Birthday

Happy Birthday Jim and Alice, Yes my first born and last are born on the same day, I still can't believe it. Jim turned eight and Alice her first birthday.
10 things I love about Jim
1. Generous, so very generous,every day. My heart warms everytime I see this quality in him
2. His quiet strength, in mind and body
3. That he could play all day, everyday, and is his wisdom, one day when I asked 'why do you play all day", he replyed "I'm not, I'm working" Ahh, so true.
4. That he is happy, he still sings or hums all day long
5. How observant he is, I know he sees Mother Nature dance everyday, In the words of Goethe " Like friends, plants tell you their secrets only when they know you care. Just practise listening with your eyes, and one day when you least expect it, you will see with your heart and be swept up into natures dance."
6. That he is his own person, never once has he worried about what someone thinks, those thoughts just never enter his head, it's like he dosen't realise people thoughts could be negative, because he doesn't think that way.
7.That he can hear a song once and sing it word for word, it's not something he would say, but I hear the songs when he plays.
8.That he loves Enid Blyton books as much as I do, he's loving Cherrytree farm at the moment, good old tammylan!
9. That he has a strong sense to do right by the world, the other day he went walking off to pick all the rubbish up down our road, by himself, when he came back I could tell it made him feel soooo good. And I wondered then, this strong sense that overcomes him, that feeds his soul, I wondered, wondered what he might do as a man, who might he help.
10. That his world around him needs to be beautiful, if it isn't, it's like an assault on his body. for example when Dan put a ding in my car, Jim just couldn't look at the car until it was fixed. And the first time he saw a ballerina, his mouth dropped and his said "who is that" " she is beautiful" with such awe.
Well I could go on and on but you'll think I'm playing favourites.
And Alice?
Well she just cute, cute, cute, oh, how I love her.

Alice's first coat

I love this coat and bonnet it is so soft, I could snuggle Alice in it all day long, (like I need an excuse). I bought a cashmere scarf on ebay for $7.00 and cut it up. The back of the bonnet is circled with embroidery including a spider and the coat has a smocked yoke wich I had to pleat by hand as the fabric was too thick for the smocking machine, which was no biggy as there are only five rows. I tatted some lace around the collar and bonnet, it was my first attempt at tatting. I didn't realise how hard it is to tat, you only do one sort of stitch but... It felt like I had never used my hands before, totally weird, now after many hours (I swear it took an hour to do a circle) its easy and quick and I like that it fits in my pocket so where ever I am waiting I can pull it out and do a loop. I lined the coat with silk because I just can't dress my children in anything that isn't natural, its hard to explain. I'll take a photo of her in her bonnet it's so cute on her!.

Flynn's couch

Flynn's present from his mum, the print is a Micheal Miller one called ' I think I can!' I got the fabric from America, my how I love the net.I also found "Alice in wonderland" print, it was gorgeous,Alice might get a matching one for her birthday.I have wanted to make one of these fold out couches for a while now(like 4years!) and I happened to be tidying up my sewing room and came across an old Handmade mag, and the pattern was in that. It wasn't a cheap project- foam costs a fortune! but I've never been keen on the media-hype ones in the shops.
Flynn love's his own little space and I've found him curled up for his afternoon nap on here more than once.

Flynn is three,already!

Our little man is three and we had a lovely day celebrating his birth. We sung songs, hokey pokey(his favourite), skip to my Lou, steam train, like a leaf or feather. I told the story of 'Mrs Tree' which is a wonderful steiner(waldolf) story for three to four year olds which involves the child who is the tree.Flynn chose a hard hat as his birthday cake which I made more exciting by making it into a pinata, but as you can see by the pictures it was hard to break the white chocolate layer we had to call in big brother Jim to help hammer it. before we sing happy birthday the birthday boy holding a candle, walks to his place at the table while everyone sings 'the birthday song'

It was three years ogo today, today, when Flynn came down from the heavens to stay, he came to bring gladness and joy to the earth, good people and angels attended his birth, so let us all now join them in singing, with heavenly birthday bells ringing,happy birthday dear flynn, happy birthday dear Flynn.

The verse is from the C.D. The magic garden- kidz for kidz. Its my all time favourite c.d. I love it so much. It has a great range of songs on it for boys and girls,my eldest who is nearly eight still loves listening to it. The birthday felt crown is from the book ' the creative family' by amanda soule. It's a great book, full of ideas on how to make things together as a family.