Sunday, 27 February 2011

Happy Birthday!

It has been a very happy B'day! Indeed!
 The puppet making workshop was amazing!
The swimming fun and the party at home short and sweet and funny!
I'd like to share some images of the best moments!





Morgana had lovey gifts, lots handmade or creative crafty things and lots of pretty clothes including her party dress from one of our favourite shops.



Hanging her dress ready the night before and making the birthday cakes...this is pineapple-upsidedown cake the other one was a chocolate lattice tart.
Sunday, 27th February Morgana's actual birthday; thisis at Ottie and the Bea shop in Blackheath 12 children gathered for a fun puppet making workshop! Morgana is concentrating!
















Morgana and friends decorating and painting their doggie- puppets

These are some of the amazing creations!

WOOF!
























A nice Dalmatian!



Spots are fashionable!













WOOF!




Relaxing in the swimming pool, just the class 4 girls!
Party nibbles!
Giggly time!
PS: this was the eve before doing a silly dance!

Saturday, 26 February 2011

Birthday Fairies and wishing for sunshine

The Birthday Fairies are making my girl happy...her friends are having fun: you should hear the three of them upstairs squeaking!
Tomorrow it should be sunny too...what a blessing.
The class mates are going to make puppets in the morning in a workshop and then the bigger 5 girls will go swimming in the pool togehter...then all back to our house for party nibbles and games....
I like organizing parties and making a program...it is good to have a basic structure and order, the breathing in and out it's so important, our parties are always fun everybody says...ah the food...of course...well daddy made an upsidedown pineapple cake this afternoon and I made a crostata di nutella...which we are going to have at 11 am with candles and all...it is a perfect time for sugar kick as they will burn it off during swimming!

Wales

Last week we went to Wales to see Morgana's grandparents and family. She wanted to take her cello and this is her performing for us.
In Wales we always do the same things: go on the bus to Parthcawl to see the sea and have fish and chips ( well I have just chips as I am veggie!)

By the sea



She walked on the rocks towards the sea
My Morgana, the sea dweller, the sea fairy...
By the sea she is always happy...my water girl
my little fish, my mermaid!











And that makes me happy too!

Morgana's Birthday

All is ready, tidy and clean...very relaxing...music playing...Mozart piano concerto...the girl is coming back with her friends staying overnight...the famous birthday sleepover!
All is calm, all is bright...

Light a candle
see the light
How you came to birth
and my delight
Big thing to handle
See the Sun...feel the Earth
Their energies, their connection
Like my great affection

All is calm, all is bright
My angel sleep well tonight
Tonight ten years ago
You were born
How I was torn
Like now, all is a blur
Yet gone like a flash, in a mo
Now like puppy seal you shed your fur
Ready to wear your new skin
Daddy and mummy will make sure
To make it thick, for you to stay pure

Friday, 25 February 2011

Swan

This is my latest creation!
Last week in Wales I had some felt and thread and sewing needles...I made some brids...robins, doves...and this swan...yesterday I made the 'daddy swan' too! As I am going to be busy with my daughter's birthday and spring cleaning, this is probably all you are going to see for this week!

Saturday, 12 February 2011

sweet little things...

http://www.5orangepotatoes.com/blog/2011/01/29/valentine-owl-tutorial/



you need:
gold felt
black felt
2 different colors of brown felt (or contrasting colors of choice)
pink felted sweater (or color of choice)
hot pink felted sweater (or color of choice)
gold, pink, black, and brown cotton emb. floss (to match choice colors)
scissors
sewing needle
wool or polyfill stuffing (or fabric scraps, paper, tissues)
sewing machine (optional)
*To felt sweaters, use 100% wool sweaters, place in a HOT washer, add 2 tablespoons soap, and wash. Then dry in a hot dryer.
to make:
1. Cut out pieces and parts from felt and/or thrifted sweaters. I used thrifted sweaters for the light pink body, heart, and oval shaped bottom (not pictured); and felt for the eyes, wings, and beak.


2. With right side pieces of owl body facing each other, stitch around the shape of the owl with a machine or hand sew; leave the bottom open. Turn right side out.
3. Stitch the eyes to the heart face mask. For all stitching details visit this post.

4. Stitch the face mask to the body.

5. Stitch on the beak.

6. Stitch the wings together making sure to stitch all 4 (or 3).

6. Stitch both sets of wings to the owl body.

7.  Stitch optional heart onto the owl.

8. Sew bottom onto owl, leaving a space to stuff.
9. Stuff and stitch closed.

 10. Place little valentine owl in a happy place.

Happy sewing!
“That’s all,”
 Lisa

CROCUS



Out of the frozen earth below,
Out of the melting of the snow,
    No flower, but a film, I push to light;
No stem, no bud yet I have burst
The bars of winter, I am the first
    O Sun, to greet thee out of the night!
Deep in the warm sleep underground
Life is still, and the peace profound:
Yet a beam that pierced, and a thrill
    that smote
Call’d me and drew me from far away;
I rose, I came, to the open day
    I have won, unshelter’d, alone, remote.
                     –  “THE CROCUS,”
                          HARRIET E. H. KING


Go to this amazing link.I LOVE it!!!!
http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/signs-of-spring-daffodils-and-crocus/

crocus crocus open up to catch a sunbeam in your cup!


Click to see full size image of your Waldorf Doll
Click on Image For Larger View
Crocus Flower Sprite Nature Table Doll


Cloth Waldorf Dolls - Handmade Spring Fairy Doll - Waldorf Style Fantasy Dolls

Crocus flowers daring tiny warriors
Fighting their way up through
The winter ice
Crocus darling early Spring harbingers
Promising days will soon
Be turning nice

Tiny Crocus flowers grow in close groups
Strength in numbers seeking
Where winter snows still may lie
Encircled encampment of floral troupes
“We march onward to spring”
They raise this brave battle cry

Bold strength contained in Crocus so small
Should winter challenge again
They simply refuse to die
Delicate blossoms possess such wherewithal
I cannot help but wonder then
Should not likewise you and I?

By Mary Havran
Made in the Waldorf tradition with all natural fibers and lots of TLC

Crocus crocus...

by Frances E. W. Harper
 
In the everlasting arms
Mid life’s dangers and alarms
Let calm trust your spirit fill;
Know He’s God, and then be still.”

Trustingly I raised my head
Hearing what the atom said;
Knowing man is greater far
Than the brightest sun or star.

They heard the South wind sighing
A murmur of the rain;
And they knew that Earth was longing
To see them all again.

While the snow-drops still were sleeping
Beneath the silent sod;
They felt their new life pulsing
Within the dark, cold clod.

Not a daffodil nor daisy
Had dared to raise its head;
Not a fairhaired dandelion
Peeped timid from its bed;

Though a tremor of the winter
Did shivering through them run;
Yet they lifted up their foreheads
To greet the vernal sun.

And the sunbeams gave them welcome.
As did the morning air
And scattered o’er their simple robes
Rich tints of beauty rare.

Soon a host of lovely flowers
From vales and woodland burst;
But in all that fair procession
The crocuses were first.

First to weave for Earth a chaplet
To crown her dear old head;
And to beautify the pathway
Where winter still did tread.

And their loved and white haired mother
Smiled sweetly ’neath the touch,
When she knew her faithful children
Were loving her so much

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Snowdrops are shaking their little bells...


Snowdrops are shaking their little bells...

  
    Snowdrops are so pretty and I get excited at the sight of this little flower!
Crocuses are coming all out in their pretty blues and purples and yellows...and soon the daffodills will be blooming too!
Last weekend I did some early spring cleaning, and I made the rooms brighter and clutter free...well, almost...but instead of feeling relaxed I am more restless than ever...and I know now that this is when Spring really starts; it's almost inevitable, it's a buzzy feeling I get, a new energy springing up from underneath, whooshing upwards! The urge was great and I had to start throwing things, getting rid of the old to make room for the new...soon I will put my new bamboo blinds up! To finish the look I have new curtains of delicate white cotton with an embroided hem, reminding me of simple Italian curtains.
I'm singing all the time and I love to see more light coming through the window! Out there walking through the park or on the way to school with my daughter we like singing and listening to the birds singing with us. I'd like to share some stories, verses and songs with you.
My nature table now has earth colour and various shades of greens and purple and a snowdrop child...baby seeds sleeping...a plant with green shoots...   I am ready for Spring!
  
Spring Short Stories
The Snow Drop
By Hans Christian Andersen (Adapted)
The snow lay deep, for it was winter time. The winter winds blew cold, but there was one house where all was snug and warm. And in the house lay a little flower - in its bulb it lay, under the earth and the snow.
One day the rain fell and it trickled through the ice and snow down into the ground. And presently a sunbeam, pointed and slender, pierced down through the earth, and tapped on the bulb.                             "Come in," said the flower.                                                                          "I can't do that," said the sunbeam - "I'm not strong enough to lift the latch. I shall be stronger when springtime comes."                                   "When will it be spring?" asked the flower of every little sunbeam that rapped on its door. But for a long time it was winter. The ground was still covered with snow, and every night there was ice in the water. The flower grew quite tired of waiting.                                                                   "How long it is!" it said. "I feel quite cramped. I must stretch myself and rise up a little. I must lift the latch, and look out, and say 'good morning' to the spring."                                                                             So the flower pushed and pushed. The walls were softened by the rain and warmed by the little sunbeams, so the flower shot up from under the snow, with a pale green bud on its stalk and some long narrow leaves on either side. It was biting cold.                                                                "You are a little too early," said the wind and the weather - but every sunbeam sang, "Welcome," and the flower raised its head from the snow and unfolded itself - pure and white, and decked with green stripes.          It was weather to freeze it to pieces - such a delicate little flower, but it was stronger than anyone knew. It stood in its white dress in the white snow, bowing its head when the snowflakes fell, and raising it again to smile at the sunbeams, and every day it grew sweeter.                        "Oh!" shouted the children, as they ran into the garden, "see the snowdrop! There it stands so pretty, so beautiful - the first, the only one!"
 

"Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell,
       and the splendor of winter had passed out of sight,
The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger
       than dreams that fulfill us in sleep with delight;
The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops
       and branches that glittered and swayed
Such wonders and glories of blossom like snow
       or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade
That the sea was not lovelier than here was the land,
       nor the night than the day, nor the day than the night,
Nor the winter sublimer with storm than the spring:
       such mirth had the madness and might in thee made,
March, master of winds, bright minstrel and marshal of storms
        that enkindle the season they smite."
   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Through all the frozen winter
My nose has grown most lonely
For lovely, lovely, coloured smells
That come in springtime only.
The purple smell of lilacs,
The yellow smell that blows
Across the air of meadows
Where bright forsythia grows.
The tall pink smell of peach trees,
The low white smell of clover,
And everywhere the great green smell
Of grass the whole world over."


Deep in the forest, lives the spring gnome
The smallest of gnomes
In the smallest of homes.
He has slept all winter, he’s slept quite a lot
In his cozy little home,
Where the snow is not.
One day as he snores
In his dreams hears a call
Of the sweetest little spring fairy
The sweetest of them all.
She calls for him to wake  “wake up” (singing voice)
The little sleepy gnome
From his wintertime slumber
In his cozy gnomy home.
His ear perks up
His snores do stop
He opens one eye, and wakes right up!
He peeks out the doorway
And what does he see?
A tiny little tip, of a flower to be…
He steps outside
To the warm soft breeze,
And this is when, he begins to sneeze!
“Achoo, achoo, achoo, achoo, achoo!”
He sneezes five times,
And when he stops   
Five little spring fairies, are all lined up    
All ready to begin, the spring work ahead,
Of bringing the flowers and bugs out of bed.
They have been sleeping all winter long,
the way to best wake them is to sing a spring song
The song that they then – sing, sang and sung
Reminds everyone – spring truly has sprung!
They dance ‘round the forest,
All day and all night.
Now in morning sun – COLORS SO BRIGHT!!
Flowers blooming, short and tall
Bugs buzzing and flying, some big and some small
We know the song that they do sing
Let’s sing with the fairies to welcome the spring…………

A Caterpillar crawled to the top of a tree.
‘I think I’ll take a nap’, said he.
So under a leaf he began to creep
To spin his cocoon and he fell asleep.
All winter long he slept in his bed,
Till  spring came along one day and said,
‘Wake up, wake up little sleepyhead,
Wake up, it’s time to get out of bed’.
So he opened his eyes that sunshiny day.
Oh! He was a butterfly and flew away!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the heart of a seed buried deep, so deep,
A dear little plant lay fast asleep........
“Wake!” said the Sun, “and creep into light”,
“Wake!” said the voice of the Rainbow bright.
The little plant heard and arose to see
What the wonderful outside World might be. 

  Daffadowndilly
She wore her yellow sun bonnet
She wore her greenest gown,
She turned to the north wind and curtsied up and down
She turned to the south wind and shook her gentle head
Then she whispered to her neighbours
“Winter’s gone to bed!”
   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tu – wee, tu- wee,
A little bird sits in the Hawthorn Tree
I sing and sing for my bright eyed wife
Who shares my blossomy and thorny life.
We’ll build a nest with eggs in it – one, two, three.
And mother will sit and keep them warm
And I’ll go and find a big fat worm,
So happy we will be,
Tu-wee, tu-wee
A little bird sits in the Hawthorn Tree.