Jessika Hepburn, Editor
I’m going to go all weepy on you here, I know it. Today was my youngest daughter Sela’s second birthday & I have spent the last few nights up late crafting & planning her party + our special family day. Birthdays are important in our house and I believe in handmade gifts/days. Here is a little peek at our day & how I celebrate handmade in my life. I think this fits into our ethics month perfectly since my ethics are so tied up in my parenting. I want my children to have lives filled with love, beauty, art and simplicity. So today along with singing & dancing, we played games and made art. Ila & Sela played with their flower wands that are favors for the actual party day and that Ila helped make. My mama came for dinner and we had pretty cupcakes, then Sela opened her one present from me…our family hand-stitched out of wool that I dyed last summer.
I think handmade ethics are so much a part of who I am and how I parent. I like owning every part of what I give to my family from creaming the butter to crafting the gifts. While I love to support other handmade artists birthdays are mine and I can show off how much I love the people close to me by giving them something made with my own hands and heart.
All week I have had this one line from my favorite Raffi song stuck in my head, “all I really need is a song in my heart, food in my belly and love in my family.” I hope that is what I teach my girls about life through handmade, we don’t need a fancy house or lots of money or possessions to be happy or successful. We need to do what we love, feed our bodies & hearts + love and be loved. When Sela opened her gift she hugged all of her little dolls to her so tight then made them all kiss each other while saying our names over and over. Then her and Ila took them to bed where she snuggled them as she fell asleep. Seriously, sometimes life is so beautiful. Yep…I went all weepy there for a minute.
Here’s our family-handmade style:
A big thank you to Sherryl of Lizzie, Izzie + James who sent the lovely flower headband and clip that the girls are wearing. So cute! We’ll have a feature with her later this month & lots more pictures so be sure to check back.
Do your handmade ethics influence your parenting or your gifting? I would love to know! Hopefully you enjoyed this little peek at our lives and a bit of why I love handmade.
