mamaUK

Kreativ Blogger award

The lovely Sara from Farmama has so kindly given me a Kreativ blogger award. I read Sara's blog daily because not only is she a mama of four and is a farmer on her sustainable family farm, she also makes  the time to write a beautiful blog with stunning photographs about her daily life. I also love that she homeschools her children in a Waldorf-inspired way. Thank you for the award Sara!

Here's what Kreativ Blogger Award recipients are supposed to do:

1. Copy the award to your site.

2. Link to the person to whom you received the award.

3. Nominate 7 other bloggers.

4. Link to those sites on your blog.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominate.

...and you are also to list 7 things about yourself.

So I am going to start with a list of seven things you might know or not know about me:

1) I have been a vegetarian all my life. I have never eaten meat (well, perhaps once when I had taken a bite of pizza at primary school when I was about five years old and promptly spat it out...it had something spicy on it, possibly pepperoni?)

2) I have an identical twin sister. She is about to become a mama and is expecting her first baby Christmas day.

3) I am in remission from cancer, I had Hodgkin's Disease when I was twenty one years old and had chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I celebrated my thirtieth birthday this year.

4) One of my favourite activities to do with the children is playing with home-made play-doh, simply because I love it! I like smooshing it. (I think I just made that word up!)

5) K and L are TV free 99% of the time. They watch about one hour of television once a week. I find they are able to independently play more creatively this way.

6) I am not TV free, once the children are tucked up in bed, I love to cozy under my quilt on the sofa and watch the Australian soaps Home and Away and Neighbours which I have on series record.

7) In January this year, I decided to lose my baby weight. I have lost over two stone and am now a UK size eight, the size I was before I had my babies.

I would like to pass the Kreativ blogger award to:

1) Abby

Here We Are Together

I love reading about all the inspiring crafting activities you get up to with your children. I love the whole feel of your blog.

2) Erin:

exhale.return to centre.

I love reading about your tales of everyday life with your children and the way you write about parenting. I am inspired everyday by your blog. Your passion for life really comes through in your writing.

3) Nicole

Frontier Dreams

You are always creating a beautiful 'work in progress'. It's lovely to read about the wonderful Waldorf life you all lead. Your photographs show such a stunning glimpse into your everyday life.

4) Christine

Our Day Our Journey

I found your blog right at the very beginning of our Waldorf journey, well over eighteen months ago. It was such a source of inspiration to me and it still is! You have created a stunning Waldorf home for your family. The girls love your seasonal songs and you have wonderful ideas for activities. Our two little girls are a similar age as well!

5) Nicole

Garden Mama

 Visiting you blog is always such a visual treat for me, it makes me want to get out into the garden even more than we already do. Your photos are drenched with colour. Your writing is so lyrical and is a beauty in itself. 

6) Marina

A Small Tribe

I adore seeing all the crafting you do,especially when you are making something sweet for your children. Seeing glimpses of your home and how Waldorf works for your family is lovely.

7) Kyrie 

are so happy

The colour palette of your photographs is amazing and makes me want to be a better photographer. Your pictures really pop! I love reading about your everyday Waldorf adventures. Your posts about knitting are so inspiring they make me want to learn to knit.

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It was so hard just to choose seven people to pass this award onto from all the wonderful blogs I read...To the bloggers that I have passed the Kreativ blog award on to, please don't feel like you have to participate, only join in if you would like to.

Planting out

K was very excited to get out into the garden and plant some of her bulbs. We have started out with  forcing some Hyacinths in the hope that we will have some fragrant blooms at some point in december! They have been put into the dark corner of the cool shed and will probably come indoors late November to be placed on a sunny window sill. Hopefully they will start producing some roots and shoots in a few weeks.

Having never forced Hyacinths before, I don't know if these will grow or not...I know there is more than one method of doing it.

There is a box of daffodil bulbs to plant out and also some tulips, but K and I haven't decided whether they are going to be placed into pots or put straight into the ground.

Bulbs

An almost perfect weekend. Relaxing, baking blueberry muffins, time outdoors... We spent Sunday morning walking around the local garden centre choosing bulbs for K to plant. Everything was bathed in a beautiful autumnal sunshine.

 

Senses

See: beautiful honeysuckle in the garden.

Hear:  autumn leaves crunching under foot.

Smell: bonfire smoke on the way to school this morning.

Feel: Silky ribbons in the fabric store in town.

Taste: homemade jelly on toast for breakfast.

 

Time to relax

I knew my Storchenwiege baby wrap would have more than one use. Yesterday afternoon, K and L had a relaxing time using it as a hammock under the dining room table!

Last of the summer fruits

Look what we found peeping out from the strawberry plant while we were exploring the garden!

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Whoops! I have just been looking at the National Geographic website and realised that the Autumnal Equinox in fact falls on September 22nd in 2009....So, again, happy first day of Autumn everyone!

Hello Autumn!

 

It's the first day of Autumn today! We love this season in our home, going for walks in the woods leaf catching, making warming soups, baking breads and eating popcorn smothered in a homemade caramel sauce (we love the smell of freshly popped corn), making toffee apples, leaf printing...these are a just a few of the activites we have planned for the season ahead. Happy first day of Autumn everyone!

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Look, our pumpkins have ripened already! We have our own mini pumkin patch in the back garden ready for decorating our porch and for pumpkin carving at the end of october.

Wool felt tomato

K is so happy that I have finally finished the wool felt tomato for her play kitchen. It was quite challenging to make as it was much more detailed than the cucumber.

It is meant to go and join the wool felt cucumber, but the cucumber has been lost during play and we are waiting for its re-appearance.

Hide and seek

 

Lately, L has been having fun  learning how to play hide and seek with her older sister K. There is lots of squealing as one of them runs to hide, with the other chasing behind. As they catch up with one another, there are loud 'boo's' while L covers her eyes with her fingers, hiding.

While K is at school, L seems to be practising her new game by finding corners of our home, squeezing herself into tiny spaces and then sitting down proudly in her new hiding place.

Evi Dolls

K loves playing with her dress-up dolls. They are a perfect size for little hands and she adores being able to dress them and undress them. This weekend she decided they were going to go for a dip in the paddling pool (the sink in her play kitchen) which then turned into their bath. They were washed with flannels (handkerchief size playsilks) and dried with their towels (some more small playsilks) before being dressed again. I think they had fun that afternoon - and got very clean. All of this was pretend of course, Evi dolls can only be spot cleaned!

I love Evi dolls, they have cotton skin, hair made from soft wool and mohair, are stuffed with pure, soft sheeps wool and so are warm and comforting for the girls to play with.