A Nature Shelf! {week 3, December 2012}

The 'gnomes' have been busy with their everyday lives this past couple of weeks, and got a little behind with keeping up with the Nature Shelf!

I always feel a little guilty for admitting how busy life gets; this blog is supposed to be about living simply. But life with three Little Ones, two working parents and all the busyness of the holiday season, it has been difficult to keep our schedule as Simple as I'd like. Ah well ...

 There have been two additions since I last posted about our Nature Shelf here, with the felt holly and the needle felted mouse.

The Little Guy has been really 'into' mice just recently, so he was thrilled that the gnomes brought a special mouse for the Shelf! He was promptly joined by The Little Guys special mouse toy, Tiptoes (named after Tiptoes Lightly, the lovely fairy in the books by Reg Down).

What have you done to bring a little nature into your home this past couple of weeks? 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!

An Autumnal Tableau

For special occasions I like to set up little displays for the family to discover, or as my 4 year old son exclaims, "Look what the gnomes have been doing!"

 

For the Autumnal Equinox over the weekend, I made these wool felted acorns and Fall Gnomes. The gnomes were just so easy to make, I really think my four year old could make one - and don't they look sweet?! I found the directions for these over here at the Carrie Logic website - check them out :-)

The acorns were another sweet and easy project. I collected little acorn caps while we were out on our walks (honestly, I think I collected dozens and dozens of them ... and now I'm dreaming up all of the fun things we can do with the ones I have left over after this project!)

To make the little hanging acorns, I started out with a little tuft of wool roving. (This is carded wool; I get mine from Sage Dream Design). I measured out my tuft to be about as long as my pinky finger!

Wrap it around your pinky finger.

Then carefully slide it off, and begin to gentle prick it with your felting needle. (A felting needle is a super-duper sharp needle, with little barbed hooks. These tangle the wool when it is pricked, and make the wool more dense, and matted. Felting needles are SHARP ... please use carefully!)

Start gently pricking all over with your needle, while keeping your little ball in a somewhat spherical shape.

Keep pricking, as it becomes denser and tighter. See the difference between the picture above and the picture below?

I made five little wool roving balls. (There are five of us in the family, so I made five acorns!)

Then I matched up wool balls to acorn caps.

I used my (new) hot glue gun to glue the wool roving ball into the acorn cap (no action shots ... I'm still learning how to use a hot glue gun, and am not feeling comfortable enough to mutli task with it).

 

 I cut five shortish lengths of ribbon (about two inches), and glued them into a loop.

Finally, I glued a little ribbon loop onto the top of each acorn.

And there you go! So simple :-)

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!