I make do with what I have. There are many things we can't get easily here in NZ, especially the papers. My god the day I get to see & touch some of the papers which are mentioned I know I will likely have died & gone to paper heaven hahahahaha.
I've learnt what I can substitute with & what doesn't work so well too.

I love making blank journals. Some I give away, some I use as journals myself, some I just sit around in places I can see them so I can touch them as I go past.
One of the structures we made has become my daily diary type journal. In fact I've made that structure 3 times as i love to so much.
I stick or stitch things in some, I write in some, I stash things in pockets I create in some & one of my favourites I made specifically as a home for my embroideries. 

perhaps not THE great lakes 
perhaps not even great 
but definitely lakes
albeit pigment lakes 

it’s nice to be able to make our own pigments from the left over dyebaths 

so far this year we have yellow brown, brown brown & poo brown …
​
keep reminding myself 
it’s about the process 
not the outcome 😆

In July 2022 I followed along with Heidi Parkes' Creativebug class, ‘Story Quilt Top: A Daily Practice in Hand Stitching’. 
It’s a month long class with daily prompts & it was an enormous amount of fun.

Obviously it took me a bit longer than a month & I finished the quilt top sometime in November, chose the backing & the wadding & then decided I wanted to see what happened if I stitched the entire top 😂 
I took my time 😏 & completed the quilt around the 3rd week of January. 
It’s around 95cm & it’s squarish. 
Although it looks kinda stiff with all the stitches it’s amazingly soft & deliciously tactile.
It’s such a cool concept that I’m looking forward to having another reason to make one, although I think I’ll simplify the quilting tho 🤣  

these things i never leave home without
L to R: my dickproof jacket, my taonga pounamu, my 'reflect the haters' sunglasses, my finger print (sense of self)

stitched elements that were just fun shapes to create
​L to R: goddess of the bench top, stitched circles, seaweed shaped elements 

elements left over from other projects
​L to R: hexies, my first quilt, a favourite dress & from practising adding curved shapes to fabric

and finally
L to R: a little mock up of my everyday bag, made from the bag fabric; puffy thingamabobs called yo-yos made from dress fabric & the label from a pair of pants which I never wore because they shrunk so much when I washed them !
I cut them up & saved them for a rainy day lol