A hand crafted gift for my big sister

Quite a few moons ago my sister and I were madly sending silly emails back and forth the 1000 odd km (630miles) between Sydney and Brisbane. In them we were attaching pictures of weird and wonderful things we had found on etsy and either squealing with delight or recolling in horror and what people could make (...and had made) from felt.

 My sister quite likes mice; I found this little house:

of course she wanted it, but resisted the $100 odd dollar price tag, afterall she is a grown woman with no children and sometimes coveted things cannot really be justified sensibly. The original was made by MuddyFeet see their fabulous etsy shop here (~thank you to Luckybeans for your help to name them~ )

I said to myself, said I, ..I think I can, so I did!

Tis pumpkin season here - seemed a fitting mouse house.

While I was felting and fulling and stitching and sanding and painting I kept remembering the story of Pumpkin Crow...

"And what?" asked Tiptoes. She was curious now.

"And Pumpkin Crow." croaked  Mr Crow in a hoarse whisper, peering around nervously.

"Pumpkin Crow!" cried Tiptose surprised.

"Yes," said Mr Crow, looking embarrassed. "He got his head stuck inside a pumkin last fall. That's how he got his name. And now...well...." Mr Crow did not want to finish the story. It was such an embarrassing thing for his family.

"I see'" said Tiptoes, who knew how proud crows were of their kin. "So why are you telling me all this?" she asked.

"Well.... now.... it seems..." he hesitated nervously. Mr Crow blushed bright red. ( A blushing crow is really a horrible sight!) "Well ...... now......" he continued, "Pumpkin Crow has his head caught in another one."

Tiptoes tried not to smile.

"It's not funny," said Mr Crow. "He's really stuck!"

"Okay," said Tiptoes, "I'll come," and off they flew.

excerpt from The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly by Reg Down

Wednesday Craft Group - Root Children

“Under the ground, deep in the earth among the roots of the trees, the little root children were fast asleep all winter long. They felt nothing of the biting wind, the cold snow or the stinging hailstorms. They slept peacefully in their warm burrows. They were dreaming of the sunshine in which they had played all through summer. And what wonderful dreams they were!”

From The story of the Root-Children by Sibylle von Olfers

Today we made sweet little root children. I have been very keen for this week to come because I wanted to share the art of making a formed head and it is not too much of a challenge on such a tiny doll. These two have silk hair and I sewed their bodies using cotton corduroy... well all that machine sewing was a change from felt cutting!

Wholefood for Children

Last night I went to listen to Jude Blereau speak, very passionately and eloquently, about whole food - real food, organic, unprocessed, old fashioned delicious food. She was 'doing' the Brisbane launch of her new book Wholefood for Children (she has two other books - Wholefood and Coming home to eat - wholefood for the family.

I wanted to write loads - about how great it was and how I want to start soaking my beans and well stuff...but I am so tired. Sorry.

I do plan to make parsnip soup on Sunday tho.

I spent a little bit of money today

but look at the beautiful things I bought with it!

I am not sure what i will make with the rainbow merino wool - but it is so beautiful and and the colours are so soft (I will stroke it and wait for inspiration).

The book, Little Earth - an expression of childhood, has been written and illustrated by mothers at the big girl's school and is hot off the press. Vicki runs an early childhood Steiner playgroup, Little Earth. I asked Vicki if she would sign our copy and she was so delighted. Ours is officially the first autographed copy - how exciting! The drawings are exquisite the words simple - I am very happy to have it.

For you all - from the blurb on the back...

Little Earth has been created to touch the feeling life, allowing it to be read from the heart rather than the head. The main body of the book is of hand drawn images in pastel...

Each of these drawings follows the flow of a playgroup in Australia experienced weekly by a small group of mothers and their very young children. You are encouraged to exercise your imagination and make use of your words to create a new story for your own child...

The book is distrubuted by the Rudolf Steiner book Centre in Sydney - rudolfsteinerbookcentre@gmail.com
Editor Vicki Kearney, Illustrator Jan Lillie published by Avenues for Change, Queensland, Australia