self discovery journey....

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognised as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do -

determined to save

the only life you could save

words by Mary Oliver from "The Journey"

thank you English Muse & Dizzy Lizzie

march in photos...

persimmons picked for persimmon paste (which didn't exactly go to plan...)

road trips in my pajamas

Rhonda Hetzel's down to earth book launch

farewelling a friend

my first successful attempt at mayonnaise

started crocheting a granny a day

apple trees

garage sale finds that make me smile

almond milk

2 years old

2 years ago yesterday i gave birth to my baby. he has grown into a strong, affectionate, happy, adventurous little man. yep the realisation has hit me that he is now a little man. i know this because he has started playing by himself in little worlds he has created and he has let me read him a really long book from start to finish twice. really big things in the world of a mumma and a little man.

we created a bubbles and balls party for his birthday. i made a conscious effort to scale back from my usual grand plans and we invited 6 of his friends (and ours) to play for the afternoon.

our little activity was painting our own pots and planting marigolds. the kids loved getting their hands dirty and everyone got to take a flower home.

i created lollipops which are just a balloon on a piece of poly pipe covered with clear cellophane and tied with a ribbon. i loved them!

and no party would be complete without bunting - especially rainbow bunting!

yep simple is better.

Garage Sale hopes....

reviewing the garage sales for the morning has me hoping i will find something as amazing as these lamps I found last week - the lampshade is yellow embroidery thread wrapped around and around

every night when i crawl into bed under the glow of these lamps i feel good

Creating Independence - first creating an environment that allows Independence

this week was all about starting to plant the seeds of independence for Paddy

to say Paddy is a strong willed child is an understatement and with the terrible twos arriving early i have been reading up on different ways to handle it

i have found myself saying 'no' all the time and i hated that there were only negative interactions between us on some days

that's why i started planning my activities for the week so that we made sure we played together rather than getting lost in the treadmill of every day life

i really connected with the simple montessori principle of focusing on one thing at a time and creating order in our spaces

one way of employing this principle is to teach Paddy to put away his toys after he has finished playing with them

then i looked at his playroom....

granted it was messy but there was so much clutter and there was no way a 2 year old could comprehend putting their things away in that space

so this morning my mission was to simplify and cut back the stuff in Paddy's play area

this is the result....

i cut back on all the playthings

i put like toys in baskets so it is easier for Paddy to put them back

a music basket

a lego basket

a ball basket

and all his cars in one basket under the table

i also cleared the table and put his blackboard there for Paddy to sit and do drawing

i think we had at least 50 books in a bookcase in the corner

i packed them all up and laid out 5 books and will rotate those every week or so

the cushions also make a nice quiet reading corner too

i cleared off these shelves and put one game per cubicle

this might help Paddy play with one thing at a time

i am not a mumma who buys a lot of toys - in fact 90% of Paddy's playthings are from garage sales and the other 10% are from friends

i don't believe in a lot of playthings so i could not believe the amount of stuff i pulled out of Paddy's playroom

huge wakeup call!

i feel good about this

Day 3. A Granny A Day

this is my favourite granny square pattern so far

so good i didn't stop at making just one

here is the tutorial for the granny circle square

Our St Patricks Day week

we didn't make the banner with shamrocks for our party

i made these for my girlfriend's engagement party

the leftovers hang in my sewing room

St Patricks' Day was celebrated with bad Irish music and rainbow balloons....

hanging shamrocks....

and a big dinner of Irish Stew, Irish Soda Bread and Guiness Cupcakes with Green Ice-cream on our shamrock tablecloth.

yesterday we were trapped inside so did a heap of sponge water transferring

Rhonda Hetzel Book Launch

i am lucky enough to live in the same community as the amazing Rhonda Hetzel from the Down to Earth blog and now the Down to Earth book

Rhonda volunteers at our local neighbourhood centre so this was the place where she launched her book in Queensland

i haven't had a chance to sit down with it yet but it is such a beautiful book and just touching it seems to connect me to her and her thoughts

Rhonda's blog was the first blog i read and started me on my journey to living more simply so having this book in my house just feels right

Day 2. A Granny A Day

i love the single crochet border on this granny square

here is the tutorial

Day 1. A Granny A Day

my first Granny A Day - green for St Patricks Day

this is a Grandala Square - I used this tutorial which was so easy to follow.

must work on my tension

it was also the first time i used the magic ring which made it so easy

this is the tutorial I followed

felt good to do a little crocheting last night.

i love unwinding at the end of the day with a crochet hook in my hand

A Granny A Day...

I have just signed up for A Granny A Day over at Meet Me At Mikes.

Time to dig into the many granny square patterns I have on pinterest....

I am so excited about the possibilities... the patterns, the colours and the joining of them all...

what will it be in the end?

This weeks' theme - St Patricks Day

in my pre-baby years i worked in an irish pub and loved the festivities around St Pats Day. We are having a small party on Saturday so this week will be lots of crafting getting ready for our party. we will be making....

leprechauns for our leprechaun hunt

stapled shamrocks for party decorations

more party decorations with this cute shamrock banner

and for a break from anything green - sponge water tranferring

i am excited!

Our Autumn week photos

here is what we got up to discovering the start of autumn last week...

made apple trees with red tissue paper for our apples

created a paper tree on our window and then went leaf hunting every time we were outside and added our leaves we collected to the tree

did some apple stamping which Paddy LOVED!

cutting the little handles into the back of the apples definitely made it easier

printed off some colour matching leaves and laminated them

the first time this game lasted for only a few minutes but he keeps asking to play it

we also went to the library and got a couple of books about the seasons.

a fun week discovering autumn.

i think we will discover it again when we start getting those beautiful crisp autumn days and the leaves really start changing colour.

This week's play theme: AUTUMN

Introducing Autumn this week - pity Autumn had to come in with all this rain!

Lots of inside activities this week I think...

autumn window display

we were going to go collecting leaves to put on our tree this week but we might have to make some instead....

stand up trees using toilet paper rolls @

My Montessori Journey

and using red tissue paper for apples @

Lilly Cakes

apple prints - love the handle cut into the apples!

leaf people using the laminator

or

leaf people using toilet paper rolls

and lastly for a bit of motor skill practice...

button practice with felt leaves @ Along The Way

Welcome Autumn!!!

new ideas

just returned back to reality after immersing ourselves for a week in the wonder of woodford

so many ideas...so many like-minded open people....so much music and good food - all in the one place

i feel... relaxed

energised

motivated

inspired

truly happy

and most of all - the confirmation of my lifestyle and our family's rhythm brings

peace

now to recreate these ideas in this hectic world - fingers crossed xxx