Trying something new, and repairing the garden...

This year I have been enjoying learning more about Japanese embroidery and sashiko, and these are two things I find incredibly relaxing, especially as I like to keep my fingers busy in the evening, when the work of the day is behind me. 

Currently I'm working on a pattern by Yumiko Higuchi, from her book 'A Year of Embroidery'. The book was gifted to me by a very kind blog reader, Debby, for my birthday in February, and I have chosen the cover design as my first project from it. Living in the tropics, we are constantly surrounded by geckos and lizards - in fact you can watch geckos running here and there across our floor and ceiling every night - so the lizard in this design caught my eye immediately. 

In my own designs I always use two threads, or perhaps a single strand for bees or words, but its been quite a learning curve to embroider with six strands! But I am loving it. :-)

When I visit our local library nowadays, the first shelf I walk to is the one where I can find Japanese craft books. They don't have many, but the ones they have are good, and this week I came across this one...

I don't usually 'read' craft books, but flip through to find something of interest to make, however, I could not put this down last night. The author creates the most interesting and lovely clothes from old worn pieces, to which she will stitch patches, in various sizes and overlaps, to cover holes or threadbare sections, but also adding more to bring visual balance to the item. She saves all her scraps, and gathers more from trips to charity stores, so that she can take her time repairing her clothes, or making something from various pieces, using just the right colour or scrap. 

Boro began from sashiko, the simple art of running stitch to mend. Over time sashiko became more decorative, but boro is still associated with mending patches over each other. 

The author, Harumi Horiuchi, takes you through different stages of her clothing makeovers, and shows the varied techniques she uses, including dying old fabrics and sashiko threads together to get the right shade for mending or adding extra patches to the background fabrics. 

I am so inspired by her, that I dug out a few very plain cotton dresses, white and cream, that I had purchased for a few dollars back in 2020 and intended to dye. I also pulled out my stash of linen scraps, and created a bundle of pieces to use in my own version of a boro dress. 

I have an idea in my mind of how I'll do this, but in reality this will be about learning a new skill, and creating something useful and wearable in the process. I shall keep you updated on my progress with this. 

Kelly has been with us for two weeks now, and already he is a very different dog to the nervous and sick little boy he was when we brought him home from the animal rescue shelter. He brings us so much joy, and in return he showers us with love. He is still very wary of other humans, but loves Blossom and her family, including their dog, Barnaby. 

This morning we took Kelly over for a visit, and Barnaby and he met outside on the front lawn, both on leads. Now both Kelly and Barnaby do not like other dogs, but they quietly rubbed noses, had a sniff, and hung out together for the next twenty minutes, calm as can be. We are overjoyed! Now we know they are fine together, Blossom can bring Barnaby over when she and the children visit us. 

Our garden was pretty well decimated during the months of monsoon rain and floods, but we're slowly removing things that couldn't cope, nurturing things that did, and planting a few veggies and herbs (a little at a time).

It's lovely to see flowers in bloom again, and various herbs thriving. Interestingly, the only things that survived well, were plants in pots or raised beds, as we could move the pots, and the larger raised bed had good drainage. 

(white angelonia, and the sage in the backgound flourished all through the summer monsoons and heat - sage never has before)

(likewise the basil never let up, and all areas of the garden where we had it in pots or raised beds, it thrived)

(chives and spring (green) onions struggled and most died, but they are coming back wonderfully now - I also sprouted some basil from a cutting and it's doing well in a pot)

(more sage, and purple angelonia)

(mint, lemon balm, lime balm, a potted bay tree, aloe vera, and ferns, among other things, have come along well in their pots over the past few dry weeks)

 

I did a lot of pruning after Easter, and cleared this area above. To kick start our winter growing I have planted out parsley, rocket (arugula) and cucumber seedlings in various pots around the yard, and planted seeds of snow peas, dill, coriander, and various flowers into raised beds and a few pots. 

There's still so much to do, but small steps add up and I can see life in the garden once more. The passionfruit and mulberry are fruiting, as is our lime tree (though it gave an abundance of huge heavy fruit all through the monsoon season). My ginger also fared well and will be ready to harvest in another month.

Our fallen Poicianna has been chopped into pieces for burning in Blossom's fire pit through winter, but hubby kept one long piece of trunk for us to use as a bench seat. He still has a lot of work to do on it, but it will be lovely one day. 

He took advice from Rosie's husband Brian, who is very knowledgable about all things horticultural, and we're trying to save what's left of the Poinciana, hoping it will regrow. Only time will tell. 

It is odd to see the cut piece of trunk growing, but that just means there's still a lot of nutrition in it. The piece of trunk still in the ground is also sprouting. Time will tell if we can bring new life to our dear tree. 

I hope you have had a lovely week, and wonder if you are working on anything in your own garden? Have you tried Boro, or some other new-to-you craft? I'd love to hear about the things you're doing. 

God bless dear ones, and I pray that just like my garden, if you've had some difficult times this year, that you can see recovery in the weeks and months ahead. My garden is currently a lesson in slow and steady, patience, hard work, and hope. We must never lose hope. 

Until next time, may the light of Jesus fill your dark spaces, and His JOY overflow in your hearts!

You will find my design account on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my other Instagram account, just for homemaking, HERE @elefantzhome

Subscribe to my free Friday newsletter HERE and never miss a blog post, pattern or tutorial

Stitch my free 2025 block of the month 'The Sewing Room' HERE

Finding beauty, and some show and tell...

The sky still rains, the ground is still soaked, the submersible pumps in the front and back yards run their rhythm of on/off all day and night to remove the endless water from around the house, and yet life continues normally most of the time. 

The wet season is normally easing off around mid-March, but this year it is revving up again, though we had about nine days of scorching dry heat at the end of February which helped dry out the ground eventually. With so many weeks/months of heavy downpours, overcast skies, deep thunders and lightning flashes across the night sky, its easy to feel a bit grey yourself. The best thing to do when that happens is to look for beauty in the midst of the gloom. 

It was wonderful to get four hours without rain this morning, and I quickly hung out the washing, praying for God's grace to see it dry before the skies opened again with the next pounding of rain. The temperature is still hot and very humid, which helps to dry things when you only have a short window of time. 

Washing hung on the clothesline is a thing of beauty to me, and as I get to do this almost year round, I know I'm very blessed. 

I'm still sad about the demise of our once beautiful, and huge, poinciana tree, but we cannot do anymore than has been done already with regards to chopping the remaining limbs and trunk until the dry season returns. 

If you've seen my tree before, here it is...

...and all that is left after the monsoon last month.

But my goodness, it wants to grow still...

....so we may have to consider another option, such as cutting it right back low on the trunk and seeing what nature can do. Lots of think about, and pray about. 

The yards are overgrown from months of rain, and even though you cannot see, when you walk on the ground you sink down into a lot of water that simply has nowhere to go as the ground is already saturated. Now, I could let the 'woes' get to me, but I choose to look for beauty amidst all that's been overtaken by weeds, or drowned from too much water, or plants simply struggling to keep going.

I pruned my roses just before the monsoon, and apart from my pretty yellow rose that couldn't cope any longer, they're surviving....even blooming. I have them all in pots, as they will all die if I left them in the ground, but how blessed I am to have all but one fighting on. This is one of my long stemmed reds...

...and here's a few other pretties that have coped well. 

I'm also blessed to see the basil, spring onions, chives, sage and mint doing well! The basil and sage are planted in a few places around the yard, but all are doing well. I thought I'd lost the mint and lime balm, but they've decided to come back with gusto. Beautiful. 

No matter what, it's important that we see through the grey days, whether they be weather related or something else, and intentionally go looking for the simple beauties that are always there to be seen, but too often overlooked. 

The weather will be hot and humid for quite a while yet, but eventually things will cool down when winter arrives in June. Every winter I re-read Laura Ingalls Wilder's "The Long Winter" but I'm starting early this year reading one chapter each night before bed. It's my favourite of all her books, and I think it's for a few reasons.

1. It's a real winter, unlike the temperate one we get here in the tropics.

2. It's a lesson in resilience by real people who lived a real life. 

3. It's a lesson in resourcefulness when times are dire. 

4. They keep the faith, and they do all they can to look after themselves and help others in need.

What's a book you re-read each year? What do you love about it?

SHOW & TELL

I lost a lot of emails with show & tell photos last year when we had to fix my computer, but I do have a few Show & Tell photos to show you now that were sent to me by lovely women who made some of my designs. 

First, there's Ann Boudrot's version of the Simple Days quilt, all completed...she says this is her favourite quilt, and you know, it's mine too, because it was designed to celebrate the simple life I love. Didn't she make it beautifully! She even added lace inside the final border...

Next is Irmgard Jacob's version of the "Joy in the Ordinary" quilt, which was my block of the month pattern for 2024. 

Her colour choices are so warm and homely, like a hot cocoa on a late autumn afternoon. I love it! 

And thirdly I have Cathi Hurtubise's bordered block from my ongoing free stitchalong, Promises of God. The photo she sent was tiny, so it's not easy to see well, but it's beautiful!

If you'd like to join in the free Promises of God stitchalong, you can download the first three patterns HERE

If you'd like to sew Simple Days, the pattern is HERE...

and if you'd like to sew Joy in the Ordinary, it is HERE

Hopefully by the end of the week I will have completed a large downloadable Bible Study for you, as a gift. In between deep cleaning the house, refreshing my sewing/office space, general homemaking and trying to tame the garden between storms, I've been putting this study together in the hope it will be a blessing, and praying it will glorify the Lord. 

But right now, it is late, and I'm off to bed. God bless you dear ones, and always remember, look for the beauty around you and let God enlarge it in your heart. 

Hugs and prayers,

You will find me on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my NEW IG account just for homemaking HERE @elefantzhome

Subscribe to my free Friday newsletter HERE and never miss a blog post, pattern or tutorial

Stitch my free 2025 block of the month 'The Sewing Room' HERE