What a glorious day

It is my wee nephew's first birthday; his birth itself was a triumph for his mamma and I was honoured to bear witness. Those tiny little hands are clapping and waving and his feet are stepping confidently ~ so much to be explored on a whole new level!
For his birthday gift I made him a crazy quilt rainbow book from a beautiful tutorial by homegrown happy  ~ it turned out so well and was fun to make!

 paint some read up in the sky, some orange

 and some yellow way up high. Paint some green

 and blue, some indigo too and then some violet

...and what do you get? all the colours of the rainbow.
Happy birthday wee one xx

My wee girl loves it! I will make her one too but I am going to add extra pages of colour and more texture within them... she gave it a test run to see if there were any safety issues!

gotta love that velcro!


This morning the girls and I joined one of my favourite friends and her children for a picnic and a swim at the creek. We chose to go to Cedar Creek which is a short drive from Samford Valley on some good old dirt roads BUT there was a recent landslip on the road just before our destination and the nice lollipop man (aka council roads workman) supervised our three point turns on the dusty track and sent us back in the direction from whence we came. Only slightly frazzled we headed instead to where the creek wraps itself around the base of Mount Glorious.

As my friend and I stepped gingerly in our bare feet across the riverstones with the cool water lapping our shins and the children kicked off their thongs and bounded into the creek squealing with delight we reflected on our own childhoods and wondered when our feet became so soft and 'princess like'.
As we watched our children clamber over rocks, frolic in the water, throw stones, climb embankments and make boats from twigs and other things they found my friend and I mused that this is what our children should be doing. They should be excercising their limbs and their minds, feeling the sand, the stones and the tree branches beneath their feet and the warm sun and cool shade on their skin - laughing and exploring with their friends.

I had never been to this shady and secluded little spot before ~ I wonder how many others there are hidden or not so hidden in and around the valley. I have a new New Years resolution ~ get out and explore, go on more picnics and laugh with my children and friends.