Candlemas

 White winter came at us full force these last few weeks. I love this time of year where the busy rush of holiday making and traveling have past and it has finally sunk deep into our bones that we can rest a little. "Rest" is relative and still involves lots of wild play, arts & crafts galore and plenty of outdoor time, but... It just feels quieter somehow... In a good way...

:: White :: Snuggling deep under the duvet :: Hot cocoa :: The oven baking all day :: Sleepy kids ::

Less expectations, more of what you love. More of who you love (snow days!).

Today marks the halfway point between winter solstice and spring equinox, Candlemas or Imbolc. In the last few weeks we have noticed the light slowly returning. At night, while making dinner I look out the window and can actually see Soren's car coming down the driveway rather than just the headlights and when I head out in the morning to feed the birds the sun is peeking above the trees to greet me. It feels good, it also makes winter feel fleeting with this year's snow being so long in coming, but we have been pounded on in the past few weeks so I cannot complain about that.

Last year, we made window stars to celebrate the coming of light and this year we made something a little different. I was inspired to try it after visiting a sweet friend last week. Her daughter had these tissue paper circles in the windows that looked like ombre circles to me. At home I looked online and couldn't find a pattern so the little loves and I improvised...
We used kite paper (tissue paper would work too), construction or oragami paper for a border, glue and scissors.
First, we traced a circle (we used a small plate) onto four (or five!) pieces of kite paper and a piece of construction paper (just trace on one and cut them all together). Cut the circle out.

 Then we left one piece be, set it aside. Start cutting the second layer by gently folding it in half and half again. Then cut out the center by making wavy lines around in the general shape of a circle. Take piece three and four and do the same thing but make the cut out center circle a bit bigger each time. You will end up with four layers, one not cut out in the center and each successive one revealing the inner color and itself and so on...

 We then used a slightly smaller object (a bowl) to trace a border on the piece of construction paper (or origami paper, AnaSofia discovered that after a few tries and it was SO beautiful!). Cut out the inner circle so you have a nice thin border around your kite paper sheets. Glue them all together along the outer edges only.

 It should look something like this, only don't tell Kasper but you can be a little fancier with the inner cut out wavy lines...

 Mount on the window with double stick tape.

 Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. We have the front bay window full of them and I tell you, you won't realize how pretty they are until you do it yourself. They look gorgeous.

 And each one is like a poetic expression to the view outside - sunrise, sunset, tree, snow...

 Then last night, the kids went through Kasper's rock and mineral collection and made a centerpiece for the table full of light and color...

Feeling like we are dusting off our darkness and slowly letting in the light...
Having today home with three snuggly little loves and snow falling all around doesn't hurt either.