Easter Children

Here are the latest editions to our 2010 Easter family...

I enjoyed creating the children, but I find animals so difficult! That hare just didn't want to seem to come into existence! I'm continuing to build our easter sunday story around these characters as well as the wise ones of the forest from my previous post.

This shot looks like an album cover or something I thought! Posers! Hehe...

I tried to make the children look like they could have come from any typical fairy tale - but after sitting back and looking at what I'd done, I realised that I would also like to create some less stereotypical anglo-saxon dolls as I feel the celebration of all ethnicities is integral to the lives of our children. After finishing off these little ones I also feel the urge to try my hand at some less definied figures. I've been making them all quite solid as Aria has been teething and I wanted them to withstand any task she had for them and for her to play freely with them. Even so, next I think I'll try some more flowing, delicate and less formed little souls that may remain hung up or on a higher shelf just to look at.

If I don't manage another post before Easter I'd like to wish everyone a beautiful and soul filled time ahead. May you all see with wonder anew, the sheer miraculous beauty of each family member around your table... I know I'll be aiming to focus on this (if I can manage to remember amidst all the hustle and bustle). A time to let go and welcome new life  and new beginnings (and by that I mean 'inner' life... no Mum, I'm not pregnant! :) hehe)

Over the Weekend...

Over the weekend...

The wise ones of the forest stopped by before their grand entrance on Easter Sunday...

Every year the Easter Hare comes to visit from the other side of the world where it is spring. We polish our ripe autumn apples (with magical stars inside!) and leave them as a gift for him, in return the hare comes bounding through the woods to share some bright cheer. He brings the gift of warmth with him so we can stay nice and cosy as the days grow cooler - a nice new warm hat and the first warm pyjamas of the year, but he always brings some special brightly coloured eggs. Some of the eggs have a beautiful golden centre to remind us that Father Sun will be back soon after he has finished visiting the folks on the other side of the world for a while. 

The other eggs that the Easter Hare delivers are extremely special indeed. They are magic eggs from his home land of sun and warmth. These eggs are the homes of the wise ones of the forest who will pop out and share their many bright happy stories and secrets. Because it is now sunny spring in the land where they come from, these wise ones are always ready to shed their shells around easter time. As a most magical gift, they ask the Hare if he will transport them to the children in the cool Autumn lands so they can give their little homes and bright cheer as a symbol of hope and new life. They come to remind us of the joyous festivities in nature that will arise after Mother nature has cooled off for a while. They bring with them the warmth and magic from their homeland to make sure that we are kept all snug - just like they have been in their cosy fluffy egg shaped homes...

Bear with me here... this story is still just clumsily (very clumsily) forming in my head! Any ideas? I'll be telling the whole story properly using needle felted puppets (which I've yet to make) before we embark on our egg hunt. I don't want to begin the whole chocolate egg thing, so am trying to make this extra special and magical in place of the usual tradition. I think Aria is probably still a little young to get what I'll be going on about, but I think she will take in the specialness of the situation. I'm hoping to create something that encourages a serene sense of gratitude for mother nature's changing seasons and natural cycles of renewal - something beautiful, childlike and enchanting that we can look forward to each Easter.

I wonder what magical heart warming stories this wise one has in store for us during the following cooler seasons?

Some other things from our weekend...

A loooooong walk along the beach...

I could just feel the toxins melting away in the gentle Autumn sun while the waves coaxed my feet :) 

So many gifts from nature to be found...

Aria made some interesting discoveries...

and later on we enjoyed taking some rather atmospheric time out during Earth Hour...

With Peace and Love xxx

Good morning sunshine

Dada's image of us greeting the day (captured on his phone as he was heading out the door) - Nourishing carroty rice dish for Mama and liquid gold for Bubba.

Autumn Equinox Birthday

Another birthday has been and gone with the flavour of such a huge year of growth on the tip of my tongue... I was born on the Autumn equinox and use this time each year to reflect on where I'm at and where I want to be - to be truly grateful and to go within. I guess lots of people may feel that this sort of thing comes more naturally to them over the new year period, but for me I'm still engrossed in the kind of energetic outpouring which is so easily coupled with the heat of Summer. By the time my birthday comes around each year the journey into the cooler months has most certainly begun and it is time for some inner cosying up. This year I chose to take full advantage of the thinning veil between this world and the others which is so often celebrated at equinox. I also focused on the notion of 'balance' by drawing inspiration from the equal balance between day/night that occurs as the sun passes over the equator on this day each year. I took some time to re-assess and re-focus my intentions with a refreshed purpose and energy.There is definitely so much for me to appreciate in my life and I was also inspired to pay particular attention to the beauty of the now. My family helped me to do this very thing as we gathered together to celebrate...

I started off the celebration the night before by attempting my first NT recipe. It was DELICIOUS! Vanilla barvarian dessert with blueberry (supposed to be blackberry) sauce. Mmmmmmnnnn

 I made some time for some of my favourite things - sewing, knitting, footbath with oils and magnesium salts, reading and all on my new gift - a rocking chair! I've wanted one of these since I was a kid! I remember Mum having one when I was a little girl - now I'm a Mum myself with my very own rocking chair too... aaaw :)

We had our very first festival with the local Steiner Co-op. What great timing and such a beautiful way to spend the day. We made autumn wreaths amidst heart warming song and stories. Delightful!

Mama is incredibly grateful for all the amazing new friendships that are blossoming.

And Dada got to come along too and see what this lovely community is all about.

A pine and eucalyptus scented walk while singing goodbye to summer and welcoming the autumn days.

 Would you accept cake from this face??

 Absolutely! A warm and tasty end to a beautiful day and a rather eventful year :)

Laughter, Gnomes and Renewal

This week we've had the typical crazy Melbourne weather. It has been obtrusively hot and humid one day and wintery cold the next! I guess on the other hand you could say that we've had the best of both worlds - the cosy snuggles while the rain is pouring outside, and the beachy days with warm nights gazing at the sunset...

After a long ride on the back of Mama's bike, it's always a good idea to let loose on the climbing equipment!

Jumping, climbing stairs and clambering up the frames are my little one's most smile-inducing activities right now. I love this adventurous spirit of the newly mobile child - still finding her way into her body with so much laughter as it happens.

Watching the sun set on a particularly hot and sultry evening. Will this girl ever tire of the beach? I truly hope not.

Big cuddles, fresh water and lazing around while looking at the rainbowed heavens... could there be any better lullaby?

Aria's new little gnome family are silently awaiting to be introduced to her on Easter. (Little does she know of the plans they are concocting and of all the adventures they will have together). These are made using your average laundry pegs which I chopped of at different lengths and sanded. They stand up well with their cloaks acting as a balancing aid. The pattern for the felt clothes is on my last WIP post  ... I won't be able to fit them into the felted eggs as planned though, so will have to think of something else for those little treasure chests!

I managed to finish these little booties and fell in love! I've decided I need some Mama sized ones. The pattern for these is also on the last WIP blog post that I mentioned above.

I've had to cut back a little on my crafting over the last week. I'm going through a complete diet and lifestyle overhaul in order to get some relief from my CF/Fibromyalgia which has been getting worse. I'm embarking on the NT (nourishing traditions) diet and some other therapies. I'll keep you posted as to how it all goes - hopefully I'll have the energy to write a more detailed post on what I've been looking at. It's all very enlightening, and while it can be daunting and discouraging to have to move through such a debilitating condition, it is also quite exciting and rewarding knowing that I'm truly grwoing out of the old and into the now. 

The NT diet is a huge step for me as I've been a stict vegetarian for so long and am now facing the idea of eating meat (!!) in order to heal (organic and local). It has been highly reccomended to me by some dear friends and after reading up about this style of eating, it really seems to make a lot of sense. This is a massive change! I've been using a lot of time and energy researching possible options (my evenings have been mostly spent with my nose planted in books), so I'm taking a little time out here and there to give myself over to this process. Wish me luck!

This Moment

Inspired by SouleMamma 
"{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

WIP wednesday

I've been enjoying utilising my fidgety tendencies of late and chanelling them into these projects...

The beginnings of some longer warmer thicker nappy soakers for Aria's autumnal behind. I'm going to knit them to about 3/4 length and crochet some little frills around the bottom to give the legs a flared look. I'm using this pattern as a basic guide to go by.

As part of Aria's Easter basket, I thought I'd add a nice warm hat each year. She has grown out of her last pixie hat, so I thought I'd knit her a brand spankin' new one using this pattern with a groovy button to brighten it up.

A new rainbow vesty-cardy thing for my snuggly rainbow child.

Some teensy weensy booties for the very newest member of our family. Michael's cousin has just given birth to a gorgeous little baby girl -'India Lily'. I forgot just how tiny newborns are and am getting all those fuzzy wuzzy widdle baby feelings!

These wet felted easter eggs are in need of some major reinforcements along the openings.When they're done they will house a set of autumn gnomes made out of the felt in this picture (I love these colours and the pure wool hand dyed felt feels so soft) and some wooden pegs. This will make up the bulk of our Easter egg hunt this year, as I'm not interested in having chocolate eggs or anything like that. I'm hoping that all the bright colours will stand out and make these eggs easy for little 20mth old eyes to see. I stole the idea from a very creative mama who also provides a link to a tutorial for these.

As I write this I have an old t-shirt of mine sitting in the water of boiled onion skins in preparation to become a knotted dolls head. Aria is starting to show an interest in dolls, so I thought I'd begin my doll making adventures with something simple and made out of re-purposed materials (an old tablecloth will become her body). I'm using these directions from this site where there are a number or wonderful doll tutorials and patterns.

And last, but not least, this painting is slowly evolving out of the few little corners of spare time I have every now and then. It's been difficult to get a flow going as I really just need a whole weekend or something to absorb myself in it (yeah right!). I'm sure I'll get there eventually! It's also pretty huge which is adding to the prolonged state of affairs. In our the lounge room of our new home there is a very very large recess for the purpose of wall mounting a ginormous plasma screen t.v. (I think I've mentioned this before maybe?) Hopefully this will add some extra warmth to the house as all the walls are white and we need a bit of colour. I've been a bit worried that the colours and size may be too overwhelming for little eyes, but now I just want to get it finished!

On that note, I'll leave you all to enjoy your own crafty projects (all the blogs I've been looking at are amazingly creative and inspiring to say the least!)

xx

A snippet of our week

I managed to finish a little more knitting this week - although I still have so many projects on my needles that aren't yet finished. I can't ever seem to do just one thing and then move on to the next - it has to be everything at once! This little cardi nearly had this novice knitter going cross eyed - I swear knitting is good for the brain. Here is the pattern I used. At the moment I have started a pair of long soakers which are so incredibly soft, a pixie bonnet for Aria's easter basket - it was supposed to be for our new little cousin, but turned out too big so I've started some bootees for little India Lily instead.

Other projects on the go are some wet felted easter eggs, a set of autumn coloured gnomes to go inside the eggs for an egg hunt on easter sunday, a huge painting for our living room (to fill a recess designed to wall mount a great big plasma t.v - since we're not watchers of the box, I thought I'd dust off my paints), the begininnings of an organic vegie patch, the invitations for my sister's wedding and Aria's very first doll (a knot doll). I'll include pictures and links to the patterns as I finish each thing. I love putting my fidgety tendencies to good use!

You may not be able to tell from this shot as it's quite blury, but Aria was flitting about like a wee ballerina on our walk. She loved this little area - so many curious things to behold!

A friend of mine speaks of discovering 'fairy carpet' as the cooler weather approaches and I just love the images this conjures up! We found some too! Some lovely soft green gnomes carpet - laid just in time to keep them warm as the days grow cooler...

A curly whirly Dr Suess tree!

Aria sang her very first song... it sounded so sweet... the words: "Pooooo ooo oo p poooos." Yes, poo has kind of dominated our week this week!

 

Droplets from the heavens. Some welcome refreshment!

 

We went to visit our little friend, Sunday, who showed us all the animals at her place...Including a snake! Aria's a braver girl than I! Sunday and her Mum look after lots of animals and gave us our own personal tour. Lots of fun!

Stories to cultivate a peaceful world.

Today I just wanted to link to a post that I've found holds much food for thought. Annette has a wonderful blog and has written here with regards to her thoughts on what we need to consider when choosing stories for our children.

It can be so easy to fall into a rather ethnocentric trap when choosing stories, toys and experiences (even the language we use) for our children. I think it is crucial for the cultivation of a peaceful world that we as parents become mindful of the world we present to our children and avoid promoting (even unconsiously) the whole 'us and them' type dichotomy.

Autumn Queen of Earth and Fire

The warm and mysterious Autumn Queen of earth and fire is in the neighbourhood! 

The photo opportunity was fleeting as she is so madly busy with all her magical duties during these months. Just a quick shot and then she had to dash!

I'm led to believe she's been liasing with the local chickens and the Easter hare... I wonder what could be in store?

  A time for introspection and simplicity as the refreshingly cool and darker days settle in. Then our easter celebration where warmth, life and abundance will joyously return!

Mantra