I just got another e-mail sharing about tons if giveaways happening on the Sew Mama Sew Blog- she links up to all of the marvelous blog that are having lovely giveaways right now- be sure to check them out!
I love the giving spirit of bloggers! I will be having some giveaways this month, but for today I wanted to give you an idea of something to do for St. Nicholas Day this weekend.
You may remember last year we incorporated the King Laurin story into our St. Nicholas day traditions because of the story being based on cobbler's sons, which is my son's heritage in their name from their father's side. So we set out these lovely old dutch style wood shoes for King Laurin to visit and leave some treats with his tricks!
Sure you can leave out the kids sneakers they wore that day, but I am such a sucker for wood! You might try and hit up your local flea market or antique shopping spot and I bet you will find some old wood shoes pretty inexpensive. Last weekend I found 2 pairs, one big set that had some varnish on that I stripped off with Citristrip orange stripper to reveal some lovely wood, that I put in the shop- my first venture in adding vintage to the shop. The other was a small set that I am saving for the weekend. The crafty mamas and I are doing a secret Nicholas elf exchange leaving goodies at each other's house like we did for May Day and these little wood shoes will be perfect!
If you find that perfect old wood shoes, you can get them involved and put in some elbow grease for the sanding! You can add your kiddos initials or name and then seal it all up with beeswax polish and then leave them out for St. Nicholas or for us King Laurin and hope for some oranges, nuts, or maybe even a gold coin or two.
Hope you have some wonderful fun times on St. Nicholas day- heck I never need an excuse going to the fleas and for me making the traditions ours and part of our family, it is so important to me. There are many ways to incorporate your own spirituality for so many parts of the holidays- it is about sharing story and family and craft for me! Remember my favorite word for how we raise our boys- hybrid! Jasper is really drawn towards the baby Jesus story, even though it is not a part of my own spirituality I think I need to bring that into our home for him- a wood nativity set sounds right up his alley! I love Lizz's work for Red Dirt Mother!
viva la handmade holidays!
