Play and a bit of Interiors

Some images from a weekend of freedom for my youngins. A rare weekend where the freedom to play endlessly all day, and to carry on into the next availed itself. The tea party for many many toys, the many beds made for tired toys. And even a sewing project started AND finished with chicken of 9yrs, who used her mini sewing machine for the first time since Christmas day, producing a most delightful dress for Caroline the handmade doll.


And a corner of my house, the new blue lounge room with warming soft interiors, has been a delight this summer.

The Tree

Today we painted a tree. I have mine and two of my fellow student's trees. All are beautiful, I think. The technique is wet on wet watercolour painting, which is such a soul activity and the children at Steiner schools do a lot of these!


Studying to be a Steiner teacher is like studying how to be a human being- I mean, really, when did going to school ever make me feel like I was learning how to live, how to feel, how to truly think, how to manifest with my whole being.
I must share the verse we all recite each morning together. It is so inspiring, so rousing, so solemn, so bold:

"We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what comes towards us, out of the future. We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations about the future. We must look forward with absolute equanimity to everything that may come. And we must think only that whatever comes is given to us by a world-directive full of wisdom. It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely, to live out of pure trust, without any security in existence - trust in the ever-present help of the spiritual world. Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us. And let us seek the awakening from within ourselves, every morning and every evening."
--RUDOLF STEINER

Anna had a stall at Ceres to sell her divine dolls and other preceious crafty peices, all proceeds going to the bushfire relief. It was such a divine day. The chickens and I went along, and we loved sitting behind the stall felting little treasures to sell. I did more robins and Chicken one accomplished four flower fairies- SOLD OUT.

like losing baby teeth

It seems the process of letting go is something one must wait for. I have felt a shift in myself which happened spontaneously while hiding from the scorching sun on the beach, under a beach dome tent (something I swore never to own due to the eyesore factor, but which proved an utter godsend on a day we killed time on the beach at 40 degrees from 11am till 6pm!!). I read Ken Carey's The Return of the Bird Tribes, in between cooling dips into blue green heaven and chasing my two pale chickens with their hats. After this day, I noticed I felt...easier, my bowel movements became regular and freeing, I finally began to clean my TERRIBLE DESK , my husband noticed something had dropped away.
Letting go of ...something....like losing baby teeth...it happens when it happens.
So, the terrible desk is still imperfect but getting there.

I saw a rose the other night

*I saw a rose the other night. I was with my dear long lost friend kerri, down from Mullimbimby, and we went for a stroll around the Northcote streets, and the sun was setting, and the twilight magic light set in. A rose was singing with sublime colour.

*I was at Camberwell market early on Sunday morning, and snapped a box of toys unlikely to be sold that day. Perhaps the seller would soon start gifting them to unsuspecting children, who's parents wished more than anything else for no more soft toys in their house.


*I finished my painting course, a week of floating in colour consciousness, the light and darkness and their dance in the forming of yellow green and violet.



*I have the most wonderous photo of my youngins', as my camera is on the blink and from now on everything will be green with candy stripes!

Painting Air

I am back in the the realm of dancing light, drawing colours in charcoal, feeling the see of cosmic consciousness on the tips of my charcoal laden fingers. Again, I am studying the veil painting technique taught by Liane Collot d'Herbois.

We are working with this verse as a contemplation for the week.


The stars spake once to Man.
It is World-destiny
That they are silent now.
To be aware of the silence
Can become pain for earthly Man.

But in the deepening silence
There grows and ripens
What man speaks to the Stars.
To be aware of the speaking
Can become strength for Spirit-Man.
—Rudolf Steiner

Tis' the Season to be Felting

After a long break from blogging, wherein I became qualified to teach primary school children...yes, I can now stand proudly in the ranks with such luminaries as Miss Beadle from Little House on the Prairie and Mr Kotter...
I return to the subject of felting, and Christmas, and how in love I am with photos of Robins hopping around in the snow in the northern hemisphere. I was moved to felt a robin of my own, to give to a dear friend, funnily enough named Robyn, who helped me through the year of madness and unprecendented child juggling.
Our Christmas Tree is adorned with many little handmade angels the girls were given by friends at school, and Chicken No.1's amazing needle felted Father Christmas'.
We have also been visited by four furry friends...new guinea pis, who we of course promptly subjected to the indignity of being in a studio Christmas Photo Shoot on their second day of life!
Am trying to read Atonement, which I am loving, yet finding hard to stay awake to get through...and listening to Loreena McKennitt's Christmas album, which is strangly alluring...

6 Things I Liked Today, actually Yesterday and the Other Day..

Tagged by lovely Kirti

1.The Magnolia trees starting to bud their mid-winter beauty...



2. Reading Morality for Beautiful Girls, by Alexander McCall Smith, the third charming book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

3.Riding to school with the chickens



4.Shopping at Ceres Organic Market while the chickens "pat" chickens...




5.Visiting The Steiner Store to buy pencils...the chickens are ploughing through the sketch books and working down the pencils in the most admirable way! This oasis of calm and gorgsous books and toys is very hard to leave...


6. Discovering an amazing paper cut artist

Who wants to play??? Anna???