Colouring...

For a long time now, one of our favourite indoor activities has been colouring. We love opening a gorgeous colouring book and sharing filling the pages with colour together. Or taking a page each and working on something beautiful of our own making. Sometimes we'll even draw pictures in black outline and swap them to colour in! No matter what or how we colour, it always makes for comfortable, quiet time together.




We reach for our favourite pencils, crayons or paints and let the colours fill the page. We negotiate sharing space and favourite colours. We try different styles of colouring and talk about the shapes, shading, lines and different styles that make up the artworks that we are working with. We plan what we'll do next. We learn and develop motor skills, we explore colour... and we have fun!




Best of all, colouring is something we can all do together. It's an activity that takes as long as you like and travels well. We love colouring!

We have a beautiful range of colouring books and pencils, crayons and paints available in our store, including the beautiful Charley Harper colouring book you see above. This one has pages you can tear out, which makes colouring together super easy!

If you're interested in learning more about the benefits of colouring, there is loads of information in the links below. Happy colouring! xx


Developmental Benefits of Coloring
Why Color?
5 Reasons Why Every Adult Needs a Coloring Book
7 Benefits of Coloring
The Benefits of Colouring-In for the Elderly

Easter in the Spiral Garden

We had such a lovely Easter break. Did you? We has lots of fun decorating eggs with our GLOB Easter Egg kits. The whole family got involved in experimenting and playing with colour and pattern to create different effects! Later we hid eggs, some filled with bulbs to plant in the garden and in new pots that sat under our Easter/Autumn tree on Easter Sunday morning.



We attended our first market at the local Steiner school, selling lots of our beautiful goodies and letting the locals know we are here.



And we took some time to recharge and reconnect with nature and wander around in the gorgeous Tasmanian bush.



What did you get up to over the Easter break?
Do you get out into nature often?

Love to you and yours. xx

we love colouring!

You may have noticed that we have a new category on our website for colouring books. We find them an excellent form of downtime at our house and they are something that we like to do together. We all join in to make the colours jump from the page! In the last week or so, we've added two of our favourite colouring books to Spiral Garden, including The Babushka Colouring Book, by Babushka Girl.

It is full of beautiful, shapes, some simple, some more intricate, that everyone will love to have a go at. There's also space to embellish the page further once those creative juices are flowing! Or if you're feeling really organic and free, you'll find blank babushkas inside so you can decorate them any way you like. We sell these books on their own, or as part of a gift pack with a beautiful little matching doll. All designed in Victoria by Babushka Girl. Colouring books are printed locally on 100% recycled paper. How awesome is that?!

Our other favourite colouring book is the Indie Rock Colouring Book which features illustrations inspired by some of our favourite musicians like Feist, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear and so many more... Royalties from the sale of the book go to charities chosen by the musicians as part of the Yellow Bird Project. The best bit is that you can all colour and listen to the music together along the way. Super cool and lots of fun.

Both these books would make a perfect gift with, a bag of crayon rocks or packet of Lyra Pencils thrown in... or even just a great thing to tuck away for a rainy day when you feel like doing something relaxing and fun together... We hope you love colouring them as much as we do!

Hello from Hobart!

Hello fellow Garden lovers! We thought we might take a moment to introduce ourselves. We live in beautiful Hobart, a looong way from Spiral Garden's previous home - and a lot colder right about now too! Well we're slowly settling in here as new head gardeners at Spiral Garden... We have been pottering away with Bel for a few months now, working towards this and we are a little nervous and excited to begin! We've tidied and trimmed around the place and have now begun introducing lots of new beautiful things to the garden to complement our old favourites... Like this beautiful little set with two child dolls and a little sled. It even has little sparkles on it! It was handmade in Melbourne and picked up on our holiday there last week... just perfect for your winter nature table.

The dreamy wooden clouds are too... They are handmade in NSW and coloured with all natural, safe paints.

As are these beautiful wooden rainbows and their accompanying range.

While in Melbourne, we also picked up this amazing Pixie House while visiting our supplier there... hand felted and pieced together with such care.  So beautiful. It even has a little hidey-hole under the toadstool lid. The beautiful mushroom family pictured here are sold separately, but wouldn't they have a fab time inside? We'd love one for our home.

So, a little more about us...

We travelled here on our honeymoon over ten years ago and fell in love with the natural beauty of the place and were thrilled to move here when Oberon's conservation work called. Lauren trained and worked as a textile designer for many years before and after our move, going on to make children's clothing and other things to sell at the fantastic local design markets and a few stores, including Spiral Garden! Since moving here with our eldest daughter, we've bought a house near the river, birthed two babies at home and shared our home with a dog, a cat, two kittens, a guinea pig, two chooks and a bunch of gold fish... We home educate our three girls and spend our days following the seasons, exploring nature and treading as lightly on the earth as we can. We've shopped at Spiral Garden for a number of years and have always loved the philosophy and thoughtfulness of the range Bel has stocked. We're so excited to work with such beautiful products and look forward to bringing you more, with an emphasis on ethical products and showcasing local Tasmanian talent... There's so much more to come!

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week and happy new beginnings,

Lauren and Oberon. xx

Birthday Time

It's birthday time at our place!

We have some birthday traditions such as the birthday child choosing their own cake, and the evening meal for their birthday. On the morning of their birthday we gather around the dining table or on Mum & Dad's bed whilst they unwrap their gifts and open the cards which have come in the mail. There are often a number of little handmade, wrapped gifts from siblings which are given with pride and accepted with grace. Brithday cards are secretly handmade by a sibling, and given with the gifts from the whole family.

During the day we will often have friends over for morning or afternoon tea under the trees in our garden (weather permitting) with a cake and some yummy fruit and other foods to share. The table is often decorated with a colourful cloth and fresh flowers collected by the other children.

We enjoy the traditional candles and "Happy Birthday" song as well as clapping for their age and three cheers. We always have a cake at night, even if we've had one in the daytime, just so we can turn down the lights and enjoy the magic of a cake lit by candlelight.

Sometimes we use different crockery or glasses for the birthday meal, and there is always a beautiful tablecloth and centre candle, and quite often more flowers.

Birthday cards are displayed on a magnetic framed board which hangs above the season table. Photos of the birthday child are also displayed their during the weeks preceding and following their special day. Often some baby photos and recent photos will be side by side. A photograph is taken of the birthday child with their cake each year, marking milestones in their childhood photo albums. Sometimes the birthday child will wear a special item of clothing, or a cape and crown from our dress-up basket.

We don't always have parties. We have had a fairy party, a musical party, a teddy bear's picnic, trip to special places followed by cake in the park... But even when there is no big event we always have a special time with family, and perhaps some nearby friends, to share cake and other food, sing and celebrate the birthday child's life.

On their birthday, our children don't have to do their chores if they don't wish to, and they can have the choice of a story read or movie watched, as well as what food we eat. It is a day of lavishing extra love and attention on the birthday child.

We all know this song...
Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday, dear Lily Happy birthday to you!

Well, here's an alternative, or second verse (same melody)...
May the angels bless you, In all that you do, May the stars up in heaven Shine down upon you!

There are a lot of birthday verses and stories online which we have often told our younger children, especially. I find that they also like to hear about the day they were born, and the wonderful, cute and funny things about them as a baby.

This one is our version of a favourite...

As I yawn and go to bed,
Laying down my sleepy head,
Mama switches off the light,
I'll still be seven years old tonight.

But, from the very break of day,
Before the children rise and play,
Before the greenness turns to gold,
Tomorrow, I'll be eight years old!

Eight kisses when I wake.
Eight candles on my cake!

During the day, grandparents phone from far away and ask the birthday child about their day, their gifts, and how big they've grown. Receiving their very own phone calls and mail is a special part of having a birthday at our place.

I wonder, in what ways do you celebrate birthdays in your home?

Birthday gift ideas include:

Bamboo Knitting Needles (or crochet hooks, or knitting helper) with a selection of either pastel or bright wool and instructions on how to create either a beanie or a scarf. These products start at $4.50.

Gorgeous Wool Felt Pencil Cases (or a pencil box) filled with any of our art products such as Lyra Pencils, eraser and sharpener, Stockmar Crayons, or Honey Sticks for little ones.

Cute enamel tea cup and saucer sets on their own or matched with pure wool felt tea party sets create a gift sure to engage their imagination.

Other great gifts: include calico bags with fabric pens, musical instruments, aprons with wooden spoons and rolling pins (add your favourite recipes), books, a seasonal silk or doll representing the season of the child's birth, main lesson books with art supplies, felt purses or paper jewelery boxes with jewelery, bags for gifts and books and toys and more, a cute wooden vehicle or felt toy... Spiral Garden is all about gifts. Ethical gifts that will last for many years. We offer thoughtful and affordable alternatives to the plethora of plastic, licensed, sub-standard items readily available in department and toy stores. Come in and take a look around...