Gifts from the heart...

Over the years I've been the lucky recipient of some wonderful gifts from family and friends. Without doubt the most memorable and cherished have always been those that have been handmade, two of which are particularly special. One is an old wooden tea tray covered in magazine cutout images of cakes and deserts, in an alternative 'decoupage' style. It's unusual and curiously pleasing too.

The other is a hand painted and glazed tile depicting a couple gazing at each other whilst sipping wine. The tile is framed on a chunky square of 'found', solid wood that was then carved into the desired shape. Upon receiving these gifts I felt quite emotional and thankful for such kind thoughtful friends.

Japanese Tea Party

Towards the end of last year my last commission in the UK (before the big move to Australia) was for a Japanese client. She wanted a fully upholstered doll's house for her daughter to take back to Japan and asked if I could embroider the family name on the front so that they could keep it as an heirloom for generations to come. This was a very special project for me as we were also good friends and would soon be parting ways. We spent many coffee mornings together choosing fabrics whilst our children played and we discussed the design. At the end of the project she very kindly asked me over to a friend's house to share a real Japanese tea morning. I was enchanted by the careful presentation of the food and table. We had a delicious green tea cake with sweet aduki bean sauce and cream, it has a very delicate almost fragrant flavour with a light consistency similar to a souffle. I felt a little bashful at the thought of my very English tea and biscuits I had served at my house, and on one occasion I had baked a tray of flapjacks that had ended up as a heap of crumbs much to everyone's amusement!