Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden sun

We've had what feels like weeks of grey weather here.  When it isn't snowing, it's been cloudy and grey.  I bemoaned aloud this lack of sun yesterday and as soon as the words left my mouth I thought "we should make our own sun."  So that's what we did.

I gathered up a thrifted teak bowl, some sticks, a few pieces of old yellow and orange bed sheets, yarn, and other fabric scraps.

I gave the bowl a face and drilled holes around the perimeter, slightly smaller in diameter than my sticks.

The tips of the sticks were whittled down and glued into the bowl.  I made sure to have an odd number of "rays" so the kids could easily weave the strips of bed sheets over and under, over and under.  I taught the boys how to rip strips of fabric, a task they found especially fun.  In hindsight, I'm not sure I should have shared that tip with them, I forsee many torn bed sheets in our future.

I started the weaving out with some sheets that I had previously spun into yarn and as I started to wind, what should appear?

The sun!  I couldn't believe it!  His appearance was brief but oh so appreciated.

The boys took turns weaving from there.  My youngest boy especially liked this project and told me, very excitedly, that he no longer wanted to be a "plane driver" when he grows up, but rather a weaver.  And he wants to vacuum.  I'm not sure why he's giving me that weird look.  Or why he's apparently wearing an ascot.  He's a funny guy.

Once our sun was suitably full I delighted the kids by wrapping a string of LED's around the back.  Once plugged in, we had a glowing sun on our wall, long after the real one had gone down.

It kind of looks like an eclipse, no?

I hope the sun finds you this weekend, too.  Have a good one, everyone.