A Nature Shelf! {week 3, January 2013}

Each week I post new photos of our Nature Shelf (my own little nod at the beautiful Nature Tables that are found in many Waldorf classrooms, schools and homes).

Some of the Nature Tables created and posted on the web are truly spectacular; they are works of art, made of felted wool, plants, both live and dried, wooden houses for fairies and gnomes. Beautiful!

But frankly, I have neither the time, the skills or the energy to make that happen every week.

And the thing is, The Little Guy has just as much fun with the little Nature Shelf I put together for him as I think he would with an elaborate Nature Table.

And that is why I wanted to start posting about my Nature Shelf every week, to show that they don't have to be exquisite, or time consuming, or painstakingly made. All told, I usually spend less than 15 minutes on the Nature Shelf each week, and I am far from a skilled sewer or felter. If I can do this, you can too!

So each week, we add a little something new to the shelf. I always start out with a home dyed play silk as a back drop, and then our Fairy (gingerbread) House.

For the first week, I add Crystals and Rocks (week one represents the Mineral and Crystal Kingdom).

Week two, is for the Plant Kingdom, so I add something representing plants, flowers or trees. Sometimes it will be real, like pine cones or teasels found on a walk, other times it will be made, like the felt holly leaves I made for the December Shelf.

For week three, we include something from the Animal Kingdom; again sometimes I make something, and other times I will use a small toy.

And lastly, week four sees the addition of something from the People or Elemental Being Kingdom. I like to add little homemade Gnomes for this week; they are so so so easy to make (I should add a post about these some day!) The Little Guy just loves to see these little folk!

This being the third week of the month, I added a little creature to the shelf. Here in the Mid Atlantic states we are just beginning to truly see King Winter this week; it is quiet outside, but for the squirrels busy busy busy about their days!

I had half planned to make tiny origami birds to sit on the tree branches, but I'm not a skilled origami maker, and ran out of time, so this little squirrel (from our Spiel Und Holz Birthday Ring) stepped in!


What are you doing this week to bring a little of your outdoor 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 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!