Leather work for kids.

Some kind friends gave us the leather from an old sofa they were throwing out.

The girls and I spent a day getting inventive with ideas for using it.

Emmy and Bujana made Sioux medicine pouches, using these online instructions...



First they drew and cut out the pieces. Then they punched holes along the bottom edges using a hole punch.



They sewed the sides and bottom of the pouches right sides together using a denim sewing needle and a long basting stitch ( about 6 on a regular machine) and reinforced this with an over stitch through the holes.



After measuring equal spaces along the top of the pouch they punched holes for threading leather cord through to make a draw string.



The drawstring was held in place with some wooden beads...



Perfect for those long Summer hikes!



Seraphina, Matilda and I cut stripes of leather into cords and made some bracelets...



 I helped the little ones make some leather bookmarks.



I traced around a tin pencil case to get the rectangular shape and helped them cut around the line.

They frayed the ends and punched holes along the edges using a hole puncher.

Lastly we wove some thin leather stripes that we had cut out earlier through the holes and secured them in place using some funky stitching patterns on our sewing machine!

{This Moment}

{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.

Visit Soule Mama for more {moments}

Still

Joining Gypsy Mama today for Five minute Friday...

1. Write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word on the prompt, “Still.”
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Get a little crazy with encouragement in the comments of the five minuter who linked up before you.

It’s a great way to catch your breath at the end of a long week.

Go...

Still.

"Be still and know that I am God."

Does that mean "doing" nothing. "Being" still?

Can i maintain inner stillness even when the typhoon rages all around...

Like the center of a storm?

Can I keep my heart ...anchored in stillness...

No matter what?

I've found time and time again

Through my own errors

That it's only when I give full attention to my own peace and stillness

That peace and stillness

Can come to everything and everyone around me.

"The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament."

-Brother Lawrence

 Maybe it's true. I am the weather...

Ever creating the climate that surrounds me.

And maybe...

Beneath the currents

which seem to ebb and flow

Without any sense

of direction or purpose.

One distilled droplet of stillness

Can ripple

Curve out

Beyond itself.

And calm an ocean.


Stop.

Art and Crafts for the Holidays!

• Moving Picture Pages and Storytelling @ How the Sun Rose
• 
  
• Make Felt Doughnuts @ Skip to my Lou
• 
  
• Make Simple Stuffed Animals @ Skip to My Lou
• 
  
• All the projects here!!! Sorry coouldn't choose a favourite :)
• 
  
• Emotion portraits @ Deep Space Sparkle
• 
  
• Rock Bugs @ Irresistable Ideas for Play Based Learning
• 
  
• Finger knitted Flowers @ The Magic Onions
• 
  
• A Recycled Rainbow Flower Wreathe @ Twig and Toadstool
• 
  
• Knitted Rainbow Gnomes @ Plain and Joyful Living
• 
  
• Drawing Birds @ A Painterly Life
  
• 
  
• So much here of course :)

Multitudes on a Monday...

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. 
 ~Thornton Wilder



Garden beauty...



Delicate

 Fragile.

Inhaling,

Exhaling...














moments...

dappled in light...




The illumination that awakens quiet corners...

Sometimes dark corners...



Letting it warm through my bones,

thoughts,

prayers...



Realigning the paths.

Till they face the light like the childish dandelion.

So called clown flower

Perpetual "perfect"lawn invader.
 
Apparent weed.

Brightest bloom on the block.

Luminous beacon.

REAL beauty.

If there was only one dandelion left on the earth.

I might just say it's the most beautiful flower ever.

Perspective.

Noticing.

Blessings are abundant when I put my ear to the soft earth and listen to the whisper of God deep inside my soul.


"Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is."  ~ Amy Carmicheal

{This Moment}

{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, savour and remember.

Joining Soule Mama today...

"Light Bathing"

Growing Love

"There where love is lacking, put love and you will reap love."




Imperfect,
yet ever trying
to plant love
in threadbare places.

{This Moment}

Joining Soule Mama today for {This Moment}

{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.

{This Moment}

Don't Forget I'm Running A GIVEAWAY this week, click here for details...

..............................................................................................................................................................

Joining Soule Mama today, for {This Moment}

{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, savour and remember.

Kindness

"I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else."

Or brains even?

"Oh, gosh, yes, brains are one of the least. You can be a lovely person without brains, absolutely lovely. Kindness- that simple word. To be kind- it covers everything in my mind.
If you're kind that's it."

Roald Dahl...Speaking in an interview with Brian Sibley broadcast by the BBC world service, November 1988...


I have found that in my life, I have been most influenced by not rich, successful, strong or confident people.

I have been influenced mostly by kind people.

More than the courageous, clever, talented, tenacious. The loud or the soft. 

Those who have been kind have shown me what it is to have true character.

No matter the circumstance they have taught in unspoken, unassuming gestures that you can act graciously under all kinds of pressure.

Instead of becoming a steely mirror that can only reflect the pain it has suffered.
A kind heart remains open, even if wounded. And in the warmth of that very human heart the pain is absorbed and transformed into compassion.

Kind people are like trees, refreshing and renewing the atmosphere around them.



Kindness lets sorrow soften the old cracked Autumn leaves and brittle winter branches of old hurts.

Kindness dies the death so that a tender green Spring can be born.

Unprompted, un-self aggrandizing, matter of fact kindness.
Underrated and essential.

It slips quietly from one heart to another like a love note under a desk.




I have learned more from the quiet kindness of a welcoming smile than all the sermons I've ever heard.

The simple kindness that fashions yarn into warmth and beauty. 

That wraps a little baby warm and tight. 

The impulsive kindness of a man who pushed a five pound note into may hand and told me I was too lovely to be sleeping in a doorway... The note meant dinner, but the words meant life.

And I actually believed them that day.

More than when people in their frustration for me stamped forms, made appointments and sloshed bitter coffee into polystyrene cups.

It was the kindness that did it. 

Lifted me up from the harsh reality.

Outwards and upwards as the thin sinewy branch of a city tree reaching for a glimmer of sunlight contorts it's shape to fit between high rise buildings. Thus I began. Upon the fertile soil of a strangers kindness.

Then there is the deep loving bottomless bowl of kindness. 

Unconditional, warm and full like rising dough.

Simplicity Parenting

Simplicity Parenting takes inspiration from many Waldorf principles but is not wholly limited to them.

I found the book really helped echo and consolidate many of my own thoughts on establishing a rhythmic, connected, calm and centered home environment for children to grow and learn naturally in.

The kind of environment that just inspires their true, joyful selves to flourish.

It also helped me see more clearly how essentially, the atmosphere of a home emanates from me the parent.

Truly, the greatest gift I can give my children is a peaceful, joyful, grateful, happy mother.

From my own central source of fulfilment and peace I can effectively feed, nourish and satisfy them.

When my heart is still and satisfied, their hearts will be to.

 Children are like little mirrors.

They reflect the needs and states of those around them.

I need never feel guilty about taking time to feed my own creativity, peace and joy.

In the end my happiness is a gift to them as much as it is to me.

I want them to remember a smiling Mama. Even on days when life got a little topsy turvy.


It is really amazing how well children respond to the reduction in "noise" within a home.

I have found that when we stick to doing one or two things properly in a day with a sense of un-rushed purpose, taking time for snacks, rests, stories and play, the children just soak their experiences up.

They enter into the experiences of learning at a deeper level and are able to process them better than when we rush around trying to fit in a hundred superficial "projects".

Noise can mean so many things can't it.

Too much stimulation, too much choice, too much being "talked to" instead of listened to.

Simplicity is healthful for parents and children alike.

When life is simple it is content.

Each moment is lived fully and fully lived.

Where I'm meant to be, right now....

• May today there be peace within
• May you trust your highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to be
• May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith
• May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you
• May you be content knowing you are a child of God.

Saint Therese of the Little Flower

 

 When all things are done in Love, even the smallest and simplest actions become grand and profound

Although my life is quiet, simple, far from the madding crowd and the well worn path. I know that this is my path, the one meant for me to tread, right now.

I can't take every road on this life journey. Yet the one I take, I will take truly, madly, deeply.

I will believe in the path I walk and the words I speak, and make them both worth the believing...

...most of all I will try to Love well.

"In the Evening of Life we will be Judged by Love Alone"

............Saint John of the Cross

Growing our own Camomile tea... Enjoying it fresh on a warm Summer evening in the garden.


Tilly dressing her beloved little doll Poppy in a new dress, pantaloons and headband. What a lovely gift of a clever big sister who likes to sew.



Bird watching Florence...



Girls making felt creations for their felt boards.



Fina finishing her embroidered hand print!

"See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;"

Isaiah 49:16