DIY Butterfly feeder

This afternoon Robbie and I made a pretty butterfly feeder.

It was so simple and quick.

Firstly we made some sugar water which was one part sugar to six parts water. We added some food dye purely for aesthetics.

Next we hammered a screw in to the lid in order to make a hole big enough to thread through a small piece of sponge.

Robbie tipped the sugar water in to the jar and I screwed the lid on tight and checked for leaks.

I then tied garden thread around the neck and up the sides to make a hanger.

Next came Robbies favourite part, decorating the feeder with lots of bright butterfly and flower stickers!

Now we wait in antisipation of our little winged friends.

Love and light

Gem 💎

Summer days

This week's passed by in a blur of cake and sunny fun. Which I'm not complaining about one bit.

On Monday we had lunch at mum and dads house to celebrate my mums birthday.
Jasmine made her a beautiful vegan sponge cake with delishious lemon iceing.

On Wednesday after a lovely walk through the lanes into the village with jasmine (where we spotted the biggest fungus i have ever seen) my sister Tash came to visit with her youngest daughter. She is the cutest little one. Eva adores her and is always in the front row for a cuddle.

Yesterday we had friends around for the afternoon. There was much splashing in the pool as well as playdoh, x boxing and my little ones current favourite thing... Playing survival.

This survival game involves setting up camps in the garden, having bonfires in the evenings and making pretend tea, sushi and stew from grass, twigs, sticks and herbs. During this game there swimming pool becomes a lake and half of my kitchen utensils, jugs and mugs find their way into the garden.

The weather has been magnificent again all week long so we have been outdoors the vast majority of the time.

We have a daily visitor to our poolside everyday that is known fondly as "Toady". He likes to hang out under the pool cover or the long moist grass around the edges of the pool.

We have been enjoying lots of lovely homegrown produce at meal times too this past week. My dad has kept us supplied with cucumbers and green chilli peppers and my neighbour has given us bags of cherry tomatoes. We have enjoyed, marrows, potatoes (grown by Robbie) and Broad beans from our own garden as well.

Today we went to a local craft fair. The little ones brought a toy each from the RNLI stall but all in all I'm not a good customer at these types of event. I look at all the pretty things and come home with ideas of how I can make them myself at a fraction of the price. So yes, not good at all for the poor traders.

Speaking of crafts, summer is currently working on a yellow pinafore dress. She is making an outstanding job of it. She has used YouTube tutorials to learn how to make the pleats on the skirt and there is no pattern in sight it's all done from her own head copying a favourite outfit of style icon, drag queen, Trixi Mattel.

Love and light

Gem 💎

Mud and bloom box July

Eva and Robbie opened there July mud and bloom subscription box today and had a great time with the activities.

That made pretty button, bead and washi tape vases, collected grasses and flowers to make natural paint brushes and planted giant radish and lettuce seeds.

What do they do all day?

I often write about what my youngest two and I get up to and those of you who know I have four other beautiful children would be forgiven for wondering what they get up to.

So let me tell you what how they have been spending there time lately.

Jasmine, almost seventeen, had a paper round and a cleaning job and is currently  studying online for a diploma in human anatomy and physiology.

Gypsie is sixteen and still obsessed with tattoos and animals. She has a dog sitting job and is building up an impressive portfolio of tattoo designs.
When she's not drawing she can be found outside with her ducks or petting one of her Guinea pigs.

Summer is fifteen and has a successful YouTube channel with 109K subscribers, she's also working on a Second channel. When she's not editing She is studying online with Harley Oxford, doing a make up artistry course.
She is still part of a street dance crew and attends classes every week.

Charlie is eleven and loves nothing better than gaming on his P.C. At the moment he is enjoying a survival game named " The forest."
He's recently really got into reading. Last month he reread his favourite book" My friend the enemy " and then moved on to the more light heart" Gangster Granny "
He's earns himself a few quid a week from collecting cuttlefish that have washed up on the shore which he sells to one of his Grandads friends who breeds and shows canaries. Apparently cuttlefish are an important dietary requirement.

All four of them are as you can see pretty entripenerial and independent and I'm so proud of them.
They are all also really practical and will turn there hand to garden tasks,cooking, baking, carpentry, DIY and most crafts.

A couple of weeks ago jasmine and I painted the girls bedroom and she and summer put together a flat pack desk and three sets of draws without any problem.

This week i'v been painting the lounge and Gypsie offered her help.

Yesterday we were outside and summer brought us all out some beautiful glasses of fresh strawberry lemonade she had made.

Just today Charlie helped me make a welly boot rack, actually all I did was cut the wood, he did all the drilling and screwing himself.

Charlie and Gypsie are close they like to go on walks together sometimes taking along my brothers dog and between them they take responsibility for all our pets.

Likewise Jasmine and Summer are very close, they often go out together, shopping, to the arcade and such like. They just went to the Isle of Wight festival together a couple of weekends ago and have another festival and a pride event happening in the coming weeks that they are looking forward to.

Of course like all siblings all six of our children argue, fight, bicker and swear at each other ,and I think its totally normal. But on the whole they get on the majority of the time which is the most important thing.

I wonder if Eva and Robbie will be really close too or if the dynamics will change !?!

So yes, that's what my older children are up to at the moment. They are all happy and content and that makes me very happy.

It's a blessing watching them learn and grow every day.

Love and light Gem.

Xxx

Beans, volcanos and slime!

Yesterday we had another wonderful day of self lead learning and creativity .
Robbie helped me to pick our first broad bean harvest .He's been  very excited about this task for a week or so.Eva and Robbie both helped to pod the beans and Robbie excitement soon wore of and he decided it was much more fun to hit a small piece of wood over and over again and pretend he was a wood carver.
All in all we harvested just shy of a kilo of beans which Eva and I blanched and froze .We talked about the old wife's tale "A watched pot never boils " about how the process of  blanching and freezing keeps the nutrients in the veg ,and how we save some beans at the end of the growing season to plant again in November , the whole time she was  asking questions she was stood up to the stove on a chair with her spoon stirring and stirring .It's these simple moments that I love the most .

This afternoon I walked out in to the kitchen to find Eva and summer bent over a huge saucepan of gloopy blue slime .This slime powder was apparently a freebie from a magazine.

An hour or so later and the kitchen table was occupied by Charlie and  some plaster of Paris, volcano making. 

One things for certain mess and learning often go hand in hand and although sometimes it can get a bit much with so many of us in such a small space, I always try to allow the children as much freedom as possible with creative, science and art exploration. 

And that sometimes means a volcano is getting made whilst I'm Cooking dinner and we jostle for table space. 

I wouldn't have it any other way though. 

Love and light, 

Gem x

Summer solstice 2018

We have had a beautiful solstice day and the sun has shone brightly all day through.

Eva decorated our solstice sun cake using strawberries and lavender that we collected from the garden. And we talked about how our crops grow because of the sun.

Robbie and I made watercolour sun hanging spinners. Robbies actually worked out far better than mine as he didn't make his paper too soggy like I did!

The little ones also coloured some sun pictures.

We spent all afternoon outside enjoying the beautiful sun. And headed straight back out after dinner to soak up the last of the rays and have a bonfire . Eva and Robbie didn't get out of the pool until around eight thirty!

We send many a blessing from our home to yours this solstice evening.

Love and light,

Gem.

Friends, family and birthday celebrations

We have had a lovely few days.

There's  been a couple of visits to the park,visits to see both Grandad's on fathers day, and lots of fun making, creating,swimming, reading and baking.

Today we spent the afternoon with another home educating family. The little ones enjoyed the pool and the older ones played computer games and jumped on the trampoline.

On monday we celebrated Summers 15th birthday. We had a fairly quiet day as she didn't want a fuss but we managed to persuade her to invite my mum and dad to lunch.

I don't known how she's fifteen already! It's abslouly crazy how the years fly by. She's creative, funny, fiercely determined and one of the most caring people I know. Although she won't stop till she has achieved what she wants she also goes out of her way to help anyone in need.
When her grandad (Paul's father) had an accident last year it was summer that checked in on him daily, made him meals and did his shopping .
She rarely goes shopping without bringing something back for everyone else.
Just the other day an elderly neighbour told me what a kind girl she was and I had to agree, she's amazing and I'm truly so proud of the sympathetic, kind hearted,strong-willed young woman she's grown in to.