my friends farm

Just look at this view:

I am so, so fortunate to live here and have this to look at out of my kitchen window! It makes me feel so happy!

The boys are still under the weather unfortunately (and if Rebe's grumpiness is anything to go by then she's not feeling 100% either). In fact both boys are on yet another anti-biotic for ear infections poor old things.

We have been at home a lot over the last few days. Joa is at a very trying age at the moment. He just wants to be big, and is so very frustrated when I don't let him. I read this great article last week and it reminded me about not putting myself in the constant position of saying 'no' and 'don't' and 'stop it' to him. I find being so negative constantly quite exhausting. Instead I am trying to re-direct Joa; to find him things that he can do. Mostly this means washing-up:


both boys would quite happily stay like this for hours, but it does usually mean ending up like this...
I think someone else is in need of a pinny ;-)

I am also trying to slow down. Instead of rushing through my 'to-do' list I stop and think what parts of it can Joa do? I breathe and calm myself. Instead of thinking of the 101 things that I would like to rush off and do if I can only get this washing on, or dishes done, I stop and I live in the moment. OK (breathe) now we are doing the dishes (breathe). I am doing it with my family, it is good(breathe), it is fun (breathe) , I can watch this little boy learn (breathe). He feels useful and important (breathe), he is happy (breathe)...we are happy (exhale).
But this really only works if I take the time to stop rushing through these jobs. If I take the time to remember that everything is a game to Joa, and can be to me.

So, after spending 30 minutes loading (and reloading) the dish washer this morning, we went to visit my dear, lovely friend and her kids.

She has just recently moved into her husband's family home. It is a very old house on a farm, it is just so beautiful and we had a wonderful morning being shown around :-)

the door bell




the front garden, Benny spotted the sheep

oh snowdrops :-)
Bramble and Joa loved each other
the orchard...where I am going to live

bees!
where Benny is going to live :-)

It was so much fun and they are such a special family to spend time with. I'm so lucky to have friends such as these.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway if you haven't done so yet, only a few days left to go :-)

Every stitch made with love

That is what the signature on my etsy shop says. And it is true I make every stitch of everything I make with love. A dear friend of mine asked me years ago why my coffee tastes so good, and my answer quite flippantly was, 'because it is made with love'. And do you know what? Food that is made with care and love does taste better and I bet it is more nourishing and has better benefit and value for our bodies.

In the same way I am certain that emotion is trasfered into the crafts and art we make. You can see when an artist is angry, the anger comes right through the paintbrush and through the paint and into the canvas. You can hear sadness in the voice of a singer and I think that you can see love in my dolls.

I love each and every one of the dolls that I make. Not in a 'oh I'm so clever look what I can make' big-headed sort of way, but as I make them love flows through me into them. I love working with natural materials, gorgeous fabrics and beautiful yarn. And I really love the waldorf philosophy behind these dolls. As I form their little heads and feel the weight of them in my hands. As the warmth of my fingers heats the wool I use to stuff them, my energy flows directly into the doll and I think remains there, woven into it's very fabric. For this reason I only make dolls when I am feeling good, happy and positive. My dolls are designed to be played with, to be loved, to be confided in and searched out by their special little people for play, adventures and comfort. Because a doll is so special and because they are in such close contact with their special little person (physically, emotionally and spiritually) I feel that it is vital that they are made with love and care and fun and affection.

Imagine a cold, hard plastic doll, made by someone in a factory, perhaps not in great conditions, perhaps poorly paid, perhaps having a really bad day. Surely very little 'good' and 'love' is being poured into this doll? I don't like to imagine my children playing with something that is infused with sadness or anger. I also don't like to think of my children playing with something that's production has harmed someone (like child labour) or harms the environment.

This is why I LOVE handmade items. Food, clothing, toys,, household items etc can all be made by hand by you, by someone else.

I like to give handmade gifts, I love to pour my love and thought for the person I am gifting to into what I am making. I know that making for my children is my own mother's way of connecting with them. When she is in the UK and we here in Ireland, everytime she makes a stitch on a cardi for Joa, she is kissing him. Everytime she sews Rebe a dress she is hugging her, every letter for Benny is written with a thousand thoughts. It is important for her to be able to express these millions of thoughts and hugs and kisses from afar as we don't get to see her more than 3 or 4 times a year if we're lucky. And you can be sure that when the children wear or play with something my mum has made for them, they know it is extra special because they can feel the love from her for them. Thought is a very powerful thing. It is the basis of any physical thing. I have found that when I am making dolls for little people whom I know, they do end up resembling each other. I am sure that this is because I spend a great amount of the hours involved in crafting one of my dolls thinking of that person; remembering times we have spent together, imagining them playing with the doll. It is as if my thoughts are translated by my hands moulding the doll into shape. This is also the reason that I like making custom order dolls, especially when the parents have a lot of contact with me and send me pictures and stories of the person I am making the doll for. It's a very special process and I feel so lucky to have a role in it.

It is so very true that every one of my dolls is made with love.

Can you tell?

Child made toys

In the corner of our playroom is a box. This box is packed to the brim with toys. Toys made by Rebe in the past week. She spends very little time playing with actual toys. We have some gorgeous toys, many handmade and wooden and very beautiful to look at and to play with. But Rebe doesn't want to play with them, she would rather make her own.

*A unicorn*

This is what Rebe does from the moment she wakes until I put her into bed at night after her quiet time. She makes and makes and makes.

*A fairy peeping out of a box house. Rebe told me she caught this fairy in the garden and it wanted to live in this house filled with calendula petals.*

She very rarely plays with the toys once she has made them. They are often gifts, or she might have a quick play with them for a few moments before thinking of the next idea and dashing off to gather what she needs to make that.

*a cat*

"Children often spend so much time making their playthings that some observers might be tempted to ask, when will they actually start to play? It can be surprising to see that, after quite a short time of actual use - or even before completion- everything is dismantled, transformed, or rebuilt elsewhere. What the observer hasn't realised is that playing means simply being involved in the process, not necessary using a finished product." - Jaffke, F. Toymaking with Children

*a tiny puppy*

*a dragon sword (this is inspired by one of our current favourite books Molly Whuppie)*

*An adder sock puppet*

Rebe is often inspired by books, she pours over craft books and magazines for hours, getting inspiration for toys and other things to make. I love that she is so creative and I love that she makes presents for her friends and for people she hardly knows (and I always love the bemused look on people's faces when they receive one of her creations). I love that her best ever gift was a sellotape dispenser. I love that I have very little to recycle each week. I love that I have to sweep up snippets about 3848 times a day...not! (well I just let Joa eat them actually ;-))

*a church*

She also often 'needs' a specific prop for a game and will, without hesitating, go and make it. She loves making toys and I know this is probably a lot to do with her seeing her daddy and I making toys for them and things for ourselves. Hand work is just something we do in our family. It brings me untold pleasure and I love making things for my little people. I have seemed to slowed down an awful lot recently, probably because I am taking much more time for myself to walk and read and also more couple time with Andy.*Peter Pan, a much begged for 6th birthday present for Rebe*

But I am getting the odd hour in and am happily making toys just as my daughter does :-)

Lughnasadh

Today, the 1st of August, marks the traditional first harvest. In celtic folklore Lugh, the sun God, celebrated his mother's death on this date with games and a feast. His mother had cleared Ireland 's plains to make way for agriculture and the planting of grain. So on this anniversary we think about the cyclical nature of grain and food; it's planting, it's growth and it's harvest, and of course it's eating.

I really struggled not to think about autumn today, it was damp and dull and windy (it's not autumn though weather...are you listening!? You owe us a good deal more sunshine!!). It feels as if the growing cycle is coming to an end, many of the flowers in the garden are past their best, we have eaten most of the peas and of lots of the lettuces.

The kids and I decided to go on a seed walk, we dressed up and walked around the woods and the fields looking for as many different seeds as we could find.We found so many in all shapes and sizes and colours. We talked about the life cycle of the plants and also about how the different seeds are scattered some by wind power, some by animal, some by bird and of course dandelion seeds by children.A few days ago we spotted a patch of early, ripe blackberrys and we went to harvest them.Benny tried SO hard not to eat them all, I had to take his bucket in the end because it was just too tempting.It's a very serious business, this gathering!At home we washed a lot of apples that Rebe had gathered from a friend's garden a few days ago, we also washed what were left of the blackberries and made a delicious crumble...

Before dinner we spent some time reading this book, We picked it up from the library bus last week. It is a lovely story about the cycle of the year and the beauty and wonder of an apple tree (and the wonderful play it provides for the children) all year round. Quite a fitting story for today.

It's been nice acknowledging the cycle of the food that nourishes us. I think that it's important for the kids to understand where their food comes from, how it grows and the work and love that goes into every stage.

And now for something completely different...

oh, oh, oh, Joa your curls are to die for!

A swan toy made by Rebe (with a little help with the pinning from me) using socks, a cushion, paper and safety pins

I asked Rebe today why she doesn't really play with any of her toys. She tells me that she prefers to make her own. Our playroom is full of these amazing wee things that she makes. She comes to me so many times in the day asking for an edge of the sellotape or for yet another cardboard box or in need of a bit of wool. She is so clever and I love that she is so creative and that for her the play is in the making (kind of like her Mama!)

spring nature table

We don't have a 'nature table' as such in our home. Although I really love the idea I know that it would just get trashed, instead we have nature pockets. Small, wee nooks and crannies around the house that I try to keep seasonal.

On the kitchen table I keep a small, flat wicker basket that houses all of our treasures found on walks to the woods and to the beach. Flowers from the garden, oh yes, and a seasonal monster that I crafted with Rebe ;-)The windows in the kitchen (and we have many of those) are often also a place where we display seasonal decorations. In autumn we had beeswax preserved leaves, in winter paper snowflakes and folded stars and always our big baskets of woolie hats and gloves and scarves.

With spring in full swing I decided that I needed to do something about the very tired window at the front of the kitchen. It's warm enough to wash and put away a lot of the woolens, take down old hanging ribbons and give the windows a good wash. This left them rather bare so over the past week the kids and I have set about 'springing' them up.

Benny (yes, that is Benny with bunches in his hair, he finds this very funny) and I did a simple craft making bugs, lady birds and bees from old egg boxes that we painted. a lady birdA jolly bee with (aherm) clean nappy liner wings

Yesterday we tried our hand at glass plaints that a lovely friend sent us as a gift.

I love how they came out!There's still lots of space to fill over the coming weeks, and I'm sure I can find some other crafty things to make with the kids.This little family of ducks that I helped finish off for the Kindergarden fundraiser looked very sweet there, as did these 2...

Taimarie...don't they remind of you of rose white and rose red that you blogged about a few weeks ago?

I'm thinking a small family of chickens or a nest with eggs.

What's on your spring nature table?