May Day Crowns

'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

The History of May Day

The oldest known May festival was the festival of Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers. It was held in the time of the Roman Republic and was celebrated from 27th April to 3rd May

In the UK the Celtic Fesitval of Beltane is where the May Day origins are thought to originate (The Celtic God Bel meaning ‘Bright one’ and Gaelic word ‘teine’ which meant fire). Beltane was the festival of their marriage meant they made ‘bright fire’ as the sun sat higher in the sky making the beginning of the Celtic Summer. Fires were lit at Beltane celebrations to bring luck, purify and cleanse.

Couples celebrated this union sharing in the fertility of the earth, they often went ’A-Maying’, spending the night in the woods and fields, making love and bringing back lucky hawthorn to grace their homes. Young girls would make crowns from flowers and floral baskets which they would give as gifts, to celebrate the day. The fertile earth was celebrated in the spring as people saw new life, and hope spring up all around them.

Traditional May Day festivals are still celebrated all over the country and still contain many elements of the oldest festivals celebrated, A May Queen, joyous dancing around a May Pole and a Green Man ‘Jack o the Green’ who is thought to be a tradition giving a nod to when our ancestors worshiped trees. May festivals today are often celebrated as a blend of pagan and religious traditions and today Christians often celebrate May, as the month of Our Lady, often crowning a statue of the blessed mother with a ring blossom. A celebration of purity, of fertility and of the light of the world she brought forth

May in our home

May in our home is a joyous month, myself and my daughter celebrate our birthdays in May, as a child I made my Hold Communion in May, and walked on ‘Whit Sunday’ in my White dress and crown of flowers through the streets of my community to Bagpipes and drums. The crowning of our lady at church I have always held close to my heart and as a gardener, May for me is indeed the month when natures fertility becomes so visually clear, flowers and bulbs, vegetables and plants growing with a new vigour showing the promising signs of the abundant harvest they hold.

We made our May crowns today which I will keep in water until Friday to keep them alive (I thought they would be handy to share) we didn’t have florist wire which I usually like to hold the flowers, but ribbon and a little embroidery thread worked perfectly. Here’s how we made them..

What you will need:

• Some sticks, the should be able to be thin enough to bend and be able to fit the circumference of the head when made into a circle. If you have sticks which are not fresh cut/fallen, place them in some water tonight so when you are bending them tomorrow they are soft and don’t splinter or break.

• Thread or florist wire, to hold the stick in a circle and to attach some flowers.

• Ribbon, as much or little as you like.

• Fresh flowers or wild flowers from your garden or walk. If you don’t have flowers use some greenery even with berries on!

How to make them

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Gather your materials together, light a candle, if you wish play some joyous music in the background. After soaking your sticks you may want to pat them dry. Gently bend and ease the sticks into a ring big enough to comfortably sit on top of the head and secure with florist wire or embroidery thread (if using florist wire you may want to wrap ribbon around it after so it cancels any sharp ends.

Onice tied, tie one end of your ribbon to the back leaving a tail and wrap it around the crown, you want it a little loose to allow you to fit the flower stems through if you have no florist wire. Once done tie the end back to the original tail, making a nice bow and leave some hanging down, trimming to finish.

Now time to add your greenery and flowers, just like an advent wreath, greenery and base flowers first and then blooms last. I didn’t have any wire, but myself and my daughter threaded the stems through the loops of ribbon and where they needed a little extra security we tied with embroidery thread, leave stems long at first as you can always trim them back afterward.

Once you have done the base greens and flowers, add your accent flowers, wire of tie them in, threading them into and amongst the greenery you have done. If you haven’t many flowers, then remember to concentrate on working from the centre front backward, to make the most of what you have. The ribbon tails should be at the centre back of the head.

And that’s it! I will be keeping mine fresh in a cool place in a shallow bowl of water until Friday morning where they should stay quite fresh, we are going to attempt to maypole around the cherry tree in our front garden!

Keep an eye out for my post tomorrow for making a great simple May Day seasonal table. All you will need is a few colours of ribbon, a straight stick and something to hold it upright (play dough/clay/stand of some sort)

Please do tag me in any of your makes I would love to share some May Day fun on Instagram.

K x

Motherhood.

What it means being a mother to me, has changed profoundly with each child I have had. With each year that has passed, each birthday I have stood and sang, candle lit cake in hand, remembering those seemingly hazy days of skin to skin, of newborn bliss, of tiny hands and feet....then come those feelings, those sharp memories, the tears as I breastfed in pain, the long days I endured a toddlers strife with lack of sleep. The dreams....all those dreams for this tiny being I have had, that have somehow fallen by the wayside, the world I wanted to show my child, only to have blinked and a decade has fleetingly passed by.

Then there is the joy, the overwhelming sweet joy which fills me up with so much love, the infectious laughter of my children, imprinted on my soul forever, their smiles, their kisses, their love....them. Every bit of them perfect despite my own feelings of failure, extreme pride that I can be so blessed and that despite an abusive marriage...and a period of being a single parent before marrying my now husband with whom I share my youngest daughter, my children are happy, loving, wonderful human beings.

Motherhood to me is all these emotions, my journey this time into motherhood has been a completely different experience to that of my older two children, and already filled with so many bittersweet moments as I realise how much my previous marriage took me away from my children. Being able to sit and smell the roses, time I relish and treasure. Not knowing where I end and my children begin, being defined by motherhood, I don’t mind one bit, for motherhood once you are a mother extends beyond childhood years. Your children will always be your children, no matter what their age .Sometimes these feelings are so overwhelming I feel like I could burst, and in moments like that I have learnt to let them wash over me and flow through me, and I feel nothing but gratitude for my life, its ups and downs, its victories and its paths which were once so strong but have....somewhere along the way lost their definition and the journey I am so strongly now forging as I move forward into what feels like a new season of my life.

Being a mother is an inherently and vastly different experience for every woman, with every child, our ideals, our homes, our family dynamics our choices in life and parenting are all shaped by our own experiences, the experiences of our mothers, our grandmothers. The very best we can do as mothers is to be reflective, to support one another in a shared experiece, this is motherhood.

The path of reaching out, of learning, of friendships forged, of inner work, of collective wisdom has most definitely, over the years I have been a mother changed vastly. For starters the online world then was nothing like it is now and I have found the most amazing women and made the most amazing friendships through the world of social media, and for most of us in the community, motherhood - contributing to that shared wisdom, sharing our days, is why we are here.

I joined Instagram after the birth of my third child to share my days, my love of my children and maybe some content which would inspire others. It has already been such an amazing journey! This section of my blog I wanted to share, in my past experiences, the tears, the laughter, the struggles and triumphs, my life beyond the squares of Instagram in the hope that I can add my own drop of wisdom, of reassurance, of reality, to the ocean.

I thank you for taking time to read this post, and I hope that should you decide to come along for the journey you will find some little beacons of light to help guide you in yours.

Much love

Kelly x

Beautiful handmade spring paper

So whilst in lockdown we have been thinking of things we can do to cheer the days of close family and friends who presence we are so deeply missing.I wanted to make May day cards, and so thought I would combine the two. So it got me thinking... Have you ever been so involved in the process of making something from start to finish? Something which helped shape your thinking? and open you up to another world of possibilities and imagination? The first time I distinctly remember having this experience. I was seven years old (so 28 years ago). I was doing just what my children did today, I made paper.

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I had visited the museum with school. We made paper from pulp and got to take it home at the end of the day. It amazed me. I felt like I was living history - I was amazed I knew how to make paper - just like people had done for thousands of years, the knowledge I felt I had gained from this simple process and the magic of its creation has lived with me since that day.

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This is the magic of willing, of experiencing, of imitating - imitation not just something you witnessed five minutes ago, but the imitation of something done by our ancestors over hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. There is something instinctual and deeply engrained in our identity as human beings to ‘do’ and to ‘make’.

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I recently bought a frame for paper making, you can buy the kits out there but really at this level and wit children its such a simple process and the fun is making the pulp yourself.

What you will need to make your paper

-A paper making frame and deckle, I bought mine from Myriad Natural Crafts and Toys you can find it here.

-Scraps of paper, the more cotton content the better if you want a finer quality but really just has any and have fun.

-A Blender

-A tub big enough to comfortably fit your frame

-A towel

-A board for drying on (it can be plastic, wood is preferable, I use a bamboo chopping board which I use to dry my wet on wet watercolour paintings)

-Natural treasures to add into your paper, flower petals, metallic thread, eco friendly glitter.

-Water

Step 1 ~ Make your pulp

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Your pulp is what gives your paper personality, you want paper that absorbs water easily so the fibres can break down and stick together, coated papers and card stock wont really make good pulp but they could add interest if you cut them up small enough. Be inventive though and try old newspaper pages etc, some papers will bleed their colour and dye the pulp, this is fine too all part of discovery fun and learning.

Once you have your paper, rip it into pieces as small as you can and soak in warm water ideally overnight to soften. Remember the more water in your pulp the thinner your paper will be.

The next day or at least after a few hours, add your pulp to a blender with some of the water it was soaked in, give it a good whizz until its as blended as it can be. Really soluble papers may break down completely, ours which were not all soluble still had quite large pieces. When done, tip your pulp into your dipping tub and add enough water to enable you to submerge your frame completely. Then clean your blender, really well....no kale and paper is not a type of smoothie just yet!! Now you are ready for the fun.

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Step 2 ~ Making the paper.

Ensure your tub is on a sturdy surface and have a large towel folded next to it With your board on (the board should be slightly bigger than the frame) Now you can sprinkle your natural treasures in now..but save some back to add on top later on.

Take your board and frame together. In one movement lower it into the water in a scooping motion (scooping toward you) finishing in a horizontal position in the water, as you slowly lift the board out of the water, gently shake it from side to side to a drip. Quickly take your frame to your board, stand the frame on its side and in one swift motion drop it to its front and back over again, a little like closing a door and opening it again from the other side, the paper should have come off and now be on the board....if its not, and sometimes it happens ...scrape the pulp back into the water, repeat the process but this time when your frame is face down on the board pat the paper onto the board from the other side-with your hand and slowly lift the mesh from the paper. Most often than not it works tipping it but sometimes it doesn’t, I don’t know if this is to do with gum in the paper, the type of fibres etc. If you want to add extra petals press them in now!

The paper should remain on the board until dry, which usually takes around 2-3 days. You will know when its dry as it will naturally start to peel itself away. And that’s it! Great fun and so easy to do!

I hope you all enjoy, I have a lot of excitement about this one and I cant wait to see how you all get on!