secret squirreling and a celebration

(Maaike the gnome-fairy, modelling the gnome hat I finally made with my first art-yarn attempt from here ).

Our eldest daughter, Anoushka, turned six in the weekend, and we have been so focused on preparing for it that I haven't had time to post for a while, sorry! We have made a stand on commercialism-free gifts for the last three christmases(e.g, handmade or thrifted), and I often make somethingfor the children's birthdays, but this time the only thing we bought for her was handmade by the local Steiner/Waldorf school's doll making group as a fundraiser, so in other words, handmade by someone else. Of course this means lots of time investure instead of dollars.

 Anoushka had been asking for more farm animals,(waldorf style), so I made a family of cows using wool felt and tweed fabrics,using the book of patterns sew soft toys , and to complement the farmyard theme, my husband made fences from a branch donated by a friend, and a forest of trees, using patterns and instructions from Wee Folk Art,

We decorated the house with flowers and a ring with fairies and butterflies. I made her a red riding hood cape, in rainbow colours from  a living crafts mag, and a dress using bits and pieces, ruffles and lace and an old linen table cloth ( more photos to come maybe).

  We had  a whole lot of families here for her party, where we dyed some yarn as an activity, which the children ( and mamas) really enjoyed. Above are the results, drying before they all went home. I love how they were all different and  beautiful.

spring flowers

 some of the few flowers in this garden at the moment. I have come to the conclusion that we need more! We need them earlier: its been a long weird winter/ spring season and I need some colour to lift my spirits. The birds, bees and butterflies wouldn't object I'm sure! Hopefully next spring i'll be able to post pictures with masses of flowers in them as i plant and divide my way through the year. How is your spring garden growing?

spring holidaying

Its been a holiday of two halves, so far, the wet and wild half, and finally a more mild and dry half. I don't know how long we can keep blaming el nino or la nina weather systems for the mad weather we've had this winter/spring, or whether we should start blaming global warming!  In the spring holidays  we have been lucky enough to have papa home ( benefits of a school teacher), so we've had days out and days at home. Another friend had a baby boy ( welcome Austen, the vest is for you), we've  been in a mild car crash ( We were the lucky ones, but no one in the three car pile up was hurt, and neither was our car- thank you God) , we visited the Waimarama bird sanctuary in the Brook, the Nelson Museum, we've camped out in the garden and cooked on a campfire, we've walked and rode our bikes, we've rescued a baby rabbit from our cat and then let it go again , don;t tell the farmers around here, they would have preferred it be dead; we are just lucky we managed to convince the kids that the rabbit was wild and not a new pet! And we've gardened.  what have you been doing?