Blueberry Thursday

Bon Voyage

Here is the latest lady, who is going on an exciting trip to New York to live with a sweet girl and her family:)

Things are very quiet here these days. We are busy and I seem to never have much time in front of my  computer which is a good thing. Recently finished this little lad who is going to England once he gets a new shirt, where he will be best friends with Marcus in Sussex.

Autumn snaps

Summer snaps

Holiday snaps from  Denmark, California and The Eastcoast

A doll is born..

Raw

Delicious raw chocolate tart, recipe courtesy of Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall (River Cottage)

 

Ingredients

For the base

• 300g pecans or almonds
• 1 tsp pink Himalayan salt, or any other good-quality salt
• 200g medjool dates

For the filling

• 4 medium sized ripe avocados
• 150g virgin coconut oil
• 2 vanilla pods, seeds only
• 200g raw cacao powder
• Pinch of salt
• 300g coconut blossom sugar or agave nectar to taste

Method

1. In a food processor, blend the pecans or almonds (if possible, soak them for around 6 hours and then dehydrate them first. The soaking releases the enzyme inhibitors and makes them easier to digest.) Add the salt and medjool dates and blend until you have a ‘dough’, or until the mix forms a ball.
   
2. Press this mixture into the bottom of a mould. Cover in cling film and leave to harden in the freezer until you are ready to pour on the filling. I like to use a silicone mould. They are freezer safe and easy to get the tart out once it has set.
   
3. For the filling, blend everything together until smooth, then pour onto the base.
   
4. Set in the freezer for 1 hour, then it should be firm enough to slice up. Top with fresh berries, edible flowers, a dusting of cacao powder- whatever takes your fancy and looks pretty!
   

Alone with the Alone

                                                               Odilon Redon "Pandora"

Yesterday my family and I went to Washington D.C. to visit the National Gallery. I am not normally attracted to long museum visits. The vast amount of pictures and information tires me quickly and I prefer smaller exhibits where I can concentrate on one or a few artists at a time. Therefore I spent my time enjoying the scenery and playing with Alia. When she fell asleep I found myself wandering towards the French Impressionists to keep her asleep in a moving pram. After having looked at hundreds of paintings in ten minutes I was feeling that old fatigue when a large pastel coloured painting caught my eye. It was by an artist I had never heard of before and my mind drifted off into the painting that for some reason spoke to me. 

It is a rarity these days that I have the time to converse with my inner self and it struck me so strongly because it has been so long. Even when I was pregnant my mind was full of Alia, as it is now, but somehow this painting gave me a shortcut to that part of me that has been sorely neglected.

In prayer my energy is focused on a God distinct from me, apart from me, I am reaching out, but once in a blue moon a warm feeling rushes over me and I am left with the feeling that inside of me exists an eternal  light  that is in constant connection with the Divine Energy. We are now in the last ten days of Ramadan and these are the times that such blessings occur. Thank God.

Ball all done

Crochet ball made from organic cotton and stuffed with a bell and organic wool. I used this free pattern that was extremely easy to follow even for a beginner like me.

Spiritual childhood

“in receiving her life into my care I was agreeing to uphold a sacred trust — not only to feed, clothe, and protect her physical body but to nourish and protect her soul-life as well.” Author on birth of her first child.

I have been reading Shea Darian's Sanctuaries of Childhood and it has filled me with ideas for spiritual activities to do when Alia gets older. Especially the chapters on music and poetry really made me think about my own childhood and how my mother filled my world with magic, and though she was not religious she made space for spirituality because she felt I was attracted to it.

 I wish to fill Alia's life with the same magic and spirituality both in the form of the daily prayers and also through interacting with nature, storytelling, music and poetry. The book offers so many ideas on how to weave music and prose into the pattern of everyday life in a natural way, and has the sweetest little prayers and songs that the author (a multi-faith director) used herself as she raised her children.

At times I become overwhelmed with the responsibility of caring for my daughter's physical well-being and I forget that her soul and heart requires just as much care and attention and that the physical and the spiritual are interwoven.  The book tells how just as a mosque, church or synagogue is a place that nurtures the soul, our homes can also be transformed into sanctuaries in which our spirits can take nourishment. All I can do now is pray that I may be able to carry out this task and make our home, wherever it may be, a place of prayer and broad-mindedness.

I 3> Crochet

I have fallen in love with the  art of crocheting this Ramadan, and when Alia has fallen asleep I sit myself next to her and start working on this ball for her. I have many more projects I would like to try, like these fruits and these cupcakes! 
The fruits are especially high on my to-do list as I can picture them as the cutest accessories to a dolls dress or a doll headband. 

Cake, crochet and sleeping baby

I am still crocheting a lot these days. These are a pair of baby boots for a friend who just gave birth to a baby boy, but they can also easily be used for Waldorf dolls. Alia is fast asleep after a lovely walk in the rain.

Marialai and Lila

We are getting settled into life in America and have spent the last month mainly visiting family and eating :) When I was too full to eat delicious Afghan food and Alia was asleep, I made Marialai and Lila for two lovely girls. The red tutu dress is unfortunately not my creation but the pink dress is.  I also tried to make a sweater for Waldorf dolls that I found online. The fit is a little too bulky for my liking so I think I am going back to  following newborn knitting recipes.

Alia and I are stuck in the house most of the day as I do not have a drivers license but I am trying to go out a few times a week to a local knitting workshop where I am learning to crochet again. I am doing lots of projects and I cant wait to share them.

Seed Beads

I am still waiting to receive my wool before I can start making dolls here in the US, but while I wait I am stocking up on my craft supplies. I have always loved beads and whenever I make dresses for the dolls I go a little crazy with my seed beads. I found a website here with a tantalizing selection. Getting these beads reminds me of buying candy when I was a child. All are from limabeads.

Praying and motherhood

                                                                                                            Bayezid Mosque, Istanbul 2008.

Motherhood has taught me many things in the 5 months I have been mother to Alia, but I never imagined that praying with my daughter would add such sweetness to the experience. Alia loves having physical contact all the time, during the day she likes to be held and at night she sleeps best snuggling up to me.

 At first I was daunted by this and I wondered what saying my prayers was going to be like when I was never on my own, would I be able to focus and connect with her there? I soon found that I was most present in my prayer if I held her during it, if I could hear her, but not see her I would constantly wonder if she was alright, and if she needed me. Now I hold her when I say my recitation, and put her down under my stomach when I prostate. After the prayer I sometimes say my dhikr walking around with her and sometimes sitting dangling a toy above her head. She loves it, and sometimes sings along to the sound of the Quran. When I prostate her little hands caress my clothes and the prayer carpet.

They say that angels gather around children and Alia makes my prayer more blessed then I could ever imagine she would.

Expert hands

Aunty N has given birth to nine children and it was awe inspiring watching her handle little Alia today. Her strong hands constantly following Alia's movement while chatting away, it was simply just second nature to her. It was a beautiful thing to see the effects of her loving maternal nature on Alia, who instinctively knew she was in a safe place.

Steiner doll supplies

My little family and I are spending the next three months in Washington D.C. with family and I have been getting supplies for what will hopefully be a productive summer. In my search I found some great sites on supplies.

I looked for pure mohair yarn for the hair for a long time without any luck. They were either the wrong colour or mixed with nylon. I finally found this great site that had the perfect kind of mohair for little fingers to play with:
 http://www.jimmybeanswool.com

The little bits and bobs, like strong thread for making the face and the cotton gauze I found on these two sites that have almost everything you need for the dolls: www.achildsdream.com, www.weirdollsandcrafts.com.

I have been wanting to order a few things from nearseanaturals, like their lovely organic lace and organic cotton thread. I also got, what looks like amazing organic wool stuffing for the dolls
, ahhh the cosiest, warmest smell in the world.

New fabrics

 My hubby brought me back the most luxurious fabrics from Liberty in London ( his punishment for leaving me alone with Alia for two weeks). I cant wait to make something from them !

Dress

My niece turned 4 a few days ago and today we are going to her birthday party. The little lady has an abundance of toys and loves all things pink and princess-like, so this year I decided to make her something for the steiner doll I made for her this winter.

It is a little sloppy here and there but I am never going to be a perfectionist and it was made late in the night after Alia finally went to sleep. I used my grandmothers old lace for the dress, so that the gift affects three generations of women in our family. My grandmother, me and my niece.

Dummy tree in Copenhagen's Frederiksberg Park

Waldorf doll

                                                                              My niece likes to share her breakfast with Rose (doll)

When I was 9 months pregnant I went to a doll making course to pass the time before my due date. I had been following smilerynker for a while and when I saw she was offering classes I jumped at the chance. I intend to give the doll I made to my daughter when she is much older but I also managed to make a doll during the holidays for my niece, again to pass the time. It is such a lovely feeling seeing something you have made with love being played with, and making a Steiner/Waldorf doll truely is a labour of love. It takes me at least 2 days to make one, even if I work intensely. Most of the work can only be done by hand and it takes time making the clothes as well, though they can be dressed in a size 56 (newborn). I am hoping to make another one in the next month for another niece, if Alia will allow me to do so :)

Work in progress

From Cushion cover to activity cube.... three more squares to go...

Bread

Over the past few years my hubby and I have increasingly been buying and eating organic groceries, and we are now at the point where everything we eat in the house is organic. It is more expensive to eat organic but I find that the more I learn about food production the more I feel I can't afford not to buy organic. It means that we can't afford to eat meat more than once a week, but we are getting good at eating pulses and grains instead and also fish.

 The only time I feel that eating organic is not practical is when it comes to bread. Here in Copenhagen there is a bakery on every street corner and most places have good bread, but only one or two places make organic and we don't live near any of them. Most supermarkets sell some kind of organic bread but surprisingly some still put e-numbers in the bread and supermarket bread is usually dull and soft, even organic ones.

 Recently I started baking bread every other day and it has solved my bread problem. I was daunted by the idea of having to knead the dough for ages but I have found that you can make delicious bread without it as long as you make the dough wet. Here is the recipe for my buns. I mix the dough before I go to sleep and then leave them in the fridge overnight, and bake them when I wake up, so that I can have freshly baked bread for breakfast.

 25 gr. fresh yeast ( can be replaced with dry)
 2 tbsp vegetable oil
 1 tsp salt 
200 ml of lukewarm water 
100 gr of seeds ( can be hemp, sunflower... etc) 
200 gr of flour ( I usually use fine wheat flour) 
100 gr of wholewheat flour ( I use Spelt flour) 

 Dissolve the yeast in the water and add oil and salt. Add seeds and flours and mix it lightly together. The dough should be sticky and slightly wet but able to stay together. Leave overnight in fridge. Use a tbsp to spoon the buns out on baking tray and leave in preheated oven for ten min. or until they sound hollow when tapped on the back with finger.

Old Milk

I am a lover of artisan perfumes. Even through my (now many) years as a student I have always found space in my budget for luxurious artisan perfumes. I love wearing a different scent every day, and every now and then during my day to stop and smell my wrist, enjoying the complexity of the scent and tracking how the scent develops throughout the day (as a good scent should). My favorite perfume is Ormonde Woman by Ormonde Jayne, a British perfumery. Their scent Champaca is also a lovely daytime perfume (flowery and green) though I tend to prefer woody and spicy scents, like Ormonde Woman.

My beautiful bottles of perfume have been hiding in the bathroom cupboard for almost a year now. During my pregnancy I was unable to wear such strong scents as I was hyper sensitive to smells for the entire 9 months. I was longing to shower myself with perfume after the birth. Little did I know that babies are like little sponges that soak up strong scents, even horrible synthetic perfumes from loving "aunties", and the only scent I have been able to wear since little Alia came into the world is her favorite perfume, Old Milk. Old mothers milk that is :)


I am also looking into purchasing some organic and completely natural perfumes that should be less harsh for babies that like to rest their little heads on mommy's neck. This seems to be a good list http://www.natural-living-for-women.com/organic-perfume.html I think I will stick to Old Milk for a little while, seeing as Alia likes it so much, though I suspect my hubby is not so thrilled. I find myself drawn to the smell as well these days, probably something hormonal. http://www.natural-living-for-women.com/organic-perfume.html

Baby socks

Easy recipe for baby socks: North Country Cotton Baby Socks



Scroll down to half- way and you will find a helpful video on turning the heel



And finally a video on the kitchener stitch

Housewife?

I thought I would have a baby in the winter, spend the summer being a full-time mum and then take my family to the Middle East to do my year abroad as part of my studies. Now I have my beautiful little girl to hold, kiss and play with and there is no way I am ready to give up spending 24 hours a day with her come September. Without thinking twice I am now ready to spend the next few years devoting myself to the sweetness of motherhood, even though I love my studies I can't imagine regretting taking this decision.