new things

hello!

some new things I've been making lately. I'm quiet slow and my attention is spread over different projects of sewing and knitting + the famous everyday life that doesn't let me use my scarce working time for working. I'm 3.5 months away from birth and it's a hell of a deadline, so I'm trying to focus as much as possible on my things and my goals and less on spreading my efforts on gifts etc. but I'm not so good at that, so gifts continue to flow...

I made these twin cardigans for our friends Iris and Ishay's new twin babies, Netta and Hagar:

They're laid out on a beautiful huge tablecloth I found at London's Spitalfields market last month. we spent lovely 4 days, just the 2 of us, unbelievable as it may have seemed just a while before. All grandparents joined in the mission of babysitting, and we took our first vacation without kids since we have kids, that's exactly 6 years. and our last vacation for the next few years again... it was an important reminder to what life can be outside the parenting bubble. And it was wonderful to come back.

here are close ups of the buttons, vintage, once found on etsy or ebay, can't remember:

Just before leaving for England I ordered some lovely fabrics from sew mama sew, and they arrived shortly after we came back. In my studio, They joined (aside from all the "old" fabrics) a beautiful piece of ivory flannel that I had bought at a shop in Soho, can't remember it's name. this shop was so overwhelming and the prices were so high that I finally managed to buy only this simple but super soft and fine 5 meter piece of flannel.

Anyway, the package that arrived full of beautiful florals, one natural linen-cotton blend and one lovely Heather Ross mermaids fabric pleased me as much and sent me right into my little studio. I couldn't gather enough creative energy to come up with something of my own, so I used a pattern from a book, I think it's the first time for me to follow a pattern without any changes. here is the dress:

(my daughter does her own styling ever since she was 2 years old. I wouldn't dare to think up this combination, but luckily she's not as inhibited as I am)

this is the back side, with a beautiful vintage button I found at a Tel Aviv button shop once:

she looks so happy in that last picture, but in reality she took the dress off immediately after I took these shots and declared that she doesn't like it and that I should put it in my own closet. so I'm starting to seriously consider (again) opening a shop on etsy.

some inspiration

I've been thinking a lot about presence in parenting throughout the years I've been a mother. I feel often like I'm not really there, with them. My thoughts are always somewhere else: with the house chores, planning the day and routine, and thinking and imagining ideas for my work. I'm almost always in a hurry but can't get much done. The house is a mess, I'm hopeless with paperwork and so few things have a real place. And I don't even get to cook complicated things, which is OK since we like simple food and it's often healthier, but it also feels as if cooking too became something on the far end of the to-do list, instead of a creative, loving action.

I'm reading soulemama's book "the creative family", and she shines a new light on these matters - well, new to me, even though it's a simple change of focus. ("simple" can be so important, don't you think?)

Her idea of assigning a specific time for just being with the kids wholeheartedly, without a thought about anything else, and even using a timer for that is so simple yet so focusing in itself. The change in perception of creativity that is offered in the idea to create with them rather than saving all the creative energy till after they've gone to sleep (maybe that's just my interpretation) is so refreshing. I tend to treat my work as a separate thing, and I think Hilel is coming to hate my sewing. In the chapter about imagination games she talks about getting involved in their imaginative play. I'm not sure about that, I always felt that I could never come close to their psychedelic way of thinking, and that my way of playing will limit them to my much poorer imagination. I also felt that it's just not really my job to play with them: I'm not their age, I have tons of other stuff to do, and by being left alone to play they can get much further in their imaginative travels and in gaining self confidence. However, it is a good idea to try and think of it differently, see what happens.

I haven't yet finished reading, but I'm really enjoying putting question marks on my ideas and conceptions of education. It is so inspiring.

Today Amalia stayed home with me, she only goes 3 times a week to sort of a day-care, and I tried to dedicate more time to being with her, although I had other stuff to do, as always. But I think we both gained so much from this: I got to do my things even more than I normally do, and she got to play with me. First she wanted to do some puzzles together, and we did, but I said I'll have to later do some sewing, so she said: "I have an idea: we'll do two together, and then I'll start the same two over by myself". that worked. Then I let her play with the buttons while I went on with sewing. After a while I thought I really have to start making lunch, so I offered to bring her oven to the kitchen, to cook next to me. We got her a beautiful wood oven for her birthday and it's standing in the children's play room, where they of course rarely do play... she has all those little pots and plates and cups from Ikea and some felt vegetables I made, but she hardly ever uses it all because their room is too packed with stuff to be inviting for play. Bringing it into the real kitchen was a big success, we cooked next to each other and she really engaged in this.

lentils cooking...

...or was it water?

cutting vegetables

then cooking them

and finally we even set the table with both the real food and her play food. She even wanted to put "her" food in her plate next to the quinoa...instead of any real vegetables of course... we'll have to work on that some other way.

Birthday Picnic

Amalia turned 3, unbelievable as it may seem to us and to anyone that knows her.

We organized a little picnic for our friends in an oak forest nearby. Simple and quickly made food (humous, pitas and some salads along with nuts, crackers, strawberries and a chocolate cake) and very few plans - I thought of a treasure hunt for the kids, where the treasure would be a big bag of papers, scissors, paint and glue, but eventually it wasn't necessary. they ran up and down the hills and into the "flour cave" which was a soft limestone wall where they could get really dirty, put on the costumes I brought with us, and finally did get into some origami and paper cut outs, making airplanes and flying them. I love watching a group of children play, when they all get along and just so creatively and freely dive in and out of games. I love it when there are smaller and bigger kids and still they manage to play together. I love how they exist in their world, right next to us yet so far away in their stories.

*they're all somehow taken from the back... I'm so aware of some friends not wanting their children to appear on the internet, that I got used to taking pictures from behind.

Amalia is the one wearing the white princess costume. The monkey is Hilel.