In deepest winter Giblen Jones tended his shop, a steady stream of customers coming in to trade for candles. Just before closing one evening Giblen Jones heard horses hooves in the lane stop suddenly and the bell jingled on the door. Looking up he saw an amazing sight, a tall woman in a green cloak with hair the reddest of red flowing from under her hood. Out of breath she quickly explained to him that she was a princess from a neighboring land. A curse had been put upon this land by a wicked sorceress and their wood would not burn and their fireplaces would not stay lit. Since she was a littler girl she had heard tales of the man in a far away village who made candles that gave warmth enough to heat a room; magic candles that she was hoping would not be impacted by the curse and would save her people...

Rolling a simple beeswax candle was the highlight of my four year old's week. He felt so proud that he had made this beautiful treasure. When we lit the candle for story he gazed at the candle with love while we made up tales of Giblen Jones and his sweet family. At one point Brother and Sister were lost in the forest until Brother remembered the candle he had in his pocket. It lit their way home and discouraged the goblins from coming any nearer... To roll a beeswax candle: •Take one sheet of beeswax. We cut ours in half. There is a possibility that your town has a honey store selling sheets of beeswax or you can find it online. • Cut the wick to fit the length of the candle plus a little extra. • Place the wick on the edge, with a bit sticking over the top, and use fingers to secure it before rolling. • If it doesn't stick once you complete rolling, you may want to hold a flame under the edge to secure it to the candle. • Place it on a plate or other spot. We put ours on a jar lid turned upside down.

Giblen Jones is who we meet this January. As happy as one can be, he is the candle-maker for this small village on the shore. He loves the bees and takes very good care of them. He plants them beautiful, sweet nectar flowers and they allow him use of some of their wax and honey...

As they travel further and further to the north, it begins to snow...

It's a chilly morning, so King and Mama Winter dress wanly before they leave to begin the long journey to their Winter home. Mama may go back and put on a hat...

The Knitting Castle is just one of many simple ways one can do handwork with young children. All you need is a toilet paper tube, 6 popsicle or craft sticks, two rubber bands, glue and yarn. I have read you can use as few as 4 sticks or up to 8. Stay tuned for step by step instructions...

Skipping through the forest humming a happy tune the little gnome comes to a clearing spotted with moss and mushroom. Sitting down on a soft green patch he looks up and sees a white fluffy whale in the sky. He watches as the whale turns into a rabbit and floats by...

Ok. Sometimes I'm amazed when things actually work. One more thing off the list of •unknown and therefore seem really difficult• things :)

They look pretty happy so far.

Once upon a time on a lovely farm in Colorado a farmer planted a pumpkin seed. He knew it would grow to be a beautiful pink pumpkin and he just had a feeling that it would be one of the lucky ones. The luckiest pumpkins were those that grew up on a happy farm and were taken to the farmer's market where a kind soul would take them home for their sheer beauty and spend weeks admiring them until the only choice was to compost or make a pie. Now, pumpkins feel very differently about this last part, some just want to be free and go slowly with others of their kind but some would like to know that their last day was spent being savored in yet another way by someone (hopefully this pumpkin is the latter sort).

Sun, warm and shining, somewhere golden flowers dancing.

November Twelve Little Tales

Whoo whoO whoO whoo whoo whoO whoO who

Everyone was lined up and eagerly awaiting instruction as the gnome surveyed the landscape. It was his job to make certain the work was completed in time for the Winter Faire. Each child would receive a most precious treasure and so everything had to be perfect right down to the amount of fairy dust sprinkled on at the end...

Along with their beautiful scarves the children of the village are learning to make little cats. Franklin is teaching them how. He is one of the little men who had come into town looking for socks and scarves. The directions go like this: 1. Knit a rectangle 2. Sew up one side and the top (you may use a large needle or a crochet hook) 3. Stuff with stuffing 4. Accentuate the little corners by tugging gently with your thumb, pointer and tall man 5. Finger knit (I've always called it that but it is really finger crocheting) a little collar and tie it around the neck and there you have it!

One after another the spiders follow the leader to their new home. They had been living in a lovely spot until it was flooded this morning and everyone had scurried out to safety. Nobody knew where they would end up. The leader now sees a shelter ahead. "Oh good!" He thinks to himself. "Maybe the humans will be so kind as to allow us to stay for the winter..."

All the little people gathered up each lantern as the excitement built for the moment the singing would begin. As they rounded the corner the path lit ever so brightly with luminarias came into view and a little voice sang out " I go with my little lantern, my lantern goes with me..."

Whew! He leaned against the pumpkin to rest, having walked for miles to finally reach the patch with the pink pumpkins. Now he just needed to find her - the beautiful gnome he had met last week at the rose hip harvest...

Riding like the wind...

First collect the marigold flowers. You may not have quite the adventure that Arnold had, but you never know!

Second, find something to dye and prepare it if necessary. Here is a link to mordant information: www.earthhues.com/aboutmordants.html I did not mordant my cotton since I do not plan to wash it and I knew it would accept the marigold dye.

Simmer the flowers over medium heat for at least a half hour. Arnold's mom let him stir and mash the flowers while they were heating.

Find cheesecloth or something else to strain the dye from the flowers with. Another fabric or a mesh strainer will work. There may be some pieces of flowers if you use a metal strainer. Arnold's mom doesn't like that so she makes sure she has cheesecloth on hand. Arnold likes to use cheesecloth because it has the word cheese in it and well, he is a mouse after all.

Place fabric in dye. This looks to be a beautiful color of golden brown. Stir and let sit until the fabric stops absorbing color. I left mine for a couple of hours. Arnold and his mom went to pick apples while their fabric was dyeing.

Perfect!