Back after a six-month hiatus, I bring you: Favourite Things Friday, a themed collection of clever, inspiring and beautiful things seen around the Internet during the week. Ta da!

Today’s collection celebrates spring and all things green and growing. Have a wonderful weekend, dear friend. I’m off to pot some herbs.

1. Macramé memories

Everyone had macramé in their homes when I was growing up. Owls, plant-hangers and abstract patterns were all popular. We’d learn macramé for craft in school, carefully knotting the rope together and selecting wooden beads to decorate the tails that dangled down. I wonder how many mothers out there received macramé plant-hangers for Mothers Day. It must be millions.

Anyhoo, it’s kind of nostalgic and nice to think they’re coming back, don’t you agree? I certainly wouldn’t say no to any of these beautiful neon-hued hangers from Kitiya Palaskas in Sydney, first seen on the Etsy blog.

2. The greenhouse

I recently discovered the blog of fellow Melbourne mama Jody, Lemon Rhodes. Jody and I have seen one another around the traps, in blog forums on Facebook, on Instagram etc, and I met her briefly at a dinner the other night – just long enough to say “hello my name is” as I ran out the door to feed Madeleine – but didn’t realise who she was until later. Her family and her blog are just beautiful. During the Melbourne Cup holiday, they all got planting in a greenhouse. This post made me wish all over again that I had more than a postage stamp’s worth of space outside my house.

3. Colourful clay pots

I see DIY tutorials on the Internet all the time, and so often I think they look exactly right. Beautiful, nostalgic, handmade. Then I try them and they look like they were made by a three-year-old. Which would be really cute if they WERE made by a three-year-old, but not so cute from the hands of a grown-up. Still, I am rather tempted to try my hands at making these Polymer clay pot-holders. They are just so darned pretty and they would look so lovely hanging above the window in our bedroom. Alternatively, I could wait until Madeleine turns three…

4. Succulent shelves

Aren’t these shelves beautiful? Given my general DIY-challenged state of being (see above), I’m not even going to consider making them. But I had to share them because they were so lovely. And maybe you have more crafty carpent-y skills than I do.

5. Botanical notebooks

I have a weakness for vintage botanical prints. There are vintage botanical prints in frames in our bedroom. More on cards and paper I have collected. I like to go to antique print stores and look through the original botanical prints (that I could never afford to buy). If I had botanical-printed notebooks like these, I would have to call them “field books” instead, and pretend I was an explorer. Jolly good, old chap.

ps. Go here for more favourite things collections