My First Giveaway...........

I have been seriously contemplating this for some time and feel as we are about to move and have a fresh start our selves  that the time is right.
This will be the first in a few give aways that I have planned, so keep in touch!

As I love crafts and seasonal activities with our children  we have over the years gathered many books and ideas and I love browsing through them making plans and collecting ideas.
Sometimes I do feel the need sometime to have a more structured guide for our seasonal ideas with everything in one place.
I have over the years contemplated putting one together in my spare time, but that spare time seems to elude me :) and I feel that at the moment it will stay on the back burner. Perhaps one day in the future.

At the moment I am really looking forward to our move and the start of a new season for us.....Spring.
Would you believe that we start our first day of our new adventure on the first day of Spring.
One of the lesson plans I will be doing with our younger children especially is a topic I did with our older children for a couple of years. We had a Seasons Notebooks and we read stories, drew pictures made crafts in a very deliberate way (they still have those notebooks)

As we really enjoyed this study I am going to start this when we move and start with Spring.
I am going to use Annette's Seasons of Joy ..Spring Book as a guide.

I really really love this series from Seasons of Joy and Annette has graciously offered a complete Season set: that is the four complete seasons to a lucky winner!!

Here is a listing of titles in the Spring Issue:
Introduction
Circle Time
Fairy Tales, Stories, and Extensions
Finger Plays, Songs, and Verses
Watercolor Stories
Handwork
Modeling
Coloring
Playtime
Nature Table
Cooking and Baking
Especially for Babies
Outings
Rhythms and Routines
Resources
Photos

Honestly there are so many ideas in these and all in one place an you will not want to miss out on a chance to win this.

So what do you need to do?

First off for chance number one Become a follower of this blog  and leave a comment saying you are or if you already are just leave a comment letting me know!

Then after chance number one you can then get additional chances by..............

For a second chance why not become a follower of Annette's blog Seasons of Joy and leave a comment back here to let me know

Would you like a third chance follow my facebook page, here and come back and tell me you are a fan or already were.

And for a fourth chance at this great offer, share this giveaway on your blog, facebook or twitter. Come back and leave a comment saying you did so.

Please make sure I can reach you, either through a blogger account of leave an email address.
I will leave this giveaway open all week and draw the winner on .........Friday 7th September

As I have no idea how to do a computer generated win I will do it the old fashioned way.....drawing a name out of the hat.

Please also note that I am posting this as we leave Tasmania and will be off line for a few (depending on internet provider) days I will be taking the comments off comment moderation - until I am back on line. If when I am able to check at a stop over or something and find I am getting lots of spam I will probably put in the' fill in the word box' that we all hate to do.

Until I check in again good luck and see you in the 'new world'

Update: Entries are now closed

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Our Tasha Tudor Day 2012

Tasha Tudor day is a day I usually reflect on the beauty of a simple life and the desire I have to live a life surrounded by femininity, cooking, sewing, gardening and craft making.

For past years I have made a big effort for this celebration, even though it is actually our son's birthday.
Here are some links to our Tasha Tudor links:
Our Sparrow Post..... I am contemplating a make over for our dear post office
Our books and why I love them and Tasha's inspiration, 2009
Our plans for 2010
Our day in 2010 including making sparrow post notes, cookies and other ideas
My thoughts in 2011

As we are in the last days of our move I was planning on doing some gardening, in fact taking some cuttings to take with us to our new home. As we will be in rented accommodation until we sell our home in Tassie I am looking at doing some container gardening. Thanks for the book Kendra!!

 As I went to start doing this I found that the small hand shove I was going to use had already been packed up by the movers and as I needed to dig some earth as we had not potting mix either I resorted to use of the spoon as my main digging implement.

 Corbyn was my helper, well on and off as he got  distracted. In fact Myffwyn was keen to be my helper all week but lost interest today. I have had to dodge the rain spells and finally made it outside this afternoon for my long awaited garden time.

 While I was filling the little tubs with earth Corbyn had already started cutting what he thought we should have as a cutting.....part of their favourite wattle tree from their favourite play space. This has featured in many games and posts in the years we have lived here.

 Corbyn was the carrier of the little pots to where we were putting them to put our cuttings in

 We planned to fill all these little pots with as many cuttings as possible.

 I just love our honeysuckle and geraniums

 Now he is cutting what I want. I have transplanted this honeysuckle now four times. The first time was when Vellvin was a baby.

 Roses are a hug favourite flower of mine. I rally love the' rambley' bush kind best.

 Yes we used root powder to help our transplants successful

 Corbyn really loved helping me and especially cutting the plants

 While going past the being moved dog house Corbyn spotted a couple of snails and of course he had to investigate.........

 and pick them up to move as well.

 After about an hour we had these little pots filled  and ready for the move!!!

As I was finishing Autumn came out side and we were picking up odd things around the yard and of course she found a little spade for me to use. Pity I was already finished, but thanks sweetie.

So that was our, well really my own Tasha Tudor day for this year.
But for more inspiration Tasha Tudor style be sure to visit  both Clarice and Suzanne.

Oh and I hope to share our Doll's Fair that we have celebrated in the past, Tasha inspired of course, and have never done a post on soon.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Happy Birthday Kynan ♥

The years we have nurtured your body and soul  in our hearts are growing longer, but the years that will continue to abide  in our hearts will be forever!

How can one describe the love I have for you as a child of my heart?
Our first born child, the first to start the blessing of being a mother and father!
The first to hear the words mummy, daddy and love you from!

The first to share our faith with, our love of family, our mistakes in some things and our successes in others.

Of course you are the one whom I have taken to the hospital most too with your injuries from one accident or another.
The one whom as a mother of sons I loved learning about trucks, cars, motorbikes and all that fun guy stuff.
And I in turn hopefully taught you the delight in cherishing the women in your life.
Giving you guidance on the privileged of being a God fearing man who will stand up for what he believes in..... no matter what the obstacles.
All those late night talks we had as we prepared you to leave our home and make your way in the world, as you follow your heart and pursue the life you were created to live

Hold tight to your dreams my son, hold tight to your family (both now and future), hold tight to your beliefs and faith in God and your path will remain clear and true.

How proud we are of you and the young man you are.
We love you and miss you so much
Happy, Happy Birthday..........

All our love always
Dad, Mummy and all your younger brothers and sisters
xxxx oooo

It has begun.......

Today the 27th of August 2012, the final stage in our moving to Wagga Wagga has started.
The 'moving man' has arrived!!

He has driven up our driveway and started to load our lives into boxes and tag items

Today it was just a small truck with boxes to be taped and packing tape that was here. Only one man, but boy did he do a stella job

Our younger children were very keen helpers today. Moran, Myffwyn and Corbyn with Arwen tagging along spent the day in the company of "Dean the moving man".
Mind you he put them to work, which they thought was fantastic, they taped the boxes up for him ready to pack and ran little errands to ask me things, or put things somewhere else.

It reminded me off our older children doing the same thing when we moved to Tasmania over 9 years ago. At that time Saxon was the little guy following behind saying 'moving man??????' constantly and now it is Corbyn who is around that same age

The two rooms completed today with boxes ready to load and every item tagged were the Store room, which really was a junk room. and the garage.

See those happy faces

Great job to Dean. I am so thankful we have the movers to pack for us, otherwise I am not sure how well I would go really.

See these cute little stickers that go on everything. This was box 127 from the store room only!!!! We do have a lot of stuff in there

Boxes waiting and ready for the guys tomorrow.

All the children have had a big day after a long week last week fixing up things and organising things to and have gone to bed, which is where I am about to go too.

Movers are here again early tomorrow, so goodnight and God Bless ♥

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

New Books.....again

You can never have too many books right?

Of course right!
Well with my Amazon gift card from the older boys, yes I did use it once but actually made a mistake in processing- long story and had not actually used it.
So I bought these books with the money, and guess what I love them all!

 So here is a quick review on them so far.
Twenty Six Letters to Heaven I bought this one for Corbyn to use for his start to lessons instead of my Alphabet Path which I think might be a little too, um, girly for him.
I like the simple and yet crafty, reading structure of this programme.
A Christmas Dress for Ellen This is a most beautiful Christmas book, in fact one of my all time favourite books for telling the message behind the birth of the Christ Child.....pure unselfish love.
Penny's Christmas Jar Miracle This is a sweet story too but in my opinion the above book is a better choice if you had to choose.
Pheobe's Sweater I loved the idea of this and Pheobe's Birthday after reading about them from Nicole's blog. I really love them and two of my younger girls have asked for items from the book. So I need to start some knitting and sewing for them
Fancy Nancy: Pajama Day These four Early readers I got because both Moran and Myffwyn love Fancy Nancy. Well we all do really but I wanted to have these as an incentive for the girls to progress to more advanced books.
Fancy Nancy: The Show Must go On
Fancy Nancy: Sees Stars
Fancy NancY: At the Museum
Gyo Fujikawa's Little Library These I bought after falling in love with the illustrations. Yes I so love a great illustrated book, especially one with children in them.
These will be perfect for little Trahaearn to be read to and for him to look and hold.

So there you have it what we are snuggling up with to read with at the moment.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Four Nighties Finished.......at last!

They are done!!
The nighties that I had started way back when I started sewing these for Moran and Myffwyn.
I finished them about two weeks ago but have not had time to post them.
I also wanted to get a photo of the four girls together in them and they kept not wearing them at the same time.
So finally I remembered in the morning after they had been  sleeping in them, hence the slightly disheveled look.

Arwen's  are still a bit too long in the sleeves. I haven't mentioned here the fact that I actually put one of Arwen's arms on to Vellvin's nightie and did not know until I had completed it with a beautiful over locked edge too.
I had to undo it and do it again but by then I had already finished the other arm of Arwen's and could not adjust it, so I will be gathering the sleeve up soon. Until then she wears the sleeve rolled up and well there is growing room I guess.

Sweet gentle Vellvin loved hers and was so patient getting hers finished. It was her idea for a nightie for winter as she loves wearing them and her old one is a little small now.
She did want to have all younger girls to have them together but was content to wait for the other girls to have theirs first.

Myffwyn had hers finished quite a few weeks ago and has been wearing hers quite a lot with Moran

I just adore the red flannel look don't you?

So now our sewing project will be making some Spring and Summer clothing as we really do not have much as the weather in Tasmania does  not get that hot.
But I believer the weather in Wagga is already warming up compared to here so, yes, we will be hitting the sewing machines after we move quite quickly I think!

BTW I will be hosting  a giveaway next week as we leave Tassie so all you who love books and creativity be prepared to enter this first of a variety of giveaways I will be hosting.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Extras!

An extra soap-making workshop will be held on Friday 28th September 5 - 9 pm £50 per person - these are great fun and everyone gets a go at making four different soaps using luxurious ingredients! Olive, coconut, castor and jojoba oils are all combined with caustic soda solution and essential oils to make fantastic soaps, perfect for gift giving! These will be ready for Christmas....a kilo of assorted soaps, all ready to be cut, wrapped and gifted by you!

Another popular gift idea is container candles made in vintage teacups or glass sundae dishes! We're getting the wicks and oils out again on Friday 5th October 6 - 9 pm and Saturday 13th October 2 - 5 pm £25 per person - we usually make two container candles in this time but we're also going to make some Pine Cone Firelighters (as seen in A Green Guide to Country Crafts) in anticipation of those wintry evenings, these also make wonderful gifts, try wrapping in hessian for a rustic gift idea!

As one regular visitor to HH HQ said 'I want to come and do it all again! By the time you've bought all the ingredients you may as well come and do it here....and it's much more fun!' I can't argue with that...

Book by calling in to HH HQ or by emailing through the contact us link on www.halfpennyhome.co.uk

Thanks to Victoria at Framlingham Books for noticing that I hadn't put up the details for these....:)

Nic x

House Renovation

Today our home went on the market for sale, ready for the next chapter in our life, its hard to believe this yellow house with a green roof was only a two bedroom home on one level, we raised her to seek amazing, panoramic city views, more bedrooms and living spaces for our family. It has taken two years and most our weekends but it has been worth the hard work, now we finally can start enjoying our home for awhile anyway x

The things you never see........

It all began with the sharing of some wonderful news for our family!

Then came....
The Accusations!
The Judgments!
The Hateful and hurtful comments!
The criticism of our family, our Faith, our values and our family size!
Our supposed lack of contentedness with where we are now!
The assertions based on....well....... we can't work it out really.

Where does it come from?
Why would they act that way?

They know so little about us. They know nothing of the years we have been gone from anything resembling a close relationship that may have been a product of the past.
They know nothing of our own hardships that we have endured over the last years.
The traumas we have suffered, the financial struggles, the choices we have made when we had none to choose from, the separations and how that has affected each one of us, the heartbreak of medical problems.
They know nothing of these events. They have chosen time and again to not be part of our lives, they know not how these situations have affected us...... and yet they judge!

They judge our lives based on their own perceptions of us, based  on their own responses to how they think we should live our lives, rather than through the eyes of love, rather than through the eyes of Jesus who truly does  know our thoughts our motives and our hearts.

In fact it all brings back to mind the time we shared other good news and were summarily treated with spite, vindictiveness and malice.
Something I have a hard time understanding. The level of commitment to such negative feelings is beyond my power of comprehension.

And it leads me to wonder how I/we react when we see people with whom we know even just by sight in our own lives, let alone on a more personal or intimate relationship.
What I mean is - when I see that lady at the shop who never seems to smile, that man at church who always has a kind word or action for others.
Is what I see an indication of their lives and how good or bad it is? And does this influence how I think of them and, yes, even the way I treat them.
Do I judge based on my own assertions of what I imagine their life must be like simply from my very slight observations of them and they way they look and act?
Do I dare to presume I know their troubles or good times and then think I am justified in my treatment of them in a certain way?
Do I treat them as I would want to be treated?

Or is it that some people will always see the good in others, will always try to help, will quickly ask forgiveness for a wrong committed and look for an opportunity to 'go the extra mile' for another in need.
While others will ALWAYS see the reasons why it is unfair that someone else has that house, that opportunity, that relationship or any other thing that their own life is lacking.

Because frankly we only ever see part of the story. Even with very close friends or family they can not know all the ins and outs that go on in our lives and more importantly in our HEARTS.

You see God has a plan for each one of us and he gives us challenges that are for each one of us alone.
How dare we suggest that just because we only see the outward appearance of a seemingly content and gracious person that obviously they have not had to deal with any problems in their lives.

HOW WRONG YOU ARE!

What might be a major struggle for them may be only a slight discomfort to you!
What may be a daily battle with an 'opportunity' does not even come into your horizon!
The things we see are not everything. What we behold as we look at someone is but a section of who each person fully is and but a fraction of their complete  lives.

To judge others by what we see of their lives, and the things we THINK we see and THINK we know is entirely wrong.
You can never understand all the emotional, physical and mental stress that others have been through - unless you have been through the exact same thing with the exact same set of circumstances they have.
Even if they lay it all out on the table, visible for all to see, you can not see or feel the intensity of the internal struggles or emotions that go along with a life and a persons particular circumstances.

However, hopefully we can all relate a little to an other's plight so we can be there to support, encourage, uplift and pray with those we have been blessed to know in these circumstances.
For it is a blessing God has opened up to us, if we find ourselves in this circumstance. An opportunity to give of ourselves that will ultimately be a blessing to others BUT to us as well - But only if you grasp the opportunity to be that someone.

So next time you see someone who seems to have it all together or even someone who looks like they do need a hand, why not look at them through the eyes of Love and ask......
What would Jesus Do?

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

CRAFTERNOON WITH ANNA CORBA

So, here I am finally posting about the latest, and maybe greatest, CRAFTERNOON at my friend BECKY'S  lovely home. 

Come join the fun!

Becky's very special GUEST OF HONOR was the lovely author and artist

ANNA CORBA.

(pic courtesy of Cassandra VanCuren)

ANNA CORBA is so friendly and down to earth! 

So let's join the party shall we?

As you can see, BECKY leaves no detail undone. She is a master at hosting a party!

Each lucky attendee leaves with a special place~setting crafted by BECKY, a swag~bag of goodies unmatched on the planet and of course the craft created. BECKY also gifted all of us with this...

ANNA CORBA'S book DOODLING IN FRENCH!

Here's some serious crafting going on...

Anna, Becky and Iva.

Here's BECKY'S fab new chandelier from CURIOUS SOFA...

Love it!

Of course there's serious nosh and libation and lots of laughter!

Becky and Cassandra

Here's the whole gang!

photo courtesy of Cassandra VanCuren

Left to right starting at top

Iva from Iva's Creations, Vicki from Rusty Rooster Vintage, Becky (no blog), Me, Cassandra from Artful Adventures Photography, Jessica from Stellar Junk, Carol (no blog), and Anna from Found Cat Studios.

As always, thanks bunches and bunches for including me BECKY!

XOXOXOXOXO