Merrick's special Day

**please note; my good camera is still, yet again, in repair, I appologize for the photo quality**

One year ago I gave birth to my darling little boy. I still owe you his birth story... Soon!

I'm happy to start our birthday ritual for the first anniversaire for Merrick. I makes it extra special for Mariann and will be totally the norm (yet still magical) for him. And Mariann enjoyed it as much as Bébé frère!

As gift, I think I spoiled myself more then the kids... I bought already cut stalkers and stained them with watercolors. It looks so great in their playroom and Mariann loves to make the puzzles... For now Merrick enjoy tasting all the pieces!

I made one for each element. The little wooden sun was painted by Mariann on Ostara and Merrick loves chewing on it. I put it there in infase the fact that he was born in Summer, on a very hot and sunny day :)

We already had the playsilks and wooden animals.

And here's Mariann gift, which she was very very proud to give!
I cut 3 rectangles and ran them throught my sewing machine, then I asked Mariann to embrodery each page with each colors of the rainbow. It took about 4 baby brother's naps, she would keep her interests for about 3-4 pages at a time. I then handsewn two pages together so the wrong side don't show.

We can see a little bit of the necklace I made. I took blue glass beads and a pentacle charm (for protection) and some hazeltree beads I made from wood harvested in our own backyard. I simply cut each beads (with a tool I just can't find the english word in my head right now...) and a nail and hammer. Right now it sits on my work table, waiting for me to re-do it. Shirring elastic was not a good idea, apperently!

I don't really have a great picture of the crown... I'll take one later.

So, I've embrodery his initial in blue, like his eyes, and sewn felt oak leaves, the king of tree, nothing less! It represents well the time he was born, I find. On the side there is a spear and a branch of wheat which represent the day he was born; Lughnasad or Lamas, the first of the three pagan harvest festival. On the other side, still with felt, I sewn a wooden shield and an axe, symbol of his name, which means Powerfull Conquerer or Ruler of the Sea, and which as value him the nickname of Little Viking by his godsfather and Mamie. All the growling, and the fact that he's so blond and chubby, only added to it!

I also made them paint on canvas, of course Mariann loved it, as always... But Merrick, not really. We still have 2 great paintings on the wall!

And here he is in a tunic I made the very day. I actually took picture to built a tutorial to show you how. And no, it was white no more by the end of the day!

We had our family for super and he even got a spoon of chocolate ice cream. He got a booster seat and was so proud to sit with everyone at the table!

Do I have a 1 year old boy already??

Hope all my pagan friends had a great Lughnasad! We made a corn bread yesterday and it was pretty good with mapple syrup. I'll share the recipe soon.