Moments

Moments from our week

 

Pieces and Bits - {Weekending}

Joining Amanda @ Habit of Being for Weekending

Emmy loves Flame our friend's small but perfectly formed thoroughbred.

Flame is only two so she isn't being ridden yet but Emmy is learning all about caring for horses by helping out on Saturday mornings.

 This family keep their horses wild and many of them have never known a saddle!



While Emmy was with the horses the girls were map reading with Daddy.

They love to take turns to be "the leader." and lead us to our next destination.

 





 

 

I love these old stone paths!

Especially the way they shine in the sun after the rain.




Nola is so silly :)
She is trying to blow kisses in these pictures.... I caught her mid smooch :)
The girlie moves fast!

An Autumn Fairy and an Autumn Verse

Here is an Autumn Verse to accompany Autumn stories or to use for copy work or as a beautiful background to a nature table.

 An Autumn Lullaby

Wren upon the branch alights,
His song as clear as morning light.
His nest as warm as golden leaf,
Made of moss and flaxen sheaf,

Light the candles fill the stores
With windfalls, berries, hips and haws
Squirrels hoard, Bears seek dens
To sleep till Spring returns again.

Autumn is dressed in red, gold and brown
Swirling in leaves and soft thistle down
Dreaming a dream that is both old and new.
The dream of Autumn is inside of you.

Lingering pieces of Summer

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.” 

Pablo Neruda

"JOIN"... 5 min fri

Don't forget I'm  having a SALE @ my Waldorf Shop tillytilda till august 4th!!!



Joining Lisa Jo for 5 minute Friday today...
As Lisa Jo says... 5 Minute Friday is...

Unscripted. Unedited. Real.

It started because I’d been thinking about writing and how often our perfectionism gets in the way of our words. And I figured, why not take 5 minutes and see what comes out: not a perfect post, not a profound post, just five minutes of focused writing.

Word for today  "JOIN".... GO

As a child I never felt like I could join a group. I felt a burden in belonging. A fear.
I felt the pressure to "fit in"; squeeze myself into a small space that left my soul outside.

Two beings, two pieces, broken, frayed, not whole.

So I flitted between people, and places, trying to keep myself intact.

Or I stayed alone.

I remember the feeling of being on the periphery of games as the children gathered to work out who would be who and what they would do.

I found a friend in the thoughts in my head, between the pages of a book, in sunlight echoing through trees and in silence.

But the loneliness pooled.

I moved away, tried to find my "tribe" in the alternative groups, the punks, the goths, the outsiders.
It wasn't long before I saw that they too had their "rules" an esoteric criteria of who was "in" and who was "out".

And somehow I new I couldn't squeeze my soul into those spaces either.

Motherhood came... wife-hood.  Suddenly the rules were different. These clubs had clubs within clubs!

There was every kind you could think of...words I'd never needed to use before suddenly became part of my inner vocabulary.

And then the religion thing... I'm still not sure how to describe myself on that one.

But my soul who doesn't use words says it comes down to how we treat each other.

When, as a child...and as an adult I've felt the loneliness pool, and my legs wobble, My God has held my hand.

He gave me the gift of a little girl, birthed in streams of morning sunlight when I was eighteen and the only group I was in was the single, teen Mum one.

I had wondered why I couldn't get the name Emmanuelle out of my mind for nine months.
 I later learned it means "God with us"
Of course now she's just my Emmy.  but the meaning hasn't changed.

When I've been lost and not known the way He knelt down beside me on the aching street and whispered to me:

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

Maybe none of us really fit in.

Maybe that is okay.

Yarn Along and Craft On

Joining Ginny today for Yarn Along and Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm Carry On!

 

I finished the little shrug for Nola.
She doesn't stay still long enough for me to take a good picture of it.
She is such a busy, busy girl at the moment.
I tried all the tricks!!!

 

Distraction with ladybird stickers...

 

Cloud dough.... this was a messy one...:)

 

My soaking "fleece in the grease"
"Hey what's that over there. I must investigate!"



I'm really happy with how it turned out considering I was winging my way through the whole project, holding it up to her to size every few inches :)

The yarn was a beautiful gift from Amy.
 I love using natural yarns with beautiful colourways. Just watching the colours fall off the needles makes knitting a delight!

Okay here's a sad story.... Tani put the shrug in the washing machine the second night after I'd finished it.
...I'm actually wincing typing this out :(
 I "rescued" it from the dryer :S while it was still wet enough to re block.

Tani was so sorry.

The next day it started to roll up a little at the back so I  blocked again and although it is a little on the fuzzy side it's pretty much back to it's original shape.



On the positive... those crocheted borders are really meshed in now, there's no pulling them off Nola Jo however hard you try :)

I haven't had much time to read. We've been pretty busy and I'm using all my extra time to work on commissions for my shop!

Happy busy :)

Happy Wednesday!!!

Weekending

Weekending with Amanda @ Habit of Being... 
 



Saturday morning ...

Lie in, writing time, reading time. Thank you husband :)

He even brought home lunch.
Sandwiches and cream cakes from the baker...
My raw diet is more of a 50 - 50 thing now :)
Trying to get it back more to a 70 -30 kind of thing... but oh how I need a chocolate eclair once in a while :)
Although I want to be as healthy as I can I think flexibility is key to making it a long term thing.

Flexibility = Eclairs.



Saturday afternoon:

 Local Food Fair... Highlights: The Risby Grange Lincoln Longwools stand and a bag of "Fleece in the Grease" which I am really excited about washing - carding and plant dying.

I am for real.



Boo's highlight was interacting with hand reared owls and talking at length about birds with the Falconry people.

 

Boo often sleep talks about her birds.
Last night she half woke up and said "Wait, I've got to catch Lemon before I go to sleep."
(Lemon is the name of her imaginary bird :)
I love my bird obsessed Boo.

 

Sunday morning:

Church: A lovely lady with her newborn sitting next to me and all the intense, beautiful, joyful, overwhelming feelings that come with that.
He was so quiet lying in his pram but she couldn't resist picking him up anyway.

 I remember that feeling clear as day.

He began to fuss a little and I just wanted to know her well enough to say I'll have him for a minute, you just rest a while, but we don't live in that kind of a culture and their are these invisible barriers :(

 I smiled, she smiled, there was a goodness there. You know, the Mama to Mama look :)

Then he calmed right down and I breathed in all that sacred newborn energy.

For they do bring a little piece of heaven down with them.


Sunday afternoon: 

Hot and humid. The sky was dark with thunder clouds, the atmosphere heavy and damp.

We chose this moment to do garden jobs.

They were overdue.

This Mama felt grumpy.

Took the girls to a local playground where everyone got a little overcome with the humidity.

As soon as we piled out of the car the biggest rain drops started to fall from the heavy sky.

The moment felt cathartic.

We got properly wet but stayed outside through the storm. Beautiful!



 

A lovely elderly couple walked by us on Saturday...

Swoon...

 They were all dressed up, the gentleman was even carrying a shooting stick.

They linked arms as they strolled to admire the gardens.

I could not resist taking a quick photo.

This will be us one day I sigh to my casual clothes loving husband.

Make Whimsical Paper Chain Fairies

Paper Chain Fairies

Here is the PDF pattern for you to download to make your own Paper chain Fairies.

(Note: Make sure you scale up the PDF for printing :)

Last weekend we had lots of fun decorating the girl’s bedroom windows with fairy paper chains.

 

First we traced one of the fairies from the PDF image onto the top edge of a piece of paper .

 

Then we folded the paper into a concertina and cut out the selected areas, taking care not to cut through the wing joins.

 

Now for the fun part...

 

Opening out your paper chain...

 

These little paper chain fairies look really pretty draped from the window.

 

 

{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. 

{stretch} 5 min Fri

 

Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

Today's word from Gypsy Mama "Stretch" 

I remember a time when I felt stretched.

 I was pregnant with baby number four, platelets were low, thyroid was low.

 I had a little baby, a 3 year old and a school child.

Tani was two months away from getting his visa.

We didn't know if our children would end up English or Albanian!

It was warmer day than usual as I carried the 7 month old upstairs to her cot.
It was my last day of antibiotics for an infection.

I could feel my heart pounding, my legs weak, buckling, before I blacked out.  

I still think God must have caught her, and the little one still nestled inside.  Apparently He's got quite big hands :)

It is strange to bring up a family alone, just one or two to raise children, keep a roof, pay bills, deal with a hundred different bureaucracies, fold laundry, prepare meals, wash the pots after...

And childhood is so different. Full of "necessary" pressures.

It is a way of living far beyond that of the past, when communities and extended families worked to raise the children together. 

I often think of the Amish women washing jars and canning together, older children tending to younger ones as the work sung through the water, and their hands.

Togetherness takes the strain of the stretch.

My little girl tells me she wants to live with us in our little house forever. Her eyes are wide as skies.

And why should it not be? What is this "normal" aloneness?

Carving out our own island surrounded by other islands.

When I walk down the silent street in the evening and the lamps glisten on the asphalt. And the stars disappear in the swill of their orange glow  I see the flicker of screens behind every curtain of every house.

In some places people gather at dusk, out in green spaces under trees and women knit and talk and fires are lit.

 

Only Union with You

 

{Weekending}

Joining Amanda at Habit of Being for "Weekending"

 

She had just thrown her whole cheese sandwich to the ducks.
Well it kind of plopped about half a metre away from her feet and swilled around.
Then she wobbled ever so slightly and plopped herself  right next to it.

I love one year olds.

 


If the girls can find something to climb, they will climb it.

Matilda is my little dreamer.

She loves to live in her own quiet world of imagination.

I love this picture of her.

I love the way her gold green eyes gaze off to faraway places.





 Yesterday we took a trip to the beach.

It was lovely and warm with a cool gentle breeze blowing salty through the air.

The girls love searching for beautiful shells and stones and digging boats shapes into the sand.




It was perfect kite flying weather!





This little lady is becoming such a character!

She loves to do everything the other girls are doing and get herself really involved in whatever the activity of the moment is.

She took her trench digging very seriously indeed!



She also loves my sunglasses... and everyone elses shoes and hats, much more than her own of course

:)



The girls played in the waves till their lips were purple!

We are still enjoying our lazy Summer. I think today will be a quiet day of washing towels, hoovering sand, warm baths and garden play.