Getting ready for Spring

I’ve been so inspired seeing photos of people’s family traditions and how they celebrate different events and seasons. I don’t have any family traditions as such, and so I’m starting new ones for our family.

The Grimm’s celebration ring is such a lovely way to welcome new seasons. I have had ours for about two years and collect a new piece or two with each season or birthday. At first I was in a rush to collect different celebration figures but am now enjoying collecting slowly and each piece has more significance. My new piece for this Spring is the wooden daffodil, it’s such a great size and really is a show stopper piece.

The Ambrosius fairies are such a perfect size to stand on the celebration ring, again I am now collecting these slowly and love how they can be played with or used in displays. Ostheimer animals look great with the ring too, it all just seems to fit together so well!

This year we have tried the Okonorm egg dye for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised at the results. I didn’t expect such vivid colours, or variety of colours. The dyes are so simple to use- you empty a packet of dye in cold water and put the eggs in (pierce the egg with a pin at the non-pointy end to stop it cracking), bring to the boil for ten minutes and then submerge in cold water to bring out the dye. We used blue eggs and normal free range eggs, the blue eggs have turned very bright colours and the brown eggs have a beautiful speckled surface. I think they look really pretty on the celebration ring and stand up perfectly in the holes!
I’ve also used the Erzi eggs, again a great toy that works well in a display.

The boys love choosing the celebration figures and thinking about what each piece says about the season or event. I love to include natural objects as much as possible and so love the little white vase for displaying seasonal flowers. The pink vase is from the lovely Glosters Pottery in Porthmadog, who make the Babipur ceramic Christmas decorations. I think pink, yellow and green are the stunning Spring colours and as I’m writing this I’m thinking how perfect the Spring nins would look in this little set up!

Our family tradition has developed somewhat in to a daily activity. I read somewhere about life being too short not to use your best china, or to save your fancy candles. And I also read how one family’s daily activity is to light a candle at the start of a meal and to blow it out at the end- to make every meal seem special, to show it is a special time of the day. Over the winter as the dark nights seemed to go in forever, I adopted these traditions for our family. So our celebration ring is used most evenings, always with lit candles to bring us together and connect over dinner time. It really has made us slow down in the evening, take stock of what’s happened in the day, talk and laugh as a family. And when the candles are blown out, the boys know it’s bath time and settling down for bed time.

Thanks to Jacqui for sharing her Spring traditions with us x