welcome! I’m Liza - the dreamer and creative behind “only lovely things.” I’ve been creating and starting projects and picking up crafts for truly as long as my memories start, and having this platform to share them is a dream come true.

as young as six years old, I remember hand sewing odd-shaped pincushions and doll pillows and accessories out of embroidery floss and felt, eventually moving on to learning how to operate a sewing machine and actual embroidery and cross stitch a few years later thanks to my talented mother. a teacher of mine taught me to knit by the time I was nine, and I started (and did not finish) many an ambitious sweater for my dolls and stuffed animals.

by high school, I was sewing costumes and ensembles for myself and my siblings, though I was rarely brave enough to wear them out and about as often I wanted. but I kept creating, kept learning and trying new techniques and learning more about textiles as I went, and shared them on a good old blogspot blog. (ah, those were the days! the wild, unhinged internet)

now as a mother and a farmer and farmer’s wife, my free time is considerably less, and a few years ago I realized I had stopped creating almost completely. sure, I was decorating a home and dressing my children and gardening, but that itch to create things with my hands was starting to get hard to ignore. I broke out the sewing machine again, only to find that spreading out large projects for days at a time in a 70 foot trailer with multiple children running around was less fulfilling and more frustrating.

unwilling to give up, I turned back to hand crafts - embroidery, cross stitch, hand-sewing, and then of course, knitting. I decided it was time I learned how to crochet, and swallowed my desire to be Perfect At Everything The First Time I Try, and gave it a shot, and was hooked. (pun intended)

over the past few years, between babies and meal times and animal chores and just generally existing, I’ve found ways to grab a few minutes here and there to create small things that brighten up our home and our lives that don’t take a huge time commitment, but still push me as a creative and are worth spending the time to complete.

as I’ve grown and found my niche, I’ve also applied the principles we embrace as a family and a farm and began to source my materials as sustainably as possible, and found when I approached my little endeavor as holistically as we do everything else, that I find the projects and opportunities that are meant for me in a way that is sustainable for my family as well.

thank you again for stopping in, and please click through the “shop” page to see what sort of products I’m offering, and where you can find them! also feel free to peruse the workbasket gallery and see some of the work I’ve done in the past to get a feel for what I do and what I love.