{This Moment} 'watch out for the sharks in the water'

{this  moment} - A Friday ritual. A  single  photo  -     no words  -  capturing  a moment  from the    week. A simple, special, extraordinary  moment.  A moment   I  want to pause,  savor  and             remember. inspired by Soule Mama

giverway winner and play room photos

Thank you to all who entered my give away, the winner is Kelly of freeflowing ways!

 I'm getting mighty excited about moving! Its still about 3 months to go but judging by how fast this year has slipped away so far it will be upon us before we know it!
On the weekend while we were with Benny's family at our future house I couldn't help but daydream about how it will look when were there. I cant wait for spring days laying in the beautiful thick grass, surrounded by trees. I think the thing that excites me the most is that I will be bringing over an apple tree that I planted at Mums a few years ago (not the one I have all the apples from unfortunately, that beauty is older than I am:) When it is dormant over winter we will shift it and hopefully if all goes well it will survive with my loving care and provide us shade and delicious Fuji apples...... OK enough day dreaming!
Ive been taking some photos of our house to remember it down the track (when dare I say we might miss it a little) This is the daycare play area as it is this morning. Minus the snipped up paper, dolls upside down in their beds and scattered sultanas etc that I just cleaned up. No matter how hard I try to keep them on the table there are always random sultanas!

 this area hasn't changed much if at all

The pin up board I'm finally happy with. It was painted purple, then I tried pink, then yellow... finally one day I carved off all the layers of paint with dads chisels, gave a light sand and a polish. Once I put it up I just smiled. Ahh, just how I didn't know I wanted it, perfect.

 I pinned up the leaves from near Oma and Opas house (preserved by dipping in beeswax)

There are also some leaves from a peppercorn tree from one of our walks and the Autumn leaf on the right is made by Alison

 Heres whats in the draws- blocks (the most played with toys! their creativity grows each day) books, trains and cars

 Here's the top draws (thank you blogger for getting my photos out of order and not letting me change them)
*wooden animals & people,
*nature finds, sand paper, toy polish (must find their polishing cloths, where on earth do they hide them?!)
*scrap paper etc to be recycled into new works of art

For our table I made this Autumny apple tree lantern. I painted it on two pieces of normal printer paper, brushed both sides with oil, let it soak in for a bit. I then wiped off the excess oil , stapled a whole sheet and half sheet of paper together, joined them at the back with a few more staples. I added a strip of silver card at the top and bottom to make it extra stable. It looks especially beautiful when lit in the evening, last night we watched it while eating pumpkin soup (again, josh loves pumpkin soup as much as I do:) Next Joshes dad Kym is bringing us what he thinks are squashes (I guess they must have self seeded too, how fun, mystery veggie crops!)

voyage in the 'sardine princess'

Firstly, in case any ones not had a chance to enter my give away, here's a link so you may do so
 We have had such a wonderful long weekend! Today we went to see AJ and Kane at 'The pines' a little beach town they were staying at. They bought this little boat at a garage sale for $50 not knowing if it would be sea worthy or not! Luckily it is, we had a great time paddling about. Kane called it the sardine because its so tiny we need to pack in like sardines. Aj lengthened the name to sardine princess as a joke because often giant cruise ships have 'princess' in their name, and this little baby is far from a luxury cruise boat! Mia the dog came for a little paddle with us

What a sparkly and magical adventure it was:)

Easter was lots of fun, we went to my Oma and Opas place and had breakfast in the garden with lots of my cousins, aunts and uncles. The kids had an egg hunt and we all enjoyed the morning sun and warmth. Their street is lined with beautiful autumy trees. Leaves were scattered all about  so I collected some and brought them home to preserve with beeswax.

On Thursday I made easter baskets with the day care children (those that weren't on holiday already) For our egg hunt I hid for each of them- a rock painted as a ladybird, a yellow pom pom with a chick face, some water cress seeds and three mini chocolate eggs. They loved it all especially the lady bird rocks ( wonderful idea from here) and also having their very own packet of seeds. We planted their seeds in egg shells, they are in the picture above.

Lucky, lucky me!

 Firstly, in case any ones not had a chance to enter my give away, here's a link so you may do so
This morning I went out for a walk and happened to stumble upon a 'garage sale' at the caravan park. I use the term garage sale loosely as thats what they called it but realy it was lots of stalls of second hand goodies, like a mini market.
I came away from most of the stalls empty handed but then I came to the very last stall.... The lady holding it and I must have the same taste as I found all this and left behind more that I would have also liked. She was a bubbly and fun lady and we had fun going through the goodies together as she was putting things out, shed not seen most of it since she last moved house so it was fun for both of us!

 I fell in love with the porcelain plugs and bought them even though I had no idea what I could do with them. When i got home I realised they happen to fit our bathroom sink and bath plug, yippe! I so love this star tea strainer, the children will enjoy my old one in the sand pit

 Is this not the cutest little old train youve ever seen? The varnish is so worn that it will only need a light sand before I can polish it with beeswax polish. The book its sitting on is an old enid blyton book that has adorable pictures. Its old dusty smell reminds me of the toy box at Ma and Pops when I was younger (the toys were saved from my Dad's childhood)

 Ive been spending the long weekend crafting goodies for the market im going to be having a stall at. Ive so far made some wool felt goodies, some organic hemp/cotton scarfs and a few bees wax candles. Im nervous to have stall but my friend Sarah said she'll come along which will be realy fun

And just because it looked so pretty when I held it to the light (and begged me to take a picture, you know how it is) a pic of my sprouts when I was rinsing them. Ive been using the rinse water to water my indoor plants and all those wonderful vitimins from the lucern seeds sure have perked them up!

around my kitchen

Firstly, in case any ones not had a chance to enter my give away, here's a link so you may do so

Thursday has become making day around here. Last 'Making day' we made these Easter egg candles. The children were fascinated that I could pour the wax and it then became solid! They enjoyed peeling off the shells. The cute egg cups were opp shopped (20c each!) I so love them. 

I have been sprouting alfalfa sprouts in a jar, ready for tasty sandwiches. They are sitting wonkily on a tea pot as the instructions say to 'leave the jar on a lean to drain excess moisture' so I improvised:)

Delicious organic freebie apples from my mums tree, yum!

Today is baking day so we made bread rolls. There are snails, a house, a rabbit and an echidna. They are outside rising while the children sleep, They will wake to the delicious smell of fresh bread for lunch! 

Benny got us this new spice rack, I love all the cute little glass jars. Above it I have some rosemary and basil drying. Josh's dad brought me some organic pumpkins from a huge plant that self seeded and has taken over their old chicken coop. Tonight will be pumpkin soup for tea!

During the week Benny works nights. I have found one up-side to not having him home in the evenings, I can cook vegetarian meals (which I prefer) I love making simple soups and stews. Last night I made a tomato salsa, bean and spinach pizza, yum!

I recently found two meal time blessing which I love saying with the children -

For lunch and tea time-
We are thankful for this food
For rest and home and all things good
For wind and rain and sun above
But most of all for those we love

For morning snack (or any other time we have fruit)-
Blessings on the blossom,
Blessings on the root,
Blessings on the leaf and stem,
Blessings on my fruit

This has nothing to with the kitchen but we have also been painting pictures on our tree stumps. Remember how I got free fire wood? Well i had 3 stumps for the children to balance and jump off and decided I needed 3 more. By the time I went back there wasn't much to choose from. I some how managed to haul 3 to the car thinking 'I must be able to do this, I got the other ones just fine'. When I got backed I realised that these ones were approximately DOUBLE the size of the others! Oh weal, its worth the sore strained muscles, I love them:)

and now for that give away...

 I feel so thankful to have made so many bloggy friends over the past few years and been inspired by all of your wonderful stories, photos and tutorials.
It amazes me that I have exceeded 150 followers, who knew that many people would be interested in snippets of my days and find joy in the same things that make me happy.

Since happiness is indeed something to be shared I've put together a little package of goodies to hopefully make someones day!
The package includes- two of my hand dipped beeswax candles from the other day, a green window star, a wooden snail, and two beeswax decorative flowers (all made with love from me to...perhaps you?)

If you would like to be in the draw to win these goodies leave a comment before next Tuesday.
Please make sure to leave an email or link for me to be able to contact you if you win

Happy Monday!

Out about- some of my favourite places

This morning Mum came over and we went to my favourite cafe, Salt of the Earth. This cafe started up at the end of last year and im so glad it did. Its my kind of place with hand made and organic foods and little crafted items and art work for sale.

On the 1st and 3rd Saturday each month they hold the markets. This morning I enquired about having a stall and they were quite keen to have me start up so im going to be buisy making and getting some goodies together to sell, hopefully I can be ready by the next one

Heres the outdoor eating area that has tables full of goodies on market days. All the beautiful plants apart from the large trees were planted late last year when they opened but to look at it you can hardly imagine that the garden is so new. It has a beautiful old english garden feel that my pictures just dont do justice

Heres another of my favourite places, our local craft co-op "Clementines Corner" which started up some time last year. Its closed today but usually the little gate is open there are all sorts of wind chimes and goodies inviting you to enter and have a look. They sell all sorts of handmades from natural goats milk soaps to quilts and even jams and sauces. 

I love walking past this house as their are always chickens and ducks out of their yard exploring the surounding scrub. It makes me feel so happy that they can wonder wild and free! This morning I saw about 15 chicks out pecking about, cherping happily in the cool morning air, they looked just like my chickens not many months ago, so sweet.

Its so nice to go for walks and have familiar favourite things to see. I have a favourite big old pepercorn tree, and a picnic spot where I take the children, where wispy trees reach almost to the ground like a natural cubby house.

When I moved to Port Wakefield I moved here to be with Benny and we didn't plan on being here too long. Quite honestly I longed to move away for quite some time but now I feel like its truly my home and im happy here. At the moment Benny's parents are having a house built and when they do we will be moving into their current house.  Im eagerly looking forward to August when the moves are to take place.

Our new place will be much roomier and it has great storage and shed space. Our current house is rather small and with the dining room doubling as my daycare area and my tiny craft room as the childrens sleep room, it can get quite tight and crowded at times. 

The new place not only beautiful green grass in the front and back garden, but a big green oval across the road! We can do what we want to the garden and even plant fruit trees, which has for a long time seemed like a far off dream. Shops and playground are closer to walk to (I know some little people who will be thankful!) School and kindy are just a block away.

Im realy starting to love our little town and once we are settled in the new place I think I will be quite content to stay here for as long as our life journeys keep us here

Today im loving...

*Weather that is cool enough for winter winter woolies. I love this $1 wool jumper from the salvos (I found an opp shop open on Saturdays, yay) and stripey woolen top second hand from ebay. Im glad to have discovered that I love wearing wool. I thought I didn't like wearing wool but Ive found fine knits are comfortable on my skin. I started off last winter wearing an opp shopped cashmere cardi, then merino, and then I got brave enough for regular wool. Now I love them all 

*the masses of tiny butterflies in our garden. Every time I walk through the grass they flutter about happily (or maybe unhappily, seems I disturbed them!)

 This beautiful needle felted picture recieved from I swap I did recently with Marie of Softearthhart . Im also enjoying making a daisy chain garland for Maries friend who is starting a Steiner inspired playgroup ( she wanted a daisy chain to symbolise the children coming together, isnt that the sweetest idea:)

This colourfull felty mess on our couch side table:) (you can see in the basket a leaf garland and flower garland that have made their way to my shop yesterday. The leaf garland is already in a treasury)

My favourite plate.I thrifted this wooden plate for 50c. When I got it it was un finished and had a big bit of wood sticking up in the middle. Im not sure what it was supposed to be but with the help of a chisel and sand paper it transformed into a beautiful plate. (I may or may not have been eating that pizza for breakfast:)

Ive noticed that 149 people are now following allong this little blog of mine. Im thinking a give away would be a fun way to cellebrate when it gets to 150, dont you agree?

ever so slightly wonky beeswax candles:)

The cold weather has hit us all of a sudden since weve been back from our holiday. The mornings and evenings are darkening and I couldnt think of anything cozier than snuggling up in a quilt with a warm chai tea and a candle radiating warmth and light (and of course a craft project in my lap, but that goes without saying right?)

I decided to have a second go at hand dipping some candles. Last time I used a tin can which leaked wax into the water pot. This time I used the tallest jar I had which worked well to make small candles. I want to search opp shops for a tall skinny flower vase as I think it would work well for making tall candles without having to fill a giant pot!

This was my candle making rig-up. A plank of woon for candles to hang over between dippings, al foil to catch drips (to be re-used)

The wax looked and smelled so much like honey I almost wanted to spread it on toast!

Here they are as they were getting a little fatter. Although its a sign that im new to candle making, I happen to love how wonky they all are! Each has their own litle personality:)

You can see in this picture that the wax jar is going solid. Throughout the process I was regularly re warming it and topping up the wax to keep it full.

As a tip for anyone who also finds it difficult to cut into a big solid slab of beeswax, after I was finished I poured the remaining beeswax onto the alfoil. After it cooled I could peel it off and easily break it into small pieces to be easily melted next time. 

Once they were cooled I didnt want to put them in my cupboard so instead I hung them over a curtain rod so that I can enjoy them all.

While on this picture of the bookshelf ill tell you how our day care rhythum has clicked into place.

Up until recently our art supplies have been on the second to top shelf. The table is next to it meaning that the children could stand on their chair and grab what ever they felt like doing or if not, point to it and id get it down for them. This meant I would be constantly getting out and putting away 4 different craft activities numerous times a day! Of course with this much free range they didnt all want to come together for our activity of the day as they knew they could do it whenever they pleased.

 I decided to move the art supplies to the top shelf. Now things are 'out of sight, out of mind' until I pull them out on the right day, and we all sit down to enjoy them together. Ive also found some verses to sing for some of the activities which makes the activity all the more fun:) They are written on the painted cards at the back of the art shelf.

When I first heard of waldorf rhythums I thought they sounded nice but  a lot of work and comitment. Now I see how they realy can simplify life and make things run smoother.

holiday snapshots

Horseshoe Bay- Magnetic Island

We went on a fishing trip. Absolutely no fish due to bad weather but we did boom netting (sitting in a net in the water next to the boat as it goes along) and had a great time exploring different parts of the island. My favourite part was swimming to shore and checking out a beautiful waterfall

Me swinging like tarzan on tree vines (I just had to give it a try, it was so much fun:)

I got a cute rainbow anklet to remind me of the warmth of Queensland now that we are heading into cool autumn weather

This was the most relaxing place to quietly meditate