2010 closure

This is a beautiful song that I have chosen to end the year with. It's called Honey and The Moon by Joseph Arthur and I love his vocals and his raw and throaty voice. The song is actually about love, and one person not being in the same place as the other.

I love the lyrics: "You're the honey and the moon that lights up my night". It touches my soul.

And to that end, I shall dedicate this to my amazing and wholly perfect man. Baby, you light up my life.

A blessed and healthy 2011 to all you lovelies out there. See you next year xxx

Winter Solstice

An amazing sunset on Solstice Eve. My gorgeous man drove me to the perfect spot where the sunset was breathtakingly amazing. The children were in awe. We had a sun pizza and a Yule fairy story by candlelight before bed. Simple but just lovely: no fancy-pants-light-of-a-million-glowing-fairies here. We're bullshit-free :)

Winter wonders

A picture from down the lane. Magical skyline and the crisp white snow gave an eerie silence to the afternoon. The best. See the moon? It was only 15.30hrs and the moon was already high and bright. Can't wait for the Solstice.

To school or not to school?

Well we're having huge wonderments here.

We have a small girl here who is needing the interaction and company of other small people that are on her level and above, and I don't feel as though we are meeting her needs.

We are quite far from decent meet ups and many of the home education friends I have made locally are amazing but their children are much older. The odd-few children that are local are not really like Pixie and I am noticing the differences. We have some lovely home education friends of similar ages, but not locally, which is sad.

Emotionally and intellectually, P is way beyond her years and you can have incredible and deep conversations with her. She is fun, animated, polite and hugely independent. She reads many books on her own, can bake independently, sort out her hens, is doing maths work a year or two above her age (her choice...the beautiful little weirdo) and can hold her own in a conversation with adults.

She is however fairly bossy, and after this was 'pointed' out recently, I have been looking at that side of her character a bit more. I think basically since she is very forward, she naturally wants to take leadership and plan games, especially when the other children are lacking in this direction. I will not interfere in this, as she is growing very nicely in her own way.

So we have come to look at schooling as an option for her. I know that if I sent her now (she's 5 in 2 weeks), she would slot right in and breeze it. But I still think she is far too young. And all the local schools are religion-focussed, even the private ones, and we  would not send her there as we are raising her without religious input until she is of an age where she can understand it.

The only school I would be happy with right now is the Steiner school, which is over 30 miles away and it's infeasible to send her somewhere of that distance.

So we have a dilemma. She so needs more interaction of a higher quality. On a daily basis. But how to get it without traipsing across the bloody countryside to groups that are not local? Every other development aspect she has exceeded in, way past her age range, but the need she has to have children who are on her level is great right now, and the activities she does do not fulfil this need.

When she plays with friends that are aged eight and nine, she blends in beautifully, and the age gap isn't noticed.

I feel like we're holding her back in massive proportions because she isn't getting what she needs and I don't want to damage her. But I don't want to send her somewhere that will damage her either, if that makes any sense at all. And I don't believe that sending her to an institution would solve any of her needs, and perhaps create other problems that we don't have right now.

Have any other home edders got extremely social little people too? How do you remedy the lack of daily company if you're not close to meet-ups? Has any one got any advice in our situation as right now, I feel like I am inadequate and on the road to affecting my little girl's future.

And the winner is...

The Yuletide pixie mysteriously forages into her magical hat for a name. Which is...

Emma!


Emma, whoever you are, hit the 'mail me' button on the side of my page and let me know your address so I can send you your shiny silver lady of the sea :)


Thanks everyone for commenting xxx

My Year in Status 2010

My year in status updates from a Facebook application - what a fabulous way to see how much whinging and whining one does. And how much one mentions cakey. I am not an addict. I am not an addict. I am not an addict...

Yule Giveaway!

A Cool Yule Giveaway!

With Yuletide nearly upon us, I thought it would be rather fabulous to have a little giveaway :)

Ocean Blue - a gorgeous hand-made, full-sized silver mermaid bookmark, measuring approximately 5 inches, ideal for a gift (or for yourself!).

Glass pearl and glass beads dangle from the end of this lovely's tail, complete with personalisation up to 6 characters, or a charm.

To be in with a chance of winning, leave me a comment and link my blog if you are able. One of the pretty pixies will draw the winner's name from a hat on Friday 10th December.

Have a great week folks :)

Claire 

xxxxx

Wool, wax and waning moon

Some gift crochet coasters - two bamboo and two 100% cotton. Silky and sheeny.

A personalised bookmark

Beeswax modelling clay: 

4 oz of beeswax

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon of lanolin

Mix in an old tin can in some boiling water

 Turn out into a foil-lined shallow dish

 Wait until it dries (about 1 hour)

And cut into slices. You can add lavender or colour, although the smell of beeswax is just so heavenly, I couldn't ruin it by doing that!

And model and play. Saves spending all that money at Myriad ;)

And my charity shop bargain of £1 - a 47-year-old hand-painted plate with the Walter De La Mare poem Silver. It has a date of 1963 on the back and the name Alice Houseman. I thought it was quite appropriate due to the recent bright and huge moon we have seen. It was going to be a gift, but balls, I love it. Am keeping it. And you can't stop me.

Here is the beautiful poem in full:

Silver Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon; This way, and that, she peers, and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees; One by one the casements catch Her beams beneath the silvery thatch; Couched in his kennel, like a log, With paws of silver sleeps the dog; From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep Of doves in silver feathered sleep A harvest mouse goes scampering by, With silver claws, and silver eye; And moveless fish in the water gleam, By silver reeds in a silver stream. Walter de la Mare

I have also added a daily moon phase chart if you don't have one already.

Quiet

Because, quite frankly, I have nothing to say!

Padded notice board

A padded notice board for our girls' new play/school room.

Made with some reclaimed wood, material, vintage buttons, ribbon, fleece blanket, old drawing tacks and a staple gun. I so had fun with the staple gun :)

Mod Podged fleece blanket underneath the material, and then stapled at the back tightly.

Wang a few ribbons in a criss-cross...apparently you can measure these accurately with a ruler. Obviously not my kind of style...

Ooohhhh pretty buttons...

Ta da!

Now, a wall hanging for their room. 

A little bit of "borrowed" wallpaper from B & Q and a reclaimed shelf panel...

Stapley stapley...

Cool eh?

And their two antique ladies' chairs for their room. £30 for the pair. My husband is also a bargaintastic fella. (I dyed the curtains in the background from gold to lime green. The colour is fab).

And I'm spent. Far too much craftyness for one evening and now I must scrape the Mod Podge from the floor and remove the odd staple that I missed the wood with. Apparently, safety glasses are also recommended for the usage of the staple gun.

Off for a lovely 2 week holiday so enjoy your cake, drink tea and be happy. That's all.

xxx

Beautiful toys? Oh no no no...

Beautiful hand-made cradle, crafted lovingly by Grandad Bob, and organic soft Fair Trade dolly?

Oh no no no, I much prefer...

A nappy bag full of poopy eco 'sposie or...

Just a nappy sack to carry my treasures around in.

Lovely wicker treasure baskets and hand-knitted bags are not good enough for me, don't you know. I'm all about the nappy sacks I'm afraid, much to my mammy's chagrin :)

But because my mammy says we do something called autonomous learning, she says it's ok and I can quite happily continue to be a kleptomaniac around the house and collect treasures in my nappy sack.

Oh, if you're wondering where your keys are...I probably have them in my nappy sack.

We Are One

For the first time this week, Pixie has mentioned the colour of people's skins. I don't know why I was so surprised really, she is almost five.

My Saturday copy of The Times had a large picture of former US Secretary of State, Professor Condoleezza Rice. Phoebe had asked why the lady had "a brown face" when ours weren't brown. I explained that because the world is so big, everyone looks different even though we're all one.



We don't live in a culturally diverse place to be frank, and we have a population of about 3500 folk in our small town. We live on the outskirts and amongst the old-school farmer types who have never left the area, therefore have not seen very much of life, in my opinion.

I have lived here, there and everywhere, so very little shocks me these days. I have friends of every creed, colour and  flavour there is, but my children are not immersed with the rich cultural environment I might hope for. Travel in the future is a possibility..

Anyhoooo, do you remember the United Colours of Benetton campaigns from the 90s? I do. Passing the billboards on the school bus, splashes of the familiar green logo surrounded by multi-cultural models always captivated me.



I know people who often say "I'm not racist but..." and then go on to quote the fascist shite that is the inner workings of the BNP.

We need to raise our children to be accepting of all, but with people like the ones I have described above, how, on a international scale, can this be? It feels like there is so much hatred in the world. I suppose by giving our children the tools of preservation and tolerance, we can only hope that they will go forward in their lives and outshine any bigotry and hate that they may come across.

I recently have been reading many of the teachings of the Dalai Lama. The man is just so peaceful it has a knock-on effect. His ideology is so simple, and how he believes compassion can genuinely be achieved for all. He is a great and wise man.



I'm not even sure what I'm writing here, just some thoughts that have crossed my mind that I wonder about often. Thanks for reading :)

Here is an amazing song. I actually prefer Johnny Cash's version, but the video is great on this one:



We ARE one, but we're not the same. I think that's a strong message.

Frugal finds

Some recent charity shop finds:

A fab little book about seasons, perfect for our new project, and only 19p! Flippin' get in there!

And the complete set of Narnia books. I had the full set of these when I was little, but I think they actually belonged to my sister so thought we would re-purchase. £1.50. Bargaintastic.

And bargain of the day...

...a gorgeous Mini Boden tunic dress for Pixie: £1.20. I nearly peed with excitement and wished there was one that would stretch over my bangers, but nothing doing.

Still happily hibernating, seeing a few folk but really feeling like being nice and quiet. I organised a vaccination  lecture by the very great Dr Jayne Donegan. She was brilliant to hear and it was great to have all of our research and concerns validated by a worthy source. Just the Boobs for Babes calendar to finish off - our graphic designer is currently working hard on the layout, and then I truly am having a nice break from everything.

A little Weleda magic :)

I have recently been asked about my most favourite products I use on the children, and which I would recommend. The one I could not do without is Weleda's Calendula Nappy Cream. I tried to make my own but nothing at all as been as soothing and effective on my tiny girl's bottom.

It's always lovely to recommend products I find really great, especially with so many bottles and tubes of vileness on the shelves these days, it's good to find a company whose ethics and products I totally identify with.

A big green eco sticker of love for Weleda :)

Here is a sneaky peek in my small bag from the changing bag I take out with me:

By the way, this is also a handy tip for using a bottle holder as a well, bottle holder. But as seen as I carry my baby's milk in my boobs, it doubles-up nicely as a toiletry carrier :) Bach Flower Remedy - a must; Helios Arnica Cream; home-made bruise balm with arnica, sunflower, chamomile, lavender and beeswax; Weleda's Nappy Cream, Wild Rose Deodorant, Arnica tablets and Hypericum and Calendula Ointment (not pictured due to usage this afternoon at a friend's house!). Also a nice bottle of home-made hand sanitizer, made from vodka and tea tree (unfortunately, non-drinkable!)

My other staples:

Calendula Cream Bath

The Cream Bath makes the bath water feel quite silky, which in turn does not dry out the children's skin. I have noticed a difference in the children's skin not feeling as dry as it previously did, just bathing in normal bathwater. We don't live in an area which has particularly hard water, but I imagine if we did, the Calendula Cream Bath would be a perfect product to use.

Children's Tooth Gel

This tooth gel gets happy smiles from both baby and a small girl. The fresh taste and smoothness of the gel made the children's tooth brushing sessions much more pleasant, and as my four-year-old said "This is lovely and much better than the other rubbish, Mummy. It doesn't taste clacky!" So there you have it, a gold merit award from a very particular small girl.

Baby Calendula Shampoo and Body Wash

We've been using this for quite a time now and I love the gentleness of the product, and its all-round cleaning capability. I love that I can slather a little on baby's head and use the suds right down to her tiny toes, knowing that the product never dries or irritates her skin in any way. And that she is left super clean and smelling lovely, all without any dodgy chemicals that you find in most other brands. A big thumbs-up for this product.

Calendula Nappy Cream

This is another product we have used right from our Eveline's birth. It really should be re-labelled 'Magic in a Tube'. Any slight reddening of the nappy area is guaranteed to disappear with a little smudging of the cream onto sore bits. Every time. We have never been disappointed with it at all, and it has even found its way into Daddy's golfing bag when he's had a long round and gets chaffing  - not really a thing he'd want you to know, but there it is! I use it too on our four-year-old occasionally, to great effect. Fabulous stuff.

What are your baby faves you couldn't live without??

Crafty week

Well it's 03.30 hrs in the morning and I'm awake. Not because of any fretful children I might add; no. All is quiet up there. I have the monitor next to me and I can hear my hefty fella snoring thunder, and my two pixies gently sleeping soundly. And I'm frickin' full of snot and blocked sinuses, so it was either get up and breathe, or lay still and suffocate under a mountain of snot.

This is some of our week (well, the tiny bits we've actually stayed in the house).

Some pebbles, carefully snatched from Daddy's rockery...

A little Mod Podge and some fabric (obviously, a curly girl too)

And some cool painted pebbles.

Pixie's happy little ladybird

Mammy's birdie 

The start of our new throw, although admittedly, it might take beyond this year to finish.

But look at my new monster hook :) What a mother, compared to some of my other tiddlies. Can't wait to find some chunky, wispy yarn to play with.

Still in hibernation, which is great. I am rarely using the computer, aside from the odd dash of work, so it is lovely to be curled up on the bed with my babies, reading and snuggling.

I should be a dormouse :)