Zero Waste: Wrapping Gifts with Fabric

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About 10 years ago, Matt’s mother decided to wrap all the Christmas gifts she was giving in fabric. A frugal, creative woman she didn’t enjoy, nor see the point, in wrapping a gift in beautiful paper only for it to be torn off and wasted, it seemed like a bit of an obscene luxury and careless of the environmental impact. For a few years already, Matt and I had been carefully unwrapping gifts so as to be able to reuse as much of the paper as possible, but admittedly it took a little fun out of the whole gift exchange. The fabric wrapped gifts she brought, on the other hand, were beautiful and appeared fancier than traditional paper wrapping and bows, and no extra special handling was needed to unwrap them. Win-win!

Photo not mine, view it and it’s source via my Pinterest board

A few years later, and I don’t remember how I came across it, I learned about the practice of Japanese fabric wrapping using a wrapping cloth known as Furoshiki. I’m certainly no expert in furoshiki, but  I can tell you that from the idea of furoshiki developed a set of wrapping techniques, where fabric is used to package things for transport or gift giving. It is said to have been developed out of a sense of waste consciousness and caring for the environment.

Since this time I’ve used fabric to wrap gifts when I have some on hand (otherwise I reuse paper).

If you ask Google you’ll find there are different techniques for boxes and bottles and other general shapes too. There are also lots of tutorials if you search ‘furoshiki’ on YouTube and I’ve pinned some favourites to my ‘ g i f t ‘ board on Pinterest.

Aside from gifts, there are also techniques for wrapping picnic lunches and meals for transport, where the fabric folding and wrapping comes out looking like a little basket. There are also folding techniques for shopping bags, flower bouquets and more. All this to say, if you want to wrap something in fabric as a gift or to travel with, then there is a furoshiki technique that can do the job. All you need is some scrap fabric (old sheets, scarves, silks, linens) to work with. No tape, no string, no glue. Although sometimes it’s fun to embellish the wrapping with a scrap of ribbon or yarn.

Photo not mine, view it and it’s source via my Pinterest board

Don’t be fooled by how pretty the furoshiki wrapping looks and assume it is complex. Every technique is simple and involves very basic folding and knotting. Gift wrapping in under 2 minutes — 1 minute for a pro.

This year I used some of Ro and Sen’s play silks from Sarah’s Silks to wrap gifts. The play silks we have are long rectangles, so I folded them over in thirds so I could work from approximately a square shape, but there is no great precision required in the size of the fabric relative to the size of the wrapped object, but generally a bigger piece of fabric is easier to work with. Using play silks to wrap gifts for children has the added bonus that the wrapping is a gift itself. Imagine a child unwraps a gift and is just as excited about the wrapping!

sarahs silks play silk furoshiki zero waste gift fabric wrap

Photo care of Sarah’s Silks

Overall, gift wrapping with fabric is easier (and faster) than wrapping with paper as you don’t need tape, ribbon or scissors. In my experience, people react positively to fabric wrapping: children find it extra fancy and adults usually have an ‘aha’ moment, like “hey, what a great idea!” In addition, fabric wrapping is more economical, encourages reuse and repurposing, and is environmentally friendly. Win-win-win! Try it out and please share the idea!

Make sure to check out my Zero Waste Gift Guide, which is great as a zero waste starter kit or for experienced zero wasters. Lots of ideas!

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Talking Work-Life Balance on Roasted

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I was recently interviewed by Michelle Little of Roasted about how I bring balance into my busy life. It was a great opportunity to reflect, thank you Michelle.

Below you’ll find an excerpt, to pique your interest, but make sure to click over to Roasted to read the whole article, or to surf around her cool website all about raising kids and getting the most out of your city, being creative and entrepreneurial, all with a special focus on one of my favourite cities, Montreal.

Michelle: Do you have any time for yourself?

Danielle: I don’t have what is commonly considered “me time”. This is mostly my own choice. I am very happy to give my free time wholeheartedly to my children. I think the notion of ‘me time’ comes from a need to restock our energies and do something for ourselves. As mothers and parents, some of us are not good at giving this to ourselves. For me, what restocks my energies is being with my children. I have never, honestly, ever had the feeling of needing a break from my children. I’m not a high maintenance person, I don’t need to get away to have my nails or hair done or to shop. What fulfills me is being in their presence. Learning from their perspective, being reminded of how simple happiness and fulfillment are for a child. All I need is that childlike wonder to remember that no object or time alone will ever be what I need to feel complete.

Read the whole interview here…

Special thank you to Amanda of Luv Mother, our mutual friend, who connected me with Michelle.

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tuta and coco montreal children art prints

Children’s Art Prints by Tuta & Coco

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On the Christmas of Ro’s second year, a family friend made us and our extended family a custom photo calendar featuring photos of Ro that he’d taken and gathered from family. This was nine years ago when photo calendars were not yet readily available. It was a simple, but very thoughtful gift, and ended up stealing the show Christmas morning. Everyone enjoyed pouring over the photos he’d selected and reminiscing about Ro’s development over the year (children change so much in a year at that age). The calendar was enjoyed that day, and everyday for the rest of the year.

As someone who, for a long time has felt dis-ease with excess and has had a hard time with Christmas mornings, seeing the lovely gifts exchanged and knowing that many will not be loved for long, it struck me how loved the calendar was. So, each year since then we have given this same present to everyone in our family and circle of friends: a photo calendar covering our life in the last year. That’s it. Simple gift, but one they will enjoy the whole year.

I’ve thought more than once that I’d like to make a calendar that features the children’s art work but wasn’t sure how to. This year when I found a local shop, Tuta & Coco, out of Montreal, that produces high-quality prints and paper products from children’s artwork I was really excited to put my idea into print. tuta and coco montreal children art printsWorking with Tuta & Coco was a breeze, I sent them scans of the art work (thank you Dad for scanning all those drawings and paintings!), Tuta & Coco then processed the digital files and emailed me drafts of the calendar until I was happy with it and then they printed it. The work was done.

The hard part came before when I was sifting through and selecting which artwork to include…while I’m minimal in many ways saving my children’s artwork is definitely a weakness. Hashtag understatement of the year.

tuta and coco montreal children art prints

It was a lovely surprise to find when the calendar arrived that each month was it’s own print (separate sheets), the calendar is held together on a small handmade wooden clipboard, so after a month has passed you can continue to enjoy the print off the clipboard (there’s no perforation to ruin the print). The clipboard is a nice clean design. And, in Sen’s opinion the clipboard is “Amazing mama! But, do I have to wait until the end of all these months to use it for me?” Seriously, it is the cutest tiny clipboard!

tuta and coco montreal children art prints

tuta and coco montreal children art prints

I absolutely love that all aspects of the calendar product will remain useful and loved after the year has gone by. The prints can be taped to the wall, used as postcards or any number of other ways. The clipboard is a fun and functional small size, especially good for children to use, and will be great to bring along in the summer for sketching out in the wild.

One final cool thing with the calendars is that you can start with any month, since each sheet is separate. This means you can give the calendar to anyone (including yourself) starting in any month of the year. Bonus!

You can find Tuta & Coco’s shop here, they ship worldwide. You can also find them on Instagram here and Pinterest here. **This is not a sponsored post, just sharing a cool find 🙂

Tuta & Coco kindly included a favourite piece of artwork from Ro and Sen in their children’s gallery on their site, which the children are pretty proud about!

tuta and coco montreal children art prints

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Drawing a Day

New Issue Out: Creatures of Light and Darkness

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Issue 11 of Enfants Terribles Magazine released a few days ago and what an amazing issue it is (if I do say so myself!). Given the timing of the release being so close to the solstice we chose to focus on light and darkness and all its metaphorical permutations. Our photographers outdid themselves for this issue, you will want to check out the editorials. We also continued with our ‘Children’s Voices’ feature where we share children’s thoughts on the issue’s theme. This time we asked children about their understanding of life and death in humans, plants and machines. This is fast becoming my favourite feature, I could read a whole book of children’s voices.the Creatures of Lights and Darkness issue cover skygge lilleAs always you’ll also find fun projects to do with your children, interviews with artists and small clothing companies, and plenty of visual inspiration. You can access the complete issue online for free, so please have a look and let me know what you liked and what you would like to see in future issues.

This is our last issue of 2015 and we have some amazing things in store for 2016, I can’t wait to share them with you.

xo, Danielle

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Shop Love: Rowdy Roddy Vintage

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Back in October I shared an interview with Taralyn, the owner of Little Heirloom, an online shop based in Canada, as the first in a little series of my favourite shops around the world stocking sustainable goods. So, today, I have the second: an interview with the lovely Jolyne Colburn owner and curator of the fun online (and brick and mortar too!) shop Rowdy Roddy Vintage. RRV, as she likes to call it, specializes in vintage and organic clothing for children. Jolyne’s hobby of vintage hunting led her to open Rowdy Roddy Vintage. She loves searching for unique prints and hand knits, and thought it would be fun to do so for others.

Tell me a little bit about yourself. What is your background? What are you passionate about?

I was born in San Francisco, California and went to the College of Arts there for Graphic Design. I have always loved to paint, draw and read magazines, so I thought design was perfect for me. I have had the opportunity to work with some great companies and high fashion magazines in the past that taught me the ropes. And because of my love of art, I have always loved to travel and see new things. I try to travel as much as I can with my son Roddy too, as other cultures supply so much knowledge in addition to our own. One summer we stay in Europe, the other, America, and the next in the jungles of Costa Rica…

Now, living in Scotland, so many people ask me “Why are you here and not in California?!” Well, long story short I married a Scotsman and here I am. Yes, there are not as many sunny days here, but I do love it. It is filled with castles, beautiful scenery, and sheep (I love sheep)… The people are so lovely and I have so much amazing history at my fingertips. Don’t get me wrong, I do miss California! But there is a sense of peace here that I don’t get anywhere else. Maybe it’s because I don’t know as many people here, but the shop has created a wealth of friends, similar to family, for me.

The things that I am passionate about besides my business and family would have to be my love for cooking, traveling and my need for the softest fabrics known to man.  I love a good dreamy linen or organic knit…

How many children do you have and how would you describe them?

I have one child, Roddy (4yrs), and one on the way in the spring. Roddy’s full name is Rodrigo, named after my uncle. My family is Costa Rican, so my husband and I wanted a name that would embrace both is Latino and Scottish cultures. With this spicy blood combo, boy is he a wee firecracker! But the best kind really, he is my best pal, so funny, so loving and clever. Every day he is surprises me.  What is your favourite thing to do as a family?

My husband is a drummer and is away A LOT. So I would say when we can all be in the same place at the same time is my favourite thing. Whether that’s if we meet him on the road or he comes home and we ignore that he is jetlagged, just being together is the best thing in the world.  What did you want to be when you were a child?

As far back as I can remember I always liked to be involved in art in some way. Whether it was drawing, painting or sculpting I wanted to be doing it.

Did your career aspirations change once you had a child?

A little, but just a little. I told my dad that I wanted to go to Art School for painting and he said “no way.” As much as that infuriated the teenager in me, I am glad that he forced me to choose another field at school. I knew I loved design as well and it was a good fit, and while I was there I could squeeze in some painting classes too. Win Win. The tools that I learned as a graphic designer were indispensable and great for the coming years. I still use them daily with RRV (Rowdy Roddy Vintage), whether its for a new shirt, our website or an email mailer. So, I’m not sure If I have said this, but thanks Dad! 

What is Rowdy Roddy Vintage and why did you decide to start your own business?

My love for vintage is what inspired me to open RRV. I found it very difficult to find good vintage for babies and kids in the UK. So with my over active addiction to collect vintage, I had found a purpose! Being from the bay area and a wee bit of a hippie at heart, it fuelled my love for vintage as well. Wearing vintage keeps clothes out of landfills and helps the planet. We also support our community with our Buy Sell Trade scheme, where we pay you to recycle! 
We are always trying to find new ways to keep our kiddos lookin’ good and help the earth at the same time!

What inspired your shop’s name?

We started the business when my son Roddy was just 7 months old, and we thought it was a perfect fit for his personality… Wee Rowdy Roddy…

How do you choose the brands and clothing you carry?

I started my business with just vintage items that I would bring from California. Not long after opening and from the growth of my shop to a bigger location and our popularity in Glasgow, we introduced Lapin & me, a vintage inspired company that we thought was a perfect fit. After that we went from strength to strength and added Beau Loves, Mini Rodini, Bobo Choses, Finger in the Nose, Noe & Zoe, to name a few. We choose these independent brands because they fit well with our ethos. Whether they are organic, recycle or made locally and in small batches, we take all these little things in to consideration. 

What are your dreams for your shop and for motherhood?

As everyone who owns a business, I just want it to be successful. So much hard work goes into owning a business that you just hope for the best. I do have to say that I am very happy with what we have accomplished in the past years and I am lucky to have the great support of my staff, family, and lovely customers. I feel like I’m a winner already.

Now for motherhood, that is another story! It is a learning process that never ends. It is amazing to watch your child grow and try and teach them to be the best wee human they can be. Most of the time it is not easy, but it is always rewarding. I know the most interesting is yet to come with another on the way.  When you are all caught up on work what do you love to do?

I don’t think I have ever been all caught up! I am always trying to think of new ways to promote the business, so it is a never ending thing on my mind. Wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep stuff. But when I really try and have a day off, I love to try new recipes and maybe attempt to knit, although I never have enough time to finish the project! Hopefully one day I can again, because I do love it so…

Thank you Jolyne! Friends and readers you can find Rowdy Roddy Vintage’s online store here, and you can also follow Jolyne on Instagram @rowdyroddyvintage.

You can also find an interview I did for Rowdy Roddy almost a year ago here.

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Talking Slow Living on Ruth & Ragnar

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Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

I get asked a lot about slow living and minimalism and how I bring these to life in our family. Well, first I should probably tell you that most of my week is anything but slow. I work full time outside the home in a very hectic job. I work in politics in Canada and not only are the days hustled, they are highly unpredictable, chock full of emotional people and high stakes situations. I’m a naturally calm person, people often describe me as “zen,” which is probably why I’ve survived in my job. However, after working in this environment for a few years I started to notice that I carried that hustled, stressed energy home with me. I would furiously clean and tidy all evening, I would speedily move from one task to another, and multi-tasking was the only way I did anything. On the weekends I would hustle around doing errands, taking Ro and Sen to a list of activities and catching up on my social calendar. I couldn’t seem to find a slo-mo setting… Read the rest of the post over on Ruth & Ragnar.

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Creative Mother: Artist Erin Wetzel

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It’s obvious I love doing interviews, showcasing other’s special talents, whether these are creative talents, parenting talents or otherwise. It’s hard to know where to start with Erin Wetzel. Erin is an illustrator and portrait artist living in Washington state with her young family. She is certainly a talented artist, with a unique and humble point of view. But as I’ve gotten to know her, I’ve found layer upon layer of wisdom and intelligence that I had no idea were there from the little snippets I gleaned from her Instagram gallery. Her writing is beautiful and honest, unpretentious, and always stirs you in ways that you need to be stirred. She makes the everyday exquisite in its simplicity, or rather shows us that it already is. What a gift, because our perception is everything.

Dear Erin, please tell me a little bit about yourself. What is your background?

While I have been creative my whole life, it wasn’t until about three years ago that I started exploring my current style of watercolor and ink portraiture and illustration. Most of the things I’ve learned have been through trial and error or from talking with other artists. I am most inspired by The Everyday, finding extraordinary beauty in the humdrum of ordinary moments.

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You can see a compehensive gallery of my work on my site: http://ekwetzel.com/artwork/

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What part of the world do you live in?

Tacoma, Washington.

How many children do you have and how would you describe them?

Phoebe is a 4-year-old with a big heart for dancing, slugs, and being a big sister. And Baby Wetzel is our newborn (birthdate & name TBD). [Erin’s second daughter, Clementine, was born shortly after she gave this interview].

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What are your core family values?

We believe that the virtues of God permeate the world in ways that are accessible to anyone.

We believe in grace, generosity and humility.

We respect the beautiful power of the individual and believe that people are naturally creatures of connection and creativity.

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How do you spend most of your days?

There is no typical day for us, but there are rhythms we move between from week to week. We do lots of cooking and baking, but I’m a terrible gardener and our yard is more often than not a tangle of weeds. We read a lot, but we also love video games, like the Toca Boca games on the iPad, or Bioware games: Dragon Age and Mass Effect. We love to explore the outdoors, especially Tacoma’s rocky beaches or our Pacific Northwest woods.

09 Art badger

What is your favourite thing to do as a family?

Mostly, our favorite thing is to just be, at home, together. Sometimes we goof off, or play a game, or dance…but as long as we’re all engaged, that’s what fills us with joy.

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What are you passionate about?

Helping people. Making the world a better place. Leaving things a little more beautiful, a little more whimsical, a little more connected than I found them.

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What inspires you?

Attachment.

Can you tell me a bit about your work as an artist and illustrator?

I focus on portraiture and scenes of relationship and whimsy. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot with animal/human hybrids. I think that putting an animal face on a person’s body helps make people laugh, but, on a deeper level, it also pulls at an innate need for connection inside of us.

Let me explain what I mean.

We are all separate beings, moving through life, surrounded by “others.” When you see something beautiful in an other, that draw towards beauty is like your spirit saying: “I see something inside of you that echoes within me. We are not alone. We are the same.”

Art is all about speaking the language of Beauty. It connects us. With my art, I take people (others) and give them animal faces (which makes them really, truly others, because animals aren’t humans). Even so, people STILL identify with these visual representations and find connection and beauty in them. I think they help us realize on some intuitive level that we are all connected to something bigger, stronger, and more beautiful than any one of us alone.

This is why I believe art can bring hope: because it reminds us how beauty permeates even the most innocuous of moments; art reminds us how to look for it; and, when we carry that beauty inside of our hearts, it connects us to an underlying faith that goodness will conquer in the end.

08 Art hummingbird

07 Art squirrel

Did you life goals or career aspirations change once you had a child?

Absolutely.

When I became a mom, I started asking myself all sorts of hard questions about what it looks like to be a good parent and spouse. It was a winnowing experience for me. Parenting with a wide open heart threw me into the fire and burned away a lot of fears and inhibitions.

I never used to think about what my dreams were or what my purpose was…I was content to just bob along through life. When I became a parent, I started to realize that, in order to support my child as she becomes the person she’s meant to be, first I had to have the courage to do the same. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. I wanted to be a role model.

So, in a way, parenting opened me up to deeper love than I ever realized before, both for my daughter, but also for my husband and for myself.

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What are your dreams for your work as an artist?

Abstractly: I want my work to give people hope. I want it to make them smile and remind them of the ever-present goodness in The Everyday.

Practically: I’ve always wanted to make a children’s book, ever since I was a child. Most of my life, I thought that just meant finding the right story to tell. But, now that I’m an illustrator, I’m exhilarated to find the right pictures that speak even more poignantly than words.

Some day. When the story is ready, it will find me, and I will shepherd it as best I can.

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12 Family

Thank you Erin! Friends and readers you can find Erin at ekwetzel.com or on Instagram @ekwetzel and on her art account @ekwetzel_art on Twitter @ekwetzel, and her Etsy shop Ekwetzel (briefly closed while she welcomes baby Clementine is now open again. Use code: KISSES until January 23, 2016 for 10% off). She is a must follow!

This interview is part of my Creative Mother series, find the rest here.

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Mindful Picking and Making a Flower Crown

HAVE YOU SUBSCRIBED TO THE GLOBAL GUARDIAN PROJECT YET? THESE ARE MONTHLY LEARNING CAPSULES FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES TO LEARN ABOUT GLOBAL STEWARDSHIP. EACH MONTH FEATURES A DIFFERENT COUNTRY’S WILD LIFE, LANDSCAPE AND CHALLENGES, AND INCLUDES ART PROJECTS, ACTIVITIES, MEDITATION, RECIPES AND MORE! USE MY DISCOUNT CODE: HIPPIEINDISGUISE FOR 10% OFF, YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT IT HERE

Empowering Motherhood: Inspiring Mother Tiff

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It’s been a while since I’ve shared an inspiring mother. Tiff is a stay at home mother, yoga instructor and birth doula. I started following her because I loved how she incorporated yoga into her everyday life with a toddler. I’ve personally struggled with getting more than a few sun salutations done while my children are around. Sen loves yoga, don’t get me wrong, but it’s all partner yoga or him leading the practice. Somedays I just want to flow through 20 salutations without interruption.

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When Tiff started sharing her second pregnancy on Instagram I was totally inspired by how she shared, in a very humble way, the beauty of pregnancy and how deeply empowering it can be to carry and birth a baby. I never expected the birth of my own children to be transformational or empowering but they were; however, I never figured out a good way to share my story. Tiff shares in an natural, inspiring, yet humble, everyday way. She doesn’t present herself as superhuman. She puts forth a vision of birth and mothering that is both aspirational and very attainable by reminding herself and women of what we’ve always been capable of. Thank you, Tiff, for sharing, you’ve no doubt inspired many women to trust in themselves, not only to birth and mother a baby, but to trust themselves, period.

What part of the world do you live in?

Southern California

How many children do you have and how would you describe them?  

Two daughters – Nora Jane (3 yrs) my bright, wild, spirited one, & Violet Lu (born Oct 28) sweet, cuddly little darling.

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What are your core family values?

Love Yourself. Love others. Have patience. Notice the beauty in each moment. Be grateful for all of life’s abundance. Take every life experience as an opportunity for learning and growth.

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How do you spend most of your days?

Our little family is happiest when we are playing in the waves, so we spend most of our days at the beach; soaking up the sunshine and salty air. I really feel connected with the water and swimming in the ocean has always felt like a spiritual experience for me. My girls were both born in water, so I think it’s safe to say they feel the same.

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What is your favourite thing to do as a family?

Get out into nature, explore new places.

What are you passionate about? 

I am passionate about yoga- practice & philosophy. When training to become an instructor (while pregnant with my first daughter), the natural lifestyle really resonated with me which is why I chose to have a natural home water birth with my daughters. After having my first beautiful birth experience, I became inspired to share what I felt so deeply to be true: pregnancy is a sacred and beautiful privilege, and birth can be a wonderful and enjoyable experience as our bodies are made for it!

What inspires you?

I am inspired by others who follow their passions and have the courage to share their gifts with the world.

Did your dreams change once you had a child?

Absolutely. Giving birth changed me and empowered me to embrace motherhood in a way I hadn’t ever imagined for myself. I became very passionate about the birth process and our body’s natural, innate abilities and felt called to help empower other women and mothers in their own pregnancy and birth journeys.

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Photo by @tophography_

What are your dreams for motherhood?

I want my girls to know just how much they are loved and to teach them to truly love and accept their authentic selves, as well as others. And that life can be anything they wish to make it.

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Thank you so much, Tiff! Friends and readers: you can follow Tiff on Instagram @namastetiff and watch the most beautiful, empowering birth video ever here (outside USA) or here (USA).

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Yoga Retreat in Costa Rica May 2016

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Yoga and Surf Retreat

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Mother, sisters, women, daughters! Come to Costa Rica, take a break, relax, focus on yourself for a few days, renew yourself, your spirits, your energy! Join me for an amazing week!

yoga and surf retreat tropic of candycorn

I am thrilled to announce that I will be a speaker at the TOC Yoga and Surf Retreat for mothers. The retreat is in Costa Rica (!) this coming May and is being organized by Tropic of Candycorn (TOC).

Female surfer

I would love to meet some of my international friends and readers, so please join me! Yes, YOU! I love meeting new people and what better better place for a meet up than Costa Rica, between yoga practices, surfing, and relaxing on the beach!

Where? Marriott Resort, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

When? May 2-7, 2016

Who? The retreat is open to all moms (although we won’t be checking your ID), no surf or yoga experience necessary! Courses will be offered at all levels (novice to advanced) throughout the day, each day.

Full details about the retreat, and some teaser photos, can be found here on the Tropic of Candycorn site just click on “TOC Mom Retreat”

*PS: I have a discount code for the first 15 people who sign up: HIPPIEMOMS10

Please leave a comment or email me if you have any questions, I will be happy to get back to you.

TOC retreat 2

Slow Living Project: Raise

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I’m pretty sure I’ll be saying this every month, and that I won’t tire of saying it either: what a beautiful and inspiring month it’s been for the Slow Living project. Melanie and I continue to draw inspiration for our own living from your images and words. For anyone new to this blog, Melanie and I started a  year-long slow living project back in August, where each month we invite others to share their slow living moments, each month with a different focus. For November, we focused on the word ‘raise’: how we raise our children and the next generation, but also raise in the broader sense of the term.

I was particularly inspired by those of you who shared images that gave a double meaning to the word: raising little bakers while raising bread dough, raising explorers and nature lovers, while raising a lean-to. Then there were the photos about raising nurturers, artists, homesteaders, readers, and gardeners. I loved seeing how you raise your children by passing on favourite traditions and sharing between generations. There were some honest moments of the challenges of raising children, how it can be so hard to ‘yes’, but so rewarding to. I loved the aspirational and metaphorical ideas related to raise, raising our compassion, raising our hopes, raising community, raising imaginations. Then the literal, but very classic and nostalgic images of raising: the hopes we place in an unborn child, an infant, and seeing our children grow into and out of things.

Thank you everyone for the inspiration…it was very hard to narrow my selections down to these ones below. You can view all the contributions here #slowliving_raise.

Nurturers and homesteaders

Photo by @littlespringandautumnjourney

Photo by @littlespringandautumnjourney

Photo by @megchittenden

Photo by @megchittenden

Photo by @growingwildthings

Photo by @growingwildthings

 

Saying ‘yes’

Photo by @magdalenadom

Photo by @magdalenadom

Photo by @petalplum

Photo by @petalplum

 

Passing on knowledge and traditions

Photo by @mama_2thelittleones

Photo by @mama_2thelittleones

Photo by @lillalinaea

Photo by @lillalinaea

Photo by @mrsnomi

Photo by @mrsnomi

 

Compassion, imagination, hope, community

Photo by @thedevinetribe

Photo by @thedevinetribe

Photo by @amandajanedalby

Photo by @amandajanedalby

Photo by @danceypantsdisco

Photo by @danceypantsdisco

Photo by @thebrookeway

Photo by @thebrookeway

 

Bakers, explorers, artists

Photo by @seedsandstitches

Photo by @seedsandstitches

Photo by @faithevanssills

Photo by @faithevanssills

Photo by @amerryadventure

Photo by @amerryadventure

 

Growth and nostalgia

Photo by @findingjoyforus

Photo by @findingjoyforus

Photo by @theloopfactory

Photo by @theloopfactory

 

Melanie’s selections can be found over on her blog www.geoffreyandgrace.com.

Thank you to everyone who participated this month and shared their slow living moments, please join us in December as we explore the theme ‘gather’ in the context of slow living. In many places around the world December is a time to gather. But, gather can be played with and interpreted broadly. I find gather to be a particulary ‘slow’ word, it implies thoughtful selection. But ‘gather’ can also mean to increase, to collect, to harvest, to summon, to understand. Whatever it connotes for you, we’re excited to see how you are inspired to focus on gathering this month. Please share your images with the hashtag #slowliving_gather so others can be inspired.

You can find previous month’s selection by searching my blog: “explore” “nurture” “love” “renew” “raise” “bloom and harvest” “create” “gather”

Our Pinterest board ‘Slow Living Moments’ includes all photo selections from the project visit it here.

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