visitors, autumnness and making making:)

 My sister Anneke has been visiting and brought her adorable puppy Disel along. I forgot to take pictures of us but of course I took lots of photos of this little guy. We had a nice day with Mum yesterday then made carbonara for tea. This morning I had no day care children (poor little sickies) So we took the puppy walking and discovered a beautiful cafe i'd been meaning to check out. Looking forward to going to our local markets together on Sat morning (another thing ive been meaning to check out)

 Heres some autum things weve been doing in my day care... Autumn tree with crayon and watercolour leaves, apples, birds etc.

 Ive been writing down my fav songs and verses and sticking them on the walls to remind me to sing them more often with the children. Its working! Here are our two Autum faves

 (they are stuck either side of the autumn tree)

I made some bees wax autumn leaves and the children helped me string them together and hang them below our photo board

Unfortunately this is our autumn nature table... Yep ill get back to that:)

 heres a few more things ive been making for the shop. This doll quilt is in there (although perhaps not for long, Im way to in love with it he he)

 Ive also been making some organic merino hand felted crowns. This ones in there

This ones a WIP, a few more details to go

My goodness I need to post more often so that I dont have 3 topics to one post! Appoligies about the post overload

The making of Skylas first birthday flower garland

Ive been buisy making a flower garland for the lovely Abby (who blogs at My Love Is ) She is creating a beautiful bedroom for her adorable bubby Skyla and ordered some flowers to go on her daughters bed head. I cant wait to see the room it when its finished!

Abby mentioned what a shame it was that we are far appart as she would have loved to pop in to see how it was coming along and I agreed. What would be the next best thing? A 'The making of' post of course!

 First I divided my kilo of  organic merino wool into 100gram pieces (I started with the weighing scale out on the lawn on a nice sunny day....then little mitch 'accidently let out out the chooks! It got a little trickier with feathered friends about so we headed inside!)

Each piece is platted as this makes it easier to handle.

Next each colour is dyed. I tried out using 'greener shades' dye (an eco friendly dye) for the purple and I was very impressed. I will definately get more colours of this in the future.

I rinse them and pat them dry. After that every chair in my house becomes re-purposed as a drying rack:)

This pic is of them almost dry (although I re dyed the pink and yellow as they werent quite the shade I wanted)

Next part is wet felting. The rovings are layered in different directions which makes a nice strong felt

I like making felt on the side of my sink as the sink ridges seem to help it come together nicely. Oh and so I can look out my kitchen window at birdies who come to nibble on seeds we sprinkled for them:)

I make the string by wet felting a long thin chunk of rovings. It involves a lot of rolling to get it firm and well shaped! Here are some of the flowers and leaves cut out ready to make their way to the garland.

And here is the finished piece, ready to be sent of to brighten Skylas room!

fairys soup and this and that:)

 Ive been growing lots of flowers near the children's play area so that there are plenty to be picked. I have such wonderful memories of making flower 'potions' with my cousins when we were little and I knew the daycare children would have fun with it too!

 Today we brought some in and the children had fun cutting off little bits with scissors, mixing and arranging them

 The big leaves are from Benny's favourite plant, 'lambs ear'. Cameron loves collecting them, rubbing their fuzziness on his skin and calls them 'feathers'

 This mini muffin tray that I thrifted long ago always finds so many creative uses. today it was a feeding trough for the farm animals. I love all the purple flowers we found this morning. The aroma was wonderful!

 especially when it was all crushed in the mortar and pestle. Next time we will do it outside so that we can add water as that will be even more fun

 I got these basket draws on the weekend and they have made the play area so much more organised.
 Id not got anything until now as I hate to have too much furniture in a room as it can look to cluttered. It turns out they did just the opposite, I'm glad to have them in our tiny space. One day soon I will take pictures of the play space as it looks now, its changed a lot. (I would have taken them this morning but I didn't want to go get another camera)
This is what I found after Josh went to bed last night. Clever boy:)

I finished this quilt and pillow set this afternoon (from the left over fabric of this quilt:) Unfortunately for our 'Finn baby' its heading to the shop

A little this, a little that

This has been keeping the day care children oh so happy. Half a cup of water, a dash of eco dish washing liquid and a drop of colour and they have a bubbly tea party!

This is our current mealtime candle. It is a cool soy wax one that Cam and Mitch (day care kids) gifted me for Christmas, in my favourite leaf candle holder. We have been talking about the happiest part of our day and what we are thankful for.
Today I am thankful for our fruit and veg shop being re-opened a few weeks ago. Charlie is our new fruit and veg guy (a very cool and chatty old dude)
 Josh and I wonder over every few days for goodies and grapes to eat on the way home:) fun

Mmmm, crayons... Bees waxy good!

Over the weekend I've been busy felting some organic merino wool that I dyed a little while ago.

 I worked on two flower garlands for my shop 

(remember my shop? My gosh my Christmas break lasted quite a while!)

This on can be found here

I made this one too but its already been snapped up and is on its way to its new home.