Cherry Blossom Picnic

This weekend saw our annual much-anticipated family celebration of spring, adopted from our soul- heartland Kyoto, Japan: o-hanami, the cherry blossom picnic. We have really made it our own at this stage - we are now on our third one.

Anniversaries

Every day at the moment seems to be a momentous anniversary.

They have been playing on my mind a lot, as this cycle of the year comes full turn once more. As the season turns, my awareness returns, of where we were at this time last year, or many years back, how far our paths have taken us, though we seem, on the outside to be just the same. How a trip round the sun can mark transformation. And yet, this being a spiral path, anniversaries bring us back, remembering who we were, what we lost, and gained, what we are grateful for and how we choose to continue on.

I don't feel like going into details. But just want to note the anniversaries here, mindfully, in love and gratitude. And then if you feel called you can click back and read the posts connected to those times, as I have over the past few days.

That was quite a rollercoaster week last year, one of the most challenging of my life. It started with our wedding anniversary, which was the only unchallenging bit.

Then hopped and skipped on through setting up for my first professional painting exhibition and all my attendant anxieties, whilst Mr DA had flu.

Followed the next morning by an emergency call from the Universe to rescue a soul sister and her children from a serious situation.

Followed by our boy's birthday party - never much good at them, we have another today - Happy Birthday Timmy!...

Which marks another anniversary - 8 years as parents! Thinking back a decade to pre-kids and marriage is mind-boggling - what a flipping decade we've had, we've ridden this wild donkey hard!

And then, two days later, the biggest anniversary, of them all. The day of almost. Yes, it is one year since Aisling's fall. A year. It is as though I can feel the tension rising, as though it were more possible to happen again, near the anniversary. Each phone call at work holds a little more menace than at other times of year. I cannot tell you how closely I hold her, or how many times the angels, on whose wings she fell, have been thanked. Never as long as she, and we live and breathe will we forget that miracle.

And then, a little anti climactically, as we can smell school around the corner, I enter my fourth year as a blogger, and, in just over three weeks ALL of our kiddies will be in school or pre school five days a week. Can you believe it?!

What anniversaries are you marking at the mo? Happy? Sad? How do you mark them?

Weaving Summer Magic

I have been weaving summer magic in myriad ways. Connecting with the season through creativity. Touching its spirit.

After a couple of weeks away. A rocky transition in to the summer holidays. And my own ups and downs, I have been feeling the need to reconnect - with myself and the season and to ground myself, my body, to their place, this time.

On Saturday  had a full day to myself, after being in sole charge of kiddies for nearly a week. I wandered through the gardens of my father's house, harvesting flowers and foliage. Then settled n the sun in front of the tea house, my soul space, sacred space, I created a mandala and then surrounded it with the wreath, seated on the damp earth in the sunshine. All my sense alive. Drawn by my intuition as I worked - laying the plants out, bending, plaiting, stripping petals from stems.... drawn by their meaning and symbolism, as well as shape and colour, aware of the emerging wholeness, balance of the finished design.

Willow sliver grey and soft as mouse's ears, plaited for flexibility, strength and framework.
Pink hydrangea for beauty and longevity.
Regal purple clematis.
Roses to release anger.
Shamrock for luck and Irishness.
Melissa for calm and to ease anxiety.
Rose bay willow herb for my childhood and wild places.
Jasmine for purity and sensuality.
A pink rosebud at the centre, for the budding feminine.

Then later that day after meditation, feasting, writing and sleep I did a zentangle which I am delighted by - again being drawn to organic shapes, the mandala (or zendala as they are known!), the idea of the wreath, of weaving the season.

I am also doing a lot of harvesting and cooking: ice creams and sorbets, jams and savory concoctions. As well as lots of herb teas, including my summer tea of lemon balm, rose geranium and rose. Cooking with myriad fresh herbs, ingesting their magical and medicinal properties into our bodies is where its at for me right now. The same with the fruits, vegetables and flowers of the season - festooning our home with garden blooms, creating mini altars wherever their beauty touches.

Homemade raspberry and rose sorbet. Here's my recipe.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

This year I'm celebrating!!! Not usually being one for birthdays - they tend to bring me out in panic attacks and turn me into a sobbing wreck - this year I've approached it a bit differently - with a month of self-nurturing, informally known as "the month of me" - I was going to blog about it here, but found I needed it to be private, to be focused on me... rather than feeling a duty to share it with everyone else.

So instead I wanted to share the love another way, as I come out the other side of the month of me... and offer you 1% off the price of my books for every year of my life...

Just how old am I? Well my body and soul feel 43, or even 53 (which would be GREAT for your discount!!), which except for the creaky knees, rapidly whiting hair and crunching pelvis, is a good thing - it's the age I always imagined I needed to be to become myself in my fullness -  which I have felt for the first time this past year. But actually my birth cert tells me that I'm turning 33. Still can't believe I'm that "young"!

So I'm offering 33% off ALL of my books: MOON TIME; MOODS OF MOTHERHOOD  and REACHING FOR THE MOON (NOT cards, moon dials or gift sets) bought from The Happy Womb. You can buy as many as you want in one order - you get 33% off EVERY copy you buy, from the moment you get this email, until 20th June 23:00 (MST) (relax European friends, it's a US time, you'll all be fast asleep - except me, cos I'll be up pre-dawn to go to a very special women's performance with my soul sister! )

Use  discount code BDAY33 when you reach the shopping cart to avail of your 33% discount.

(All books come signed with a Dreaming Aloud bookmark. Irish customers will find a partial postage refund in their package to reflect postage costs.)

The plan is, I share this discount code with you as a gift. You buy all the books from my site that you've been longing for, but lack of cash has stood in your way. I pack them up and send them out on Friday, before heading off on our family holiday for more soul- nourishment (Barcelona here we come!!!) whilst you luxuriate in my books and get some much needed women's soul-magic, which is, I promise you, contained within their pages.

So stock up on my titles you haven't yet read. Treat yourself to the paperback versions of Kindle versions you may have gotten for free. Get a gift of one for a sister, daughter, niece or friend... This is, and will be, the biggest DISCOUNT sale of my books ANY WHERE this year. So HURRY!!! and remember to use  discount code BDAY33 when you reach the shopping cart to avail of your 33% discount.

And what can you give me for my birthday? (Thank you for asking!) I'd love a review on Amazon... or Good Reads... or your blog.

Thank YOU!

Looking back… looking forward…

And so as the turn of the year approaches I look back over the year that was. In total amazement for the year that was. And give thanks.

First things first, I survived the end of the world. And if you are reading this, then you did too. Hurray for us! Mojitos all round, I say!

I nominated this my year of abundant rainbows. And it sure was. I made a sacred vow to myself out loud on this blog that this would be the year I let myself do my thing out loud - sing, dance, paint and generally be me, and mama I did. Mission accomplished!

2012 in brief...

Publishing contracts: 1

Books published: 2 

Books written: 4

Paintings done: Over 50

Journals filled: 4

Blogging courses taught: 3

Blog posts written: 173- over 4 blogs!

Most popular blog post of 2012 - Our Cupboards are Full but there's nothing to Eat - absolutely NO idea why this is so popular - it has had just shy of 3000 pageviews in 11 months!

My favourite blog post of 2012 on Dreaming Aloud - weirdly - Almost

My favourite blog post elsewhere - my December one on Tiny Buddha: Overcoming Anxiety: Moving from Fear to Presence

My 12 transformational teachers of 2012

Nights away by myself: 2

Trips to the UK: 2. 

Not to mention a painting exhibition, and my first full year in business as a professional creative rainbow mama! 

It also brought us a near fatal accident. Lots of anxiety. Lots of illness for us all. But we're all still here, coughing and spluttering to greet a new year. And for that I am beyond grateful.

I have spent the past month taking stock of the year - creatively, to do with life goals, emotionally and for my business. I tried Susannah Conway's free 2013 life planner, which was good, but not nearly so good as Leonie's Life planner, which I got last year and adored using, and her brand new Business Planner which has transformed my intentions and plans for the year ahead (from "I'm not sure I can face another year in business, working all the hours and not making that much" to "whoopee, I am SO excited about next year... and I know how I can triple my income,whilst spending more time doing the bits of my work that I love". It is nothing short of transformational - and fun to do - it comes highly, highly recommended!

One of my resolutions for 2013, is to programme in retreat time. So this year I found myself driving the same road that I did a year ago. The same highway to the wilds of West Cork. The same exodus from family life. The same need for reflection and creative dreamtime.

But rather than the desperation that came with last year’s escape, instead I had this retreat booked in, a day and night, put in the calendar, made sacred with intention, the space held for me! I went to a women's full moon circle, with a dear friend, one that I wasn't leading and so got to retreat, be nourished, reflect and create. And it was perfect.

I am making sure to book them in throughout the year. Which is getting easier as the kiddies get older, and I am no longer breastfeeding. My next date booked is 6th January meeting the Wild Women of Cork for drumming, dance and henna. I can't wait!

And my word for this year. Very simple. But very challenging: Trust. It came to me as I was wondering if I should sign my publishing contract. So that's it. Trust.

and my big plans for the year? Well, you'll just have to wait and see!

What's your word for the year? What resources have you found helpful in reflecting on 2012, and visioning 2013? What are your hopes and dreams and plans for yourself? Do share them below! Speaking them aloud helps to clarify and materialise them!

Candlelight, fairylight, firelight

Welcome to the December 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Childhood Memories
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have talked about memories of growing up — their own or the ones they’re helping their children create. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
***
I know the place where the fairies sleep. Where bonfire sparks make the stars and witches walk.

I know the place where music lives and angels wait.

I know, because I saw them with my own eyes as a child. Colors shimmered, sounds too, and for hour upon hour the laws of nature were richer, deeper and mythical in their proportions. A world of fire and music and story, where the rules of magic reigned. These were not things that I tried to believe, but things I had seen, felt and known in my bones, that made me shiver up my spine, lit up from the inside by magic.

Christmas seemed to inhabit its own realm of magic - where everything was brighter, warmer, fuller, more delicious and abundant than your dreams. Where life glimmered and shimmered by candlelight, fairylight, firelight. When everyone I loved would be gathered in a room together, talking and laughing. Where grown ups had time to play games in the middle of the afternoon by the fire. A time when music was all around, and piles of presents in shiny paper whispered promise. When every street sparkled with a thousand coloured lights, and driving home in the darkness, living rooms glowed with warmth and love and festooned trees

And most magical of all,  the portal of wonder, Christmas Eve, when I hung up a stocking, went to bed full of happy butterflies and came downstairs in the cold and dark, to be greeted by a bulging, odd-shapen container of delight, where I would dip my hand in to its Tardis-like proportions, fishing out pencils and books, magic tricks and bubble bath, golden chocolate coins and glowing clementines.

These weren't times when I tried to believe. They were real visits to other worlds within the embrace of this one.

At this time of year especially I long to make magic real for my children. Or rather, to hold the space for magic to emerge for them. In truth I don't know what lights the magic in their souls, what, in their modern and maybe jaded eyes holds the spark of a miracle any more, which memories have already fused themselves to their cortexes, to live there till they are grandparents. I do not know, but I make it my job, as much as I can, to expose them to magic and miracles - freshly falling snow by moonlight, carols by candlelight, wishing eggs in the woods which the fairies take away, gingerbread houses, bonfires and sparklers in the dark, tooth fairies and Santa Claus.

I kept this magic into adulthood. It truly only fell away this last couple of years, with tiredness, illness, too much work, too much pressure to do it right, not enough money or time, striving, striving to get it right, keep everyone happy, remembering all the details. My soul was stricken, Christmas had lost its glow.

So this year, I am re-lighting the magic of midwinter - it is not about quantity, but about the feeling of abundance. Music singing us into feeling and tasting love on our tongues. And light - candle light, fairy light, fire light, the sparkle of magic and hope in the midwinter dark and cold. The feeling of togetherness, of joy.
Weaving magical memories, suspending the laws of mundanity and bringing magic to life.

Candlelight, fairylight, firelight... magic!

Did you see my recent festive post about the realities of family time making together?Those Infamous Words: Lets Make a Gingerbread House. It gave a lot of mamas a lot of laughs!

If you're new here, welcome - do stop by again. Why not follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Google Follower, Twitter, check out my new book: Moods of Motherhood, receive posts by email and join the mailing list for events, offers and occasional delight straight to your inbox - look left for all these options and to read my top posts or trawl the archives!

And do share how do you make space for magical memories to be created in your lives below! 

***
Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be updated by afternoon December 11 with all the carnival links.)

• Childhood Memories of Peace, Support, Joy, and Love — Amber at Heart Wanderings wants to make sure the majority of the memories that her children have as a part of their family are ones that are positive and help support the amazing people that they are now and will become as adults.
• Hand Made Baby Books — Destany at They Are All of Me talks about why baby books are important to her for preserving memories of her childrens first years, and shows how she made one by hand for each child.
• Can your childhood memories help you keep your cool? — Here's To A Boring Year uses memories of being a child to keep her on the path to peaceful parenting.
• Inter-Generational Memories {Carnival of Natural Parenting} — Meegs at A New Day talks about her own childhood memories, and what she hopes her daughter will remember in the future.
• Snapshots — ANonyMous at Radical Ramblings reflects on the ways our childhood memories appear to us, and hopes her own daughter's childhood will be one she remembers as being happy and fulfilled.
• What makes the perfect parent? — In a guest post on Natural Parents Network, Mrs Green from Little Green Blog reflects on camp follow and camp no-follow...
• In My Own Handwriting — Laura from Pug in the Kitchen talks about her journals and the hope that they will be able to keep her stories alive even if she isn't able to.
• Candlelight, fairylight, firelight — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud re-discovers the ingredients for bringing magic to life, especially at Christmas.
• Making Memories (or) How We Celebrate Christmas — Rosemary at Rosmarinus Officinalis talks about creating new memories at Christmas, and the joy their adventures bring to her whole family.
• The Importance of Recording Feelings and Emotions and Not Just the Experience — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares why she puts pen to paper every day to record more than just her experiences as a mother and her daughter's experiences as a child. Jennifer looks at the importance of capturing feelings and emotions that accompany the experience.
• Dredged up — Kenna at Million Tiny Things has been forced to recount childhood memories at bedtime, due to the failure of her middle-aged imagination. She resists, of course.
• Crafting Memories — Handmade is what makes the holidays special for Christy at Eco Journey In the Burbs, and she wants to create the same connection with her daughters that she remembers with mother and grandmother.
• My Childhood Memories; beacons of light in the darkness — Stone Age Parent shares the impact of her childhood memories on her life as a parent today, listing some of her many rich childhood memories and how they now act as beacons of light helping her in the complex, often confusing world of child-rearing.
• 10 Ways I Preserve Memories for My Children — From video interviews to time capsules, Dionna at Code Name: Mama wants to make sure her children have many different ways to cherish their childhood memories. Dionna's carnival post features ten of the ways she preserves memories; check out her Pinterest board for more ideas.
• Memories of my mother — Luschka at Diary of a First Child remembers her mother and the fondest moments of her childhood, especially poignant as she sits by her mother's sickbed writing.
• Creating Happy Childhood Memories through Family Traditions — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now tells why family traditions are so important to her and her family and shares how she’s worked to create traditions for her children.
• Traditional Christmas Tree — Jaye Anne at Wide Awake, Half Asleep remembers the great times spent with her family driving for the Christmas Tree and the lessons learned.
• Wet Socks and Presents — Kat at MomeeeZen writes about her favorite Christmas childhood memory and why it's so special. And she hopes one day her kids will also have a feel-good memory of their own to look back on.
• Stuff does not equal memories — Lauren at Hobo Mama learns that letting go does not mean failing to remember.
• A Child's Loss- Will They Remember Dad? — Erica at ChildOrganics writes about their family's loss of their husband and father. She trys to find answers to the question: Will they remember their Dad?
• Childhood Memories - Hers and Mine — Jorje of Momma Jorje wished for her daughter the same passions and experiences she loved as a child, but learns the hard way to accept whatever passions strike in her child.
• Holiday Non-Traditions — Erika Gebhardt enjoys her family's tradition of not having traditions for the holidays.

Those infamous words: let's make a gingerbread house

We are totally addicted to Masterchef in this house - a TV cooking show where the contestants are pushed to the limits of endurance, before having their dishes picked apart by the odd couple of Michel Roux Jr, and Fat-Boy-who-the-fuck-is-he-anyway-Greg-Wallace.

But I always say, that to really test them they should chuck in one kid having a tantrum, another trying to "help'", a pig sty kitchen, a third child destroying everything they do and then see how much they can cook!

So today I took that challenge upon myself. Yup. Nutter!

In reality when you utter those infamous words "let's build a gingerbread house" you start out with fantasies of creating something like this...

From christmaswarmth.tumblr.com on my Pinterest board Creating Christmas

If I were a cruel "perfect life" blogger I'd show you a cutesy finished picture, which you would promptly pin on Pinterest and go away hating me. But I'm not, so instead I shall regale you with the reality behind a "happy family time" making a real gingerbread house, in order to reassure you of my enduring lunacy, and why NOT making Christmas memories together is the sane loving thing to do!!

It all started with a 4 year old who came home from school and tantrumed long and hard. Hot on the heels of a 2 year old tantrum. The 4 year old ordered a chocolate bar, the fire put out, hit her sister, the sitting room to herself to watch TV, her shoes put back on (after having kicked over her sister's bowl of mushroom soup). He brother went and started banging his head on the door in anger and frustration, having spent the past hour lighting the fire. And also because it meant we couldn't make candles over the fire like I'd promised.

So I uttered those infamous words: let's make a gingerbread house. We've made one every year four the past four years. They are always a festive and semi fun way to destroy the house and achieve multiple arguments.

So we started. Me and the boy. It wasn't long before middle child smelt fun she was missing out on and abandoned CBeebies. Cue fight over whether or not she deserved to join in and forced apologies for having been a little so-and-so.

Carols on. CD 3 is lame ass. Change to CD 1. Much better.

Rolling out one part gingerbread with one part glitter from earlier "Christmas card making session". Can't find the rolling pin, so we use the cling film roll!

Guesstimate the house parts. Bake. Make caramel. Don't burn it. Assemble house - snapping off the bits that don't fit. It doesn't collapse like usual. Very chuffed. Haven't even burnt myself!!!

I start to get cocky and make a sugar work cage of spun sugar. Michel Roux Jr would be proud. Burn my finger on the last drop of caramel. Fuck it.

Girls come racing past for the second time. It is then that I realise that the youngest is chucking Hobnob biscuits out of the packet at her older sister whilst chasing her round the house. Her older sister was retaliating with a pot of blue glitter. I kid you not. And the cleaner was here only 24 hours ago.

Mama roars.

Boy makes icing. Littlest girl adds way to much water. We do a fine job of decorating it together. No one dies. Look at our handy work!

And look at the fucking mess!

Now I have to cook dinner!

For inspiration on Christmas crafting with friends and family, see my popular post from last year: Craft-Tea Christmas celebrations.

The end of the world is nigh - what are your plans?

Yup, that's right, the end of the world is a matter of days away.

Winter solstice - 21/12/12

What are your plans? Do you have your bunker prepared? Or are you going to be dancing naked on top of a Mayan pyramid in the depths of the jungle? (Like my sister - well, she's going to a hippy conventions in Mexico, so I presume that's what they'll be doing!) Will you be on the road to see family and friends for Christmas (like some of my friends). Will you be visiting a sacred site like Newgrange or Stonehenge (like my friend Tracy.) Or will you just be settling down in front of the telly with a glass of Pinot? (Like my dad!)

Me? I was very excited to be invited to hold the space for a fire labyrinth in West Cork at a solstice ceremony complete with drumming circle. It seems like a magical and meaningful way to celebrate with my whole family and a community of others. As you will see from my post next week for the Carnival of Natural Parenting, this aligns perfectly with my intentions right now. So we will probably not be naked, bearing in mind the climate here, but we will be mindful and present for the Shift.

For the WHAT? I hear you ask. The Shift. Check out what I wrote about it earlier this year when the movement launched.

Mayans or no Mayans - things are shifting everywhere on every level - few could deny it. I love the idea of celebrating it, and of giving our conscious positive energy towards it. Because so often these changes in climate, economy, health and culture can feel stressful and worrying, and we feel out of control, like we are being shifted against our will. This is a way of stepping into that power and committing to conscious co-creation. I am writing a lot about it at the moment, in a feature for JUNO for the Spring issue, and in my book, The Rainbow Way. Co-creation is where it's at people. Getting ourselves into that place can be a challenge as we want to control or we want to not be in control.Ceremony and ritual are a great way to practice this balance.

If you're looking for inspiration and events, the Birth 2012 movement are planning events around the word.  The most captivating, for me, is the 1 billion OMs (or AUMs - depending on your sacred spelling preference!) you can join in wherever you are, changing the frequency of the world by chanting this sacred sound -I just love the idea of this sound travelling around the world, time zone after time zone. They are asking people to take a pledge:

"I commit to only share
words and actions of love on
December 20, 21, and 22, 2012"

It sounds like a great commitment to make, at this time of goodwill to all men. Even if you think the rest of it is a bunch of hokum!

So whether you believe that the end of the world is nigh, a shift in consciousness is happening - either by chance or design, whether you're celebrating the darkness day and the turn towards the light, do please let us know what you're up to, and why! Lets inspire each other.

P.S. Have you signed up to the mailing list? You can do it right here to get a fortnightly round up of my favourite posts, links, special offers and events.

Summer is here! Let's celebrate!

Today is June 1st, and the official start of summer - (Hello sun! Please stay!!!!!) and with it comes lots of creative beauty - the world is in full bloom, and, so it seems am I.

June is my birthday month and I am planning something exciting for the Happy Womb for my birthday on 20th June - so join the Facebook page if you haven't already http://www.facebook.com/thehappywomb and keep your eyes open!

I am getting prepared for my exhibition - baby steps, no date set yet, but I have made some important decisions - more of which another time...

We have had a few days of heatwave, and so I have been baking for afternoon picnics in the dappled shade...

Click for recipe!

I have gone Pinterest mad - and am pinning summer cocktails and strawberries galore - check out my boards here 

Other exciting news - Rhythm of the Home the quarterly ezine of divine craft, spirit and gentle parenting is out today and I have a piece in it on creating the magic of fairies with your children. 

And the summer issue of Juno magazine is out today as well, packed with joy and goodies, including my interview with Ina May Gaskin... Do head over to the Juno website for a chance to win a copy of my Moon Time book 

What creative beauty are YOU celebrating today?

When it all goes right

This past few days has been so extraordinarily wonderful, that I feel called to do a mid week, extended joy pockets, to give up my gratitude to the universe.

But first, a disclaimer. What I am about to say, as far as the gods of retribution and cosmic playfulness are concerned, is not true. None of it. Ye gods who snigger into your beards as you hear mere mortals confidently tell their friends that their child is sleeping through the night/ not tantruming any more... or in my case... weaned!

Yes, (I'll whisper very quietly). I think we're done. After 8 months of on again off again wanting to be finished breastfeeding. My lactational career has come to a close.  We are both as ready as we can be. And it's been reasonably fine.(AWFUL, HIDEOUS - ye gods - do you hear me ?!)  

So on Saturday night, when the older kiddies were having a sleep over at the grandparents, I got my first full night's sleep in months. Oh my goodness I felt human the next morning! And could see why people enjoy parenting!! (WHEN WILL THIS CHILD SLEEP OH GODS?!)

The doors seem to be opening for my little book. In so many places - places to sell it and big people who are willing to share it with their people, and magazines willing to review. I am amazed/ humbled/ grateful... BUT WILL IT SELL?

This morning I was gifted, by some dear friends, with a place on a one day food writing course with Hugo Arnold, at the Ballymaloe Cookery School - home to Darina Allen and Rachel Allen (just next door to the Pink House). It's this Saturday - if anyone out there harbours a secret dream to be the next Nigella - as I do - why not join me - I know there's a couple more places available. 

It have been out in the garden, planting up our bank with nasturtiums, strawberries, monbretia,  fuschia and elder. Surrounded by bobbing tiny tom daffodils, peeping primroses and dainty wood anemones.

And of course painting. Did I tell you quite how much I love painting?

But shh! Don't tell the gods. It's our little secret!

2012 - The Year of Abundant Rainbows!

I have this sense that 2012 is going to be the year of abundance. The Year of Abundant Rainbows is the phrase that came to me!

Which is ironic because on paper, our earnings are set to be at least a third lower than last year...

Yes, the year of abundant rainbows indeed!

Which means...

Rainbow colours... check out my Pinterest board

And painting again, for the first time in more than a decade. I signed up for the Bloom True e-course with Flora Bowley - and my juices are flowing already after so long of being dammed - LOVE her work (see below), love her blog, love the look of the e-course. Am now deliberating, fantasising about what paint colours to purchase. Feels good to be back in the painting groove.

 

Abundant rainbow streams of income... diverse little trickles of goodness in multiple forms, from multiple sources, enriching our life.

Diverse creative outlets and practices. Creative work being birthed out into the world.

The gold at the end of the rainbow even!

After the purging and pruning back and darkness of The Year of Enough - there will be energy aplenty to allow the colours to shine through. Where 2010 and 2011 were building up, then breaking down what we had. And cleansing and crashing down old established patterns and relationships to find a clearer, new way of being in the world more grounded in our own truths and a sloughing away of old allegiances which no longer serve us.

Get your hippy stuff on and embrace with me The Year of Abundant Rainbows! And full moon tonight.

In the gift world you do things, but nothing you do is " work" in the sense that we've come to think of it, because your security and your identity dont come fro. What you accumulate as a result of your identity. Instead, you give your efforts freely, accruing no obvious security or bolstering to your separate ego-self. As you give in this manner. Your wants and needs are mysteriously met in delightful and magical ways by the universe." Awesome Your Life.

 Oh yeah!

Operation Christmas Spirit

Operation Christmas spirit: this is my last ditch attempt to feel festive, after feeling decidedly meh! after the pottery Christmas party yesterday.

So up with kiddies at 8.30, despite a lousy night, despite it being my writing day. And straight into the kitchen. I unleashed my inner domestic goddess, who has been away these past weeks, perhaps even months, whilst creative rainbow mama has been here writing books. And so in two hours we made:

• clementine jelly
• cranberry sauce
• cranberry, pecan, dark choc and orange cookies
• gingerbread cookies
• mulled apple juice

The house smelt of Christmas. And then breakfast of cookies and mulled juice tasted like Christmas. So I think we can say mission accomplished! Might even head off to see the big red man at the local safari park this afternoon!

After sharing last year's Santa post on my Facebook page (if you're not a friend, make that your Xmas pressie to me...) a good friend emailed me this...

REMEMBER THIS AT CHRISTMAS TIME

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December.

Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl.

We should've known... ONLY women would be able to drag a fat man in a red velvet suit allaround the world in one night and not get lost.  A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!   

Oh it made me chuckle - thank you Leigh . As did the comment that another reader left at the bottom of my Santa post about collecting kangaroo poo from the Australian bush to act as reindeer poo! Hahaha!

So all it leaves me to say is have a very Merry Christmas, dearest readers. We are set to hit 50,000 page views before Christmas day which is very exciting. Thank you for coming back again and again and sharing the journey. It is all the more rich with you here.

I would love a festive hello from all my readers below. If you've never said hi, take a deep breath and de-lurk yourself (thank you SO much Lucy for your lovely de-lurking email this morning- it made me smile!).

Tell me what you REALLY want this Christmas.

Me? I REALLY want to hold my own book in my hands, and have a "placing it on my own bookshelf ceremony" - which is why I have been working SO hard on it!

That and a night's sleep. But I've been asking for that for 7 years!

Merry Christmas one and all, and to all a good night ('s sleep!)

Festivals of light

We are in the middle of a six week period where cultures around the world celebrate light - candles and twinkling fairy lights for Hannuka, Eid, Christmas and Advent, Diwali and Winter Solstice. There seems to be strong human urge to gather together, to feast, and to lift our spirits with sparkling lights.

Today is St Lucia's day. A festival of light. And my patron saint. Our name, from the Italian, luce and Latin lux means light. I loved this post from Twig and Toadstool last year about it, it's the first time I had heard of the celebration. Needless to say in an ideal world we would be making costumes and the like - but this, dear readers, is the year of enough- and that means enough guilt for all that we are not doing this season!

Driving home after yesterday's rant, we drove down the main street - and marvelled at the street lights, drove home past houses lit up inside and out. And my spirits lifted. This, this is what I love about this time of year, more than anything else. It used to be the music too, but with my failing Christian belief (more of which another time) and the fact that Christmas adverts start on the 1st November, I find them less rousing than once upon a time. Except The Snowman, I LOVE The Snowman - am linking to it here to get you feeling all tingly and magical.

But the light, the even the garish lights on the over decorated houses - you know the sort with a hundred inflatable flashing reindeer on the roof - they spark my soul with beauty and hope. And I realise that that is what we're missing here in the Pink House. Because of being energy conscious we don't "do" many lights - we have some on the stairs, our solar powered tree ones don't work - of course. I love lighting the (wilting) advent wreath with the children. I want to do more of that. And they love it too. They adore lighting candles.

And so, I think, this year I will pass on the carol service and the huge amounts of festive cooking. Gingerbread houses and dressed up santas in shopping malls be damned. I will celebrate a festival of light, a simple, gentle season of light and magic in the dark and cold. That will be my focus this festive season, in this year of Enough - to celebrate the light - to absorb the magic of the twinkling lights, and add a few of my own.

Happy days: celebrating autumn

I LOVE autumn - the changing colours, the bright berries, the bite in the air, the mellow afternoon light. Walking the country lanes and popping blackberries into our mouths. Another day, another warning, (for our first blackberry warnings see here!) This time, rats! Back off people and just let us ENJOY them!!

I also love celebrating. But we have no official mid-autumn celebration - harvest festival is past and halloween still a couple of weeks off...

So this is my own celebration of autumn, just because I can! We have an autumn wreath on our door, made of twined wild clematis (old man's beard), with fallen coloured leaves, hawthorn berries and crab apples attached with wire. 

Our nature table  (want to  make one of your own, see here!) is overflowing with finds, including a new little mama-crafted baby acorn boy in his own oak leaf snuggle bag. Do check out this season's Rhythm of the Home for craft and celebration ideas aplenty.

And walks, as many walks as we can, with gladness in our hearts. Happy days!

(with thanks to my dearest husband, Mr Dreaming Aloud himself, for his wonderful photography skills  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

Full moon - the last big shift is here

Please tune out if this is not your thing...

For the rest of you astrologically minded wise women and explorers of things unknown - welcome. We are in special times indeed.

It's the full moon tonight, I felt it before I checked on the calendar, I am getting more and more attuned to the moon's cycles. Sounds corny, feels good. I watched the moon rise, golden white and full over a newly ploughed field as the tractor went backwards and forwards planting seed. Seed which will lie in the ground, quietly gestating, establishing itself unseen, until the silent spring warmth beckons forth green shoots.

This is where I am at too. Planting soul seeds in my womb - with prayers, affirmations and visions. May good things grow there. I am fertile with ideas and creativity, with life itself, and for that I am profoundly grateful. The dark night has passed and a new day is dawning.

If you are that way inclined, head outside and moonbathe. Take your top off and bear your breasts to the moon. Feel the electric glow of moonlight and chill on your skin, take your shoes off, feel the dew beneath your feet. Wash your face in the dew, and your breasts. Imagine this purifying your bodymind. Invoke the timeless wisdom of the moon into your body and soul. Sing or chant, whisper your prayers. Root yourself in the earth, feel your sensitivities rise, your awareness grow, of your body, of the earth beneath your feet and the heavens above you, and your own place in this vast magical plane.

Yesterday was the beginning of the Mayan Seventh Day. This is the last day of the Mayan calendar. It ends on the 27th. Then that is it. The end of all cycles. Done. A new world will be shifting into place at the same time as the New Moon, Samhain, All Souls, Halloween, the end of British Summer Time. That weekend is a massive shift. And we in our way are marking our own shift as my husband completes his last day of work for his current employer, and our own new era begins.

I feel the dreams shifting and changing and possibilities growing by the day. I am consciously shifting through blocks on every level. Bringing darkness out into the light. As so many other people I know are too.

Some wonderful books have arrived in my life these past couple of days - which I shall be blogging about, both about massive shifts in the sacred feminine and in the human population as a whole. And the World's biggest Summit and Big Fat Lies Summits are helping shift stuff and light lightbulbs for me.

I feel honoured to be living in these times. Grateful to be here and now. Loving where I live in all its beauty and community. Loving my work. Grateful and honoured to be my children's mother and my husband's lover. Grateful indeed.

For other great blog posts on the astrological state of affairs right now, check out:
http://bohemiantwilight.blogspot.com/2011/10/aries-full-moon.html
http://fromthewetware.blogspot.com/2011/10/on-seventh-day-we-take-out-garbage.html
http://dreamingaloudnet.blogspot.com/2011/08/moonlight-blessings.html

Harvest Moon

This weekend is harvest moon: the full moon closest to the autumn equinox.

The time of reaping and celebration of the year's harvest. Where communities would traditionally come together. Sharing the work, sharing the rewards. Feasting together. Companions, literally people breaking bread together. The bread which they had tilled the soil for, scattered the seed, joined together to cut the wheat in fine weather, to thresh and make bales.

This is the time for bringing the harvest home - physically, spiritually , stocking our larders to see us through the cold, dark months ahead. Though most of us are cut off from the literal harvesting of our food, unless we have a vegetable garden of our own. Our food is disconnected from the farmers. Food is always there, on the shelves. We forget the joy of the harvest. The physical exertion traded for stored calories. The reliance on every member of the community to make it happen. Food is just food, a commodity, easy come, easy go. We don't need each other any more to survive. We don't need to celebrate nature's bounty: it is always there. And so whilst we are rich on easy calories and  in money in comparison to those rural farming communities of bygone days, we are poor too if we do not gather together, to feast, to celebrate and give thanks.

It is fitting that this weekend is a weekend of community celebrations here - a tapas evening at a new local cafe, eating with friends; our multi-generational community will share a life affirming luncheon at Saturday Pizzas; drinking together to celebrate a friend's birthday and then a motherblessing, a group of women gathering to celebrate and nurture a pregnant friend about to give birth, with love, massage, mindful connection... and of course food!

My children and I gathered wheat and barley which had sprouted on the roadside. We pounded it into flour and used it to make a harvest loaf together, watching the miracle of yeast and grain and water become our daily bread. We feasted on our harvest loaf and gave thanks for the turning of the seasons.

Do take the time over the next couple of weeks to celebrate with your companions. Take time to break bread, to raise a toast to each other and the farmers who provided your food, to the sun and the earth. To bring harvest home to you and yours.

This post is being contributed to the Big Lunch which celebrates communities eating together every June in the UK. Do take some time to check out their great blog.


To find out about Dreaming Aloud's Big Lunch experience do check out this post . And this one about  why I decided to get involved with The Big Lunch.


Do take time to read my posts on Radical Homemaking. 


For more on the spiritual and astrological aspects of this harvest moon time see Hey Allie 

This Sunday - International Be good to Yourself Day!

Yesterday my book proposal headed off to its preferred publishers...

Our boxes are unpacked...

The sun is shining...

We're all healthy...

Hurray!!!!!

So I'm ready for the energy to flow even better.
I am ready to get jamming with the Universe!

So tomorrow, to mark Lughnasa, to mark the end of July, to mark a personal transition, I have set up all sorts of goodies for myself...

And am hereby dubbing it:  International Be Good to Yourself Day!


Make it a day full of yumminess, good friends, wonderful food, celebration, thanksgiving, being out in nature, reading an inspiring book, starting a dream, making peace with an enemy...

I have planned a day with my soul sister of reflection and celebration. Of looking back and letting go, of looking forward and pulling the good stuff in consciously. On the cliffs and by a bonfire. And yes, there is naked dancing planned round said bonfire!!

I am also joining up to not one, not two but three wonderful shiny e-courses run by the glorious shiny Goddess Leonie.

As a circle member I get all this goodness for one fixed price of $100 for the year. Click here to view more details Hurray for me!!!!

Or you can sign up and pay for a single course and see if you like.... (personally, cos I'm a tight-ass when it comes to money, I'd recommend the full circle membership because it is only a few dollars more for a whole year's worth of goodies, and you can pick and choose just what you need, when you need it - think of it as your own private safe full of treasure - and you have the code!)

NB: To those of you have have signed up already - this is a heads up to say
don't miss the goodies on offer starting tomorrow 31st July.
You've paid for them already - so eat 'em up! Bathe in the yumminess on offer! Be loving to yourself! Just sign up from your profile page on the Goddess Circle and you will be part of the goodness for free!

And to those who haven't come along for the ride - do join us!
For oodles of positivity, creativity, inspiration, mindful awareness, inner and outer health creation, meditations and affirmations...

Starting tomorrow we have...

•  Radiant Goddess E-course is a 21 day journey to discovering the radiant goddess in you. This e-course comes with nutrition and movement plans, meditations, a recipe plan & soulful goddess  projects to help you shine all over: mind, body and spirit!
Click here to view more details

• To get your creativity kick started she has the Creative Goddess E-course: a six week path to discover the creative goddess inside you with sacred creativity, meditations & projects. I'll be painting along to that!
Click here to view more details

• Join me on the Creating your Goddess Haven e-course: six weeks to create a home that inspires you with spirited interior design, divine decluttering & magical space-clearing.
Click here to view more details
• For lots and lots of feel-goodness I'll be hanging out at the 30 Days of Goddess course too
which appears to be for circle members only!
• And of course her wonderfully magnificent Business Goddess course which kick started me into writing my book - hurray!
Click here to view more details

Leonie says "All of them I stand behind whole-heartedly and whole-soully. I *know* after 4000 goddesses using these e-courses to change their lives that quite simply... they work."

And the word on the goddess circle, and in my own life is that the do - they help you to shift the sh*t and get into a positive zone and physical space.

Click here to view more details

With each e-course, you’ll receive meditations, videos, guidance and projects. You also get access to a private online message board for you to share your journey with other Goddesses on the journey! (And if you sign up via me, it costs you the same, but I get an affiliate thank you right back at me!)

I'm breathless with excitement.... 
Let the goodness roll in! May we make our lives fertile beds for wonder to grow and thrive in. May we, at this Lughnasa, the time of reaping the harvest, enjoy the fruits in our own lives!

Bye bye baby

The time has come. Weaning time. But it is bittersweet, as weaning always is for me. I love the closeness, yet I resent the being tied and demanded of to this extent. I never want it to end on a bad note, nothing drastic. We will follow our own internal timetables. But I know the sadness will come, and the hormones will slump. There will be tears as well as relief. One of the final chords of babyhood, our intimate physical connection, will be cut. Not visible like the umbilical chord, the first cutting, but just as real.

She doesn't need milk any more, she can eat caterpillars with a fork now!

As this is my last baba the feeling is even harder. This will be my last feed ever. But I am not prepared to go on and on, just for fear of this sadness. But the tears are rolling now. It is always a big step. And I know from friends who have weaned at seven months, two and a half years or four and a half, this bittersweet is always there. The visceral tug of the heart strings. I do not think that extending this will dissipate that sadness. It is inevitable. That is the nature of weaning.

But I am giving myself permission to, and ask that you respect this. I am not looking for people to encourage me to feed longer. I need to bring my energy back for myself, I am so drained and constant feeding and night waking is draining me beyond my capacity. She is 16 months. She has had a good stretch. My other two were 25 months and 16 months when I weaned them. In hindsight 25 months was too long for me. I feel comfortable that I have give them each a great start in life, but I do not need to be so tied to them. I feel a change of energy in feeding as they enter the toddler zone, a level of control that comes from their need to feed. A need I would prefer to meet in cuddles and kisses and other forms of togetherness.

I have made a decision to have an "end of baby celebration" when we wean, a kind of naming party - as we don't christen our babas. We will bury her placenta ( which is still in the freezer) and re name her- she has been "baby Ash" since she was born. When I stop feeding her she will become her full name, Aisling (which means dream or vision in Irish), to mark her move out of babyhood and into little-girl-dom, and as a way of marking our movement out of being parents to babies for the past six years.

Baby curls - oh how a mama's heart loves baby curls!

We will take each day at a time, it may be two weeks or two months hence. But I feel the change coming. She is more and more like a little girl every day - solid, cheeky, playing with the family, words and communication are tumbling out to surprise us almost daily. She is leaving her baby days behind and this is one more step on that road. I hope this ritual will help us all move forward in celebration and give us a chance to process our sadness. It will symbolise another step on our journey as parents, for us as a family, with three children, rather than two and a baby. And it will be a special day for Aisling, our sweet dream, herself.

Cultivating Abundance

Welcome to the May Carnival of Natural Parenting: Growing in the Outdoors
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared how they encourage their children to connect with nature and dig in the dirt. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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It begins to be seen that the poor are only they who feel poor, and poverty consists in feeling poor.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Feeling poor happens very easily in our mainstream culture, due to our perpetual desire for more.

Shannon Hayes, Radical Homemakers

In our garden we cultivate many flowers, fruits, herbs and vegetables, and even two chickens. But the thing we cultivate mostly is invisible, but most important of all: abundance.

Our garden is the location for regular celebrations with family and friends: cherry blossom picnics, royal wedding picnics, birthday picnics, sunny day picnics... When the cupboard feels bare taking a loaf of bread and cheese and a box of homemade biscuits outside transforms it magically, thanks to grass, sun and a friendly robin, into a feast fit for a king. Shared with family and friends it beats dinner in the finest Michelin-starred restaurant.

A boring afternoon “stuck” at home is transformed into a creative adventure when my sister comes by with a big sheet and we all paint it together.

A long day of gardening is magicked into sweetness as we toast marshmallows over a fire made of the cuttings, the flickering flames warming our spirits.

It is a hub for the other children who live on the estate who seek it out to play with water and stones, their fancy mobile phones and expensive toys abandoned to get on with the real work of childhood.