I'm getting wrapped up in organising a High Tea.  I'm loving the combination of gorgeous embroidered linen, beloved china and sumptuous baking. I felt we needed a logo and came up with this bit of stitching.

Before I wander off to dream about little cakes, what would your perfect High Tea include? Is it club sandwiches and macaroons, or scones and cream.  Tea cosies on the table or silver teapots? What would tempt you? Let me know. as the menu is still in the making.

For a while our house was swimming with fishes, dolphins and sharks.  Little E had marvelled at the sharks at Kelly Tarlton's.  We saw stingrays, moray eels and baby carpet sharks.  She was drawing them for weeks afterwards.

I snatched aside one of her sketches in January, to turn it into this embroidery.  I kept the sketch close as I copied it, but now cannot find it for the life of me.  I adored the various textures of a 4 year old's rapid felt pen colouring.  With two slightly mismatched blues and sketchy stitches, you can get some idea of the pen running out as she drew the picture.

The only thing left to do was to turn it into a  teacosy to be sent to Nana.  She wraps her tea pot with a knitted cosy and then pops another over the top. Of course, we had to give this a try before posting the new cosy.  I'm pleased to report the cosy works and the super hot tea went really well with stroopwafels.  These are a new treat in our house, where the steam from a super hot cup of tea is used to soften the syrupy filling, before the stroopwafels are eaten, hot and syrupy.

e have just returned home from a family trip to Auckland and further afield. We drove 780 km and made it home in time for tea. The trip was helped by a unexpectedly early start on the road and my mother's offer to cook us dinner when we got home.

We caught up with lots of friends, though not those with babies, due to us all getting colds. I think that's a holiday thing.

I managed to get to the Calico Christmas Quilt Show and was very restrained in my shopping. I'll post more on that when I get he photos sorted.

My Father-In-Law was married in Whangarei on Saturday (the reason for the trip). It was a nice relaxed event celebrated with friends and family. Little e had a great time and it was very hard to drag her away at her bedtime.

The trip home was an event in itself. We had packed the car the night before. When Little E woke, inconsolable at 12 am there were no bottles or cups handy in the hotel room and she just wanted to go out the door. She got louder and louder, and we already knew that walls were thin. There was nothing for it, really, and so after an hour of tears we hit the road just after 1am to drive home. I wouldn't recommend that trip unplanned but we did get a headstart on the road before she woke again.

One of my passions is china. Some would call it a weakness. Upon seeing laden china cabinets I occasionally have to admit it is a vice. Another vice of mine would have to be fabric and so to combine the two is sublime.

When a friend asked me to make some tea cosies for her store I jumped at the challenge. After pouring over the fabric combinations and thinking about what went with my china this emerged:

Taking a break so to speak and reminding me of the Spanish proverb “How beautiful it is to do nothing and rest afterward”.

I have been busy sewing this week, working on a quilt of dress blocks. While it is not yet finished, I will just mention it in passing, say at this stage it could be more blue than the pink it started as and save the unveiling for later.