Back-to-School Lacing Bookmarks
Back-to-school for us always means a lot of reading (yippee!!) so the boys and I came up with a lacing bookmark craft to make the daily read that much more enjoyable. To see how to make your own, head on over the Handmade Charlotte for the full tutorial!
We are now in the process of trying to rearrange the boys small room to fit this new little girl (who is due to come is just a couple of week! ah! :)). One thing that I've wanted for a long long time is a wall full of books! I'm not sure we have to room to do it but I'm trying my best to see what I can do to make it work in some form or another. Because books are just so important to us.
Being a book illustrator (for the past 10 yrs or so-you can find my work under Tuesday Mourning) I've been collecting children's picture books long before I ever had any kids of my own.
In fact, we have a couple of collections. The first includes books that the boys can pull out and look at and read on a whim and the other is a collection of some of mom's favorite books (many of them from a past trip to France where I shipped a HUGE box of beautifully illustrated books. Precious cargo I tell you.) These ones come down on occasion and are read and loved but they have to go back up so that they stay in pristine condition. Yeah, I'm sort of a nut that way. Someday I'll pass them down to the kids and I'm hoping they will love and treasure them as much as I do.
Right now one of our favorite books is Big Rabbit's Bad Mood, by Ramona Badescu and illustrated Delphine Durand (one of my favorite French Illustrators). We love following Big Rabbit's adventures with his big and hairy bad mood following him around everywhere. A well written and perfectly illustrated book about dealing with your emotions...completely genius (I find it as helpful as the boys do! To personify a "bad mood" is really rather therapeutic).
For a bit older readers (A is really getting into chapter books and both boys love listening to them) I'm also a big fan of the Maggie Brooklyn series right now, written by Leslie Margolis (OK perhaps just a little bit because I did illustrate their covers). I love a good super sleuth young adult novel and one that takes me back to my Brooklyn days...well it's nothing short of perfect.
What about you? What gets you and your kids motivated and in the mood to read? And what are some of your favorite books at the moment? I'd love to hear!
It's been so hot lately and we needed a kids craft that allowed us to get wet, wet wet! This river raft, made from duct tape, card board and water bottles, was just the thing. Head on over to 
And for more duct tape fun, take a look at some of my previous projects. Any of them would make a great weekend craft for you and your Littles!
I trust all US readers had an excellent 4th of July. Ours was hot, hot, hot! We spent most of the day in my parents pool (here in Colorado - where the fires are finally starting to calm down and be contained. Hopefully no new ones will pop up!). We had a great time though.
I know your little ones will love these new little animal amigos just as much as mine did! I think we'll be sharing this fun craft with all of our cousins later today. Perhaps that will give us moms some time to sit, sew and chat together. 
Enjoy!
This simple and cute craft will be a will be the perfect accessory to your little darlings summer attire. For the 
And a special thanks to our little friend for modeling. I think she looks just like an angel is this pic below. 
And thanks to her awesome mom Amelia. We had such fun on the photo shoot!
You can tell just how funny and spunky this little lady is in this pic. I think, like her pops, she's destined for the big screen!
Hi friends! My next craft installment for 
Hello friends! I'm thrilled to announce that I will crafting over at 
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