Solstice wreath

i've been trying to figure out what sort of winter holiday traditions i want to build for my son.
i have no enthusiasm for christmas and all of it's commercial trappings, and i'm not playing any santa claus games.
but i don't want him to feel like he's missing out as he gets older, and his friends are all doing trees and decorations and what not.
i'm a lazy pagan. we talk about the solstice, and what it means to be the shortest day. we recently talked about how all the winter holidays are basically celebration of light in the dark time of the year.
in the past we've lit candles for solstice.
i'm trying to add a little bit every year.
being a crafty family it seemed natural to make some crafting traditions

so this year we made our first wreath.

christmas trees have an older pagan tradition of bringing greens into the home during the cold dark winter to remind one of the living green things
and we have no room for trees in our tiny apartment
so i thought a wreath would be just the thing
kiddo helped me with the wire

i added some roses i dried from my birthday bouquet

fleece lined recycled sweater mittens

every year i make a pair of fleece mittens for my son, last year when we visited snow they just weren't warm enough. this year i wanted to make them warmer by using 2 layers, at first i was going to use more fleece, but all the scraps of sweater laying around from another project gave me an idea.

and so i made these

i traced his hand to base the simple pattern on

first i sewed the palm pieces together, double layered

it took a few pairs before i decided on how i wanted the cuff

i ended up tucking the raw edges in and sewing them before assembling the front to back
on the palm side i would sew another line 1/4 or 3/8 in in from the other one to form elastic casing. and cut a piece of elastic about 2 in, and thread that through with a safety pin on each side. (i didn't get any pics of that)
next pin the front and back sides, and sew making sure the elastic is caught in the hem, then remove the safety pins, and trim any extra bits

i found that working with so many layers i always had to turn it over and make sure i had gotten all the sweater and all the fleece, and often had to go over spots i'd missed
available in my etsy shop http://www.elzzadoll.etsy.com