how to make seed packets from old book pages

Very early this month, our home eduction group held a Garden Swap. The idea is that everyone brings along something either from the garden or pertaining to the garden - you receive a token for every item you bring and in return you can take one item per token. As you can imagine there were a lot of different goodies to swap with……loads of potted plants of course and seedlings, fresh seeds and abundant vegetables from autumn harvests, jams, baked goods, garden magazines, big bags of seaweed and manure, even some kombucha starters. I brought home a few bags of the afore mentioned seaweed, some potted herbs, big bags of onions and two different jams, chosen by my children! To swap, I took along rhubarb, coriander seedlings and some fresh dill and chive seeds.

I may have mentioned that I have a tendency to do things at the last minute and the seed packets were no exception!! I realised very late (well, ok the day before but thats pretty last minute!) that I needed to put the seeds into small packets. Naturally I wanted something pretty but fairly quick to whip up and I came up with the idea of using old book pages which I have a lot of and a simple sketch to tizzy them up! The end result was a bunch of quirky little seed packs that looked cute as well as repurposing something that was no longer used.

In case you want to make some too, here are some step by step pictures which are mostly self explanatory. If I knew how, I'd add a link to a pdf doc with the pattern for you, but I've googled and it all seems a bit complicated for this time of night, so you'll have to make up your own. Its not hard!

I used a book that I picked up for free. Its written in Dutch so I can't read it but the cover will make another journal and the pages will get used up in all sorts of ways!  

It didn't take long to draw up a very simplistic dill seed head and then with just a teeny bit of watercolour they were transformed into a unique seed packet!

I put one heaped teaspoon of seed into each one and wrote the amount in small lettering on the back of the pack. They were stuck together with a glue stick.

While the paints were out, other artistic folk came along and had a painting spree too! 

I also made some coloured packets for chive seeds although I didn't like the end result as much but they did the job. A friend has a chive problem in her garden. Can you believe it? She has them popping up everywhere and they just keep self seeding, so we lopped all their lovely heads and I spent a few hours winnowing the seeds from the husks. 

By the time I'd huffed and puffed and blown all the husks out of the bowls, I was beginning to have some idea of how the wolf felt!! 

And just for fun, here are two creations made of pumpkins! There was a competition for best pumpkin sculpture and these were the two entries. I also wanted to take some photos of all the goodness that was there for swapping but I forgot and then it was all gone!! You'll have to take my word for it!!

Let me know if you think you may make your own seed packs. I think its something useful and arty all in one, and that suits me just fine!

how i made my own planner

At the beginning of every year I have big plans. And always, the biggest plan of them all is to be a better planner! And with that in mind I've been reading books and blogs, writing up lists and pretty planner pages as well as dreaming up all the projects that I can possibly fit into one busy year! I've only been using a daily planner for the last 5 or so years - before that life just went with the flow - but I've become rather attached to having one and seeing things set down on paper rather than rattling around in my head!
For the last two years I've made my own and Ive been quite happy with them……but I do like a change and I feel I'm going to be busier than ever this year with extra activities and study as well as keeping track of children's work and play! So I've expanded and reworked and I think I've come up with one I will like.

Here are the previous years versions - I repurposed pretty Country Style and Vogue Cooking magazine covers (truly, there are often the most gorgeous pics on there as well as cool words!) and I printed the pages from Leonie Dawsons Create your Amazing Life Planner. As you can see, it has hour times, the Most Important Tasks for the day and a space for some words of wisdom to ponder over. And it was good. But I wanted more!

Can you see what I mean about pretty pages and good words? In Full Bloom and Celebrate Spring - just what I like to think about! (Excuse the two lousy pics - wrong time of day!)

So, on January 1st, I started trawling through Pinterest for some ideas, preferably with free printables. There are lots but I soon realised that there aren't any that are really me - colourful, A4 size (I have lavish sized writing!) and with  categories that are just suited to my life. Whats a girl to do? Well, me? I just make my own!!! I did model mine loosely on the pages found on this site and have also used some of them as is for now but the ones I use every day I wanted brighter and slightly different. 

I simply drew up a master copy using a thick black texta for the lines of the boxes. Then, after finding a couple of nice colour schemes, I traced those lines onto fresh papers which gave me 5 different looks. Yes, it took a while to rule all the smaller lines into each box but I was on a mission. You can see a plain sheet at the top of this post. 

Then came the fun part - words, colours and washi tape! With not too much effort, I had five personalised, pretty planner pages to use as master copies. I like the different categories although I have found that I run out of room in the 'to-do' section and have extra room in the 'time block' section. Hmm, maybe some more tweaking….!

I also drew up a Goals for the Year page which Ive not done before, having only used a vision board, so I'm hoping this works just as well or even better! Notice the wishful thinking about Christmas gifts? I've never yet finished Christmas gifts until December 24th but I am an eternal optimist!!

Theres a page for each month (not pictured) one for each week with three goals broken down into smaller actions and I've also printed out a ready to go page to use for the weekends when the schedule is a little lighter (and have I mentioned that I like a change?)

There are five sections separated by art works from my children, complete with homemade tabs. Yes, it all looks very official with 'menu' and 'blog' tabs but …ahem….those sections are still empty although I do have grand plans….!!

The cover is from a large children's board book and I've bound it all together using the same rings that I use on my Etsy journals. I'm not sure yet how much I like using these rings as opposed to the sort that come in a ring binder and open with one 'snap' as I want to change the pages daily so I can always see the complete weeks actions as well as the current day and thats a bit tiresome undoing all three separately. The rings work really well for my journal where I may just want to add more pages now and again but not move any around. For this planner, I'm considering how to deconstruct an old ring binder and reconstruct it with a completely different cover style. Will keep you posted. 

 So there it is - my very personalised planner! I did have a lot of fun creating it - although I used quite a few brain cells working it out to my satisfaction - and so far I'm finding it good. My only dilemma is that I'm using a lot of paper and I'm not sure how to fix that. The pages are all only printed on one side -  although I do use the other side to jot down thoughts and random writings that spring to mind every so often and I will possibly use it next year as an art journal by gluing pages together and slapping on paint with joyful abandon!! Any other ideas?

 Oh and if you have a chance to borrow this book, do so! Its fascinating. Although geared towards executives and office workers, it has some amazing tips and techniques and a whole new way of being organised. Highly recommended.

Do you have any planner ideas that I may like to implement? Any books that I may need to read? I'd love to hear from you!

magical braiding

  

We have just started a Norse mythology block in our schooling recently. It's one of those topics that I could spend months on.  I love myths, legends, fairy tales and fantasy....... Greek and Roman myths, Arthurian legends, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Celtic mythology, legendary heroes and beasts, folktales and folklore. All of it is fascinating because no matter how unrealistic it sounds, somewhere in the depths of time, there must have been some reason, some grain of truth, that started the legend and was consequently embroidered and enlarged until it became the larger than life and almost unbelievable, heroic deed we hear of today. These myths are raw and often bloody but to me, they convey a feeling of connection with those long ago people that were striving to make some sense of the world around them in an age where everything was still unknown and death was lurking at every corner. 

There is a rawness and simplicity and innocence about them - the good are good and the evil are evil and most of the time, good will triumph..... and if it doesn't at first eventually it will. 

I'm also a woman that likes a happy ending in a book or movie and I won't read anything else! 

Okay, so last week we did a bit of knot work drawing as a lead up to the Norse myths. Now, I'm not sure how Nordic this style of knot is - it looks more Celtic - but for our purposes it is fine. This is actually a continuation of the Form Drawing we have been doing in Grades 2 and 3. Rudolf Steiner introduced form drawing which is considered to strengthen eye hand coordination and is a support for writing, amongst other more aesthetic processes - it's also a lot of fun!!
This little bit of braiding came together without too much tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth...... and when we got to the colouring in part .........wow! it was quite magical to see the pattern emerge!

Here goes....... 

We used an A4 sheet of paper and drew a grid of 8 x 3 squares - the darker lines.

Then those squares were divided into four smaller squares using dashed lines. You could just mark them with lighter lines instead. 

Now make a dot on every other line along the two centre dark lines, as shown. 

Make crosses by joining the dots.

Now make little arches on every second 'x'. Do the same along the bottom but remember to make the arches on alternate 'x's, as shown above. 

This next part is just a little bit confusing but if you happen to have a smart 13 year old nearby, ask them to help...... it will be sorted in no time, sigh...... You need to make large arches over the small ones, always taking them from the dot to the left of a small arch, right over the small arch until you end at the right hand dot just past the small arch.
These big arches have to go to the top of the grid.
You might have to follow my pic - I'm not sure how to explain it any better than this! You will start to see the pattern now, so that may make a difference for you. 

In the pic above, you can see the threads weaving over and under - there are three - and you need to follow one and erase the lines to give it the woven effect. Remember, if it goes under one then it must go over the next one. 

Start colouring the threads in different colours now, erasing any pencil marks as you go along.
It's really quite magical - all of a sudden you can see this intricate design that a moment before looked just like a heap of dots and dashes on the paper! I got really excited about it, much to my children's dismay and kept oohing and aahing in delight!!  

Here are a few we did. You might notice the bottom green one has been turned into what looks like a knot on the end...... it's not hard to do once you've put all the arches in and rubbed out some lines. It's also a slightly more rounded shape - the boxes for that one were done freehand and look smaller and perhaps more rectangular than the red one. That one's my favourite! 

Do have a play around - it is so much fun and such a surprise when it suddenly makes sense!!

I've linked up with Natural Suburbia today because it's the first time for a long time that we've done anything very creative! 

Floral greens!

When my blossoming Golden Girl came to visit - almost 2 weeks ago, yikes! - she brought these sweet little yarn covered baubles to show me. She'd found the idea in an older magazine from the op shop a while ago and kept them in mind....... then was lucky enough to find the large green spool of thin wool at another oppy later on! She did think that a pomegranate red would stand out on the Christmas tree a little better but made the best of what she had - good girl!! 

 Now the sad part is that the only shots I got of her making these is the winding of the wool! This needs to be done in a random pattern all over the styrofoam ball until there's no more white showing, then tuck in the end with the eye end of a needle. 

Sorry but you will have to close your eyes and imagine the next step...... she embroidered the coloured (red or blue) daisy flowers first, then filled in with the gold ones and last of all added the beads in any bare spots and also in the centres of the flowers. You won't need to make a knot when you start the flowers, simply run the thread along just under all the wool in a zig zag motion and it should hold.

The hanger is a length of embroidery thread, once again simply pulled through the strands of wool and knotted at the top, Oh, and she added a little bead so it looks extra fancy! 

Apologies for the very shonky style of tutorial - she tells me that she can make one of these in an evening while sitting and chatting to her Beloved but she didn't manage one while we were sitting and chatting in the warm spring air!! Hence few action shots! But I'm hoping that it's all fairly self explanatory from the many photo's. 

If you work it out and make some, please let me know - I'd love to see your creations, too! 

Paper, scissors, glue

While I didn't actually make any of these envelopes today, the girls have recently been cutting and folding, and as I tidied around their creativity, I thought I'd show and tell! 

We have a bit of a family thing going with these - someone will get the urge to 'make envelopes' and pull out the box and start tracing; and someone else might pick up scissors and cut; and usually I get the folding bit because I happen to like it! We have made literally hundreds of these - magazines, old geography or map books, used calendars, kids paintings - anything thats colourful and big enough gets turned into envelopes!! I simply used the outline of any bought envelopes that I liked and traced them onto stiff card, although now we are using quilters plastic (not sure what it's real name is!) which is more durable and doesnt wear away at the edges. 

I use these envelopes for everything - the darker colours need a small white sticker for the address and I have a special black permanent marker to address them all. We have had one almost mishap though - we sent a cheque to one of our suppliers and his wife thought it was one of those mass mail outs wanting money, so she threw it out!!!! Now, I always write our name in big letters on the back! 

  Last year when we had a stand for our heaters at the Penguin Sustainable Living Day, we tied up sets  of 12 envelopes with op shop wool and coerced the Fairy Girl and her little friend to wander the show and sell them....... and they sold all 18 sets!!! Not bad for a bit of fun on a wintery evening! 

Ever done this before? Try it, it's quite relaxing in a mindless sort of way! 

********

Progress report - maybe posting about my paltry stresses has been therapeutic because I crossed off three and a half items on my lists and had a relaxed kind of day (yes I've only done half of one of them but its a big messy one ;-) 

Viking times

A few years ago, when our oldest turned 21, we had a Viking themed birthday party. Naturally we spent a lot of time researching and then making various Viking inspired garments, meals and weaponry and along the way found out about some other obscure little details. One of these was how to make a long, fairly strong cord on a small disc. 

Last weekend, when our dearly beloved but very busy 11 year old needed something to keep him suitably occupied while it rained, I remembered that I still had the wooden discs that we had made those cords with. Unfortunately, I didn't have the instructions, so after much searching via google and a few false attempts, I started the youngest two on a Viking cord each. After all that prolonged googling, I did discover that maybe it wasn't actually from Viking times, but rather from the Middle Ages and even then I'm not really sure about that. 

Anyway, here are the photos and hopefully enough of an explanation so you can make your own....

You will need:

- a small scrap of wood or thick cardboard, ours is thin plywood  

- wool, about 1 to 2 metres in length x 12 lengths. It not only makes a nice pattern but helps you to keep track, if you have 4 strands each of 3 different colours. 

Cut a circle of about 10 or 12 cm's diameter out of the ply or card (we have one of each of those sizes and both work fine), then cut out a hole of 1cm diameter in the centre. One of ours has a 2.5cm hole and it still works ok but was a bit harder to start off. 

Now cut 24 slots evenly around the outside edge. 

Put your 12 strands of wool together and knot one end. 

Poke the knot through the centre hole and space the wool around the disc as shown - each colour exactly opposite to the same colour. 

So now here's the tricky part - not tricky to do but tricky for me to explain! 

Hold the disc with the wool in place, in front of you. You should have one of the pairs of wool at the 12 o'clock position when you are looking at it - in the photo above it's the blue strands. 

Now take the right hand "12 o'clock" wool strand out of it's slot and move it down to the right side of the corresponding colour wool at the 6 o'clock slot. Use your right hand to do this and hold the disc with your left hand. Making sense? 

You now have three at the 6 o'clock and only one at 12 o'clock.

Swap hands so you are holding the disc with your right hand and using your left hand, take the left piece of wool up to the left side of the single strand at 12 o'clock. You should have two strands up there again and one step is completed!!
Sorry this photo is not straight on, but trust me it was straight for Fairy Girl and a bit tricky for me to photograph! (and if you have a really good look you will see that I've posted them upside down!) 

Move your disc slightly in an anti clockwise direction so that the two strands of wool to the right of the blue 12 o'clock now become the new 12 o'clocks (yellow) and repeat the procedure. 

With your right hand move the right strand (yellow) down to the right of the same colour. Swap hands and move the bottom left strand (yellow) to the left of the remaining yellow at 12 o'clock. 

Another step completed! 

You will keep working in a clock wise direction although the disc actually moves anti clockwise. Does that make sense?

If you have a close look at these (I think you can click on the photo and it comes up bigger) you will notice that on the small disc the light green strands look a different shape, and on the large disc, the yellow strands look different. Thats how you can tell which was the last pair of strands that you moved. One of each is over all the other strands on that side and I suppose that is essentially how the weaving of the cord is done. So if you put it down and come back later, just start again with the strands to the right of the "different' set and keep going from there!

And here again is the finished product - a lovely twirly cord that can be used for all manner of things! Ours are still on the disc but will soon be finished and I'll be sure to let you know what they end up as. The kids have been 'weaving' while I read aloud and bit by bit they are getting longer!

Oh and just so you have an idea of final size - we used lengths of about 2.5 metres long for one of them because I thought it would be great to make a long cord, but....it really was a pain to keep it from getting tangled up. I tried rolling the strands on old plastic thread reels which helped a little but it wasn't completely successful. Your wool needs to be about 3 times the length that you want your finished cord to be although thats just a rough guess! For the second one we used 1.5 metre lengths.

Even if the Vikings didn't invent this, I still like to imagine a sturdy Viking Mama in a smoke filled longhouse weaving one of these to use as ties for her warriors' new linen tunic!

I hope you have a go at this because it really is mesmerising to do and such a pretty end result! And if you do, let me know as I'd love to see how it went - and if you could follow my instructions!!