Making Christmas

1. Oven dried orange and clove slices, 2. Kuber store plaster pine cone decorations, 3. Handmade beeswax dipped candles, 4. Shelfie, 5. Birds nest and egg shells, 6. Pomander, 7. Hanging orange slices

The older I get the more I struggle with Christmas shopping. The idea of buying unwanted stuff for the people I love in order to show love and share joy at Christmas feels heavy. When I see novelty gifts and Christmas themed everything I can’t help but see landfill. Instead, I take great pains to shop with local stores and makers, buy books, clothes and other necessities, buy toys that will last, and handmake as many gifts and decorations as I can. 

I have been focusing on a handmade Christmas for the last few years. I really appreciate keeping it simple - sticking with a few traditions that aren't overwhelming, leaving time for family and making considered purchases. I discovered the 'something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read' gift mantra for children when my firstborn was a baby and have followed it ever since. I handmake gifts for family and friends, shop at beautiful stores like Biome, and bottles of wine are a trusty go-to gift. When family members ask for gift suggestions we include experiences first, like family passes to a zoo or museum.

I admit I used to go overboard with decorations, adding more tinsel, glitter and baubles every year. This year it felt good to bring out a few treasured items and then make ornaments with the children instead - like the aluminium embossed decorations, and the orange and clove slices above. I brought beeswax off a friend who keeps bees and made wax dipped candles as gifts for my Mama friends. The children made orange and clove pomanders as teacher gifts. We will decorate brown paper as gift wrap that can go straight into the recycling once its job is done. We plan to make our own bonbons too, using recycled cardboard tubes and replacing the plastic novelties and jokes that get cleared away with the mess at the end of the day with chocolate and quotes.

I like how this kind of gift giving and making feels.

Taking Stock : November

It's day two in bed with laryngitis. Yesterday I read until I fell asleep, over and over again. I could barely keep my eyes open for more than an hour, I just felt so drained. I'm feeling better today, but still taking it easy and reacquainting myself with my laptop. There have been so many good things happening of late, I thought a taking stock post was in order. 

Making: Embossed metal Christmas decorations
Creating: a beautiful engagement ring
Drinking: 'Brisbane Breakfast' T2 Tea - a birthday gift
Listening: Brave Writer with Julie Bogart podcast
Reading: 'It's OK to go up the slide', 'Teach Me To Do It Myself', 'The Bright Stuff', 'You Can Teach Your Child Successfully', 'Homeschooling for success', 'Bring Out the Genius in your Child', 'Trust the Children' 

Finished read aloud: The Children of Cherry Tree Farm, Enid Blyton

Next read aloud: The Children of Willow Farm, Enid Blyton Finished 

Visiting: the Qld Museum to see the Monkeys
Walking: through the Haig Street Quarry in Ipswich
Playing: with homemade playdough (even though I had no cream of tartar)

Growing: borax crystal geodes
Swimming: in natural rock pools at Cedar Creek Falls
Enjoying: a day spent fossicking for thundereggs with friends
Cracking: open geodes
Liking: my archery date with my nine-year-old
Wondering: at the amazing world of insects Michelle from Bugs Ed shared with us
Noticing: the confidence horse riding has brought out of my daughter
Pondering: white and wooden Christmas decorations
Buying: gem specimens for my children's' gemstone collections
Watching: The Detectorists
Painting: butterflies but making slow progress with so much else happening
Marvelling: at the chicks that our broody hen hatched from fertilised eggs
Celebrating: My 37th birthday with a date night with my husband
Coveting: new glasses
Loving: the Mulberry Planner journal that I brought for next year, but have already started using
Finding: a nice rhythm to our homeschooling in our second year
Wearing: bigger, bolder earrings than usual
Following: my children's interests 

Keeping: room for my interests 
Noticing: the way learning just shows up as we live our life
Knowing: homeschooling was the best decision for us
Thinking: that my youngest has one more year until he 'starts school', or in our case, needs to be registered to homeschool
Admiring: the APT exhibition at QAGOMA
Sorting: through the whole house in an effort to declutter and rearrange
Getting: rid of as much as possible!
Bookmarking: the new blog I created for our homeschool group
Experimenting: with different liquid densities and making a 'Rainbow Jar'
Giggling: at the silly things four-year-olds say
Feeling: excited about a few nights away in a cabin by the beach
Snacking: on in-season fresh fruit - mangoes, lychees, berries, oh my
Hearing: the peep, peep of our chicks as they free range in our backyard

Waiting: for my sister and her son to come home for Christmas

-

Joining in with Pip.

Nature Journaling

 

Golden Orb-weaving spider

Nephila plumipes

(female) 

The small red spider to the left is the male.

Sunrise 6:29 am

Sunset 5:16 pm

28 July 2018

Saturday

9 - 25' C

Springwood Conservation Park

I took a nature walk on my own today while the children were tucked up at home with coughs and runny noses. It was a nice change to be able to set my own pace, be quiet and listen to the birds and sit still and look for wildlife. I walked off the path and found a big rock to walk on. I heard a rustle in the leaf litter and spotted a goanna eating beneath a tree. I'm not sure what it was eating, but it seemed large, like it was choking. It rubbed its face on the bark of the tree and eventually licked its lips, had a sniff around and wandered off. It was so quiet I heard bird calls I didn't recognise. 

I kept walking and saw a water dragon sunning itself, the colours of its body a brilliant camouflage against the silvery lichen on the rocks. As I walked the loop up to the lookout I snapped off a few twigs and popped them in my backpack. I found a large flat rock at the highest point and sat down and made these sketches in pencil. I walked back to the car as the shadows grew longer and added pen and watercolour at the dining room table, looking up the names of these beautiful native Australian flowers.

Boronia pinnata

Qld silver wattle / Acacia podalyriifolia

Wax dipped candles

We've been burning through so many candles this Winter. The children's nightlights keep running out of batteries or requiring new bulbs, and out of necessity, I reached for candles. Now they love to fall asleep by candlelight, while I love to burn candles now and then throughout the day. (There's nothing quite like sitting at the table with a cup of tea, a burning candle and my nature journal.) 

I love making things for our home and have tried making candles before with beeswax from a friend's beehive. I learnt the hard way that there is a specific ratio of wick thickness to jar size. Alas, my chosen wicks were not thick enough, so a puddle of wax would quickly extinguish the flame. I still had the premade wicks and wax in the cupboard, so today I tried my hand at wax dipped candles.

Though lumpy and 'rustic' looking these candles burn with success! And smell beautiful. As my wicks were pre-cut, I couldn't dip them two at a time and hang them to dry as one is supposed to. Instead, I lay them on wax proof paper`to cool and I dipped my way through them all in rotation. At least we now have a supply of candles, and I am keen on buying a length of wick and trying again.

Woodworking

Recently, Cohen and Emerson partook in a wood workshop to make their own crossbow. Emerson's shy-outer was soon unmasked by her desire to saw, hammer and drill. It was such rewarding fun to work alongside them and assist them as they followed the directions, measured, cut and assembled their projects. I actually forgot to take photos of the finished items, which are clever and wonderful, and which delighted both children. Needless to say, there has been much crossbow play with their blunt arrows ever since.

There are just so many opportunities to learn outside of school!

Gathering...

... together under a tree

... around Mama while she demonstrates

... twigs

... leaves

... decorations

... memories 

Hello Autumn

1. Geisha Girl and lemons, 2. A morning of mushrooms, 3. String wrapped cardboard leaf decorations, 4. Dining room hutch, 5. Yellow mushrooms in our pot plant, 6 & 7. Pops of colour, 8. Free ranging, 9. 5 eggs a day, 10. Garden visitors, 11. Beautiful weeds. 12. A few of our girls, 13. Easter Cassia - a lovely looking weed overhanging our fence, 14. Yellow petals, 15. Quail spotting.

We have been welcoming the many charms of Autumn. One morning we awoke to our yard covered in mushrooms, unlike anything we had seen before. The cooler nights and mornings mean I am lighting candles again - such a simple, calming act. There is the scent of damp earth and wet leaves. Porridge for breakfast. Autumn books and crafts. Knitting and crochet projects rediscovered. And seemingly more time to snuggle up on the couch and read with my children.

I have so many plans for Autumn. A holiday by the beach, a ferry trip to a historic convict island, a finished shawl, a new jewellery collection, and a pile of books on my night stand. But for now I am happy just to be noticing the changes in my garden and unpacking my cooler weather clothes.