Life Musings

Back to reality . . .

Sarah James-Wallace

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I love summer and the long school holidays – beachy days, balmy nights, trips away, time with family and friends, no school lunch boxes to pack and school socks to find, no homework and no after school activities with their relentless schedules.

It’s lovely to be able to take a step back from all the familiar routines and to lose yourself in fun activities you had always planned to do with the kids and never had the time (like crafts, or origami or 100 piece jigsaw puzzles). It’s also wonderful to be able to indulge yourself by sleeping in, having dinner a little later and by finishing that interesting novel you began during the year, but never had enough time to sink your teeth into. You can let your mind wander free, untethered to its usual paths, like a puppy let off a lead in a green wide open space.

So, when all of this unscheduled time (if you too had the luxury of it), comes to an end and you are faced with back to school lists and too many pencils to label you can start to feel a bit wobbly (or at least I do).

I don’t like the beginning or ending of things. Just like eating a sandwich, I much prefer the filling to the bread enclosing it on either side. I guess some of my discomfort comes from a fear of the unknown and wanting the old familiarity of that which has worked well or the things and routines to which I have become accustomed.

If you feel like that, I would like to share with you a Facebook post by David Tensen from LeaderHeart.  A friend shared this with me and it has been very comforting as we cross over from the old into the new. It was written as a blessing for the New Year, but it is just as applicable as we transition into the new school year for 2018.

Christmas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year . . .

Sarah James-Wallace

951FFE54-D77E-42BD-B2AB-E35EBCC97501It really is my favourite time of the year and not least because of that little baby born so long ago who brought good news that brings great joy for all of us.

I am one of those people who LOVE Christmas and really enjoy all of it’s preparations. The photo above comes from a recent Christmas dinner I hosted for my bookclub. I wanted to incorporate the book theme and made some little houses for each place setting by folding old book pages and then gluing some feathers or a paper flag on top. The link for the tutorial I used and adapted is here.

I used some eucalyptus branches as a table runner. I had to embark on a nature hunt to find these (complete with eye rolling from children), as this particular variety of eucalypt with soft grey green leaves and white branches is not common in Geraldton. On top of the eucalypt I added some pink and metallic baubles as well as some silver tea light holders.  Inspiration for the large candle holders came from here, although I did need to shave my copper candles quite a lot to fit inside the bottles, which necessitated gluing on some moss around the top.

The napkins are vintage and were sourced at a recent antique fair in Geraldton. The tablecloth was purchased online from Hale Mercantile Co.

Our bookclub Christmas dinner always involves a hilarious, present stealing game of kris kringle. To carry the book theme through to my gift, I created a cacti book planter using this tutorial as inspiration.

 

I would like to keep sharing details of other Christmas parties and festivities, but I will need to save that for another time, as I must away to attend to my packing for the trip south to spend time with family.  A very Merry Christmas to all and I look forward to sharing more posts with you in February 2018.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. Isaiah 9:2

Travel

Camping

Sarah James-Wallace

725F8B3E-8845-4BBB-B23C-356593E44158It’s the summer holidays and many of us will be hitting the road and heading away for a well earned break. When I was growing up we spent most of our holidays camping.  This was a great way to get away without breaking the budget, although Dad always said that he couldn’t see why he should spend his holidays as well as his working life in the heat, dust and flies! As a child I also craved life on the other side of the fence – a week or two in a swanky hotel would have done quite nicely. I was, however aware that there were two sides to the divide – some friends escaped their parents hotel to spend some nights camping with us. To them it was an exciting adventure and an experience they had never had the chance to enjoy before.

Fast forward many years (after having had my fill of hotel stays), I have once again returned to camping and have been appreciating all it has to offer. Earlier this year we set off on an adventure to the Kimberley region of Western Australia, a region both beautiful and ruggedly isolated. Camping has much to teach me and my children.

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When your everyday is reduced to attempts at survival (food and water needing to be found from sometimes unreliable sources), erecting your own shelter and pitting yourself against the environment (and sometimes it is the environment that wins), other less pressing demands fade into insignificance. Your mind and body by necessity must focus on survival, thus pushing aside other worries that take up so much thought space in your other life. Very cathartic! You gain perspective as you realise that many of the things you focus on and worry about in your everyday world are not the main theme to your life.

You must also push perfectionism aside, and learn to embrace the environment of dirt, dust and insects. It is not worth fighting a battle you will surely lose! You also learn to make do with what you have, as supplies and luxuries (even sometimes neccessities) are not easy to source out here. Put in this environment people become much friendlier – you are united in a common theme of attempted triumph over the elements. Camping is the great social leveller. You also gain a small understanding of the primary producers’ battle against the environment.

Just as adults have much to learn, so too do kids. Some important lessons come from the value of team work to set up and dismantle a camp and the need to conserve resources so readily available at home, but not on tap out here in the wilderness. Adults and kids alike gain appreciation of the vastness of this great country of ours and the magnificence of the Creator.

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Kid’s Parties

Down the rabbit hole . . .

Sarah James-Wallace

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Well, this is my first blog post and I literally feel like I have fallen down a rabbit hole, with all the foreignness of the technical requirements to create my own blog. It’s been a journey, but I’ve finally arrived!

The first event I’d like to share with you is a birthday party I held for my daughter, Portia on her eleventh birthday. She has always been captivated by Disney’s 1951 Alice in Wonderland movie, especially the scene from the woods with the mad hatter’s tea party. This was at night in the movie (Portia loves the mystery of it), so the party had to be in the evening.

Invitations were sent out inside little boxes from the two dollar shop. I like to put some effort into the invitations, as they set the scene for the party and create joyous anticipation! Link for printable on the front of the box here.

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I love to create a party around a theme and take time before the event to do some research for inspiration. Research for this party involved buying a copy of Alice in Wonderland and reading it from cover to cover. I discovered some misconceptions I had held all my life as I read. I always thought Alice’s crazy world had been created by a gentleman experimenting with an early form of LSD, but how wrong I was! Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first published in 1865 by an English mathematician, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, writing under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll. It is one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.  Reading the book definitely did mess with my head (my mind felt like it was warping) – not an entirely pleasant sensation for one who likes to feel in control! Nevertheless, it was entertaining and I discovered the source of some sayings that have passed into common usage.

Eight girls were invited to the party, and I’ve got to say this is a particularly giggly age group. Excitement was riding high!

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I hung some vintage teacups from the branches of an eucalyptus tree in our backyard and set a table underneath. Some paper lanterns were hung over the table to set the scene. I raided my cupboards for items which would help me achieve the sophisticated high tea party meet crazy, whimsical world feel. It was a lot of fun! A separate table was created on the lawn from a packing crate covered with an old quilt and a strip of artificial turf. Cushions were placed around the low table for the girls to play cards during the party (very in keeping with the theme).

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Food included playing card biscuits (store bought biscuits with royal icing cutouts), a fruit platter (made on a slice of whole watermelon cut out with heart cutters to hold berries), mini rainbow sandwiches with brightly coloured fillings (beetroot, sweet potato and carrot and green pea and avocado – all cooked and puréed with cream cheese), princess teacups (link here), cake pops, jam heart biscuits and strawberry jelly set in vintage teacups with strawberries. Op shops are always fun places to search for vintage items for parties. I also made clock face macaroons by sticking a free printable (link here ) to each side of a macaron with some icing. In keeping with the madcap theme, the cake was a confetti layer cake with pouring sprinkles illusion. Drinks were strawberry milk and iced tea poured from teapots.

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I used this tutorial to dye some doilies to add some girly prettiness to the table. The other printables I used for place cards, food labels and the party bags came from here, here, here and here. I also used mini bottles at each place setting from the two dollar shop with a “drink me” printable glued on (printable here).

38119DD2-CBB8-4E58-B037-A101E7ABEE00F1C1B804-67D6-437E-88B2-4AB3B2E4740FAs well as party bags, the girls took home edible terrariums, which I created based on this tutorial.

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All in all, the party was a huge success and much fun was had by all. In the words of Lewis Carroll, published in a letter to every child who loves Alice:

“ but it is good, even now, to think sometimes of that great morning when the “Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings”. Surely your gladness need not be the less for the thought that you will one day see a brighter dawn than this”