So… I’ve been up to something.

I have been making Rosaries! My shop ‘On the way to the garden’ is now open.

Please pop by and take a look.

 

Creative Friday!

I have had a lot of fun making these custom birthday crowns for my shop!
I love using organic- fair-trade and naturally plant dyed materials for my work. I really think that the ethical natural and quality of materials brings a warmth and love through the very fibres of the work itself.

I also love the way a design will almost dream itself into being. 
 I get a vision of the design and the work and know exactly what colours to use in an intuitive way.
 It seems that the best things almost "dream" themselves into being!

Joy is an essential ingredient to creative work.
 You can tell when something is made with joy and of pure, natural fabrics, it is so different to handle and touch than anything that has been mass produced.
It holds a different quality and carries a different energy.

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.

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.

 

 

{Yarn Along - Craft On}

This week I have been re-reading "The Return of King Arthur" by Diana Durham. 

 It is a really fascinating chronicle of the soul's journey, symbolized by Arthurian Legend.

I have always been drawn to King Arthur and the legends of the grail.

I have also always wanted to live in the West Country ever since visiting  Glastonbury Tor as a child.

Here is one of my many highlighted quotes...

"This ability to disentangle ourselves from structure is beautifully
symbolised in the myth when Arthur draws the sword Excalibur from the stone.
Written in gold letters around the sword is a prophecy that whoever can
free it is king of all England. The sword represents our power, our leadership
potential, and in order to lead we have to be able to free our selves from, or
cease investing our power in, the structures and pressures that surround us.
Many stronger, mightier and more experienced knights than Arthur (in
fact at this point, Arthur is not even a knight) had tried in vain to wrench the
sword out. Yet Arthur was the true king - he was the true king by birth, but his
ability to draw the sword out demonstrated that he was the true king by
character as well because he was not seeking power for himself."

And this is the crux isn't it. We need to feel our truth, our limitations, our frailness until we can truly use our goodness for something powerful. 

 Something beyond the measure of ourselves... Who do we serve?

"On the quest the knights must not only find the grail again, but ask the
question : Whom does the grail serve? Meaning, whom or what does our heart
serve? What do we serve? This question goes to the core of leadership because
it asks what is in control of us. Whatever our heart serves is what controls us."

And what better companion for deep and profound thoughts?

 Why knitting of course.

 

Here are Nola's Autumn longies, slowly making their way from tummy to toes.

I think they should be ready for September don't you ?

And I am inspired to knit them up so I can start the Nola Jane retro ruffle sweater!

{Yarn Along}

I am joining Ginny @ Small Things today for {Yarn Along} Frontier Dreams  and WIP Wednesday

I finished testing out my doll sweater knitting pattern over the weekend. I like this cable it is simple and repetitive enough to do without looking.
 I like that kind of knitting. It can come in very handy when you have a wiggly, wriggly 1 and a bit year old around :)
It is available here in my shop.

 





Nola is definitely turning into the family princess :)

 

She is becoming very vocal about telling us what she does and does not want. She is also the most demonstrative baby I think I've ever had!

We were at a fun park the other day and she met another little baby in the ball pool. Nola loves other little babies to bits. So she starts resting her head on this baby, stroking his hair and face. Trying to kiss him with little wet cheepy bird mouth kisses. The baby, who was an only child and not used to all this  baby attention sat completely still, watching Nola with grave intensity from the corner of his eye. I don't think the baby minded her pawing. He was just a little bemused by it:)

Nola is also desperate to get into anything and everything she knows she is not to at the moment. That means switches, remotes, phones, cupboards , any kind of utensil whatsoever...

She is also a clean queen apparently. She will find any small bitty bit of dust on the carpet and give it to me in the most solemn way as if she is doing a very important job.
She also loves to get a dishcloth and pretend to wash everything. She scrubs at her baby dolls, the carpet, the doors, the poor cat...saying very softly sh sh sh as she goes :)

So onto reading, I have been re-reading "No Greater Love" by Mother Teresa.

 

I love the simplicity of this book. Mother Teresa's spirit shines through her words and hers is a refreshing voice in the sometimes over complex modern world of ours. I also love her because she was Albanian, like my husband :) Something I only found out a couple of years ago.

Here is a favourite excerpt:

"We do not need to carry out grand things in order to show a great love for God and for our neighbour. It is the intensity of love we put into our gestures that makes them into something beautiful for God.

Peace and war start within ones own home. If we really want peace for the world, let us start by loving one another within our families. Sometimes it is hard for us to smile at one another. It is often difficult for the husband to smile at his wife or for the wife to smile at her husband.

In order for love to be genuine, it has to be above all a love for our neighbour. We must love those who are nearest to us, in our own family.

From there, love spreads toward whoever may need us.

It is easy to love those who live far away. It is not always easy to love those who live right next to us. It is easier to offer a dish of rice to meet the hunger of a needy person than to comfort the loneliness and the anguish of someone in our own home who does not feel loved."

{Yarn Along}

Joining Ginny today for Yarn Along today.

 

"Solitude, says the moon shell. Every person, especially every woman, should be alone sometime during the year, some part of each week, and each day."

"I am shedding pride. As little furniture as possible; I shall not need much. I shall ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest. I find I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships." What a rest that will be! 

The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. 

I have shed my mask."

 "Gift From the Sea"


As far as knitting goes, I have been working on another doll dress, using my own pattern. I've got to the point now where the skirt is filling out and it is a bit of a juggling act to keep all those slippery stitches behaving properly on their own needles!
I have found the best way is to lay the work as flat as I can, kind of in the position photographed and work
v e r y  c a r e f u l l y :)