the mystery basket

one of the other things i picked up on the island was my mother’s old husquavarna sewing machine from the 70s. she bought a new sewing machine last year and since then my father has been promising to fix the old one so i could have it – which he did (with some rather nifty drilling into the flywheel). i have never before had use of a sewing machine, so that in itself is pretty stellar… but nowhere near as exciting as this sewing basket…..

this is the sewing basket my mother used when i was a small child, and for some reason it was always totally mesmerizing to me. often i was in trouble for mucking about in this basket, getting things tangled up and using the pinking shears for cutting paper (this being a big no-no). it seemed to me full of great tools of mystery…..

it is no joke that i was as excited to get this derelict basket as i was the sewing machine – some magic portal to all that is unknown to the small child’s mind….. constructing ideas as projects and making messes along the way.