Today was especially beautiful as the weather is becoming cooler and the air is crisp~ It is especially heart-warming to see my 4 year old & 9 year old holding hands as we all took a walk in the woods.
So grateful for their close relationship and all that our life has to offer our family.
Take a look at my cute little autumn peeps~
Taking out old favorites and adding new handmade and found treasures to our nature table. This is truly my favorite season:-) Here's my autumn nature table from Los angeles, 8 years ago (whaaaat?!). You can see that iPhones pictures have come a long way! LOL
If you're wanting to needle felt some pumpkins yourself, here's a link to my popular video of the pumpkin tutorial.
I've been busy making new pumpkins as you can see!
Oh, what do we have here? Mother earth is getting ready to put little root children to sleep very very soon~ Stay tuned! :-)
I wanted to create a magical handmade party for my little one's fourth birthday. I knew that I wanted to incorporate storytelling and infuse wonder and magic to the party. One criteria was to find a way to give out handmade goodies to the children. So I came up with a fairy treasure hunt where the children received clues and messages from fairy friends, told by me.
We walked around my little backyard and "found" small but special handmade treasures along the way. Each child knew that they were receiving something very special and embraced the whole magical experience.
The Fairy Treasure Hunt began with needle felted wool bags under the "natural umbrellas". Each child was given a bag (My video tutorial for a similar bag is found here) to then continue collecting the treasures...
"...There was rain in the fairyland, but when it stopped and the sun shone its warmth, beautiful rainbow appreared~ Our fairy friends captured the rainbow in these jewels for you to keep!"
Then it was time to finally meet our fairy friends dancing in the trees~ They were dancing and waiting in rainbow of colors!
"Please take me with you so that we may play in your home, said the fairies..."
My little helper (9 year old Mason) passing out the fairies and also giving out "fairy invitations" from the fairy mailbox as the last stop to the treasure hunt. The "invitation" is for a birthday storytelling inside by the rainbow circle... (You can see a different bag design, which is a heart needle felted bag for the little sibling;-)
Here's a picture of all the "treasures" that the children found...
~ needle felted wool bag with twizzle. (My video tutorial for a similar bag is found here)
~ stamped "bug" wooden coin
~ rainbow jewel
~ silk fairy friend
~ fairy letter and envelope (bought these handmade at the local Waldorf school fair)
~ silk parachute (it's used in this picture as a background;-)
Ryker LOVED his fourth birthday party... this mama is tired but oh so grateful and content;-)
Hope this gives you an idea and inspiration to create a natural and magical birthday party for your little one~
xoxo,
Melody
If you've ever felt lost, if you've sought for answers regarding your life, if you've been wanting a spiritual guru to just tell you what to do, this post may have answers for you. You see, you no longer have to look outside of you, because you actually have all the answers within you already!
I used to think that in order to be spiritual, I had to become one of those spiritual gurus out there. Maybe I had to have a beard and wear a robe...
Ok, wrong image. LOL
Well, as a woman, perhaps I had to become a yogi and not wear any makeup. You know, be all natur-al. I've also wondered at times if I needed more crystals and learn to meditate better...
It's not that any of these were inherently bad or unhelpful. They've all helped me at one time or another in my journey. I was just always searching for answers out there and wanted desperately to try to see if my problems would finally disappear.
In my own journey, I even went through a time where I was very anti-corporation. I was very militant about eating ONLY organic and shielded my kids from the destructive propaganda of the media by not having a tv in the house.
You see, I didn't do those things in order to BE more spiritual. I think I realized after a while that just by not participating in the mass brainwashing wouldn't solve everything. In fact, it didn't miraculously make me happy. It was like waking up in the movie, Matrix, with all the goo and bald. Slight exaggeration, but I felt like I was hit with a ton of bricks because I had been believing a lie my entire life!
I was becoming aware that my life was a programming. A programming which made me believe that I had to study hard in school, then graduate and get into a good university. Graduate uni and get a good job, get married, have kids, buy a house, and retire. Sound familiar? Does this ring a bell for you?
Because I began to see that those things did not guarantee happiness, and in fact, I was miserable. I began to realize that I could choose to do life differently. It took me a while to own my power to have a different life because I encountered violent oppositions from those who said they loved and cared for me. It's interesting how people project and take things so personally when it's not even their life you're living, eh?
Anyway, when I finally got enough courage to look within, when I stopped making excuses by not having enough time or money or help, when I stopped blaming others for why things weren't working out, that is when I began to see real changes in my life and miracles happening. And for the first time in my life, I experienced true happiness.
You see, I realized that I was a divine being. We are all spiritual beings! We were never anything different. We just forgot for a while, or decades in my case.
So remember that you're an infinite being with all the answers within you already. All you have to do is look in the mirror. There is your perfect guru! :)
Parenting & learning joyfully & respectfully... Celebrating beauty in everyday life.
