Needle Felt Picture of Mother & Child

In Steiner classrooms and playgroups, I have seen pictures of the Mother & Child - is it the Madonna and child, or is it a picture of maternal love and nuturing, or both?

I find myself gazing up at the picture when I'm at play group - I can't stop looking at it. I find it a peaceful picture to look at so I did this picture for Katie's classroom. This is the first needle felted picture I have attempted. I just jumped in and did it and popped it in a wooden frame.

While I was at Katie's school for a story telling workshop today, I put it on the wall as surprise for her teacher.

Class 1 - 2 Rainbow Cloth Drop

Finally finished and hung up in Katie's classroom is the Rainbow Cloth Drop. The other drop was old and needed fixing up. Well..... replacing.

Mum came over with her sewing machine and after a few hours it was all sewed up and ready to hang (thanks Mum!).

I put a crystal hanging down in the middle of it to reflect the rainbow colours of the cloth.

You should have seen the the little faces light up when the they saw the new Rainbow Drop hanging in the classroom.

It's amazing how colour can affect us.........

The Autumn Maiden

The Autumn Maiden arrived yesterday all the way from America - a few days after my birthday. Thank you Cadi, she is beautiful. You have put so much work into making her. It is so generous of you to give her away. She will be treasured for years down here. I also love the fact that she is wearing all my favourite colours.

I keep looking at her in amazement. I have only just started needle felting myself and have wanted to make a needle felted doll to put on a nature table.

This is the second item that I have won on blog give aways - at least I actually received this prize. I am still waiting on another prize that I was supposed to have won months ago. Maybe my "style" just ain't "foxy" enough considering it is only 40km up the road and hasn't been lost in the post! But I will say no more.....

Maybe it's not blogging etiquette to have a dig but being Australian, I can't help myself. Why have a give away if there is no intention of giving the prize way? I'm a bit disappointed. I'll put it down to it being not meant to be, and let it go.

Anyway, I have a beautiful Autumn Maiden now, so it all balances out.

Once again, thank you, Cadi. http://cadilily.blogspot.com/

Alphabet Soup

Wow! 2 weeks flew by since I last posted.

Little Loopity Lou was sick with croup. After an overnight stay in hospital, we were sent home. Luckly, he only had a mild dose. I think the breast milk helped protect him. The cheeky little thing was up partying/playing in the kid's play area at the emergency section of the hospital at 2am in the morning. We where given a bed, not a cot. How I was meant to keep him confined to a bed when he didn't want to sleep..... so we hung out in the little play area. The nurses and doctor were lovely and they kept an eye on him until he was well enough to go home.

At the moment, I've been busy making a felt alphabet to hang in Katie's class room. I got the idea from a flickr photo from a Steiner School class room. I'm not sure how to do the link but I think it was a school in Suffolk? Instead of having then individually hung up, I was going to do a chain and stitch them on to it. It's 16 letters down and 10 to go - I'm improving on my blanket stitch! My 4 year old son has been quite excited about this project. With each letter I finish, he lines the letters up on the piano and sings the Alphabet song. He has been playing with the shape and the texture of the letters. I've also been dying muslin in rainbow colours. I'm waiting for my Mum to get back from the South Coast so she can come over with the sewing machine and sew the rainbow together - that's for another post.

My rechargeable batteries for the camera have had it, so the mobile phone photo has to do for now :)

Winter Market

Today we took a car trip down to Glenhaven for Lorien Novalis Steiner School Winter Market. I bought a ceramic water filter for $5. I think it too good to be true - there has to be something wrong with it. The lady I bought it from said that there is nothing wrong with it. Where she lives now, the water is fine and didn't need a water filter. Hopefully, it's fine and I got a bargin.

I also got an Electric Oil Vaporizer for $2 and a big stainless steal pot I can use for dying wool for $2. I also got some play cloths (red, purple, yellow and orange) and a little baby doll in a sleeping bag for little Loopity Lou. Katie got a pair of magnetic haematite crystals. I bought my older son a little boy doll that looked like him - he wasn't that impressed. I bought a silk sari scarf for $10. I also bought a blue, purple and light blue tied dyed cotton velvet skirt, a crystal, 12 lyra chalks and a ball of wool.

The kindy room was open - it is such a beautiful, magical place. There was so much creativity and inspiration. The kids spent a while playing in the kindy area while I soaked up the atmosphere. The light was amazing - I couldn't stop taking photos.

Photo Mosaic

I found this over at Irie's Blog - I thought I'd give it a go! http://iriewoman.blogsppot.com

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name? Anne
2. What is your favourite food? Indian Curries
3. What high school did you go to? East Hills Girls High School
4. What is your favourite colour? Colours of the Rainbow
5. Who is your celebrity crush? The Doctor!
6. Favourite drink? Chai Latte
7. Dream vacation? Hawaii (Childhood dream to go there)
8. Favourite dessert? Tiramasu
9. What you wanted to be when you grow up? Fibre Artist
10. What do you love most in life? My Children
11. One Word to describe you? Serendipity
12. Your flickr name? Loopity Lou

50 cent Cowl

Look at what I found in the opp shop - it was in a bag of mixed wool. The lady at the opp shop let me buy just the one ball. I was going to buy the whole bag (I think it was $2) but the rest of the wool was nothing I would of used. I would have donated it back so she sold me the ball of Anny Blatt fine kid for 50 cents. I love this colour and it's soooo soft. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with one ball - a cowl maybe?

In my oil burner, I've been burning Cypress and Eucalyptus Radiata. We have had colds here and I usually burn this blend when the kids have colds to cleanse the air.