Summer Solstice

Our summer solstice was nothing fancy, but still very nice. And the weather is great these days. To me, the summer solstice marks the beginning of summer. So I try my best not to pay attention to the fact that days will grow shorter and nights longer from now on.


We collected seven different kids of flowers and put them under our pillow. Seven or nine different kinds of flowers under the pillow on midsummer night is said to make you dream of your future spouse.


We did our very first attempt on making fairy houses. This one is for the forest fairies.


And this is one for the garden fairies. - Or angels as T. call them. We’ll make more of these. And T. is checking regularly for signs of anyone moving in or staying over. Maybe we’ll make a fairy bed and breakfast? I wonder what fairies like to eat… (something sweet maybe, like honey?)


And in the evening we went to a lake nearby. Not to take a bath (too cold yet – about 15 degrees celcius/60 degrees F). Too cold for me anyway…) T. was just testing the water… And (of course) she fell and got all her clothes soaking wet.


So she got her first bath of the year anyway, and was totally thrilled about it.


And baby V. was happy in the wrap with daddy.

IRL

JardarMama (beautiful blog!) had a blogpost about the good life a while back. - And about not having/taking the time to blog about it regularly. I can relate.

But here are a few things from my good life.


A new diaper soaker is in the making. This time in some crazy purple sock yarn.


More yarn goodness: Mirasol Hacho. This is serious eyecandy; hand dyed multi coloured merino (so beautiful that I considered just placing it in a bowl or something for decoration…), and so soft and luscious. By buying it you can support The Mirasol Project.

"The philosophy behind the Mirasol Project is very simple, the Mirasol Project supports local communities in Peru through the sales of the Mirasol Yarn Collection.

Peru’s heritage and culture of textile artistry is rich and ancient. The Mirasol Yarn Collection includes yarn made from the animals tended by these communities for generations in the Peruvian highlands. Without them we would not have this beautiful yarn."


Fresh flowers almost every day from my 5yo… These are one of my favourites – lily of the valley.


And some “knitting” in progress also by the 5yo… Rumour has it that this is becoming a sweater for her baby sister. I cannot wait.

Wipes

I must admit that this feels kind of strange even to me. Posting a photo of our toilet was not a thing I thought of doing. Ever. But here goes. Let me introduce you to our toilet. It’s the composting kind without water. And the cake tin holds our cloth wipes. Maybe I’ll find something else later; I’m thinking of a box hanging on the wall.


And here they are. The recycled granny curtains from Goodwill. I made them 20 x 20 cm (ca. 8 x 8 inches), but I’m thinking that I want them a little bit larger. This fabric is quite thin, so I’ll have to hunt for some flannel. We’ll use the wipes for nr. 1 only. And that will really reduce the amount of paper in the compost loo – most of what’s left down there is paper. And of course – we can buy less paper altogether.


Since I’m having a baby at any moment now, we have this wetbag ready for cloth diapers and baby wipes anyway, so this is where our “family cloths” ends up as well. Nifty.

The light outside is dull and grey – but the sun peeks out once in a while. Snow fallen off from our roof is still reaching almost up to the window. I’m dreaming of vegetable gardening; tomato plants, chives, parsley, basil, garlic… I’m dreaming of making a vegetable patch just outside my kitchen window. I think I’m done obsessing over having the perfect garden of flowers and a pretty lawn with pretty lines and perfectly weeded beds. Not that I ever wanted one. But I need spring to come now; I need the sun to melt away the snow in my garden and the ice on the road outside. I need energy. I need the sun to give me some energy – both physically and emotionally. Wake me up from winter hibernation!

Another pair of baby booties. These are 80% silk and 20% baby alpaca.

Drawing made by me - based on/looked after an illustration from the book All Year Round by Ann Druitt, Christine Fynes-Clinton and Marije Rowling.

Another drawing based on an illustration in one of our Elsa Beskow books... Don't remember which one at the moment…

Light

This is some of my spring knitting in progress. Mind you – this is just a small part of it. I can’t have just one project going; it would bore me to death and I would never finish. Not that I’m good at finishing any of it anyway – I’m the master of UFOs. But I discovered this cute baby socks/booties pattern that is really quick and understandable. After some initial confusion about how to knit a kast (I think it’s the YO – yarn over). Of course that is so simple that I could not get my head around it and just accept that it is easy…





More baby socks are on the way. I’m knitting a pair in spring green silk/baby alpaca yarn. They are so soft and fluffy – and hopefully we will find a need for them. Maybe in a month or two when I can take walks in the woods with the baby wrapped snugly in a shawl on my breast, and just breathe in the smells of life and growth.

Spring Equinox preparations

I need dishcloths

Yes, yes I do. I have a few microfiber rags that I love, but most of them look awful and are starting to fringe. And although I think microfiber is a nice principle – I still don’t think it’s that fantastic. You’re supposed to clean without soap or detergents, but I seldom or never do. I always use a little dishwashing liquid (Ecover) or some home made formula (baking soda, vinegar, or a mix). Maybe I don’t need to, but I still do. Maybe the microfiber cuts through grease and germs and everything. I still like the feel of just a little soap or something.

And – the thought of cleaning with just water is a good one – but these rags are usually made of synthetic fibres and petroleum based stuff. So they are not biodegradable either. I have one knitted dishcloth. And I actually like it. I cannot see any difference in performance between them, so I decided to knit more dishcloths instead of buying. I bought some organic cotton, so I’m ready for some dishcloth knitting. I have to admit the thought of knitting dishcloths… Well, it’s a bit lame… isn’t it? Good training though, for a novice knitter. And although cotton is not the most sustainable material – it’s organic. I’m looking for some bamboo yarn as well. Bamboo is a much better choice environmentally speaking, it’s naturally anti-bacterial and it soaks up a lot more water than cotton. Great for cloth diapers and menstrual pads as well.



And… The diaper cover. I have more stuff nearly finished, but not photographed yet. And today we painted some eggs and soaked some sprouts. The spring equinox is just around the corner :)

March

It’s March already. March is kind of the first month of spring, isn’t it? Well, it definitely doesn’t seem like it. So much snow – I’ll bet some of it will stick around till the summer solstice or something.

But I finished the diaper cover. Pictures coming soon; I’m waiting for some pinkish ribbon to arrive in my mailbox to make it a little cuter. I also ordered a bias trim “maker”. You see, I’m dreaming of getting the sewing machine out of its dusty corner, but it’s not possible to get enough room here now for more stuff. But the storage room/office in the basement is slowly getting closer to finished. Yey for that and yey for not having to live amongst cables and computers and office supplies anymore. Yey!

Three Ostheimer figurines have arrived; a mother, a father and a toddler. Now I just have to order a baby – I just can’t seem to figure out which. Do I order the baby in the crib? (Is it removable for play?) Or do I order an older sister figurine? You see – the problem with the latter is that this figurine has a green dress. Green. And T. will most likely be really upset if “she” had a green dress and her baby sister had a pink one. Major crisis alert.
But I got to order it soon, wrap it up nicely, make a card, and maybe something else to celebrate her transition into siblinghood.

I took another photo of her rainbow playsilk – thinking of writing more about toys. And I will – just not right now. But the playsilks are her favourite toys of all times. She uses them for everything and they are always involved in her play in one way or another (together with all kinds of ropes and string).



Right now I’m going to make a humongous amount of fruit salad with some walnuts and raisins. Yey for that too.

Speaking of food; who said vegan meant boring and difficult? Check out this food blog and be inspired.

Ravelry

Join and get addicted :) http://www.ravelry.com

Drying oranges

So we've dried some orange slices. And they turned out ok, so we will be doing more of it closer to Christmas. I haven't really found out what to do with them yet, although I initially wanted to use them as ornaments on our Christmas tree. But the colour orange and Christmas is a bit hard to get used to... I love the connection to the sun though - a perfect solstice ornament.


The slices ready for the oven. I had a small opening on the oven door to let the steam out (or else the slices will burn easily, and get cooked – not dried) and turned it up to around 80-100 degrees Celsius. You could probably let them dry overnight, depending on how thick the slices are. The final result so far is this very simple mobile hanging above our wood burning stove.


Of course you can make more elaborate crafts with these – for example a wreath, garlands, use them in potpourri...

Crafting

Some very hush-hush holiday crafting going on right now. At the moment our kitchen looks like an art gallery and, well -chaos. I guess December is soon upon us. It's good. Although I'm late as always - So many ideas and plans and not so much time or energy to do it all. But there will be some homemade gifts this year. Quite a lot of edibles - it has somehow become a tradition of mine. We've made candy, walnut and apricot biscotti , heavy duty Christmas fruit cake, oranges soaked in brandy, vanilla sugar, tarragon vinegar, chili sauce, mocha liqueur, green/mint tea from the garden... And this year I'm making apple chutney for the kindergarten Christmas fair - and probably some for gifts as well.

I love the idea of edible gifts, and of course handmade gifts in general. And I'm looking forward to Christmas (or jul/yule as we say) this year. Although a part of Christmas is seasoned with stress and the immense pressure to buy more stuff, we can somewhat choose not to follow the masses, not focus on the consumption. Instead we can focus on, and rediscover, the true meaning and traditions behind this season and this holiday. It is difficult - at least for me. Not to get stressed out about gift buying, cleaning, decorating, list writing, crafting, and even more buying. But I am working on it - on slowing down, on grounding and centering and celebrating our way.

This year I'm really looking forward to the decorating and the making of decorations. I'm thinking of drying slices of oranges (haven't tried it yet) to symbolize the sun (we're pagans, and we celebrate the winter solstice - more on that later). Hanging them in windows around the house and probably decorating the tree with them as well. We're also making lots of gingerbread hearts, animals, people etc to use as decorations, making popcorn garlands etc. I'm hoping to make most of the decorations this year - and because a lot of them will be edible - the birds will have a feast sometime after new years :)

Art

In the fifties

Who wouldn't love to have a cherry red dress like this? This is from an old sewing book I've inherited from my grandmother. I don't know exactly how old it is, but I'm guessing the mid fifties. And this is from the introduction:

"As a woman, you can hardly find any better way to express your intelligence and personality..."

(Loosely translated by me.) And this one sentence kind of sums it all up. Thankfully most women have found both more and better ways to express their intelligence since then ;) Not that I don't love sewing, I do. And I love this book. Sadly the patterns are all gone, but the illustrations are wonderful. Maybe one day - when my sewing experience and knowledge has increased quite a bit - I'll try to make something inspired by these. I love dresses, but a cocktail cherry red one like the one above may be a bit bold... And when to wear it? And with the gloves and all (are these called gloves in english?). I don't have too many invitations for dinner parties and cocktail hours and proms laying around these days ;)


One of the other books I inherited was a fifties cookbook. With stains and all. So much history and memories in there. Even the smell of the book - it smells like my grandmothers house.


Lots of fifties moral, etiquette and facts in here as well. And several chapters about arranging dinner parties and what is appropriate and whats not - how to set the table, how to serve somebody - always remember to hold the coffeepot with a small napkin in your right hand... With 20 photos to illustrate the most important things to remember, how to behave and where the hostess should sit or be at all times, what to wear (a neat little black dress with a white apron for the help/waitress of course), one whole chapter about folding napkins, - and did you know that the average housewife handles about 150 items in the kitchen each day? Yeah, right! ;)


Smorgosbord for lunch... And maybe one of these cakes for dessert? (This is from yet another book - The Big Norwegian Cake Book - (yey!) it's from the eighties.

Homemade play dough

Play dough is a wonderful thing. But most of what T got for her birthday last year has already shriveled in and dried out. We had to throw most of it away. I must say I wasn't too sad - whats in that stuff anyway?

So we made our own. We found different recipes in books and on the internet, an landed on one based on baking soda and corn starch. We've made different kinds of dough before, mostly salt dough (or trolldeig as it is called in Norwegian. Troll = troll, deig = dough). This one felt much more like "real" play dough than the salt dough does. But baking soda is hard (if not impossible) to find in big quantities here - so we just had enough to make a little batch. And we didn't add food coloring since we wanted to paint and decorate it.

I think it is great for smaller children, as it is very soft and pliable and easy to work with.


I don't know how long it keeps in the fridge, but if you put it in an airtight container/bag, I guess it will last for at least a few days. It got a little dry but we just added water (we used ours within a couple of days). The creations were left to dry on a plate for two days and then painted. The final product:


Beads! Pretty pretty. Just got to love them.

If you wonder about the recipe; 1 part baking soda, 1 part corn starch, 1 part water (and food coloring if you like). Mix in a saucepan on low heat - stir constantly - until it gets lumpy and looks like mashed potatoes. Take it off the heat and pour out on the table/sheet/board and wait until it cools. Knead until it looks like play dough.