Nature Table, The Sounds of Spring

On Sunday morning you would think it was Christmas here in our house as the sounds of 4 excited children ring out of our rafters. The night before, the Nature Table will be cleared of all signs of Winter and we will clean and pack our items away. Once the children are asleep the Spring decorations will be brought out and a few new items will be left by the Spring Fairies to add to our table this year.

This year, my mother and niece will be joining us for our celebration. Since this has not happened yet, I will share with you today our Spring Ad from the NaturalKids Team. As with the Nature Table, our ad changes with the seasons. This lovely collection of handmade items can be found in out team members shops. There are so many delightful items in our shops you may need 2 tables.

Rocks and Pond by http://www.etsy.com/shop/MuddyFeet
Mushroom House by http://www.etsy.com/shop/cutelittlething
Bendy Princess by http://www.etsy.com/shop/dannielle
Green Play Silk by http://www.etsy.com/shop/birchleafdesigns
Bunny by http://www.etsy.com/shop/fairiesnest
Pink Felt Doll by http://www.etsy.com/shop/alkelda
Hedgehog by http://www.etsy.com/shop/dayanra
Trees, Wooden Fairy Doll, and Shy Playsilk by http://www.etsy.com/shop/theenchantedcupboard

There are other great items from our team members on the NaturalKids Team website:
http://www.naturalkidsstore.com/cat_tables.html

Please leave a comment and share with us some ways you celebrate spring!

Article by Beccijo, The Enchanted Cupboard

Nature Table, Adding Nature

I like to change our Nature Table each week. It is so important during the long winter days that the children have something to look forward to at the beginning of the week. Sometimes it may be to bring out a few new items to add to the table or it could be a complete change of scenery. This week I did a more natural look to the table with our little bears coming out of their stacker den.

Another thing that we love to do is add bits of nature to our scenes. The boys have been gathering items from our yard to add to the table. Before we moved to the country we use to go to a large park that had nature trails to collect our items. We added to our basket sticks, rocks, pine cones, and pine branches.

The kids love to get on the floor and just play with these or add them to the table. Many times I find them just sorting the natural items into piles, sometimes by item, sometimes by size. Kids just really love to touch and feel thing from nature, it "grounds" their spirit!

Here is our final table this week the kids have added a few of each of the items even using the pine branch as a tree. I hope you have enjoyed our table this week and will share with us a link to your blog showing your winter table or a favorite memory.

Article by Beccijo, The Enchanted Cupboard

Need some new items to add to your winter Nature Table check out these items:

JustHatched

DadsWoodenToys

chimera

Make birdseed cakes

Today's fabulous how-to is by Emily from yarn miracle. Her beautiful shop specializes in companion animal placement, including the most luxurious cashmere bears and bunnies. Thanks, Emily, for this great & very summery tutorial!

How to make birdseed cakes


It's nearly summer and there are birds everywhere. When Ellie and I woke up last Saturday, Birdseed Cakes just seemed like a great idea.



Neat right? To make your own, you'll need

From the pantry:
• 3/4 c. flour
• 1/2 c. water
• 3 T. corn syrup
• 4 c. birdseed, or a mix of birdseed, raw nuts, dried fruit and other seeds
You can create combinations that are suitable for the native birds in your area, or just pick pretty ingredients if you want to use these as gifts or party favors!

From the kitchen:
• a sheet pan - line it with parchment or wax paper if you don't want to scrub the sheet pan later.
• a rolling pin is helpful but optional
• another piece of parchment or waxed paper if you don't want to scrub the rolling pin later.
• every cookie cutter you own
• jute or twine to create hangers

Pour the flower, water and corn syrup into a bowl and whisk it all together until it is well combined. Add the birdseed and stir everything until all the seed is coated and sticky. The mixture will be loose and messy and you'll think you made a Terrible Mistake.

Dump the mixture on the lined sheet pan, cover with the extra sheet of parchment and use a rolling pan or your hands to compress the mess tightly to about 1/2" thick. The more tightly you can pack it, the better it will hold together when it dries. Toddlers love this.

Once you are satisfied with the depth and density, press the cookie cutters into the "dough" and leave them in! No matter how tightly you've pressed, don't take out the cookie cutters or it will still fall apart! Just fit as many cookie cutters into the dough as you can.


(Yes, those are her pajamas. I *did* mention it was Saturday morning.)

Now let them dry just like that for about 6 hours. When you are able to handle them without disaster, you can remove them from the cutters, flip them over and leave them to dry for another six hours. Plain shapes hold up better (hearts, flowers, leaves, some rabbits), things with arms and sticky out bits (gingerbread men) tend to loose their fragile arms and sticky out bits. I'm convinced that the cat's tail survived because Ellie loves cats and the Universe didn't want to break her heart. If you run out of cookie cutters, grease your hands and shape the remaining dough in to donuts/wreaths (these may need to dry a little longer). The scraps can be dried the rest of the way and then placed in a basket or scattered on your back porch. No sense in wasting them.

Once the cakes are completely dry, wind them with twine to create simple, rustic hangers. And now they are ready for the birds to enjoy!



Speaking of birds, here's a beautiful little lemon yellow knit bird from yarn miracle (and organic to boot!)


handknit organic cotton little ittie birdie toy