The Power of 'No' Words

"(The) speech before words is the vernacular of all beings. It is the original mother tongue, the language of paradise ... that few adults care to re-enter," says Horst Kornberger in The Power of Stories: Nurturing Childrens Imagination and Consciousness Shaun Tan's The Arrival- without words - is a captivating picture book about an immigrant who leaves his old familiar home and goes to a new land across the sea where everything's strange, from the food, the language, the writing script, the symbols, the customs ... even the plants and animals are like nothing he's ever seen before. Trains are floating ships and taxis are hot-air balloons. He has to navigate this strange land, and the story is told through the man's facial expressions and body language. The Arrival is a perfect metaphor for Autism. The social world of the autistic is just like a stranger in a new land where he can't understand what's going on. We've been going through the book page by page each night. As there are no words, only pictures, they highlight the emotions and body language of the man as he tries to make sense of his world. We love this book its expressive pictures.

Baby Turtle

We found this baby turtle on the footpath and my son begged me to bring him home just for a couple of days. It's a Snake-necked turtle.Isn't he cute?!
We made a habitat for him and researched what they eat, which is apparently anything from insects to plants. My son named him Inka.

Bread - The Easy Way

I've been making bread for over 20 years and I've found many shortcuts along the way! First the recipe: 8 1/2 cups of flour (I use half wm and half white), 2T of sugar, 1t salt, about 4T dry yeast, and 800mls of warm water. You don't have to mix the yeast and water separately: that's a myth. Mix all the dry ingredients together: Make a well in the centre and pour in the water and stir until thick, then mix with your hand until you have a ball of dough to play with:
Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough spings back quickly when you pinch it:
Have your child knead a small piece of dough and create a shape (my son made a snake):
push the dough into 2 or 3 containers like this, and cover with a warm wet teatowel:Leave for at least an hour, even 2 hours in cold weather. You do NOT need to punch it down half way through the rising: that's another big myth! The proof is in the pudding, and here my loaf has more than doubled in 1 hour 15 mins without re-kneading:
You will have already set your oven to 220C, so bake in the middle of the oven for 5 mins on 220C, then reduce the heat to 190C. Bake for 25-30 mins and "voila!"Your child will love home made bread they made themselves:

A Hobbit Cape

This Hobbit Cape is made from a medium-weight grey cotton jersey fabric I found in Spotlight. It hangs really well. This pic is a bit blurry, but my son got a lot of compliments when he wore it to the school performance:

And here's the doll's version:

The cape
You will need some string, some chalk and your fabric opened out on the floor. Take the string and tie a knot in one end (we'll call this the neck knot). Hold the neck knot at the back of your child's or doll's neck and then measure down to see how long you want the cape to be. Tie another knot in the string at this point (we'll call this the heel knot). Fold the fabric once width wise. Take your string and place the neck knot a the corner of the folded side. With your other hand hold the heel knot and a piece of chalk along the fold of the fabric. Keeping the string taught, chalk a quarter circle onto the fabric. To make the neckline, measure about 2.5 inches from the neck knot and make another knot. Holding the neck knot at the folded corner and the chalk in your other hand with the new neckline knot, chalk a quarter circle neck line. Cut along these two lines and you will have your cape shape.

The Hood
For the hood, I cut out 2 diamond shapes, with one side of the diamond half the size of the opening I want for the head. I machined 2 sides together, opened it out and layed it along the neckline and machined along there.

The Leaf fastener
I sewed a hook and eye at the neck. Since I couldn't find anything like a large leaf button in Spotlight, I cut some doll angel wings in half and attached it to the neck fastener.

The Spring Fair!

The wildflowers are just starting to bloom and today was the Waldorf Spring Fair. Between now and Christmas is the best time of the year in Perth, Australia.

Here is my doll stall: under the gum trees and out in the open sunshine:
Here is yours truly with the dolls awaiting adoption:

This is Fran Rosenthall: the Waldorf Kindy teacher who originally taught me how to make waldorf dolls. Here she is inspecting my latest batch:

That baby looks like me! I just love the looks on the kiddies' faces;

A spring flower children dance:

Someone was selling these wooden swords and sheilds and they were a hit! Here is a young page practising dragon slayingTwo more pages and some young damsels:

A happy customer:

Barbies "Don't Take the Oath"

I'm reading a chapter each night of this book to my son, and we both love it:
It's called The Doll People and it's about a family of dolls that have taken the oath in the doll factory to keep the secret from all humans, and they are granted life. If they are seen alive by a human, they risk "Permanent Doll State". I had to laugh at this ..... Annabelle Doll points to a Barbie Doll and asks; "Permanent Doll State"? Uncle Doll replies: "No. Didn't take the oath. Barbies never do." My son couldn't work out why I found that so funny.

Some dolls really do seem alive. Look at this pic a customer sent me of one of my dolls 'reading a book' with a child.

Baby Fight

This was sent to me by a customer who bought a DreamTime Baby doll. Here her daughter has just opened the present for her first birthday. Note the look on the baby's face on the left hand side.

He scooted over as fast as he could and decided to claim the doll for himself. Here they are locking horns:

A Walk Around Our Lake in Early Spring

We live a stone's throw from a beautiful lake where cockatoos of every colour can be seen, water birds, like black swans, egrets, coots and the occasional white ibis. There are also bandicoots, lizards and goannas. I won't mention snakes ....

The Best Fair In Town

Only 4 days to go to the Perth Waldorf School Spring Fair where I've been selling my dolls for the past 5 years. So I've been sewing hard these past few months to keep up with the demand and to stock my stall.

It's a social event as well, as I get to catch up with friends I haven't seen since last Spring Fair!My son really enjoys it too.
Here are some of the dollies I have up for adoption this saturday:

I love watching the children's reactions to the dolls. Their eyes light up and their mouths drop open. Last year a toddler grabbed a baby doll from the table and wouldn't give it back. The mother had to prise it away from her as she screamed.

My favorite stall of all is the cakes! So much variety: each cake lovingly made by a waldorf mamma. Imagine a setting of shady gum-nut trees, new wildflowers, children dressed in nice pastels and primary colors, the smell of baking bread from the kindy and the sound of wandering musicians.

This photo was taken a few years ago, and I had sold almost all of my dolls at that point;

The weather so far, though, looks a bit iffy:

Saturday Shower or two clearing. Min 6 Max 18

If you're in Perth, it's on this saturday at 10am. Let's hope it's not going to be raining!

Lots to share, but need techie help!

Thank you so much Nikki!!!