Montessori-ish playroom- part 4

Whoops, I thought I was done but I forgot about the nature table. Which is more of a Steiner concept than a Montessori one, but oh well, I'm just borrowing different bits of a few philosophies and forming my own :) I can do that right? In the pic it's still set up with summer finds, we're slowly slowly changing it to a more autumny collection.

Garage sale finds

I don't get to go to garage sales for pretty much the same reason as op shops - there's never any around here. Since we've been living here (31/2 years) I've gone to 2 garage sales! When we lived in Melbourne I'd go to garage sales nearly every weekend and I really miss them! But yesterday we were going into town and I spotted one - there was a manequin wearing a fruit platter head dress by the letter box which to me signaled that there was a lot of potential at this one! And I was right, if I had a trailer and lots of cash I would have gone nuts. But I stayed calm, got a few things I really liked and only walked out $16 poorer. In this first pic is a little bird in a cage, the lady gave that to me for nothing - it really helps having a cute little fairy Rainbow going up to her saying "Ascuse me, how much money is it?" in a sweet 2 year old voice. The lady said it was broken but Indigo had a fiddle and now when you wind it up the bird swings back and forth to a music box tune.

We also got a new umbrella for the dress up box, 3 wooden containers with butterflies painted on, a laquered black and red oriental container with a handle and lid, and excitingly, a new salt lamp. I love my salt lamp that's in my lounge and I've always intended on getting one for the bedroom too.
And Indigo got this dome with a butterfly and dried flowers in it, which led to a discussion of how some people kill and preserve butterflies and insects. Indigo and Crystal agreed that they thought it was terrible to take the butterfly's life, but they still wanted to buy it!

Everybody cheer! It's holidays!

I love love love school holidays! Why must they only go for 2 weeks? Today is the first day of the holidays, so my head is swimming with all of the plans for good times. Tomorrow is dance class all morning, then I'm thinking we'll go for a drive to town, I have to do a few boring things but we'll mix it up with a trip to the beach or the Botanical Gardens. I've got a few easy crafty ideas - we need some placemats so we might make some together, maybe drawing or sewing or glueing some things together then laminating them, who knows, we'll see where our creating takes us! Plus a few other craft projects, we'll do a couple of trips to Melbourne, I'm fairly desperate to hit Ikea, Indigo wants to go to the museum, Crystal wants to go to the Aquarium. I want to eat at my favourite vegetarian restaurant. Or maybe go to Collingwood Children's Farm followed by lunch at Lentil as Anything. I don't know, I just know it has to involve yum vegetarian food! Indigo already has a couple of sleepovers booked, and we scored some free movie tickets so I'll have to see what's playing (and appropriate!) I'm hoping to catch up with friends, and do as much of this as I can:

Indigo made her own face masks and treated us all. I think the main ingredients were sorbelene, essential oil, crushed lavender and the ash from some nag champa. It actually was great and felt awesome! I didn't have the heart to tell her that traditionally you have slices of cucumber on your eyes not zucchini... but the zucchini was still refreshing and cool! Maybe she's on to something!

The Montessori-ish playroom Part 3

The final part of the playroom tour! We got this bookshelf for Indigo for her first birthday, it's handled being moved around to 9 different houses in the last 8 1/2 years! It's actually a Blue's Clues house on the other side. We have a few toys on here at a time, the rest are stored in a cupboard and rotated when I think they need to be. Makes tidying up way easier when you only have a few choices at a time!

More artwork, the reading chair and the flag that we got on Australia day.
As with the toys, we only have a few books out at a time and rotate when we've read them to death. The suitcase there is stuffed full of books, I have a bit of an (op shop) book fetish, for myself as well as the girls. The 70's sleeping bag that I got at the op shop in my recent post is now folded on the suitcase so it's a nice sunny spot to lounge and read. And yes, the books are always displayed like that, even if I have to rearrange them 20 times a day! I can be totally anal when I want to be, it's very very rare, but when I am I'm diligent!

My baby sleeps in a cage

Well, not quite a baby, it's Crystal who is 6 1/2 who tonight just could not would not go to sleep. Finally in exasperation I told her I didn't mind where she slept, just as long as she slept. So logically she decided that the rabbit pen was way more comfy than my bed, her bed or her sister's bed. Oh well, Poppy was hopping around the house anyway and when you think about it it's pretty much the same as a cot! She never slept in a cot, maybe she's making up for lost time...

Op shop goodness

Oh how I love a good op shop! I hardly ever get the chance, the one op shop that's in my region is in the next town, about 10 minutes drive, and it's a really great one but it's open 1 (yes 1!) day a week from 9 - 12. And I have Bible studies at 10, so I hardly ever get to go. The bigger regional town near us is 1/2 hour away, but I try to avoid going to town where ever possible. There's just not enough days in the week and I'm fairly obsessed with my down time with Rainbow at the moment. But YAY! for us, not so yay for Crystal, she had another dentist visit this week, to make a mold of her mouth, so we had to go to town. I visited 3 op shops and got some good retail therapy in.

At op shop number one I got a collection of little dolls in different cultural dresses. I normally turn my nose up at little plastic dolls, but they're really cute! And as I type I can here them being played with by 3 happy little chicks. I also got a brand new pair of jeans for me, they're awesome and have the price tag on still $90. Also got 5 pairs of kids socks (they ALWAYS need new socks, we must have 100 pairs but where are they?? I have no idea!) and two queen sized sheet sets, much much needed! So how much did I pay for all this goodness? $7! Yep, $7! I am one happy camper!
Op shop number 2! Got a great vintage quilt, at the moment it's on Crystal and Rainbow's bed, I plan for it to go in the reading corner of the playroom, but they've claimed it for now. It's one of those heavy ones that you pick up and you know it's going to keep you warm. Also a pink woolen blanket, great because it's starting to get cold here! The green is 4 placemats, I got them because I wanted to stitch some pvc onto one so it's waterproof and put the cat's bowl on it to catch messes, but they're really great and I don't know if I want to mess with them now! Might re-think. And the cowgirl boots for Indigo, also brand new, no price tag but still stuffed with paper and not a spot of wear on them. She was very very excited, she's wanted a pair for a while but I couldn't justify spending a lot on them. So how much for this lot? $20! Another shop I walked out of grinning!
And the final op shop, one that's normally pretty useless but it's across the road from the top op shop, so I thought I'd stick my head in. Got a surprise, I found a few great things! The enamel cooking dish, I can't wait to use! I got it for camping but I might have to give it a test drive first. The table cloth I've been looking for a waterproof table cloth to stitch into a big pillow for the day bed on the veranda, this one's nice and sunny with the big red and yellow flowers. The sheets are lovely soft cotton, I have a thing for stripy sheets! And the calico on top is a cute skirt, Rainbow wore it today and it's so sweet. It will look good as a petticoat under skirts in winter, she has a petticoat dress that she loves. And this lot? $10. Meh, not a huge bargain but I really didn't want to walk out with out that cooking dish!

All in all a good day's hunting I think!

The montessori-ish playroom part 2

The blue table always has some art or craft supplies laid out, even if it's just pencils, paper, scissors and glue like you see here. That way they can just get to it with out needing me to get things out and set it up for them.
They're a crafty bunch, those kids of mine, this is our ever changing display of artwork.
And the other side of the peg and wool display. You can also see how much use the blackboard gets! Indigo's written 'I love you' at the top, Crystal's been writing 'cat' over and over and lots of swirls (of course!) from Rainbow
Some of the paintings on canvas. The top blobby one Rainbow did on her 1st Birthday, she tells me is a horse.

The montessori-ish playroom part 1

I'm really interested in Montessori learning in general, I wish there was a school near here! It's come from me going to Montessori playgroup and kindergarten as a child, it's really stuck with me and I remember lots of it still, although I was only 2/3/4 years old at the time. So I'm trying to re-jig the playroom to be more Montessori style. Part of me is wondering whether I should paint all the furniture white or something, I'd prefer it all to be natural wood but I've kind of got to work with what I've got, a lot of which is hand-me-down or freecycle stuff. I love love love colour but there's way too much red in this room at the moment!

This is looking one way into the room. At the moment they have a cafe set up, they play with this lots. I'm wondering if I should have a home corner in here too or just set up a more specific home corner in Crystal and Rainbow's room, that's where the doll's beds and things are now. We'll see.
The cafe and blackboard. Rainbow's really into drawing swirly circles at the moment, Crystal likes to wash the blackboard. Indigo usually puts a little poem or riddle up there.
Looking the other way into the playroom. It has a great amount of natural light but it's quite small and hard to lay out the furniture, with having 3 entry points.

Rained out

Aaaagh! Freaking weather again! Does this mean God is against Treehugging Tots? Does he not want little children everywhere caught up in a magical world of capes and crowns, flitting around in one of a kind dresses? Is He more a disposable nappy kind of guy who doesn't want my lovely mcn's to sell? Why God why??? Oh well. Market was cancelled. Rain has been pouring down since yesterday afternoon, and I knew this morning it just wasn't going to happen. But, disappointed as I am I'll be ok, the Easter market is not too far off and I want to get more online things happening. I just really wanted to watch kids come into our little stall and go "WOW!" with their big eyes, it's the best feeling! Plus we had little tables to set up with playdough and crayon cakes and I just had these visions of little kids playing furiously with our stuff. Sigh.

The cuteness of Rainbow

My sweet little pickle. She stumbled out of her bedroom half asleep and crawled on my lap where I was watching tv. Then she looked at the tv and said "I don't like this show Mama, it's got no rainbows in it" and fell back to sleep. Awwww.

Lagooning

There was a slight break in the rain today! Wohoo! So Indigo, Crystal, Rainbow and Indigo's friend and I took a bushwalk, I forgot to take photos but it was lovely and wet and shiny and there were kangaroos in every direction. Then we stopped and had a play at the lagoon. Crystal thinks it's hilarious to throw rocks in the water and Indigo and friend just ran laps to avoid any little hangers-on wanting to play with them. I love weekends! Now everyone pray for lovely rain free weather tomorrow between 8am and 2pm. So far every market has either been rained out or blistering hot! There's got to be a happy middle!

More sew sew

Still sewing up a storm for the market. The closer it gets the more scared I am that I won't sell anything. It's supposed to be 21 degrees with showers, what if no one comes? I just hope I sell SOMETHING! Although as a back up all the clothes I've sewn fit one or another of the girls, so it won't be a total waste! But I hope I sell stuff! Really don't want to fail!

Bushwalk and weird boob

Rainbow and I had a nice bushwalk this morning after we dropped the big girls off at school. Not sure what's going on with my boob in the feeding pic, I swear it's not actually grey and blobby! Have I mentioned today how over using a cr@p phone camera I am?

Knit knit, sew sew

Been busily crafting away of late, I've picked up the knitting needles after years of not knitting anything, originally I was going to make Rainbow some pants but I think it's going to be too big so I might re-work it into a skirt or dress. Hopefully. The more likely option is that I'll run out of steam and it will sit in my work basket looking pretty.

I've also been sewing a bit for the market this Sunday, skirts and dresses this time out of really cute old sheets. Times like this make me really wish I had a camera again, the 1.3 mp phone camera just doesn't do them justice! In about a week I'm starting the search for a new camera, I'm thinking a good second hand digital SLR.

Another sneak peak and blingy baby

Did some more creating for the market this weekend - crayon cakes! I haven't made them before but they were easy although peeling 600 crayons got a liiittle bit tedious after a while! Also made some washing liquid to decant into 2 litre bottles and sell, I made about 10 litres but I might make another batch before the market. I love the way my house smells after I've cooked it up! All lavender and soapy!

Also had a hang out day with my sister in law, Rainbow had lots of fun, the toys at Aunty's house are way more fun than home toys! She loved carrying around a little bag of jewelry and blinging herself up!