some curtains, and begin to look for more wooden furniture.

By the way, I'm so happy to be back into sewing!  I managed to finish a few items on my Christmas to-do list, hem a pair of pants, and make a little tunic for a doll who has been sadly under-dressed for some time.  I think when I get too far out of the habit of sewing (and this applies to other things too, like yoga or running) I build up a certain amount of anticipation and anxiety around them; amazing how quickly that disappears and I think, "This feels awesome; I should do it more often."  Hey, sewing is fun!  Not scary.  I think I'll take the week off from doing prints and leave my machine out in the place of pride in the middle of the desk -- it's incredible how satisfying ticking off a few long-procrastinated projects can be.

Ps. If you have the time, go visiting and and see what other crafty bloggers are up to at their homes over here on Buttons by Lou Lou.

Another Saturday Night....

It's Saturday night.  What am I doing?  I'm listening to a favorite podcast, I'm baking a double batch of bread, I'm cleaning out and organizing my pantry, I'm playing around with this awesome new application I've just discovered (oh and this one too!  I'm feeling a bit out of the loop; is everyone else already aware of these things?), and I'm writing out a list for our first-ever attempt at a monthly grocery shop. 

Quiet, peaceful, perfect.

Now off to curl up in bed to savor the last quarter of this amazing novel I've been meaning to read for ages....I'm so glad I finally plucked it off the shelf.

Taking it easy on the Seedling front for a few days....the family is recovering from a bout of flu, Solomon's afternoon program is on break for another week, and I think it's best to plan on focusing my energies elsewhere.

See you in a few days....

At My House: The Little Things

 

I remember reading an article once about how the measure of "happiness" in one's life is far more a product of little everyday enjoyments than of big momentous ones like getting married, going on holiday, graduating, etc. I'm glad that it doesn't take much to make me happy -- the little stuff is more than enough. I look forward to things like my morning toast, a hot shower, listening to a good podcast, or time spent reading in bed in the evening. Especially now that I'm home with my two little ones, I rely on day-to-day pleasures to keep me sane and stimulated. Here are a few of the things that made me happy this week....

 Some new reading material....

The toy library....

 Making salt-dough beads....

 A perfect day in Picton spent with visiting family.  Cousins played, grown-ups talked,
and starfish, crabs, snails, and tiny fish were found under rocks on the beach as the tide went out....

 

 Flea market finds: wooden truck,  a beautiful piece of Nelson pottery, new
Lambert merino leggings (they are the absolute best thing to sleep in.  I have one well-loved pair.
It will be good to have two) and strawberry seedlings.  Total, $12.00....

Birthday-gift train set from Ikea.  Endless combinations, endless hours of play....

These incredibly beautiful alphabet cards with illustrations by Charley Harper.
One side has letter flashcards and the other creates two stunning floor puzzles.
I bought them originally for Aya's birthday, and then held on to them for thinking that
Solomon would enjoy them more.  Finally, I thought "Nah, I love them too much to see them
chewed on or lost."  So they're mine, all mine.  (But as you can see, I share sometimes....)

By the way, if you have the time, do follow the link to see more of Charley Harper's incredible wildlife illustrations.  I'd never heard of him before I found the flashcards, but they are so so beautiful.

Hope you have had a week filled with little happinesses too.

ps  This is my first week participating with At My House...  Visit a few other homes here, on Buttons By Lou Lou. 

Reading, Listening, Cooking

Monday is typically our quietest day.  My husband and I share a car, and Monday is his day to drive (rather than bike or carpool) to work, so the kids and I enjoy a peaceful "home day."  I try to leave our time unscheduled, and we often have a leisurely morning spent doing all of the undones from the weekend list.  Folding and putting away laundry, cleaning the bath, trying to stock up the fridge with a few meals and snacks.  Thrilling, right?  No, not really, but it does feel good to prepare ourselves for the week.  This morning I spent a good hour in the kitchen whipping up a lentil soup for the week's lunches, a roasted-tomato, garlic, and portabello pasta sauce for dinner, and a double batch of apple-cinnamon-oat muffins for snacks.  Aya hung out in the Ergo, and Solomon stood beside me at the sink making "water soup" and "water muffins" (And hoo-boy, let me tell you, those were delicious.  The kid knows how to make an excellent water soup.)

I finally had a chance to flip through a stack of books I picked up at the Founders Book Fair last week.   Founders is such a great place to visit with kids  -- it's a historic park with many old storefronts, a bakery, a brewery, an old WWII aeroplane you can go inside, a playground, a train, a barn full of vintage buses and wagons -- the list goes on and on.  It also features an annual bookfair -- I picked up these six beauties before I was hurried away from the books (and toward the aeroplane) by my impatient toddler.  I'm not entirely sure what I'll "do" with them, but at 50 cents a pop, the bright covers were hard to resist.

 I'm also just about to finish up this lovely book -- an interesting combination of fiction and autobiography, gifted to me by my sister some time ago.   I've been reading up a storm lately; there's something about winter that just makes me want to crawl into bed, oh, around 7:30 or so and just read and read.  And music from this talented folksy singer-songwriter has been on repeat lately.  I just can't get enough.  (Find another favorite video here.)

**Coming soon -- a few photos of the new one-of-a-kind "Welcome" sleep gowns I've been working on.  That is, if I manage to tear myself away from my evening-long reading sessions, and get out to the studio....

The Weekend that Was

 On Saturday, we attended a very special placenta burial/tree planting ceremony just a hill over from the Centre of New Zealand.  As far as I know, Nelson is the first and only place in New Zealand to preside over a ceremony such as this on public land.  A group of families and midwives convened above the Maitai Valley to plant native trees over the whenua -- returning this life-giving organ back to the earth and symbolically connecting our children to the place where they were born.  We attended the planting last year as well and were able to plant Solomon's placenta (which had been in our freezer for some time) under a Black Pine. This year we planted Aya's placenta under a Totara seedling, right next to her brother's tree.  The hike up to the planting site was lovely -- I walked with Aya on my back and Solomon was pushed up in the buggy.  At the top, friends met, mothers and fathers chatted, children played, apples were passed around, songs were sung, and the site was blessed by a local Maori minister.  The view over the valley is stunning, and I look forward to returning many times to visit our trees.

This friendly Fantail kept us company throughout the morning.  What a wonderful omen!  I love these beautiful birds.

What else did the weekend hold?  A rare (rare, rare) dinner party with a small group of friends.  I neither cooked nor cleaned (thank you, wonderful husband....) and the whole thing felt incredibly low-key and enjoyable.  My friend Amelia presented me with this amazing piece of embroidery as a studio-warming gift.  I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the stitching is absolutely perfect and amazingly intricate.  Such a lovely gift.  It will be framed and hung on the studio wall.

 

There were also several early risings to watch live-streaming of the World Cup.  (Ahem, I wasn't actually up early because of the World Cup, and I doubt the kids were either, but the two events did coincide.)

 

Also much cozy indoor playing with trains (two more sets, courtesy of the toy library.) And some winterizing of the garden.  The berry bushes and passion fruit were covered, the compost was turned, the gutters were cleaned....

 

 And then?  Well, then we were all a bit beat.  Baths all around, scrambled eggs for dinner, and an early bedtime for the wee ones.  Soon I'll head out to the studio with a hot mug of tea.  Hope you all had wonderful weekends as well.  xx