A final visit from her tooth fairy...

Children have 20 baby teeth. I know this now, tho I hadn't really thought about it until a wee toothfairy began visiting five years ago.

My big girl and I read a story way back when that first little tooth wiggled out. The story was by Shirley Barber, the pictures were beautiful. The story was ok but what I love is that it planted a seed that baby teeth become stars. From there our own story emerged.

I think money for teeth is meaningless. At least for my own child, who when her teeth started to fall and new ones bud was only 6. Instead her fairy left her little beads she could thread onto a bracelet, each bead came with a sprinkling of pink fairy 'dust'. (How cute was she?)

She started to write little letters and her fairy wrote back. Their friendship grew and the big girl asked questions like how the beads were made and how she got the gems for them, what happens to the teeth, why she was sometimes late....

 

Just so you know, Gnomes make the pretty beads that grace her bracelet and they live deep under the ground among the roots where they dig for gems. A few years ago I got a little fairy door to sit at the trunk of the tree her aunt painted on her wall– to make it safe for her fairy to get in and out, stay out of the rain (because fairies cannot fly with wet wings) and also so she could avoid the cats in our house.

 

Teeth seemed to fall in pairs or clusters with sometimes long stretches of months between fairy visits. A few months ago the last lonely one wobbled its way out, a little note was written and she waited.... Pandora (her fairy) visited one night and left a little note asking her to be patient, she had not been forgotten but she needed more time.

Five years of creative story telling wove a beautiful blanket of joy around me and my girl. Her bracelet was full to bursting with 19 beads and no room for one more.

Lindy Longhurst is a localish artist, her imagery is full of colour and whimsy; perfect for a fairy tale. Pandora visited Lindy and together they created a final gift for my big girl in trade for her last tooth.

 

Lindy's attention to the details of our story is exquiste. Here is my big girl and her final tooth, on her wrist is her beaded tooth fairy bracelet. She is wrapped in the quilt I made her for her 10th birthday.

Here is Mia, her cat, who sleeps quite regularly on her quilt and is sitting patiently by the little fairy door. In the sky are 19 bright stars, one for each of her baby teeth Pandora has already collected.

This is Pandora flying in to collect the 20th tooth, trailing behind her is her magic pink fairy dust

and here are the gnomes, deep in the ground amongst the roots with the gems.

Thank you Lindy from the bottom of my silly, sentimental, fairy tale heart.

You can go meet Lindy in person, every Saturday & Wednesday she is at the Eumundi Markets on the Sunshine Coast. Failing that, visit her website Serpent Mandalas, her blog or like her on Facebook and best of all you can go shopping at her etsy shop!

Ode of Remembrance

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Free Tea for Everyone!

KT saw my free tea post and declared that such an enthusiastic bunch of tea drinkers will each get a free sample bag of her delicious organic tea.

WooHoo how cool is that?

So, all 14 of you who left a comment by today (starting with The Mamma and ending with Sarah), send me your mailing addresse by email to shannon At mymidwives DOT com DOT au and free tea will find you.

 Thank you KT

Spring Pins

On Monday I read Anna's blog post about bad hair and good mail. Anna has a few theories about  different things and seeing as how I was waiting on a little parcel of my own I mused that I could work a bad hair day in.

Tuesday I didn't bother washing my mop and I didn't brush it either... it didn't actually look bad (which was possibly my undoing) it just looked usual. Maybe my hair always looks bad? Anyway no mail.

BUT Wednesday, the day after my shabby hair day... a cushion just bursting with spring time pin floralness dropped on my doorstep!

How pretty it is, how lucky am I. Look at the detail... I am still trying to work out if those flowers were done by hand or machine; the stitches are so tiny they must have been done by machine but I couldn't make a machine turn on a pin head like that so thus it must have been by hand. And look ~

Even the base is bursting with colour and tiny quilting. Thank you so much Leisa.

Woohooo. Parcels of pincushions for me!

My first* pincushion arrived this week...when I opened his box I let out a squeak of delight!

Meet Porcupine George ~

George was made by the hands of Kristen; I am more than impressed because she apparently doesn't really get on well with her sewing machine... he is everso cool don't you agree? Sewing machine aside her hand sewing skills are exquisite.

Pop over to her blog kstreetjournal and get better aquainted.

My offerening to Kristen arrived in the US the day after George landed on my doorstep here in Oz; I am still giggling at what went flying in her direction and what can hurtling in mine..uncanny, don't you agree?

 Kristen is thinking about naming the wee hedgehog Peter and I am everso glad she likes his fancy (useless) pins because they were a bit fun to make and poke in.

Peter is not from my own imagination tho if it counts I stabbed myself many, many times with the felting needle so he has some of my blood embedded deep within. His instructions come from the book Wool toys and friends by Laurie Sharp. There are quite a few other project in there too that  I might get to one of these days.

*When I set up the pincushion swap I only intended to make one pin poking thing and recieve one in return BUT well Celia put in a late plea and I couldn't resist her beautiful things on display at her blog felted jumper arms and then I was making two...

Celia's pincushion parcel came yesterday (it is so much fun getting fun mail, makes me do a  little dance).

First there was this ~

a gift for the midwifery me; Celia says it is a baby being recieved by a midwife's hands... I like to think of it as the baby catcher. The detail is breathtaking, it really is, my picture does not do her work justice.

And because it didn't feel right to be poking pins into babies (or their catchers) she gifted me this spring tree with wee bluebird pins who can flutter about the branches.

In return I sent Celia a little vegie patch, her blog touches on her garden as the seasons change so I cut up one of my love's jumpers (it had moth holes in it I promise) and did a little planting

and watering

Celia wrote a lovely blog post here

Now, I made a third pincushion too...a late entrant who couldn't be paired as all the pairs were already paired. So in for a penny... Unfortunately past the inital I wanna join in email I can seem to contact her; I posted it anyway and I hope she likes it. I don't know what came over me but I made something quite girly...

Please send me your pictures and pincushion swap blog links so I can set up a gallery to display all the beauty and cleverness.

Birthday cakes and balloons

I LOVE cake, it is one of my very favourite things to eat... and there is just something so very good about butter icing (and I don't like butter..well not in its raw form but whip it with sugar, bake it, toast it, saute' in it). And I love making birthday cakes; I fill them full of love and can't wait to share them with family and friends.

This year I made extra cakes, little felt party cakes in lieu of lolly bags... two years olds don't need lolly bags.

They were fun to make (a little stressful because I left it to the last few days but worth it). I will do a little tutorial sometime... maybe in spring, after the school fair.

The wee girl got some lovely gifts... these are a few of my favourites (all from me... My mother made her the most delightful knitted turtle I will take a picture soon and show you).

The little Alice in Wonderland was made by Cynthia who blogs The Fairies' Nest and sells her stunning creations through her etsy shop. The swiss cheese, felted mice and painted silk play scape were made by Lori of Beneath the Rowan Tree I snaffled it as soon as she posted it on her blog; she has a beautiful etsy shop too. The little owl fabric in the background is a cotton and linen satchel made by a talented friend Helen, her brand name is Asher and I think she will have an online shop soon. Harriet you'll drive me wild! is another of my favourite Mem Fox books (I'm sure we had a copy but for all the looking I did on the too crowded bookshelves I could not find it).

She had a lovely day. Thank you all for your happy words and wishes.

I ate homemade caramel and almond fudge for breakfast

It was a gift, sent through the mail, and not to be opened until today. Another parcel arrived last week that was also labelled not to be opened until July 5...Oh how I love birthdays, and especially birthday parcels!

 

The caramel fudge (which is utterly divine..and almost all gone) was from my dear friend aka The Mama who blogs Around Arthur's Table ...will you post the recipe please? I must have more. I wonder how much I would have to eat until my teeth all fall out? Thank you, you domestic godess xxxx

This perfect vison of pink plumage is from dear Peggy Bloom of We Bloom Here... she and I have a thing for pincushions. A nest of blue eggs takes my personal pincushion collection to five. I am scheming a rather elaborate plot to multiply my collection but more on that later.

Thank you Peggy, she is gorgeous - the prettiest by far.

My big girl selected me this bracelet from a vast cabinet of jewels. Her father tells me she made the poor sales girl take out practically all of them before she was sure this one was it. I am not sure what the stone is but I love it.

And the wee girl got me a wood burning tool! I graffitied the old chopping board when I couldn't find a more approprite practice bit of wood... I'm sure I'll get better. I have plans to expand my crafting into woodwork and am dying to try out one of MamaWestWind's tutorials on her blog Chocolate Eyes.

The girls and I made cake...it was an epic fail and I will just skip over it...tasted more like heavy bread than cake; most disappointing. Anyway my brother and sister in law saved the day when they turned up for cake and brought with them a gift of three yummy cheeses and the pretties cheese knife I have ever seen (no pics..it is a bit dirty), so we threw the cake in the bin and gobbled cheese instead.

So I am now officially a curvaceous 38...and with all this food I might just grow a few more curves by my 39th birthday.

Autumn Gratitude

"Come, little leaves" said the wind one day,
"Come over the meadows with me, and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold;
Summer is gone, and the days grow cold."

Soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call,
Down they came fluttering, one and all;
Over the brown fields they danced and flew,
Singing the soft little songs they knew....

from COME LITTLE LEAVES by George Cooper

At the end of last week a beautifully wrapped package arrived in the mail for my little family from The little gnomes home. Inside was a gnome, an autumn gnome and a stunning crystal; citrine I think... Gnomes don't like to wander far from their crystals and this one brings with her happiness, joy and optimism.

We feel so lucky to have won the random beanie draw and subsequently been gifted this perfect autumn treasure ~ She has made herself comfortable on our season table watching the mobile of leaves (recieved in the autumn southern season exchange) cast shadows as they dance in the wind.

Thank you.

The worry tree and a fairy tale...

"Just because something's not magic, doesn't mean it can't be magical ..."

Early last year the big girl and I read The Worry Tree by Australian author Marianne Musgrove. She loved it (I did too) It was perfect for her at that moment in time; school was not great, friendship stuff, feeling akward, not fitting in...it was breaking my heart to watch her feel so lost.

I can't remember now where I found it, but I know I ordered it about six months before it arrived - ah well, you get what you need.

Here is the beginning of chapter one:

Juliet Jennifer Jones opened the door, stepped out of the toilet and walked straight into her little sister.

'Eight minutes and forty-seven seconds,' said Ophelia, clicking her stopwatch. 'What were you doing in there?'

'Mum!' shrieked Juliet. 'Oaf's timing me in the toilet again!'

When there was no reply, Juliet stomped out of the room.

Ophelia, also known as 'Oaf', smiled quietly to herself, pulled out a yellow pad of paper and carefully wrote 8:47 in the left-hand column. Then she tucked the notepad back into her pocket and went off to find her sister.

Juliet stormed through the house looking for an adult. She went into the lounge room but Mum had her nose in her favourite Shakespearean play.

'Give me five more minutes,' said Mum, 'and then I will speak to thee, I mean, I'll speak to you.'

Juliet rolled her eyes and went in search of Dad.

Dad was in the laundry making a model volcano and she couldn't get him to talk about anything other than lava, ash or explosions. She frowned and went in search of Nana.

Nana lived in the granny flat down the back garden but when Juliet got there, all she found was a note taped to the door of the flat: Gone to craft class. This week: macramé pot holders!

Juliet turned around, huffing. Oaf was standing behind her singing a song she'd learnt in the playground that week. It was called 'The Irritating Song' and you just kept chanting it over and over like this:

Irritating, irritating,
Irritating-tating-tating,
It's the song you'll end up hating
Just 'cos it's so irritating.
That was the first verse. The second verse went like this:
So frustrating, so frustrating,
So frustrating-strating-strating,
It's the song you'll end up hating
Just 'cos it's so [clap] frustrating.

The other twenty-two verses continued on in pretty much the same vein. Oaf really liked that song.
'Irritating, irritating ...'

You can keep reading right up to chaper two here

Anyway....behind the peeling wallpaper in her new bedroom, Juliet uncovers an old painting of a very special tree -- a Worry Tree.

Well my big girl wanted a Worry Tree too. She shut her eyes and wished very hard. I asked a very big favour of a very talented sister in law...who nervous as she was started with a blank wall and...began to paint.

Now this was no small effort, for the most part she had a sleeping baby on her back or a meddling one, sometimes two, in amongst the paint brushes. He is his mummy's boy and does not like to be out of her sight so there was nothing that I could do but bring her cups of tea and treats from the kitchen.

She began painting mid February and put the finishing touches to the wall on Friday just gone. Two months at about two hours at a time, a labour of love... not unlike my quilt!

Wanna see?

Here is Dimitri the dog. When she is worried about family, Dimitri the dog looks after us for her.

This is Wolfgang the wombat, he looks after friend worries.

 Gywneth the goat makes her feel better when she is sick.

Piers the peacock is in charge of minding worries about things she has lost.

Petronella the pig worries about school.

Delia the duck knows it's hard to get used to change - changing houses, schools, new baby sisters... 

Next to Delia is a hole in the trunk ~ sometimes she might have worries that she can't describe; her Worry Tree has a special place for those worries too.

So that the tree really is her Worry Tree it was personalised, with a little big girl shadow and a tiny bird to sing to her, and lilies - sweet lilies of the valley to ring their tiny bells and November lilies with their heavenly scent... a little bit of mossy ground cover...

she LOVES it. We are not quite sure how to thank her beautiful aunt for such a wonderful gift...but we are working on it.

That brings me to a fairy tale...
Last night, just before dinner the very wobbly tooth my big girl has be playing with for absolutely ages finally fell out! How exciting that the tree is finished... I have been plotting since I saw this post at we bloom here.   

While she was admiring her tooth I slipped downstairs and installed a fairy door at the foot of her tree between the lilies of the valley and the soft moss. Fairy doors are miniature portals to middle-earth. By installing one I am inviting fairies, pixies, gnomes and all other wee folk from their world to ours. Fairy doors are magical and cannot be opened by big people.

My big girl has been writing letters to her tooth fairy on tiny little note paper for fours years; they have such wild conversations! Tooth fairy letters need to fit in tiny envelopes like this one.

I just love fantasy and fairytales. I am quite sure my big girl suspects me but when she wakes to find her teeth gone, tiny letters, fairy dust sprinkled in trails and purpose made fairy doors at the foot of a very magical tree...well I think she loves a fairytale too.

*The Worry Tree was Marianne's first published novel and it won the Australian Family Therapists Award for Childrens Literature in 2008 and was shortlisted for the Queenland Premier's Literacy Award for Best Children's book 2008, the Adelaide Festival Award for Children's Literature 2008 and the Australian Children's Literature prize 2007....

Of course when we read it we had no idea about any of that stuff; I found out when we finished and went searching for more books written by her. Fabulously she has, have a look here.