Author: Kelli Ann Wilson

Season Shelf :: Late Summer

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As the harvest comes on and the reaping begins
The farmer the fruit of the earth gathers in.
In mirth let us talk till the season be gone . . .

—From the traditional harvest song, “All of a Row”

It’s hard to believe that summer is on the wane already. The August shelf displays symbols of the year’s first harvests (Lammas / First Fruits / Feast of the Transfiguration) and some of my favorite August blooms. 

I also felt like the shelf needed to feel a little more centered on the wall, so I created a watercolor bunting for each month of the year, based on Steiner’s ideas about the colors of the month and Goethe’s color wheel.

The flower fairies are Lotte Sievers-Hahn dollhouse dolls that I purchased from Heirloom Art Co and transformed into my own creations with felt and hot glue.

The art cards are (left to right, from the top): “Sommer” by Eva-Maria Ott-Heidmann, “Oktober” by Ruth Elsässer, “Zomer-muis (Summer Mouse)” by Marjan van Zeyl, “Christ in the Wheatfield” by Johannes Raphael Wehle, and “St Anne” by Piotr Stachiewicz (the last two I printed out myself from images I found online).

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Season Shelf :: Midsummer & St John’s Tide

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I’m a little late updating this shelf, but we’ve passed the solstice and it’s officially summer!

We just got back from a lovely week spent in Lubec, Maine. We visit Lubec several times a year, so I had to include the town’s famous West Quoddy lighthouse. For this replica, I gave a 5.5″ unfinished wood lighthouse (from Casey’s Wood Products) its signature red and white stripes with acrylic paint.

Midsummer / St John’s always makes me think of bonfires, so I made a bonfire candle holder for my little dolls to enjoy. I hot glued sticks to an empty glass jar and added flames with tissue paper and Mod Podge.

Art cards, from top, are “Juli” by Ruth Elsässer; “Sommer” by Eva-Maria Ott-Heidmann; midsummer deer card by Hearthstone Fables; and “St John the Baptist” by David Newbatt.

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Season Shelf :: Early Spring

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Season Shelf :: Early Spring

I have two naughty (but adorable) cats, and they like to be overly involved with my season table. So I’m trying something new: A season shelf.

This beautiful shelf is from Camden Rose. I’ve designed the first two shelves to be more nature-focused, while the bottom shelf is dedicated to the liturgical year. But it all feels very cohesive, in part because the liturgical calendar is a reflection of Creation.

One thing I have learned on my seasonal- and liturgical-living journey is that it’s okay for things to change. Living seasonally isn’t static, by definition. My kids are in high school and college, so I no longer have little ones who want to interact with the season table directly. This new iteration of an old practice offers a more passive experience, but it will still ground my family in the seasons of nature and the Church year, just as it always has.

Art cards (from top shelf down): “Farmer Plowing” by Ruth Elsasser, “The White Lamb” by Dorothea Schmidt, “I Am with You Until the End of Days” by Ninetta Sombart, “Golgotha” by Leo Klein.

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Advent 2024 :: Week Two :: The Light of Plants

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This week we’re meditating on the Plant Kingdom, with which we share the qualities of living and growing. Usually I add some moss to our nature table this week, but my cats have been a little too involved with the display this year, so we’re just going with some well-secured evergreen sprigs and some wooden trees.

I also added my St Nicholas figure this week. Technically, he doesn’t belong in the scene yet (since we haven’t gotten to the Light of Humankind), but this year I thought maybe it would be neat to add the Advent Saints to the table as their feast days arrive. I’m going with St Nicholas & St Lucia, but other options could be St Barbara and Our Lady of Guadalupe. I like the idea of them accompanying Mary on her journey.