Traditions

Since the days leading up to Valentines Day are some of my busiest of the year, I tend to look for very simple, easy ways to add hearts to my decor!

Two sweet and easy tutorials were safely tucked away in my bookmark files and a third happened quite by accident!

Yarn wrapped wreaths have always appealed to my eyes! Danielle shares this great tutorial for making a yarn wrapped wreath on her blog Take Heart. And since I had just found a straw wreath at the thrift for $.50 and already had lots of red yarn in my stash, I spent some TV time wrapping!

  Danielle's tutorial includes the technique for making lovely little felt roses. Her roses are simple and quick but since I needed even more "simple and quick" - I cut lengths of red and cream yarn and added an easy peasy bow.

I am loving how this balsa wood heart turned out! A very, very simple to make heart - made from balsa wood which is available in almost any craft store - already cut to size!

Kate - the clever designer of this heart - shares her technique on Design Sponge.

I did modify the heart a bit by staining the inside surfaces with red acrylic paint (slightly diluted) and attaching a little heart shaped mordiford.

(Tutorial for making a mordiford or wheat weaving).

See Diane's beautiful heart shaped mordifords here!

You might remember that my friend Gill sent me a supply of Bastelspan (also known as Spön or hobby chip) from Norway last spring. Spön is very thin shavings from what I am pretty certain is Ash - a tree found all over northern Europe.

The idea came to me that I could duplicate Kate's balsa heart using some of my Spön. But it just didn't translate well in the smaller, thinner material.

It kills me to waste even one inch of my precious supply, so I carefully cut the failed heart apart to save all the portions that were not hot glued together.

Turning to inspiration found on the Magic Onion to make a simple heart from recycled paper, I decided to experiment! Will wet Spön and hot glue form a good and lasting bond?

Happily - they do! I was actually surprised. However, the join must be firmly held in place with a paper clip until the wood completely dries out - that would be overnight.

So really no faster than good old Elmers glue.

Thanks to Danielle, and Kate, and Donni, I am ready for Valentines! How about you?

We have made it! The darkest days of winter are behind us!

The mid-way point between the winter solstice and spring equinox will be celebrated by many in the northern hemisphere tomorrow - on February 2nd.

This truly special day, known as Ground Hog Day, Candlemas, Imbolc, Brigid's Day or mid-winter has been marked with special celebrations and traditions since ancient times. At the end of the post you can find links that will enlighten you further as to the history and customs.

I am indebted to blogger Denise - "mom in madison" - for first introducing me to the celebrations and mystery of February 2nd, which up until that time I had dismissed as Ground Hog Day - ho hum.

She set me on a path of discovery resulting in lovely traditions now firmly planted in my celebration calendar! I am sharing my celebrations here with the hope that many of you will be inspired to find your own ways to mark this very significant "quarter day" of the earth's yearly journey around the sun.

By planting a pot of Paperwhite bulbs sometime near the winter solstice, I begin my celebration in anticipation of the open blossoms in the top image. This picture was taken about mid-January to mark their progress. Right on cue - tiny white flower buds began opening yesterday!

First thing in the morning, coffee in hand, I search the garden looking for signs of spring. Look what I found hidden under the ferns! Helebore buds!

Image by the Pickled Herring

Then back inside to a warm kitchen to prepare pancakes - grain foods are traditionally eaten to mark this day. Since ancient times, farmers have considered this day as the proper time to begin preparing the fields for spring sowing.

This year - Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberries - the recipe here on the Pickled Herring.

I have been making a Brigid Cross every year, but now that I have three displayed all year long on my walls, I will simply take time to thank Brigid, the goddess of creative inspiration and fertility by placing a small sprig of lavender on her crosses. (Yes, the French Lavender in my garden is still green!)

My burlap table runner interwoven with wheat shafts is laid out on the dining table and white candles are placed in a wire wreath.

Then out to the garden to clip branches from plants that remain green all winter: rosemary, ivy, holly and grape ivy. These are added to the wreath as a reminder that in a few short weeks now, the first signs of spring will begin emerging from winter beds.

(Instructions for making the large candle here.)

Since they must be started very early, Iceland Poppies are planted in peat pots. And dreaming of the summer garden begins in earnest!

Fire and water are important elemental symbols to be included in celebrating "mid-winter".

Fire represents the sun already making it's way northward on it's return to the northern hemisphere, and water represents purification and renewal which originated with ancient holy wells named for Brigid.

My little garden pond is dedicated to Brigid and at dusk, candles are floated on the surface and lit in her honor.

And then at dark, all candles in the house are lit. This is the only day of the year I light the candle sconce I made from tin cans (and dedicated to Brigid).

Although for some this day traditionally marks the beginning of "spring house cleaning", at my house that "tradition" is delayed until early March.

February is my month to focus on thankfulness - baking over 100 dozen cookies to give to the amazing people and wedding sites who refer to us most of our wedding business - and - devoting the blog to thanking and featuring the many bloggers and online friends who have given me the gift of friendship and inspiration through the past year.

A couple short Valentine posts, and then beginning February 7th and through the rest of the month I hope you will join me to celebrate these very special people.

In the meantime here are some great links to how to find your own celebration!

My most favorite presentation of all traditions associated with Feb. 2nd.

Additional links can be found attached to these  previous posts:  Imbolc, Brigid's Day and Candlemas  and Candle Wreath for Imbolc

Cyn shares very detailed information on her post The Feast of St. Brigid on her blog My View of Reality.

And this lovely post by Georgene Lockwood - sharing how she celebrates and what she has learned about February 2nd on her blog Romancing the Everyday.

Georgene inspired me to add the Paperwhites to my celebration in this post last February!

Happy February 2nd, Imbolc, Candlemas, St. Brigid's Day, mid-winter - oh - and Ground Hog Day!

Tomorrow is again Twelfth Night - The 12th Day of Christmas and time again for a special cake!

If you missed celebrating Twelfth Night with me last year, pop over for a few lovely recipes - good contenders all for a final celebration of Christmas and the end of the season.

I don't know exactly why we don't celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas in America. Must research! I do think we are missing out big time!

This period from Christmas Day to December 6th is celebrated by many cultures all over the world - mostly by enjoying the company and fellowship of friends and family. AND Twelfth Night especially is celebrated with a special cake!

To continue my tradition begun last year of baking a special cake for Twelfth Night, I made a Clementine Cake!

Joanie introduced me to Clementine Cake last February but by then Clementines had completely disappeared from the local markets. I printed out Nigella's recipe (which Joanie had used) and saved it for Twelfth Night 2012!

Joanie of course put beautiful powdered sugar hearts on her cake - go see how pretty it is!

If you are into almond cakes - you will love this one! My sweetie and I have been eating it for dessert, evening snacks AND breakfast! (FYI it is gluten free)

Image made by Mary at Mary and Patch of her Cadeau de Noël - Christmas Gift to all of us!

It's not even Twelfth night and the cake is gone! But that is OK because........look at this decadent "cake" I just found on Mary and Patch - Cadeau de Noël!

Mary has been experimenting and developing her version of Triple Chocolate Truffle for several years and is kindly sharing the recipe as a Christmas gift to all of us! How can anyone refuse such a gift! Butter, chocolate, eggs and sugar. OMG.

Again, this year - we will be celebrating with TWO cakes for Twelfth Night!

How about YOU?  Have I convinced anyone out there to adopt this lovely tradition and bake a cake for Twelfth Night? I hope! I hope! I hope!

Here he is! My very own little Finnish Tonttu! I love him to pieces!

Up until December 11th, I was convinced there were no little Christmas elves to be found in Finland. On December 12th, thanks to a lovely reader named Dawn, I was directed to Lene who offered a complete how-to for making Finnish Tonttu on her blog Dances With Wool.

One of my very best gifts from "Santa Mom" this year was a bag filled with lovely hand spun yarns from Shepherd's Lamb, a sheep ranch in northern New Mexico producing excellent quality organic Lamb and beautiful wools for knitting, crochet and weaving. Apparently, she has been visiting their booth at the farmer's market in Santa Fe quite frequently this past year buying fresh lamb for her and beautiful hand spun yarn for me!

FYI, if you are into lamb dishes, like I am, you might enjoy some of the recipes included on the site! And if you are into wool, like me, you will be as excited as I am for their online shop to open!

Anyway - back to my little Tonttu -  two of the yarn skeins in the bag exactly matched the yarns Lene used for her Tonttu! So, my Tonttu already has a history - designed by a spinner living above the arctic circle in Finland and made with hand spun yarns from sheep raised on a sheep ranch in my beloved northern New Mexico.

Not having a wooden ball 1/2" in diameter in my stash, I decided to use my last little 1" felted ball for the head - which meant that I had to make the hat and body a bit bigger!

Links for the tutorials to make your very own Tonttu can be found in the December 11th Christmas Elves and Yule Lads post, or again at the bottom of this post.

While listening and catching up with the November and December podcasts (which are available from Craftypod), my hands were busy printing out, cutting and assembling these charming and playful Danish Nissers which have been in my bookmarks since 2008!

Actually - that is not exactly a true statement - there was so much inspiration and useful content in this set of podcasts, that I frequently had to put my little Nissers aside to take notes!

In case you hadn't guessed, the Nissers were designed by Margit at papirklip og æsker and the two Nissers with the tree and the Nissers with the ladder can be found in her 2008 archive along with printable gift tags and an entire Nativity to print out and make!!

This Nisser is actually 7" tall and is quite happy sitting on my mantel with my Santa and Father Christmas figurines. You can find him as well on the above link to the 2008 archive!

So now, unless someone tells me differently, I have a full set of - Christmas Elves!

Here are the links for the Tonttu tutorials on Dances With Wool:

Head

Body

Hat

Happy 8th Day of Christmas!

                  DON'T MAKE RESOLUTIONS!

                             MAKE PLANS!

Happy New Year Everyone!

              ************************

 Images of Star Cluster NGC 290 and Sirius the Dog Star are from HubbleSite