This Week I'm Grateful For.....

:: Outdoor play, outdoor play, and outdoor play.

:: Two hours this morning all to myself!  I was able to browse the farmer's market at leisure, poke around op shops and pick out an enormous stack of magazines at the library.

:: I've just finished an order of 12 newborn kimonos for My Baby and Me -- just the heat-setting left to do.  Feeling happy with the results  I'll post a few pics of new designs before sending them off.

:: Our first ocean swim of the season.

:: And I set an all-time personal record -- all of my Christmas gifts were sent to family back home this week.  I managed to hand make nearly everything (a few items were handmade by others) which was another new record.  I felt a bit sad as I sent them through the window at the post office; I'll certainly miss being with my family this year.  Time now to think about how we'll celebrate in our own way and begin to create a few new traditions (camping, perhaps?)

Hope you've had a good week with many things to be grateful for as well...... xx

ps I'm happy to be playing along with the gorgeous Maxabella Loves...this week -- check out her blog for more gratitude and much lovely inspiration.

This Saturday I'm Grateful For.....

 :: Freshly baked bread and freshly cut flowers....these two simple things make me feel so nourished and happy.

:: My new camera!  Over the past few moths my trusty old Cannon slowly withered away until it really and truly completely died.  Seeing this possibility looming in the future, I've been saving up my points in a reward-card system we use and was able to order a new camera (A Fuji Finepix) at absolutely no cost.  It arrived today and it has been so much fun figuring it out.  A lot has changed in the five years since I bought my first digital camera.

:: Eating outdoors.  Pasta primavera, do your worst - - we just hose down the table (and the kids) afterward.

:: An amazing garden-boosting concoction that was recommended by our good friends in Denmark (hi Ben and Jane!)  Simply fill a bucket with grass clippings, then submerge in water.  Leave for a minimum of two weeks (N.B. Unless you want you or your loved ones smelling like the Bog of Eternal Stench, you'll definitely want to use gloves when handling this and keep away from curious pets or children.)  Remove grass clippings and pour liquid into a plastic jug (a used milk container works well.)  Dilute with water 15:1 and spray on the soil around your plants as a natural super-fertilizer.  My husband swears our vegetables grew overnight!

I'm happy to be joining in with the gorgeous Maxabella Loves....  Hope you have much to be grateful for this weekend as well.  xx

Thank Goodness It's Sunday

 This Sunday, I'm feeling grateful for:

:: The dusky light as I walked out to my studio this evening.  And the way the studio retained the day's heat so that even as it got a bit chilly outside, I was warm and snug in my little room.

:: An episode of family tickle-time this afternoon.  That sort of breathless, snorting, long laughter is such a balm....

:: The chance to go running when the clouds cleared.  If I get out even once or twice a week, I'm feeling happy.

:: Completing the tasks of organizing the junk drawer, the bathroom cabinet, and sorting the toy boxes by type.  Sisyphean?  Perhaps, but it still feels good.  And lo and behold, my 3 year old asking "What else can we organize?"  Truly.

:: The outrageous blossoming that is happening everywhere outside.  Spring, spring, spring!

Hope you have had a weekend filled with small happinesses also.

Thank Goodness It's Sunday

Sunday seems as good a day as any (perhaps even a better day than most given its slow, laid-back nature) to reflect a bit on some of the little things I'm grateful for.  Of course there are the big things (clean water to drink, my wonderfully supportive husband, a healthy family....) but the minutia of the day to day are also worth pausing over and giving thanks for.  Here are some of the small things I'm grateful for today....

:: Pancake breakfasts and the rare chance to sleep in (thank you, wonderfully supportive husband.)

:: Our first monthly menu plan and monthly grocery shop, completed.   There's something very survivalist and satisfying about attempting a monthly shop -- it feels reminiscent of time spent playing "Oregon Trail" in grade school.  Will we lose our oxen?  Get dysentery? Run out of pasta spirals?  Hard to say, but to be sure only the most resourceful and thrifty survive.

:: An afternoon spent planting and weeding.  It felt so good to get outside and put my back into some heavy work.  Thank you to Aya who slept, making the garden work possible. And thank you to Solomon, who played beside me, befriending a family of snails and making "building sites" in the dirt.  Hooray for dirt!

:: Our first bbq and evening meal outside.

 :: This great project, commencing on 10.10.10.  "One Day on Earth"  -- I'm so excited to see some of the footage.

::  You!  Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read what I write here.  I really really really appreciate you.  When I began the Seedling blog last February, it was purely as a link to my business.  But in the past months I've learned an incredible amount and I've come to really value the community that's available here.  Thank you for reading and thank you for occasionally talking back via comments -- it's wonderful to know you're here.  As a token of my appreciation, I'm planning an exciting giveaway; just waiting for the magical numbers of 100 readers on the blog and 150 likers on Facebook.  Soon!

Hope you've had a fabulous weekend with much to be grateful for as well.