The Beauty of Simplicity

My oldest daughter has lately been very focused of decorating and straightening up. She loves to do crafts and is impatient, when things are not really going her way.
The starting of the Christmas season this year was accompanied with a lot of questions like: "When are we going to cut and set up the tree?.... And when are we decorating it?" "When are we lightening the first candle on the Advent-Wreath?" And when she was in bed and half asleep the questions went on and the chores for me too..... Last week she was quite certain she needed to have antlers and a red nose! "Mama, you need to prepare tonight and get the things together, so that we can do it tomorrow morning! You only need paper, glue, a lamp and a batterie - that is all!"
So, here are our little, shy, and fast reindeer, that happily ran through the kitchen singing to the "Rudolph"-song until they settled down to eat reindeer-food.

I love the beauty of simplicity and imagination!

This moment

I love SouleMama's friday ritual and would like to take it as an inspiration.  In her words:

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{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.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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Illusions

Do we believe of the existence of something what we hope for?

Is it the way we tell ourselves that all is good?

How do we know and how can we tell the difference from reality and imagination?

Everybody lives their reality, sees life through their glasses, which is tinted by the experience that life has given them. We expect an outcome of any given circumstance based on those experiences and categorize our  world by them.

But then there are those moments that do not fit into the neatly categorized world; those small moments where you go "huh?!". 

If we are lucky and able to see and reflect those moments, we might be able to recognize the illusion that we lived by. There will be disappointment and we will be hurt. The pain can be seen as an ending and beginning. A beginning of making changes; an effort to see things differently and letting go of old illusions.

And all that craft....

In the last two weeks I have have been busy making and crafting for my Girls. I started Christmas planning and and gift-making and am happy to have started already. In order for gifts to arrive in Germany in time I need to send the packages soon. In the years prior they often (or better to say most of the time) have arrived too late. It would be nice to break the habit!

counting toadstools

the tutorial of drawstring bag is from the Purl bee and can be found here

 the making of Montessori sandpaper-numbers

 working with numbers

 homemade play-dough (recipe found here at The Artful Parent)

So, when the kids are asleep the Santa-workshop opens. But crafting alone is half the fun.... especially, if you have friends, that like to get together! Last week-end I met friends to sew together for Christmas and yesterday evening I met a different group of  friends for a "GNI" ("Girls-Night-In"). Everybody brought something to nibble and zip on and the crafts they work on at the moment. Between homemade dips, bread, chocolate-mousse, chocolate-martinis and lots of teary laughter  we scrapbooked, knitted, sewed, wound yarn around the kitchen table. We were so engaged that time slipped by unnoticed and when we said our good-byes it was in the early moning-hours! What a good time I had!

In the search of

The last weeks have been busy, but somehow unfulfilled. My Girls and the general upkeep have been demanding (or so it feels like) and those moments of quiet passed way too fast. I feel restless, have thousand things on my brain but somehow do not commit to them, when the time is there to start. So instead of using the time wisely and working on those things that are filling my lists with deadlines and occupying my mind I drift.....
I read about and see what other women are accomplishing and I ask myself where my energy and drive has went to.While writing about it,  I recognize that I am somehow frozen in a moment of stillness, observance and internal search. I see the world around me changing with me standing still in one place, somehow searching in the inside for contentment.
Maybe it is the season pulling my strings - I have to accept those phases in life, maybe as a recharging for the future to come. Accepting the moment as it is, wihout judgement, taking each step at a time while being in the search and staying positive seems to be the right thing at the moment.

Mahatma Gandhi quote: 

 "Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”

This moment

I love SouleMama's friday ritual and would like to take it as an inspiration.  In her words:

. . . . . . . . . .

{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.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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Crafting mummies for Halloween

With Halloween around the corner some creatures are waiting patiently to have fun....

My daughter wanted to make a girl-mummy... later she asked me how they use the bathroom?!

I found the idea here: http://www.classic-play.com/

This moment

I love SouleMama's friday ritual and would like to take it as an inspiration.  In her words:

. . . . . . . . . .

{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.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

. . . . . . . . . .

Being busy

Our last week has been busy. There was much to create, prepare, cook, bake and clean. And as always (I sometimes have the feeling that it only happens in our family) there was a big chaos just before "the day". We celebrate our birthdays always with friends and family. In general it is a big party with a theme that starts in the afternoon with cake, later we have an evening dinner together,  more desserts and often it goes until late at night. My birthday theme this year was "Venetian Masquerade" and we decided to have an evening celebration. My mind was busy months before putting things together, imagining, hoping and living in the 1750s somewhere in Venice. And like always I am carried away by 1001 ideas and not having enough time to put them into reality. But all in all we had a wonderful evening, with fun guests, who crated, sewed ball gowns and made masks. I feel honored by all of them, taking time to create for a one-evening event. What a delightful present!

My mask of the evening:

We also had venetian food. I used a lot of recipes out of Tessa Kiros cookbook "Venecia - food and dreams". A lovely collection of recipes with photographs and some insights to Tessa's travel through Venice out of her journal.

Play

Play is so beautiful! I love to watch and cradle it in my memories and heart. Best times are head when we loose ourselves in it!

While she naps

For her the world becomes quiet - it goes on in a far away place, muffled. The weight of the blanket is calling for sleepiness and her singing is slowing down until she is off in her own land of dreams. When she wakes up she still will have that smell of sleep, the special look that tells you the story of her rest. I love those moments - watching her coming back into my world, that buzzed on while she napped.

This moment

I love SouleMama's friday ritual and would like to take it as an inspiration.  In her words:

. . . . . . . . . .

{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.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

. . . . . . . . . .

Walk

We were enjoying our neighborhood with friends this morning. Parts of the property of the old Country Club is being converted into a park! As we got informed by one of the workers there, they just put in a worth of 70.000 $ of wild wetland-grass-seeds - a promise for the birds and other animals for the coming spring. One can tell, that fall is in full swing - the wind has picked up and left  us with chilly nose tips and cold hands.Non or less a fun time to explore nature!

Wax lumiere

I should have done other things that are one my list, but the wax called my name loudly.....Just a small little wax lantern with fall leaves. I also preserved some leaves in wax; a nice project for the Girls....maybe tomorrow?

Have a wonderful evening,

Nadine

Look up!

Stop what you do, walk outside, lay on the grass and look up! Embrace the view and the shift of importance!

Rainy day......

It's getting chilly and the wetness is creeping in, as I close my window. The grey sky is pressing down on my mood. This is the kind of time to sit with a warm coffee and cookie and play. I will lighten my mood and hope for sunny fall inspiration here:  http://pinterest.com/enifur/

Autumn, I welcome you

The first leaves are waving their good-byes as they fly through the air and land softly to the grassy green below. The summer is coming to an end with all his lovely voices at night. The ferns found already their way back into their roots and nights are filled with a crisp chill. Sad though about this summer-season ending I am welcoming the autumn with its golden, red, yellow and orange colors that are warming from inside instead. I stop and watch the squirrels how they prepare for the winter and hope for their best. I hear the wind picking up the leaves - a promise for laughing children at play. And a wish emerges in my heart of being small again, connected so much more to the changing of the seasons and the importance of stopping and listening and just being!