Now that the holidays are over, I can show off some of the toys I made for the kids. Here are the fairies I made, to go with these from last year.  All of them get played with a lot, by both The Boy and The Girl. I won’t show you how last year’s look now.  They have held up well, but they have been played with hard. Somehow I find that very satisfying.  I also love how I find these little fairies in odd places all over the house.  It’s a nice surprise.

I’m very pleased with how these came out, and now that I’ve made quite a few, they are getting much easier to make.  They are so cute, I am always tempted to keep them for myself.

I mean, they would look cute on my desk.

I made these quills today for a birthday party we will be attending this weekend.  Nothing like waking up one morning, deciding to make quills, then watching a few videos, raiding the craft stash for feathers, and then making them.  All in the span of about an hour.

We had a simple and sweet party at home.  She invited two girl friends and the rest of us were family.

Here is the fairy set I made for her.

They are so cute, I could nearly explode.  And the boy fairy!  So cute!  Let me tell you that sewing a little pair of one inch trousers is not an easy task!

Purple fairy with her tiny braids.

Yellow fairy with her big puffy pigtails.

These are the same as the bendy doll family I made last year.  Thankfully they went together much faster this time!  The little acorn caps were found on our New York trip.  They are much bigger than my local southern acorn caps.  The hair is wool roving, the tops are wool felt, and the skirts and wings are silk flowers.

And here’s the house I made for them to live in. I purchased the plain wooden house very inexpensively at a large craft store, then hot glued twigs from our yard all over it.  There is a ton of glue on this thing.  Like about 30 sticks.  The roof shingles are from pinecones.

The little wooden furniture is from another playset we have, although I do want to make some more furniture.  This was totally a last minute gift, and I consider it a work in progress.  I knew there was no way I was going to get it done in time for her birthday if I tried to hide the work from her, so when she asked what I was making, I told her I was making a fairy house.

“For me?”

“No, for the fairies.”

“Mom, I think you are trying to surprise me,” she said.

This year, we decided to put together a farm set for The Girl.  This is the second batch of wooden animals that The Daddy Monkey and I have made, and they are fun and easy to make. I’m very proud of these because the designs are entirely my own.  I’m especially fond of the dog, even though somehow his scale got all messed up and he stands as tall as the cow!

barn photo by Finns and Flowers

To go with the animals, my mother and I split the cost of this beautiful handmade wooden barn, made by Finns and Flowers on Etsy. I couldn’t be happier with it.  It is gorgeous.  My father bought this cart from The Wooden Wagon to go with the horse, for pulling loads of hay and oats, of course!

I’ve really simplified our gift giving this year, and I’m so thrilled to be giving my Girl this set which was made by the loving hands of true craftspersons (and her parents!).  Along with the usual holiday messages of goodwill to your fellow humans, gratitude, and peace, I feel it’s important to show my children that we can create things on our own, without going to the store.  That items made by the hands of real humans do indeed have great value.  And that it’s nice to have playthings made of natural materials that will last a very, very long time and not end up in a landfill.  Perhaps that is the greatest gift of all.

Years later, the memory of Horsey still alive and well, Babci gave me the pattern for Horsey, along with the materials to make a brand new one, identical to the original.  The Daddy Monkey and I were very young, and freshly married with little money.  I don’t remember for what occasion I made Horsey, but I did, and he was well received by a fully grown man.  He still roams our house; sometimes in our home office with The Daddy, sometimes finding his way into the kids’ room.  He’s starting to get a bit worn and loved himself.

Remembering that last year’s kitty has become The Boy’s most beloved stuffed animal (“because he’s filled with your love, Mom”), I knew it was time to make him a friend. Using the Original Horsey as my inspiration, I set out to make a new one.  This one is made from an old wool sweater of mine that I felted in the wash.  The mane and tail are from the infamous yarn stash, and the button eyes and wool stuffing were from my stash.

Of all the stuffed animals I have made over the years, and there have been many, this new Horsey has to be by far my favorite.  All of the components–the colors, the softness of the fabric, the perfect squishyness of the stuffing, the warmth of the wool, and his sweet, sweet face–combine to make the perfect Horsey.  I simply cannot stop touching and admiring The New Horsey.

Hopefully the New Horsey and the Old Horsey can be friends.  I would hate for the Old Horsey to think he’s being replaced.

I had been wanting to celebrate Michaelmas with the kids since I first read about it, thinking it would be a great fit for The Boy, who has always had a passion for all things knightly.  Since I learned my lesson to not try to cram it all into one day like I did with Candlemas, I planned on a week’s worth of activities leading up to Michaelmas, but we were ill yet again, so all those plans went out the back door.  I ended up keeping it pretty simple.

In the afternoon, I helped the kids dye some old playsilks in a bath of boiling water and ground turmeric.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoyed it.

While the playsilks dried in the wind, we had a simple picnic dinner in our backyard, relishing the cooler weather at last.  After dinner, we laid on a blanket in the backyard and I read this delightful story of St. Michael by a Waldorf kindergarten teacher.  I then read Saint George and the Dragon, by Margaret Hodges and Trina Schart Hyman, which has been a favorite in our home for many years.  If you have never seen it, the text is an adaptation of The Faerie Queen by Edward Spencer, and it is just about as perfect as a children’s book can get.  We love it.

After we read our stories, I tied the silks into capes, and presented them to the children with the words from the St. Michael story, “I give to you a cape of light, to give you courage, strength and might.”

I never expected what came next, but the story and cape resonated so strongly with The Boy that he went and changed into a yellow shirt and donned a sword, scabbard, shield and gold helmet, and called himself The Gold Knight. The game went on for the rest of the evening and through the next day.

What I am starting to learn about with the Waldorf Festivals is that it’s not too important to explain why we celebrate, but to celebrate anyway, and let it resonate however it will.  As an adult, I suppose that the symbolism of “taming your dragons” before the long winter is important this time of year when the days get shorter and cooler, and we begin to feel the pull to withdraw inward.  I didn’t over-think it or over-explain it, I just kept it short and sweet, and age-appropriate and it worked.

Is it really September already? One can never start too early on Halloween costumes.  This is the scene on my ironing board right now.

The Girl has chosen to be a fairy, and did we ever have fun choosing the fabric for this one.  She wanted pink, of course.

No matter how many times I tell myself that we have plenty of costumes in our dress up trunk, I am a sucker for making new ones.  I just can’t help myself.

Since we are now honoring more yearly rhythms in our family, (and really, who needs an excuse to celebrate?) we celebrated Candlemas/Imbolc/Groundhog Day yesterday.  Even though our celebration borrows a bit from many traditions, I have chosen to simply call it Candlemas.  Candlemas is a cross-quarter holiday, which means it falls at the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.  In a nutshell, it’s about welcoming the return of the sun after the darkness of winter.

The ancient Celts began celebrating this holiday in honor of their goddess Brigid.  Goddess of fire, healing, poetry, home, and fertility, she is the keeper of the eternal sacred flame, and ushers in the arrival of Spring.  Any remaining yule greens would be removed from the home and burned, thus sending winter on its way.  It is a time for a cleansing of the home, both literally and figuratively.  The Celts called their celebration Imbolc, which means “in the belly” referring to the pregnancy of the ewes.  Imbolc is still celebrated by pagans today.

When Christianity swept the globe, the church realized that they could not prevent the people from celebrating their goddess, so they sainted her and renamed her Brigit.  Thus it became that Candlemas is a day that candles are made, or brought to the church to be blessed.  It is considered the day that Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem.

From Candlemas, the holiday became Groundhog Day in the US and Canada.  Long ago, it was believed that hibernating animals began awakening on this day.  If the groundhog fails to see his own shadow (due to overcast weather) the worst of winter is over, and spring is on its way.  Spring doesn’t arrive officially until March 20th, however I’m happy to report that our “groundhog” did not see his shadow yesterday.

It used to be believed that due to the lengthening daylight hours that occur around Candlemas, housewives of long ago would no longer need to work by candlelight in the morning.  Hence the saying, “candlemas, candle-less.” And indeed, in our little home, we noticed just a few days ago that we are now eating our evening meal while the sun is still out.  Spring is coming!

While I shared simplified versions of these traditions with my children in the morning, I’ll admit that most of this research has been for my own benefit.

In preparation for the changing of the nature table, The Daddy Monkey and I made the figures above.  Brigid, lamb and ewe.  I designed and drew them on the oak board, The Daddy cut them out, and I sanded and painted them.  I am so in love with them.  I cleared away the winter nature table, and replaced it with a white silk, our figures, the freesia we planted, and the beeswax candles I made.

I made our favorite pancakes for breakfast, a round symbol of the sun.  We ate breakfast by candlelight, which the kids thought was a novel idea.

I was originally planning on making candles with the kids, but once I thought about it, I realized that me + 2 hyper kids + hot wax = a trip to the emergency room.  So I made beeswax candles by myself.  The whole project took less than an hour, and I have to admit that I am now completely head over heels for beeswax candles.  I cannot get enough of that fragrance.

I made two Brigit’s crosses out of wheat, with The Boy’s help.

We planted a basket of wheat grass for the nature table.

We read poems (Shel Silverstein) in honor of Brigid. Bedtime stories were The Happy Day and A Little Bit of Winter, both from our own collection and both perfect for Candlemas. (I’m so sad to see that A Little Bit of Winter is out of print.)

I know most families don’t celebrate Candlemas, but for us, I think it was a perfect fit.  Living in Florida, it’s about this time of year that we start seeing longer days and warming temperatures.   All in all, I’m glad I did all the work leading up to this, and I know that next year’s celebration will be much easier, now that I know all of the stories and traditions.  It was a special, fun day, but I think next year, I will stretch out the activities over a week or so, rather than making it all happen on one day.  It seemed like a bit too much for me. I also look forward to including the kids a little more in our celebration next year.

Special thanks to all the links I’ve included above, the book “All Year Round,” and the countless bloggers over in my blogroll who have written about their Candlemas celebrations of years past. I’ve tried to link to information that I read online, but I’ll admit it all started to blur together after a while.

Since we’re about to clear out our winter nature table to make space for Candlemas, I thought I would share it here.  This is the first “official” nature table I have set up for the kids, and they loved it!  That’s the freesia we planted a few weeks ago.  I’m always amazed at how quickly forced bulbs grow.

I will really miss this little guy!  Scene from The Tomten and the Fox, by Astrid Lindgren.

My uncle gave me this crystal many years ago, but I never thought to pull it out for the kids until now.  The Boy loved this thing, and the crystal was involved in many of his games.  Seriously, one of the best playthings we’ve seen in a while.  This thing got way more action than half of the toys he received for Christmas.

Shells and pine cones found on our solstice nature walk.

Spring, here we come!

The spring bunting became happy birthday bunting with the addition of a few new letters.

The bendy dolls I made for The Girl’s new dollhouse.  These took So. Long. To. Make.

Beautiful thrifted oak caddy for her art supplies.  When she wants to use it she says, “can I paint my heart?”  So sweet.