At the Farm…

By on September 12, 2011 in Family, Holidays
We have just returned from the most wonderful holiday in the bush!! It was heaven… We decided to go for Caiden’s 10th birthday as a surprise. He was thrilled, as was everyone else. We were all so sad that we had to make our way home today, I could easily just live out there. The one thing that I enjoy the most is the silence. As soon as I arrive, I always go straight outside and just listen… it’s quiet, so quiet, you can hear it… We walked, saw lovely game, different birds and the flowers… so beautiful, just growing out of the red earth, a tiny stalk and then a flower. I took plenty of photos, we climbed rocks, road our bikes and just re-charged…
I loved every minute of it, I was so inspired, I even knitted up a new animal design while I was there. I have included quite a few snapshots of our last four days to share with you.

Searching for Meerkat burrows, we found the burrows but not the meerkats:)

I sat and knitted in this spot, watching the game passing by in the valley…

Gorgeous flowers just erupt out of the dry, red and sandy landscape…

Each day, we had the most spectacular sunsets and watched as the moon rose from the rocky hill behind the house…

Aloes grow all over…

Treasure, empty snail shells, Guinea Fowl feathers and an ostrich feather…

Can you see how she is watching me?

A Zebra foal and its mom…

Can you see the Blesbuck just below our bikes near the farmhouse?

We climbed up to the old Boer ruins, how amazing to think that people built these walls so many years ago, I love history…

Lichen grows everywhere…

Beauty…

Caiden climbed up the spot height…

See, a flower stalk and then suddenly, a beautiful flower…

This Wildebeest was watching us closely and snorting through his nose…

Playing in the mud in the trout dams…

Richard rode his bike…

The end of our adventure…

On another note, our youngest little one Kye has to go in for a small procedure tomorrow morning, nothing serious, but he will be having anesthetic and my stomach is in a knot!  If you have a moment to send healing thoughts tomorrow, that would be greatly appreciated:)

Thanks to everyone who has entered my latest giveaway:) It closes this Wednesday, on my 39th birthday, so if you haven’t yet entered you can go to this post and leave a comment.
Take care
xo
Linda

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Creative Friday

By on September 9, 2011 in Crafts, Creative Friday

Welcome to Creative Friday:)

Thank you so much to everyone who shares the love and posts their links to their amazing work:) Please feel free to post your links to anything you have created and would like to share, it can be a recipe, sewing tutorial, knitting tutorial, felting, crochet, crafts, art, spinning, weaving, working with fibre, photography, poetry…etc…

I also love to hear from you, so if you have a moment, please leave a comment:) Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful talent with us! Just add the name of your blog to the widget and then add your blog link with the http:// at the beginning of your link address:) I have added a Creative Friday button on the sidebar of my blog, please feel free to add it to your blog for Creative Friday and link it to http://www.naturalsuburbia.com/ so others can find this space and share their creativity too:)

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Natural Suburbia Giveaway

By on September 7, 2011 in Cochineal, Giveaway, Mamma4earth, Mamma4earth Ravelry Group, patterns
This is a very special week for us as we will be celebrating my wonderful mom’s birthday today and our sweet Cady’s birthday tomorrow. With all this celebrating going on, I thought it would be a perfect time to have a giveaway!
I am so grateful for all the goodness in my life and for me, the best way to show gratitude is to give…. 
Giveaway:
I am giving away:
  • One 3.5 ounce (approx) skein of South African Merino yarn, I have hand dyed these skeins with cochineal natural dye, the lighter shade is from an exhaust dye bath of cochineal dye. You can choose the shade you would like:)
  • I am also giving away a wooden acorn that I cut and sanded on our scroll saw.
  • One Goat Pattern (emailed)
  • One Suffolk Sheep Pattern (emailed)
  • One Bear Pattern (emailed)
To enter:
This giveaway is open to all.
Just leave a comment in this post, or email me at lindadawkins@mweb.co.za
For additional entries, Tweet, Facebook, Follow or Blog about this giveaway and please let me know by leaving additional comments:) 
The winner will be chosen on Wednesday the 14th of September. Please ensure I have an email address to reach you if you are the winner. The winner will be announced in this blog post:)
I also just wanted to announce that I have uploaded my animal knitting patterns onto my Ravelry Store and my patterns can now be purchased as immediate downloads, they are also still available on Etsy :)
Congratulations to:
Olive Omslaer who entered by email through Google Reader! Thanks for entering, I will be contacting you for your postal details:)
Warmly
Linda

  Goat Knitting Pattern (PDF)

 Waldorf Toy, Suffolk Sheep Knitting Pattern (PDF)
PDF, Bear Knitting Pattern, Waldorf Toy
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Gardening and Dyeing Yarn Naturally

By on September 6, 2011 in Dyeing Yarn, Family, Gardening, Natural Dyes
Yesterday, Caiden started a new Spring homeschooling block all about gardening, planting, insects etc… The block can be found on this wonderful Yahoo group called Waldorf Home Educators, it is an amazing homeschooling resource that is freely available on the internet. It is Marsha Johnson’s beautiful Yahoo group. If you haven’t already joined as a member, it really is a wonderful place to visit. You could quite easily put together your own curriculum from everything she offers in her ‘Files’ section, under ‘Age Specific Curriculum’.
Caiden decided to plant his own veg garden, he chose the veggies that he wanted to grow and then I found some craft sticks. He labelled each stick with the plant name and the date of planting and put these at the end of each row of veggie seeds. He really enjoyed planting his own garden. Now he will be able to know by looking at the date on his sticks, when a good time will be to plant again for succession planting. He is also going to save some seeds for next years planting.

Labelling his veggies…

I was so excited to discover this little Lady Bug on one of the broad bean plants. All the beans are healthy and there is just one that has aphids. Sure enough, this little bug was there getting rid of the aphids from the plant and restoring balance. This was such a lovely learning experience of how nature swoops in when she is needed without us doing a thing

Green…

Today, I custom dyed some mohair yarn for someone to be used as Waldorf doll hair. I dyed my yarn with Eucalyptus bark. It has come out a lovely honey blond colour. I am going to dye up some more for the shop too.

I just had to share this beautiful bear with you. My brilliant and very talented friend, Heidi has designed this wonderful African Flower Bear Pattern, the bear’s name is Lollo, isn’t she just gorgeous!!! The pattern has just been made available for purchase on Ravelry, I love it!! The pattern is so detailed and wonderfully written, I can’t wait to start this project:)

I am off to start preparations for my mom’s birthday tomorrow, Caiden’s 10th birthday on Thursday and our trip to the farm…

Take care
xo
Linda

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