A Beautiful Blogger Award

Thank you my lovely friend Alecat from Serenades and Solace for awarding me as a beautiful blogger- I am honoured.

The regulations state the recipient of the beautiful blogger award must:
*Add a link and a note of thanks to the person giving the award,
*Pass the award onto the most beautiful blogs you love
*Share 7 things about yourself.


Blogging is such a peculiar pastime, I often feel like I am sitting here in my pj's and jotting down my thoughts or our days homeschool adventures and it is quite a solo experience, but when I read all of your lovely comments or am given an award or as has occasionally happened I meet a reader in real life I realise how nice that feedback is, how lovely to have others interested in what the boys and I are doing and even inspired by our activities. So thank you Alecat for your award and for sharing all you do on your lovely blog, I am often inspired by what you and Maestro and Mariposa are doing and it has been a lovely journey we have travelled together as we have developed our friendship online.

There are many beautiful Blogs that I love.
Here are 7.
Joannes beautiful photographs at Framed are a rare but special treat.

Moonbindery is a very talented and inspiring maker of hand made books.

Monika and her Bohemian Shadows is a delight, I enjoy her art, her thoughts and the inspirations she shares.

India Flint is an incredibly talented artist who does magic with natural dyes, her beautiful blog is not all those who wander are lost

I love to read what Ariad and her gorgeous kids are up to at Rainbow Love Farm

Kez's blog is another great blog I enjoy as a peek into anothers homeschool.

And the last but certainly not least beautiful blog I will share today is Barnacle Goose Paperwork's another fabulously talented artist writer and bookmaker.

And 7 things about me.

~I have just moved into a beautiful warm house with stunning river views and I am so happy about that. I have a drafting table and some shelf space permanently devoted to my art space- yay!

~After years and years without a bath tub I am having 4 or 5 long soaks in the tub each week. I take something to read and a cuppa and lie back in the warm and fragrant bubbles and R E L A X ahhh

~Some of my best friends live in my computer, I am a member of The Rockpool Homeschool forum and Milliandes art community for women and both of these online communities are wonderful safe supportive places than nourish me and many many other women. I feel blessed to have these communities in my life.

~I love to cook and to experiment with new recipes, we have been eating lots of fish from the local co op and I want to make a nice fish curry in the next few days.

~ I have a huge colony of red headed flying foxes living in some remnant rain forest near my home and I love them. I love the musky animal smell and the noises and the thousands of bats that flow through the sky just after sunset, and I love the ones that get in my garden and wake me at night, their cheerful chatter delights me, just don't tell the locals ; )

~I have pulled a muscle in my b.. last night at scouts, my gluteus maximus I think it is called and am hobbling around, but it was a great reason for a soak in the bath today. I hope it does not take too long to heal.

~I adore my kids and love our homeschooling lifestyle. I love seeing them learn, develop and grow.

~I am preparing a body of work and a portfolio to apply to a local art gallery to be an exhibiting artist in their gallery.

Honest Scrap award

Thank you, Alecat, for passing the Honest Scrap Award on to me. I would love to drop in on you one day and have that cuppa. I am very honoured you are enjoying my blog, I am enjoying writing it as well.

To keep this award, there are some rules by which I (and future recipients) must abide:
1) Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of the award.
2) Share "ten honest things" about myself.
3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
4) Tell those 7 people that they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving it.

So - 10 honest things about myself.

~ I never wanted to be a mother- ever. I grew up in an area with lots of unmarried teenage mothers and decided at a very young age that was not the life for me. I recall going home to visit my Mum at 16, I had moved to the city and started a traineeship- I bumped into a fiends sister, who asked me if I had something wrong with me as I didn't have any children!

~ Even though I had decided not to be a Mum, I also decided when I was at school, that if I ever did have kids, I would not send them to school and I would homeschool. I didn't know anyone who homeschooled then, but I felt school was not right for me or my friends and family at that time.

~ DH and I had many years together, just as a couple and I am very thankful for that time. We did a lot of travelling and working and discovering who we were. We travelled around Australia with our dog Ari, who was a doberman. We left in a combi van and bought a bus on our travels and lived on the road for a few years.

~ As I was nearing 30 my body clock kicked in and changed the way I felt about having a child- and it became very insistent!

~ The day I birthed my firstborn son was the best day of my life. I loved being pregnant, I loved the transformation from girl (yes I was still a girl at 30) to woman and mother. I loved my birth, the labour, the ups and downs, the feeling of being a chain in a long link o mothers all sitting behind me and lending me the strength, it was a beautiful team effort between me, my darling husband and our beautiful baby boy.

~ I love being a mother! I think conscious mothering is the greatest challenge of my life and the greatest honour and the greatest reward.

~ I love homeschooling and am happy to have the boys at home as long as they want to be here. I love the close relationships we all have in our family. The way the boys take control of what they are learning and are enthusiastic learners. I love the ifference between them and their school friends.

~ My husband and I have been together 21 years next month, married for 14. We were kids when we met and now our older son is starting to think of girlfriends.

~ I belong to a wonderful womens group called the Purple Tent. It is a lovely safe space for us all to be together and share deep things if we need or want to. We also have lots of fun and offer each other great support. I really must get a gathering organised soon.

~ Dh is almost finished his 4 year degree in forestry and we will most likely be moving some time soon. it is a bit scary to be leaving our community here but I am keen for a new adventure.

I would like to share this award with some of my favourite bloggers- and am looking forward to reading their replies.

Lisa at 5 Orange Potatoes

Therese at Earth and Living

The Magic Onions

The gorgeous Artemis of the Eucalypts at Slightly Unconventional Puple Pathways

Livy's lovely A Field Journal

Anne with her Loopity Lou

Sandra and Frederike! at herzenart journal

Art of the Child

I am not the only artist who lives under the fig tree.

My big boy who is almost 10 has quite a talent.

He draws in the car on the way into town, he draws whilst he is waiting for his mother to finish things. He draws in his room, at the park, down the river.He loves to draw pirate ships and knights, he draws navy and army images and parrots and trees.And he paints beautiful birds, he doe not enjoy the process of painting as much as the instant results of drawing. He is fast and likes to achieve his goal quickly and easily.

He has won quite a few awards and prizes in local art shows over the years, and I hope he keeps doing his art, I feel like it is a healthy way for us all to process what is happening in our lives, or express our feeling.

Of course our little man likes to get into the paint as well, and he is very creative with his paint work- most of it is closely examined as he rubs it into his hands or arms of tummy! But he has produced some lovely canvases as well. But his pics will need to wait for another day