The Wishing Well will be open this Saturday, December 21, for holiday shopping. All Christmas things are currently on sale!

Candle carousels make Christmas magic and charm young and old alike. We have some with chimes too....

Some holiday gift ideas for you. Angel tea light and snuffer....no one knows exactly why but all children, without exception, adore snuffing out candles. Snuffers make great stocking stuffers!

The most delicious local honey brought to you by PWS parent Bill Birney.

A sparkly snowflake candle light with a sturdy two foot chain for hanging indoors or out. 

And we have an array of colorful, heirloom, wool felt Christmas stockings from Roost.
And don't forget, all our Christmas things are on sale!!

All Christmas goods like these delicious boxes of baubles for your tree, are now 20 percent off. 

PWS parent, Bridget Phillips, will be having a trunk show of her crystal jewelry Friday, December 13th. She is offering her sterling silver and silk necklaces with semi-precious stones she drills herself. Inspired by the imperfect beauty of raw minerals and their metaphysical properties, her collection includes Lithium Quartz, Seraphenite, Danbrite, Topaz, Kunzite and Tourmaline. Wear as you wish - an elegant fashion accessory, a reminder of divine connection, a talisman, a pendulum...You set the intention, the gem will do the rest.  Enjoy.

Calling doll and knitted animal lovers everywhere! There will be a Doll Room trunk show outside the Wishing Well this week starting tomorrow. If you didn't get a chance to buy a doll during the Elves Faire, this is your chance!

Doll Room Trunk Show
8:30AM - 1:00PM
Wednesday, December 4 - Friday, December 6

We have all sorts of beautiful crystals for your winter nature table.

These enchanting German advent calendars also include short stories about Christmas that you can read to your children with the opening of each door.  

New beeswax candles have arrived!

Hanukkah is nearly upon us. We currently have these stylish, vintage modern menorahs and beeswax menorah candles....

...and from the incomparable Rebecca Varon,  these adorable children and dreidels.

We just received these glass bubble pumpkin candle holders....

By Rebecca Varon. Pumpkin children!

Rebecca Varon's wool witches are zooming around the Wishing Well on their little brooms. Come take one home with you for Halloween!

 

Just in! Super soft, organic, woolen underwear that adds warmth without bulk. Great for small children who are always trying to peel off layers even when it's cold out. Are your hands and feet always freezing? We can order these in adult sizes too. 

We have Day-of-the-Dead monkey drums and hand-carved maracas in beautiful colors....perfect for little hands. 

Puppenstube Trunk Show

Master doll maker, Christine of Puppenstube, will be here Friday, October 18 from 8:30-3:30 with her dear babies, gnomes, and elementals. Is it too early to start thinking of holiday gifts? 

We just got this in! A classic with beautiful illustrations.

Sweet Satya Healing Crystals Trunk Show

Satya will be here with her own wearable crystal gems and minerals this Friday, October 11, from 8:30 - 3:30. Stop by!

These adorable peg bears, bunnies, and mushrooms were made at the Angel Room workshop last week. If you'd like to try your hand at these, the Wishing Well carries not only unpainted pegs in various shapes and sizes, but also a great peg doll how-to book. 

And come join us for the next Angel Room workshop where we'll be making hand-sewn animals like the one below.  No experience necessary! Wednesday after drop-off!

The garden gnomes have arrived at The Wishing Well! Who better to watch over your Fall seedlings than one of these little fellows? Come by and take one home with you!

We've received a collection of fine French hair clips and barrettes in a variety of shapes and styles. The findings on these are very well designed and made, don't pull hair, and will last for years. 

Michaelmas is almost here. We have lots of beautiful things you can add to your nature table, including dragons, maidens and knights, crystals, and these multi-colored wooden blocks that allow children to build fluid, non-linear structures.

Hobbit Moleskins have come in! They include drawings and quotations from the book, and come ruled and unruled.  

We had our second Angel Room item workshop today where we made this fluffy flock.

Most of the sheep we made from wool which we wrapped around pipe cleaners but Jason needle felted his from his beard...wow!

Next week we'll be painting wooden mushrooms and making tiny clothes and hats for peg gnomes...no advanced experience in outfitting gnomes required.  We hope you can join us...Wednesday morning after drop off!

Fall arrives and once again our thoughts turn (one hopes) toward the making of our ten Angel Room items, our handmade gifts to the children in our community. Are you grumbling? Feeling anxious, or not so crafty? Don't fret! There are so many easy and sweet things you can make.

Click here to see simple, step-by-step instructions to make the little fellow above. You only need three supplies to make it, all of which the Wishing Well carries, and it only takes about twenty minutes!

list of materials:

wool roving in white, black, gray and orange
felting needle
foam block

And by the way, at our next Angel Room item workshop this Wednesday morning, we'll be making those sheep you see in the background. So stop by if you can join us, or if you have questions or need help with the making of your items!

We had so much fun at our first Angel Room workshop on Wednesday. We made vibrantly colored, wet-felted castile soap bars. (The Wishing Well carries beautiful and very reasonably priced packs of dyed wool roving in all kinds of colors by the way.)

We hope you will join us for our next workshop, Wednesday morning after drop-off, in front of the Wishing Well....Ginger will be teaching us how to make wrapped wool sheep.

One of the lovely things about this game is that small children can set it up all by themselves and play solo or with friends.  Toddlers love catching these sea creatures over and over and over again! 

Welcome back to school everyone! We've got lots of new yarn and wool roving in the store for Fall projects and Angel Room crafting. Come see!

The following excerpt is from the Virginia Beach SPCA. What a great project for parents and kids!

If You Knit Or Crochet

Many of our wildlife rehabbers use knitted or crocheted nests for the very young wildlife. These nests act just like nests in the wild, to secure the young, allow them to snuggle together and to maintain body temperature. 

Please use yarns that are not too "snaggy", double up your yarn and stitch in very tight stitches so that tiny arms and legs can't slip through. (*Kaki suggested wet felting as a way of addressing this issue as well, but you'd need to make a bigger nest as it would shrink in the felting process.) Colors do no matter! The babies do not care what their nests look like.

This is a great project for Scout groups and others looking to learn to crochet or knit, and where the final project can be lopsided, crooked, and full of errors, and no one minds!!  These instructions were written by our volunteer exclusively for the VBSPCA Wildlife Program.  If you use these instructions or our images on your own website, please include credit to the VBSPCA Wildlife Program

CROCHET NEST DIRECTIONS:
To begin, chain 3, join (with a slip stitch) to form ring.
Round 1: Chain 2 (this counts as your first “stitch), work between 10 – 15 single crochets into th ring (depending on what thickness yarn you are using). Slip stitch the last single crochet to the top stitch in the chain 2 that started this round.
Round 2: Chain 2. Single crochet into each of the next two stitches, then do 2 single crochet’s into the next stitch, single crochet into the next two stitches, then 2 single crochet’s in the the next stitch. And on and on around the circle. Slip stitch your last single crochet into the top of the chain 2 that started this round.
Round 3, 4, 5, 6, and on: Repeat Round 2 over and over, until your circle is at least 3” big. You can make your nest with a bottom as small as 3” big, up to maybe 6” big.

Once you have made the bottom of the nest from 3” to 6” big, from all rounds thereafter, crochet ONE single crochet into each stitch. You will see your “sides” begin to form. Crochet until the sides are about 2 – 3” high. Bind off and weave in loose ends.

Directions:
On size 5 dpn’s cast on 54 stitches (dividing up into 18 sts/needle). Work in knit (stockingette is automatic on dpn’s) stitch for approximately 3 inches. Begin decreasing for the crown as follows:
Next row: *K 7, k 2 tog* repeat to end
Next row: *K 6, k 2 tog* repeat to end
Next row: *K 5, k 2 tog* repeat to end
Nest row: *K 4, k 2 tog* repeat to end
Next row: *K 3, k 2 tog* repeat to end
Next row: *K 2, k 2 tog* repeat to end
Next row: *K 1, k 2 tog* repeat to end
Clip of yarn leaving a tail of about 6 inches.
Using yarn needle, slide yarn needle under all stitches on needles, and draw tight to close up the end. Knot.

Drop off or Mail to:

Virgina Beach SPCA Wildlife Program
Attn: Wildlife

3040 Holland Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23453

As many of you know, the Wishing Well is generously supported by a terrific volunteer staff. This June, with her daughter Amelia's graduation from 8th grade, we will say farewell to our long-time friend and co-worker, Allison Keeney. Allison has been a Wishing Well volunteer since Amelia was in the Lily kindergarden. (Amelia's sister, Elizabeth graduated with the class of 2011.) Remarkably, every week, for the last ten years, Allison has worked in the Wishing Well. She has assisted customers, unpacked boxes, repaired broken toys, and helped with countless other tasks from the mundane to the magnificent. She has done all this graciously and energetically in addition to the many other volunteer contributions she makes to her daughters' classes and our school. We have been most fortunate to be the beneficiaries of her generosity, talent and dedication. We will miss Allison and wish her the best with all that is ahead.

Even, and perhaps especially for a math-challenged person this is a fascinating, inspiring book. It will change and open the way you see the world around you. Here's an excerpt from the introduction: 

"One sun, two parents, three meals a day, four seasons and five fingers: children soon discover that most things in life exist in a particular number - which is more than just a sum total but actually expresses something, some quality of the thing in question. Thus the one sun shines on each of us, assuring us that we live in one world, a whole, a unity in which it shines. Two people lead us into life and two is visible everywhere: in above and below, good and bad, forwards and backwards, sleeping and waking, light and darkness, and even freedom and compulsion. 

From the seven dwarves and the same number of notes in a scale, or the 23 chromosomes, through the 32 types of crystal in mineralogy to the 153 fishes which the disciples of the New Testament haul ashore from the Sea of Galilee, numbers in nature, culture and religion tell us something about how things are constituted, about the inner workings of the world. Yet ever since numbers came to designate a time of day, a distance in miles, or have been found on bank statements and price labels, Plato's phrase about the world conceived in the language of mathematics has acquired a different resonance than intended by the Greek philosopher."       

------from the introduction to The Quality of Numbers 1 to 31by Wolfgang Held

                                       

This illustrated deck of cards from Germany will delight the budding mathematician in your family. A perfect amusement for lazy summer days and long airplane trips.