Wearing // Gaia Organic Cotton Baby & Kids Review + Giveaway.

Poppy has reached the splendid toddler stage where getting her dressed is akin to climbing a vertical wall with your hands tightly tied behind your back. Squirming, kicking, rolling, running away giggling. I tend to lean towards comfy tops and bottoms. Add the words cotton and organic and you have a rolly polly toddler uniform sorted. Gaia Organic Cotton  is Australia's oldest organic baby clothing label, who for 13 years have been creating beautiful and timeless clothing for babies and children while staying true to their philosophy of environmental and social responsibility.

The clothing is inspired by the whimsical nature of childhood. The outfits Poppy has all have dots and ruffles, butterflies and beautiful pastel colours. Whimsy indeed. They are soft and beautiful. The boys lines also tick all boxes with amazing prints and colours of boyhood.

Poppy can play happily in these incredibly comfy leggings, tops, and dresses. I can feel good knowing that she is being wrapped in a sustainable and safe material. Win / win.

Gaia Organic Cotton wants to share their amazing products and is offering readers the chance to win 4 x $50 vouchers. To win simply follow the prompts on the rafflecopter widget below. Open to Australian residents 18+. I will draw the 4 x winners in 9 days time. Questions? Email me on [email protected] Good luck!

♡ ashley

15/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014." 

Poppy: You were so excited to feed the animals that you were giggling and squealing the entire time. No fear.

Poppy: Your first merry-go-round. You loved it. Even patting the horsey afterwards!

♡ ashley

linking up with jodi. 

right now // 5 things.

1 \\ winter woollens. washed in eucalyptus and ready to wrap little bodies in warmth.
2 \\ a sunsuit for poppy. to wear with a merino long sleeve and woollen tights.
3 \\ bedside books at the ready for a healthy dose of hibernation. hand creams for wind swept mum hands.
4 \\ a dried artichoke from a summer ended garden. oil, salve and homeopathics to protect our home and bodies.
5 \\ the morning light. slow and gentle. how i wish all our mornings could match it.

I can feel winter creeping in. It's amazing how quickly my home adapts to the seasonal change through changing rhythms. It's not something we think about. It happens naturally, a seasonal evolution, pulling warm layers from storage, piling books to be read on the bedside table, casting on my next project, the sun waking up ever so slowly changing the light to dim in the morning. Winter is long and wet but always starts with welcome arms. I am ready to hide away. To nest and bloom within my home before it is time to emerge and embrace the next season. Are you at the winter ready? To the dwellers at the other end of the globe- welcoming spring- may she be full of kindness.

♡ ashley

14/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014." 

Once again this week, my camera has had little play time. The good part was that we had playtime instead. A beautiful weekend of camping. Friends and fresh air. Some of life's finest things. 

Poppy: you are fiercely independent. Wanting to do everything by yourself and constantly exploring. Then when it all becomes too much you sob and cling. I have a feeling you will move mountains kiddo.

Poppy: with your bff. you were making fairy dust. he was pouring concrete. you are a perfect team. 

♡ ashley

linking up with jodi. 

camping with little people // Part 1: Food (+ 3 step salad recipes).

I love camping. Partly because once the tent is pitched and a drink is poured life gets pretty simple. It is all about simple things. Playing, eating, spending time. The suck the marrow out of life things that make you happy. The other part I like about camping is that when we get home from living in a tent I really appreciate how lucky we are to have a home, warm bed, fridge and the rest of the luxuries in my life that I tend to take for granted.

The packing part...not so much love. It's an art of balancing too little with too much. I am slowly mastering it. Here is what we are packing for food to feed our hungry pack.

FOOD // 

Night one: We are planning to have a little BBQ with a few of the families making a sesame burger and sauce mix and bringing buns. I am on salad duty. Find my 3 step recipes for bean and pasta salad below.  Because packing up for camping with two small people cannot handle anything that is more than 3 steps. I also bring a baby fast food ravioli just in case prep takes too long for my perpetually ravenous one year old.

Night two: Take-away fish and chips. Yup, okay, we are glamping but still!

Breakfasts: simple. muesli and milk. ovaltine. coffee + tea. fruit. orange juice and a scoop of super greens.

Morning Tea: hot cross buns. fruit.

Lunch: bakery visit (see, glamping!)

Snacks: almonds. dried fruit straps. fresh fruit. cheese puffs. rice crackers + hummus. tuna. fresh cucumber. chocolate. yogurt and homemade apple sauce in squeeze tubes.

My girls LOVE anything that comes in a squeeze tube (especially fruit and yogurt.) Between the environmental cost of throwing away a tube after each use and the enormous price, they are thumbs down for waste. Clever Sunshine Coast mum Sam came up with the coolest solution in Sinchies. I dish our yogurt (often this recipe) and fruit purees into them and the girls think they are having a very special treat. Thumbs up. Find them here. If I find some extra time today I will be adding this adult Sinchies recipe to the camping mix.

Behold: Friday night 3 step salads.

camper friendly bean salad. (adapted from here)

veg

3 c. fresh green beans- chopped into bite size pieces and quickly steamed to pretty green.
1 tin kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
1 tin chick peas (drained and rinsed)
1 tin diced beetroot-drained
1 diced red capsicum
1 diced green capsicum
1/2 red onion chopped finely
finely chopped coriander

dressing

1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp raw sugar
salt + pepper
1 tsp. dijon mustard

1 // mix together the beans and veggies.
2 // heat the dressing on the stove top.
3 // mix and keep refrigerated. overnight is great but so is the same day if you don't have the chance to prep.

simple pasta salad (adapted from here)- as seen in photo above

bag pasta
olive oil
dried mixed italian herbs
salt + pepper
1 diced zucchini
1 diced red capsicum
1 diced green capsicum
1/2 diced red onion
punnet grape tomatoes halved
handful chopped fresh herbs

1 // cook a package of pasta (penne, whatever!), let it cool a little and mix 3 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp italian dried herbs and salt + pepper .

2 // dump over the chopped veggies + crumbled feta.

3 // mix and keep cool.

hoping for sunshine and smiles all weekend, and for yours to be full of both as well. Sayonara!
♡ ashley

Small Print: This is not a sponsored post although Sam did give us some Sinchies to test out. The verdict? Amazing. We are planning to order plenty more. 

13/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014." 

Piper: waiting patiently for daddy to get home.

Poppy: you found my bedside lamp. magic.

♡ ashley

linking up with jodi. 

better late than never and simple snaps from my iPhone taken during week 13. life seems to be tumbling into chaos still and we are gripping onto trying to find some work/life balance sometime soon. my girls keep me grounded. focused on the real things that matter in life. love. discovery. the journey, not the destination.