away with the fairies... ( or, a quick catch up)

 A leaf skirt for Anoushka, which doubles as a poncho... from Lovely knits for little girls.

 A sophia elf cardigan for Maaike from the same book.

 Our spring table, featuring hand dipped candles and a new rainbow tea light candle holder from the steiner spring fair today!

 Parsnips from the garden! For parsnip chips, as we are starchy carb- free ( most of the time). Pretty exciting as I 've never been able to grow root veg before! ( cut parsnips into chip shape, coat with oil or butter, toss in turmeric and salt and bake until crunchy, serve with homemead aioli, yum!)

 A shawl, made by me, from wool gifted to me by my husband for my birthday in July, its misti Alpaca sock wool. and the pattern came from a KNITscene Magazine.

 A Roald Dahl, BFG foot cake for Struan's birthday in August, proudly decorated by kidlets!

 A beautifully flowing homeschooling day last week which resulted in lots of seeds started for planting later, some secret gardens ( old seed packets given to kids to "surprise Me ' in spring), a pea seed or two planted by kids to measure and plot progress on a graph over time, and a lovely garden salad, picked, prepared and enjoyed by all of us.

 Life with four  kids is busy ( i know , I keep saying that), and Joska is beautiful but not the easiest ( still often sleeps no more than 30 minutes at a time), and we've been figuring out the best way to tackle homeschooling the others and me keepig sane! I've felt hugely better for taking a B vitamin complesx for a month or two , and we now have a bit more routine and rythym in the days, inspired by this post  and i find that me putting energy into the morning to plan something helps everything else flow better, makes sense of course, but I had to find energy first!

  Joska eats solids now and crawls, chases the cat and  is delightfully busy! What a journey we've had! Hope this finds you well and happy, here's to many more sunny spring days... rain rain go away for a wee while....

stuff....

 A rainbow dress for Maaike ( anoushka has a Bloom/rainbow mix, but I can't find a pic for it), had many comments in Nelson the other day, the older ladies love it!

 And a little aawww moment. Check it out: my thumb sucking kiddies above, and their mama circa 1979 below.

 Hoping for unfrozen pipes tomorrow and hot water, any ideas?

more tree buttons

 Some of the finished  buttons. These ones are cherry wood: now sanded and sealed with homemade beeswax polish. Wrapped up with some wool and a pattern for my mum who has rediscovered knitting! (She taught me everything i  needed to start my knitting journey around age 8)

 These ones are either apple or hazel wood,   (there's just a big pile of unfinished buttons in the shed...the cherry ones are obvious, the rest less so), adorning a newly finished winter coat for Joska.

The pattern is the 

"baby in the hood jacket" from Anna Maria Horner's 'Handmade Beginnings.' The outer fabrics are velveteen and some sort of upholstery stuff from op shops, then stashed. The lining is some train print cotton from the local school gala/bookfair last year.

 The tree buttons were sliced a few weeks ago, then I drilled the holes using a 1.5 mm drill bit and left to dry for a few weeks. Then in the last few days I've sanded the ones I needed with 180 grit sandpaper and polished with some wax and vegetable oil melted together ( I have a big pot of it in the pantry), I think it was 50/50 mix.

I had a few casualties, but they were wafer thin to start with.

  I have a knitting project to be getting on with ( when Joska has his 30 min cat nap); what will you do with this cold, wet weekend?

long weekending

 A long weekend, just what we needed! You too? On Saturday we cleaned and gardened a little bit, and Joska and I partied until late at a lovely Mother blessing. I found it a but full on emotionally; I knew my last birth experience was still fresh, but I didn't realise just how raw it all still was. There was talk of the hardness of it and then the moment of euphoria after and I realised I didn't get that; no endorphins to balance the experience, no real rush of love for my baby, not then anyway. The love has come slowly and gradually ( which is real and valid for many women), but I feel a bit ripped off that I didn't get that moment! I didn't feel empowered this time. I like to think I kept that stuff out of that environment but I'm probably quite see-through when I'm trying to hide my feelings etc. I wish my friend an amazing and empowering birth experience and I don't doubt for a moment that she'll get that. Soon too!

 Yesterday the older kids had a Nanny(Granny-Nanny) day, and Struan and Joska and I headed into Nelson for a day of birthday shopping ( Maaike will be 6 next week!) and Founders Book Fair-ing. Struan carried Joska mostly and my body had a little break.

 Today I thought, "I need tree buttons!" so I chopped some branches off and a tree down and  made Struan cut some button sized bits. We also ended up with some block sized bits for the kids and some kindling. It was a mama-initiated activity but the kids loved it too. Tobin was a helping builder man and the girls were chatting excitedly about using the blocks to make fairy plates or chairs and things.

Here are some of my prized book fair finds ( there were two bags between us all up). I particularly like the  gum nut babies books after seeing the author profiled in Frankie magazine a while back. Then at Spotlight I saw a range of quilting Fabric with the same illustrations. Yay! (I didn't get any this time).

 How did you spend your long weekend?

a family day

 Life is busy! So My husband though a mental health day was in order, especially after the last dress rehearsal finished at 8.30pm on Tuesday! ( Quite late for our family). And thanks to the stage manager ( or whoever he is) at the show we discovered a lovely reserve 5 minutes from our place (walking), with beautiful huge trees, some simple swings, a beautiful stream and the locals have planted fruit trees etc (go them!)

 We had taken some snacks and dressed warm.

 Joska is modeling the oslo anorak, knitted from some beautiful variegated yarn from the local yarn store and the grey is polwarth from potters patch. I had to do some adjustments as the yarn knitted up in a bigger gauge  (no I didn't swatch first, but not bad for fudging the numbers). It fits perfectly, and It looks so cute!

 We also went mushrooming but learned that its good to wait until after rain as we found a grand total of two! We went on a learning trip to the same place last week so I was only picking those I knew were guaranteed safe. But I hope to learn more varieties in future, I love foraging!

 All in all, a much needed slower paced day.

10 weeks on... unschooling life with a babe!

 I Haven't posted much recently. I have a baby who doesn't like to be put down, and doesn't sleep a whole lot, and he is heavy!!!! So quite awkward doing anything, and I seem to be flat our just keeping the other three fed and clothed!  Joska is ten weeks now and weighed 7.8 kgs last week. he is tall too and combined with cloth nappy bum is already in size 0 ( 6 to 9 months)!

 No sewing for me, but I can sometimes knit while he is feeding so here he is modelling the new jersey from  the pattern beyond peuperium,  held by his family, who are still besotted with him ( whew!).

We have been busy too, joining in with the local "natural learning group", where we've been harvesting: blueberries, chestnuts, and mushrooms. One family had a world stove there, which fascinated me and I have plans to make it with my mum on her next visit here. 

Anoushka is part of a play which will be performed starting on may 24th. This has involved many rehearsals which I may not have said yes to  this, had another homeschooling mum not taken her there in the early days after Joska's birth. ( What a commitment). Its amazing to see how much she loves it and how good she is at it, and the learning...! I alwways thought putting on a production was my favourite part of school and I think Kudos should go to the local theatre company for not only staging productions and giving of their time, but finding a way to include even the smallest willing participant!

Life with four kids is busy, overwhelming at times, but so exciting too!

glorious autumn days

 We've really enjoyed the last few autumnal weeks, the light  changing, family adventures, exploring this wonderful area...

Split apple rock... Kina beach... discovering wildlife on these adventures... little blue penguins, a frolicking seal...

 leading  to more learning to come... I wonder how many kinds of seaweed are here?