Bird and Little Bird

On Our Way Home.

It's been a nice visit with friends and family here in California.  I had the chance to meet some very special new baby boys, born to some of my oldest and most beloved friends.  It was so very sweet to see them as parents for the first time!

 

Baby gifts were delivered, including a couple of handstitched swaddling blankets. 

And, despite being incredibly over scheduled by our attempts to do everything and see everyone in the short time that we had, I made time to go out for ice cream with a favorite person of mine.  We actually had something that resembled a conversation (well, kind of) and it was kind of awesome.  

I do miss some things about California.  It is relatively warm here, for example.  And I like my family a whole lot.  We have been on non-stop family time since we got here and I have to say, I think we've all really loved it.  But, I hear that there are ten inches of the fluffy stuff on the ground in Vermont as of yesterday and Mariam and I have a date with a snowman.  So, airport-bound are we.

Library Monday: Ollie's Ski Trip.

Continuing on the theme of King Winter, I thought that for this week's Library Monday post I would share a new favorite story of ours:  Ollie's Ski Trip by Elsa Beskow.  A couple of weeks ago, Mariam and I received the extraordinarily pleasing news that I had won this giveaway on the Imagine Childhood blog.  I have never won anything before, so there was the novelty aspect of things, but we were really excited because it was such a lovely surprise.  The polar bear has been fantastically popular and has been absolutely (really) everywhere with us for the last three days.  I digress.  This is about the book.

Ollie's Ski Trip was written and illustrated by Elsa Beskow in the early 1900s, originally in Swedish.  Like many of Beskow's books, the story focuses on explaining natural phenomenon to children through the use of imaginative stories and characters that personify the cycles of nature.  In this case, our story is about a little boy named Ollie, who has received a new pair of skis for his birthday and is anxiously awaiting a good, big snow so that he can properly use them.  Ollie finally gets his snow, and while out skiing in the woods one day, he meets the Jack Frost of lore, who introduces him to various other characters in the seasonal play.  King Winter plays a role here (along with his polar bear and walrus companions), as does the dainty fairy named Spring.  Ollie learns about the changing of the seasons, as well as the joy that comes from embracing each season as it comes and enjoying it to the fullest while still letting it move on when it's time.  This is a perfect story for a family living in the snow for the first time (us!) and Mariam is really enjoying listening to it again and again. 

This book is also an ideal alternative to the classic fairy tale for Mariam, who has very low tolerance for the dramatic tension and evil villains that usually come in the fairy tale package.  Instead, the antagonist in Ollie's Ski Trip is Mrs. Thaw, whose most significant crime is a desire to bring winter to an end a bit too early.  No evil here, just the mischief that is created by someone trying to do their job at the wrong time.  We can handle this quite a bit better than the blood thirsty dragon in Sleeping Beauty, trust me.

Being that they are all about a hundred years old, I don't know how widely available Elsa Beskow's books are in the average public library.  We haven't had much luck with this and have had to either purchase (or win) the ones that we have.  However, they can be found on Amazon and I've added a few to the Bird and Little Bird Bookshop there in case folks are interested in tracking down a few to add to the home library. 

The Sun Egg

Children of the Forest

Around the Year

Emily and Daisy

King Winter.

I've been meaning to make a little time and space here to share some of the things that I received from my swap partner in the Seasons Round Exchange.  Our favorite item so far is this King Winter, which appears to be constructed entirely from wool roving.  I'm not super sure about this, all I know is that he is brilliantly made.  Simple but sophisticated and with perfect details.  My exchange partner, Colette, mentioned that her boys had a bit of a hard time letting him go in the mail when it was time to send the swap package.  I completely understand why. 

Here he is on the nature table, along with his icicle gnome companions (also from Colette) and a couple of felt trees that Mariam and I made.  I added a bunch of paper snowflakes to the table after I took these pictures, so winter is officially in full swing at our house.  Inside and out.  

Library Monday: In Our Book Bag.

I'm enjoying the benefits of free airport wi-fi for a few moments while we wait for our (slightly late) flight to board.  (Partly) sunny California here we come.  A proper Library Monday-type post isn't going to happen since I see our plane pulling up as I type this, but just for fun, here are a few of the favorites that got thrown into the backpack in preparation for airplane reading this evening... If you have never read these, you pretty much need to right now, even if you aren't on an airplane.

Dr. De Soto by William Steig

Owen by Kevin Henkes

Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book by Cynthia Rylant

This and That.

We're packing up and getting ready for our trip back to California (it's over fifty degrees there right now.  I literally can't imagine!).  Part of the process of getting ready involves finding a few projects to keep my hands busy when I don't have access to my trusty sewing machine.  Dan is free from the insanity of medical student life for just a bit now and we spent the afternoon wandering around downtown with some friends.  We stopped in at Nido and I picked up a stack of the long coveted Cloud 9 fabrics.  I plan to turn them into swaddling blankets a la the Purl Bee.  This is a perfect traveling project because I can start them here at home and then do the handstitching wherever the whim strikes between here and the visit to the brand new, fantastically adorable baby these blankets are meant for. 

I also received this book as a birthday present from Dan last weekend.  I'm contemplating putting together a little hand sewing kit to take along on our trip.  Felt, embroidery thread, templates from the book.  That sort of thing.  I don't know if anyone out there has yet had a chance to make any of the projects from Hand-Stitched Felt but if so, I'd love to hear all about it.  I was in New York last month when the author was teaching a class at Purl and I so, so very much wanted to go, but it was too last minute to be able to make it happen.  I would have loved it though.  By all appearances, this is a book of genius. 

Ridiculous.

I feel like pretty much every craft or food blog that I've read in the last few days has been talking about this recipe.  In case you've been seeing it as well, and are at all curious as to whether or not this caramel corn lives up to all the hype, I am here to assure you that it most definitely does.  And then some. 

Up My Sleeve.

Whenever we are looking forward to A Big Plane Trip (anything over three hours generally qualifies for this distinction), I start trying to prepare entertainment options well ahead of time.  You know those kids that sit quietly in their airplane seats and endlessly color pictures and do activity books?  They aren't related to me.  My girl does just fine for about as long as it takes to get off the runway, and upon takeoff immediately starts asking how much longer it will take to reach our destination. 

So, I don't pack light when it comes to the carry-on.  We take paper, books, a stunning number of snacks and yes, the watching of Meerkat Manor or Zaboomafoo is generally enjoyed a bit as well.  This time I'm also taking along some new and exciting art supplies, in an effort to delay any video watching until those mid-flight moments of true desperation.  These crayon rocks arrived this afternoon and were met with enough enthusiasm to earn them a place on the packing list, along with my optimism and sanity. 

Library Monday: The Little Red Fish

This weekend's library run was a bit rushed, and as a result I threw many, many books into our enormous canvas bag without much browsing or forethought.  Somehow, I got pretty lucky, and most of them have been great reads.  This a particularly good thing considering that we are headed into the teens temperature-wise here and I suspect that we will be logging some serious couch/reading time over the next few days.  

One of the books that we checked out for the first time this weekend is The Little Red Fish by Taeeun Yoo.  I was immediately drawn to it sitting on the library shelf because of its bright red bookcloth cover.  In the middle of the cover is a mostly sepia toned drawing with a brightly colored fish rising up out of the pages of a book. Hmmm. Intriguing. This pattern of illustration continues throughout the story; sepia tones with black outlines, simple but evocative pictures and only the little red fish brightly colored. 

Well, not only the fish.  This story takes place in a magical library deep in forest where the main character, JeJe, is visiting his grandfather, the librarian.  There JeJe finds a brightly colored red book and opens it, to find himself embarking on an adventure inside the story itself.  JeJe has brought along his pet fish and as his fish escapes into the red book, JeJe must follow and rescue his pet.  What follows is a dream like journey (that may indeed be only a dream) that reminds the reader of the possibility offered by the world of books and imagination.  

Although it doesn't have much in the way of narrative or a developed plot, The Little Red Fish has plenty to offer in the way of story.  It is an especially good book for encouraging children to look at the pictures and use their own imaginations to draw conclusions and tell the story themselves. 

I suppose that people still like to say that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.  I think that in this case, that is precisely what I did do, and that it worked out very much to my advantage. 

Haven't We Met Before?

This Semi-Fantastic Mr. Fox is on his way to England come Monday, but I thought he might stop by and show his handsome face here before he goes.  He might look a bit familiar, and if so, it is with good cause.  He's a custom order, requested to look just like this guy, made for my 100th post giveaway last April.  It was a request that I was more than happy to oblige being that I love these fabrics and actually haven't used them at my normal frequency level (meaning in everything that I make) for awhile now.  Plus, I think blue is kind of Mr. Fox's color. 

In Case of Emergency.

Mariam continues to thoroughly enjoy the making of lists, usually still with her trusty turquoise felt-tip marker, always kept close at hand.  This one is cracking us up right now.  It is her list of things that a person should have in case of an emergency.  It reads: "water, pudding, canned food, neighbors."