monthly9 - may 2015

I'm going to sneak in a very quick monthly9…..just before July! This one is my May round up and hopefully June's happenings are a little bit earlier next month! Actually I'm not really even sure of all that went on in May as it was…..well, a whole month ago, so I think I'll just mention what was going on in the photos and save my brain a lot of pain trying to recall too many forgotten details! 

In May I did quite a few watercolour sketches. I must have had a bit of extra time waiting for sporty children or perhaps I just made some time to paint but my sketchbook has several pages of shells, leaves and houses. And shoes. Yes, my shoes. I bought these when I went to Austria in 2012 and have been wearing them ever since, so I felt they deserved their first portrait! 

All my sketches end up with some writing as well although I mostly take a photo as I'm doing them because I always get a bit excited!! 

In May I managed to get up with the birds at least three times to take photos of the sunrise on the mountain and over our house. I do really love the early mornings when I force myself to rise at sun up but I am also equally fond of a nice warm bed and a lie in with my iPad or a good book.

In May we celebrated two birthdays - the Best Mans and our Dj who turned 15. I won't tell you the Best Mans age - suffice to say that 5 was the first number! The girls went wild with the cake and totally covered it in colourings and artificial flavourings sweets, none of which the Small Elf was allowed to eat. Fortunately she doesn't mind, never having had lollies, and contented herself with removing candles.

In May we also held the Blessing Way for my oldest girl.

In May I was busy. Very busy. Too busy, really. But May has been and gone and June is almost over too (and I think June was even busier), so I shall look back at May with fondness.

If you want to see how other people spent May, pop over to Lindas blog, The Greenhaven Goodlife, and check out what interesting things they did. They will have written up their month a little earlier and a lot more detailed ;)

baby, its cold down here...

Brrrr, the weather has been chilly lately - minus 4 and 5 each morning for the past week. Lots of lovely ice crystals all over the windscreen on my car and sometimes all over the whole car in great swathes! One morning I just had to brave the temperatures and head outside to take these photos and oh gosh, my fingers froze! This kind of cold always reminds me of the Laura Ingalls Wilder book - The Long Winter - with the snow piled high and Laura and her sister sleeping upstairs where the ice was on the inside of their bedroom ceiling! Its hard to imagine that!

Looking at these pics makes me realise that my camera is not the best at taking macro shots. I enjoy taking very very close ups but I'm feeling I need a better lens…..come to think of it, I think I also need to take a photography class. Hmm, now theres a thought, I even have some info about a local one coming up next month…….maybe, I could fit it in…??

I hope you are all keeping warm by the fire over these cold winter days….except my northern hemisphere friends who I'm sure are loving the halcyon days of summer. It will be our turn soon!!

solstice night

The sun is born again today, 

we greet the suns first morning ray. 

We sing and celebrate the light,

the sun's born in the longest night. *

As we head into the longest night of the year, I am once again relieved that the Sun is making her return and these short, short days will lengthen. Every June I feel impatient for more light and although the weather here in Tasmania will only get colder and windier for the next few months, the days will slowly become longer in minute increments at first and then with astonishing speed after the Spring Equinox. I am ready for the Light. 

Wishing you all a pleasantly warm and cosy night as we welcome the return of the Sun.

*by Diane Baker (Circle Round - raising children in Goddess traditions)

really junky journals

Sometimes I feel a little snowed under with responsibilities, to do lists and other peoples needs and desires. My days are often a whirl of car trips to ballet or homeschool meetings or airport pickups for various family members. Then theres meals, washing to dry before the fire due to the wet weather, visits from daughters, babies and boyfriends and a huge plethora of other random happenings that occur when theres a large family living in close proximity.
Lately, I've also been trying to create more hand made repurposed books for a market stall I'm aiming to have in spring as well as some classes for journal making and SoulCollage®. Although I'm a licensed SoulCollage® facilitator, having trained in Melbourne last year, I've yet to be brave enough to give a class. With little quiet time to get my thoughts sorted enough to plan them out, all of these things have taken a backseat and I've been struggling just to get basic household jobs done……like feeding everyone a healthy meal on time or changing their sheets.

For me, creating something is almost as necessary as breathing. When I don't have the time to think, plan and move forward on my myriad ideas and dreams, I tend to fall in a very messy heap, so I've learned to go with my strong creative drive and just Do It! With a very stressful and busy week behind me last week, and nothing achieved on all the items that I had planned to do, I just needed to create SOMETHING!! Something that would lull my logical left brain into a state of somnolence, yet feed my creative right brain with hearty, arty fodder! These messy junk journals were just right!    

I had started these about 6 months ago but they were put aside while life moved along at its usual fast pace. The green one was created first, from something I saw online, probably someones blog. I tend to do that, just see something and think I can make that, and then try it! So I made the green one and almost finished it back then but really wanted to know how to Make Them Properly! Last weekend, after following a rabbit trail, I found Mary Ann Moss from Dispatch from LA blog and her Remains of the Day Journal class. She is the funniest thing and writes hilariously as well as sketches beautifully. And oh yes, she rounded off my attempts very nicely and the lovely pink journal came into being! 

Both of them are made almost entirely from random bits of leftovers. There are quite a few heavy weight, brown shopping bags in there and a lovely scrunchy bag that came all the way from Bolivia with organic quinoa! Theres old book pages, pages from an old music book, an antiques magazine and an old poetry book. An out of date atlas, some pages from Frankie magazine and lots of lovely envelopes with windows to peep through, as well as offcuts from the repurposed books I make. The covers are VitaBrits boxes for stiffness and some of the many, many thrifted fabrics, fabric offcuts and doilies that I have in my stash! My sewing machine was put to a different use, sewing up paper scraps and it was certainly lovely to be quite haphazard about placement and hanging threads! 

Some embellishments with my hand carved stamps, a new to me bookbinding technique, a length of fabric for a closure and they were done. One each to my two oldest girls. Which means of course that I now must create two more for the younger two…..and then theres a daughter in law or two…..and a few friends…..and what about me???

Yes, all the frenzied creating was just what I needed. My tiny loft bedroom/studio is now covered with lots of threads and snippety bits of fabric and paper but my heart is satisfied. All the other items on my to do list are still there too. Waiting. And thats ok. They can wait a little longer. My busy brain had a little rest and my spirit has been replenished. For now.


I've joined in with Nicole at Frontier Dreams today. She has a great link up to all sorts of creative crafting called Keep Calm Craft On….which I thought was rather apt for my post today!!

And I've also shared this with Linda at Natural Suburbia on her Creative Friday post. She has some of the cutest knitting patterns over there too - do have a look!

safe arrival

Let me introduce you to Small Pink Bundle #2!!

Yes its a girl! And we are over the moon excited and happy that she's arrived!

Born at home yesterday 10th of June at 3.55am

Weighing a rather hefty 8 lb. 14 oz (not sure but I think its about 4kg's)

My beautiful Nina is amazing - she simply breathes these little ones into expression in a few short hours and then calmly rings me at 5am and says "do you want to come seem my baby?"
Yes, of course!

The big sister is very dedicated at the moment but wondering why this new small playmate doesn't yet grasp and use the large variety of toys that she is so nicely sharing with her!

Right now, I'm off to blend up a nice green smoothie for my clever daughter and give the new tiny baby another Oma snug. I'll be back after I've enjoyed the baby moon!!

one sunny day

We have been having some awesomely sunny, winter days - the sort that come after very, very frosty cold mornings (which we have also been having but thats another story). These awesomely sunny days are just that - sunny. Not warm. No. With a light wind coming straight from the snowy peaks of Cradle Mountain, there is still a brisk nip in the air and layers of jumpers and wooly underwear are required to keep sensitive bodies from feeling the chill.

On one of these brilliant sunny days, our 15 year old Dj was sure that he we needed to go fishing. He insisted that the sun would be warm, the fish would be running and some fresh air was just what was required for my constitution! And why else do we homeschool but to take advantage of beautiful days and impromptu outings? Yes, yes, lets go.

So with the added bonus of taking along the Small Elf and Mama Lush, a large basket of lunch and nibbles, a nice hot thermos and tea making bits and a variety of Useful Creative Things To Do, we set off on our winter beach adventure. Fortunately its a rocky beach so there's no contending with sand in food, and all five of use set about doing what ever it was that we love best.

For the Wee Girl, that was rolling around on the rocky slopes, picking up all sorts of dried sea vegetation on her shiny dress up pants! My Fairy went leaping from rock to rock with the sheer joy of being outdoors and by the sea, before settling down to scour rock pools for anemones and starfish. The Dj set off right away on his fishing adventure - leaving from the inlet and paddling out to sea a little way, waiting for a bite from an unsuspecting fish. 

I wandered around taking photos, admiring rock pool inhabitants, making snacks and feeding small hungry girls. Its a very peaceful area here, with few visitors so we were able to really unwind and enjoy the solitude, although as the day progressed, we did have to add more layers of clothing to keep warm! Or maybe that was just me? I did spend some time doing a quick sketch of the bay, with results that were not quite satisfactory and I started a new knitting project. Maybe I sat too much???!!

The sweetest sight of all was the ripe, round mama to be. She has been an avid birdwatcher since she was very young but since becoming a mama 3 years ago, she has had less time to spend in quiet observation and her bird count list had slowed and finally stopped. Then just recently she rediscovered the urge and decided that now was a good time to get out and rejuvenate her passion. Now. At 9 months. Around she went, over rocks and pebbles, spotting and exclaiming and looking so darn cute!

And at the end of the day when the sun grew weak and the winter chill became too much to ignore, we packed up canoe, picnic basket, rugs and children and hurried home to warm fires and hot soup.

It had been a good day. A good, sunny day.

Yes. He caught two fish.

a blessing for mama and babe

Which mama and babe? Yes, yes, its this one again! Almost nine months ago another little soul chose my lovely girl as its earth mother and she's been carefully nurturing it close to her heart for all that time. I just recently realised that I haven't even mentioned that there is another tiny one coming to our family - I remembered around the time that I started preparing for the Blessingway we were holding to give her strength for this rite of passage. I spent quite some time preparing a meaningful ceremony and I was very happy with how the day flowed. She had several friends, quite a few sisters and sisters in law and four wise women to honour and encourage her and we spent a delightful afternoon creating, chatting and reminiscing.

This card from my Druid Craft Tarot deck has always been one of my favourites and when I snapped the top pic of my girl, it reminded me of it. Don't you think there's a resemblance?

So, we started the afternoon with soup and bread - this was intentional because the babe will be born in the late autumn month of June, when it is almost winter and there's a drawing in of energy. A nice hearty lentil and veg soup with sourdough bread was just right to complement the sleety rain and wind outdoors! After lunch we sat in circle, I said a few words regarding the intention of the ceremony, lit a candle, then Nina began and spoke of her thoughts and feelings with this, her second pregnancy, and of the changes that were to come. As she finished speaking she passed on a ball of gorgeous homespun wool and as each woman there received the wool, they too spoke some wise words, encouraging thoughts or offered a blessing for the birthing and each of us added a bead to a small felt basket. Nina has since turned them into a birthing necklace which she will wear until baby is here and then later, she'll incorporate them into a dreamcatcher, as a symbol of all the hopes and dreams for this babes new life.

I had organised some arty, painty creative bits (of course!) and spent a few minutes explaining what I had provided and how to do the activities. My Golden Girl wanted a small book to record babys firsts, so with watercolour, pencils and pre cut pages ready, the girls decorated and conversed to their hearts delight.

I'd spent the previous week designing and drawing up a mandala on a large piece of canvas with the intention of sewing up a cushion. The plan was to get everyone to paint a round, although the larger rounds were done by two or three at a time! It was interesting to hear some women saying they hadn't painted for years and being quite reluctant to try, although when they did they realised how soothing and enjoyable wielding a paintbrush could be! Hearing that, makes me more determined to encourage women to express themselves with paint, paper and glue through classes and workshops. I have a plan!!!

There was also going to be another mandala done in henna on the beautiful round belly but sadly the henna needed a few hours to be ready and we hadn't realised that before. We made do with some lovely ripe chocolate cervixes complete with emerging jelly babies!!

There was a lot of eating and chatting and sharing of birthing stories and babyhood and, I think, all the lovely women in our life went home a little richer in spirit. A friend shared how much more meaningful she felt this was, compared to a regular type of baby shower and its given me a nudge to offer to organise something like this for other expecting mamas. We'll see.

At the end of the day, we waved them all good-bye - mamas, babies, children, grandmamas - cleaned up a little, rehashed some extra good bits, wondered at the beautiful pages that had been made and washed up paint brushes. My girl was feeling so special, loved and vibrant and all set for another birthing and I felt relieved that it had all gone so well, been so well received.

Each of us went home with a piece of the birthing wool wrapped around our wrist - a symbol of our support for her during labour, which will be removed when bub has arrived. Interestingly, I have two - the green one and that pink one which was from an April womens circle held with my beautiful friends in NSW, honouring my transition to MidWoman or Maga. Two quite different stages of life and two which most women will enter and travel through, with varying degrees of equanimity.

Now, to wait.


Edited to add - here is a link to the first Blessingway we had for my girl. A different one, seeing as she was having a summer baby. And I just noticed that we had jellybabies then too ;)