Monday, October 15, 2012

A Nature Shelf! {week 3, October 2012}

One of the reasons I first wanted to share my Nature Shelf here, was to show that it doesn't have to be fancy or amazingly creative, or too expensive or time consuming. I really wanted to show that it could be easily done, and by someone who has all of six weeks experience!


So, here is what I've learned so far!

That it can take an inordinate amount of time, and energy, and money ... if you want it to.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that the animal to be added this week, should be a squirrel (the third week of the Nature Table should represent the animal kingdom). We have lots of busy, busy squirrels running around and preparing for the cold weather here, so it seemed perfect.


I started to look at sewing patterns, and then knitting patterns ... which looked way to complicated.

Then I decided I would buy a beautiful wooden squirrel ... and after a small amount of research found that the really beautiful wooden squirrels were really more than I wanted to pay.

And I got myself in a bit of a tizzy over finding the perfect squirrel for the shelf, really just a tizzy.

It was at that stage that reality, finally, thankfully, set in ... our Nature Shelf is supposed to be fun! A simple representation of our seasonal environment. And that, really, The Little Guy was going to be delighted with it, regardless of whether I pulled a little wooden figure out of his toy box, or spent hours painstakingly knitting a squirrel.

It was a big moment for me, and one that I'm still allowing to sink in. Time and money does not always equal satisfaction.


So, all of this is a rather long winded way of saying that for this week's Nature Shelf, I used a couple of wooden toys from The Little Guy's farm set, and a wooden squirrel from our Spiel Und Holz Birthday Ring (we'll be celebrating a birthday here in the SimplyBurbs home later this week, so be sure to check back soon if you're interested in seeing pictures of the Birthday Ring in action!)


What do you have on your Nature Table this week? What are you doing to bring a little bit of Nature into your home? Feel free to share in the comments below; I'd love to hear from you!