15 @ 40 // day twelve

Knitting has been a part of my creative life since I was younger than my own children are now. I have fond memories of going on holiday to our usual spot at the coast, and our first stop would always be BigW for some holiday goodies. Back then, we didn’t have a BigW in our town, and it was a […]

15 @ 40 // day eleven

If something is worth doing, it’s worth over crafting. I really need that on a tshirt or a drink bottle or something. In my defence, this time at least, it started out innocently enough. Bear’s bestie asked if I could teach her to crochet. Absolutely, says I. Then I realised my one good hook was…less than presentable. Shout out to […]

15 @ 40 // day ten

It’s funny the places growth and evolution show up, often in the most random of inspiration strikes. When I first added “acrylics” to my Fifteen At Forty list, I had the kernel of an idea, but not much in the way of execution. In March of 2019, a new instagram challenge popped up on my feed – #squareathon, a sixteen […]

15 @ 40 // day nine

When it comes to crafting, I love a good theme. Whether it’s the same fabric range over three seperate quilts, or matching my cross stitch to a baby gift, or dressing head to toe in matching yarn projects, or making a rather unnecessary project bag to be sure it is the right colour scheme, there’s something so satisfying about matching […]

15 @ 40 // day eight

Of all the creating I’ve been doing lately (mostly as part of my Fifteen At Forty project; it appears to have taken over my entire brain), my favourite pieces, the ones that inspire and motivate me the most are the multi-modal pieces that pull in different aspects of my creative history. From traditional mixed media, to over engineered digital art, […]

15 @ 40 // day seven

I love Easter Bingo each year, for the ways it pushes me out of whatever rut I’ve fallen into and stretch my creative muscles in new ways. This year, we mixed up the prompts a bit, and one of my suggestions was “remix”. Once upon a time, Car & I attempted a 365 journal prompt challenge (which I failed quite […]

15 @ 40 // day six

Back when I was a tween crafter, probably around the same age Butterfly is now, I hadn’t long finished my first quilt, when we were heading off on holidays. For no other reason than it amused me, and I liked the fabric, and I wanted to, I used some of my scraps to sew a tiny backpack – from memory […]

15 @ 40 // day five

If you want to raise readers, you let them see you reading. If you want to raise creative kids, you let them see you being creative. It’s advice I’ve both heard and given over the last almost-17 years of parenting. It’s excellent advice, and it’s something that works. Until, that is, it works too well and your children adopt your […]

15 @ 40 // day four

My creating is very cyclical. If I’m not bouncing from one project to another with the energy of a three year old high on red cordial straight from the bottle, I’m hyper fixated on just one hobby. I will sew 15 garments in a month, or read 17 books. I will make a quilt in 24 hours. I’ll do very […]

15 @ 40 // day three

Once upon a time, I shared a lot of baking on the blog, and on my insta. When the children were tiny, it was an easy way to keep them entertained for a bit, and top up the treats in the pantry. As they got older, baking became part of my Monday morning routine – drop the kids to school, […]