in miniture, book making

I remember being entranced by anything everyday made tiny. I still am really. I always wanted to be a Borrower. The nice thing about being a parent is you get to make things you would have loved as a kid. Who knows if your own kids will find them entertaining but it's hardly a chore for all to find out.



After my book making the other day I still have the bug. I have been experimenting more with covering the ends of these accordion style books with snippets of sturdy material. They are very tactile and satisfying.



These ones are hardly bigger than a postage stamp. I adore these most of all.



They are a full length of A2 and I folded the length over so the book has paper of double thickness. All you need do is then fold your long strip in half lengthwise, then half again and again and so on until you have a fat little tiny block of folded paper in your hand. Unfold gently and go over it again and refold carefully the proper ways so it's a nice accordion. Cut two pieces of card from a cereal box only very slightly bigger than the ends of your tiny book. I used a hot glue gun to fold and fix fabric over the ends and then fix the paper book in place.



The the next nice bit! I thought The Beauty might like to see lots of tiny pictures of things she knows, so I set to with the colouring pencils: knife fork and spoon, a banana, stars, rainbow, apple, chicken, boat, umbrella, rabbit, tree, house, kite..... oh! So many. I've made three so far, one gifted out to another two year old. If she's anything like The Beauty I think she might like it.



Just thinking they have such possibility, one for each season? If you could be clever enough to think of enough pictures, or one for Christmas, a birthday, a holiday? Lots of scope. Felix likes them blank for his own drawing of course, but the girl likes me to draw in them and then either get me to name everything or listen whilst she does.



They are great fun to fold and unfold, over and over. No rips either! Good cartridge paper is essential I think, regular stuff wouldn't hold up so well.

Mummy they are tiiiiiinnnny!



A girl after my own heart I think :)

when you love food

It's what I do. I cook, I look, I taste and I then I get so excited by the combination I want to capture it on a little flat disc-picture screen. Then it's gobbled, shared, ohh and ahhed over. Meals here, much to what I'd prefer to the contrary are very rarely peaceful. There's no time to savour things overly long. Or spend time poetically grasping for the word that fits the moment/mood/food. It's gone. Or rather I have; back to the kitchen: ketchup, extra cutlery, drinks (no not *that* cup!). With babes in arms my dh and I ate in shifts passing the baby to each other in turns so we'd have hands free. Now it's still a pandemonium of a million different needs and wants all crammed around the table. And amongst the hustle and outcry's and squeals and annoyance there is also a lot of smiling and laughter and sometimes a compliment or two to the mama-chef. Sometimes. But usually, mostly, they are over the beans on toast and not the artfully coloured, hearty stew or delicate latticed veggies with sauce. Eeek.



Even when I don't eat it I admire.



Samphire (above there at the top), from the fish market, so delicious and salty tender that nothing more was required than an egg, oil and fresh summer garlic: the little bulbs popped helpfully out from their purple jackets, most willing to be eaten. Does summer really taste so good?





Sometimes we don't make it to the table.

word filled wednesday

This girl's favourite song right now. She screeches at me, 'Banana pancake! Banana pancake! Banana pancake!' And is stuck on this repeat until I put it on. But then she hears the lyrics and shouts 'Banana pancake!' And so the day moves through it's phases of randomness that make up my life.... or does it? Am I really stuck in some sort of repeating deja vu scenario for all of mortal time (and actually isn't that supposed to be hell...?) Who knows, life at home is frequently hellish and heaven like, sometime the two even mix in a shameless parody of how you might imagine a strange life is lived where a child screams at you half the day and this is actually quite prefered over the possibility of the other half whereby she is tearing chunks from her brothers. Just kidding. Well, not really, but maybe I exaggerate (when this album is on I feel like the old train having a breakdown).



We all like kite flying and it's a welcome break after too long in each other's company. The space between us and seeing the open sky restores a vital sanity-soul filled jigsaw piece that was lost along the day. No one else was allowed to hold that particular kite, you can tell that yeah? But her enthusiasm was 100% catching.











I picked all of these from my garden and was outrageously pleased that I could do so. I purposefully sowed about two packets of sunflowers way back when, just so come high summer I could have a vase just like this.



I am a knitter. I like that label. I like to knit the same comforting things over and over, varying wool, needle size and such. Who knows who the combination might fit? It's high excitement. Things always find the right sized body part on someone eventually.



So much for 'wordless Wednesday', I love it, but I guess my mouth is on overdrive.

And if you have a cat don't you just love it when they are picking a place for their hundredth snooze of the day, pawing the favoured spot, twisting turning, cleaning themselves, tucking around their tail, all neat and snug. It's pretty nice to watch.

little giveaway ~ a book

Jenni Overend's sweet and wonderfully illustrated Hello Baby. Lovely story of a family homebirth. If anyone reading would like this then just leave a comment so I can get someone here to pick your name from a hat at the weekend :) A book worth sharing!

home comforts

on my needles ~

~a winter something for The Beauty but I'm making it up as I go so no real clue yet



on the little table



absorbed in a little quiet play



and read



fluffing up the sheepskins



the boys

~ making a shop with leaves, flowers, garden food, sticks and stone money







Making teeny-tiny accordion books, and step books, and stick and elastic band books.... all with recycled bits and bobs, instructions here.







My favourites are the cloth covered ones, I used my glue gun on these and they were super addictive, perfect as stocking fillers or tiny party bag gifts? I dunno, but I can see self going through scraps and scraps of fabric to make many more.

skin food ~ oil me, she says

The nettle and comfrey leaves have been squeezed and decanted after their month of infusing, the extra made into an ointment with beeswax pellets added. Note: stirring the ointment with a chopstick briskly just as it is setting creates a fluffier smoother balm.



Calendula oil in stages, not quite sun infused. At this rate it'll have to be simply 'light' infused as the sun is AWOL. One of my most favourite of all the scented flowers (bar sweet peas, divinity itself) the sticky sweet delicate fruitiness of calendula is hard to beat in a baby oil. I have used it on all of my kids, I wonder if they will associate this smell later with the baby massages they all loved (and still love). For The Beauty it's her assumed right to be massaged. She spreads out a towel and demands 'right now Claire, oil me'. I can hardly refuse such a gracious request and am her devoted servant, plying her with unguents and gentle caresses until she melts like a seal pup under my hands.









The resident squirrel recently became road kill (I didn't eat him, wouldn't know where to begin quite honestly, although it certainly is high priority on my do-to list to learn such skills, in the event he was far too squished). Another hasn't skirted into his patch so for once the hazel nuts are still clinging to the trees. Maybe I'll get to harvest some this year. I read that they are best picked when the tree's leaves start to yellow but I wonder if there will be any left by then....



Our neighbour always sells fresh walnuts at the road side and beneath the actual tree. Very sublime. I recently found my very own isolated walnut tree. But had no idea what they actually were. Hard green lime shaped fruits, marshmallow, sweetness..? But my trusty book soon pointed the way to walnuts. And the dark brown staining on my fingers after much ohhing and ahhing and chasing of the lovely smell forced me to pry open the skin give the game away. So, come autumn, fingers crossed, I may have a few nuts to pick.



Saw this wonderful cream recipe here and *had* to try it for the simple alchemy of the (addictive and exciting) emulsification process (I have so far made three batches and am still excited by it). A serious one minute whizz with a whisk and the cool clear aloe gel and oil becomes a whippy cream delight. I have not used creams in over five years, they all make me skin burn, straight oils are my choice but this has converted me. Utterly delicious scent, gentle gentle gentle. Would be great as an after sun lotion, shaving balm, or for any sort of irritated or sore skin I think.

garden holiday

When your wallet is a bit empty take a holiday at home. In the garden. That's what we do. Breakfast outdoors is much more fun with fire.













The washing and the new chick were far too close to the smoking fire for comfort but all survived to tell the tale, albeit a bit on the smoked side. Bit like us too really.

~2 weeks~