{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Inspired by soulemama

 

 

I am enough

After being sick for the last two days with who knows what, last night I reached a sort of epiphany.

I posted and subsequently removed a post this week about joining the “6 items or less” challenge. I was quite excited about the challenge but in retrospect I can see now I was also conflicted and reserved. After all, I already have a tiny wardrobe now after having to throw everything out from the mold, and I lived with 2 items or less in the early days. Then over the next few days, I read a post here by Julie and then here by Dixibelle, and on top of that have been feeling very tired, flat & extremely unwell.

Little B & I went to a kids crafty session at the library yesterday which I normally love (the library lady is seriously brilliant). I just couldn’t feel the love or enjoyment. In fact, my fragile ego was further sunk by some fellow mummies who implied that I wasn’t doing enough for Little B because we didn’t do the same fantastically outrageous and expensive things they’d done for their kidlets over the school holidays thus far.

So last night I re-checked out a blog by Tracey Clark and her “I am enough” self-kindness collaborative. And that’s when it hit me “I am enough”. This collaborative blog spoke to me at some deep fundamental level - I need to stop guilting myself about my life and my choices, to stop comparing my journey to that of others, to be free to enjoy my life.

I don’t need to drive myself into the doldrums striving to be the ultimate “winner” of some purity eco lifestyle brigade / challenge / competition. I just want to be me and my life to be a great representation of me - the real me. I want my lifestyle choices to be made from passion and interest. To bring me peace and in some sense happiness, not made from constant feelings of not being good or worthy enough.

I’m a good mama, wife, friend…we choose to live the way we do because we love it…because we want to make a difference to our lives, our child, your lives and the planet. As one lady said "live a life your proud of" - and that's what yesterday gave me. The discovery and the spark to move back towards authenticity - the authentic me.

I am enough! *hugs to me*

Lots of Little Projects

 I finished my first "proper" sewing project just before Christmas. This is the skirt I made during my dressmaking lessons. My teacher was fantastic and at the end of the term I felt I'd learned a lot :-)

Since then I've made a Waldorf birthday crown for Little B, lots of Christmas present bags and lots of storage bags for toys.

But now I'm itching to sew more clothes and one of my Christmas presents were some vouchers for fabric. So I've been working on this shirred top / dress. I'm just getting the shaping right for the bottom section before I decide whether it will be a short dress or top. Or I may even keep it as a dress for a while, the make it into a top. This is sewing at it's easiest as I bought the cotton already shirred :-)

I have a new kindy backpack to make for Little B.

I fell in love with this fabric but they only had 1.5 metres left (which of course I bought LOL). Originally I was inspired to make a dress from Peppermint Magazine. I've cut out the free pattern but I think somehow it's wrong (the pattern not my cut out). Or at least the way they want you to cut the fabric is wrong - you cut the back and half the front out along the selvedge and the remaining front half across the grain?? Hmmm something not quite right there.

So now I'm on the search for another dress or skirt pattern....

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Inspired by soulemama

 

 

Garden Update

I wish I'd made our garden bigger :-) This is our most successful harvest in the last 3 years (probably because I'm learning more every day, and also every time we plant).

I'm currently harvesting 250g of green beans a day. What we dont use daily, I blanche and freeze. We've eaten all of our lettuces and spinach and just planted some more lettuces.

I lost one of my roma plants to early blight, but after ruthlessly pruning the others they are doing really well. My mistake was not re-staking the plants before we went to Adelaide, so they drooped onto the soil. But they are all fruiting like crazy now.

My zucchinis, pumpkins and cucumbers are still slow. But I have 3 baby cucumbers growing and 2 zucchinis *happy dance* This is the first time in 3 years that my zucchini plants have fruited. No luck the first year (but that was inexperience) and last year every seedling was eaten by snails / slugs (I gave up at the 12th seedling). Fingers crossed my pumpkin plants start producing too!!

Edited to add: While watering this morning, I noticed that we now have two eggplants growing as well. Up until now I'd been too scared to touch the old blossoms in case they dropped off :-)

Summer Reading

"Honour, duty and a properly brewed cup of tea ... get ready for the Major to steal your heart in the sweet, moving and uplifting story of a highly unlikely relationship between a very proper English gentleman and a widowed Pakistani shopkeeper".

If you would like a great book to read over summer, I can highly recommend "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand". It's a first novel for Helen Simonsen and is a lovely relaxing read. The story evolves quietly but completely sucked me in. I would even re-read it again at some point in the future which is a big endorsement for me :-)

New Years Goals

It's that time of year again ;-) On New Years day I sat down to reflect over the last year and contemplate last year's goals. I'm happy to say that we managed to do most of them except plumbing our toilet and washing machine into water tanks, and getting new fruit trees.

I love how far I've come with my knitting and I loved our first "real" holiday with Little B in South Australia.

So here is my list for 2011:

* increase the number of our veggie beds again (we'd like to have 8)

* since I didnt get any new fruit trees last year, I'd like to add an apricot and plum tree this year

* to expand on and improve my sewing skills

* make more of my own and Little B's clothes

* preserve more food (home grown and store bought)

* to keep improving my health

My word for this year is "Enjoy"...

* I'm going to enjoy my last year as a stay at home mum
* I'm going to enjoy my sewing and knitting
* I'm going to enjoy spending more time in the garden
* I'm going to enjoy more time with Mr B (thanks to his new part time job)

I've decided that this year I am going to enjoy more simple pleasures, more colour, and investigate my arty side.

2010 was not the best year for us, so we are looking forward to the changes and adventures that 2011 will bring :-)