A gentle story of Saint Lucia, and free Lucia paper dolls

 This story is posted here with permission by it’s author Tiziana Boccaletti. She maintains an Etsy store www.tizib.etsy.com, and is a contributor at Living Crafts Magazine (my favorite, ever!) Where you can get a free PDF instruction sheet to make a gorgeous, realistic felted rose ornament created by Tiziana, among other free patterns. http://www.livingcrafts.com/page/Free_Patterns  (have you seen the latest issue with the felt saint Lucia crowns?)  

Free St. Lucia paper dolls 

********************************************************************  

SANTA LUCIA 

A story written by Tiziana Boccaletti  

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, in a far away land there lived a
young woman. Her name was Lucia and she liked spending time on the lake,
quietly listening to all the animals and the sounds the water made. The
swans knew her and liked her and would come feed from her hand during winter
time. Mama hawk would often salute her with a loud screech when circling in
the cool sky. She was a young girl like many others, she liked what
everybody else liked and enjoyed spending time with friends in the woods,
playing games and baking cakes with her mother. She always felt gratitude in
her heart for what she had and her good kind loving family but there was one
thing she always wished for.Lucia wished she could see with her eyes. Born
blind, she had learned at a young age to use her ears, her hands and her
heart to listen.    One day, after going for a long walk in the woods, she sat under a mighty
walnut tree and fell asleep. She dreamt many colorful dreams of faraway
places, unicorns, knights and palaces and in her dreams her eyes were as
bright and clear as one thousand candles. In her dream, an old good witch
from the castle told her that soon the light from her heart would travel to
her eyes and she would be able to see.  Lucia woke up and was at first startled by her dream but then she realized
in was time to go home. It was the darkest night of the year and she could
smell the sunset dampness coming from the green grass. On her way to town
she heard an old woman asking for help. Lucia immediately ran to her to see
what she might need. The old woman asked for help walking home. Lucia
immediately offered her arm and the two of them walked for a long time. They
had been climbing up a hill when a young boy approached them and asked for
food. Lucia was very hungry herself but she reached into her apron pocket
and offered him her red apple. He thanked her and devoured it right away.
Lucia was hungry herself but didn’t say anything..she was happy she could
help. They had almost reached their destination when Lucia heard the voice
of a man calling her. He was sitting by the side of the road and told her he
had been robbed of all his clothes. Lucia took her shawl off her shoulders
and gave it to him. It was her favorite shawl, the one that her grandma her
patiently knitted for her by the fire, but she didn’t mind.  When she asked the old woman if they had arrived yet, the old woman said :
“Yes, you have arrived”. Lucia asked: “Where are we?”. The old woman
replied: “Look up at the moon in the sky and you will know”. Lucia raised
her head and saw the full moon with her own eyes .She looked at the old
woman and realized it was indeed the witch she had dreamed of. The old witch
said: “The golden light from your good heart grew so strong that it had to
find a new home and that new home is your eyes.go and use the light to be of
service to others and light their way”. Lucia was overfilled with joy and
ran all the way home to tell her mother and all her friends.  And if things haven’t changed, they are still the same!           

Awsome, printable, customized chore chart

ModEco Kids has a really nice printable chore chart that you can customize with your child’s name, and specific chores.

I love this!! Thanks ModEco. 

 

Free butterlfy craft & story download

Over at kit-n-tales you can download a free Flora Flutterbye story & craft PDF. Kit-n-tales belongs to the same waldorf teacher who wrote the book “Coloring With Block Crayons”. She has other very moderately priced craft/story downloads on the website

The Happy house: A snail tale for valentines day (week)

 

 

 

Here is a snail story that is perfect for valentines. I adapted it from the Hans Christian Andersen  story so that it would flow better.  This story can open the door to a science lesson about snails, and plants. Burdock is considered a weed, but has tremendous healing properties. It grows just about everywhere. I know it is abundant in my yard. The snail valentine in the picture can be downloaded for free at Zakka Life here. I like the idea of the pop being the shell. It would be nice also to use the idea to draw your own. Enjoy the story.

The Happy House

Out in the garden, and in wild places untouched by human hands grows a lovely plant that some call a weed. This plant has gigantic leaves. They are so big that if one holds it in front of them, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it over one’s head in rainy weather, it is almost as good as an umbrella, because is so immensely large. This plant is the burdock. The burdock never grows alone, but where there grows one there always grow several, like a great burdock forest. These forests of burdock are of  great delight to the snail, because they love to eat burdock more than anything else. And in former times many people would love to cook those snails in a bit of butter, gobble them up, and say “yum, yum, how delicious”. Because of this they planted many burdock patches to entice the big white snails they loved to eat into coming so that they could catch them & cook them.

Now, there was an old manor-house, where they no longer ate snails, they thought they were quite extinct; but the burdocks were not extinct, they grew and grew all over the walks and all the beds; they could not get control over them – it was a whole forest of burdocks. Here and there stood an apple and a plum-tree, or else one never would have thought that it was a garden; all was burdocks, and there lived the two last old, giant, white snails.

They themselves knew not how old they were, but they could remember very well that there had been many more of them; and that for them and theirs the whole burdock forest was planted. They had never been outside of it, but they knew that there was still something more in the world, which was called the manor-house, and that there they were boiled, and then they became black, and were then placed on a silver dish; but what happened further they knew not; nor, did they what it was to be boiled, and to lie on a silver dish, they could not possibly imagine; but it was said to be delightful.Neither the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they asked about it could give them any information – none of them had been boiled or laid on a silver dish.

Now they lived a very lonely, but happy life; and as they had no children themselves, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought up as their own.

One day there was a heavy storm of rain.

“Hear how it beats like a drum on the dock-leaves!” said Father Snail. Then mother said “And now the rain pours right down the stalk! You will see that it will be wet here! I am very happy to think that we have our good house, and the little one has his also! There is more done for us than for all other creatures, sure enough; See how fortunate we are? We are provided with a house from our birth, and the burdock forest is planted for our sakes! I should like to know how far it extends, and what there is outside!”

“There is nothing at all,” said Father Snail. “No place can be better than ours, and I have nothing to wish for.

Mother snail said “I would willingly go to the manorhouse, be boiled, and laid on a silver dish; all our forefathers have been treated so; there is something extraordinary in it, you may be sure!”

The manor-house has most likely fallen to ruin!” said Father Snail. “Or the burdocks have grown up over it, so that they cannot come out. There need not be any hurry to be boiled; but you are always in such a tremendous hurry, and the little one is beginning to be the same.”

You must not scold him,” said Mother Snail. “He creeps so carefully; he brings us much pleasure – and we have nothing but him to live for! But have you not thought of it? Where shall we get a wife for him? Do you not think that there are some of our species far away in the  burdock forest?”

“Black snails, I dare say, there are enough of,” said the old one. “Black snails without a house – but they are so common, and so conceited. But we might ask ants to look out for us; they run to and fro as if they had something to do, and they certainly know of a wife for our little snail!” So they asked the ants.
“I know one, sure enough!” said one of the ants. “She is a queen.”
“That may be perfect for our son,” said the mother, “does she have a house?”
“She has a palace!” said the ant. “The finest ant’s palace, with seven hundred passages!”

“I thank you!” said Mother Snail. “but our son shall not go into an ant-hill; if you know nothing better than that, we shall just ask the gnats. They fly far and wide, in rain and sunshine; they know the whole forest here.

“We have a wife for him,” said the gnats. “At a hundred human paces from here there sits a little snail in her house, on a gooseberry bush; she is quite lonely, and old enough to be married. It is only a hundred human paces!”

“Well, then, let her come to him!” said the old ones. “He has a whole forest of burdocks, she has only a bush!”

And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole week before she arrived; When she did arrive, they could instantly tell she was the same species.

The two young snails were married, and then the marriage was celebrated. All of the creatures from the great burdock forest came to celebrate. The two old, giant, white snails gave the newlywed couple the whole forest of burdocks as a wedding gift, and said – what they had always said – that it was the best in the world; and if they lived honestly and decently, and increased and multiplied, they and their children would too be special enough to go the manor-house, be boiled black, and laid on silver dishes. After the wedding party the old ones crept into their shells, and never more came out. They slept; the young couple governed in the forest, and had a numerous children, but they were never boiled, and never came on the silver dishes; so from this they concluded that the manor-house had fallen to ruins, and that all the men in the world were extinct; and as no one contradicted them, of course it was so. And the rain beat on the dock-leaves to make drum-music for their sake, and the sun shone in order to give the burdock forest a color for their sakes; and they were very happy, and the whole family was happy; for they, indeed were so.

Waldorf wood & felt gnome pattern tutorial

Wee Folk Art has generously provided a concise photo tutorial on how to make these gnomes. You can but the wood bodies in any craft store. She also has provided a cute printable pattern for the felt pieces.

Election night is for family fun: electorial map to color

Here is a great electoral college map you can print & color tonight as the votes come in to calculate who won.  I found this via the craftzine blog

Rangoli for Diwali

We made these rangoli patterns from glue & colored sand we made ourselves for Diwali. It is believed the beauty of the rangoli will attract Lakshmi, who will bring good fortune in the new year. In India families hand down many rangoli patterns from one generation to another. We printed patterns here, and then traced the lines with glue. We then sprinkled on the sand. We found the more simple the pattern, the better the result. Only apply glue for one color at a time, then spinkle one color of sand & then start another. We mounted our rangoli on black paper, and hung them on our art wall.

Maybe Lakshmi will like our rangoli & throw some good fortune our way.

Calaveras masks, and other free Day of the Dead resources

We found these printable calavera masks to color inside the free 31 page PDF offered by AZ Central. The very top of the mask is cut of, but you can just fill it in with sharpie. The packet had information on Dia de Los Muertos, as well as word searches, coloring pages, and a Large skeleton you can print, cut out & put together.  We colored them in & went over some of the lines with glitter glue. Instead of making masks we mounted them on black construction paper and used them as decorations. You could print several out & make a day of the dead calavera garland.

Hp is offering a free Day of the Dead party pack you can print.

Hereis another calavera mask to print.

Librarypolooza has a free craft packet that has several crafts.

printable full size australopithecus skeleton to print for Halloween or Day of the Dead

We printed out a full size version of austaluspithecus to use as a skelton Day the Dead. Austaluspithacus was only the size of your average 5 or 6 year old.  This is a free PDF download you can get here. We made simple tissue flowers to go around her head, and drew her skull like a calavera. This was great opportunity to relate this holiday to a science lesson, while doing a fun craft project too.

 

We also make a few simple papel picados by folding a rectangle of tissue paper in half 3 times, and cutting simple shapes from both sides. We made sure to leave a couple inches at the top that we did not cut so that there would be a nice solid piece to glue, & fold over the string.  We attached some long strips of tissue to the bottoms for extra prettiness, since we had so few papel picados.

Day of the Dead papel picado pattern resources

Day of the Dead is officially this Saturday & Sunday, NOvember 1st & 2nd.

I have never felt it really important to celebrate a cultural holiday on the exact day. Sometimes you can’t because of scheduling conflicts. There is nothing wrong with celebrating a holidayon a day that is just near the actual calendar holiday. That being said, I wanted to share some of the great papel picado resources I had found.

http://www.storyboardtoys.com/releases/Papel-Picado-Pattern-Simple.pdf

This one has one nice, but pretty simple pattern, and instructions. It is a PDF.

http://www.nps.gov/archive/tuma/PapelPicado.html

a couple of simple patterns & a brief history of the craft of papel picado

http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/punched_paper/patterns.html

the patterns here a gorgeous, but a bit more complex

http://www.hsv.k12.al.us/dept/etv/geometry_pdf/gcms_program6.pdf

this one has a simple pattern on page 7 of the pdf file

http://www.librarypalooza.net/download/library_latino_style.pdf

this is a very nice 5 page pdf with papel picado, and several other day of the dead crafts.