From LeeAnn: Four Loves Figures

Hi Regina,
The photos are of our Valentine's Day afterschool tea and the little house in the middle is one of those foam craft kits from Michael's. It has a slot in it for sending valentines and the base comes off to get them out. I just love it because it reminds me of Tasha Tudor's "sparrow post" in "A Time to Keep." The wooden figures are made by Ostheimer from Germany. I bought them through www.thewoodenwagon.com which carries the entire Ostheimer line. I love that link in your post about the dolls! I'd never seen The Blueberry Forest before and just drooled over their Kathe Kruse line. (note from Regina: Amazon.com sells some of these toys too)

...The Four Loves theme was really serendipitous. I have four children and Iwanted to order a pair of figures for each and only after that did I realize I could group the figures into a theme. I tried to place the figures around the house in positions that reminded me of what Lewis wrote about each of the loves. The romantic figures facing each other, gazing into each other's eyes, hands touching. The siblings looking at a common viewpoint, side-by-side, representing friendship. The animals are near each other but not looking either at each other or at the same thing, representing affection (really, Lewis had it as our love for animals is this sort of
affection, not the animals feelings--such as they are--for each other. I suppose I could have gotten a human figure and a dog or something but that would have muddied the fourth relationship.) And lastly the unicorn and the maiden are facing each other--although I would have liked it better if the unicorn's head was up instead of bowed. But I'm sure I could come up with all sorts of imagery for a bowed head too--representing Christ's burdens? his submission to his Father's will? the horn pointing at the maiden's heart? and on and on.

Glad someone else enjoyed the idea!
LeeAnn