Living a life close to Mother Nature and her seasons is important to me. Recognizing the shift in seasons, exploring and fully connecting to each season, really sinking into the magic each season offers brings a certain comfort to my year. With each season there are rituals that appear year after year, little things we do to celebrate the beauty of nature, and this week we turned to one of those rituals. Reece and I collected a lot of beautiful leaves on our weekend hike in the woods, and knew exactly what we were going to do with them. With them pressed, and the house smelling of beeswax, we set ourselves up to wax our leaves yesterday morning. It is something we have done for the last few years, enjoying the calm, repetitive action of dipping, letting drip, and then setting to dry, before starting again with a new leaf. As we dip, favourite leaves are picked out and put aside, others are left to dry, and later strung to make a garland, and others are bagged up to share with friends. It's a ritual we have both come to love over the years, and one I know we will continue for many autumn seasons to come.
Such beautiful colours, a lovely autumn activity :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! I can't take credit for the colours, that is all Mother Nature :)
DeleteThose leaves are beautiful Kim ! I didn't know you could preserve them with beeswax, I will definitely be trying that. Hope you are having a good week, Fiona x
ReplyDeleteThank you Fiona. It is a fun activity, I hope you enjoy it. xo
DeleteI have never dipped leaves but as a child I remember ironing leaves in between wax paper! I loved doing that as a child.
ReplyDeleteYes, I did that too as a kid.
DeleteBeautiful! I was thinking of trying this project recently! Is there anything I should know? Any tips? Do you just melt the wax or do you need to add anything to it? These look gorgeous! xo
ReplyDeleteThanks Shel. Nothing special, just melt the wax, and dip away. You should know that once you melt wax in the bowl, you won't get it off. That bowl is our dedicated beeswax bowl :)
DeleteI love that idea and wish I had thought about doing when our girls were little. Right now I'm afraid it wouldn't appeal to them as much... It's a lovely way of preserving the goodness of fall.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anke. Yeah, I think your girls are a little too old for this one now, although you never know. I thoroughly enjoy dipping leaves :)
DeleteI can smell that beeswax through my computer. I like dipping leaves too. I still have the ones you sent years ago.
ReplyDeleteOh, that is so lovely to hear KC. I remember sending you those ones, that has got to be three or four years ago now :)
DeleteI love this project! We save our leftover candle bits from the year for our leaf dipping. I also live the garland idea which we've never done.
ReplyDeleteWe're enjoying a few lovely days of rain here--something Mother Nature only sends from time to time. So it's all puddles and hot baths for us these days ;)
Thanks Coco. That is exactly what we use. I collect all the leftover candle pieces and just hang on to them for activities such as this one, and for making our snow candles for Candlemas.
DeleteThe garland is fun, and looks awesome hanging in our kitchen right now.
Oh goodness, enjoy those puddles my friend. Miss you. xo
Beautiful! Looks like a fun fall project.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tiffany. Bet your girls would love this :)
DeleteWhat a beautiful idea!
ReplyDeleteThanks Karin-Ida.
DeleteI was just reminding Erin of this craft to do with Emerson, she told me the leaves are stunning in Germany.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing all the pretty leaves you and Reece have done it makes me want to do some too.
Oh, I bet they would have so much fun, and what a great way to preserve some leaves from their stay in Germany.
DeleteDo you have leaves down there to dip Tracey?
I've seen wax dipped leaves before and have always wanted to try it out with the kids. They look gorgeous! And I love the idea of having autumnal colours around for longer. Beautiful work, my friend.
ReplyDeleteOh Alexa, your kiddos would love this, you have to give it a try.
DeleteThank you :)
Well, now I am even more excited about this project that we plan to do with our home school group next Tuesday! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeletehttp://learnathomejourney.com/
Oh, so exciting, have fun!
DeleteWe've never done that, but I love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks! You should give it a try, I bet your kiddos would love it :)
DeleteYou have the best ideas Kim...thanks for sharing them. Have a wonderful weekend.
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks Erica. Hope you have a great weekend too!
DeleteLook at all those beautiful leaves. I remember doing this as a child! I've been seeing a lot of leaf paint prints lately. I was thinking of doing that with my kids.
ReplyDeleteThey are just stunning this year, and we are love having them in our home :) Yes, the leaf paint prints are fun too, we did them a few years ago. Enjoy!
DeleteIt looks beautiful Kim!
ReplyDeleteThanks Taryn!
Deletewhat a fantastic craft for autumn!
ReplyDeleteThanks, we always enjoy waxing leaves :)
DeleteWe haven't done any waxed leaves yet this year, but plan to this week to decorated the house for halloween!
ReplyDeleteAre you making garlands with yours? I bet your house is beautifully decorated for the fall - inside and out!
Oh, hope you had fun decorating. Yes, we made a garland, it is hanging in the kitchen over the doors heading out back, it looks lovely.
DeleteI like to think it is, I have fun decorating for the seasons, and I love that my little man likes to help me with the seasonal crafting and decorating.
I really love this idea, Kim. I've never tried it but I think it looks like a fun activity and a great way to preserve and enjoy the leaves a little longer. I often try to save leaves but of course they dry out and crumble. I will have to keep this in mind for next year. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jennifer, it is a lot of fun, and very meditative, at least for me. Hope you enjoy it if you give it a try.
DeleteI’ve been meaning to do this so thank you for the reminder!! :)
ReplyDeleteOh how heavenly the house must smell! What a wonderful idea. I my have to try this with our kiddos next year!
ReplyDeleteIt did at the time :) It is a lot of fun Yanic, and I think you and your kiddos would love it :)
DeleteNever thought of this before. I love it! We are so borrowing this from you. Have I told you lately how much I love your blog??! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks. You guys have to try it, you will love it! Aw, thanks, you are much too sweet. xo
DeleteThey look so beautiful, we haven't done this for a couple of years now, but looking at your leaves I think we need to give it a go this year again.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sally! Yes, I think you do too, have fun!
DeleteDipping leaves and preserving memories. A beautiful fall craft. We've done this with the neighborhood kids, but Panda is still to little. Next year maybe.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the first time I did this with Reece, most likely when he was four, maybe five. He has enjoyed every time we do it, and I have to admit I really enjoy it as well.
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