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.

Spring Equinox preparations

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...

Art

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.