A little glimpse into creative family life

I filmed this yesterday afternoon because it felt like a bit of milestone. In steaming hot weather, with a pedestal fan blowing on us, my 9 year old, set up and weaving mostly independently on the rigid heddle loom while I was weaving at the floor loom. It's funny how things can happen so naturally and then you suddenly realise you're living a dream moment. I posted it on Youtube, thinking it would probably be largely overlooked as viewers seem to prefer my instructional videos to anything else.

But what a response! Quite a few commented that the video had brought tears to their eyes, for different reasons. For one subscriber, it was that her parents had never invested the time in her that she craved. For another, the video brought back wonderful memories of her own creative homeschooled upbringing. Many commented on the simple beauty of the video. 

Wow, was I surprised. And so pleased. It reminds me that I am so blessed to be able to share with others in this way. It encourages me that, even if I feel like I don't do a good enough job as a parent, others think I do. And it gives me joy, that God has much work for us to do, if only we will co-operate, love and trust.

I hope you are all having a most blessed week, until next time :)

Interview with Platypus Yarns

I'm very excited to have been interviewed by Platypus Yarns! Please hop on over to read the full interview where I talk weaving and fibre related stuff as well as give a few tips for beginners.

And here is a sneak peek for you of what I'm currently working on, I'm going for big texture!

Always making

It's true, I'm always making something and more often than not I'm making many things! Here are a few of my recent and current projects:

I'm quite in love with this Primrose already, lots of knitting to go but I'm enjoying every stitch. I dyed the yarn especially for this dress and it looks better than I envisioned. It's going to be for my littlest woolly lover, she is a most grateful recipient of anything knitted.

Always dyeing yarn....sales have dropped off a little but it's only natural considering it's Summer here. Anyway, my Etsy shop is stocked with plenty of yarn at the moment.

I have tea towels on the loom and things are going pretty slowly. I'm hemstitching them on the loom which always adds a bit of time and I'm also using 4ply cotton, so the weaving is not quick. These are my first tea towels so I hope they are a success after this time investment!

I dyed and made a top for me - it didn't suit me at all so I cut the main part down to make a top for my eldest girl along with some Euro fabrics from my stash and one of my favourite top patterns for my girls - CZM Mareen. This girl just won't stop growing!

As usual I have about 1000 ideas for things I "must do" but don't have the time or money for, but they keep me ticking and I'm grateful to the time that I currently have to be creative. I have a couple of exciting happenings cooking up in my mind for this month, so stay tuned for those!

God bless you all :)

Shaving cream marbling on paper

This has to be one of the easiest (and messiest!) ways for children to produce a unique art piece.

All you need is paper (160gsm is good), poster paints and shaving cream (the cheapest brand works fine).

Make a layer of shaving cream on a tray. Make dots or lines of paint. Swirl with a chopstick or similar. The more you swirl, the more intricate patterns you will get, however if you overdo it you might muddy your colours.

When you have a pattern you like, carefully place your paper on top and lightly press all over (lightly!) Peel the paper off and use a paint scraper of similar to scrape the excess shaving cream and paint off to re-use. Put you paper somewhere to dry.

Keep re-using the shaving cream, reapplying the paint if desired, until it's too coloured to use. Then have some messy fun with the leftovers! (Good for making hand or foot prints on paper too).

This is messy. The easiest wash up for hands is to stick them in a bucket of water outside (the hands, not the children). The trays and tools wash up in warm water.

Here are some of our masterpieces.

They can be framed and hung.

Or used as wrapping paper or even for the basis of another project (collage, background for a picture etc).

Random creativity

I thought I'd share with you a few of the things that have kept me creatively busy this week (and no, obviously blogging has not been one of them!)

A little weaving cotton.

A little dyeing cotton.

A little watercolour painting.

A little cloth dyeing.

And a little photography.

Not bad for one week hey? I squeezed a fair bit of sewing in too, but that is unfinished.

How about you? Did you get any time to be creative this week? What did you do?