Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

Celebrations

The first week of Advent

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I love Advent, it’s a time of much hope, promise and renewal of faith. It’s also an opportunity to change the home environment in preparation for Christmas and I find our home becomes joyfully active!

We invited some friends for an Advent craft morning during the week and it was a great success. I thought I would share with you some of the activities we did.
These little nativity silhouette jars worked a treat and are easy and cost effective to make.

All you need is a jar with a lid and a battery operated candle to fit inside. I got my supplies at an Asian discount store. You can choose what to put on the outside of the jar to create the silhouette. One of my girls cut out the letters for Jesus, another one cut a nativity scene out of card stock and another printed the nativity scene from here, coloured it in and glued it on. You can add ribbon, stars or whatever you like just by glueing or tying on the extras.

Another activity we did was saint ornaments for the tree. We don’t have a tree yet, so they’re just hanging for now. I neglected to take a photo of our friend’s ornaments, but here are some of ours. I bought the PDF for this activity from Catholic Icing and it’s well worth the few dollars spent.



During the week my 9 year old daughter (who loves to draw but mostly within her comfort zone) did a video tutorial by Shoo Rayner for drawing a gingerbread house. Shoo has heaps of great tutorials for drawing and has a relaxed, humorous style. My daughter was reluctant to try the tutorial, so I said I was going to do it myself – pretty soon she had her drawing pad out and was immersed in the activity. Her drawing turned out better than mine! (Mine is on the left). 


I wonder what Advent fun we will get up to next week?


500 likes giveaway

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I’m celebrating 500 likes on my Facebook page!

I’m giving away 2x 100gram skeins of my hand dyed yarn.

You can choose between 4, 8 or 10 ply superwash merino.

And you can choose from any of my existing colourways.

You can view my current colourways here.

To enter, please leave a comment here (not on my Facebook page) telling me the colourway you would choose and what you would do with it if you won.
Entries open for one week, winner will be notified so please ensure I can contact you šŸ™‚

*Open to Australian residents only.

Back to basics, frugality revisited.

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Christmas, interstate holidays and unfortunately timed car repairs and insurance bills have left things a little tight for us of late. Very little is being saved and the bills and expenses just keep rolling in. 
I spent a bit of time having a sook about our own little economic downturn but when I got tired of feeling sorry for myself I decided to get over it and take on a frugal challenge. 
It’s amazing that even when you live a frugal lifestyle you can always find little areas where money is not being used as wisely as it could. So, here are a few things I’m doing this month to make positive changes.
I’ve been making my own laundry gel for ages (great stuff!) and also my own cleaning spray (I add some lavender or tea tree essential oil to make cleaning more bearable!) for a few months.  As I’ve mentioned before, the recipes I use are from the excellent book “Saving Mum”. 

Recently I found that I could make an excellent toilet spray simply by placing water and essential oils in an old spray bottle. I’d tried it in the past and wasn’t thrilled with the results, but I’ve found that the essential oils needed to be stronger. I also make up a really small batch at a time (say about 100ml)  to keep it fresh.
For my 3 long haired girls I squirt a little hair conditioner into an old spray bottle, top it up with water and use it as a de-tangler. This morning I also made up a batch of dish liquid and will be trying that out. I’m nearly due to do a big batch of soap too. Sometimes I use my soap to wash the girl’s hair.

After the hot and dry summer our garden has been re-planted with vegetables and the kids each have their own plot. Here are my husband’s cos lettuces. I still can’t work in the garden much because of my back issues but I live in hope that I’ll be able to return soon.

I have been wanting to replace our large side gate for 9 years now (ever since we moved in) as it is broken and very difficult to open, not to mention old and unattractive. We never seem to have enough spare cash to complete this job! So, new tactics. We have a money jar in our bedroom as husband often chucks a handful of coins from his pockets in there when getting undressed. The coins are used for small shopping trips and the rest goes into our charity jar in the kitchen. I’ve placed a little box beside the bedroom jar and place the gold coins in the box, with the silver change going to the charity jar as before. Gold coins can add up quickly and I have $15 in my “replace side gate” box already. Who knows how long it will take to save the required amount but at least I feel better because I’m moving towards the goal šŸ™‚


We found a way to do cheap and beautiful eggs for our table display. We dyed cheap supermarket cage eggs with egg dye, then used these super cool “Happy Wraps” to decorate with. I picked up the wraps and dye at a continental grocer very cheaply. They were so easy to make and look fantastic.

For Easter eggs my husband found a warehouse outlet that sells good brands (Red Tulip, Cadbury) eggs at heavily discounted prices. We also intend not to go overboard with chocolate for the kids as we tend to – they really don’t need bucket loads!

There are plenty more things I’m doing to be more frugal at the moment, but this post is getting rather long, so maybe next time.

How about you? Feeling the pinch? Taking any positive steps to help?

How do you make your children behave in Mass?

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I get asked this question constantly! I’m not saying my kids are perfect, but generally speaking, they are pretty well behaved in Mass. I thought I would share my observations and things we’ve put into practice over the years- the things that DO work and the things that DON’T.

Lets start with DON’T:

*Don’t give your kids sweets or drinks in Mass. Ever. No food, no drink. Most Masses go for 45 minutes – 1 hour. They won’t starve or die of thirst in this time! They also won’t leave sticky finger marks, spills or distract other children. The church is not the place for food and drink.

*Don’t let them play with your phone or other gadgets. This is training them that they need to be entertained.

*Don’t allow other (often well meaning) church-goers to hold conversations with your children in the church. Politely explain to these people that you are happy to speak to them outside after Mass, but you are trying to teach your children to be silent in the church.

*Don’t let your children leave their seat. Children being allowed to run up and down the aisle or near the altar during Mass is something I find totally unacceptable. If they don’t comply they need to be taken out of the church into a quiet area where the Mass can still be heard. Don’t take them outside and let them play, that is counterproductive.

*Don’t allow your children to attend “Sunday School”. A child will never learn to sit still and be quiet if they are allowed to go out of the church 10 minutes into the Mass to do colouring in and often “soft” teachings. Keep them with you, where they belong.

Now for the DO’s:

*Do give your children a solid grounding of their faith at home so that they have some sort of understanding of what they are doing at Mass and why. Set a good example in the church – genuflect, whisper or be silent, move in a posture of respect. Children need to see faith in action.

*Do remind them of the rules before entering the church if necessary. Children need to know what is expected of them.

* Do reward them for good behaviour in the church. Suitable rewards for us are praise, a trip to the shop, a special outing etc.

*Do remove your child/ren from the church if they are misbehaving and refuse to stop. Don’t make this an easy way out, they are to stand or sit quietly somewhere as a punishment. If the child is crying or noisy I would take them out of earshot of the rest of the congregation but would never let them run and play. The idea is that you make the idea of being in the church more desirable than being stuck outside in punishment mode.

*Do allow them to take religious books into the church. If they start to get restless, this can be a welcome relief.

*Do sit right up the front! What? I hear you say- my kids are so naughty, we always sit down the back for a quick exit! Sitting near the front means they can see what is happening, feel more involved and are less likely to misbehave.

*Do sit between children who are misbehaving, however you can separate them. I often do this still as I see little developments and lack of concentration.

*Do, if at all possible (and I know for some it isn’t possible) have a helper. Whether it is your husband, a friend or relative it is so helpful to have someone else, especially if you need to take one child out and leave the others.

As you can probably tell, I have fairly strong feelings about how children should behave in Mass and I see parents constantly getting it wrong. For me, this is all a very necessary part of giving due respect, reverence and worship to our God who deserves the best from all His children.

“There is a proverb; a boy will keep the course he has begun; even when he grows old, he will not leave it”.
Proverbs 22:6

Questions? Ask away!

Positive change

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Rather than New Year’s resolutions, which are always all the rage at this time of year, I prefer to think about positive changes I can make for the coming year. This time last year I wrote about how God was helping me to see clearly and that my focus for the year was to “listen and obey”. This has helped me immensely during the year to be calmer and more grateful.

I started wondering a couple of weeks ago whether God was going to give me another nudge to step things up or move in new directions. I waited, nothing. I prayed, still nothing. Then He hit me with it.
“Give more”. Good, I can do that, I love to give and I can always give more!
Then He helped me to hatch a plan.

Some time ago my Mum in Law told me about an organisation called Mary’s Meals. In a simple form, they distribute meals to disadvantaged and impoverished children at school. This works so well because the children come for the food and stay for the education, no child can learn effectively on a painfully empty stomach. It is a simple plan, but life changing.

If you follow the link there is a video to watch and lots more information about the organisation.

I’m hoping I can use my skills and talents to make regular donations.

My (loose) plan at the moment is to hold a monthly auction for some of my handmade goods. I’ll try to make something special and probably hold the auctions on my Facebook page where people can bid in real time. I’m not always great at following through with ideas, but with God’s help I hope it will be a huge success.

I’ll let you all know when the first auction will be held šŸ™‚

Now, onto another matter. I want to thank you all for your support this year. I have been so overjoyed with the interest shown towards my work and this Christmas period has been my busiest in the 5 years I’ve been a handmade artisan. It brings me so much joy to know the things I make are loved and valued.

Thank you! I wish you all so much grace for a truly blessed year!

No stress this Christmas.

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As we have been going about our regular errands and appointments I’ve noticed a change in my relatively busy outer city suburb. This change happens about this time every year. It starts with rushing, pained expressions, the inability to obtain a car park and by this time next week will have worked itself into a frenzy. Yes, it’s Christmas.

The junk mail piles up almost daily in my letterbox, the traffic is terrible and people are stressed. People are pre-occupied with who is coming, how many to feed, what gifts to buy on credit to increase their debt just that little bit more.

That is how “the world” celebrates Christmas. But we do not need to be part of that, and that is not part of us. We celebrate Christmas because we love Jesus, and this is his birthday. It is also a time for relaxing, enjoying family and a few treats. What is so stressful about that?!

This year my husband is working right through the Christmas period so we have decided to keep things as simple as possible. Latin Mass on Christmas Eve, a few presents for the children on Christmas morning before husband leaves for work, plenty of fresh fruit, a few special food treats, our traditional fruit punch and a pudding of some sort. When husband returns home we can have our usual Christmas concert (sharing of poems, songs, plays and talents) and just enjoy being together.

If you are feeling stressed or anxious about Christmas I ask you to dig deep and ask yourself why. Because the most important thing about this Christmas is that your words and actions bring glory to He who is the reason for the day itself – Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

“Adoration of the Shepherds” by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622

Bright Rainbows

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Since I spend a bit of time on my artist page on Facebook I forget to come here and show what I’ve been doing. There have been a few brightly coloured rainbows coming out of my dye studio. My laundry I mean.

This one came out so pretty and the 10 ply means it’s beautifully soft and squishy. It’s what I’m knitting with at the moment, but I have a spare 100g skein in my Etsy shop, as I thought someone would be bound to want some.

Here is the felt piece laid out. The colours bled a little in the steaming process, which I really like (and someone else did too – it sold very quickly!)

I dyed this skein to contrast with the bright rainbow yarn for Anna’s Green Apple dress. The pattern says “adventurous beginner” but I’ve hit a stumbling block already, hopefully I can figure it out and go on with the dress, it really is a gorgeous pattern.

Hello! Last week was my birthday, so this is me at 37. What a good age it is too šŸ™‚

Log cabin cot quilt

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I can show you this now it has been gifted to my newest nephew whom I had the privilege of meeting today.

I started out using a log cabin pattern from Lincraft, but as I often find it difficult to follow instructions I ended up going my own way, as usual.

Many thanks to Hilary for helping me to pick out a design and colours, and to Robyn for suggesting some applique which really helped to fill in the white space.

He is beautiful! Babies are such a precious blessing, I do so love them šŸ™‚