remembering

There was a brief moment of holiday bliss in our 'anything-but-ordinary' holiday. I find myself remembering those peaceful and uncomplicated moments with sand between my toes or listening to my children splash contentedly while my hands are busy making...even one horizontal moment with the afternoon sun and a book. Ahh holidays...come back again soon!

a few things: nature in London

Ahh the seasons! I could live here again if these stunning parks were our playground...

Terrific Totes!

The sun was shining, the air conditioning cool and we were joined by a beautiful bunch of children for our first Spring Holiday art+craft class!
For all the effort, making the bags by hand and cutting, cutting cutting insect silhouettes and 'flower' circles - it was worth it to see the outcomes!
The children's work was wonderful! Their patience, perfect!
They mastered the fine motor skill of stitching with ease and confidence!
Such a delightful workshop to teach - and, it seems to observe - the crowds gathering around our creating space with interested and approving eyes!

I particularly loved this last tote for its origionality!...she chose the christmas beatle silhouette and then very appropriately and thoughtfully placed it in 'the dirt' and considered balance and unity with the neutral + repeated detail on the top of the bag! I love how she created something very unique with confidence and thoughtfulness!
I will add more completed works here soon - I asked a few children to take a pic for me of them using their wonderful nature totes these holidays!!

discovery

'The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.'
Marcel Proust

creativity in the garden

Now this sudden burst of creativity I cannot take any credit for! My husband ultimately got sick of staring at a barren vege patch and planted up a storm and it is to his credit that we are reaping a bumper winter harvest!
Creativity in the garden is a wonderful outlet for children, particularly in our mild Brisbane winter! There are some exceptional books available to get you inspired, I will gather some we love and post here soon!
These burgening gardens are a wonderful place to gather natural treasures for making - seeds, grasses, etc...you might even like to hide your handmade 'fungi forest' among the leaves...just in case fairy's come to visit, you know!

the in between

It has been a frantically busy week around here with the wrapping up of the stampmaking series and preparation for the holiday workshops - 50 children over 4 days - oh my!
We have also had sweet 2yr old birthday's, friends to welcome home to stay with us, a wedding to attend and a short country stop over! Sickness has seeped into the household and put a dampner on things, but generally speaking it is joyful energy that fills and fuels us in these days!
The creativity that has inspired our current classes has spilled over into our everyday as we return from nature walks with hands overflowing with materials - moss, pinecones, leaves...

[photos: Caroline; venue: our friend's amazing farm; pinecone art 8yr old friend!]

Our in between days have been spent, gathering, preparing, dreaming. We took a trip to GOMA today for the girls to experience a little 'surrealism' - there was some wonderful making! We always finish our visit with a quick hello to 'Roy and Matilda' the Art Gallery's resident mice (there is a great story book behind these sweet charicters, produced by the gallery) and some sketching of our current favourite paintings...

Now our WEAVE+WONDER workshops are in full flight, I can't wait to show you some of the magnificent work the children are producing, here in the coming days! Check back soon....

booked out!

Oh! There is excitement mounting around here for the upcoming school holiday art workshops! With a week to go, we are FULLY BOOKED! Materials are being sourced, inspiration carefully selected, tracking down 'just the right story book'....the details are coming together. It is so important to us that the materials and resources we use are of the highest quality and nature-inspired. At WEAVE+WONDER we believe in creativity inspired out of the environment we live in...the seasonal treasures we can find on a family walk or on holiday! Our project ideas are grounded in this foundation and as much as possible, our materials and colour palette reflect this. I can't wait to see the creativity blossom in each of our 40 (oh my!) children over the coming weeks!

weekend wandering: lemons!

A friend of mine posted an old saying this week in discovering a lemon tree on her new farm - 'when life gives you lemons......make lemonade!' And she sure did make some yummy things....

We visited my sister on her new 'farm' yesterday and with this quote in mind, we plucked her tree free of sunshiney goodness! And similarly tackled the mandarin tree with lots of little helpers!...
There is rewarding work in planting + harvesting your own produce and great wonder and enjoyment to be had by all the family...sticks gathered became firewood or sculpture, rocks for fairy houses, paperbark to draw on, hard unripe fruit became balls tossed around, fruit peel can be boiled for experiments in natural dying...and the list of creativity goes on and on, most of these discussed or undertaken in our wanderings yesterday!
WE were most excited about all the lemony, yummy goodness we could make from the harvest and after peeling what seemed like a truck-load of lemons...we made our first BIG mistake...instead of manually, and painstakingly juicing the lemons like most people, we decided there would be more goodness in whizzing the whole peeled lemons in the vitamix!
Three jugloads of pulpy goodness later and after adding sugar to our first batch of lemonade, we taste-tested to a sad end - the plith just under the friut's skin had given the mixture an unbearable bitter aftertaste!! We had reduced the tree's whole harvest to this pulpy disaster!!
When we recovered from the sadness of this reality, we were left with a small tin pail of lemons which we humbly juiced in the traditional manner!
Wearily, we began the much-anticipated lemon cake. Our lemon-disaster went from bad to worse when my sister savaged her hand in the mixmaster! The ambulance was called and damage patched up in hospital - a dramatic way of getting out of dealing with the lemon-affair!!
I even more humbly and wearily, but determined not to let the day's events have a 'bitter' end, made a syrupy lemon cake and stored the lemon-pulp-concoction to be used in 'organic cleaning products.'
So when 'life gives you lemons' on my sister's farm...you end up in hospital!!...but on her celebrated return, a yummy lemon cake saves the day!!