Family times

A quick outing to the local river bank for a bit of blowing out of cobwebs!



We were also inspired to have a family drawing time (after a week of sickness and snot and indoorsness, we were all well again to do something new) after reading this recent post by soulemama. Equipped with a still life (or just some objects )for inspiration and paper, charcoal, crayons etc we all had a go. It amazed me what my reactions were! I initially though my attempts were good, having always thought of myself as arty, then looked at struan's, which blew me away. my initial reaction was to call him a showoff (how very tall poppy of me!), then think of mine as crap. Every comment he made of mine made me feel as if he were trying to make me feel better thereby being condescending, however, and of course it was not intended that way. To think drawing can evoke such feelings of competition and inadequacy in me! I must practise more to draw and be accepting of the process and really think about how what I say can affect others by putting a competitive spin on something that is not intended that way. More Family Draws to come for sure. And more reflections on schools, competition, language of commentary or praise too.

A Foraging/ finding bag, quickly whipped up to save mam being the carrying bag for treasures found at the beach. They are cut down out of a pair of my old jeans and are adorned by some stitching the girls have done themselves(the one pictured is anoushka's handwork. They are big enough for a sketching pad or notebook and a pencil and enough treasures but not too many to carry. They were inspired by this blog post by tiny happy (but not nearly as nice. More utilitarian perhaps?)

A Lesson in Geometry(A Learning Story)

We've all been home this week with sick children. No Kindy, no friends, no pressure(no sleep, but that's another story). Last night Anoushka, while drawing said,"I'm drawing lots of shapes". A circle, a triangle,a square. I saw a "teaching moment", and said "what other shapes do you know and can you draw? " "A heart and a diamond and stars. Mama how do you draw stars?" So I tried and explained my method of drawing stars (two triangles) but that didn't click for her so I suggested she ask her father as he has different (better) ways of explaining things, and sure enough after only two demonstrations she was away and drew about twenty more stars. "I can do it, mama! I can even do it with my eyes closed!" "You are so proud of yourself, anoushka"we said.

Interesting that when something is self initiated and really learnt that there is that element of self imposed practise until there is mastery of the achievement objective (to use some jargon!) We see it all the time in wee Tobin's quest to conquer new heights (literally).

May Days and Mother's day

Its been a while, so here are some highlights of the month so far! Some bread bags, inspired by thispost by Amanda, and made out of a vintage tea towel and vintage tablecloth which was getting a bit holey. I'm looking for a bread bin now, to give our bread some space of its own, on the bench. I make sourdough bread twice a week, which is fermented for at least 48 hours and has yummy things like pumpkin seeds, cumin and fennel seeds and sunflower seeds, added. As Anoushka says: I love your bread mama!
A skirt by Delume, the designer who has a little, very cool shop in Nelson who kindly stocks my stuff. I love that it reminds me of a fifties housewife/tea towel design! It is made with a wool fabric and she screen printed the design onto the skirt directly.

A tee shirt design by Struan's brother: stylised pics of five grandchildren/nieces and nephews(my three are on the left)printed on a tee . Thank you uncle Alasta!

And finally some bits: New fabric and gorgeous ribbons from Holland Fabric House found on Etsy, some groovey retro fabric from a friend's very talented garage sale mum! And my mother's day gift: a small cheese mold for making feta and Haloumi cheese; my latest kitchen adventure. (note to self: three children underfoot, papa home late, no bench space and preparing food on stove top= small kitchen fire!!!!!)
I have been really enjoying reading and cooking from my new cookbook, Nourishing Traditions and will blog more about this in future posts. If anyone else is into this and other alternatives like unschooling, we would love to hear your comments!
I read yesterday in one of our books how real learning starts with a question. I know how that works as a fundamental principle in Early childhood education here in NZ, but the more we talk about this together, the more we know it is not easily possible in a class room situation for each child, nor are real questions really encouraged....If a child is curious enough about something to ask and then you can learn together, then it will be LEARNT and remembered...

holidays

A moment alone...

Holidays,
go by fast,
a blur of learning to bike ride,
short visits with family,
a first birthday even.

Enjoying the autumn weather,
sunny days,
the last warmth before the real frosts start.

So much to do,
but so easy to be distracted,
children drawing, playing,
teething(!)

Learning to cook all over again,
Nourishing Traditions, Making my head spin.
No time for sewing,
but lots of time for planning,
where to begin?


A few treasures, pictures , found on the beach by airport after dropping off oma and opa. Did you know you could walk all the way around the perimeter of the airport and theres a beach and no-one else, right there in the middle of the flight path?

Shop update

As promised, some images of items for my shop update, completed this morning (it pays to read the help pages!) Also delivering some stock to Delume in Nelson this morning.

I am so excited, we are also going to print in hard copy some lovely photos of Tobin for his inaugural birthday album update! His birhday is tomorrow! My last baby is one already..... An era is slowly (but too fast for me) coming to an end.

Easter Fair

The day dawned bright and sunny with just a hint of a chill in the air. We were organised and left home without any last minute stress! I had to climb through the drivers side to get into the passenger seat but no matter, it was going to be a great day! And so it was! I caught up with lotsof people I hadn't seen for ages, and got to see some of my new womens clothes tried on for fit (I was very happy with how they looked!). I was particularaly pleased to see and hang out with my frined Gill and VERy happy with the swap we made. My eldest daughter Anoushka saw it this morning and exclaimed "Mama, look at this dolly, she's so cool I'm going to put her on the nature table!" Hehe, obviously our most treasured treasures belong there... (I know, i have linked to Gillybean lots this week, but she's my friend and I think shes cool! :)

We have spent the last few hours trying to get decent photos onto my felt site, without much luck, but will feature my latest shop updates tomorrow (After the kids have gone to bed etc...) Hope you visit then... (p.s. anyone who knows what they are doing with that kind of thing, give us some clues!!!!Any help will be much appreciated!)

Autumn foraging

I've spent a lovely few days enjoying the autumn sun. On Friday I spent a day in Dovedale with a good friend and our motley children, foraging the old spots I used visit on my daily walk around when we lived there. We didn't manage to get around to the blackberries, plums or apples but we did gather enormous amounts of newly fallen hazelnuts and chestnuts. Chestnuts are always an adventure to gather, as I remember well from my childhood. Yes even in suburban Auckland there is scavenging to be found,, or at least there was in those days. The spikes on the chestnuts certainly took their toll on poor Tobin's fingers on friday!. They are near to the most beautiful, serene spot, by Dovedale church, where the children and I used to spend a bit of time playing amongst the fairy toadstool rings and sheep brought in to keep the grass down. It was a stunning day, and I always come away from a visit there and especially a visit with my friend feeling full of love, not as strange as I sometimes feel about myself, and with lovely ,sleepy, children!!!





So far today has been lovely too. Anoushka rode down to the local sunday market on a bike, all by herself. The vege stall was selling cooking tomatoes for a dollar a bag, so tomato soup for lunch, the best recipe in the world from my friend Gill. I found a recipe for chocolate chestnut cake from rivercottage and made it, and there are still more chestnuts left. When I was young we roasted them on the old pot belly and hoped they wouldn't explode all over the place. Autumn days are good!