I decided I wanted to make a new decoration for St. Patrick’s Day this year, and since Lucas was home sick for a couple of days, I took some time to work on it. Although it’s probably too late for anyone to make this for this year, I’m going to walk you through the steps to make a jolly ring of dancing leprechauns. Because this project has multiple pieces to it, this will be long.

I would say that anyone with a medium amount of needle-felting experience can make one of these, as I consider myself to be an intermediate-level needle-felter. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Materials

* wool roving in plain white and multiple greens and browns; you may also want scarlet (leprechauns in some Irish stories wear scarlet caps or scarlet vests)
* foam base and felting needle (any guage)
* chenille stems for crafts (aka pipe cleaners)
* multiple-needle felting tool (optional)
* carding brushes (optional)

Step 1: Fashion a round mat of white wool. Use your multineedle felting tool if you have one, for it will make the creation of the wool mat faster. You want your mat to be a good 1/2 inch thick, when it’s firmly felted.

Step 2: Now add thin layers of colored wool in any arrangement you like to the top of your white mat. I used a mix of greens and browns to create a realistic patch of earth.

You’ll get more realism if you card some greens and browns together to create a blend of colored wool for your mat. Occasionally lift your round mat off the foam felting pad and needle it from the back for a while. Flip it again, working the wool from both sides to felt the fibers together.

Keep felting until the whole mat is fairly firm and holds together when you lift it up. Here’s how my mat looked when I felt it was done.

Step 3: Begin your first leprechaun. Bend one whole chenille stem (I like to use white) in half gently. Now hold it about an inch down from the top bend and twist the top using your other hand. You’ve just created a loop at the top. Open it out into an oval shape of wire. Cut another chenile stem in half. This will be your figure’s arms. Just where the neck is, twist your small chenille stem so that it anchors onto the neck like you see in the photo below. Now you have a wire skeleton. Bend over the ends where the feet and hands are a tiny bit so that there’s no pointy wire sticking out. Roll a small ball of wool and place it inside the wire oval. Begin felting it into a nice head shape.

Step 4: Now begin wrapping your skeleton with small bands of wool roving, needling it down into place so that it stays together by attaching the fibers. Wrap more and more wool and continue needling until your Leprechaun has a “body” of white wool. The hands are the trickiest part, in my opinion. You have to wrap them enough so that the chenille stem is invisible, but not so much that you have big, puffy hands.

Here’s my lady Leprechaun in progress. She is just about ready for clothing. The more you needle your figure, the denser the wool will become. By focusing on certain parts, you can sculpt the wool to be dense and narrow where you want it to be, such as at the figure’s neck and arms.

Below is a male Leprechaun in progress. For male figures (or female figures wearing trousers), you have a choice: You can fashion the legs together (just like you would for a skirt for a female form) and then create the impression of separate legs by needling a line down the front of the figure, or you can wrap each leg separately. The advantage to creating separate legs is that your Leprechaun will look more like he’s dancing. The disadvantage is that it’s much harder to get the Leprechaun to stand upright and not fall over. (More about that later.) If you intend for children to handle or play with your Leprechauns, you should create a sturdy base by keeping the legs together.

Step 5: Dress your Leprechaun with bits of colored wool, needled down into the white body. I decided my Leprechauns would all wear greens, but in my reading about Leprechauns, I’ve found a number of stories that refer to little men in scarlet caps or red vests, too. Obviously, if you are making gnomes or fairies rather than Leprechauns, your “clothing” can be in any colors you wish to reflect their characters.

Step 6: Now give your figure some hair and/or a beard. My Leprechaun men didn’t look complete to me until I gave them caps for their heads also. It’s easy to create elaborate hairstyles for your lady Leprechauns, if you want. If you prefer your soft sculpture dolls to be in the Waldorf style, then leave their faces blank. Your child’s and your imaginations will fill in their features. If you’d rather give your Leprechauns faces, feel free to do so. Your needle can even sculpt delicate or bulbous noses, eyes, mouths, and eyebrows, if you like. Hmmm … I wonder what color eyes Leprechauns have.

Step 7: Repeat steps 3 through 6 until you have as many Leprechauns as you want! I managed to make four, two men and two women. I think I’d like to craft two Leprechaun children to add to my group, but I ran out of time this year.

Step 8: Now arrange your Leprechauns in a ring on your needle-felted mat, and begin needling their feet into the mat. You may have to do this a long time to get them to stand, especially if you made the male Leprechauns with separated legs. Mine wanted to fall over a lot (that’s the disadvantage I mentioned earlier). I opted to place “ribbons” or cords in their hands, to help complete the ring. My son Lucas enjoyed braiding bits of roving to create the cords for the figures to hold. If there were more than four figures, I don’t think the ribbons would be necessary. Once you get them balanced, you may want to leave them be! Will your Leprechauns face outward or face into the ring?

Here’s my finished Leprechaun ring. I also took a shot of them dancing around a pot of gold.

Now put on some Irish music and dance like your Leprechauns! Please let me know if this tutorial is helpful to you.

Here are two needle-felted tapestries that Lucas recently made to give as gifts. The above tapestry was given to Aunt Kellie for her birthday. These were both wholly conceived and executed by my darling almost-9-year-old. Both are about six inches in diameter.

This one of tropical fish is a belated birthday gift for another family member. We still have to give it, though, so I won’t say who the recipient will be.

I’ve been crafting a bit myself in fits and spurts, but I’m not ready to show my creations yet. I also have a big fat book edit going on now and it’s eating up my time. I am grateful for my glorious weekend spent among friends; I am trying hard to let it buoy me up this week.

I don’t have many words right now. I’m shocked and grieving for the people of Japan, and I wish I had resources to send.

Doctors Without Borders is taking donations here.

The American Red Cross is accepting donations here.

I’ve been meaning to share this picture book for weeks now. The Stars Will Still Shine  is by Cynthia Rylant, a powerhouse of a children’s author. Pretty much everything she writes turns to gold and her credentials are impressive, to say the least. This simple book reminds us that even as things change, they still stay the same, a reassuring message that even I need to hear once in a while.

Tiphanie Beeke is the illustrator and I think her watercolor paintings are sublime, full of a dreamy sweetness and plenty of lush color.

The words and images are simple. The good things in life are celebrated in this book—ice cream, cuddly pets, swinging on the swing.

Family gathered around a table, playing with friends, flying kites, birds flying in the sky, seasons changing—these are the essential experiences of children everywhere. Any child, from baby to first grader, will easily relate. Furthermore, I would fully recommend this book for any child who is feeling stressed, grieving, or going through a difficult transition.

“The sky will still be there, the stars will still shine …

birds will fly over us, church bells will chime.”

I’m taking this opportunity to crow a moment and say how pleased I was to be invited to contribute to the March Afterschool Enrichment Guide ebook, published by Little Acorn Learning. Publisher Eileen Foley Straiton creates marvelous ebooks that are perfect for homeschooling, preschool programs, and families. They are full of crafts, stories, poems, songs, activities, caregiver meditations, recipes, holiday celebration ideas, and more. Little Acorn Learning also publishes seasonal and festival ebooks, childcare menu guides, and lesson plan guides.

For this March Afterschool Enrichment Guide ebook, I created two original craft project tutorials and wrote an article on observing Lent and the concept of sacrifice.

I was surprised and happy to see that my little leprechaun is featured on the front “cover” of the ebook.

By all means, check out the Little Acorn Learning website and see the week-by-week activities; here is a brief list of the themes for March.

Week 1: Fairies and Dragons, Magic

Week 2: the Season of Lent, Sacrifice

Week 3: St. Patrick’s Day, Luck

Week 4: Spring’s Return, New Life

Week 5: Rainbows, Creating Color

You can also download a FREE 23-page ebook all about rainbows (from Week 5). Who doesn’t love rainbows? It’s a sample of what you’ll get if you buy the March Afterschool Enrichment Guide. It’s fun for the whole family!

It was tons of fun to work on these projects and I’m honored to have my work presented alongside that of so many talented, creative, wise women! Thank you, Eileen!

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Some parts of my home make me feel so happy and warm. My books are my companions and my promises to myself. You might say, they are no small part of my retirement plan.

Colors lift me up; they fulfill some longing in my heart.

Some corners inspire me to be artistic. I can thank my two pregnancies for spurring me to paint my two wall murals.

Some corners feature treasured gifts that fit perfectly.

Some corners are ordinary, functional, and require frequent scrubbing.

Some are exactly opposite.

Many corners are cluttered with the stuff of our lives—mostly drawings, laundry, toys, and library books—oh, and dirt from outside, which arrives hourly on the tides of boys going out and coming in.

Sometime I have to look up to find some peaceful place to rest my eyes, some little spot that’s not in need of tidying.

Things gather you know, it’s natural. Every once in a while, I have to move it all aside, maybe dust a bit (but not too much), and replace a few nostalgic items just so, exactly how they need to be, for now.

There you have it: home.

Happy Valentine’s Day from our family to yours!

May you be filled with the love that surrounds you, take it into yourself, and let it inspire you.

May you love deeply and truly, with honesty, courage, and compassion.

May you enjoy life, take big bites, and savor small pleasures and everyday delights.

May you see and appreciate the beauty in the world and in people everywhere.

May you cultivate your creativity and capacity to love, for whomever you love, every day.

Blessed be!

We have a class set of valentines to make this weekend for third grade, in addition to a big school project. (Lucas has to build a traditional shelter diorama and write a report—his first major homework assignment ever.) We have opted to make some kitchen valentines for his classmates this year. I’ll tell you about those after we’ve made them. This is what we did last year and it was super fun.

In the meantime, Asher and I had some fun painting coffee filters with watercolor paints (above). The filters really soak up the paint, and the hearts are equally beautiful on both sides. We haven’t decided exactly how to use these yet: window decorations, cards, mobiles … there are so many possibilities! I spent a few moments the other day hacking up a shiny red gift bag into hearts. You can never really have too many of these, just in case.

At preschool, Asher and his classmates have been making valentines for a couple of weeks now. It’s hard work for a 3- or 4-year-old to make enough valentines for all of his friends!

This Valentine Tree is on the third grade nature table at Lucas’s school. The hanging hearts are all made by the students from modeling beeswax.

I still want to come up with some kind of gift for the children, as I do every year. We always have a small breakfast-time celebration on holidays and I like having a wee something to surprise them with. I have loads of paper hearts that I keep year to year, and one thing I always do is to make a pathway of paper hearts leading from their bedroom door to the holiday breakfast table.

Just might have to make these again! How do you celebrate Valentine’s Day with your family?

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

We held a small ceremony last night to celebrate Imbolc, or Candlemas. It was just the four of us and it was perfect, I think. In my research, Imbolc and Candlemas led me to Saint Brigid, who led me to Brigid, the Celtic triple goddess, who whispered in my ear how very alike she is to Hestia, the Greek goddess of hearth and home. Now, Hestia and I go way back, and at that moment I was instantly comfortable, on familiar turf,  “at home.” I can work with this!

When I create a ceremony or celebration, I have this little tendency to go overboard. When the intention is to celebrate with my small children, I have learned that the key  is to keep it simple. I usually let my imagination run wild for a while, come up with lots of complicated and meaningful ideas, and then I consciously scale it back, make it shorter, and let the symbols speak for themselves.

After dinner, we sat by the fire on our sheepskin rug. I had purchased a 3-inch beeswax pillar candle and we softened some modeling beeswax in warm water. We each fashioned a design or symbol to attach to our “FamilyCandle.” As we did so, I shared a poem about Candlemas Day.

“If Candlemas Day be fair and bright, Winter will take another flight. If Candlemas Day be cloud and rain, Winter is gone and will not come again.”

Then this, which I wrote:

“Round the hearth, with our fire burning bright, we speak from our hearts. With kind words we kindle our hearts’ light.”

We then talked about Imbolc being the midpoint of winter and that after that night, we’d be moving toward the spring. We talked about family and home.

The boys mostly played with the colorful wax and stuck chunks of it on our Family Candle. Asher called his chunk of blue the “rainbow bridge.” Daddy made a beautiful interlocking rings design, with four rings representing the four of us. I made a star with a rainbow and a little blazing fire (because stars and fires mean winter to me, and a rainbow gives me hope for the spring).

Here is our Family Candle in this morning’s light.

Here you can see the boys’ additions to it.

While we modeled our beeswax and added it to our candle, we thought of with words that mean “family” and “home” to us, things we associate with our home and being a family together. We wrote these words in crayon on a watercolor painting I made earlier in the day. Lucas wrote words for himself. Not to be outdone by his older brother, Asher followed suit, with his own version of writing.

Here is our family artwork hanging above our kitchen table. Love, peace, joy, family, us, tribe, prosperity, health, warmth, luck(e), respect, happiness, hope, laughter, help, rest, safety, boys, hearth—and contributions from Asher, such as “squirrel family in the snow!”

Especially for 4-year-old Asher, we did a small motion play from A Child’s Seasonal Treasury by Betty Jones called Groundhog Day.

Bears hug in their caves so snug.    (Hug self with eyes closed; smile.)

Squirrels are restless in their hollow tree.    (Make a hole with one hand, wiggle fingers of other hand through hole.)

Fox family yawns and stretches in their lair.    (Yawn and stretch limbs.)

Groundhog pokes his head from the ground.    (Make large ring with arms and poke head through.)

Whiffs and sniffs and looks around.    (Sniff, look around through hole.)

Will or won’t his shadow be found?     (Nod “yes,” then “no,” shrug shoulders.)

If it is, we all will know     (Nod “yes” and rise to squat position.)

Spring is getting ready to go!     (Spring up in place with outstretched limbs.)

Finally, while we all held our decorated Family Candle together, we finished with this verse by Marsha Johnson.

Bless this candle in our hands.

Bless this flame as here we stand.

Bless the faces ’round this light.

Bless all people on this night.

We’ll be burning this Family Candle during dinner and on weekends when we are home for the rest of winter.