Sweet Pea Fairy

The other week I won a blog giveaway over at Softearth's World, a gorgeous little sweetpea fairy on a swing. Evie has claimed her for her bedroom, she loves sweetpeas in the garden. She hangs up next to Evie's bed, thanks Marie!

New silks and sumer nature table

A parcel of gorgeous naturally dyed playsilks from Syrendell arrived today, which meant we could start making our Summer nature table. I needed a yellowy orange silk to make a background that reflects the dryness of the Australian bush in summer. I'm waiting for an Ostheimer kangaroo to hop into our letterbox, and she'll go up there with her joey. We have a billabong for the thirsty animals, the 10 kangaroos in the Graeme Base book in behind are not so lucky, and have no water. There are also some fine gumleaves and some red kangaroo paw, I hope to also add some flowering gum, gumnuts, red stones from the bush, and whatever else we might find.

Livinia has been having a great time playing peek a boo with this beautiful large indigo dyed silk

Merry Christmas!

Here's our new Drewart doll's house

For Santa

New playstand

Here is our new playstand that we've been waiting for since Easter! It finally arrived on Thursday, then we had to assemble it. The baskets are from Ikea, and are handy storage. I'll probably play around with the set up a bit until I'm happy with it, Evie wants to put on puppet shows, so we'll have to move it out from the wall for that.

When my baby smiles at me I go to Rio...

Livinia's Star Baby

Here's a couple of pics of Livinia's star baby from MoonChild Handwork Studio. She sent it to us with another order last year for our unborn Livinia. Well here she is, 6 months old, and loves her first dolly.

Winter

We've gone with a bit of a snow theme this winter, last time we had snow in these parts was in my prep year, 1986! I remember there being a tiny bit of snow along the back fence. Not much at all. No snowmen to be made. The penguins are Buntspechte, the Eskimos (Inuits), dog, and polar bear are Ostheimer, white silk from Sarah's silks, and the nesting cave is from Spiel & Holz.

Autumn nature table

Here are the beginnings of our autumn nature table, can't wait until we can collect some autumn leaves once they change colour and fall off the trees. Autumn is my favourite time of year, I'm not a huge fan of the heat of summer. Just have to survive 35 degrees C tomorrow, then hopefully there will be no more hot days.

Playing

Don't you love the scenes that kids make with their toys? I think the Evi doll riding the reindeer and the "gnome" riding the horse is pretty cute. The "gnome" is one of the seven dwarves that I mistakenly called gnomes when I gave them to Evie, the name instantly stuck, so it's Snow White and the seven gnomes I guess. Possibly more politically correct. By the way, the pink "gnome" is missing, anyone know of his whereabouts?

Little Sparrow

This is "Sparrow", a Moonchild Studio doll, made by Berrie Wren Bowen from USA. We gave her to Evie as a present from Livinia when she was born (4 weeks ago today!) Sparrow now has a lovely handmade wooden high chair, that Evie received for Christmas from her aunt, uncle and cousins. Thanks guys!

Summer nature table

I've finally put together a summer nature table after putting the nativity scene away- we don't seem to have many surfaces for decoration in this house, and Christmas decorations took any available space we had. We had to put our hall table in the garage as our hall isn't big enough for it :( There's the Ostheimer ducks, pond and bridge, Kinder Kram boat, Gerda Muller Summer book, and 2 little mermaids from here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6147725

My 28th birthday went by in a bit of a blur on Saturday, we went to my aunty's 60th birthday party, her birthday was the day before. Andrew and I got to go out for lunch yesterday, Livinia tagged along, and slept the whole time. They are much easier to take out at this age :) There's a few more photos of the girls on our Flickr page.

Steiner open day and fair

We went to the Freshwater Creek Steiner school spring fair and open day on Saturday, I'm regretful that we didn't think to take the camera :( There were chooks, calves, sheep & lambs, and a pony that Evie was quite enamoured with, and we were able to have a look around a few classrooms, and market stalls. I was staggered at the amount of fruit trees dotted around the place, and there were plenty of vegie and herb gardens, a real sensory experience for the children who attend the school. It was great to be able to buy the above books in "real life", rather than over the internet, and of course we didn't have to pay postage, a major bonus. Your average book shop doesn't tend to stock books like these, many books on the Steiner book lists are Dutch or German, and have been translated. I hope we can make it there again next year.

Evie's Spring Lyre

Concentrating...
This is Evie's Spring Lyre from Palumba on Etsy, that I bought earlier this year. It is made from cherry wood, and has a beautiful sound (when it's in tune!) It will be great when Evie (and her sibling) can play us a few tunes.

Spring nature table

I finally got into gear and put in the basics for our first nature table (it's only a month into spring:) The blossom is from our flowering cherries (says my nana- we weren't exactly sure what they were), and we had to have a few bunnies for spring, the 3 at the front are Ostheimer, and the one at the back is a finger puppet from Folkmanis. The little fairy at the front right is from haddy2dogs on Etsy. We'll have to see what we can find seed pod/ pine cone wise when we are out walking, to add to the table.

My current favourite books

I read 'Beyond the Rainbow Bridge' over Christmas, and have just finished 'You are your child's first teacher', and I'm so glad I did. I'm not a fan of parenting manuals, but these ones make sense to me, and fit in well with my personal philosophies. They have helped me to understand Waldorf philosophies on home life and education for the child, what the child really needs, rather than what society tells us the child needs. It worries me that children are being pushed into academics at younger and younger ages, being taught to read and write before they are developmentally ready, like it's some race. There's no evidence to show that this benefits the child, but there is evidence quite the contrary to show that it can be detrimental to their education down the track. While it is possible to teach these things to small children, it doesn't mean that we should. Waldorf philosophy states that we need to wait until the intense period of bodily growth is completed (at the change of teeth, around age 7) until concepts are taught. In the meantime, we need to let them play, watch us go about our daily tasks, and imitate what they see in the world around them, which helps them to process it in their minds. The world is a new place for them, their is so much to absorb, we don't need to be overstimulating them. They are children for such a short time, and adults for (hopefully) a very long time, there's no hurry to grow up!
So I highly recommend these books to any new parents or grandparents, they are definitely books I will keep coming back to.

I just had to add that I took the photo of the books on our NEW dining table! It finally arrived yesterday after 4 months of waiting, I put 3 of the legs on, but couldn't get that last pesky little one on, so Andrew had to save the day when he got home from work :)

Dollies

Evie recently learnt how to say "Dolly", so I thought I'd share some photos of her Waldorf dolls. The 3 sitting in a row are from Little Jenny Wren on Etsy, and they have flown over from Launceston In Tasmania. The one in the middle is a cushion doll, and the other two are 12" dolls. I love that they have hand knitted singlets and knickers, as with Waldorf philosophy, children must be kept warm so that their internal organs can develop properly, so the dollies need to be kept warm too. I made their clothes.
The baby in the cradle is from Oak Way on Ozebaby. I bought the cradle from the local flea market and painted it white, as it was painted in purple and cream, with Minnie mouse stickers on it when I bought it (yuck!). I made a little mattress to go under the doll, but I've yet to make her a quilt or blanket.
Waldorf dolls are made from natural fibres, cotton for skin, with pure wool stuffing so they hold the warmth of the child. They have minimal facial features, so the child can imagine it to be happy, sad, angry etc, rather than being in a fixed emotion. This way the doll can be the child's alter ego, and he or she can express themselves through the doll. So it's equally as important for boys to have boy dolls.