A Waldorf Doll for Boo

A snug winter bonnet and cardigan is finished after lots of busy knitting hours late last night.

Merry Christmas everyone.

xx

Last minute festive preparation...

Making a new friend for someones special Saint Stephen's day birthday!

Shhhh, don't tell....

Hopefully she will also have a snug knitted bonnet to keep her warm in the snow by Boxing day too.

We've been curling up regularly with a favourite Christmas picture book...

Or two...

Making last minute Homemade felt star ornaments swaddling them cosy in in tissue paper blankets to give as little gifts.

Emmy has added a welcome burst of colour upon the window with these beautiful, easy to follow, waldorf window star patterns.

A worthy way to while away an afternoon!

Of course with the frosty weather we have been making more beautiful ice lanterns!

But where is the chocolate? For surely, there always has to be a drop of chocolate somewhere at Christmas time.

Why here it is.

These are absolutely yummy and so easy to make!

Christmas Florentines from this lovely, simple recipe...

Enjoy

xx

We light our lamps.... We wait expectant

"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Isaiah 40:31

A slow transformation is happening. From the dark womb of winter. A light begins to shine.

A star within begins to glow warm. Eyes are raised. Seeking signs. The path slowly illuminates beneath our feet. We are beginning our journey to Bethlehem from here. This snow laced ground. The terra firma of our souls.

Unraveling, unveiling as blossoming sepals. Us becoming.

Growing into the shape of the journey itself...

Soon there will be a celebration of new life. New hope!

A new covenant.

A new promise.

And with this new light, this new sight we shall see jewels abundant. Shining deep!

Embedded.

Within the clay of everyday life.

Grace imprinted details. His face etched upon every surface.

Every soul...

We light our lamps...

And wait expectant...

"At least in part, what God does to us while we wait is as important as what it is we are waiting for."

John Ortberg

Simple Winter Joys and a Simple Winter Salad Recipe

 
The perfect Winter Salad.

One small red cabbage shredded.

4 good sized carrots grated.

3 sharp green apples grated.

1 large red onion finely sliced.

1 beetroot chopped

A little salt and pepper.

A squeeze of lemon.

A glug of olive oil.

A splash of balsamic vinegar.

Late afternoon light. Sepia spilled beauty.

Winter inspiration. Frosted petals. Icy snowflake flowers, Glass buttons.

Three embroidery rings and a handful of scraps.

= a morning of quiet concentration for three small girls.

Salt Painted Christmas Cards

We love to make our own Christmas cards. This is one of the best craft "recipes" we've found so far.

The girls had so much fun making these Christmas cards using the salt paint technique borrowed from this lovely post. Thanking Elizabeth for the link!

It was especially enjoyable because it was the kind of craft that kids of all ages can enjoy.

With four girls aged between 3 and 12 this is always a bonus!

To make the cards we first covered our pieces of watercolour paper in glue stick glue.

Then we sprinkled on a layer of salt.

Next we "dripped" slightly diluted food colouring into our paper to create the beautiful crystallized paint effect... (this was the most fun part)

It was quite mesmerizing watching the colour seep through the salt crystals.

Once dry we cut our paintings into star and Christmas tree shapes...

Before sticking them onto blank cards.

We finished decorating them with seed beads and sequins.

A lovely, creative, and thrifty way to spend an afternoon!

Shared with No Time for Flash Cards

{This Moment}

Joining Soulemama today for {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.

Yarn Along...

Joining Ginny today for "Yarn Along"...

I have finished the second rainbow beret!

Here are my "twins" as they're calling themselves now.

I've just started knitting the back of this cardigan ( the last one on the page) I found over at Ravelry.


It seems to be knitting up pretty quickly and I'm enjoying the simple cable pattern.

For reading... Well we are still happily bounding through the wondrous "Princess and the Goblin".
My two eldest girls are especially enthralled!

I love the way the author George MacDonald, is unafraid to use a challenging vocabulary.

No "twaddle" apparent whatsoever!

My seven year old, particularly, is just soaking it up. She is definitely at the "heroes, myths, morals and fairy tales stage of relating to life so this book is particularly perfect for her.

When blogging hurts

Words are written so easily. The silence of the page hardly rebounds. Keys fall loosely, fluidly, without a sound. Mute and rhetorical.
Thoughts overflow upon a hungry white screen and they cannot be diluted or dammed. Emotions seep in drunken abandon.
They create waves, like ripples, ever widening.

Somehow things such as this lie beyond ideology.



Blogging, as with life, work, school or any other place where individuals gather into groups within a group has it's own rules, hierarchies, cliques and tribes.

I don't really fit in. I'm too much of one thing to be another and too much of another to be just one :) Most of the time I just scribble out my heart even though I know I'll never be a writer. Feeling the release of simply letting words fall out from fingertips. Realising how hard it can be to quell the flow.
Or I might record small moments of beauty and grace in this little space here. Staying out of the way like I did at school. Mixing a little with every tribe, still happy to be alone, doing my own thing.

Bullying in the blog world, seems to be getting worse. Maybe I'm just noticing it more.
There are blog parodies, with their very own blog buttons. The purpose of their existence being simply to ridicule other blogs. So much time and effort spent on negativity. Feeding distrust and division.

It makes me so deeply sad. I can't explain why. Somehow it reminds me of the rush predators get when they smell a little blood.
Fraying threads of red glint in blue vastness, and suddenly there is a feeding frenzy. All the fish in the sea clamoring to take a bite.

A few days ago, somebody may have said something a little off key, maybe their words could have been chosen differently.... but the reaction, like a landslide just got bigger. Till everyone involved became knee deep. Mired, smeared, dirtied. I watched on the sidelines half guilty observer, half paralyzed by dismay.

Feels like something bigger than a blog post became damaged somehow.

Grace, is such a beautiful word. So underused. Thrown around as if it were a rag doll, yet how easily broken to pieces like china.

So many things distract, harm, hurt.
There is a woman, I know only through the letters she types, she is really different from me, but today I felt her pain and alienation.
And the subtly of bullying disguised as discussion.
Thin veils these computer screens.
Still not so much between us and the world. As between us and our true selves.