Sunday, 26 August 2012

Pieces and Bits - {Weekending}

Joining Amanda @ Habit of Being for Weekending


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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!

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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.

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I love these old stone paths!

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

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

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Friday, 24 August 2012

An Autumn Fairy and an Autumn Verse


gnomy

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.


gnome hat

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


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"JOIN"... 5 min fri

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

Five Minute Friday

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.

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Yarn Along and Craft On

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

 nola's cardi

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!!!

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Distraction with ladybird stickers...

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

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

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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.

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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!!!

Monday, 20 August 2012

Weekending

Weekending with Amanda @ Habit of Being... 
 

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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!



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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.