Getting REAL! Taking the layers off one by one and finding true beauty and acceptance

Thank you Shakti Mama, Ariella, Kat and Maureen at Twig and Toadstool for inspiring this challenge to "Get Real" and embrace ourselves and each other.... Just the way we are!

Okay so this was the first "Real" shot of the day. And I was so happy with how blurry it turned out ;) Until I realised that the focus of my camera was on manual and therefore I wasn't really playing by the rules.

A little better....
Eeek! Okay this is me full on, no make up at the end of a busy day with the girlies :)

Matilda wanted a picture with me when she saw I was taking my own photo and being a silly mummy. Well she's used to that. Again blurry, because she knocked my hand a little as I took the shot.

Thoughtful...
I have pretty much stopped wearing make up for the past couple of years. I usually wear my hair up during the day too but let it down in the evening around my family.
Also often I wear a headband or headscarf .
My deep desire is to learn to find beauty from my soul. I seek to nurture that more than my outer appearance now.

Letting go of the make up was part of the process of embracing myself truly as I am.
To find my real work in the tending, cultivating, and nourishing my true self, and my soul above and beyond the outer work of conforming to an ideal of physical beauty.

Make up and clothes used to be my protection, my mask. I used to "find myself" in my look.
But one day it occurred to me, that if my look was taken away from me, what would be left? What would be me? A social stereotype?
My soul is more than an image.

I have been trying to take the layers off one by one. I want to be real, I want to be authentic, I want my girls to know that a woman's beauty lies in her heart not her make up bag.

Little by little I have come to find my value in who I am becoming in God rather than how I look.

I remember, as a child gazing into my danish grandmother's soft blue eyes, cradled in laughter lines and wrinkles and the shadows of a full but hard life. And all I could think was, how beautiful she was. I even used to ask her.... "Tell me Granny, tell me the truth, are you really an angel?" I sit here in recollection, smiling at the innocence of a child. But that is the kind of "seeing" I have lost somehow, along the years.
The learning to see real beauty, and accept it in myself too.

Your beauty shall not come from outer adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."
1 Peter 3.

Inner adornments are the most beautiful ones. I pray to learn how to recognise and acquire them as I walk my journey.

Finding God in both the High and the Humble places

Walking...
Seeking...
Climbing
Reaching...
Grace.

Peace.

"The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places."
Habakkuk 3:19

• Standing still in the silent wonder of Creation's beauty
• Cradling the warm body of a little one unwell
• Holding fast too the Hem of His garment when I stumble
• Sacrificing outward appearance for inner truth
• His love washing over me in my brokenness
• Sunlight sparkling on little ones toes and hair and fingers and dress
• Knowing I am using His Hands to serve in all the hard and humble work
• The quiet stillness at the end of a day spent well
• Green fresh grass between my toes
• Candlelight and my girl on the piano
• Yellow roses
• Learning how to live for Him and allow Him to live in me
• Becoming smaller
• Gentleness
• Kindness
• Fresh produce from the garden
• Driving through the country with the window down
• Soul connections
• Eating ice creams I loved as a little girl
• Snuggling in under the covers with little ones
• Following the footsteps of the good Shepherd, whether to the high or the humble places, for both are equally Holy.

Homemade Tealight Lanterns

We  pasted some torn pieces of pretty pink and lilac coloured tissue paper over the outer sides of two glass ramekins using PVA glue.

Then we covered the tissue paper with another coat of PVA glue before rolling the ramekins in a tray of colourful seed beads.

A little tea light is the final touch.

Woodland girl

This photo was taken by me, of my first born girl Emmy "Emmanuelle"

She is growing up and embarking upon the beginning of a journey untrodden. Gilded moss gold leaf paths leading beyond the places I will be able to follow.

We worked together to make the photo speak of her soul.

She wanted it to seem as if she grew from the woods like a wildflower or the bracken or the lichen on a piece of bark. The woodlands are a part of her, have been always.

As a little girl she would make up magical stories about her woodland girl self.

Her eyes are forest green, her cheeks sprinkled with cinnamon, her hair wild as long grass in the breeze.

She carries the woodland poetry in her, weaves it out of her fingertips. Her smile releases a hundred butterflies.

Her second name is Jade. Green, earthy, translucent, precious Jade.
Emmanuelle, her first, means God with us.

Yes, this girl grown of soft soil and green mossy branches brings a little heaven with her too.
Always has.

A Beautiful birthday....

Cornflower
Wildflower
Goodness, how nicely the fairies have been tending their little plot :) Bringing so many colours and fragrances to the garden to attract the bees and butterflies.

These beautiful flowers decorated our small but homely garden in Summer Birthday style!

Here is the Birthday Girl with her Birthday Badge!




I made a lovely (even if I do say so myself:) layered carrot cake with buttercream filling and orange glaze. My Mother's very favourite.... and apparently it's quite popular around here too!

A beautiful rainbow of silk and satin inspiration.

Helped create...
The gift...
I made this embroidery by tracing a sweet picture that Matilda drew of her granny onto some cotton fabric.
I have always loved embroidery since a child. I shall enjoy finding some more sweet drawings from our *very* full drawing cupboard to embroider onto cloth.
The embroidery sits quite beautifully in a simple wooden frame and both Matilda and Granny were "over the moon" with it which is what counts.

And to finish things.... here is a beautiful poem for all mothers over at my daughter Emmy's little blog :)

Blessings to all!

I see Children as Kites

"I see children as kites....

You run with them until you're both breathless....

You watch them lifted by the wind and assure them that someday they'll fly.... 
 
They need more string and you keep letting it out. But with each twist of the ball of twine, there is a sadness that goes with the joy.

The kite becomes more distant, and you know it won't be long
before that beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that binds
you together and will soar as it is meant to soar,
free and alone. Only then
do you know that your job is done."

Excerpts of a Poem called "Kites" by Erma Bombeck

Fairy fun

Fairy kitten Florence, fly watching.

Fairy houses...

Made for flower fairies... freshly picked.

Here are some real life fairies all of our own :)

Tilly and Boo dressed and *fairified*, ready for their matinee performance last weekend.

 

I found this sweet hair style over at An Aspiring Homemaker. I only adjusted it slightly by adding french plaits and using hairbands instead of a clip so that the plaits could be brought into more of a traditional ballet style bun.