Snow Fairies

The snow fell softly in the night,

All the world was glistening white.

The angels from the stars looked down

On Mother Earth's new shining gown.

The moonbeams danced down silently,

And kissed each sparkling branch and tree.

 

 

It's the January thaw here. All the glorious white and puffy snow we had over the holidays has begun to melt off. It's warm! It's funny how after a spell of 20*F and below 35* and higher feels like a heat wave! The down coat my husband gave me for Christmas hangs from it's hook in our entry way and hasn't moved in more than a week! The littles are amazed that they can go outside with a wool sweater and cap and feel warm!!! "It's winter, right?!" they say! What amazes me is how different winters are from when I was a child. It was cold, that I remember. And there was snow, and lots of it! My Dad has an old 1930's John Deere tractor that he would attach a plow to to move all the snow around.  One of my favorite memories, and the first inkling I knew we had a good snow over night, was being woken to the sound of the tractor in the wee pre-dawn hours as my Dad plowed us out! *sigh* Snow has become more of a novelty and less of a nuisance, I think. We've gotten so little over the past few years that when it finally comes, it's worthy of celebration. It feels like somehow things are as they should be, ya know?

 

That aside, the littles and I were wondering how we might invite some more snow to visit us. I told them a story of how when folks wish for rain they do a special rain dance. They looked at me with bright eyes and wondered if maybe doing a snow dance would work.

 

As they were dancing on the sofa :) I got out the usual suspects and fashioned together a quick Snow Fairy. Using just a wooden bead, half of a pipe cleaner, and a scrap of wool felt this is what I came up with. 

 

 

 

I added some wool roving between the folds of her dress and gave her some long white, braided hair. In her hands, I stitched a long piece of thread and attached little puffs of white wool to create the illusion that she was sprinkling snow. I attached her to the grapevine wreath that hangs above our nature table. I wish I could get better pictures of her dancing above it all, but.....I just couldn't seem to find the right angle. You can see in the first picture that I also added some wool felt stars. I wanted it to feel as though she were flying through the night sky dusting everything below in puffs of glistening, white snow. The girls came out and were super surprised to see this new addition to our little table. They were singing and dancing and making little Seraphina giggle (which was why I was afforded this extra bit of time! Her laughter makes the littles so happy that they will do anything to keep her laughing and smiley!!)

 

 

So, I guess we'll see if our efforts worked. A snow dance invitation and our little snow fairy......fingers crossed :)