may faire

I've written a few times (here, here and here) about the May Faire at Naiya's Waldorf school.  It's my favorite of the seasonal celebrations held there and was a special treat this time around because of the amazingly warm weather that seemed to bring record numbers of community members out to join in the festivities.

The Queen and her court shared Spring's bounty of flowers with the children before their procession to the May Pole.

As always, the day was filled with music, dance, delicious food and wholesome activities for the whole family.

I didn't photograph most of them but this year the classes hosted a number of fun booths including paper boat making and races down the creek, the fashioning of fairie rings, garland braiding, a paper butterfly craft, a cake walk, a "Better Gnomes and Gardens" ring toss, fishing for stones with feet in the wading pool, bean bag tossing and pole fishing for all manner of undersea prizes. 

By day's end we were worn out and, with what seems a precursor to some illness, Naiya's voice was nowhere to be found.  She was tuckered and fell asleep early and easily. 

Yet another Spring welcomed in good company on a glorious day.

may day hair garland

Each year for May Day and for the May Faire at Naiya's school we have been putting together hair garlands to lend a bit of natural decor to our festival garb and liven up our merry making.  I've even posted a garland tutorial.  (Click here if you're interested in checking it out.)

Often, however, these coronets stay in place for a picture or two and then end up on our gathering blanket to wilt in the afternoon sun.  They're lovely and Naiya and I both enjoy putting them together but, she complains, they can be a bit cumbersome and, especially for active children, not really that practical.

That's why this year we decided to try something new.  What you see in the photo above looks like a  garland but is, in fact, just a series of hair clips holding little bunches of flowers onto her hair in a circle round her head!

To make it, I pulled a little hair back from the front of Naiya's head, made a braid on each side and bound the the two plaits in the back.  I then gathered very small flowers into two-ended bunches and clipped them onto the braid in the middle.  She has five clusters round her crown with the largest in the back covering the band where the braids meet.

She loved her "garland" this time around and it stayed in place until her night-time bath.  No wires.  No floral tape.  No complaining.  And put together in about 4 minutes.  I don't know that we'll ever make a proper garland again!

may day

They're back!  Just as in years past, the fairies have chosen today to return in full force and our back yard Queen left Naiya a beautiful bouquet and a sweet gift on the step.

Let us take our baskets early
   To the meadows green,
While the wild-flowers still are pearly
   With the dewdrops' sheen. 
Fill them full of blossoms rosy,
   Violets sweet and gay
Cowslips, every pretty posy
   Welcoming the May. 
Then our lovely loads we'll carry
   Down the village street,
On each door, with laughter merry,
   Hang a basket sweet. 
Hey-a-day-day! It is spring now,
   Lazy folks, awake!
See the pretty things we bring now
   For the May-day's sake!

                                                                                                                    -Evaleen Stein 

A most merry May Day to all!

a visit from the fairie queen

During most of the year, the Fairie Queen only visits on the full moon, but (as some of you may already know) she returns in earnest on May Day and in late Spring/early Summer, she and her friends randomly stop by for a day or two and hold festive little soirees in our back yard.  She always leaves a gift for Naiya in the box they exchange back and forth, and sometimes we can see evidence of fay activity in their little corner of the yard.  Last night they added a swing to their tree house!

They also had some kind of feast and brought (or grew?) a fresh crop of toadstools.

They refreshed the Maypole with new flowers.  (Naiya had been thinking that bouquet up there didn't look so nice.)

And my dear daughter was ever so pleased with today's present from her beloved back yard monarch.

may day nature table

Last week as we were celebrating May Faire at school, our Nature Table likewise welcomed Spring and the dancers of the season...

Some friends of mine and I made these cute table-top May Poles at a gathering we recently had.  We had seen a version of this at Spring Creek Store and wanted to similarly liven up our children's play places.

I didn't take any in process photos but they were pretty simple to put together:

   -The base is a chunk of branch about 1 1/2" tall with a hole drilled into the center.  (Thank you Chrisi!)
   -Into the hole we stuck a foot long 1/4" dowel and secured it with glue from a glue gun.  (All subsequent gluing was done with the glue gun as well.)
   -We then cut strips of various colored ribbons and glued each one individually onto the top of the pole. 
   -We embellished that tip with silk flowers then wrapped the messy stems with a broader bit of ribbon.

Voilà!  Mini Maypole!

may faire

As always, we enjoyed a festive and playful day at this year's May Faire at Naiya's school.  Although the weather was not uncomfortably cool, neither was it especially warm and the sun never really came out (so I didn't get all the beautiful, bright photos I had hoped for).

We still had a great time at this, my favorite Waldorf festival, and my five and a half year old not only participated in the many offerings but preferred to do them without me this time around!

The first sign of this new found independence manifested when, after the traditional weaving of the pole, the small children were invited to join the grade six dancers.  Where my sometimes shy kindergartener would normally stand back and quietly observe such amusements, this time she enthusiastically took the hand of a friendly stranger and cavorted with delight.

Perhaps enamored with the beauty of the older girls in their finery, she also joined the procession of the May Court as they made their way to the Queen's dais.

But I must gather knots of flowers,
And buds and garlands gay,
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother,
I'm to be Queen o' the May. 

                                         - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Before she eluded me for much of the afternoon, Oma was able to get one (slightly out of focus) shot of her in her fresh flower wreath.

We had made these at home in the morning and Naiya chose all her own flowers.  (For a quick wreath making tutorial click here.)  Of course my daughter loved the biggest, bulkiest blossoms so when it came time to actually wear the garland, it was a bit burdensome and she opted out.  For the rest of the day, Oma (whose birthday coincided with this year's event), Opa and I wore ours though and reveled in our fragrant halos.

beautiful birthday girl

(thanks to my friend Chrisi for grabbing my camera and snapping this rare shot of me!)

 In addition to the mirthful dancing, the day's activities included boat racing, angling for felt fishies, making fairy rings, goat petting, cake walking, hair braiding, a kids circus performance and, of course, hours of beautiful singing and music of all sorts.

Another genuinely joyful observance celebrated with family and so many of our good friends.

Sing a song of May Day,
Hi dee ho dee hay!
Showers of flowers from breezy bowers,
Hi dee ho dee hay!
Dancers and prancers in high grass
Hi dee ho dee hay!
Joyfully skip each lad and lass,
Hi dee ho dee hay!

ankle bell tutorial

Last year I made these ankle bells for Naiya and a bunch of her classmates and handed them out at our school's annual May Faire.  I think they're a playful and festive addition to the dancing and frolicking and are also somewhat traditional at this cross quarter seasonal celebration.

This year we're making a dozen or two again, and I thought this time around I'd take a few pics of the process for a quick tutorial.  These are pretty basic and seem to need little explanation but it's not always clear to me when a brief how-to might prove useful to someone.  Essentially, these are like big hair scrunchies with bells attached.  If you can find scrunchies to fit your child's ankle, you might just sew bells onto those and be done with it.  If you can't (or, like me, you just like to make stuff), here's how I put them together:

I started with a 44" wide scrap fabric I had laying around.

Folding the fabric over to make a strip about an inch wide, I sewed the right sides together.  (I could also have cut a two inch strip of fabric, folded it then sewn the seam but I found sewing prior to cutting made it faster and I planned to turn out 15 or 20 pairs of these things.)

I then trimmed along the seam.

(Because I was making a lot of these that were really just intended to be worn for this one festival, I wasn't overly concerned with quality.  I did not turn and sew the ends to make clean edges, but feel free to do that if you wish.  If you chose that option, you'll want to cut the tube in half and turn and sew the ends prior to turning it right side out.)

I attached a safety pin to one end of the tube and with the closed end of the safety pin pointing inside the tube, I used my fingers to move the pin through so that it was gradually drawn through the inside. Once the safety pin emerged from the other end, I pulled it gently until the tube was turned completely with the right side of the fabric facing out.

I cut the 44" tube into two 22" pieces for a pair of matching anklets.

By hand I sewed three bells at even intervals (about every 7 inches) onto the fabric tube.  (For extra jingliness, and if you're not making dozens of the things, feel free to attach any number bells you please.)

For my five year old daughter I then cut a 9" piece of elastic to run through the tube.  (I'd suggest custom measuring to loosely fit the person for whom your anklets are intended.)

I laid about an inch of one end of the elastic over the other end and sewed them together to form a ring.  I then pulled the fabric tube over the elastic and sort of tucked one fabric end into the other.

With it all scrunched up, I don't think the unfinished edges were very noticeable.






I ended up completing 18 pairs in about four hours.  (Hand sewing of the bells taking the bulk of the time.)

Running round the May Pole and through the fresh cut fields, the sound of tinkling children's feet was delightful.  (Pictures of the days events coming soon...)

the fairies return on may day

As you may know, the fairies moved out of our garden over the winter.  Like last year, we expected them to return on May Day and we were not disappointed.  Our sweet garden friends did, in fact, move back into our yard...

The Fairy Queen left Naiya a sweet gift on the back step, and, this time around, she and her friends seem to have expanded their little corner territory.

 There are a couple of very colorful new houses (oh so Portland I think).

 And, just as we suspected, they celebrated May Day by raising a festive Fairie Maypole.  As evidenced by the excessive fairie dust we found remaining, surely a delightful celebration was had in the early hours of the first day of May.

Welcome back dear fairie friends.

fairies in the garden

 In the Summertime there's a lot of fairie activity in our garden.  They return from wherever it is that they winter right around May Day and spend the warm months frolicking and holding festivals under the ferns and arborvitae in our back yard.  We rarely actually see them but their presence is obvious.

This year on May Day they put up a Maypole and the Fairie Queen left Naiya a gift in a little wooden box on our back doorstep.  Since that time, she and Naiya have passed the box back and forth exchanging little treasures at random intervals. (Usually this happens overnight and when we waken we are surprised to discover that the Queen has taken what we've left for her or bestowed a little something in return.)

 Many of the received treasures have been gifted to friends and family but various carved stones, beads, fairie handcrafts and shells are kept by our dear daughter in a special little basket on her Nature Table.

 Our spritely friends don't seem to be there all the time.  In the mornings we sometimes see that they've had pretty spirited parties but other times they're gone for days on end.

  Often on nights when they return, they'll bring something to expand their ever-growing village and in the morning Naiya will delight in the new additions. 

 Recently we helped them out a bit by erecting this teepee (similar to the one we made for ourselves) for any visitors who might stop by.  Naiya has been sewing and stitched the little floor blanket herself.  The next morning we discovered that the fairies had once more hosted a gathering and had left the remnants of a small bonfire! Perhaps there was tiny marshmallow roasting?  Who can say...