Goodbye to fall

Until this fall, we've had no designated nature corner.   After clearing the bookshelves in the house of my all my crafting and knitting books, moving them into the still unfinished (no heat yet) craft room above the shop, there was suddenly space on an empty shelf that would serve as one.  The shelf above was stocked with all the nature craft books and plant/animal guide books that we have.  Included in the nature corner were paper bag trees, pine cone owls, painted wooden drawer pull mushrooms, and colored wooden leaves, along with other treasures brought in from outside: leaves, the last blooming wildflowers that went to seed while on the shelf, twigs, lichens, rocks, a paper wasp nest. 

All of this is being dismantled today and the pressed leaves will be put away into the box for next years' crafting.  The flower seeds will be spread to the wind like snowflakes.  A fresh coating of snow (scrap of white polar fleece) will be laid on the shelf for the winter.

We've all enjoyed so much creating this little corner of our house.  I was surprised at how into it the boys got and how they enjoyed sharing it with others who came to our house.

On to winter decorations now.  We try to reserve the Christmas decorating until after E's birthday early in December so as not to take away from his own celebration.  Sometimes there's just no stopping it, though.  A couple of weekends ago I got to sleep in late, awakening to find that R had cut out fabric and sewed a Christmas stocking for the dogs all by himself.