Daffodils

...and sunshine. A quick walk to town earlier in the week - to throw grain at the ducks and visit the wholefoods shop for dried mango, a jar of olives, some local windmill-ground flour, and various other little weekday treats.

Morgan barely visible, watching the world go by in her own special way. *heart* This quirky girl, there is something about the way she sees things that just knocks my world a little bit off kilter.

The smallest one giggled infectiously at a dog chasing its tail. I can't get enough of her laughter. It makes me giddy.

These three are a whole lot of sunshine. Bar, of course, the huge massive meltdowns yesterday, but let's gloss over all that with the pictures of bright yellow flowers and smiling happy children, shall we? Today, well today is going to be just fine. :) Particularly since Martin has a day off. ;)

Wednesday WIP (and a book, too)

Still working on that simple vest from my last lot of hand-dyes! Ohh it's coming along nicely, but it's slower going than my usual choice of chunky projects lol.

And the book underneath is Sark's Succulent Wild Woman. Picking it up again for a smile, some encouragement, and something I don't have to concentrate on! Distractions abound...

Speaking of distractions, look at these!


And yeah so I sneaked in a picture of Morgan being her pixie self, who could blame me though? :)

Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along again. :)

Paint me a Rainbow

It's early starts for me recently: Rowan is sleeping slighly longer nights but is perky and chatty before 5am. So, before 8am we were breakfasted and dressed, the breakfast pots washed, the kitchen cleaned, and this is what was on my stove...

Here I am in the garden at silly o'clock hanging out skeins of newly washed hand-dyed yarn... Yup, red hair again. :)

And this is the evidence of a) how early it was and b) how cold it was!

Playing shop occupied all three girls for a while, especially making price labels for everything. Leanne, look! Christmas presents! Thankyou so much. :)



The sun showed up for us eventually, smiling down on my washing line hung with slate blue, earthy brown, rosey blush, jade green, rich rust, and many shades besides. Dye days are made for sunny days, when everything dries so co-operatively in the open air and my kitchen doesn't drip with sheepy smells!

Someone was pretty determined to come "help"...


Here's Jenna's Koolaid tunic. I know, it doesn't look much like a tunic yet, but there ya go. The children were meant to be enthralled by how the yarn sucked up the colour and left a clear dye-bath. They couldn't have cared less, in fact, but they did like poking the bowls with spoons a bit.

Ah well, the results are cute and I can't wait to start making the dress she requested! It will be fabulousness. :)

I'm personally of the opinion that it's impossible to have too many rainbows, though. :)

Odd family-time assortment

Our last dye-day today *sob* so some pictures of the results so far before I head off to start the first batch of the day...


Here is what happened on Saturday evening when I got bored with my long straight hair. Yup, I cut it all off again!

Here are my big girls outside church inspecting the daffodils...

Yes, that's Morgan inside a cushion again...


And look what arrived! A pencil holder lovingly handmade by a fellow Green Parent, just for us. So very beautiful and already much loved. (THANKYOU!)

See, all the very ordinary moments - that make my world go round. :)

Light Through Windows

Tantalising glimpses at Hardwick Hall on Saturday.

The angles, oh, the grey stone and grey sky and a myriad of shades and tones until grey is simply no longer a sufficient description. Taking pictures here, in the blastingly chill wind, made me actually giddy-happy.


LOOK at those BEAMS! Pure magic,*feeling* the history of this place! (Yes, I'm shouting, just a little!)


Countless hands touched this latch, worked it. How many really looked at it back then? Now it is a work of art to me.

Potions

In the garden, making mixtures: perfume, magic potions, and "cakes for the fairies". Borrowed kitchen equipment.

A little bit of beetroot cooking water for colour.


Oh, and sparkles. Of course.

Fab.

In other news, my own kitchen witchery is underway!

Spring Peg Dolls

These little things are the current trend in certain circles, and I saw some rather adorable ones this week over here. How can I resist? Peg dollies are pretty harmless, right?

So far we are up to about twenty of the things! They are taking over the world. Maybe not so harmless, after all. ;)

Warm

But not THAT warm - well, in my opinion anyway... Ah well, they disagreed, and thought that an hour squirting each other with warm water (dutifully refilled by mama while she cleaned the kitchen) was just the thing! Hot chocolate and thoughtfully warmed towels were required afterwards though lol (mama did NOT say "I told you so"). They had SO much fun.

Speaking of fun, well, my idea of fun anyway... Parcels are arriving for another dye day with lovely Ashleigh. *grins* I am ridiculously overexcited.

More garden days, so welcome, and the rhythm is dancing all over the place but who cares when the Spring is singing its own rhyme and meter? (Oh and can I say again that I just LOVE how this camera makes rainbows all over the place?)


We are taking everything outdoors for the time being, sitting under our favourite tree (a good few feet taller already this year).



Today we have also made some gifts for the birds - nest helpers inspired by Paint Cut Paste.

And life is sunny!

Knitting/Reading

Knitting: an improvised simple cardi (like the Pickles vest I made recently for Rowan) which may or may not be too small for any of my children. I'm currently in denial and will decide what to do about it when I cast off.

I am still suffering from a bit of restlesness on the crafting front. Though I did cut out the felt pieces for a banner yesterday, scissors in hand as I listened to the vegetable and barley soup bubbling away for lunch and the children playing in the sunshine, taking a crafting break between laundry and cleaning the kitchen and a million other small jobs. :)

Reading: One Thousand Gifts - beautiful lilting singing words. A lot of word-play theology which is helpful to my lyrical intuitive brain but isn't everyone's thing. The glipses of someone else's ordinary extraordinary life are so utterly captivating though. I have adored her blog for a good while now.

I finished some Faye Kellerman crime fiction yesterday, too, can't remember which book (lol not that it wasn't good, just that the title wasn't memorable and I can't remember for the life of me where I put it down when I finished it). There is also the usual stack of books besides my favourite perch: my Bible (an NIV currently, not one of my prefered translations for straight reading I will admit), The Celtic Wheel of the Year (still in constant circulation between several reading spots around the house), The Story of the World and Grimm's complete tales (for me as much as for the little ones), and Connection Parenting.

An excess of parenthesis in this post may indicate distraction... ;)

(Yarn Along from Ginny of Small Things).