"I am DONE with King Winter!"

HG's snowmen, sporting handmade hats and scarves.

So said HG this morning when we noticed the first snow flurries of our latest storm. While some of you are starting to enjoy little pieces of spring sunshine, and others across the world might be enjoying autumn, we here in New England are having just more and more winter. At our house there's been quite a lot of snow shoveling and days off from school, and plenty of hot chocolate and weekend afternoons inside by the fire, plus a few good sledding days. These activities always seem cozy and fun at the beginning of winter. Here's some sledding we did a couple of weeks ago.

At this stage many of us are pretty weary,  including even children! So here's a few ways to brighten your outlook and bring some color to the season.

During a rare day with bare ground HG gathered some sticks from the yard and brought them inside. She had the idea to cut out some stars and moons and also to tie little pieces of colored ribbon to her branches and put the decoration in a vase. We used her painting paper from school to make the stars. You can read more about Waldorf kindergarten wet-on-wet painting here.

The colored jars are lanterns, also made at school. They have a little tea light inside them and wire handles.

I made a snowflake garland out of glittery white eco-felt and blue card stock and just hung it with thread. No, I didn't design the snowflakes myself as I can't draw. At all. I traced them, which, if you're wondering, still counts as being creative in my book.

Lastly, HG brought home a simple Waldorf window star she made at school.

These are really beautiful decorations made from thick tissue paper called kite paper, which can be purchased easily online. There are lot of tutorials out there too and some books as well. If you're not really interested in making the stars yourself, there are some lovely, complicated ones from people on the Waldorf on Etsy team. Here are two of them.

A star from harvestmoonbyhand

One from La Lutine.

So if King Winter is still hanging around your part of the world, try out some of these simple activities to add some color!