And the Winner of the Sun Maiden Wool Painting is.......

Megan who said:

 

I love that Waldorf schooling embraces the whole child. Beautiful spring wall hanging!

 

Congratulations Megan!  Your name was pulled from a jar and you have won!  :) 

 

Please send me your address (you may email it privately to farley98@earthlink.net) and I will pop your Sun Maiden Wool Painting in the mail this week. 

 

Thank you to everyone who entered and have a wonderful spring! 



Giveaway: Sun Maiden Breathes Life into Spring

To celebrate spring and the milestone of over 300 followers to Ancient Hearth, I wanted to give away a beautiful Waldorf inspired wall hanging.  Handmade using wool roving and lovingly needle felted by me, this hanging is approximately 9" x 12" and can be hung on a wall using the hemp twine attached to it.  Would make a lovely addition to a bedroom, school room, or class room.

The Sun Maiden holds a bouquet of spring flowers as she travels through the meadows bringing light and life to the land.  A nest of three eggs sits above her head in the tree as wispy clouds drift by and the gentle breeze blows.

To be entered into this giveaway, please leave a comment that you'd like to be entered, along with what you love most about Waldorf schooling, lifestyle, or philosophy!  Doesn't have to be long, just interested in seeing what drew you to Waldorf or to this blog.  If you share this on your blog, please let me know - along with a link to your blog, and I'll enter you a second time!

A lucky winner will be chosen within a week and the winner will be announced next Sunday!  Good luck and blessings to all!

 

Love and light!

~ Jen

Happy Spring!

 

I can't believe spring is already here!  My husband recently put up a few shelves in our school room so I could display some of our beloved wooden figures and needle felted treasures.  It helps with our rhythm.

 



 I have so missed blogging, feeling sad that I haven't much time anymore to capture our days and share them with others, but I did go through today and saw about 50 comments left through the years that I hadn't seen and got around to publishing them today.  I wanted to thank each and every one of you who reached out and commented on a post I had done.  It really meant the world to me - like little hugs across the miles :) 

 

It is so nice to find like-minded friends and others with the passion to nurture and prioritize the health and development of our children.  Sharing helps others and reaching out to receive inspiration or to inspire others, in turn, helps so many children.  I know I have been so motivated and enlightened by so many amazing mothers, fathers, teachers, and friends out there through the years who took the time to share.

 

So today, I want to honor all of you and in the spirit of giving, I am going to be making something today to give away as a token of thanks this week!  I don't have any plans yet just *what* to make - other than something needle-felted as that is a beloved passion of mine...so stay tuned and enjoy the life that is blooming right under our noses!

 



Blessings and light to all my friends and readers! 

xoxo

Holiday Preparations: Wooden Ornaments

Alas, it has been months since I've penned this blog last and for that, and for my overbooked schedule, I apologize.  Life is keeping us very busy and I don't have much time for elaborate, well planned posts.  But, what I love about December is that as part of our homeschooling year, I block out much of the month to focus on all of the wonderful festivals, baking, and traditions; and it's a time when we slow down, stray from more formal lessons, and focus more on creating memories by living in the moment.  So, I am hoping to write many posts over the month of December and would love to start by sharing some warm fuzzies that we treasure in our home. 

Like many of you, I prefer anything handmade.  It is hard to find natural, handmade in the local shops, so I often head over to etsy or track down obscure shops online where I can find those heartfelt goodies that make us feel cozy inside.  I was thrilled to find these handmade wooden ornaments from Germany at a local shop near our home last year.  There were so many cute ones that we had to narrow it down over and over again and I hope that we can snag a few more this year - adding to our little collection through the years.

The girls begged me to get out the old Christmas bins from the garage (no basements where I live) so they could begin decorating the tree and these were some of the first ornaments to go up...

Flying Santa

 



The Baker

 



Santa with his Walking Stick

 



Our Russian Soldier

 



Of course, the girls found the mini village my father had surprised us with the year I got married and the twins got sidetracked, but hey - any creative play is great by me!  December is a time to slow down, turn inward, and recharge the soul.  Kids definitely recharge through freeplay while we adults often recharge by ignoring the phone, dishes, and laundry and enjoy watching those little ones around us in all of their innocent, joyful splendor.  Childhood is a wonder to behold!

We are preparing our special holiday table, our Advent spiral, Advent wreath, and of course - we are excited about our first festival in Dec - Bishop Nicholas' Day!  This special tradition was made even more fun thanks to the amazingly beautiful and talented Christine Natale and her St. Nick stories - read one a day, beginning Dec 1st and get your kiddos into the spirit of giving and sharing... I have referenced Christine many times in my blog and there is a big reason why - she truly encompasses the Waldorf heart through her love of children and her foundational training and understanding.  I wanted to post the link to her stories now for anyone who plans to begin them December 1st!

You can read more about St. Nicholas here.  And I will be back with more photos as we prepare for this most wonderful time of year! 

Also, I have several comments that I've not answered yet - I hope to eventually get to them.  And I just saw that I have reached a wonderful milestone of 300 followers :) So in honor of that, yup...you guessed it...I am planning a special giveaway - so stay tuned!  Hugs to all of you!

Giveaway: And the Playscape Winner Is...

Elizabeth...

Elizabeth of Heartfelt Homemaking has 3 lovely daughters and is a dedicated homeschooler, mother, and homemaker!

Congratulations, Elizabeth! My daughter, Laney, pulled your name from the bin and I'll be emailing you to get your address so we can send you the playscape! Hope your daughters enjoy it as much as my girls love theirs :)

Thank you to all who entered! I wish I could give one away to everyone!!!!

Giveaway: A Needle-Felted Playscape!

The votes are in! The playscapes win :)

I love playscapes and they have helped me immensely with my Waldorf inspired homeschool. I can't tell you how many times we have used one of the playscapes in the context of a story for teaching or how many times I have heard little voices playing and peek in to find great adventures happening on the playscape with their little wooden toys.

This playscape features a meadow with a raised mound (where a simple little turtle sits), a stream that deposits into a lake, a cave lined with gold and diamonds where a simple red gnome fulfills his life's work, and a magic tale-telling tree that will come with both deep green 'leaves', and 'autumn foilage so that the playscape can be changed for the seasons, as well (simply remove the 'leaves' for a winter scape). Additional treasures abound in the details (like the purple heather and some little 'apples' that can be placed on the tree during the harvest)!

To be entered to win this beautiful playscape, please leave me a comment with the ages of your child(ren) and their favorite book (or books) and I will post those in a subsequent post.

For an additional entry into the contest, become a follower of my blog (if you are already, LMK that and I'll add your name a second time).

For a third entry, please list your favorite blog (and the category it falls under - general, homeschooling, waldorf, crafting, etc) and I'll post those as a group in a subsequent post!

Good luck to everyone!

The winner will be announced next week on Monday, April 2nd!

OK...Giveaway Suggestions????

I'd like to host my first giveaway in celebration of the reopening of my etsy shop, but I can't decide what to make :)

Which of the three would you like to see:

1) a playscape
2) a wall hanging (wool painting)
3) a spring doll

Suggestions welcome if you have certain colors or creative ideas! I will decide soon and get the giveaway going next week. I appreciate everyone's patience and hope to answer some questions that were recently submitted! My whole blog needs an overhaul :)

And the Winner Is...

Daisy of TwoLittleSeeds who said...

"Thanks for the chance, we would love to win a King Winter! My son would love his beard I know. I think he is beautiful and would be treasured on our Nature table!
Happy New Year. Daisy xxx"

Congratulations Daisy! Your King Winter will be shipped to you in Wales.

Thank you to everyone else who entered the giveaway! May you have a healthy and blessed 2011!!!!

Hugs, Jen

Ancient Hearth GIVEAWAY to Bring in the New Year: King Winter!

King Winter now is in the land,

He reigns with cold and freezing hand.

He makes Jack Frost touch nose and toe,

And brings us white and shining snow.

~ from Wynstone Press' "Winter" book

In celebration of the new year, I wanted to offer a giveaway of the new King Winter that will be in my etsy shop later this month. My shop is still on vacation mode so we can enjoy the rest of the holidays, but I'm excited about making some new creations this year!

To enter the giveaway, just leave me a comment that you'd like to be entered to win this King Winter doll :)

The lucky winner will be announced this Friday, January 7!

May you all be blessed with a wonderful 2011 full of health, peace, and lots of love!

Happy 2011!!!!

And the Winners Are...

First of all - a big thank you to everyone who entered this awesome giveaway!

Second of all - an even bigger thank you to Rick and Jennifer Tan of Syrendell for offering these gorgeous postcards to two lucky winners!

Without further ado...

The winner of the Fairytale postcard is, Sarah in the Woods, who said:

"Beautiful! Thanks for the link to the tutorial."

The winner of the Creation Postcard is Domestic Diva, who said,

"Lovely! Thanks for the chance."

Congrats to the lucky winners!

Please send me your address and Syrendell will send you your treasure! Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday season and thank you for stopping by!

Don't Forget to Leave Your Shoes Out for St. Nick!

Tonight is a special night for the families who follow this European tradition of leaving their shoes out on the night before December 6th to celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas.

We celebrated this tradition as a child and I have so many fond memories of this special day leading up to Christmas. It was always a favorite with lots of anticipation and glee and I am so happy to share it now with my children. One of my mom's favorite Saint's Days - to this day, she still reminds me to leave my shoes outside my bedroom door on the eve of December 5th!

Now in my own tradition, in the days leading up to this event, starting on December 1st, we read a story a day written by the talented author and Waldorf teacher, Christine Natale. Her Bishop Nicholas stories are found free here. They are short, so you could even start them today and space them out to read them all before the big day tomorrow :)

We are also enjoying this out of print book by Jakob Streit called, Saint Nicholas. With the help of Cindy from Whole Spirit Press, we were able to track down a few remaining copies, the link of which has been listed on my blog. I'm not sure if they have all sold out, but you may contact them as listed. See the post here.

Last year, I did a post documenting our celebration which can be found here. We'll see what Old St. Nick decides to leave the girls tonight :) And I hope to share shots of our Advent celebrations and winter preparations over the next several days.

Also, get ready for a special giveaway that I will be hosting, so stay tuned! Lots of fun and festivity coming down the pipeline!

Book Rec's Galore - And the Winner Is...SURPISE Additional Winners!!!!

The Winner of the Sunflower Maiden is...

Nature Nest!!!!

who loves "The Jungle Book"

CONGRATS!!!!

But WAIT! That's not all...

I pulled the name this morning because each of my girls wanted to pull it and I didn't know how to choose who would pull...so, after I drew the winner of the Sunflower Maiden, each of the twins drew one name...

And as a SURPRISE - I am going to giveaway a lovely needle felted pumpkin for your nature table! The winners are:

Moment to Moment

and

Forest-Dweller!

They recommend "Grandfather Twilight" and the "Tiptoes Lightly" series

Congrats to all of you and thank you to everyone who entered! I especially appreciated all the wonderful book recs and will post them below, in alphabetical order!

Happy schooling and stay tuned for another giveaway in the near future!

Hugs!

Now for the book recommendations - and this officially kicks off a return to my "Friday Book Reviews" with these book recs from some awesome mommas!:

"A Donsey of Gnomes"
"Ain't Gonna Paint No More!"
"Alaska's Three Bears"
"Alice in Wonderland" (2 recs)
"All The World" by Liz Garton Scanlon
"Arabian Nights"
"At The Back of the North Wind"
"B is for Betsy" and the others in the series (a fav for a 2nd grader)
Beatrix Potter books
"Beezus and Ramona"
"Beware of the Frog" by William Bee
"Brambly Hedge" books
"Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss
"Christina Katerina and The Box"
"Circle Dogs"
"Country mouse ~ City mouse" by Jan Brett
"Dr. Doolittle"
"Elmer" by David McKee
Elsa Beskow books
"Farmer Boy"
"Five Children & It"
"Goodnight Moon"
"Grandfather Twilight"
"Hansel and Gretel"
"Harriet You'll Drive Me Wild!"
"Heidi" (2 recs)
"Homer Price" by Robert McCloskey
"I Will Hold You Til You Sleep"
"Jenny and the Cat Club"
"Jenny Linsky" stories by Esther Averill (incl. Jenny & the Cat Club above)
"Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver" by Michael Ende (spec. rec for Grade 2)
"Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (5 recs!)
"Little House in the Big Woods"
"Mary Poppins"
"Milly-Molly-Mandy" series (3 recs)
"Miss Hickory"
"Mr. Popper's Penguins"
"Mrs. Piggle Wiggle" books (3 recs)
"My Father's Dragon"
"No Flying in the House" by Betty Brock (2 recs!)
"On the Banks of Plum Creek"
Otfried Preußler books (great for Grade 2)
"Over the Rainbow Bridge"
"Patapuck" (French)
"Peter in Blueberry Land" by Elsa Beskow
"Pico the Gnome"
"Pippi Longstocking" by Astrid Lindgren (3 recs)
"Poule Plumette"
"Stuart Little"
"The Amazing Mr Blunden" by Antonia Barber (also published as "The Ghosts")
"'The B Book"
"The Blue Fairy Book"
"The Bobbsey Twins" series
"The Boxcar Children" series
"The Circle of Days" by Reeve Lindbergh (*this ties into St. Francis for Saints block)
"The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew"
"The Hotel Cat"
"The Invention of Hugo Cabret"
"The Jungle Book"
"The Magic Faraway Tree" books by Enid Blyton
"The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo
"The Mitten" by Jan Brett
"The Narnia Chronicles" series from C.S.Lewis
"The Paddington" book series
"The Red Fairy Book"
"The Sun Seed" by Jan Schubert
"The Surprise Doll"
"The Swiss Family Robinson"
"The tales of King Arthur"
"The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly" by Reg Down (4 recs)
"The Twits" by Dahl
"The Wind in the Willows"
"There's a Possum in the House"
"Twig"
"You Can Do Anything Daddy"
"When I was Young in the Mountains"
"Where the Wild Things Are"
"Wild Child" by Lynn Plourde
"Winne the Pooh" (3 recs)

Comments from the original post can be found here.

Back to School Giveaway!!!!!

Well, it's back to school time and fall is just about here in the Northern Hemisphere...so I thought I'd celebrate by hosting another giveaway. This time, the prize is this lovely golden sunflower maiden!


She has been lovingly needle felted in the waldorf tradition using 100% wool roving and batting, coupled with soy silk hair. She's out gathering autumn flowers and turning her face to the sun, like a good sunflower maiden would do!


She would LOVE to come to your house to grace your seasonal table and help bring in this new school season!

If you'd like a chance to win this *original* special girl, who is not currently offered in my shop, please leave me a comment in the comment's section and if you recommend your favorite read-aloud, along with your comment, (either a favorite of your child's or perhaps your favorite one as a child), I will enter you a second time!

Thank you for entering, for taking the time to read and comment on my blog, and for the wonderful loving vibes you all send! Hugs and good luck!

The winner will be announced on Friday, September 10th...

Syrendell Giveaway!

Just had to share the fun! Syrendell is having an awesome giveaway, so check it out here. And congrats to the lucky winners!!!!

A Chance to Own a SoftEarthArt Original!!!!

For those who haven't seen Marie's work, she is an artist to keep an eye on! Not only is she amazingly sweet and humble, but she has an amazing talent. Here is an opportunity to win one of her gorgeous figures through New Zealand Handmade! How appropriate that was chosen for their very first giveaway :D

You can enter the contest here...

And The Winner Is...

The Winner of The Waldorf Connection Giveaway is....

Hallie!!!!!

Hallie said, "I would love to be entered in to win this too! I have gotten to listen to a few of the recordings and am loving the information I am getting. We are new to Waldorf and loving the change it is making in our lives! Thanks for the chance to win this!" and she also posted about it on her blog :D

Hallie, we'll need to get your email addy where you'd like it sent, so please email Donna directly at: donnaashton@thewaldorfconnection.com.

This week and weekend is jam-packed with sessions, so be sure to tune in for some great info! Thank you to Donna for this great giveaway and congratulations to you, Hallie! Thank you to all who entered!