honey joy

i wash my face with honey.

it's one of my 'do less' approaches. bring less packaging into the house, use less chemicals in and around my home and beyond, less fuss in the mornings and evenings.

and the 'more' aspects? more support for the humble honeybee, more nourishing for my face, more fun watching my small girl wash her face with honey like mama.

crunch betty is hosting a little honey challenge at the moment. wash your face with honey for 2 weeks and enjoy the honey joy! as i already do wash my face with honey, and so does my small girl, i'll get the lads in my house on the honey train too. what about you?

infirm

small people are ill around here at the moment. some of the wintery bugs are lingering a little too long for my liking, one in particular settling in quite nicely to my son's lungs.

home is quiet and calm and there is space for healing to happen. we've been reading, making soup and daytime sleeping. our favorite chapter books are on high rotation.

we're particularly enjoying these two at the moment - the original J. M. Barrie Peter Pan and Dinotopia The World Beneath by James Gurney.

both wondrous stories and beautiful illustrations. we spend as much time reading the story together as we do looking at the illustrations.  

homespun a-plenty

our favorite local opshop has a blackboard out front, announcing its latest wares. recently it had  'homespun, plenty' written in pink chalk. 'great name for a band', i thought, as i went in to check out the plenty. there was another interested party at the homespun table, also checking out the offerings with a keen eye. he was dressed in a leather jacket with a helmet in one hand a skeins of wool in the other. i couldn't help remarking at what a beautifully ironic picture he made. he told me he knitted hats and entered them in the alice springs beanie competition every year. i decided he was ace.

we came home with a few bags of small skeins of various colors. upon opening them i realised they were not only homespun by a local lovely lady, but she had also naturally dyed them. only one has a label 'peach leaves copper mordant' which is a beautiful shade of green. there are other shades of green and some yellows and blues. i like wondering what they have been dyed with? perhaps this mob could tell me. or this amazing woman could shed some light? i've been dabbling with dyeing naturally of late, boiling up leaves and flowers and the like in small copper pots and leaving them in the sunshine. so far only resulting in various shades of brown. ho hum.

i'm no knitter, although my 5 year old son recently showed me how to double fingerknit. a revelation, i tells ya. we've been making ropes, necklaces and snakes ever since. i made a sailboat necklace one evening, strung it on some naturally dyed, double fingerknitted homespun and wore it with glee the next day. a friend shared my glee, so i made her one too. my daughter also glee-ed when she saw it, so i made her one as well, sewing her sailboat onto the front of a little blue upcycled dress. i had so much glee for my new sailboat necklace that i made a brooch as well. it's quickie crafting. my favorite kind. and her's too, so it seems.

countdown

we're off to melbourne soon to meet our newest family member. my youngest sister is bringing another being into the world sometime next week (or so we are hoping cause that's when we've booked flights!). we're counting down the days here, one autumn leaf at a time. a little bit inspired by little eco. one leaf a day comes off and the smalls get a little more excited each day.

 

early morning antidote

a girl i know has taken to the woods as an antidote. it's her quiet protest against a disconnected society. this red-haired beauty takes me wandering through her weeping gum forest. she shows me her rock stash and her collection of flower wands she uses to keep the skywalkers away as the sun rises.

billy and bear

i met a shaggy flopsy blonde headed kid called billy the other day. you know the one? we all know one, don't we? he asked me if i knew bear grylls. yeah, i know the guy, says i. he's awesome, says billy, who then continues on in conversation with me for a spell about how much he loves the man, bear.

me thinks billy would like one of these made for him:

from here

and he will be needing one of these

from here

and his mama might want to make him one of these

from here

i daresay billy will accumulate a few of these in his time

from here

and just cause it's so damn beautiful (and sort of on topic) a set of these for inside bear-time

from here

 but when it's all said and done, billy, can bear do this?


 

gifting, by request

i received and delivered on a custom order recently. 

a hat and bag in red for a 4 year old and in blue for his 2 year old brother.

i made a little felt mouse finger puppet as well to thank them (and their mama) for their custom.

i hope they like their wares.