Posted in: holidays & celebrations
...and lots of photos from the last week or so. (And more here.)
Sing-a-longs. (I'm pretty sure this was Feliz Navidad.)
A visit from St. Nicholas. (December 6.)
Mulled wine. My husband doesn't "believe" in straining it. ;)
Ornaments old...
...and new.
A steady fall of snow -- sometimes more, sometimes less, but always welcome.
Sibling love.
A few runs down a favorite hill.
Evenings spent with friends.
The beauty and furor of winter.
Sheer excitement.
Silence.
I know, I've been very quiet here over the last couple of weeks. I'm just a bit overwhelmed and stressed.
At the end of November, my sister's older stepdaughter turned seven, and she had the funnest little ice skating party.
I made the Simple Tote from Bend the Rules Sewing for her, using some adorable Superbuzzy fabric from my stash. The tote turned out a lot smaller than I imagined it would (I think just because I am lame at picturing measurements in my head), but it was just the right size for three new chapter books for this little girl who loves to hear a good yarn. (The photo only pictures two because Elisabeth was looking at the other one at the time!)
I think Seven sounds Stupendous.
PS: The books we included were The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong, which was a favorite of my sister's as a girl, The Borrowers by Mary Norton, which Elisabeth and I selected because we love miniature people and things, and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, another childhood favorite of my sister's ... with illustrations by Tasha Tudor -- lovely. (Since my sister will likely be doing the reading, they might as well be books she already loves, right?)
So, without further ado, here's the list. I am adding links for some of these items, but please understand that while I would not link to a company with which I explicitly object to doing business, these are not endorsements of one company over another. In many cases, I have found or purchased these items locally rather than through online sources. So please take the links as what they are: references for you to use if they're helpful, but not a buying guide from me.
And I think it goes without saying, though I'll say it anyway, if you think of something great that hasn't made my list, will you please share it in the comments? Many of these would make nice stocking stuffers or small Hanukkah gifts, too, if you find yourself lacking inspiration in that arena. :) (Photos in this post are all from last year -- not necessarily pertaining to our actual advent calendar, but I felt that they expressed the spirit I'm hoping to capture here.)
Family Outings/Activities (make a simple coupon/ticket for these as a visual cue)
*Carriage ride (our downtown offers free carriage rides on specific days throughout December)
*Ice skating
*If your community has a "giving tree," you could incorporate one or more elements of this process into one or more (!) days of the calendar: the day your family chooses someone from the tree to give to, or shopping for or making a gift for that person (or you could incorporate some other form of charitable giving into the calendar if you don't do a "giving tree")
*Many public libraries have speical children's events during December
*Many places of worship or community centers also have special holiday events for families
*Sledding (in our area, December is pretty touch-and-go with regard to snow, so we kind of just wait and see if there'll be a snowy enough day for that)
*Special visit to relatives (or a coupon on your traveling day if you travel at the holidays)
*Tea party (either at home or at a local tea house)
*Tickets to see a performance of The Nutcracker or other holiday performance
*Visit Christmas lighting displays
*Visit to Santa
*Any other traditional holiday outing of your family's
Family Traditions
*A special meal -- maybe your child can choose what to have
*Candies for decorating on the day you make a gingerbread house
*Cookie cutter or sprinkles on the day you make cookies
*Coupon for extra bedtime story, late bedtime, etc.
*Moonlit walk (in the spirit of Owl Moon)
*Ornament on the day you put up your tree (think simple, even handmade -- it doesn't have to be fancy or expensive)
*Popcorn (we found red and green kernels last year) for a special movie night (i.e. Charlie Brown Christmas special)
*Special one-on-one time or "date" with parent
Made by Parent for Child
*A mix CD of some of your child's favorite music, or your family's favorite holiday music (I'll share some of ours in an upcoming post), or favorite music from your own childhood
*Crown -- crocheted, made from felt, or other fabrics
*Doll clothes
*Finger Puppets
*Knitted hat
*Knitted stuffed animal
*Holiday napkins
*Origami animals
*Other small handmade toys
Natural World
*"Found" objects from nature (pinecones, acorns, nests, etc.)
*Crystals or beautiful stones
*Evergreen sprigs
*Flowers that are blooming now (Christmas cactus, carnations)
*Paperwhite bulbs (if you give them early enough, they could be blooming by Christmas)
*Seaglass (OK, I know it's not technically "natural", but it's still lovely)
*Seeds (for planting)
*Shells
Multi-Day Items
*One bead (or more) a day, leading up to stringing a necklace or bracelet
*One puzzle piece (or more) a day, leading up to a completed puzzle
*Something that comes as a set, divided over several days, such as: a tea set, a set of nesting bowls, a matreshka, nativity set, checkers game, etc.
Free or Very Inexpensive
*A dollar or even just a few coins to put into the Salvation Army bucket, accompanied by an illustration of the bucket (be sure you do this on a day you plan to go to the store anyway)
*A story you have made up especially for your child
*Bells
*Jokes
*Letter or note
*Marbles
*Poems
*Riddles
*Scavenger hunt or treasure map -- either to an object too large to fit, or just for fun
Crafts
*Beeswax sheets and wicking to roll candles
*Candle and candle decorating wax or paints (can be found at craft stores or online through places like Hearthsong)
*Coloring book or sketch pad and fresh set of crayons or colored pencils
*Crafts made with natural objects (ornaments, people, or animals from pinecones, acorns, nuts, etc., a candleholder made from a crosspiece of a branch and decorated with crystals, bits of evergreen, nuts, etc., ornaments made with woven wheat or long pine needles, fire starters made by dipping long, thin pinecones into melted beeswax, bird feeders made using pinecones, peanut butter, seeds, etc. A lot of these ideas can be found in the books Earthways and Crafts through the Year, and there are kits out there, too.)
*Do you have any idea how many things can be done with pipe cleaners? Think about it. ;) Our house would probably stop functioning if we ran out of those babies.
*Embroidery supplies or kit
*Felting supplies or kit
*Knitting mushroom/tower and some yarn
*Modeling wax or clay
*Lanterns made using recycled food cans with holes poked in them with a hammer and nail (or other light-oriented project) -- really good for the winter solstice, Hanukkah, St. Lucia Day, or any of the light-themed festivals & days during this time of year
*Origami paper and instructions for older children
*Pieces of wool felt for your child to cut up and make things with -- perhaps with some dolly pegs (old fashioned clothespins) and some other little bits of yarn and trims to make little people
*Rubber stamps
*Small sewing project or kit
*Supplies for a holiday craft such as stringing garlands, making ornaments, or simple gifts
*Supplies for making holiday cards, gift tags, or wrapping paper (such as construction paper, glitter paint/glitter pens, a large roll of kraft paper, rubber stamps, etc.)
*Window crayons or markers
Purchased/"Gifty" items
*An item to add to something your child or family collects: a piece of a collectible nativity set, Playmobil pieces, an Ostheimer figure, another toy that your child has a collection of, etc.
*Balls: rubber balls, knitted balls, felt balls, fabric balls, etc.
*Bath toy
*Bird call whistle
*Card games
*Collectible coins
*Costume jewelry
*Dress-up item
*Family game
*Fancy soap
*Hair ties
*Harmonica
*Jacks game
*Jump rope
*Kazoo
*Lacing cards
*Lip balm
*Music box
*One year I found a beautiful and inexpensive little etched glass votive candle holder with an evergreen-scented candle for Elisabeth, and she loves getting it out of our Christmas things each year
*Pajamas (could be homemade if you sew)
*Pencils made out of twigs (one source)
*Play silks -- mini or regular
*Slippers (I'm thinking of this in terms of maybe this is something my child really needs, and perhaps before Christmas -- could also be homemade)
*Small snow globe
*Socks
*Special drinking cup -- a holiday mug, or a little cup for your child to have as his "own". Two possible sources here and here
*Spinning tops
*Stickers
*Tiny toys
Food/treats
*Chocolate coins or small candies
*Mini candy canes
*Nuts
*"Stained glass" cookies
(We have never given food items in our advent stockings, so I'm afraid I'm a little lacking in ideas there. Sorry.)
Reader Sarah made a comment that her family uses an advent calendar with beautiful pictures behind each window rather than gifts in order to avoid the feeling of materialism that expecting "something" -- whether an actual gift or just the promise of an activity -- engenders. I think she makes a really good point, and I'd certainly like to emphasize that while we have definitely given real gifts in the calendar, we are very heavy on the coupons for activities here. In our family, it offers a way for Elisabeth to understand that even the season has a rhythm to it -- today we'll trim our tree, today we'll make cards, today we'll make cookies, etc. So, I want to encourage all of you to think of it in that light as much as possible in order to keep yourself out of the overwhelming trap of feeling obligated to buy or find a lot more tangible gifts, in addition to everything else on a busy parent's plate at this time of year! This list, I know, is very long. But don't feel like you need to somehow do everything on it! (We haven't!) Choose what works for your family first and foremost!
You are all so kind! I feel so blessed by your many well-wishes. I am still sick ... the laryngitis has passed and been replaced with a cough. Yuck! I don't get sick often, but when I do, it seems that I get every possible symptom.
I know that December is still a few weeks away, but I thought I'd share these ideas with you now so you'll have time to think about them if they resonate for you.
Spreading out the holiday season is very important to me. The idea of one single, over-stimulating, and -- ultimately -- disappointing day is very unappealing to my mama soul, and not so good for the wee ones, either. The more that we can do to celebrate a holiday season, the better, in my eyes. So to that end, we have a very involved advent tradition, into which we have incorporated many of our other family holiday traditions. We also celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, ending on Three Kings Day (January 6). During that time, we are still in merry-making mode, but we try to ever-so-gently wind things down.
As I wrote this post, I realized that it was far too much information for one day, so I'm going to divide it up into two days this week. Today I'll talk about the advent calendar. On Wednesday I'll share a very long list of ideas for things to put into the calendar once you've got it set up. These ideas have been accumulated over my 5.5 years of mothering and from my own childhood as well.
Advent Calendar
The first thing to do is to come up with some sort of advent calendar "vessel". This can be just about anything. We have 24 stockings strung on a garland. Years ago (2003, to be precise), Martha Stewart Kids showed a sock garland calendar made with baby socks, number stickers, and clothespins. It's not up on their website Here it is, although they do show this one, which requires sewing, and this cute one, made of boxes. (I made ours three or four years ago using this kit from Magic Cabin.) I have a friend who uses 24 beautiful paper cones. You could use a variation on the pocket calendar, based on something like this, this or this. Kim made these gorgeous little cornucopias. You don't even have to have 24. You could use a single beautiful bowl, tray, or piece of pottery, and the gifts could appear in it each morning. And each vessel does not have to be large enough to "hold" the day's gift. Our gifts frequently don't fit in our tiny stockings, so they simply await the children on a chair or stool beneath the garland. We do have a little elf who travels from stocking to stocking day by day as a visual aid to the passing of the days.
Another variation is to have a 12-day calendar and use it to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas instead. Then you only have to come up with 12 ideas, and you can spread Christmas out in the more traditional manner. (Traditionally, the Christmas/Yule season began on that day, rather than ending on it!)
Now that you've got a vessel of some sort, you have to come up with little gifts to put in it for 24 consecutive days (I know, I am a crazy person). This can get very expensive, very quickly, if you approach it with the idea that each day must contain an actual "gift" for each of your children. I try to think about things that we would be doing anyway, and make those things fit into our celebration of advent, rather than the other way around. For example, we would always make cookies one day, visit holiday lighting displays one or more days, and put up/decorate our tree one day. The same idea applies to things we'd spend money on anyway. Is there something that my child needs now that can't wait until Christmas? That goes into the calendar. We have the tradition of wearing new pajamas on Christmas Eve, so they started appearing on the last day of the calendar. We would buy a new, special holiday or winter book for our family each year anyway, so we incorporated that into the calendar. One of the most important things that I can recommend to you if you are just beginning with this tradition is to keep it pretty low-key and low-pressure. If you set your children up to expect an actual "gift" every day, they will feel disappointed if sometimes it's not. If most days they find coupons or tickets incorporating an activity that would happen in your home anyway, it gives them the security of predictability, and keeps it from becoming another commitment for you to buy a lot more expensive gifts.
The key here is keep it simple and manageable for the parents. I usually sit down in November with the calendar and figure out which days, according to my husband's work and gig schedule and my cello teaching schedule, we will do our usual family outings and activities. I think about the more "gifty" things I have acquired (or plan to), and try to spread those out at fairly wide intervals. I look at the days we're going to celebrate other festivals (St Nicholas's visit on the 6th, Santa Lucia's Day on the 13th) and think about ways that I can either incorporate the celebration of those festivals into the calendar (a Santa Lucia crown on the 13th, for example) or something simple that won't distract from the main event. (Since St Nicholas brings chocolate and a small gift to my children, I keep the advent calendar very simple on that day.) Once I have the main things plugged into my calendar, I fill it in with simple crafts or small things that I have on hand.
I like to have as much as possible on hand and parceled out according to date before Dec. 1 so that no matter how tired or busy I've been on some December day, the advent calendar won't be a cause for stress right before I go to bed. The easier I can make this for myself, the more enjoyable it is for everyone.
So, make it fun for yourself, keep it light-hearted and simple, and it can be a really lovely family tradition that helps to spread out the season and mark the s-l-o-w passage of the days for the wee ones.
On Wednesday you'll get a very long list of ideas for things to put into the calendar, some of which we've tried in our home and some of which I just thought of as I was preparing these posts. Enjoy!
You might remember that Halloween is my favorite holiday. This year was kind of strange for me in terms of decorating, however. One huge box of Halloween decorations was never located in our very disorganized storage space, and we've been going back and forth with the decision of whether or not to move before the end of the year, so I was dragging my feet a bit on getting things out. Anyway, a lot of the decorating I would usually do didn't happen this year, but it was still a very sweet Halloween.
Elisabeth and James were fairies (Elisabeth's idea, of course); their costumes were inspired by the work of Daniela Drescher, whose illustrations I would gladly inhabit. In fact, I tried to make Elisabeth's costume look like one of the fairies from In the Land of Fairies.
James's jacket and hat are made using patterns from Bend the Rules Sewing. The "Woodland Elf Hat" was super easy. I used some wool/rayon blend felt that I got on clearance at JoAnn last fall, and I didn't even have to pin around the curves because the felt stayed nice and still for me. It was really easy. I'm not sure if it's because I used a fabric so different from the one suggested in the book (no stretch), but the "Sweet Wee Jacket" turned out much shorter than I'd hoped. But no problem for this project ... and when I make it again (I'm certain I will -- it's so cute!), I'll just cut the body longer.
The wings are made with coat hangers and pantyhose. I've been thinking about trying this ever since I first saw some like this in a store five years ago (one of those "I could make that" moments), but was never sure how well it would work with an actual hanger. Well, it did, and was much easier than I expected!
James's bag, new this year. I made one like it for Elisabeth when she was this age, even before I was sure if I'd ever allow my children to trick-or-treat. Simple, small, doesn't hold too much, sweet, perfect for little ones.
We had a really fun evening. We trick-or-treated at just a few houses and in our small city's downtown, and then we spent most of the evening at my sister-in-law's house drinking spiced cider and eating chili while my wee ones and their big cousins (10+) were in and out (it was freezing). My children got just enough candy -- but not too much. It was perfect.
I know I promised to post on Monday. And I didn't. And then I was really going to post yesterday, and it didn't happen either. But I'm here today! And we've been busy and happy!
After three lovely days with Daddy home last week, I had the opportunity to attend an inspiring parenting and homeschooling conference this weekend, which inspired and "recharged" me.
However, that made for a very late night on Sunday. And a sleepy day on Monday, reconnecting with my babies and trying to reestablish our rhythm.
Last week my serger finally died. I mean, it really died. So I've been looking into other options ... at this point, I've been so spoiled to have had a serger that going without was not a realistic option, especially not with doll commissions in my future. So I researched, asked around, priced, priced again, knew I couldn't afford what I really wanted, wished, looked for used ... and yesterday, amazingly, a local dealer had just had a trade-in only hours before I called. So we spent the afternoon at the shop trying it out, making sure that everything was in working order, etc., and, with the help of my mama, I came home with my very own Baby Lock! It's about 4 or 5 years old, but has never been used. The person who owned it finally decided, after years of non-use, to trade it in for a vacuum cleaner. I cannot believe how fortunate this was for me, because it's the machine I really wanted, and I would never have been able to afford it -- or any Baby Lock -- right now. But this was an incredible deal, and my mom was so generous to help me with it. I'm very blessed, I know.
Monday night was our annual pumpkin carving "party" with my dear, dear friend Rebecca. We've been carving pumpkins together every year for 8 years now, and have never missed, even when we (briefly) lived many hours away.
We have an annual tradition of having pasta and salad for dinner on pumpkin carving night. The photos throughout this post are from that lovely evening.
And tonight is Halloween! You'll pardon me for waiting to share costume pictures or even hints until tomorrow, won't you?!
As you know, our family celebrates some of the lesser-known/less popular festivals of the year.I have been drawn to Michaelmas (Sept. 29) since I first read about it some of my favorite British literature. Autumn is such a time of new beginnings, and Michaelmas is a way of marking that. But in some ways, it feels so very distant from our present-day lives.
There are all sorts of little bits that make up the tradition of Michaelmas. It's named for the archangel Michael, and there is also an association with St. George, the patron saint of England (and famous dragon-slayer). But the essence of the festival is the harvest. We stand on the threshold from summer to autumn, we rejoice in the bounty of the harvest. We strengthen and fortify ourselves for the journey to winter.
But celebrating this with very young children can feel a bit abstract. So, we follow the traditions set by those before us. We bake a loaf of dragon bread. We make dragon soup. We have a new candle to burn at dinner time from here until it burns out (hopefully right around advent), giving us light as we begin to enter the darker days of autumn and winter. We enjoy the season's last blackberries. And we play a lot of knight, dragon, and princess games.
Like most of the festivals of the year -- no matter which you celebrate or what your approach -- with such young children, they are really celebrations of hearth and home, of the cycle of the year, its inhalation and exhalation, and of our ways of relating together as family.
{If you're curious about celebrating some of these traditional holidays with your family, but don't know where to start, I cannot recommend the book Mrs. Sharp's Traditions more highly. Although this festival is popular in the Waldorf community, it's not explicitly a "Waldorf" celebration. For those of us who are concerned by certain aspects of Waldorf education and its foundational philosophy (anthroposophy), Mrs. Sharp's Traditions, which is not a Waldorf book, offers a lot of the background for and traditions surrounding the celebration of these festivals without the anthroposophical influence.}
One of our family's favorite little boys turned four in July. Between busy summer schedules, a gift that didn't arrive in time, a few cancellations, teething little ones in both families, and so on, we hadn't had the chance to give him his gifts until yesterday.
Pelle's New Suit is a big favorite at our house. The text is simpler than in some of Elsa Beskow's other books. I love the story of a boy shearing his own sheep and then bartering chores with family and friends to have the wool made into a new suit, from carding to spinning to dyeing, and finally being made by the tailor.
I thought it would be great fun to pair this book with some raw wool, some hand carders, and instructions for dyeing with kool-aid. From there, it's up to him. He comes from a pretty crafty family, so I'm sure they'll make good use of their new fairy wool. Happy belated birthday ~ and wool working ~ little man!
With our wee ones off to my sister's for the evening, my husband and I were able to go out and celebrate a leisurely anniversary dinner together last night. (Thanks for all of your sweet, sweet anniversary wishes, by the way!)
I love that we have so much to talk about, and I love even more that we can be so easy in our silence together, too. It's one of the untold blessings of marriage, I've discovered. Last night during dinner, when there was a pause in the conversation, it wasn't the awkward silence of having nothing to say to one another ... but the peaceful silence of not needing to say anything.
Good food, good drink, good conversation, good quiet ... good times.
Eight years ago today, my husband and I were married. Look how cute -- and thin! -- we were.
It's interesting ... looking back at wedding photos, and thinking about 8 years of marriage (which sounds suspiciously closer to 10 than to 5!). Our life now is practically unrecognizable in comparison to our life then. But we're very much the same. And in all the day-in, day-out living; the dealing with old cars and teething toddlers and jobs and groceries ... well, here we are. Still us. Still together for the same reasons -- and many more, too -- that brought us together in the first place. Our relationship is probably quieter now ... certainly there are fewer arguments! But then, you know how I love quiet.
I am so, so grateful to be able to make my life's journey with this understanding, sensitive (and so much more) man. A man who doesn't roll his eyes when I get completely consumed by some idea or other, who loves (really loves) my creations, and who tells me every day, especially on the bad ones, what a good mama I am. I really love being married to him.
My sister's younger step-daughter turned three this weekend, so I made this sweet little outfit for her, using some Superbuzzy fabric, which I carefully considered before purchasing. Superbuzzy, I love you. Superbuzzy, I cannot really afford you.
I even had to finish the seams on the pants the old fashioned way, as my serger is in the shop. Oh, the trauma! (Tongue planted firmly in cheek -- once I found my pinking shears, that is!)
I was really excited with the finished outfit (please ignore the wrinkles -- it still had to be washed before being gifted), and I think that our sweet new cousin will look super cute.
Today is my mama's birthday. I wish our scanner were working right now (it isn't) so I could scan in some of the sweet photos I have of us from when I was wee, but I have just this one up right now:
This is my mama and me, around her 23rd birthday, and when I was about 17 months old.
I am so very proud of her. She completed her master's degree a couple months ago after having devoted so much of her life to raising and educating my siblings and me. I am so honored to have her as my mother. She's been so supportive of me in my own motherhood in so many ways, even when I've stubbornly had to find my own way and am stumbling along. I remember my husband remarking when we were still dating that my mom was the kindest person he'd ever met.
My children, especially Elisabeth, completely adore her, their "Mimi."
I love her so, and have so much I could say about her, that I feel my words are coming out very clumsily today. So I'll just end with Happy Birthday, Mom, and thank you for everything.
To our great delight, our garden was visited by fairies last night. They greatly enjoyed the fairy ring and tea party that Elisabeth carefully set out for them last night:
We know that they were very pleased because they licked their plates clean and supped up all the tea. And because this morning we discovered that they left a note:
and fairy dust:
and gifts:
I am so very glad that our home has been blessed with so much magic and love. I am overwhelmed by the generosity of this life.
I hope all the daddies & families out there enjoyed as lovely a day yesterday as we did.
Although I am generally quite cynical about "Hallmark holidays", I will say that it's nice to be reminded to take a day to really say how much we appreciate all that this man does with us and for us every day of the year. Sometimes we don't tell him enough what a truly funny, generous, humble, loving, hilariously funny, really funny, great daddy (and husband, and mojito-maker, and dishwasher extraordinaire) he is. Thank you, my love, for everything.
Last weekend, while Daddy had a long day of rehearsals and work, I took the children to a local Waldorf school May faire. We had a wonderful time crawling through a castle maze which had been constructed with dozens of refrigerator boxes -- complete with turrets, dead ends, and secret passages; enjoying an all-organic lunch with compostable plates, cups, and flatware; dancing around a May pole; and weaving this crown of flowers. I was pretty annoyed with myself for most of the day because I forgot the camera (cardinal sin, I know), but the flower wreath is really the best part, so here are a few pictures of it. ;)
And one more from that afternoon, blurry and all, of my two wee ones who are beginning to interact more and more like friends. It just makes my heart skip to see their relationship -- their play, their companionable ease together, even their bickering. I'm so happy to just be their mama; to quietly observe them. Together.
A large number of the Google-generated hits to this site are from those of you looking for birthday crowns in some form or other: patterns for birthday crowns, birthday crowns for sale, paper birthday crowns, handmade birthday crowns, Waldorf birthday crowns.
So, I thought I'd share a bit of our Birthday Crown history. I originally got the idea of using a special crown on birthdays a couple of years ago when Gymboree had little plastic tiaras that had ribbons and the words "Birthday Girl" on them, so we ended up getting one of those for her and we used to set it out on the dining table the night before her birthday for her to wear throughout the day. It was always a fun surprise and way for her to know that it was her birthday, since she was so little and the passage of time wasn't very concrete. But as we've gradually decided to eliminate plastics from our home to the degree that we're able, the plastic birthday crown was donated, and I decided to make some of my own.
There are many people making and/or selling their own versions of felt birthday crowns; I imitated an illustration of a child wearing a crown on the cover of The Birthday Book for my design. I used plant-dyed 100% wool felt for the front, and plant-dyed wool-rayon blend felt for the lining (because the plant-dyed 100% wool pieces are not large enough for the entire lining). Using plant-dyed felt seemed very important to me for this project. Not only is it just lovely, special, earthy, and so appropriate for the significance of a birthday, but it is also thicker and stands up a bit better than a standard felt (even 100% wool) would. Edited to add: My favorite source for all of my felt is A Child's Dream Come True. I have occasionally purchased wool felt elsewhere. But for quality and consistency, I do prefer A Child's Dream Come True.
The ribbon I used came from two different sources. The ribbon on James's is just from JoAnn. I really struggled with ribbon for his, because I wanted it to be special and "regal", and not overly feminine or juvenile, since I'm hoping my children will wear their crowns for many years of birthdays. I don't love what I ended up with, but I think it will work well for him as he grows. It was much easier to choose ribbon for Elisabeth's, obviously. The ribbon I ended up using on hers is vintage, which I did purchase online, although there is a local source for vintage and specialty ribbon where I have gotten most of the vintage ribbon that I have.
And our Birthday Crown tradition? Well, we always set the Crown and the birthday ring (similar to this) at the birthday child's place at the table during the night before his or her birthday. We light the candles on the ring that morning at breakfast, and the Crown is available to be worn all day if desired. It is then packed away with the birthday ring for the next year; it's not a plaything in our home, although we do have other (similarly-made) crowns, which are for play.
Elisabeth had a little birthday party for five of her friends on Monday afternoon. Sometimes even the low-key birthday parties that we do feel like a huge undertaking, and I was grateful that one of my friends ended up staying to help.
Anyway, it was a lovely party, although I didn't get as many photos as I wish I had -- too much else going on, I think! But here are some highlights:
Birthday wreath
Goodie bags
The cake
Puppet gnome
The birthday girl and buddy
Enjoying some of the day's gifts
(Click on the individual photos to get to the flickr pages ... more information on each photo there.)
As I said previously, I had been planning to make a linen smock for Elisabeth's birthday for some time. When I saw this berry-picking pinafore last fall, I made my mind up to do a similar one for Elisabeth, especially since berry picking is one of our favorite family activities. Of course, knowing how much I like the cross-back smocks, I wanted to use that style again. (Elisabeth is refusing to allow this to be called "apron" or "smock", by the way, and insists that everyone say "pinafore.")
I had such fun designing and stitching the "E" embroidery on the front ~ it was definitely my favorite part of the project, and I still get excited looking at it.
I have been working really hard at making my sewing neater, straighter, & more careful lately (I've been especially motivated by this book in that area), making my backstitching and topstitching go perfectly on top of the underneath stitches, and so forth. Right now, I'm still what I would consider to be a "beginner", but I want my stuff to look handmade, not sloppy. I get easily frustrated, and have said many (many, many, many ... just ask my husband!) times how much I hate pinning and pressing and snipping threads ~ all the "extraneous" bits of sewing, right? ~ but I am trying to teach myself to enjoy even those aspects, and sometimes find myself muttering things like, "This is going to be the best pinning job I've ever done." I am not totally there yet ... enjoying the process of sewing (or anything, apparently) rather than just rushing through in anticipation of the "finished product" is challenging for me. But I'm getting better. I think the last few things I've made show my increasing attention to detail.
And I love this pinafore.
Today Elisabeth turned five. Five! It feels so significant to me; for five years I have been someone's mama. This little girl has created so much change in me in the half-decade that she has journeyed with me. My little girl, my fierce, tender one. My firstborn child, she who made me a mama. She entered this world with the same ferocity with which she continues to live her life, and quickly turned our lives upside down. She has motivated us in so many ways ~ as parents, as individuals. I have learned more from her and through her than I would've been able to in many lifetimes had she never joined me. What a gift she has been, in her intensity, her force of will, in her needs that we have learned to meet as best we can. In this challenging, spirited child, I see my own flaws reflected back at me as through a microscope, and sometimes I feel like I am facing my own ugliest self. The awe-inspiring thing about a child is the ability to transform that very ugliness into beauty and growth for both of us.
As fierce as Elisabeth is, as individual, and sometimes stubborn, she is a generous, creative, fresh, and deeply sensitive soul. She approaches empathy and tenderness as vehemently as she approaches everything else.
I am amazed by her "five-ness" in so many ways already ~ she seems at once so much like a "big kid" now and still so small. I just can't wait to discover what this year holds for all of us. Many new adventures, no doubt.
Happy birthday, sweet girl. What a joy it is to celebrate your presence in our lives!
