Honest Scrap Blogshare.

I didn't have a post planned for today. And then Louise from The Fig Tree passed this blog share on to me. Honest Scrap - it was refreshing and interesting to read her 10 honest things and I thought I'd have a go too.

1) My children don't eat veggies! They eat carrots and corn and any veggie I manage to grow but our homegrown produce is paltry and, although I try, actually getting a veggie from the garden is a rare occurrence. 

2) This brings me to Honest Scrap no. 2. I start off my veggie garden with great gusto, buying every veggie seedling in sight. I plant them and water them with enthusiasm. But... they take SOOOOOO long to grow. Somewhere along this journey I loose enthusiasm and waterings become more sparse, debugging becomes less often... I have a, gasp, propensity to leave the veggie in the ground for too long and they go to seed! I have lovely yellow and white lettuce flowers in my garden right now!

3)I am not neat... I try, but putting things back into their 'proper' place does not come naturally to me. My house looks like it has been ransacked by the end of the day and then I grumble terribly at the work of 'picking it up' (a lovely little American saying for tidying up).

4)Bringing me to honesty no. 4... I am lucky enough, and yes I know it with all my heart, to have a wonderful, magical, blessing of a Fairy Godmother come into my house to clean it once a week. She is my godsend and I love her and I know my life would be so much harder without her. She comes in on a Thursday and whizzes around for 5 hours and leaves my home sparkling and clean. Thursday afternoons are my favourite in my house, my week begins on a Thursday afternoon!

5)I take a long, hot bath after the kids go to sleep every night. It has been a bone of contention for my husband... he is of the belief that a bath is a luxury and should be reserved for special occasions... it wastes water, you see. One should shower every day but bathing every day is just pure indulgence. So, I indulge every night... and do love it so.

6)My last bit of honesty for today... I tend to get nursery rhymes and lullaby's stuck in my mind... singing them over and over again in my head, for days. It is most infuriating! It is one of the reasons for one of my most recent 'most embarrassing moments'... I had just dropped K at school and T was home with A Good Man... I was alone in the car. I felt free, excited for the hours ahead. It was a lovely morning and I wound the window down so that the wind could blow my hair. I felt wild... I stopped at a red light, noticing, from the corner of my eye, the business man watching me from the car next to me.  That is when I realised that I was singing to myself... obviously not as softly as I thought! The song was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star... to make things worse, I was giving it a jazzy lilt in my excitement and freedom and happiness at the day. That red light sure did take a long time to turn green!

So, now I pass on the Honest Scrap Blogshare and look forward to some good reads...

Renaissance Mamma

A Forrest Frolic 

Holistic Mum

Wild as Weeds

Syrendell

Enchanting Home Life

The Napping House

You Know How We're An Art Family

Mindfully Simple

Felt Musings

I look forward to reading your Honest Scrap posts too.

Blessings and magic.

Garage Sale Day.

Look at these treasures found yesterday...

6 curtain panels... $1 for the lot.

Two twin flat sheets for K... $1.

K's first apron... $1. She wore it this morning to make lemonade and wiped her hands on it with delight.
And the find of the day... stacking boxes in the design of, yes, can you believe it, the Root Children! $1 to boot!

The Root Children, by Sibylle von Olfers, is one of our favourite books. The illustrations are charming.

And the story is too sweet too.

We will treasure this set forever.

And, speaking of treasures... I was the lucky blog giveaway winner of this gorgeous bowl, shown here with my yummy breakfast in it. Thank you, Jamie from A Forest Frolic. She is having a Mad Hatter's Tea Party on her blog today, pop over for a visit here. I love it!

And she also sent me two of her charming gift tags from her Etsy shop. 

They are delightful and I know just what I am going to do with one. A Good Man turns 40 tomorrow and one of these beautiful tags will be on his present from me. Thank you, Jamie.

Blessings and magic.

Silent Saturday.

Naughty Bluejay trying to eat a little boy's lunch.

Needle Felted Owl and Toadstool Mobiles.

These are what I've been working on for my Etsy shop... mobiles! They have been such fun to make and my mind is literally spinning out of control with all the possibilities. I need that 8th day in the week!

Here is the Owl, Acorn and Oak Leaf mobile...

Lisa gave me the idea to needle felt onto felt and I just had to give it a try.
I used bright but gentle colors for the Mr Owls.

Here is the Toadstool mobile. 

Had to have acorns too...

I worked the wire top into spirals and strung glass beads. They twirl and sway so peacefully in the breeze.

Bright and colorful... such fun to make!

Blessings and magic.

Backyard Bug Safari.

A Bug Safari is always fun. Even in your own city-shackled backyard you'd be surprised what amazing things there are to look at... we were.

Armed with our magnifying glasses and our insect book, we set out to discover what cool little creepy-crawlies are living amongst us.

We saw an earthworm, rolly-pollys, ants, aphids, a fly, beetles.

This poor bee had met his demise in the wading pool. We extracted him for a closer look, a little terrified that the 'stinger' would still get us. 

We found his page in the book and learnt all manner of things about him.

What amazed us the most was how delicate his wings were... we learnt a new word- 'transparent'.

Mr T found an ant but had a bit of a hard time following the quick little guy with his magnifying glass. K looked on longingly as she wanted so badly have a look too but, since she once, a very long time ago, got bitten by an ant, she couldn't muster the courage to get close enough... the child does not forgive and forget, that's for sure!

Which brings me to this picture from our insect book and the quote of the day... 

When looking at this picture for a long time, K asked...

"What is this ant spraying out of his pants?"

For another insect wonder, have a look here. I also want to know where the gold paint comes from? Doesn't nature rock!

Blessings and magic.

K's New Needle Felted Friend.

It all started with this little fellow. He is my 4th of July Necklace Gnome for my Etsy shop. 

I needed a photo of him... an action photo, to include in the listing. I needed a little girl to help me... a little girl who could wear him around her neck for the action photo... Good idea? Apparently not so to the only little girl I had on hand!

"Please?" I asked K.

"No." was the reply.

"Please, Please??"

"NO, NO!"

"Why not?" I pleaded.

"Because he's not mine!" was the answer. There-in lay the scheme!

A battle of wills ensued, we haggled, we wrangled. I used the opportunity to work on my manipulation skills, thought... 'she's a kid, piece of cake!' Ha... I now know I'm no match for a 5 year old! I lost... A deal was reached, heavily loaded in the 5 year olds favor... She'd wear the gnome for ONE photo if I'd make her a gnome necklace in the color of her choice. What was I to do? This was her best offer... I had to take it.

Not to be so completely outdone, I did sneak in a little more than my ONE alloted photo...

She was just so full of joy, who could help it?
And the 4th of July Gnome looked so sweet, whizzing about.
She chose turquoise for her gnome necklace. And she wanted him to have a flower instead of a star. And, of course, he became a SHE!

She has worn her gnome necklace ever since. She has baked Apple and Rose Petal Pie with her beloved gnome.
She has gone down slides with her beloved gnome.

She has even sat quietly with her gnome napping in her lap.

But the best yet is when she wore her gnome out to dinner with us the other night. We realized what a great restaurant toy she is as she kept K playing happily for the whole, entire evening!

A few more little gnome necklaces have followed. Here is the yellow one. She even has a secret pocket at her back for treasures.
K was more willing to be my model this time.

Here is the purple tooth fairy gnome.
And the green toadstool one.
Oh, the whimsy of childhood!

Blessings and magic.

Lavender Perfume.

We harvested our lavender today.

It was decided that we would make Lavender Perfume.

It was hard work. We picked our lavender spiers and, pulling our fingers along the woody stalks, we separated the fragrant leaves.

We put the tenderest leaves, the best for Lavender Perfume, into a jar.

Ummmm... our hands smelt so wonderful!
T got sidetracked with his parasol.

But not for long as we had big harvest to prepare and we needed all hands on deck.

Look how much we prepared.

When we were ready to make our perfume, we washed the tender leaves from our jar. 

Then we poured boiling water over our clean lavender leaves and left them to steep.

When they had cooled, we strained the perfumed water. Look what a gorgeous amber color it is.

We put our lavender perfume into an appropriately beautiful bottle and dabbed it onto ourselves.

We smelt so very nice! We sprinkled our lavender water onto our pillows and our pj's and are looking forward to going to bed tonight. We will all have sweet dreams I'm sure.

If you don't have lavender but do have lots of blooming roses, here is a lovely post on making rose water.

Blessings and magic

Apple and Rose Petal Pie.

Have you tasted Apple and Rose Petal Pie? Let me tell you... it's delicious!

The little baker in our family was busy all afternoon baking her speciality for us to enjoy.

First, she picked the apples from the apple tree in our backyard. She washed each delicious apple carefully... 

She scoured the house vases for the past-their-prime roses, collecting their fragrant petals in her tin bucket.

With all her ingredients at hand, she mixed the apples and rose petals in a big bowl and set them in her colander to bake.

1 minute later... voila! Apple and Rose Petal Pie!
Doesn't it look deliciously pretty?

With such a scrumptious treat to eat, we decided to have 'High Afternoon Tea'. K set the table.

We each got a plate of pie, almost too lovely to eat.

Mine...

Daddy's...

And Mr T's...

Yum... we ate it all up!

When you are baking this Apple and Rose Petal Pie, be sure to wear your favourite apron. For a gorgeously romantic post on vintage aprons, look here. And be sure to enter her blog giveaway too... you might just find yourself with a mother and daughter set from her vintage collection!

Blessings and magic.