skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Happy Friday friends! A big thanks to all of you who entered the Hand in Hand: Crafting with Kids Giveaway! You had some wonderful things to say about crafting and creating with kids. I was inspired!
And now to announce the winner! The winner of the Hand in Hand:Crafting with Kids book giveaway is comment #35...
HAYLEY LAM
who wrote:
"I would love this book, want to try the geometric tiles!!"
Congratulations Hayley! Please contact me at merrileeliddiard [at] hotmail dot com and I'll ship your book off to you!
And I couldn't help but share a few inspiring comments from you readers to get us all crafting with our Littles this weekend!
Steph mentions:
"Lately Creed's favorite is when I draw a mystery picture in white crayon and he watercolors over it to find out what it is."
Holly Sarah shares:
"My oldest likes to use his chalkboard easel to tell stories with pictures before bedtime...one of my favorite things."
Rachael suggests:
"The best project I did with my students was making button yo-yos...that was by far their favorite, a button on a loop of string. Some of them were still pulling out their backpacks to play with three months later."
And Emily says:
"My daughter is 22 months old and one of her current favorite creative activities is "painting" on coffee filters. She draws on the filters with washable markers and then "paints" using water and small paintbrushes. After the filters are dried, we cut them into shapes, make flowers, mobiels, etc."
And there are so many more in the Hand in Hand Giveaway comment suggestion. Great reading to start your weekend off! And if you didn't win, be sure to pick up your copy of Hand in Hand: Crafting with Kids at your local bookstore or Amazon. You'll love it!
Wishing you all a creative and crafty weekend!
*Winner was selected randomly. If there was one more than one comment from the same person, it was considered as one comment total.
Friends, I've been dying to share this gem of a book with all of you! Hand in Hand: Crafting with Kids, by Jenny Doh, hit the shelves on April 3rd and I've been waiting until after all the Easter holiday fun was over to introduce this book you. If you are not already familiar with this new title, you are in a for a treat! It consists of 20 craft bloggers who focus on creating with kids and share one project each that you can do with your little ones. I feel so honored to have been selected to be amongst this great group and know you will love the book as much as I do.
If you follow this blog at all you'll know that I'm just a bit passionate about creating art and crafting with your kids. It has added so much to my life, and to the life of my kids. And what a treat it is to read all of the wonderful thoughts and experiences about creating with your kids from the many other bloggers in this book. I really was inspired to work hand in hand :) with my Littles, all over again!
The other contributors featured in this book are:
I was lucky enough to meat a few of these ladies in person at ALT, such as Dana Willard of MADE and Rachel Faucett of Handmade Charlotte and they are just as inspiring in person as you will find them in this book and on their blogs. Many of these other bloggers have inspired me and my kids in days past and many others have been a treat to discover and explore for the first time. Here are a few spreads from our chapter. It was so fun to really explore and express how I feel about creativity and cultivating it in the home.  There are some fun shots from our South Pasadena home that I miss from time to time. (I especially miss all that space in the kids room!).  And there is a shot of how we ended up storing our geometric floor puzzle. (We adhered it to the wall with Velcro which made for some great movable wall art! And then when we wanted to have more free reign and play with it on the floor, we simply removed the tiles from the wall and placed them on the floor in fun and interesting patterns).  And for our craft contribution, Little A and I show you how you and your kids can make a personalized keepsake pillow from an original drawing, fabric and a bit of embroidery floss.  We loved working on this together and still treasure this pillow! If you are interested in perusing the many creative activities found in this book (which of course you are!) just leave a comment and I'll enter you into the drawing for a free book! And I'd LOVE to hear something creative (big or small) that you and your little one(s) love to do together. You have until the end of Wed. April 18th to comment and enter the Hand in Hand book giveaway! From there I will randomly select a number from the comments and reveal who has won the book a week from today, Friday, April 20th.
In addition to our Random Acts of Advent calendar, I wanted to introduce a new advent idea for this Christmas season. I love and adore children's picture books and, being an illustrator myself, have quite a collection of them. As of last year, I decided that I wanted to collect enough children's Christmas picture books to be wrapped, opened and then read every day in December up until Christmas. I was hoping to share this idea with you before the first day of December, but I just recently completed my entire collection of 25 Christmas themed picture books! So what a better day to share the advent fun but on the first day of December?
I had a lot of fun wrapping and adorning these books. I used a variety of papers including white butcher paper and a selection of really fun wrapping papers from Fifth & Hazel. The above geometric print is one my fav's.
I then used an assortment of trimmings and trappings including simple little tags on which I wrote the days of the month, counting down to Christmas.
I know a lot of advent's end on the 24th but I thought it would be fun to read one more story on Christmas night (the 25th) to end the season on a nice note.
Collecting 25 books might seem like an endeavor but it's actually not too bad as there as so many great Christmas and winter themed books out there. In fact, it might be hard to pick just 25! Our little collection began from a few books that were given to us along with a few we had purchased. Last year, when I knew I wanted to do this, I decided to wait until the after Christmas sales to purchase a number of books, which I highly recommend if you want to do this next year. I also purchased a number from the Scholastic book club, which made things more affordable. But I have to say, some of my favorite purchases were made recently from thrift stores. I was able to find an original Golden Book Rudolf and the super great Babaar and Father Christmas book. This one is utterly gorgeous and I can't wait to read it.
So these are the books we're going to be reading this December (and I have to confess that I can't vouch for all of them as I wanted to be surprised with a few of them as well...but I'm sure they're all going to be great).
1. Footprints in the Snow by Mei Matsuoka (I was drawn to the illustrations in this book)
2. Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney (we haven't read this but my boys love the first Llama Llama book so I'm sure they will be delighted with this one)
3. Golden Book's The Christmas Donkey by T. William, illustrated by Andrea Brooks
4. I'll Be There With Belzon by Kirk Richards (Kirk is an old high school friend of Jon's and we love his work)
5. Babar and Father Christmas by Jean De Brunhoff
6. It's Christmas, David! by David Shannon
7. Stella, Queen of the Snow by Marie-Louise Gay
8. Christmas Tapestry by Patricia Polacco
9. Christmas Lights by Susan Mitchell (this book was given to Little A for his first Christmas. I love remembering those precious times when we read this and the boys love to see all the flashing ligths)
10. The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Klastrup, illustrated by Matt Tavares
11. Ho, Ho, Ho, Tucker! by Leslie McGuirk
12. The Stable Where Jesus Was Born by Rhonda Gowler Greene, illustrated by Susan Gaber
13. The Snowman, lift-and-look book, by Raymond Briggs (Love this classic and my boys can't get enough of the flaps)
14. The Elves and the Shoemaker by John Cech, illlustrated by Kirill Chelushkin
15. My Penguin Osbert by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, illustrated by H. B. Lewis (I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Cody Kimmel - I was lucky enough to illustrate her Suddenly Supernatural series - and My Penguin Osbert doesn't disappoint. We love it.)
16. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Suess (a classic, need I say more?)
17. B is for Bethlehem by Isabel Wilner, illustrated by Elisa Kleven
18. Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera
19. Auntie Claus and the Key to Christmas by Elise Primavera
20. Golden Book's Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer
21. Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank McCourt, illustrated by Raul Colon
22. The Nutcracker adapted by John Cech, illustrated by Eric Puybaret
23. Snowman at Christmas by Mark Buehner, illustrated Caralyn Buehner
24. For Christmas Even, First Christmas a changing picture book beautifully illustrated by Sophie Williams
25. and for Christmas night, we went with Silent Night, illustrated by Susan Jeffers
When the books were all wrapped I placed them in front of our fireplace. I'll have to find a new place for them when we want to light a fire of course but for now, we are enjoying it.
Oh and I had to share with you the vintage serving tray I found at a local thrift store. I'm seriously in love with it. I mean a retro fondue party scene? Does it get any better than that?
At any rate, we are excited to start the count down and I'm certain that this new little tradition will add such a nice touch to the season.
Now all we need is a tree...I'm thinking left of the fireplace should do quite nicely...
- Oh, and what I need from you now is for you to tell me your favorite Christmas book. With this new tradition, we'll always be in the market!
I'm swimming in wrappings and trimmings and loving every minute of it. Never mind that I was a half an hour late to the Christmas book club party (my sitter was stuck in a Cosco line for 20 min!) or that after giddily wrapping up my book for the giveaway I ended up driving around for another half an hour trying to find the home of the host (my GPS wouldn't register the address). Never mind that I gave up when it was time to put the littles to bed.
I tried not to think about how I would not be able to talk about one of my favorite classics, Jane Eyre. No comparing Mr. Rochester to Mr. Darcy (Mr. Rochester totally wins. Swoon....). No memorable discussion about the admirable character and moral of Miss Eyre. No commiserating over the the hero and heroin's heartache. No talk or drooling over the new all-time favorite cinematic Masterpiece Theater representation of the novel (I made Jon stay up all night watching it with me-they nailed the characters so well! Top of the Christmas list for sure). No, none of these things can bother me for long. I have a pretty package. An additional gift for my list. And many more pretty papers, ribbons and tags to immerse myself in. I'm happy. Christmastime is here. And having it ushered in by Mr. Rochester and little Jane Eyre...well, what more can I ask for?
Before having children I'd dream of taking my darling, quiet and adoring children to the library. There they would search the endless stacks of bound treasures with reverent wonder. Together we would select some of our favorite finds and travel off to imaginary places as I read to them in a quiet, tucked away nook.
Well...with my spirited, yet still darling, three year old, our library jaunts are anything but dream like. Little A has had an obsession with puzzles for some time now...and as most library's are outfitted with such novelties, we are immediately pulled to that corner with incredible magnetic force. When attempting to leave said corner to peruse, fits are had and red faced mom gives into defiant toddler (we've tried to discuss this issue prior to library outings many times...but that is another story for another mommy blog...).
Not wanting to leave triumphant little A by himself in the puzzle corner I'm stuck looking for books with authors at the end of the alphabet, particularly in the W's, which reside directly across from puzzle paradise. Most of the time I'm satisfied enough for bedtime stories but every once in a while I'll find a treasure. My most recent library adventure unearthed such a gem in the form of author/illustrator Brian Wildsmith. Wow. How did I not know about this guy? Needless to say, I gobbled up as many Wildsmith books my stroller could handle and left the library smiling, oblivious to all kicking and screaming protests.
Aren't his illustrations just beautiful? Little A (who loves the books once they are at home) enjoyed them thoroughly and wanted me to read Animal Shapes over and over again. He was so taken with the different ways in which Wildsmith portrays his animals. I personally am very much into his color palette and intoxicating use of shapes.
I'm so happy to have found his work. He certainly ranks high on my most inspiring illustrator list at the moment. And it's all thanks to Little A and his fixation with puzzles.
Thank you all for your warm birthday wishes! It really helped to make the weekend great. I wanted to give you a brief update on how lovely my birthday was (even if I am a year over thirty...). I received a fantastically wrapped gift form my two little boys with an illustration on it by my very favorite three year old (is he incredible or what?!). In it was the book My First, by Eva Montanari, which is so beautifully illustrated and loads of fun. I also received some Harajuku Lovers perfume wrapped so lovingly by my husband who obviously knows I love craft paper and ribbons (his interpretation had me laughing out loud...in a delightful way). Other fun items such as head bands and fun shirts (that just happen to match my spring palette) presented themselves as well. Jon also made some fabulous French bakery type bread that day which was just perfect.
And of course...the mega gift...a day (which turned into spurts of hours over an entire weekend) of sewing and painting. The above items are still a work in progress (I have some puckering issues with the dress collar that I need to work out and more painting to do) but I'm happy with the time I had to spend on these projects and can't wait to finish them up. A girl couldn't ask for more.
Thank you again to all who made my day so splendid!
I love the fun, bright, patchwork elephant Elmer and couldn't be happier to see that Anthopolgie has created a skirt that looks just like him. I love it. I need it.
*(I'm certain no poaching has been involved in the creation of said skirt. Elmer is still alive and well.).
have you got yours? Yes, I went to Barnes and Noble last night at midnight, caught the tail end of a Vampire prom and purchased my reserved copy of Breaking Dawn. I'll be occupied for a while...so if posts are infrequent, you'll know why :). Happy biting.
 definitely will have to invest in this one.  I have this one and love it.
 "[I]n this Emily was perfectly correct: home was, and has always been, something sacred for the Dickinsons. Nothing untoward could ever happen to us there, nothing that could make us lose faith in the goodness and nobility of humankind, nor lose faith in the future. Nothing could expose us to the storm outside, it was our private and fantastic kingdom, and we inhabited it naturally, like fairies do in tales, or those rebelious and passionate being in novels."
-Lavinia Dickinson on the Dickinson home in the novel: The Sister, A novel of Emily Dickinson
|
Posts
