creative fun with EJ :: kiwi crate

Over here, Kiwi Crate is one of our favorite companies. Ellie's aunt gave her a subscription for Christmas a year ago, and we fell in love with the green boxes that come full of crafty goodness. This past December, Kiwi Crate sent over one of their holiday kits for Ellie and I to play with, and today's post is a peek inside our afternoon of fun.

First, we created some painted ornaments. Ellie loved this activity, and I'm tucking it away as one she might make as Christmas gifts later this year (hoping they might have a kit for that). 

The kits come with great instructions with illustrations, so she's able to follow along. Lots of "Okay Mommy, let's look to see what we do next."

She had a lot of fun squeezing the paint in the plastic ornament balls and then swirling the paint. (And I did too.)

We also created a cardboard gingerbread house complete with snowy roof and pompom and rickrack trim. This one was a great exercise in letting go for me and just letting her just do her thing instead of insisting snow on the roof must look a certain way. Always learning.

What I love the most about these Kiwi Crate kits is that they contain almost every single thing you need to create these crafts (sometimes, for example, you might need scissors, though a past kit actually came with some safety scissors that Ellie uses all the time).

What this means is that you don't have to have a lot of craft supplies to have a crafty day together. So if you don't have that crafty parenting move down that comes easily to some, or like me, you sometimes want to be able to just open a box and get to having fun together on a Saturday afternoon instead of preplanning it all, these kits are a perfect answer. 

And I love the thoughtfulness that is apparent in each of the kits we've enjoyed. The design and instructions are clear and fun and often there are stories included that teach all of us something. 

You can sign up for just one monthly kit or a subscription of 3, 6, or 12 months. You can see some non-holiday sample kits here to get an idea of what the monthly kits are like.

Special for my readers: If you click through using this link right here, you'll receive a special $10 off your kit purchase. Hope you enjoy!

Please note: This post isn't sponsored by Kiwi Crate, but they did gift us with the holiday kit shown in the photos. I am an affiliate for them, which means I receive a small commission when you click through to their site and buy something. However, these opinions are mine (and Ellie's). And as you can see, we are big fans so being an affiliate is an easy choice. I gifted Ellie and me a new subscription for Christmas and can't wait to open this month's box of goodies.

five (really) good things

1) I'm in love with these little wood slices from Kelly. She creates a little original painting just for you with your word of the year. Perfect for your altar, next to you bed so you see it each morning and evening, or even your kitchen windowsill. I keep mine in my studio. Order yours here (or the littler size right here). 

2) I had the best time chatting with Kelly Dahl for her ecourse Fulfill Your Year. We chatted about choosing a word of the year, why we're drawn to the practice, and give some insight into the ways it has worked and hasn't worked for each of us. I also had the chance to share about the sacredness I'm experiencing with my word of the year shop orders this year. Love being able to do video interviews about topics that are dear to my heart. There is still time to join Kelly. Learn more here.

3) Opening up the Spakona Personal Palette that Bridget Pilloud did for my word "wildness"was like unwrapping the best after-the-holidays gift ever. As Bridget explains, "Each palette is a personal intuitive experience where I tune into your word and identify the six words or phrases that round out the experience of that word. After I identify the words, I’ll go into my magic color pantry and pick the colors to match." This offering is just the right amount of grounded woo woo goodness that I needed to really feel supported as I begin this journey of inviting in wildness this year. And I can't wait to make a bracelet with the additional words + colors Bridget gave me. Love this offering. 

4) For the fourth year now, I'm over on Ali's blog reading the One Little Word list. You can read all the words and listen right here. (And this year I didn't go in alphabetical order so it would read even more like a poem of possibility.) If you are still hoping to find a word, reading through and listening to this list might help.

5) Lori Portka's calendars are my favorite favorite (just want to be clear on that). She has just a few left and they are on sale! Check them out here.

What five really good things have you found in your corner lately? I'd love to know.

i'm learning to ask and listen

Yesterday, Ellie was sitting on my lap and asked me what my necklace said. I explained it said, "Wildness" and that it is my word of the year. I talked about how I'll be inviting in more wildness in my life. 

She nodded in that way a three year old does when she's listening and thinking and taking it in.

Then I asked her, "What is your word of the year? What do you want this year to be like for you?"

And she looked me right in the eyes and said, "My life is good and calm and kind."

"Those are the things you want to invite into your life this year?"

"Yes."

"Me too."

I think wildness and good + calm + kind are going to be fantastic companions this year.

(And pairing this story with this photo this might have been the moment I decided to get back to Project Life. Yes.)

choosing a word isn't permanent (from the archives)

Friday's soul mantra altar in the studio

When I sat down to write a post inviting you to let go of any anxiety around "choosing a word of the year," I peeked into last year's posts about choosing a word and realized one post said all that I want to say today. So I'm sharing those words again with a few amendments to make it relevant to this year.

Because honey, choosing a word isn't permanent. It's a guide. A touchstone. And if it resonates, awesome. And if not, you are still totally enough without it.

*****

Right now, my studio is full of words and intentions for the new year as beautiful souls are choosing a word to act as a touchstone for them for the new year.

I have been so moved by the stories arriving with the shop orders. This week, I created a new altar for the Soul Mantras to sit on after they've been polished and are awaiting chains to then be packaged up and sent on to their new homes.

I want to share that I've noticed some discussion about and received emails from people feeling "pressure" to choose a word or figure out what their word should be. Oh sweet soul, please let that go today. 

Choosing a guiding word or phrase for the year isn't the same thing as choosing a wrist tattoo.

It isn't permanent. It is one practice that might or might not work for you. 

At any given time, I work with several words and mantras. I am a word person. They are my most comfortable medium. 

When my mind is swirling or I'm exhausted with a very active toddler to take care of or when I feel lonely or a bit lost, taking a few deep breaths and focusing on a word or phrase grounds me.

Because there are so many words out there, it helps me to have a few that are at the ready. Words I wear as talismans or have on sticky notes or write on my mirror...words that come out of conversations with dear friends that I write in huge letters in my journal. 

Words are part of my soul care practice. Choosing one for the year is just another way of bringing in self-care for me. It becomes another handhold in the midst of it all. 

Maybe this idea resonates. Maybe it feels like too much. Listen to what you need.

Let these first few days of 2014 be full of more ease and less perfection or a need to do anything because it seems like you are supposed to.

Sending you light and love today,

Liz 

If you are drawn to this practice but don't want to choose a word, I created the star shine necklace for you. The Intention Necklaces are also an option.

Or if you just wish someone would just choose a word for you, choose your favorite Soul Mantra design and then just let me know when you check out. Add a sentence or two with where you are right now on your path in the "Notes to Seller" box over on Etsy, and I'll hold you in my thoughts and heart for a moment, breathe deeply, and choose one for you.

getting into the picture

Yes, my hair is dirty.

Yes, I'm still in my pajamas and not wearing a bra.

Yes, this isn't my best angle.

Yes, we're not really in focus.

Yes, I look older than I think I am.

Yes.

But when she looks at this picture 30 years from now, all she's going to see is the love.

It's what I'm choosing to see too.

This is the year I will get myself back into photos with my big camera. Yes.

(Gosh, I love this kid.)

wildness :: my word of the year

My word for 2014 is "wildness."

It arrived during a day in mid-December spent listening to poet David Whyte as he talked about stillness as its own wildness. He said something like: When in stillness we join a flow that is happening around us and become wilder within that conversation.

And in that moment, something shifted deep within me.

The idea that the stillness I practice, that I teach, that I try to find for seconds at a time each day could bring me into conversation with the wildness not only around me but within me was a new way of looking at stillness for me. And one I'm looking forward to exploring for the next year.

I'll be pairing this idea of becoming wilder in the stillness with Thoreau's idea of wildness in the quote above.

I've been longing to get outside more, to take the senses walks I used to take, to stand at the water's edge alone and just breathe, to stand outside each day in my backyard and say hello to the hummingbirds and the chickadees and the juncos. To stop working and join the conversation in the woods and water so near to where I live.

Yes.

the wild heart necklace | customizable and in the shop

So I'll be uncovering my wildness in 2014. I hope to document more in photos and words to take you along with me. And I'll be participating in Ali's One Little Word class to help keep my word front and center this year. Love how she's talking about "make your word visible," which is something I did in 2012 but not this past year. I look forward to keeping my word closer to me this year. 

I'm also carrying two more words with me: worthy and magic. I'll share more about these two this month. They aren't words of the year for me so much as words I'm holding close as practices to keep coming back to.

Owning my own "worthiness" is a practice I've been working with for a few months now. Standing tall in being worthy of the gifts that have come my way and recognizing how hard I've worked and how I can step around the assumptions of others. Worthy is one I'm wearing around my neck and putting in my pocket (which is why you see it popping up in the shop samples). And I love how many of you are claiming that word too. And magic keeps appearing on my path, and I'm listing and opening my heart up to it over here. Looking forward to experiencing that unfolding.

What word (or words) are you carrying with you? I'd love to know.

happy 2014

Eleanor Jane :: January 1, 2014 

May your year unfold
with kindess,
light,
ease,
peace,
joy,
and love love love.

Eleanor Jane :: January 1, 2013

2011 :: 2012

We continue the tradition of the New Year's Day photo of EJ in her shirt.

This year it doesn't cover her belly, and that makes me so darn happy because she is thriving!

She's decided she must wear it all day because "Woodstocky" (as we call him for "cutes") is one of her new favorite things.

And I have to share this one too. Because it just makes me smile so big.

Happy New Year to you and yours.

I really hope this year is full of kindness and love.

a word of the year :: a practice

Over here, I'm surrounded by words as I get back into my studio and begin to hammer words of the year into necklaces and bracelets.

I feel so blessed to read all the notes coming in with these words and the stories behind why certain words have been chosen. A handful of the words people have shared with me so far:

forward
self-care
open
stillness
possible
peace
nourish
bloom
faith
embrace
worthy
enough

I love how choosing a word invites us to let go of having resolutions that so often invite in guilt and "not-enoughness." This practice gently pushes me to look forward with self-kindness and think about how I most want the next year to unfold, which is a natural thing to focus on as the calendar changes. As I've mentioned before, as I choose a word, I think about all that could happen in a year, and I want my word to be a companion that brings me back to center amidst whatever beauty and uncertainty await.

If you are called to this practice and aren't sure where to begin, here's a link to a post I shared last year that might be helpful to you: A Word to Guide the Way.

Along with spending time journaling about my word each month, I'm going to follow along with Ali's One Little Word class this year. I'll be sharing more about my word for 2014, wildness, and why I've chosen it in another post this week. I'll also be sharing a bit about how my word for 2013, water, didn't really "do it for me," and how I let it go months ago and how that felt totally okay. I really continued working with my 2012 word, whole, this year and a few other words.

(It is okay to totally make up your own rules when it comes to a guiding practice for the year. Truly. It is.)

This year, I've added a new Word of the Year design to the shop (that has plenty of space for those longer words) and have added gemstone and bird charm options to the old favorites. The new pewter necklaces are also customizable and there is a pocket talisman option too.

Just send over any questions that you have as you look through the shop. I love this time of year, and it feels deeply sacred to me to create these for you.

And each order will come with this special blessing postcard that incorporates your word of the year. (If you ordered your Word of the Year necklace from my shop before Christmas and would like one, just send me an email and I will send one to you in the mail.)

And I really want you to hear me say this: Choosing a word of the year isn't for everyone. In fact, I know it makes some people feel rebellious or even overwhelmed. I'm going to write a post about some other ideas for you later this week, but I do want you to know that I've created something just for you.

This little star is for those who don't feel called to choose a word for the year (or can't choose just one), but do feel ready to stand tall in their own light as they walk into a new year. You can add a gemstone to create an intention as well. And the truth is, shining in your own light is really the best intention of all today and every day of the year.

And if you are thinking, "Oh please, somebody just give me a word," consider the "Mystery Soul Mantra" necklace. Add a sentence or two with where you are right now on your path in the "Notes to Seller" box over on Etsy, and I'll hold you in my thoughts and heart for a moment, breathe deeply, and choose one for you from my little bowl of Soul Mantras.

Thank you for the light you share. So deeply blessed to be doing this work.

Blessings,
Liz