happy bits and pieces

"I'ts time for bed, little cat, little cat,
so snuggle in tight, thats right, like that"

Lately we have been acting out one of our favourite books 'Its time for bed' (written by Mem Fox)
Its the most adorable book and all the children love giving the toys kisses and cuddles and tucking them into a big cozy bed together. We generally have a few trucks and cars tucked in there too:)

 So naturally this is a very normal scene to find in the doll house.
Ive also been reading 'the folk of the faraway tree' (Enid Blighton) to the children as they play which has inspired lots of play about adventures, Silkie, Saucepan man, Moon face and hot-cold  goodies. I am sooo enjoying reading this book!

 On the weekend I have been practicing spinning wool on my spinning wheel. I feel like Im starting to get the hang of it and how to adjust it to spin the wool how I want it to. This is my very first lot of spun and plied wool! It (and some more that I spun) Has now become half a seed stitch scarf. Which I will be able to wear no time soon! It is so hot here at the moment!

At present my wheel is very makeshift! The cord thet spins the wheel is missing so im using a piece of wool which comes of often. Also, the piece of leather down by the foot pedal broke and Benny has temporarily put an old piece of belt there which isnt looking too strong. I look forward to replacing these parts and also getting a few extra bobbins soon ( I have one bobbin so I have to wind wool onto two toilet paper rolls to ply it) 

Speaking of toilet paper rolls, dont you love Hansi's beautiful picture:) I think she thought Benny and I were a bit strange to be laughing when we saw the writing she had coloured over on this cut up toilet paper roll... hmm 

Today has been hot hot hot so we recycled some milk bottles into boats for some fun water play (yep their boats, apparently Cameron and Mitchels didn't need a sail because the have a motor)

Australia day

 Barbie at Kylie's mums, beach cricket at north beach

Fishing at Second Valey

 Fishing off the rocks

 AJ and Mia the fishing dog

 a beautiful sunset

just because it will crack Aj up, here is a pic from the opp shop changerooms of her butterfly dress and the infamous catsuit that we found and thought was hilarious (it even had a tail stitched on the back)

(i phone pics)

willow the weekend we got him (iphone pics)

 benny and willow

His favourite spot to sit on the drive home (behind my neck, not quite so comfy for me!)

thankful

Today I am thankful for
* yummy tea at the beach
*splashing in waves
*wonderful parents that love me unconditionally
*finding almonds on a side of the road tree
*Fresh nectarines while dad watered a friends beautiful garden

I went to the beach yesterday afternoon with my parents. It was great fun, we had good chats and I feel ready to face another buisy week. I didn't take photos then, these are photos from a trip during my last holidays (same beach, different adventure:)

Looking at the sparkling waves always brings about a peace within me. My mind forgets the everyday life bits and pieces it was jitting back and forth between and is lulled into calm happiness

Nature is my 'happy place'

More recent day care happenings

 Here is our summer nature table. We couldnt decide if we wanted it to be a beach, pond or grass scene so it ended up all three (the water is beach or pond depending on who you ask:)
The sun banner was made the same way as 'people chains' are made' The flowers below the banner are water colour painted doilies cut into flower shapes. We also stuck up a picture one of our penpals made (she painted us an australian summer!)

 We have been enjoying decorating the doll house. We made rainbow flags out of a pretty crayon drawing and blue tacked them on to the doll house for a 'party' that the dolls and animals were having (its a bit hard to see that the flags are coloured as I over exposed the photo, oops) Ive also cut some felt to size to make carpet and crocheted a little rug. Two of the children made pictures out of doilies for the people to look at

 I havent actually posted a picture of the doll house since its had its make over here it is before and during. I sanded off all the paint and varnish, my dad rounded the corners of it for me (my favourite part) I then gave the roof and chimney a coat of watercolour paint and the whole thing a beeswax polish. The colour didnt turn out quite how I wanted it but its finished for now. I also planned to burn a tree on the inside and a leaf design on the roof (to make it into a bit of a tree house) so that may happen at some stage.

Zoe has a new dress that I knitted during our river trip the other week. The 'lace' isn't how its supposed to be as I didn't take stitch markers and apparently cant keep count very well! Im sure Zoe wont mind:) I also added to the pic some wool fruit and veg pieces that I made a few years back and recently found at Mums. The dolls eat these pieces many times a day so id like to make some more.

for links to more crafty blogs visit 'crafty friday' ,

Baking muffins

Today the day care children and I made muffins.
We used my favourite muffin recipe which makes the very same muffins that my family always enjoyed when I was growing up. My mum made these muffins all the time and my friends and I always loved them! (I will include the recipe at the end of the post)

The children have been really enjoying baking and look forward to it each week. I like the idea of having a waldorf rhythum and having a 'baking day', 'painting day' etc so that they know when its coming. Ive tried it before and forgotten about it but I think now they are getting to the age that if I make a colour coded chart they will remember about it and remind me!

After we had mixed the muffins and spooned them into our muffin tray I gave the children some flour to draw pictures in. They enjoyed this and it made the muffins cooking time more bareable for them:)

I love this fairy in her castle

The children all love to wipe the table ready for their snack time (look at those little hands whizzing about, they are good little cleaners!)

Ah, finally the muffins were ready and enjoyed by all

My Mums healthy yummy muffin recipe
1 cup self raising flour
1cup whole meal self raising flour
1 Tbs sugar ( I use a few Tbs honey and a little stevia sweetener)

1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil (I add a Tbs butter asweal)
1 egg (the kids love putting in a fresh egg that theyve gotten from our chookies)

a piece of fruit (mashed banana or finely chopped apple are our favourites)
*optional* 1 cup of sultanas or choc chips

Sift flour into a bowl, add sugar and mix (also add sultanas or choc chips if your using them)
Combine wet ingredients and fruit in a jug
Pour wet ingredients over dry ones and stir gently with a fork. Mix as little as possible to keep mixture nice and airated.
Spoon into a greased muffin tray and bake 180c for 15-20mins

Enjoy!

Oh and we also like to sometimes make them 'fruity suprise muffins' by adding a little sugarless jam to each when the muffin tray is half filled and then finish filling it with mixture. I saw this wonderful idea here

Willow

On the weekend Benny and I went to stay with my sister Anneke. We had a great weekend fishing, opp shopping and visiting the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)  we actually went to look for a new dog for Anneke as she wants a friend for her dog Mia, but I came home with an angora rabbit (id like to collect his fur to spin) .

 I named him Willow and he is very loved. As you can probably tell by the elaborate 'cubby house' and bedding in these photos, he is being well pampered! 

So here are pics of Willow, Ive been taking most photos on my 'new to me' i phone (Benny got an upgrade) and havent figured out how to put them on the computer yet, so pics of the weekend will come in the near future.

 On Monday the day care children and I recieved a special package from our penpals ( Dawn and her day home children who blog at "chasing the seasons") The package had come all the way from Canada and contained special pictures made by the children, the red head doll in the picture above which Dawn made (We love her rainbow dress and long hair and shes already had a great time at the playground with us and eaten many snacks)

suprise visitor!

This afternoon Id just put the kids down for their nap/rest and I got a knock on the door. I opened it to a man with a baby in his arms.
The conversation whent like this-
Him-Hi, can you watch my baby for me?
Me- Possibly, when?
Him- (looking rather sheepish) Um, Now?

So this little guy (whos name is Chilli, which i thought was ever so cute) hung out with me during my lunch break. He was completely adorable and happy to be hanging out with a complete stranger (of course I wouldn't have taken him if he wasn't)
We had lots of fun during his little whirlwind visit:)
Oh and I worked out afterwards when I looked at his emergency details that I new who his dad was, Benny and some of our friends talk about him but I dont think ive met him before.

What a fun lunch break :)

well its about time I do a new blog post I do believe...

 I mentioned a while back that my friend Alison was having a pattern featured in homespun magazine (last November)
It happened that my local newsagent doesn't have Homespun (I wasn't surprised, its small so doesn't have much)
Every time I went to bigger towns during the month I would get home and promptly remember that id forgotten to get it again!
On the very last day of November Anneke and I were in Kadina and I finally got to the newsagent. Unfortunately they had already put out the new issue but the lady was able to find one last copy out the back of the shop for me, yippee!!! (I think she was a bit cross with me for making her have to look for it until she saw just how happy and thankful I was:)

 I made this adorable little elf boot from Alison's pattern (which was beautifully written and easy to follow, well done Alison!) I reduced the pattern to make it small enough to fit my tiny Christmas tree. I look forward to making some more next year, id like to make enough for the day care children to leave out for st. Nicolas to put a treat in next year

 Here's some pictures of my 'veggie patch tea' the other night.

 I was especially proud of my carrots, although their pretty small they were the biggest tastiest ones I've grown so far!

I sat at the outdoor table cleaning and chopping veggies, stuck them on a tray with some olive oil, ground salt and rosemary, roasted for half hour and enjoyed them sitting outside while watching the sun go down. Its not so bad running out of groceries when you've got the good stuff growing out your back door!

I feel like Ive hardly had time for my veggie patches this summer but after doing some much needed weeding and removing some old plants that I was leaving to go to seed I could see that I have a thriving of potatoes, A patch of cucumber plants covered in flowers ready to produce and a huge tomatoe bush. Now that the weather is beginning to cool again (for now) me and the day care children are enjoying getting out and will plant some seeds again (lots more carrots)

Four Years with my babe

(benny reading, me knitting at the side of the river)

And a wonderful four years its been. I couldnt think of anyone id rather travel the path that is life with. He makes life fun