Sometimes when I sit down with my craft making, I think tiny mundane thoughts - small moments of life. Sometimes I think giant and big things. Sometimes I work through the idea of how I can even think what I'm doing has any relevance or importance in life - in the actual realness of the world. 

I don't 'do' guilt, I've never been interested in taking it on, and have spent a fair bit of my adult life trying to do away with it. Trying to breathe through any family guilt pushed upon me (some members of my extended family are quite good at the guilt trip - I'm not interested in carrying that on or being part of it). I think guilt is a horrible waste of time, emotion, energy and all the rest.

Doing what I do - being an artist, an indie business owner & a mama to 3 noisy kids - is big, hard, mentally exhausting work. I know I talk about slow living a lot, and I do live it in my everyday life. But the reality is you need some tricks to get through being in the noise of mamahood and finding your way to being the artist. Don't you think?

My two big kids are of the age now where my alternative ways can sometimes be embarrassing. Where they moan at the things I don't let them have, the things I make them do, the ways we live vs the ways they think other people live. My ‘hippie’ ways are a bit too much for them sometimes.

How to fit creativity into the everyday busy of life can be a big challenge for all of us. It doesn't matter if you're a parent of 6, or 1, or have no kids at all. Life can be full, hectic, non-stop. Just regular living - cooking, cleaning, buying food, paying bills, going to work, sitting in traffic.... all those things seem to fill our days before we even get to think about spending time with family and friends, before we can even consider adding in our own creative making time.

This is my recipe for hummus - which is super easy and super yummy. Make some and keep it in your fridge for school or work lunches, morning or afternoon tea snacks, spreading onto breakfast toast, taking to a party, or dipping veggie sticks into. I make it without using any canned chickpeas (it's cheaper this way, reduces the waste of the packaging, and tastes yummier). I buy organic and Australian grown chickpeas in bulk from my health-food shop and soak them myself. It's homemade from scratch, naturally vegan and gluten-free, and plastic-free as well. But most importantly it tastes delicious and my whole family loves it!

I am slowly slowly getting my garden becoming more of a thing. The dahlias, cosmos and zinnias from Summer’s garden are still blooming quite abundantly, but it’s all looking a little overgrown and end-of-season-ish. A couple of weeks ago, we made a new garden bed, and I planted out the indigo and woad. As well as some other things that needed to from pots to the ground.

Every year we try to plant a garden, of some sort or other. Some years we’ve had flourishing garden, picking veges and flowers, other years barely anything at all. Some years it’s determined by the floods or the lack of water. I’ve done a lot of hand watering, carrying buckets from the creek to the garden over the years

This beautiful book is a perfect format that take with you in your bag, to have on your bedside table, to pick up around everything else that’s going on. Conscious Creativity* by Philippa Stanton, better known as uber-talented @5ftinf on Instagram.

There's colds and coughs here at the moment. And rainy coolish days. Perfect weather for gathering lemons from our trees, lemongrass from my friends garden and raw honey and organic ginger from the farmers market.

A remedy my mama used to make for us to nourish our bodies and warm our hearts. Holding a cup of warm lemon, honey & ginger is almost like a hug.

Crochet string bags are perfect little additions to a simple living home - useful for taking to the farmers market, when visiting the library, carrying kids extra everythings about, finding scrunched at the bottom of your handbag when you get a few extra supplies at the supermarket. Simply put - they're sorta useful for a whole lot of things. Throw one over your shoulders full of Summer's beach supplies; carry wet towels and swimmers home, while the sand falls out the bottom of the bag on your walk back home. Load it up with fruit from your own trees, or while borrowing some from that roadside tree that everyone's been spying.

Make your own with my FREE crochet pattern.

Today I made my dad's chickpea dahl. My dad is one of the best cook's I know. ......maybe the best..?? Anyway, he's a pretty excellent cook. We grew up eating his good healthy real made-with intention, thought, care, love meals. My mum was a great cook too, one of the best I know too! They cooked different things, which makes me not have to compare them. 

I think childhood memories of food and cooking and being in the kitchen with your parents are some of the strongest memories I have. I think maybe my siblings have similar strong food memories.

Wanna make channa masala…..