Christmas Rainbow Baby Tutorial

 A couple of people have asked me how to make the little christmas babies in my last post, so I thought I'd attempt a tutorial... Here goes!

With some skin coloured wool roving separate the section into 3 parts. One for the inside of the head, the outside and a small piece to tie around the neck.

 Tie one of the larger section in a loose knot to form the inside of the head.

Cover the knotted piece with the other larger section of wool while leaving the ends to hang down at the bottom.

Tie the small piece of wool around the base of the head where the ends are hanging down.

 With some pink wool pull off three large sections.

Needle felt these to the hanging pieces of skin coloured wool around the base of the head. Have the looser and thinner end of each section of the wool towards the bottom - this will help to form the tapered shape.

Attach the pink wool around the whole circumference of the neck looking for any gaps that may need to be filled.

Next, with some purple wool, felt on some smaller sections in the same manner. The pink wool should still be visible below the ends of the purple wool.

Follow this with some darker blue, then some lighter blue.

Then needle felt some green wool around the base of the head- using shorter tufts for each new colour.

Finish with some small apple green pieces around the neck.

For the hat, use a pice of yellow and a piece of green wool. Combine them together by gently ripping them and laying them over each other to form a marbled effect. You could alternatively just use the yellow on it's own.

Wrap the wool around the head and needle felt in place. Smooth out any lumps and bumps with the needle and tuck in any loose ends around the neck by punching in with the needle.

 To finish, use a small length of yellow wool to wrap around the neck.

Needle felt this in place - again, punching in any loose ends.

 Sew a thread into the head and there you have it! A magical rainbow baby for the christmas tree:)

With love and light

xxx

and the Christmas Season Begins...

Christmas is everywhere already! I love this time of year and am being flooded with ideas as to what Aria and I can make for gifts as well as some little treasures for her. We are also getting into the spirit of Spring/Summer and getting into lots of new activites...

We have been busy making christmas tree ornaments - I may put wings on them to make them into christmas angels, but I quite like them as is; little christmas flower babies to hang on the tree. Aria's favourite is the rainbow baby:)

These are extremely addictive to make!

Aria helped to sort out the different lengths of wool into bowls from her kitchen. She then handed them to me as I needed them. I also supplied a little foam pad and a small stick (for her 'needle') just for her as she happily mimicked what I was doing. She loved pulling the wool apart and "making babies" while sitting in the sun with me.

 

Today we got the wool out again along with some cookie cutters and wet felted these shapes. I thought I'd do some blanket stitch around the edges and sew some beads on for some more christmas ornaments to be gifted to family and friends - we better get busy if we want some for our tree too!

The weather here still hasn't straightened out in all it's spring glory, so one wet afternoon Aria and I painted each others faces. There was a lot of laughter, that's for sure.

For the spiritual circle that I go to each month we were asked to make some tarot cards. I decided it would be fun to paint them with Aria. She was thrilled with all the card laid out on the table and set to work! They turned out to be really special cards:) I was really nervous about doing a reading on another person - a relative 'stranger', but it was a lot easier than I thought and freed up a lot of fears around speaking with others.

Recently I have altered our weekle rhythm to include: Monday - Cooking day, Tuesday - cleaning day, Wednesday - Pool day, Thursday - Playgroup day, Friday - Gardening day. This week we made a gluten free teddy bear cake and some delicious Pizza (although Aria didn't want to eat hers in the end so it ended up in Aunty Kirsty's tummy!)

For 'pool day' we have been visiting an awesome salt water pool in Mt Martha. Aria loves jumping in and out of the pool and the water play really seems to be a grreat need for her. Aunty Kirsty came to visit this week and took these shots on her phone.

Peace,

xxx

Mary, Bluebell, Berry, and the Wind.

Time to breathe for a moment I think... I'm talking abouy the whole family here and not just me! We've had one of those weeks - or few months really. (How did November get here so quickly!) Craziness! Car rides here and there, so many errands, so many plans to make, ideas to consider about the future, and so much to do. It's so easy to get lost in all the traffic of life without meaning to and eventually end up looking back at recent events needing one big long out breath! It is wonderful, though, to look back over the week in photos and to remember those moments of joy that came with all that activity - to be grateful for all that we have experienced and all that we are - to feel warm and safe in our little family unit that goes through the waves of life together (with cuddles!).

Halloween was another family affair with members of both sides getting into the spirit of our spring-flavoured celebrations.

Aria went as 'mary had a little lamb' after discovering the perfect sized crook at the craft store. This is my second attempt at asewing from pattern and she didn't want to take it off at the end of the day! Success!

We are continuing the traditions that we started last year - including the offerings from each person of lovely spring produce to be divided up for all at the end of the celebrations. What a display of abundance!

Aria and I enjoyed sitting in the sun. Aria chatted away while I made her some 'babies'. This one is named 'berry'...

This one is named 'bluebell', and she now lives with a little girl we met at the beach while having lunch with Aunty Kirsty. This little girl has asperger syndrome and was really taken with bluebell. It was incredibly touching. Aria chose bluebell to give to her and we could see that this little baby would be loved very much with lots of cuddles and kisses.

At our Steiner group we made a 'wind sock'. It just so happened that it was a very windy day - Aria had a lot of fun taking it out for a spin (as well as a spring coloured silk painted by some children at a local primary school to sell at their fete) while waiting for Dadda to come home on the train.

A perfect spring passtime! :)

With love, light, and peace

xxx

So many things to blog about!

It seems to have been ages since I posted a blog about the goings on around here... so here is a mish mash of what we've been doing lately in this 'Jekyll and Hyde' spring weather! Octoboer came and went in the blink of an eye and now we're heading toward christmas - i can hardly believe it!

I made my first little thing sewing from and actual pattern! I was so scared of patterns for some reason, but Aria seems to love it all the same:)

She is fascinated with all the bird activity around the place at the moment - it's like a spectacular air show with birds!

I decided to continue with the whole sewing-from-a-pattern thing and made this little dress for Aria for our 'Spring Harvest/Halloween party'. She wanted to go as "Mary had a little lamb" after she discovered a crook/walking stick the perfect size for her at the craft shop.

I made my first coil bowl...

Rainbow colours:)

Aria got in on the creative mood and decorated her face with markers that Mama absent mindedly left lying about! (At least they were the wash-in-water non toxic kind!)

We've had many new faces and experiences with little miss 2yr old!

It has been so much fun being able to communicate on a whole new level!

Earlier in the month my sister had her wedding...

It was a beautiful day with many smiles...

The bride and groom looked absolutely breath taking!

It was a lot of fun getting to know the other bridesmaids a little better during the lead up to the wedding. There was so much to organise and it was a pleasure with these beautiful women:)

 

Aria received a special gift from Great Nanna and Great Grandad (visiting from NZ) who saw her fascination with prams/babies and spotted this awesome retro set of wheels at the Hurstbridge market.

It was soooo wonderful to have all the relos visiting from NZ for the wedding. Aria had a fantastic time meeting everyone again. I really miss my kiwi family!

Aria proudly showed off the house we made for Aunty Kirsty...

...and had more fun and games with family:)

The new bride and our Dad:) I love this shot!

 

We returned home from the wedding to find that a bird has nested on our fuse box! All's going well so far and we've managed not to disturb her... we are now using the other door! I hope those babies turn out ok sitting on top of that fuse box!

An finally... I now have my long awaited dreadies! I'm LOVING them so far:)

They are slowly forming and right now I'm going few the inevitable initial period of complete and utter frizziness!

We have our Halloween/Spring party tomorrow night and preparations are underway right now... speaking of which, I'd better run of and help out!

In love and light

xxx