The 10 minute Pixie Hat

This hat has it all. Recycled, re purposed, revamped - whatever. It is from an old Merino wool sweater of mine. A friend was talking about wanting to sew a pilot hat and I could not help but nod in agreement, yes, me too now you mention it. No sooner had the seed been planted it germinated and I ran upstairs baby under arm (hi Daddy I know you are enjoying your Saturday Morning Soak in the bath but here's Boo, just keep you eye on her please, I am DESPERATE to do something terribly important) and so already with the pattern in my mind I rummaged, found, snipped and sewed and then ran back to the bathroom to try it on the model and back to the machine. Ten minutes. Or less. It was THAT easy.





Here is a quick How To:

Pick an old sweater, charity shop find or one that will not be missed from someone's wardrobe. You need either the front or the back, so really one sweater would easily make two hats.



Snip your panel, front or back. The bottom edge will be the bit of the hat that frames the face.



Turn and fold.



The line where I have marked with string is the line you need cut along. I didn't measure anything, just looked and guessed.



Turn inside out and sew along that string-line. I used the neck band of the sweater for the ties. You can see I folded back the ribbed bit, I then slipped the ties in there and sewed so it has that nice turned back effect. I also sewed the raw edges of the hat - ends of ties and the bit which cups the neck. My machine is still acting crazy so the sewing is, er, rough in places, but you can't honestly tell, it still looks sweet. I think it would look good with binding around the raw edges.



Pretty or what? :)

Isaac's Game

Isaac invented this game last summer, the ground has been dry here now for a few days (miracle of miracles!) and we saw our chalks and remembered it. The basic idea is that you write up symbols next to numbers and then chalk the symbols randomly all over the ground (it's best if you have flag stones or slabs on your patio). Someone then calls out sums (or just numbers for little ones) and the other person leaps from symbol to symbol. At the far end to complete the challenge we ask another final question, like, name three planets, or four herbs, five birds, three vehicles...... then it is someones else turn.







The boys are wild about this game (because they invented it I think, had it been me doing it as an 'educational' thing no doubt they would have not been so keen). The nice thing is I get to leap about a bit too (with The Beauty bouncing along for the ride in the sling).

Above there is my favourite drink, indoors and out: Green tea with a big teaspoon of manuka honey.... so so good.





Water pistols are not my choice of fun cold day activity but I can't speak for others! I think boys find water pistols fun in ANY season!



The making of 'magic' potions has begun again here. So far they consist of stream water, heather flowers and a pinch of last years herbs. Isaac tells me we must wait until the moon is full for them to be truly magic.... :)

Thrifty

These jeans are third hand, and now they can see another season through because I patched the knee! No idea how the wool felt will hold up in the washing machine. Typically I didn't think about that until I was securing the last stitches. Ahhhh, they look cute tho. And as my dh pointed out, at least now I can find out how it holds up for future patches. Did I ever mention he is the ultimate optimist? Well he is. Over the years it is rubbing off on me. I think....



The boy with the patched up knee is about to turn six so I have made him one of these pencil rolls. There are so many being made in blog land right now that I don't think I need to say much here about it. Except that it was easy and satisfying to make. And super quick, maybe half an hour? More because I could not decide which printed fabric to use, dither, dither. I used an old navy wool jumper of mine that was in tatters because I loved it so much, the back panel was decent enough to snip up. The toadstool fabric was from Fabric Rehab, so not exactly a thrifty use, but what can I say? I am starting to become a regular spendthrift over there :)



We have several packs of Lyra pencils floating around the house, some missing, some in the car... Felix goes through them until they are stubs, he draws so much. I thought this pencil roll he could stuff into his Art Bag for his travels, since he is certainly a boy who likes to cart things around with him when we leave the house. So now I have added to his load, in a nice way of course.

The Line

Today was the True turning point in the wheeling of the year's seasons. Why? Because today was the First day of the year that I was able to hang my wet washing outside on the line! Ye-ha. I know, I know I have waxed lyrical about 43 times already in the past about how much I LOVE hanging my laundry up on the line. But I don't care! I need to say it again! It was wonderful :) I have this pile of ever-so-slightly-damp clothing on the floor of my bedroom now which smells just divinely of Outdoors. Cool, fresh and with a hint of woodsmoke (could that be a description of a new laundry liquid fragrance???!!).



So I spent a lovely hour with The Beauty in the sling and with Felix and I (jumpers over our PJ's - who the heck dresses early on a Sunday morning anyway?) hanging out washing, playing on the swing and platform and then welly-wading in the stream. I was on such a high. No drug ever gave me such a happy-feeling. I swear hanging out washing (with optional children cats and chickens at feet ) ought to be a regular feel-good prescription from every Dr. in the country. It should go: 1) Take wet washing outside. 2) Peg onto washing line (get one! get one!) 3) Stand and admire clothes blowing to and fro whilst listening to birds, looking at trees and new growth in the garden 4) Retrieve and inhale lovely aroma on clean cloth 5) Do it EVERY day the weather permits

















The chickens give us warm eggs still. Amazingly they each have laid every single day this winter. Supposedly they don't in the darker months but ours have. I put it down to their outrageous diet of wonders - oyster shell, organic laying pellets, grains of wheat, and scraps.

Free-ranging vital for good health (put that on the Dr. prescription too).

My Spring Fever even ran back with me indoors where I whooshed around upstairs flinging open every window and pulling back the covers on every bed for a good airing. I am hoping tonight the scent of Spring will have seeped into our pillows...

Ordinary days

We have so many of them. And sometimes they can feel like it's all just a big round of days doing regular blah things. Not blog material. There are only so many hours in a day and I only get to do crafty knitting or sewing when everyone else is asleep (and chores done, or attempted). So ordinary days are my norm. But, taking photos changes my interpretation of the day, highlights and diminishes, embellishes.... some things look more interesting then you thought at the time - or perhaps I ought to say that maybe some days you just don't notice how good your days really are until you step out and view them through a lens.



Outside Spring is in the air. I am SURE. I am willing it to be so. I am SICK of Winter. The beauty in the line of bare trees still thrill me a tiny bit but my longing for a smidgen of warmth and a glimpse of the sun (just an hour would do!) is overwhelming. So Spring is almost here. We are on the VERGE. Get your hand poised to whip of the woolly hat.



Felix astonished by the cat's dare devil attitude to inch wide balancing over a gushing stream. Will he make it???? He saunters off looking back over his shoulder at us, I can do this with my eyes closed man, he would drawl if he could talk. He is The Dude. The cat. Not Felix. Felix is certainly not as chilled as The Dude. Or as prone to hallucinating thankfully, but perhaps as silly in his own Felix-mad way :)



The veg plot is devoid of veg, and growth and life. This is the contrast shot. The best is yet to come- lets get digging in the manure!! (I yell at my dh, General style, or anyone who looks like they might be lively with a pitch fork). The sand pit over there gets a heck of a lot more digging than our beds ever will. Lets just say the no-dig method happens here without us having known it was a method.



Inside we had a spurt of baking (Isaac with the required snake around the neck).



And flag making for sandcastle days in the oh distant future of summer: we are ready for you! Our flags are made! Dare defy us by not arriving!



Isaac and Esmé get friendly choosing the best vintage from the wine rack for Supper. Oh yes. If only our evenings were so civilised. I store cling film and baking parchment in the wine rack and constantly curse at it's presence in my kitchen for wasting space when it could have been a wanted and needed cupboard. Still it looks like they are discussing the merits of Old World wines vs. New doesn't it.....



Felix makes little men from corn starch packaging.



And erects scenes with playmobil men. He makes sooooo many. It's like another world. I want to live there! The vikings get jiggy with the ambulance guys and they battle out their differences in the gladiatorial arena before sitting down to lunch in the pirate cafe. Baby and dog play areas included.





Our daily walks follow the same path but everything changes. It is so amazing. So. Amazing. It makes me feel that living a SLOW life our time is a time that passes differently to anyone on even a haphazardly lazy schedule. Most days, we don't know what day of the week it is. Or what time of day. We see the seasons and we eat when we are hungry. We conform when visitors arrive but it's so deliciously easy to slip back into our own dreamy day.



When I watch the boys sometimes, they look dream-like. They run their hands over different plants as we walk along. Sometimes I tell stories and the landscape is forgotten, sometimes we are quiet. Sometimes, like today, the sun comes out and we all stop and lift our faces and stand still in the quiet. Lets see what we can hear Felix whispers. And we do. Usually it's Esmé, but it's other things too. I think a teacher would use these walks to Instruct. To point out, to label, to press and pass on Knowledge. I have learned slowly not to. There is not a bigger turn off than someone trying to Tell You Things. When I get excited I talk, like today I was overjoyed to see wild garlic and picked some juicy leaves for our soup and rabbited on in rapture about the lovely scent. Felix was struck by the dead badger we saw and spent the walk discussing whether or not Mrs badger and the Baby Badgers would be ok without Mr Badger (I didn't know but hoped so).



But I don't Teach. That is the biggest thing most other adults cannot get their heads around. That I don't teach my children. I am not trying to make a school at home. That does not interest me, it isn't even necessary! If I am asked I will gladly explain something (assuming I know - but I am just as glad when I don't because then I get to find somethng out) and I like to do lots of things every day and helpers are welcome. I am Busy. I used to feel irritated that my Grandmother and Mother always Liked being busy. My teenage self thought they were Mad (why when one could stretch out and read?). But now I see how hard it can be to be Still. So I am trying to find the balance. I think my children learn (I think all children - and adults - learn) All Of The Time. They learn things you don't expect or imagine, like how people cope when stressed, they learn about exchanges (in banks, post offices, with friends...) they learn just about everything from being IN life (from using money to time telling to planet names, to picking berries to make jam.... conversation springs from EVERYTHING).



I can see it happening. Some things I think are slower to emerge than would be forced in School. Like academics. Obviously. Reading and writing tend to be purposeful rather than done for themselves without an end. So less often 'practiced'. I don't see this form of 'education' as being negligent, ha! Rather that we get to live and choose out persuits and that the learning springs from interest. Only true learning and retaining of knowledge happens when you are engaged and wanting to know something, that is what works for me. The wanting, needing, desiring to learn fell by the wayside for me a LONG time ago and it was years later (years!) when I could finally breathe in and out in my own time and feel excited about life again. Under tuition, instruction, it just made a bit of me die.











Ordinary days are full of wonder. Things. Freedom. Play. Food. Trees. Water. Lemon Sorbet. Add your own words. There will be many. But for most - they just see An Ordinary Day. And they are: ordinary days. Extra-ordinary. Each one.



But it was just another ordinary day.
Wonderful in it's myriad of tiny ways.
I am glad to be alive.
In this Season.
Of our Lives.

(Isn't that last line the title of a cheesy US soap opera??)