A Nature Shelf

The irony of my life really amuses me sometimes! I strive to live a simple, uncluttered life, and yet I set myself up to do things that help create an inherently un-simple life!

Like my Nature Shelf.

This was a lovely feature of our home, and one that my three Little Ones really enjoy. But, truth be know, it was becoming a source of much stress for me. I was rushing to switch out the shelf, or staying up late to make something for it, and generally spending too much time on it.

So I stopped!

I should not have been so surprised, but all three Little Ones still enjoyed looking at it, and The Little Guy still stopped by to talk to the Fairies there on a daily basis, even though it didn't change at all for nearly three months. The earth kept spinning, despite the fact that I was not changing the shelf on a weekly basis ;-)

It is okay.

My plan going forward is to make changes on a much slower basis, maybe changing it out completely with the change of each season, which feels much more reasonable. I rather like the acknowledgement of the seasonal changes, as opposed to the monthly calendar.

So here is our Spring Shelf; the silk reminds me of the lovely cherry blossom petals so famous in the mid-Atlantic area. The toadstool was found at the bottom of a storage box, a forgotten trinket. The Little Guy immediately presented it to the Gnomes and Fairies, who apparently love it!

And like a lot of things that we release, letting go of the need to do this so frequently, as just felt like a HUGE weight rolling off my shoulders.

A deep breathe ... and the world is still spinning!


Are you doing anything in your home to reflect the outdoor season? Feel free to share in the comments, or leave a link back to your own blog; I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 4, January 2013}

To round out our snowy themed Nature Shelf for the month of January, the Little Guy was really thrilled to find that the Fairies had built a snowman!

His first obsevation though? "I hope that snowman doesn't melt! He's so close to the lovely warm Fairy House", to which I asked "Is the Fairy House warm?" "Well, of course it's warm Mama, there's smoke coming out of the chimney, so they must have a fire inside"!

Of course!


What are you doing to bring a little of the outside environment into your home? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Shared on Friday's Nature Table, at The Magic Onions

A Nature Shelf! {week 1, January 2013}

A new year, a new week, a new Nature Shelf!

We've been a little snowflake happy at the Simply Burbs home this past month or so, but they really are just so pretty. Who can resist?!


What are you doing this month to bring some nature into your home this month? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 3, November 2012}

With Thanksgiving coming up this week, and this being the third week of the month (the week that you add something representing the animal kingdom), it just had to be a turkey!

I had grand plans to knit a little turkey, and found a pattern that seemed easy enough (I used this pattern from Valley Yarns) but my knitted turkey was not turning out to be as easy as I had hoped. (I should add that this pattern called for work on double pins, a first for me, and one that I obviously need to practice when I have more time and less pressure!)

So yesterday evening I sat down with my trusty bag of wool roving and my felting needles, and made this little guy; I think he looks like a Turkey Fairy, with his lovely wispy tail feathers!

I used this tutorial for the needle felted turkey, and it was so easy to make. I'm looking forward to The Little Guy's reaction and hearing what he names him :-)


What are you adding to your Nature Table this week? Are you planning to decorate your dining table (Thanksgiving or otherwise!) with something representing nature? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 2, November 2012}

*Loyal readers may have noticed that there was no Upcycling Sunday post yesterday.
We have had a particularly un-Simple couple of weeks here at the SimplyBurbs home; two teething Little Ones, time-change effected kiddos, My Good Man and I have both been really hectic with work, and I think everyone has been feeling generally run down to boot!
So when it came time to writing up the post for yesterday morning ... I just realized that I could choose to make my life just a little bit simpler, and not do it.
But, I am a fair believer in looking for the gift in even the most challenging of times.  So, out of all of the busyness, stress and un-Simplicity of the last couple of weeks, we have been looking more at how to further Simplify things around here. But more about that another day ... and on to the Nature Shelf!


Fall is in full swing in our part of the country, which means leaves, leaves, leaves!

I had originally planned to knit some beautiful leaves for the Shelf, or press and dry some real ones and dip them in wax ... but as a result of our un-Simple week, time became the biggest deciding factor. So, I used these silk leaves (which I've had for at least a couple of years), taped them onto the Shelf, and there you go. Simple!


What are you doing to bring a little bit of Nature into your home? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 1, November 2012}

My goodness! Can it really be November already?!

I purposely started our Nature Shelf to be a little empty this month, because I am anticipating it will get very crowded by the end of the month.

Speaking of crowded, I just had to share something with you.  The Little Guy loves to play silly jokes and tricks, and just recently has discovered the delights of doing thing, and then blaming it on the gnomes. Well, apparently the "gnomes" decided to do a little extra decorating on the Nature shelf over this past week.

A Nature Shelf! {week 4, October 2012}

What every Nature Shelf needs! A Pumpkin Gnome!

And I'm pleased to let you all know that my anxiety around making this little gnomie was significantly less than expected - yay!


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

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!

A Nature Shelf! {week 2, October 2012}

Pumpkins just exude happiness, don't you think!

Of course, for the October Nature Shelf, we could hardly do something other than pumpkins to represent the plant world, could we?!

These little beauties were found at our local CSA farm; The Little Guy was so excited to bring home these mini pumpkins.


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!

A Nature Shelf! {week 1, October 2012}

Ah! - the clean slate of starting a new month!

For this month, I'm planning on embracing Fall, and pumpkins and leaves with our Nature Shelf this month.

So up goes the orange playsilk and the Crystals (the first week of the Nature Shelf represents the mineral world).

And, let's see what 'the gnomes' have in store for next week ;-)


What are you doing to bring Fall into your home? Feel free to share in the comments!

A Nature Shelf! {week 4, September 2012}

I'm a little in love with the additions to this week's Nature Shelf!

For the forth week in the nature table monthly cycle, we're adding a human element ... which in our case usually means gnomes or pixies or fairies. Because that's just the way we roll around here!

The two little wooden figures made their way to the Nature Shelf a couple of days ago, but I made the little nut cap man last week and tucked him onto the shelf last night; he was just so wonderfully easy to make too! His body is a pipe cleaner, with a wooden bead head and then a simple little felt tunic and an acorn top hat ... and he's just the right size too! So sweet!

I think we'll be seeing more of these little pipecleaner bendy men in the future!

A Nature Shelf! (September 2012, week 3)

If this week's Nature Shelf had a theme, it would have to be 'preparation is key'.

Somehow the idea that I would have to do something to be ready for the new week, and adding an item representing the animal kingdom, totally escaped me, until I found myself scrambling at the last minute. Not good.

But I found a couple of sweet little birds that I had tucked away, and made a little nest out of some wool roving ... and there we have it; birds in a nest.  Which is really more spring-like, than representative of approaching Fall, but it's something at least!

A Nature Shelf! {September 2012, week 2}

My little Nature Shelf is taking shape!

In the Waldorf tradition, your Nature Table should reflect the seasonal changes in your natural environment. For us here in Virginia, that means the first inklings of Fall are in the air.

The Nature Table is changed each month, with little additions made each week.

In week 1, along with your basics (home dyed playsilks and, for me, a gingerbread (gnome!) house we made a couple of months ago) you add items from the mineral world. I used some tumbled Crystals.

For week 2, you would add items to reflect the plant, and natural world. I added a blue playsilk and some pinecones and seed pods that we've collected on recent walks.

Next week, for week 3, I'll be adding a representative from the animal world.

And for the fourth week of the month, something from the human, or magical world (I like to add gnomes!)

But, really, my favorite part of the Nature Shelf is making the small changes and additions for the week, and then letting my four year old, The Little Guy, discover it. "Oh - look, Mama! Look what the gnomes did to the Nature Shelf!" Truly, it is the stuff that childhood dreams and flights of fancy are made of!

I'll be posting updates of our Nature Shelves ... I can't wait to see what the gnomes do next ;-)

A Nature Shelf! {September 2012, week 1}

We have always known that we wanted to homeschool our little ones ... it may not be for family, but it has just felt right for us.

But, once the decision has been made to homeschool, the next question is ... 'what kind of homeschooling'?! From unschooling, to strict 'school' type learning, we've bounced around a little finding, what we hope, is the right homeschooling fit for us.

Now, I'll admit that when I first stumbled across Waldorf as a fledgling Montessori teacher it seemed ... odd! Now that I have my own little brood, it seems nothing less than perfect; just the perfect way to learn and be allowed to develop and explore.

One of the aspects of Waldorf that really appeals to me is the aspect of bringing a little bit of nature closer to every day life ... a Nature Table!

Now, we live in a small house, with five people, a cat and lots and lots of stuff (although we are minimizing our stuff-load significantly!), and two of the people living in our house are ten month old 'littles' who are still trying to eat everything!  A table seemed too risky, and too much investment in terms of such a precious commodity - space!

So rather than a Nature Table, we are fashioning a Nature Shelf!

There are lots and lots of great articles and books on Nature Tables in the Waldorf tradition, and it's easy to be overwhelmed by how much time, money, effort and skill is put into them. If you're like me, one can be easily deterred when seeing how perfectly someone else seems to bake/decorate/educate/parent (fill in the blank!)

So this is my attempt to show just how easily it can be done, with little effort, time, money or skills! Hopefully!!

 And just in case you thought I might have been misleading you when I said it was a Nature Shelf, here is the shelf of the bookcase we are using! Junk on the top shelf (hmm ... this photo is inspiring me to take care of that - pronto!), homeschooling books on the next, and three bottom shelves of toys and playsilks are sandwiching our Nature Shelf! Nothing fancy here folks; but it's beautiful, and we're loving it!