10Jul 2024 by catbird 1 Comment
Turmeric Dyed Shibori Bunting

Turmeric Dyed Shibori Bunting

Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Art Materials, Summer, Summer Solstice
I am not a huge bunting person generally, but our summer nature table needed more sunny yellow. At the same time i had been meaning to make some non-indigo shibori forever. Shibori is a Japanese dying technique that is the great grandparent of tie dye. (It was introduced in Japan about 1300 years ago.) Most often used with indigo dye, fabric is folded or bound so that only the edges take dye which creates beautiful patterns. It was a favorite way to refresh old or damaged clothing. I especially like the triangle fold method, the result is almost sun like! While it may seem intimidating, the folding process is quite straightforward and easy to do. Turmeric as a dye is the brightest sunniest yellow with a tinge of orange. Like…
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05Jul 2024 by catbird 6 Comments
Seashell Fragment Wreath

Seashell Fragment Wreath

Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Collection, Summer, Summer Solstice
Every summer we seem to acquire an overwhelming number of shells. Little clam shells and river mussels from the creeks around our house, snail shells around the garden and a whole array of shells when we visit the beach. The kids and I will both often collect little bits and fragments of shells, they might be super shiny or have an interesting pattern of shape. They all have their merits, but all those broken bits scooped into a bucket, toted home and left to sit have tendency to just kind of disappear. I wanted to do something with them that would showcase them up close, the same way you hold them in your hand close to you when you are finding them on the beach. I wanted to emphasize those…
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05Jul 2024 by catbird 2 Comments
Shell Candles

Shell Candles

Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Collection, Nature Table, Summer, Summer Solstice
Our shell collection always seems to balloon in the summer, and while we live a few hours from the coast, the bulk of our shells are found closer to home. The shells we used for this project are hand sized river mussels that we find in the streams and lakes around our house. I love them and can't seem to stop collecting them! (So don't feel like you have to live near a beach to find shells!) You just need a tiny bit of beeswax to make these candles, and we sprinkled some of those tiny shells we always seem to accumulate on top along with a few pressed summer flowers. My favorite part is actually the sand sprinkled on top, it looks properly summery and was a last minute…
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05Jul 2024 by catbird 1 Comment
Summer Nature Table

Summer Nature Table

Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Collection, Nature Table, Play, Seasonal Nature Table, Summer, Summer Solstice
Nature tables are the perfect place to store and display all those nature finds that we “just had to bring home.” Honestly, I am almost as bad as the kids about this… Ours is on our porch so that things can be easily added and subtracted at will and we change it out for each season. (And it substantially reduces the stray sticks in the house..) In summer, the rock and shell collections get especially prolific, along with interesting sticks, feathers and flowers. Use log slices or old shelves and add some height. Try a vase to hold flowers. I like to stick rooting houseplants on the nature table too, they love the heat and filtered light, while the kids love to watch the growing roots. The kids are always…
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21Mar 2024 by catbird 2 Comments
“Thunder Cake”

“Thunder Cake”

Craft Project, Learning, Nature Art, Nature Journaling, Picture Book Buds, Play, Recipes, STEAM
Picture Book Buds are a fun and easy way to incorporate literacy into nature study. Read a book (you can even read it outside!) and then enjoy the related activity and snack suggestions! Thunder Cake Written & Illustrated by: Patricia Polacco This is a beautiful book about a young child and her grandma baking a cake during a thunderstorm to distract her from being scared. So many kids can relate to this feeling and you can take it further and learn about storms. I like to think that learnig about the science of storms makes them less scary and it has definitely helped my kids. Also cake. "It's Raining" by Gail Gibbons is a great nonfiction starting point. And "Mushroom Rain" written by by Laura K. Zimmermann and illustrated by Jamie Green…
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18Mar 2024 by catbird 1 Comment
Mushroom “Spore” Bombs

Mushroom “Spore” Bombs

Autumn, Craft Project, Earth Day, Garden, Nature Art, Play
As a member of the Plant Wonder Collective, each month I make a craft from the plant of the month. This March is coffee. I was really stumped trying to figure out what to make. Coffee and I are not friends. I had to stop drinking coffee cold turkey in my early 20s for medical reasons and I have never quite forgiven coffee for turning on me. And my husband, who drinks lots of coffee, leaves a little pile of gross coffee grounds on the counter every morning that makes me insane. So I decided I was going to do something with coffee grounds if it killed me. First I made some seed paper with coffee grounds, because of coffee’s high nitrogen content it should theoretically give those seeds a…
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28Jan 2024 by catbird No Comments
Hibernating Bear Countdown Clock

Hibernating Bear Countdown Clock

Craft Project, Folklore, Midwinter, Nature Art, Winter
A few years ago I read about a folktale in passing that completely captivated me. It said that bears hibernating in their dens turn over on Midwinter. I spent years trying to track down this folktale, and finally determined it is a Norwegian story. I still haven't found a text, but I have done a ton of research and written my own retelling. (More on that later) In Celtic tradition this time of year is called Imbolc and in that climate people are starting to see signs of spring. In many other parts of the world, mine included, Midwinter is the dead of winter with the worst still to come. I like to call this holiday Midwinter, not just because it is the secular names, but because it is so…
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23Dec 2023 by catbird 1 Comment
New Year’s Eve Bay Fortune Ball Ornaments

New Year’s Eve Bay Fortune Ball Ornaments

Campfire, Craft Project, Folklore, Nature Art, New Year's Eve, Winter
For whatever reason many of our New Year's Eve traditions revolve around fortune telling. There are a number of cultural fortune telling traditions like the Austrian Bleigießen and the Finnish uudenvuodentina, and it seems like a good time to think about your fortune and or wished for the new year. I actually love low key New Year's Eve with kids-- far more than I enjoyed the expensive and weird nights on the town in my 20s. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that my post kid celebrations are the first time I really enjoyed this this celebration. It's still mistly a late night holiday so while we sneak some nature in here and there (nye nature crowns, first day hikes) much of this night is spent inside.…
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20Dec 2023 by catbird No Comments
Cold Moon Puddle Ice Sun Catcher

Cold Moon Puddle Ice Sun Catcher

Cold Moon, Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Art Materials, Play, STEAM, Winter
The Mohawk people call December the Time of the Cold Moon. December is the start of real winter for us here in the Mid-Atlantic, and many of this month’s full moon names reflect that. The Creek call this moon the Big Winter Moon, the Shoshone refer to the Winter Moon, the Abenaki call it the Winter Maker Moon, and the Oneida call this moon the It’s a Long Night Moon, which is relates to the Winter Solstice, which occurs this month and is in fact the longest night of the year. In my mind the Cold Moon is always linked to hibernation: animals are hibernating, and we humans spend more time inside, slowing down and getting cozy. It's also the time we start to find what I call "puddle ice"…
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