{Etsy Love: Nan Lawson}

So, I discovered the quirky Nan Lawson a few weeks ago, and I’ve been visiting and revisiting her store and blog and making mental wish lists of all the prints I’d love to be framing and hanging on my walls. I like that she’s a self-confessed illustrator nerd; and I love the simplistic and sweet nature of her work. She does custom portraits too. I wonder how we’d look?

Secretly In Love

Custom Couple Portrait

Behind the Lens



Happy Monday!

Nat

It's in the mail...

I’ve got this new idea floating around at the moment involving letters and postcards. Both of my little ones have godparents with nomadic sensibilities off travelling the world - and it’s such a treat to receive mail from them. And my two are writing back, telling them of all the things we’re doing, and drawing wonderful pictures of our much loved friends exploring the world. There have been more questions than I was prepared for, which, in hindsight, is expected when the world opens up before very young eyes for the first time; questions of language and food and money and geography, of time and distance and travel, and of how far away things really are.

The letter wallet idea was all but an inkling when the travelling began; and because my two embraced letters and postcards and the waiting and sending so enthusiastically, I thought that other little ones might just do the same too.

This is my prototype:

The plan is to make each little pouch with blank postcards, ready for individual decoration, brown paper envelopes, stamps and brightly coloured pencils. They’re small enough to be slipped into a bag, and easy enough to use so that little ones can do their letter writing all on their own.

It’s so nice working on something brand new – and even nicer knowing that very soon, lots of other little ones will be writing and sending their own letters to friends and family. It’s the very best kind of mail to receive, isn’t it?

Nat 

Ps. They’ll be in our Etsy store soon!

Tea Time Treats

A tart for tea on a china plate,

toy friends at the table, laying in wait

for the tea pot to pour, and the sugar to sweeten,

the cakes to be shared - and for some to be eaten.

Berries in blue, and strawberries red;

chocolate and cherries, harmoniously wed

with caramel, cream, fruit and spice,

making our tea party extra nice…

New Tea Party Tarts in store now!

Nat

The beginnings of winter at the Cottage

For a whole season, we let the weeds take over.

Then there was a frenzy of digging and composting, and the turning in of stinky things; more seeds bought and planted in homemade origami seed pots; extra, more temperamental seedlings sought and planted; and for a whole week, the sweet smell of sugar cane mulch made the garden a delight to walk and play in.

We’ve had rain and sun and growth, and are now on the cusp of an early harvest. And it’s my absolute favourite part of planting an edible garden – the time where it’s at an almost - when the idea of picking snow peas or ruby-red cherry tomatoes or crisp sweet lettuce leaves becomes a delightful daily task.

Just in the last week, our chickens have realised that it’s a variable gold mine in the front garden, and have been squeezing through fence palings to snack on the tender spinach leaves, and to scratch away in the wormy soil. And Ella, our mastiff, often too arthritic to get up and chase them, has taken to watching and growling from the comfort of her heavily bedded kennel. It’s an unpredictable situation; but because it takes Ella a couple of minutes to actually get up (poor dog), the chickens have a head start in escaping; and it gives me the opportunity to play Pied Piper, leading them out onto the footpath and down the road to the chicken run gate, luring with overripe melon rinds or (if desperate) grapes – their absolute favourite - in the scrap bowl.

I love this time of year; it makes me want to knit and read, doze in front of a roaring  fire, and drink hot chocolate with marshmallows, or steaming cups of tea.

And bake - which I guess isn’t unusual.

Why, just yesterday, because it was raining and cold and a little miserable, I made a big batch of fluffy golden scones (with lashings of double cream and strawberry jam, of course); pumpkin bread, with a whole heap of sharp parmesan and chives from the garden added in for good measure; and a mixed spice and pear cake (which was supposed to be drenched in lovely warm butterscotch sauce; but after three-and-a-bit hours fussing in the kitchen, I was entirely cooked out. Ice-cream instead). The whole house was delicious smelling and warm all afternoon, and it was the perfect way to end a cold weekend.

How have you been?

Nat

Ps. The loveliest thing: our apple and cherry Tea Party Tart was part of an apple feature in the gorgeous June edition of Peppermint magazine; and our dashing Heroic Henry slipped into the pages of the June edition of Shopping 4 Baby magazine; and our gorgeous Helpful Harriet graced the online pages of Peppermint to advertise a twinking twilight market for BrisStyle! It’s the best and loveliest reward for months of planning and testing and making and selling.

   

Starting again

Image from Heart Box Studio

A whole month has passed since I’ve been back to blog about the things that are happening in our world. Part of it was a choice; part was because busyness and the mayhem of motherhood  sometimes gets in the way of quiet reflective writing; and part of it was because sometimes it’s so tricky being creative in every sphere of your life – in real life, home life, and online life.

I think I was a bit worn out.

But, I have been thinking about our little blog a lot, and about what I want from it; and I’ve come to realise just how much pressure I placed on it to perform and to build and generate some kind of following; which is quite a difficult thing to do, considering how many beautiful and creative blogs there are out there. I also got in the habit of making a whole lot of unconscious comparisons with tonnes of amazing and successful blogs, which made it tricky to write what was from my heart. There were many, many times that I deleted posts that I wrote with love, because I worried about how readers would respond – or if they’d respond at all.

So, this is me starting again: without the worry of comments or content or followers or whether or not my posts are being read; embracing the wonder and sweetness of childhood through the eyes of my children; celebrating family, delicious food, all things handmade, the warmth of the sun and the weeds in my kitchen garden, togetherness, sewing, tea, cake, and the loveliness of friendship.

I’m a big fan of new beginnings.

Thanks for sticking around, dear readers – I’m so glad you’re here.

Nat

The Giving Heart

I had a moment with Judah during the week.

We were watching the news as a family while eating dinner – which almost never happens in our house because of all the violence and death and bad news that you tend to be bombarded with. But, I’d been a bit out of touch with what was going on in our world, and thought it might be a good idea to play catch up.

The kids were talking about bacon and trying to out-sing eachother in nursery rhymes; and a story came on about babies and young children dying in Yemen from starvation. Dave and I watched these small, skeletal babies in hospital, unable to keep any food down, and their mothers, their hearts breaking, desperate to prevent their children from slowly starving to death. No food, no milk, no jobs, and no money.

During the piece, Judah stropped singing, and watched intently; there was a moment where I almost got up and turned it off, but I didn’t. And when it finished, his questions began.

Why are those babies so sick?

Why can’t his mummy give him food so that he can be strong?

Does his daddy have a job?

Why doesn’t his Grannie give him food?

Is the doctor fixing him?

Why are the people fighting where he is?

Dave and I very slowly and carefully answered his queries, and explained the best way that we could - which is a tricky thing when your listener is only nearly four years old. I didn’t want him to be frightened, or to be overwhelmed – and I would have gladly held off on such a discussion for another three years until his understanding of the world and his place in it grew.

But, there we were, sitting at the table and talking to our boy about big things.

And while my heart was saddened for the loss of the beautiful way that he viewed the world, Judah’s compassionate heart sought to find a way to help:

Can I take the little baby my dinner so he can grow big and strong?

No sweetheart, that babe lives a very long way away. He’s in the hospital, and the doctors are helping him the best way that they can, I said.

Then I will get on three planes and walk to where he is and find all the food and give it to him so that he can be strong, he said with determination.

I was so proud of him.

Since then, we’ve had a (Judah initiated and very gently explained) daily conversation about that little baby and children in need; and while he is broadening in his understanding, he’s also interested in finding solutions and ways in which we can help. So this morning, I suggested that we take an empty jar from the cupboard, and start saving some of our pocket money to send to babies and kids that need help.

That is a very good idea Mum, he said. You can take all the money from my piggy bank and send it to the kids, so that they can be big and strong.

So very proud.

As I write this post, I’m smiling at the generosity that children have when given the opportunity to help others in need; and while it’s a discussion that I thought we’d be having in a few years, it really has reinforced for me the idea that you’re never to young to give, or to be giving. And who knows where this spark of generosity may lead? If it enables Judah to be a more compassionate child, or to grow into a man who feels the plight of others and seeks to make a difference, then embracing it now may just be the best thing we’ve ever done.

Nat

Image from joojoo on Etsy.



Find me...

And just like that, we’ve moved seamlessly from the world of pirates and the high seas, to detectives, mysteries, magnifying glasses and solving crimes.

I’m actually not quite sure what the trigger was; perhaps there was none. All I know is that my almost-four-year-old is now very slowly investigating his world, magnifying glass in hand, looking for clues that monsters have been visiting, and following (real and imagined) footprints on the floor.

My conversations with Judah nowadays tend to follow this tract:

Me: Judah, what do you want for lunch?

J: I need you to come with me and look for the foofprimts I saw outside with my magmify glass.

Me: Peanut butter or honey on your sandwich?

J: Mummy, when did you see the monster yesterday?

Me: Only when he was dancing in the front garden. Now, what do you want for lunch?

J: Um, I want some money to catch the plane to the detective shop in Adelaide.

Whenever it isn’t mealtime or naptime or you-need-to-do-this-now time, we all join in the detective work. This morning, I explained to him that good detectives ask a lot of questions, and write the answers down in a notebook that they keep in their pockets. Said notebook was found, and a pencil given, and the questions began; random things like, what did you have for breakfast? Or, why do you like yellow?

I guess you never know what questions will solve the mystery, right?

What games are your little ones playing at the moment? Or, do you remember playing detective games when you were a kid?

Nat