Happy Monday

Been thinking a lot about living a simpler life recently and have enjoyed looking at photos and watching videos of tiny homes.  This is a particularly lovely film, live the bit with Janine Alexander and her portable home.
Fantasising about living in a little caravan or something, or a small wooden house, Little House on The Prairie Stylee:

 

Would you like to live in a tiny house of couldn't you stand it?  How much stuff would you have to get rid of in order to live in a tiny house?

Finally a Facebook page for Serendipity Child

Finally I have got my act together to create a Facebook page for Serendipity Child.  Please please check it out, and join, I hope you like it, I will update whenever I do a blog post or add a new item to my shop.  Click on the image to access my Facebook page:

What this blog is all about

This might sound really silly but the other day I realised what this blog is all about.  I had been feeling all bothered about not having a singular voice or a focus for the blog.  I wanted it to be cohesive, but felt it came across as muddled and without direction because of all my separate interests, ideas and aspects to my life.
It hit me whilst browsing some other blogs about parenting; The Minimalist Mom,  The imagination tree and Little eco footprints.  And now, having seen the way other people come across on their blogs, I can explain the content of my blog with one wonderful word, Alternative.  Let me explain first by examining what I see as being the opposite to "Alternative":
The Anti-to my "alternative" can be encompassed in three words; conventional, mainstream and conformist.  I see these things as following the status-quo, not questioning, accepting the way things are, not hoping for change.  Also, (perhaps rather more controversially) I see this way of life as being Capitalist; a life in which on strives for always more money and/or power; consumerism.
 My life, and this blog is about getting more of other things in my life than money, stuff and power.  More love, more joy, more peace, greater satisfaction, better relationships, greater autonomy,  more self-reliance when it comes to material things, better quality of life. And in so doing, following a way of life which is alternative to the mainstream of what most people do; challenging what is the norm and being more mindful of the planet as I do so.  Putting this into practical terms means my blog is about:

• Trying to be financially self-sufficient through working for myself, selling my wares (Art, crafts) and my skills (teaching, photography),
• Trying to be more environmentally friendly and self-sufficient through growing my own veg (Allotment), making things rather than buying them (crafts) and doing things that help the environment, or at the least cause it less damage,
• Following alternative parenting approaches, (attachment parenting, eco-parenting)
• Differentiating myself from secular, mainstream society, living a "good" life, (Christianity) 
• Thinking about life, the world and everything in a different way, not conforming to how society expects me to behave, act, dress etc.

And all these things are of course interconnecting, so it looks something like this:

A bit messy I know, but that's just me!

So in summary, this blog is about my life...my Alternative life.  

Hope you like it!

Re-usable wet wipes tutorial

If there is one thing that most parents seem to not be able to live without then it has to be wet wipes.  I often hear other mothers lamenting the cost of nappies, formula and wet wipes and I smile smugly to myself and think how glad I am that I am not having to spend money on two out of those three essentials.

Don't get me wrong, I am no saint, I was using cotton wool and water for this first five months of my son's life, but I realised the error of my ways and that I needn't be filling up our dustbins with yet more detritus, that, although admittedly will eventually bio-degrade, will take a long time under all that plastic.  So in order to eliminate that little bit extra waste I decided I could make my own wet wipes.  This idea struck me after reading the chapter about babies in The Self-sufficientish Bible, they suggest cutting up polyester fleece to use as wipes, but seeing as I had a lot of cotton flannelette left from the neckerchief/bandanna bibs I thought this would be a better material.  Not only is cotton more natural that synthetic fleece, but I figured it might also be more absorbent.

To begin with I tore up my flannelette into long strips which were the width of a sheet of toilet tissue.  I then cut these strips into smaller toilet tissue sized rectangles.  Initially I thought to make them wet-wipe sized, but decided that toilet paper size was sufficient, and should I decide they ought to be bigger in future I could just make more.

Next I stitched round each edge with a wide zig-zag on the sewing machine.  I don't think that this step is essential, but I thought it might make them last a bit longer as it will stop them fraying in the wash. 

Then just keep going until you have as many as you need.  I must have made about 50 initially, but may  make more depending on how many I get through in a day.

To store them I put mine into a plastic tupperware type box with a slosh of water to keep them moist.  You could also add a few drops of something like grape seed oil which is the only other ingredient in waterwipes, or soak the water in chamomile tea before putting the wipes in. 

Better for your pocket and better for baby's bottom too because they don't contain any of the nasty chemicals found in commercial wet-wipes.

Once used place them into another plastic container with a tight lid which will not only keep in any smell but will keep them moist making them easier to wash.  (much harder to get out dried on poo than the soft wet stuff) You can wash them as you would washable nappies.  I will be washing them at 30 degrees with Bio D Laundry Liquid.

Neckerchief/Bandanna bib tutorial

Have you seen there sweet bibs you can get now that look like neckerchiefs?!  I think they are really cute and much more fun that an ordinary bib, it makes the bib part of the baby's outfit rather than just covering it up for the sake of dribble protection.
I was on the verge of buying some when I suddenly remembered that I can sew, and have half a brain #9the other half went out with the placenta!) and therefore could make some myself.
What's more I though I could share it with you so you can have a go at making one for your baby if you have one, or as a gift for a friend with a new addition.
It is dead easy to make one of these bibs, as I am sure you know by now I don't really do measuring, so haven't included any, all lengths are by rack of eye! (Or by what I figure will fit round a baby's neck.)

For this tutorial you need two types of fabric, I used a flannelette type cotton which I figured would be fairly absorbent, then a patterned jersey type fabric for the front.

Begin buy making a paper template for the shape you want, I loosely wrapped mine around my baby's neck to get an idea of the size and included enough room for hemming.

Pin the template to the fabric then cut around it.  

Next pin the flannelette to the jersey and cut around it as before so you have two triangles of the same shape and size.

Keeping the fabric pinned together sew the two pieces together using a straight stitch.  Leave about 1 cm for hemming.  

Make sure you leave a small gap of about 3cm to turn your bib the right way round.  I left one of my corners open.  

Next trim off the excess from the edges so they are nice and neat:

Then turn the bib the right way round through the small hole you left at one end:

It should look like this now:

Now to finish off tuck in the un-hemmed edges on your open corner like this:

Then simply sew a straight line over this edge (you could do a chain stitch by hand if you so felt inclined, I am a bit lazy though and want to get it done quickly, so it was just a straight stitch for me.)

Now you need to add some velcro.  Cut a piece about 3 cm long and pin one piece to either side of your bib:

Sew them with a straight stitch and you are done!

Hope you are all having a great week, I am writing this tutorial in my garden because we finally have some sun in the UK!

made a button bouquet!

After being sooo inspired by THIS button bouquet I saw at a wedding and seeing all THESE beautiful bouquets made by the same lovely lady I decided to have a go at making my own button bouquet.  My mum had a stash of buttons that she was keen to be used up and I had a pile of wire left over from the table settings at my wedding, so I though why not give it a go (according to Google analytics they are a rising trend!!).  I looked up a tutorial for how to make a stem then just went from there really, I made 50 in the end and then stopped.  So for about the past two months I have had 50  of these stems lying about the house and finally this week I bundled them all together and finished off the bouquet with some pretty lace and tulle netting.  What do you think, not bad for a first attempt even if I do say so myself.  Which is why I have put it for sale here, and here and here.  Who knows, if it sells I might even make another one!
What do you think?

How my baby is growing!

I am always feeling like I am not to sure how much you guys want to see pics of my little baby, but he is such a big part of my life now I just can't pretend every thing is going on as normal!  I am so busy with his all day he really does take all my attention I have virtually no time for anything else.  He is so sweet and growing so quickly, at the moment he is really discovering his body and what he can do with it, sucking his feet, tugging at his ears and making all manner of noises.  He is still waking up a couple of time most nights for extra feeds and doesn't sleep much during the day.  He likes to be entertained and gets bored quickly, he goes a bit stir crazy is he is indoors all day, loves being held, looked at, talked to.  He doesn't like being left alone.  The day before yesterday he sat by himself for the first time (for a few moments before toppling)!  Anyway I could go on and on about him.  I love him so much. Who knew!?
Here are some pics:

Hope you are all good, anyone still reading this blog?