colour in our garden

Our backyard is a tiny strip along the length of our unit, so we have a lot of fence to look at... and it's not a pretty fence. 

Lately I've been checking out paint websites, coming up with lovely colour plans (and even dreaming about covering the whole fence in blackboard paint to make giant chalk murals)... but have baulked at the cost and time involved

Yesterday, I came up with another solution... and pulled out our lovely big bottles of kids paint...

enlisted the help of an enthusiastic little artist... 

and began to paint a mural (inspired by "Isabella's Garden" - a beautiful book).

The little artist developed a wonderfully effective technique for making the "worms" and insect tracks - scraping off paint with a paddlepop (ice lolly) stick. 

 

It was the sort of project that makes you lose track of time... and I have no idea how much time we spent... but it was worth every minute.

We even managed to get out the chalk...

Inspired by all this colour (and by a post we'd seen that morning), we embarked on another crafty garden project...

making our own mini garden gnomes (somewhat more rustic than the original).

I hope your weekend has been full of colour and happiness too!

earthy

When our curly haired girl was just three years old, she made up a song: 


"When I get bigger I could fix the world" 


(it was an easy song to remember as these were the only words, repeated three or four times, until her big finale, riffing on her final "w-o-o-o-r-l-d").


Nearly two years later, I still think about this song with immense pride and love, but also some sorrow and guilt - how and why should a three year old know that the world is in need of fixing? 


Most days, the love and pride wins out  - together with a reminder that I could do more right now to make things a little better before she gets "big".


Yesterday we hung out in the garden, and decided to try making a big soil and mustard seed stencil for fun (and it was fun!).


Today we found out it was Earth day, thanks to the wonderful Lola Nova, so a big soil love heart seems like the perfect thing to pop on this quiet little blog for a while.


Happy Earth day!

rainbows...

... for Annie x


Visit Anna's post here to find out more and join in (and don't forget to check in with Horsey and Eustace for some extra inspiration and encouragement...)