angry chicken

good times in salt lake city and recent books

My middle daughter was dancing for 5 weeks at Ballet West in Salt Lake City and we had a really good time visiting and getting her there and back. Why do dorms always smell like dirty socks and ketchup? I took me back. I flew out, but Pete and then later Grammie and my brother drove out and said the road trip from Portland was beautiful. I had never been to Salt Lake before and the landscape was amazing. The food scene was pretty great, too. This is non-dairy ice cream from Monkey Wrench and a delicious lunch at From Scratch, which was across the street.

Books!!

We have finished some books these last few weeks:

Hotel Silence, by a wonderful Icelandic author. I love her work so much and enjoyed this newest book of hers.

Turtles All the Way Down I read in 2 days. We have 4 copies, signed, (long story) but I had yet to read it. I did—and it's good. Kind of hard to get through. It's really all up in the brain of someone who struggles badly with anxious thoughts. I think it would be great for people to read if they want a sense of what an anxiety spiral feels like, and for people who get anxiety, well, it's kind of hard to read. It was for me. The humor helps, but I wouldn't call the book funny. 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle I finally read, and the Haunting of Hill House along with a lot of other short stories in this Shirley Jackson anthology. I had the girls read The Lottery as well. All of these stories gave me weird dreams. I couldn't find the exact book on amazon, but the photo is of the edition I read. I like the Library of America series—I think it's worth trying to find that edition.

The 13-year old just read and loved We Were Liars. I think that will float around the house, I might read it next.

The 15-year old just read Miles Away From You, which she wants me to read, much of it takes place in Iceland.

Pete could not stop talking about the crazy in the non-fiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God. 

books I have read lately

I felt out of practice reading daily this winter. I always have 1 or 2 books I can go back to I haven't finished, but I wasn't reading a book that I was into. Part of it has to do with sitting. I know have a had time sitting down and relaxing. Especially when I need to be sewing or am in the middle of a new craft spiral, like resin. I made an effort to grab a book instead of my phone for a few days, and was back on daily reading again in no time. Of course reading good books helps.

I always check out books from the library for the family. I really like doing this, I feel like a dj. I realize a librarian would be a better description, but whatever. Because I research science fiction for Pete and all sorts of YA for the girls, and then whatever sounds good to me, there's a big assortment around here at all times. These all just happen to be more of a YA mix.

Here's the most recent reads with extremely brief descriptions.*

The Best That We Could Do

A beautiful graphic novel that taught me the most I have ever learned about Vietnam in the 1970s.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Funny. Both girls liked it, as did I. 

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Eva Lavender

This is a stand-out of the year. I bought a copy for the house and Sadie and I discussed it at length. It's multi-generational and uses magical realism, which are two of my most favorite things.

Rabbit Cake

A disturbing book—more in the mood it creates than what actually happens. I can tell there are parts that are supposed to be funny, that were not funny to me, only because I was so worried about what was going to happen to this family. 

*As with most YA, these books deal with heavy stuff. Some are very heavy and have parts that are hard to read. 14 and older is what I would say, but even then, you might want to do research first.

favorite kid books, 5th edition

 

Here's some books we loved this year. I have grouped together Delia's and Lydia's first (they are 10 and 13) and Sadie's is the second group (15). Some of these titles are heavy. There is so much out there in terms of reviews, I know you all can research what would be a good fit for the kids in your life, but know these all come with high recommendations from my girls. the 1st and 2nd edition, 3rd edition and 4th edition lists from previous years. 

Snow and Rose: Written by our dearest Emily Martin—it's really special and all three girls read it in 2 days and loved it.

Lord of the Rings: Lydia is a huge fan. She has seen all the movies many time, and has these on audio book as well. She just keeps gogin back to them.

The Outsiders: Delia read this and then Sadie did. They had never really read a tragedy like this before. It was great to relive it with them and took me back to 6th grade.

Bake Sale: This is a wonderful graphic novel loved by all 3 girls.

Lost in the Sun: Delia's favorite book this year.

The Book Thief: Delia loved this, it's a challenge to read, but was really interesting, and I know she was happy she stuck with it.

I'll Give You the Sun: Sadie and I both loved this book, great writing with a wonderful plot and characters. I didn't want it to end.

Rookie: Sadie has all of these and they have given her so much info into topics I try to cover, but you know, I am a mom. And the topics are pretty raw and emotional. She says high school is the perfect age to get these. But not younger.

Holding Up the Universe: Delia says this is a great book, but better for high schoolers. She's in 7th now (I realize this book should have been in the first group)

When the Moon Was Ours: Sadie says this is great for 7th grade and older, it's magical realism and written well.

The Hate U GIve: Sadie and I have both read this and I want all my girls to read it when they are ready. Every human should read it.

A List of Cages: Sadie says this is  great book but VERY heavy and has really hard issues. She recommends it with caution for older teens.

We love our local bookshops! So, please go to your favorite one and buy these. I have linked these to amazon, where I am an associate, so if you use my links, I thank you for your support. 

flavored syrups

I've had two amazing drinks on heavy rotation this summer. Both were copied from ones I had bought, a Hibiscus Iced Tea from Tea Bar and a Lavender Matcha Milk Tea which was a special at Maplewood Cafe. My homemade ones don't taste exactly the same, but are delicious. I realized they must be using flavored syrups (I think?) so I made my own.

To make the syrups:

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon dreid lavender (or 3 cinnamon sticks)

Boil for 3 minutes, let cool for 20 minutes, strain and put in bottles and store in the fridge. I kept the cinnamon sticks in mine because it's pretty.

Then I added the syrups to taste after making the hibiscus iced tea (Tea Bar uses carbonated water. I never have any so make it flat) or the matcha milk tea. Amazing!!

Unrelated:

Thank you so much for all your tips about audio books and tips on getting them. I had also forgotten about the Hoopla app I have on my phone, which is also through our library (like Overdrive) and the UI is really easy to use—so I just downloaded 5 books from there. Yippee!

LSP in the house. Or, in this case, the car.

The world seems to have gone bonkers. And the eclipse is coming up so Portland has gone a bit crazy because we are so close to the path of totality. That sound like a book title. The Path of Totality. It probably is. I'm not going to look.

Lydia and I made a huge Lumpy Space Princess (from Adventure Time) and she has been traveling with us, even on vacation. She was so fun to make. She is huge. Way bigger than reasonable.

I finished reading Mister Monkey and really liked it and now am reading Swing Time.

Craft-wise I have been all over the place, but hope to focus my efforts on building some stairs for my doll house that lives at my mom's. I also need to get the wallpaper in and the wood flooring. This has led me to you tube which has resulted in too much time watching miniatures being made. I find this very relaxing. 

beating the heat

I'm not sure how hot it is here today. My phone says 102°. It feels about 115°.

We have no AC. At all. Long story, but our windows don't easily take window units and central air is a big "thing" involving a new furnace and new electrical and all that, so we just suffer every summer, but it's not usually for very long. This year it's bad. The cats are sleeping in the shower. The dogs are just dumb and won't go into the basement where it's cooler. Yesterday was bonkers so I am having a portable ac until overnighted to the house. There are none left in Oregon to buy. I will then hack together a college style foam core make-shift thing to get the venting out of our sliding glass door screen. It will be awesome. I feel like the house is regressing a bit this year. What with the basement flooding and rug that got torn up and isn't replaced yet, and all.

This orange vanilla cupcake and iced espresso made me feel much better. Market of Choice is nicely air-conditioned. Also making me feel good is the great book list Alicia put together from her comments. I am reading Mr. Monkey right now and like it a whole lot. I had to read it because it's called Mr. Monkey. I'm off to get in my air-conditioned car to buy linen to make a comfy bag-like dress. Or 3.

a super helpful book I think everyone should read

I randomly picked this book up at the library There is No Good Card for This, and can't put it down. This been a hard year for our family, lots of health stuff and schedule stuff and lots of big plans failing in a huge epic way. We are fine, but it has been hard. I know our friends and family have been at a loss at times on figuring out how to help us.

During all this, many of my friends are also going through life with big stuff happening. As it does. Death, divorce, health issues—there's just a lot out there and now that we all seem to be getting older (this happens, I keep being reminded) our parents and kids are dealing with big life stuff, too. It's hard to figure out what to say and how to help. This book is so helpful. And funny. And is really great to read right now because I am NOT in the middle of a huge crisis and so I can actually focus on what I am reading.

These pages are from the book.

I think this should be required reading in high school and then re-read every year. It's not written for kids, but I think high school is the perfect age to be thinking about how we can help others in very difficult times and to get in practice with how it can be uncomfortable but is something we need to do as evolved humans. It's more than just helpful tips—it's a way to look at how we process empathy. And also it talks about giving care, and how it's directly related to how we receive care. I wish I had read it a long time ago.

crazy scary puppets

We learned about Paul Klee's puppets recently and they were new to me. They were mentioned only in passing, in a video or a book, I can't remember which, but he made them for his son. I am completely obsedssed wth them. I was terrified of Mr. Rodger's puppets (and the Purple Panda) when I was small. Why were their noses so big? And their voices so horrible? I still don't like them, but I do like these and I like the idea of disturbing puppets.

I want to make some and now that the kids are older, I don't have to worry about them actually being scared by them. All these images are from this book I bought myself for my birthday which is wonderful.

knitting that I have been neglecting

This project is hibernating. For now. I did finish up some embroidery work at the beach recently and should have brought this project as well but instead started and almost finished The Nix, which is a very thick book. I'm almost done.

I have so many ideas in my head for projects right now and all involve money and time and then a serious analysis of what I would actually do with these projects when completed (sell? gifts? what?) but I try not to think about that part too much.

We are in full summer mode with the girls, getting them ready for various camps and trips. This is the first year all 3 of them will be gone multiple nights alone at different times. Exciting! But also a bit hard. Things seem to be moving pretty fast around here.

Every year for the big holidays I struggle between making a semi-gross yet funny dessert involving questionable chemicals or a simple elegant edible one that doesn't have the humor or spunk, but surely is the mature and choice. I usually make both. I will report back.

SaveSave

one of my favorite bakeries

I wish we lived closer to bakeshop or some of the cafes that sold bakeshop items. Maybe I don't. Maybe it's a good thing we don't live closer. Anyhoo, these items are from there, and they were delicious. 

Summer has started. it's been a whirlwind around here. I finished reading Handmaid's Tale. I'm wanting to read something happy next. Or funny. Or maybe both. I'm also pulling books for summer reading for the girls. 

I am feeling the need to make some puppets. I will show my inspiration soon. They are not normal puppets. I want to get my hands back into paper mache and sculpture.  I'm also feeling the urge to work with some concrete in the backyard. I'd like to make something kind of big. You tube is helping me with this delusion.

albums and that whole thing

I have a decent to-do list going right now and I'm trying to hack away at it before adding new distracting crafts and projects. I finally finished the Japan photo album from our trip in October. It's shipping right now. I am so happy. This came together pretty easily. I had most of the photos on my phone so uploading wasn't too bad.

The key for me is to edit ruthlessly before I upload, so that I can use almost all the photos when I start to layout and don't have to stop and make decisions. This makes a huge difference. I have used Shutterfly for years now for our family albums, I make one a year. This is more of an ordeal because I collect photos from all our phones and cameras. I haven't started this year's yet. I usually finish them by now, but the Japan one took the lead.

Over the years I have made about 12 of these books, for trips, ballet performances, and yearly albums. For the trips, I add text. A whole lot, usually. I dictate on my trips (voice to text in Evernote) and then clean it up and drop it in the album later. I dictated during this trip every night, and told stories and little details I knew would be forgotten or couldn't be described and remembered with a photo. The text is such a great addition to these books. I don't do this for this yearly books because that's crazy.

The rain! It's raining here again. I know there is a lot of snow and power outages for people elsewhere, I'll take the rain. But I do wish for some sun. Just a little.

rose city yarn crawl 2017

I had a great time visiting some yarn shops last weekend during the Rose City Yarn Crawl. I only went to two shops, I usually go to about 4, but I still had fun. I spent less money this year which is good for me. I need to finish up my project from last year. I haven't been knitting much this year, I usually go through 2-3 month knitting phase, but this year I have been stitching and doing more needlework.

I took this photo at the Knitting Bee, where Yoth yarn was having a trunk show. Such elegant colors. Really lovely yarn. I also went to For Yarn's Sake and met some lovely designers (Debbi Stone and PDXKnitterati!) and picked up a cowl pattern and some yarn. I am really excited to get started on that project.

I'm almost done with The Girl That Fell From the Sky. I can't put it down. I feel like I have more to share, but I have a distracting headache right now. Unrelated, my brother is telling me I have to watch The Patriot. It's an Amazon series.

embroidered earrings

I have been stitching a lot lately. I was working on some pieces when we were in Japan and came home so inspired by I was seeing over there. Instagram has kept me going, especially ant sally who I have mentioned before as a huge inspiration to me right now.

These are stitched and finished as post earrings and I have been wearing them a lot. So much fun! And so quick. They are really satisfying to make. There is some beading in there, too, and sequins on the pair in the back.

I am watching Stranger Things, finally, I know I am very late to this. My middle daughter binge-watched it recently with a friend and is now obsessed and has watched and read everything she can find about series. She is eager to talk about it and it's killing her that Pete and I haven't finished it yet because she doesn't want to spoil it. So, I have 3 episodes left. We need to get on it, I am reminded daily.

I started reading Mothering Sunday and finished My Brilliant Friend, which I had mixed feelings about. I was moaning a lot while reading this. I loved the time, setting, and Italian-ness of it all, but was waiting for a story arc—and there was none. I have since been told that all 4 books were written as one, so the first book is not a "complete" story, and it reads that way. I want to know more about these women, but I'm not sure the story will hold me for all 4 books. We shall see, I am planning on starting the second book soon.

I am almost done sewing a leotard for one of my dancers. The outcome is still dicey. I put in a zipper in the front, (like this style) which I am now going to take out. It almost worked.

house plants

I finally made it over to Solabee after seeing some lovely images of it on IG. it's a dreamy little floral shop that sells lovely pots and crystals along with house plants. I have a mixed relationship with house plants. I have a few sedums, succulents, and airplants and over the years I've kept an orchid or two around, but for the most part, I don't have any. My cats pee in them. Also, when I had a lot of plants in college they seemed to get small spiders in them, or would weep and get strangely sappy. I recently bought a deer fern that I have hanging on the wall and I love it so much. It's out of the way and also is safe from pee. I have a pinterest board started with house plants, mostly mounted vertically, which is where I'm at right now.

I asked a good friend about book reviews on you tube, I subscribe to a few for YA books for homeschooling, but for myself, I didn't have a go to channel and she directed me to some really goods ones that have me all excited. Well Done Books, and Savidge Reads are the ones I'm stuck on right now. I'm trying to read a bit in the morning and at night instead of doing my normal internet/phone trip of IG, and the news, which I check a few times a day anyway, so why do I need to check it one more time? So, I have a few real books and books on my phone I can jump into. It's making me feel better when the news is so intense right now. I also have been listening to more podcasts while I work. Music can be hard for me, I feel like I need the perfect music when I work and that search becomes a whole thing, so podcasts are easier. I've been enjoying the Nerdist and Women of the Hour.

I have been reading chapters of Me Talk Pretty One Day to the girls and it's so flippin' great. I need to edit a little bit for the 9 year old and some chapters I just can't read, but it's our sense of humor so much, it just warms my heart. And speaking of warming my heart, my 14 year-old discovered Ghostworld.

favorite kids books, 4th edition

 

 

There has been a whole lot of reading in the house this year. I usually do a family best-of list, but this year I am doing it by kid. We still love our books from the 1st and 2nd edition and 3rd edition lists from previous years.

Above is Lydia's list (9). She tends to like complicated books that are quite a bit above her reading level, so we read them to her and have her read a page or two here and there, so she doesn't get exhausted. She is a pretty big fantasy fan, her favorite series being Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars.

The Littlest Family's Big Day by Emily Martin Winfield: Our love of all of Emily's books knows no bounds, this newest one is just lovely and has a special place on our shelf.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley: Part of a mystery series with an 11-year-old sleuth! We all love these.

Ranger's Apprentice, by John Flanagan: She likes series and fantasy books other kids might find kind of boring or slow paced, but for her they are fascinating and she remembers every detail.

The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander: Another fantasy series she likes.

 

Delia (12) has some strong favorites this year. Most books didn't make the cut, she's pretty critical, but these did.

Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen

Ghostlight, by Sonia Gensler: This is scary, but in a safe way. It's kind of a gateway horror/ghost story book.

Wonder, by R.J. Palacio: Her favorite book right now. She talks about it all the time.

Auggie and Me by R.J. Palacio: She said she almost like this one more than Wonder.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry: Her first distopian and the book she compares all other distopians to, which I have mixed feelings about. I want her to read 1984.

 

Sadie's List (14) She reads a lot of manga, like a whole lot, but also reads non-manga, too (she is always reading) and this list is of the non-manga books that she has really liked. All these books are for teens, except for Nimona, which is for all readers I'd say, but some might not agree with me. The others all deal with teen subjects (sex, drugs, death, pain, love) and do it quite well, with much to discuss. I have read them too, and I wish these books had been around when I was 14.

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki: Beautiful graphic novel

The Bargaining by Carrie Ann West: It was totally scary, she said! I didn't read this one.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephan Chboski: Her favorite book right now. Very heavy, but very good.

Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson: This book was loved by all the girls—it was on all their lists. Wonderful graphic novel.

Looking for Alaska, by John Green: So much to talk about with this one.

Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell: Ditto, a lot to discuss

I hope this helps your gift giving! Shop local! Or maybe you need to shop online today. I have linked these to amazon, where I am an associate, so if you use my links, I thank you!

 

books recently read in the house by various family members

Every few months I print out covers of the books the girls read so they can glue them in their book journal and take notes and keep track of what they have read. So many of our books come from the library, it's hard to remember them all once they get checked back in. Bunheads was read by both older girls. It was "okay", the ballet world was harsh and realistic, and because they are in it now, it wasn't much of an escape for them.

Sadie (who will be 14 in a few days) and I just finished Looking for Alaska. Much to discuss here. We both liked it very much. Lots of smoking, drinking, death, and sexual stuff. I'm glad I read it first.

Sadie and Pete have read this, the rest of us haven't yet. They both liked it, Pete got super stressed out, but Sadie kept assuring him it ended okay.

Sadie read this. I read it, too, but a looooong time ago. It's dated for sure, and so very male, but there are a lot of points to talk about. Plus, everone has to know about The Conch. We enjyed these video critiques on Crash Course and Overly Sarcastic.

We all read this, it's sweet and nicely illustrated. The girls are big fans of all her books.

I read Perks of Being a Wallflower last summer for the first time. Sadie read it this fall, and about 100 times since then. It's her favorite book right now. Big topics. I swear it was written about my high school. But it wasn't. But it could have been.

Sadie and Delia read Wings, enjoyed it, but didn't feel compelled to continue with the series.

Okay, there are more, like what Pete, Lydia and I have been reading, but this is what is coming to mind right now-

What are your teens reading?

An incomplete list of books I have recently read.

The summer is moving fast around here. After a very hot May, it's been a very cool July. I'm not complaining. Maybe just a little. It's been too cool to swim most days—that would be my only complaint. I have been knitting, sewing, working on more art prints and some small sculpture, and reading. Finally reading. I just wasn't feeling it with the books I had going. Thank you all for your suggestions. I read a sample of The Rook, and have the ebook on hold at the library but I haven't been contacted to download it yet. The library did provide physical copies of these books, however (except, the Dan Clowes, which I bought.)

Mary Swann, by Carol Sheilds. I had read her biography of Jane Austen years ago and loved it, but had never read her fiction. This was good, but frustrating in a way. It was written in the 1980s and had a dated David Mamet style twist which I found a lttle contrived. But it was a good read despite me yelling at the book occasionally. 

Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff. I did a weird thing with this book. I read it to the middle and then read it from the end backwards to the middle and then started again from the middle to the end. I have never done anything so bold before while reading. I just was getting so annoyed with the main character in the first half (it's told in two parts by two different people, who are married to each other) I had to skip to the wife's perspective to see if I could hang with the book. And it was worth all my craziness and I'm glad I then finished it by reading it like  normal human.

Patience, by Dan Clowes. I loved this, and I love his work. It's a graphic novel and involves time travel.

Killing And Dying, by Adrian Tomine. I also love his work. This is a graphic novel of short stories. I will buy a copy of this.

 

banging out a sweater

I am deep into bang out a sweater, my first KAL and my first sweater knitted in the round, bottom-up with a yoke. I have done a few top-downs, but not a bottom-up. I was successfully able to join the 3 tubes into one using Kay's delightful explanation in The Three Tube Situation, which I found so amusing that I read it aloud to several people, most of them non-knitters. I have patient family members and friends.

Homeschooling wise—we are learning about northern and arctic regions right now. A wonderful reason to eat at broder and try some new folk art crafts. This sweater KAL is perfectly timed. We watched Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, a documentary about fur trappers in Siberia which Pete and I loved. The girls were a bit bored, but that's fine. Herzog films are always fascinating, funny, and boring to me. We are almost done reading First Light, which takes place in Greenland.

valentine's day charms

We have been making some more charms around here. These were made for valentine's day to give away. The larger hearts were made into magnets or brooches. I love making these, they are really relaxing. Sometimes. Sometimes, they are maddening, but that's only when the clay gets too soft. I helps to pop it in the freezer and wait a bit. Then it's all so much easier. I also still love watching the tutorials on you tube—there are so many out there and I find them mesmerizing.

I just finished Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir, by Carrie Brownstein and it gave me such crazy dreams! I have been having crazy dreams anyway, mostly about babies, but these dreams were not about babies, but about living in Eugene and Seattle in the mid/late 90s during the whole Eugene/Portland/Olympia/Seattle scene. This book brought back so many memories. Mostly of being freezing cold or very hot waiting for shows to start or end, my ears feeling like they would bleed the music was so loud, seeing amazing raw bands that blew my mind (or were unbelievably horrible) feeling itchy from goodwill clothes, and the smoke. She doesn't mention the smoke, but god, remember that?! I would have to put my clothes outside after shows because they stank so bad.

knitting and other things

I am thrilled to be starting a knitalong as of today. It's Bang Out a Sweater Knitalong by my two favorite knitting people in the whole world—Kay and Ann from Mason-Dixon knitting. It's my first KAL and I am starting a week early. I'm starting a week early because of the set up—swatching, finding my needles, and all that. It takes me a while to do this and I am also a slow knitter. I don't have a whole lot of regular knitting time. This sweater is supposed to be started and finished in the month of February, but I will be traveling for a week during that time and may or may not take this project. These are my justifications for starting early (Cheating?)

I started an Icelandic sweater two years ago, got about 1/16 into the project, and then it went into deep hibernation. So, I had all the yarn ready to go, pulled it all out today, bought the pattern and swatched already. I am blocking my swatch as I type this. Woot! There are projects in my head I want to try. I know this is referred to as a bucket list but I have never liked that term, I'm not sure why. Anyway, knitting an Icelandic sweater is in there, and also making a Baked Alaska.

Unrelated:

We just can't seem to kick the sick in the house. It seems like for 4 weeks someone has had a cough, or ear infection, or head cold of some kind. It's slowing us down, which I think is a good thing, actually.

I just finished Ongoingness: The End of a Diary and it was like nothing I have read before. I read it in two evenings, and am ready to read it again. It's short and powerful and made me have crazy dreams. I think the less I say about it the better. I didn't read anything about it before I read it and I'm glad for that.

candy cane lollipops

We made these cute candy cane lollipops courtesy of pinterest and they were really fun and easy. I looked for candy canes that were more applicable to forming the heart shape. I did soften them in the oven first (for about 1 minute at 350°) to get them to hold together at the top and on the stick. We used melted chocolate chip to fill in. The girls loved making them. I have them wrapped up in little treat bags ready to give away.

More flooding! Portland is underwater. We personally are doing okay, but our neighborhood is pretty bad, lots of people with flooded basements and lakes for yards. Lots of sandbags. We are all trying to help each other move furniture.

Like always, I keep seeing items that I want for myself while buying and making for others. I informed Pete that he bought me a lovely pair of socks and a stellar Christmas ornament from Russia. I even had them wrapped. I also sent a link to this book for my brother to get me, Face Paint: The Story of Makeup. It looks fascinating—all about the history of make-up. And he didn't mock me! Yet.

favorite kids books, 3rd edition

Here are some of our favorite books this year. We still love our books from the 1st and 2nd edition lists too, so please take a look at those for more ideas. I tried to include a wide age range of books. This list is always impossible to keep small. I tried my best, it could have been three times as big.

Thirsty, by M.T. Anderson: I got this YA book from the library for vacation reading and Sadie got a hold of it before I did. I couldn't find it for a long time and then had to return it, so I haven't read it, but she has multiple times and has since bought her own copy. She said it's funny, scary, sad, very well written, and best for kids 12 and older.

Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova by Laurel Snyder : This beautiful book was given to us by a dear friend and we all adore it. In it, the life of ballerina Anna Pavlova is illustrated by Julie Morstad, a favorite illustrator of ours. It's so lovely to read and look at, it's a real treasure.

Finish This Book, by Keri Smith: I don't think I can write a book list without including a book by Keri Smith. This is part journal, part activity book, and part writing/action-prompt book. Sadie has this one, loves it, and it's perfect for age 12 and up, we think. What is so special about her books is that they guide while being open-ended. I actually don't know what Sadie writes in hers, it's her private book, but I remember what it looked like blank, and I want one for myself.

The Day the Crayons Came Home, by Drew Daywalt: This is the second book in a delightful and wry series that we love. We bought it as soon as we saw it. It's a picture book, perfect for younger kids, but we all read it repeatedly.

Roller Girl, by Victoria Jamieson: I wrote about this book already (both books in this post are so good) and they are still big hits with all the girls—especially my 11 year old.

The Wonderful Things You Will Be, by Emily Winfield Martin: This book, beautifully written and illustrated book by our dear friend Emily Martin is adored in this house. All her books are amazing—so carefully composed and drawn. And who doesn't love small pants for squirrels? This would make a very special gift for a baby's library.

Lone Wolf (Wolves of the Beyond, Book 1), by Kathryn Lasky : My 8-year-old is in love with this series we are reading to her. She is obsessed with the woods, animals, and nature-based magic and lore. She is our little survivalist. These are told from the point of view of the wolf, who in the first book is raised by a bear. These aren't humorous, and can be a bit harsh, and she loves them. There is an owl series, too, that we will most likely read.

How to Draw Fantasy Art and RPG Maps: Step by Step Cartography for Gamers and Fans, by Jared Blando: I found this book when we were learning about cartography and sort of freaked out. It's very well organized and full of ideas, not just for landscapes, but for structures (Dragon's Lair! Ancient Portal!) towns, cities, and forests and even heraldry and shield design. I love Jared's drawing style, it's friendly but also exact, and we were all able to easily draw detailed maps using this book. Drawing maps from scratch can be really paralyzing, and this book makes it very easy to start.

I hope this helps your gift giving! I know many small indie book shops carry these titles. Support them! Or maybe today you need to shop in your pajamas. I have linked these to amazon, where I am an associate, so if you use my links (while in your pajamas) I thank you!

cranberry apple cake

My mother-in-law served us this delicious Cranberry Apple cake recently and we ate an alarming amount very fast. Who knew my family liked cranberries so much? I didn't. I found the recipe online and made it again, shown here. 12 oz of cranberries is a lot, so the cake is moist, more like a steamed pudding. It would work well with less cranberries if you wanted it to be more cake than berries, right now it's more berries than cake. I made no changes other than baking it longer, almost 10 minutes, I'd say.

I'm busy finishing up a Halloween costume and trying to find a new book to read. I have about 3 started and nothing is grabbing me. I'd like to start another reading project like I did last year, with the women comedian memoirs, but I haven't thought about it enough to formalize a theme yet. And speaking about books, I was alerted awhile back that Greensleeves has been reprinted! This is the book being mailed to readers right now because it was out of print when I stared this mail/book club project. I hope that means more people can read this lovely, odd, wonderful book now that it's available.

Meal Planning: Already into week 3 of this. I went down a rabbit hole of menu planning printables and stopped after about an hour and just printed the best one for me and moved on, because that's a whole thing. I do like having a pretty list to look at. I was tempted to make my own, I still might, but need to get past Halloween and a birthday first.

apple picking

We were able to pick apples today. I thought it was going to be crowed at Smith Berry Barn, but we were told the crowds were there on Saturday, not so much Sunday, when we were there. We had to go deep into the fields to find apples, but we did. 41 lbs worth. We always have to stop picking before we want to. Picking them is so satisfying.

We have this down to a system now—we core, peel, and slice all the apples and store them in ziplock bags in the freezer. This makes them perfect for pies, crisps, tarts, soups, and apple sauce. The girls fight over whose turn it is using this gadget, which is great, because it's a lot of apples. I'd like to try some of delicious apple recipes suggested in the comments over on Posy Gets Cozy. I usually just make a lot of apple sauce and pies. I also am looking to try more savory apple recipes this year.

Unrelated, I found this book list fascinating over on Huffington Post. 17 Books You Should Add To Your Usual Back-To-School List.  It's an alternative take on the classics normally assigned in high school. I have only read one of the suggestions. I'd love to check out the others.

graphic novels we are reading

Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson

 

Roller Girl, by Victoria Jamieson

We are enjoying both of these graphic novels so much. Here's an interview with Nimona author, Noelle Stevenson on NPR, and also a review of the book.  We saw this at Powell's and snatched it up immediately.

Roller Girl we have had for a few months and keep going back to. It's laugh-out-loud funny and takes place in Portland, with many recognizable places and references, which is really fun. There's a podcast interview with Victoria Jamieson (who is also an in-real-life roller derby skater) and a review of the book over on Geek Dad, and again, we bought ours at Powell's books.

Both these books feature girl protagonists that are real, funny, strong, and flawed. They learn from experience — sometimes. Sometimes things are just hard for them and they don't really learn. It's pretty great. All 3 of my girls love both books, (ages 8-12) Content wise, it's really a personal thing—you know your kids and what they might like and what you are comfortable with them reading. I always recommend pre-reading or at least skimming first.

"I don't actually see anything, but whatever."

This is what the 10-year old said when I told her I wanted to take a photo. We got the slides focused after some messing around. We just got these slides—we had some prepared ones, but not many, and have made our own (with mixed success) but they wanted more, so I got this box of prepared slides and am pretty happy with it and so are they.

Links and things:

• We are going to try this retro painted flower tutorial over at The Postman's Knock.

• We are moving onto a mystery theme and I found these writing tips for writing your own mystery story. There are a lot of creative writing ideas on this site.

• I love these free Paint by Number Valentines by the amazing Heidi Kenney

• I read The Fault in Our Stars and it was so good! And sad. I finished it yesterday. I am a little sad today. But good-sad, not the kind-of-creepy-and-feeling-mildly-manipulated-by-the-author, sad. And, I am a sucker for books within books, so that was an bonus for me.

books I have read very recently (except one)

I was able to get quite a bit of reading in right after the holidays and got sucked into a self-imposed project. I wanted to finally read these memoirs I have been interested in over the years. (#1-5) I also thought it would be fun to read them all together, which made them more interesting to me, and also challenged my ability to keep them straight because there is some cross-over professionally. Books #6-8 are unrelated (sort of) and tacked on here and there. I usually read fiction, so reading 6 non-fiction books in a couple of weeks was pretty fun. I love our local library, where almost all of these came from.

I blogged about these memoirs when I had read only 3, I could say a whole lot about them, or keep this short. I found this whole project very exciting and I am so glad I read all these books the way I did, together and as a comparative project for myself. Parts I keep thinking about (rated PG version);

1. Bossypants, by Tina Fey Her discovery of pee jars in the head writer's room at SNL.

2. Yes Please, by Amy Poehler When she reveals the horrible cring-y texting mistakes she has committed more than once.

3. Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's Learned, by Lena Dunham, the description of the high-end baby clothes boutique she worked in. I had to read this out loud to Pete.

4. The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, by Sarah Silverman Her telling of accidentally stabbing Al Franken the head with a sharp pencil while working on SNL.

5. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), by Mindy Kaling Reading about her secret "funny" friend, the one she shared her love of comedy with. She was a weekend-only friend that she ignored during the day at school. But not forever.

 These other books got slipped in here and there in January:

6. Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir, by Roz Chast I read so much about this comic/memoir and it's outstanding. I was so moved by it. I also laughed a little, but only later, not while I was reading it. It's about parents getting old and then dying.

7. Landline, by Rainbow Rowell This was an interesting premise—a magic phone that connects to a past relationship. In a crazy coincidence, the main character is a comedy writer who goes over her past to see where her marriage took a wrong turn. A comedy writer! So, that was interesting and an unexpected addition to my project.

8. Butterflies in November, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir. This is the one that wasn't as recent, I think I finished it in October. It's by an Icelandic author and was sent to me as a gift direct from Iceland (thrilling!) and I was fascinated by it. It was strange and quirky and made me feel dreamy and lonely. I also want to go to Iceland.

more peg dolls

Mushroom School

I never thought the peg dolls book we got last year would have been so popular or so fun to work from. All three girls keep going back to it and we all keep adding to our collection. Hillary is making some outstanding ones that are really fun and creative—seeing them got the girls all excited again. My girls are really into tribes right now and groups of figures. I love sewing for these with felt and roving, but the all painted ones are fun, too, and a little easier for the girls to make on their own. They still have me help with the faces. If a face is messed up, it can be painted over in a skin tone. This happened with our Tomato Friend and they look just fine now. There is something so relaxing about working on these. They actually play with them, too, usually with a little battery tea light. So sweet and perfect for the dark evenings. Lydia asked if we could photograph them and then print them all out to make a book. Yes!

Chicken and her Chicks

Valentine's  Day Person

Bluebird Clan

Tomato Friends

Three Peas in a Pod

Bear Clan

Dandelion Clan

Mermaid Clan

The Whole Family

happy 2015

We had a great new years at the Oregon coast. A few days of perfect weather and few days of indoor weather, which made the house seem small really fast. I read 2 books and watched 2 movies, knitted, did some stitching, and drew. I bought these great watercolor pencils (Derwent Inktense 12) a bit back and they are so fun to use, not like normal watercolor pencils at all, more like gauche pencils. The girls were amazed. I also found a wonderful black pen that doesn't bleed, so I/they can draw lines first and then watercolor over with no bleeding at all. More on this soon with photos and links.

 Books I read:

• Bossypants, By Tina Fey

I loved reading about her history with improv and her journey to get to SNL and 30 Rock. She's funny and smart and there's a ton to discuss in tis book. Pete got an earful.

• Yes Please, By Amy Poehler

This was really interesting to read right after Lena's (Not That Kind of Girl) and Tina's. They each have their own vibe and voice. Tina's and Amy's books are similar— more about their work history, and less about their romantic/relationship history.

There's so many topics in these books; creativity, motherhood, sexuality, drugs, working moms, stay-at-home moms, creative paths, taking risks, sexism at work, comedy, and so much more. I could write about all of it for a long time or stop now. I'm stopping now.

I feel close (and not in a weird stalker way, but in a good way) to both Amy Poehler and Lena Dunham after listening to their podcast interviews on By The Way, in Conversation with Jeff Garlin. Here's Amy's and here's Lena's. I heard these last summer and I laughed so hard and loved both of them so much and I'm sure it affected how I read their books.

Movies watched that I liked:

• Robot and Frank

I love scenes that have robots in the forest.

 

a cyclops snowman cookie

For a couple years now we have had friends over to decorate Christmas cookies during the day. Hooray for homeschool flexible scheduling! Otherwise, I don't know how this would happen this time of year. I make a double batch of sugar cookies a few weeks before and freeze them and take them out the night before. I seem to use a different recipe each time. These were yummy, but got very puffy. Then the kids go to town with icing and sprinkles. We had these eyes on hand from when we were making Twinkie minions last spring, and they were such a hit decorating these cookies! They took a fabulous comedic turn. I love seeing a stocking with eyes. Delia added broken candy canes pieces to the mix, which was a great addition, too.

Unrelated:

I am reading Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's Learned and am almost done. Lena Dunham is much younger than me. I find her writing interesting, smart, funny and sad. Mostly I feel grateful I'm not in my 20s anymore. I read an interesting discussion about this book on Man Repeller. In keeping with the theme of female comedic writers, next up— Yes Please by Amy Poehler.

a christmas gift for the girls (really, for me.)

 Anne of Green Gables

I stopped in my tracks when I saw this copy of Anne of Green Gables and had to buy it immediately. We already have a copy, and are almost done reading it, but this one, in hardback, with the cover illustration by Rifle Paper Co.'s Anna Bond, was just too lovely to not own. There a Little Women and a Heidi, also with her cover design, that I will need to pick up. The end papers are really sweet. I might pick up a copy for my niece.

Unrelated, but still about books:

I'm almost done reading the Tenth of December, by George Saunders, and it, coincidentally, is the 10th of December right now! This was not planned and is exciting to me. This book of short stories comes with very high praise. I have been so curious about it. I have been trying to read from only our bookshelves, and not check-out/buy more books until I get through some of the ones I have waiting to be read.

I have never read anything by this author and this book is nothing like I thought it would be. Each story is a complete surprise. I have mixed feelings about it so far. It has me riveted in that, what the heck is going on in this story? way—which I like, although I know some people find this very frustrating. Sometimes all I can say about a book is I am reading it. Or, I have read it. There is so much to say about most books it's hard to start writing about them. This makes me miss my book group.

I was once in a great book group in my mid-twenties in Seattle and we had this rule, that you couldn't actually say "I didn't like this book" or "I loved this book" until the very end of the meeting. It was brilliant and it made our discussions so much better. We realized that it was so hard to have a good discussion about a book when people felt defensive that everyone "hated" a book they liked or vice versa. The meetings would spiral into defending why the book was good or bad while trying not to offend poeple—and someone was always offended.

The interesting thing was at the end of the discussion, we would go around and say whether or not we liked the book and it was always a surprise who liked it and who didn't because the observations and critiques weren't burdened by arguments defending a "like" or "didn't like" stance. This rule really changed the vibe of the whole group.

I was in another book group later and when I joined I noticed the the first thing people would say when the discussion started was "I loved this book!" or "I hated this book!" and then things could get weird and uncomfortable not in a good way. I think I brought up this rule of my old book group, but now I don't remember if we adopted it, it was between babies and I don't remember much from that time.

favorite kid books, 2nd edition

My Milk Toof: The Adventures of Ickle and Lardee

Last year, I realized our favorite books needed their own list, so here's the 2nd edition. Here's the 1st edition.

This book was given to us a few years ago and is always near by. It's not really a story, but little vignettes depicting the adventures of these adorable teeth. Inspired by this, all the girls have made their own teeth out of sculpey to play with. So flippin' cute.

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #1: Wolf Brother

This is a surprise hit for us. I was looking for fiction while we were studying the stone age and found this series and the girls are in love with it. The first book is about a boy and a wolf and the wolf narrates some of the chapters. There's so much wonderful research in here. It's like taking a wilderness survival class from the sofa. We are in the middle of book 2 now and will surely read the rest. It's not funny or light at all— the drama and tense survival challenges they are thrilled by.

11 Birthdays

A neighbor friend told us about this book, and my 10 and 12 year-olds have read it repeatedly. I have not read it yet, but know it's about a girl and boy who have to repeat their 11th birthday over and over again. There are other books in this series and this one is their favorite.

Manga for the Beginner Chibis: Everything You Need to Start Drawing the Super-Cute Characters of Japanese Comics

All my girls draw a whole bunch and this book (and all the manga books by christopher hart) are very popular around here. Chibis rule the roost however, because who doesn't love cute adorable chibis!? There is a section on learning to draw chibi animals, too.

 
The Buddha's Apprentice at Bedtime: Tales of Compassion and Kindness for You to Read with Your Child - to Delight and Inspire

I read these short stories aloud to my girls and they love them. The illustrations are really lovely and the stories are simple and have a lot of issues to discuss. I wondered if it was too young for my older girls, but it's not, they ask for these stories almost every day at lunch time. Then we talk about them at length. I think they like the discussions afterward even more than the stories.

Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

This book disappeared the day I got it. My eldest is a huge Percy Jackson fan and so this went into her bed and rarely comes out. I have heard her read it out loud to her sisters, and it's funny and interesting, but again, I don't see it much. She assures me it's super great. It's also big and impressive in hardback.

 

Kids Are Weird: And Other Observations from Parenthood

I bought this for myself because it made me laugh so hard and reminded me of Will and Abe in the best way, but now I can't get it away from the kids. They think it's so funny—because it is. It's all direct quotes from the author's son, and they are priceless.

There are more books that mean the world to us I have already blogged about this year, including:

• Day Dreamers
• Making Peg Dolls
• Amazing Greek Myths of Wonder and Blunders

 

delia's fall coat 2014

This is the coat I sewed Delia this year. Like previous years, she picked the fabric and the lining. Her personal style in everyday clothes has changed a lot the past 4 years, but her taste in coats has not. She likes them formal and old fashioned. This thrills me. I used the same pattern I have for years, good ol' simplicity 2543 and made this one with even more room than last year's because she outgrew that one in the arms and shoulders by February.

This fabric, a super soft brushed cotton with a nap, was purchased at the Mill Ends in SE portland. The buttons are vintage and the collar is a piece of felted light blue cashmere sweater. I collect any old cashmere I can for this type of thing. Or for stuffed animals. The lining is a light blue satin that looks like water. Very nice.

I don't have too much to say about this. I think it's the 4th or 5th coat I have sewed from this pattern. I love it to bits. I was going to start this dress once I finished this coat, but now I'm not so sure, it might wait until spring.

unrelated to all this:

• I am so happy to report that Greensleeves, the book that I read from the Secret Books list, is on its way to its 3rd reader, as part of a snail mail book group. Very exciting!

• I am currently reading Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, loaned to me by a dear friend. It's riveting and breaking my heart and making me comforted and sad all at the same time. I just read a little bit at a time. It's so—life.

• I have been enjoying An Idiot Abroad a whole lot. I can't get enough of Karl. It's on instant Netflix.

Unconventional & Unexpected

 

A review copy of a book I was sent recently completely knocked my socks off—Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000 by Roderick Kiracofe

This is a beautiful book. Big, heavy, and thick, showcasing amazing quilts and fascinating essays by various quilt and textile historians, makers, and museum curators. There are essays by Natalie Chanin, Denyse Schmidt, Kaffe Fassett, to name a few. Janneken Smucker writes an interesting piece about the myths of the history of quilt making, challenging the commonly held belief that quilts were always made of scraps and came from a "make-do" mentality.

It took me awhile to actually read the essays because I was so mesmerized by the quilts, which are all from Roderick Kiracofe's collection. This books makes my heart skip a little every time I open it. I love quilts that are "off" and all of them have this quality. There is so much inspiration in here—I can only look at a few quilts at a time. It's a very special book.

pretty packages

It's new book season already and I was so excited to receive a review copy of Sally J Shim's new book, Pretty Packages: 45 Creative Gift-Wrapping Projects. Sally and I have been friends for a long time now (I wish you still lived here, Sally!) and she is a really wonderful person who loves life, travel, food, and design. And she has a great sense of humor. As a designer she has a keen eye and a sophisticated minimal style and this book captures all that perfectly.

This book is so HAPPY. It makes me smile looking through it. The girls ripped it out of my hands when it came. These are some of my favorite wrapping ideas from her book. It's full of simple, easy to reproduce ideas with a less is more style that is really lovely. Here's a project from the book, super cute!

Day Dreamers, By Emily Martin (and an event!)

Emily's newest book is out, Day Dreamers, and it's so beautiful—it's been on heavy rotation at our house. It's a companion to her equally stunning Dream Animals, and I love how these two books look side by side. I was thrilled to see her sketches before they were painted in her blog post for this newest book. There's a masterful loosness to her work in this newest book and that makes me sigh and smile. I love how she draws movement, so fluid and light.

Come celebrate with her! (And make her sign stuff!)  She is having an event in Portland for Day Dreamers at Green Bean Books on Saturday, September 6th, at 2:00.

pickled veggies

Pickled radishes

Pickled beets

When I am cleaning out the fridge and getting anxious about veggies not being eaten, I pickle them. Right away. It takes about 5 minutes and then I feel so much better. I have been using this basic sweet/salty vinegar recipe from the Momofuku cookbook for a few years now. I memorized it, or something similar that works for me, and I use it for everything. It's pretty forgiving. There's one here, but I use much less sugar. Here's my brine:

• 1 cup water
• 4-6 TBL sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• kombu (optional)

I heat the water and sugar until the sugar dissolves and pour it over the cut veggies and add the rest of the ingredients. To prep the veggies, I slice them in the food processor with the slicing blade, which is my best friend. The radish one stinks to high heaven, but not as much as the daikon and carrot one I made, which makes the girls scream and run out of the kitchen every time I open it. Pete just said it's hard to capture the smell in text. I love the way it tastes so much. Especially on fish tacos!

Unrelated: Books I want to read soonish

The Empathy Exams, by Leslie Jamison

The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell:

There's a fascinating piece about him here.

crewel with some cross-stitch and a bit about Greensleeves

I stitched this birthday gift for a friend recently. I am 99% done with my latest cross-stitch, but I needed a break. I used Renaissance Dyeing wool thread on linen fabric, backed with muslin. It's my own design, a bunny perched on top of a huge strawberry. Right after I finished this piece I saw these small animals stitched by Chloe Giordano, and oh my word. She uses thread. Sewing machine thread. You have to look.

unrelated:

I finished Greensleeves, which came up on the Secret Book post, and loved it so much. It's very hard to find this out-of-print book and it's such a good read, I'm going to loan it out to any of you who want to read it. It's already headed to someone, and I hope to get in back in a couple months, so if you are interested and don't mind waiting, I will put you on the list. Just e-mail me. It would be super swell if you want to add some notes/thoughts in the back, or maybe we can have a small book to write in to go along with it? Or a sheet of paper tucked inside? We can make it like a traveling book group. Tia, I didn't mention this when I sent it your way, so let me know what you think. I have also attached a book loan check-out pocket with a stampable due date. This is a high school library copy, so has it has it's own pocket and date-stamps from 1969 on up, which is charming to look at and ponder about all the high school kids that read it.

current cross stitch project

I am close to finishing this cross stitch project. the pattern is by Stacy Nash Primitives and it's called Basket of Flowers Pinkeep. I want to get back to some crewel work. I have enjoyed doing this, but I get a little twitchy when I stitch so many X's.

I'm reorganizing (mostly down-sizing) my craft/sewing room, focusing on the two huge bookshelves. It's taken two weeks, but I am almost done. I plan to "shop my craftroom" for the next year (I could for probably do this for 5 years) and try to lay-off adding more craft books and supplies, now that I can see and organize what I actually have. It feels good, but it was so hard to stick with it—I was willing to do anything to avoid working on it, including cleaning out the fridge and the freezer.

I am almost done with Greensleeves, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. It's so good, I am loving every page of it. This book was mentioned a few times in the comments of my Secret Books post, and I was so happy I found a copy, because it seems pretty hard to find. My mom (Grammie) actually met Eloise and owned signed copies of her books. Who knew? Grammie was a newspaper reporter and editor, and so was her mom, so it's hard to keep track of all the Portland people they all knew over the years. She didn't have a copy of this book, however. I found one at good ol' Powelll's books.

small books (by a young Brontë)

We are learning about the Brontë sisters right now and one of our favorite aspects of their lives are the imaginary worlds they created—complete with handmade books. Very, very small books. I jumped out of my chair when I happen to read, on the internet (but I don't remember where) that many of these books were scanned and are available to print. I printed them immediately. They were a hassle to print, they are enlarged, so you can read them, but to print them at the actual scale they were written (impossibly small) they need to be reduced. I fussed around for a long time wasting paper until I got them close enough. This one is 11 pages, the front and back cover are printed at 12%, the inside pages at 17%. This makes them almost the original size, just about 2" tall. I love the internet! The girls freaked out when I showed it to them. They never thought they would see what one of these books looked like. It's a little piece of magic. This one is by Charlotte, she wrote it as a child, and it's just amazing. I asked the girls if they wanted it printed larger so we could read it easier and they were adamant it be printed the size she wrote it. Here's another article about them. The link to the PDF of this book, and others, is at the end of this article.

We are are skimming Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, (we can revisit these and read them all the way through in a few years) and learning a lot about the lives of Charlotte and Jane. We are really enjoying the book, Always Emily, which is a great read, especially after studying so much about the Brontë family. We like the Crash Course on Jane Eyre, too.

Trading Card Creator

Sadie is very into stats and lists filled with lots of characters and detailed information. She has made her own trading cards and they are so creative and have such a wonderful handmade charm, I was almost reluctant to show her this very handy and easy to use Trading Card Creator. It's pretty great and she is very interested. I like that there are different questions to fill in based on what you choose to make the card for— people (real or fictional) places, events, concepts, or totally custom. They are easy to print, and are double sided with more room for information on the back. This makes her happy, because even though she has microscopic and tidy handwriting, the typing allows her to fit in even more information. And it is free, along with other good resources and ideas on this site, ReadWriteThink. This will be really fun to use for our themes, too. We are working on Brontë Trading Cards now. Hooray internet! Lydia wants to make some Goat Trading Cards, which will obviously be amazing.

I'm sending a big warm and fuzzy internet hugs to all of you who told me of your secret books. I was blown away, and got really emotional about it. I'm working on an art piece now, using all the covers I could find printed very small. It was so amazing to read about all your secret books, most of which are new to me. Thank you so much! I put the whole list on Goodreads (a great place to easily see all the covers) but can't figure out how to make that shelf public yet. If I can I will export the list of all the titles so I can post them all here.

my favorite book series (as a kid)

We finally got some more bookshelves in the living room. I keep trying to get a handle on our books, but it's hard. I'm not even going to discuss my craft/sewing book collection right now.

With the extra room, I was able to take these out— my childhood copies of "The Dark Is Rising" series by Susan Cooper. They were my all time favorite. I started them in 5th and read them repeatedly until 8th grade, always starting "The Dark is Rising" in the fall. Later, I only found one other kid who knew about them. They were my secret and I felt like they were written just for me. I had never heard of them and bought them on my own. I actually remember the bookstore I got them in (no longer around, a shop in John's Landing in the 1980s) and went back to buy each book in the series. My memory of this experience is so unlike the world of Harry Potter and other books for kids right now, where they seem to seep into our collective consciousness and have big marketing behind them. That can be fun too, but it is powerful to have a series, or even just one book, that feels like your own secret, even if it's actually not. Of course, it's much better for the author if it's not a secret. You know what I mean.

These books are well loved but not in the best shape. I have tried to read them to my girls and they have not taken to them. Yet. But I'm not giving up, I'm just trying to be casual about it. Even if they don't ever dig them, I think it's important for them to know what books meant a lot to me growing up. I plan to torture them with my college albums soon as well. While looking for new copies of these I kind of freaked out. I saw the edition that Folio Society has and the artwork looks amazing. With slipcovers! I never loved these original covers and I always wished they were a complete set—the first one is a different publisher. Did anyone else read these? I need to re-read them. I remember them being magical and epic, as well as humorless and mildly boring. In a good way. I learned a lot of Welsh from them, I remember that. Did you all have secret books no one else seemed to know about? Please share! I love hearing about this kind of stuff.

reading out loud

We were trying to list all the books we read aloud as a family in the last year and couldn't believe how many there were—and how many we forgot. We also tried to list the ones we listened to as audio books. All the girls read their own books, but we always have one (or two) books we are reading aloud or listening to as a family.

We wait until the timing is right for everyone, so no one misses out on the story. Sometimes these are library books, but I try to buy them eventually because the girls go to them repeatedly to read by themselves. I bought the box set of the Percy Jackson series after listening to them, just so they could go back and read them on their own, which they do. They really get into them, sometimes for months. They let these stories, vocabulary, and worlds envelop them in a way that is magical and allows them to go so deep. It makes me happy to see them go back to something over and over again. I need to fight my natural urge to throw new things at them every day. (This is especially true for math. They learn so much when they hang-out and revsit what we did last year, when it's no longer hard, but just a puzzle. That's when it all clicks for them.)

We decided to customize a notebook, with room for notes and comments by anyone who cares to add any, to keep track of these books. We printed out all the book covers (or audio book covers) we could remember from the last year. We made sure there was room to write on each page, or kept a blank page in-between.

We read this book when we were in Hawaii last year, they reminded me. They enjoy looking through it and discussing the books and what they remember. Then they go looking for the actual books on our shelves—or under beds, crammed in corners, or tossed under sofa cushions. The older girls are in charge of maintaining this, they love printing out the covers and gluing them in.

This one is from our Family Library. We also read To Kill a Mocking Bird this year, which was a questionable choice on my part for all 3 girls. There's some very heavy themes in that book that required some quick edits I needed to make for my youngest. Later, I went back to re-read these parts with just the older girls. They really loved that book.

We have many more in here, like all seven Harry Potters, which is so satisfying. 

sajou catalog and educational videos for kids

I got the Sajou catalog and have been poring over it with lots of sighs and oohs. I received a few items for my birthday, a tape measure and a needlebox—both of these are so nicely made. The boxes they come packed in are lovely.

Unrelated-

I was looking online for some information about Emily Dickinson and found a short analysis of her work by Crash Course. It was a bit advanced for the girls but enlightening to me, and the girls liked it a whole lot despite not quite understanding all of it. There are a ton of videos by Crash Course. A whole bunch. I haven't seen very many, but what I have seen I really like. Again, I think they are a bit advanced for all 3 girls (6, 9, 11) but they are great for me and I am surprised at what they enjoy. I watch them all first alone, to get a sense of what topics come up, especially for the 6-year-old. They are jam-packed and move very fast because they are only about 11 minutes. I often pause the video to explain subjects before moving on. I'm pretty excited to watch more, especially the US history ones.

I do feel a little like I've been under a rock, here. These courses are made by John and Hank Green and I had never heard of either of them. After typing their names into google, I see they are famous and John Green is hugely famous. He's a New York Times best selling author, (YA books) and I now realize I have seen his book cover in every store I have been in the last year or so. I sure like his content in these videos. I am very curious about his books. I haven't watched any videos with Hank yet. I'm out of it! But I can tell you all about hand-dyed thread and the Hungarian Braided Chain Stitch.

A great book for learning about presidents!

After countless readings of the Greek Mythology book by Michael Townsend, we bought Where Do Presidents Come From?: And Other Presidential Stuff of Super Great Importance.

I can't say enough great things about his books. They are so funny, absurd, and dry. The 11 and 9-year-old understand all the humor and information completely and the almost 7-year-old just loves the the hamsters and bunnies. It's not just about presidents, it's about the whole presidential process—what presidents actually do, how they are elected, and the history behind all that. It's got so much information with dinosaurs thrown in. I am sure crossing my fingers he writes more of these.

Unrelated: I made super easy and fast dinner last night— shrimp with whole-wheat couscous and 3 out of 5 of us liked it a whole lot! (2 adults and one kid.)

wise craft—the book

I have known Blair Stocker a long time, since our earliest days of blogging, and am so happy to have receieved a review copy of  Wise Craft: Turning Thrift Store Finds, Fabric Scraps, and Natural Objects Into Stuff You Love. Blair's blog, wise craft has always been a great source of inspiration and this book has all that wise craft love in it. She has a great eye and knows how to have fun with creating, which I really appreciate.

This project will have me crocheting. I mean it.

Blair is so good at using found/thrifted items in her projects.

The chapters are by seasons, which I love. I wish more craft books did this, it works so well in cookbooks, it's genius to have a craft book organized this way. This is the Spring chapter. So minimal and pretty but not too serious—that's wise craft all the way.

And becasue Halloween is my favorite holiday, I zoned right in on her fall projects and love them to death.

Zombie barbies. I don't need to say anything else.

Of all the blog people I have met over the years, and I am so happy to have met so many, Blair is probably the funniest. I mean, crazy, stand-up comedian style funny. I wish she lived in Portland, but I shouldn't complain because Seattle isn't that far, really.

hotels

Pete and I saw the Grand Budapest Hotel last night and were thoroughly entertained. The images, especially in the first 10 minutes, were so beautiful. I wanted these images up around me all the time, so I printed out my own postcards on matte photo paper to put up around my desk. Google images has a ton of lovely stills from the movie, including this amazing grouping of ephemera which has me all excited. I opted not to print a postcard of Harvey Keitel's excellent tattoos, although Pete wanted me to.

Hotel related—I laughed out loud when I saw the videos at the end of The Rumpus Interview with Jacob Tomsky. They are at the bottom of the interview. I haven't read his book, Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality, but it's on my list and it looks really good in that cringe-y way. When I was doing commercial interior design I worked on a lot of hotels and heard a lot of crazy stuff from the managers, and even crazier stories from the staff. I almost don't want to read this.

I do want some vintage hotel stationery now.

peg dolls

During the hustle and bustle of the holiday madness we bought this book— Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom, at the wonderful Portland toy shop, SpielWerk Toys, just for ourselves. Sadie and I fell in love with it immediately. It has so many adorable peg doll ideas with patterns and directions, all organized by the seasons. It took us until now to start projects from it. These were made in about an hour, the paint on them dries really fast. I helped Lydia with the stitching and the face painting on her birds. The girls know their way around making peg dolls and clothes pin dolls—Delia even helped me teach a class on making some over on Creativebug.

This might be my favorite page, but the halloween one is pretty outstanding, too. There are some great tips in this book. The only thing that I find vexing about felt is gluing it to itself. Felt on wood is fine, but felt on felt can be really difficult.

We got our unfinished pegs from Casey's Wood Products which shipped really fast, even though they are across the country from us. This was serious business—the sorting and dividing of the wood dolls. Lots of lists and notes and math.

space, islands, & music. books I have bought for pete.

I just got this book, The Martian, by Andy Weir last week for Pete for our 16th wedding anniversary and he read it in two days. Giving fiction is always tricky, especially as a gift and especially having not read it myself, but I got a very enthusiastic recommendation from a bookseller at Annie Bloom Books, here in Portland, who said it was wonderful. He said it was like MacGyver being stuck on Mars. Sold. Pete said this was so stressful and exciting to read—the most fun he's had reading a book in a very long time. I love the cover.
How Music Works, by David Byrne. He hasn't read it all, but really likes it. He keeps going back to it. He's not a hardcore David Byrne fan, but is a music major, and is facinatined by these essays. I see this book out often, he's had it about a year. It's also very pleasing to look at. I do buy books for their cover.

Atlas of Remote Islands, by Judith Schalansky. I bought this for him years ago and again, I see it around a lot. Reading reviews will help describe it—it's beautifully crafted (which is why I bought it) and he says it's fascinating. Especially for someone into islands, which he is.

I haven't read any of these, but would like to, or more precisely, I like it when he talks about them and then I feel like I have read them and can get back to my historical romances and werewolf stories. I read legit stuff, to, but you know what I mean. I need to find a historical romance with a werewolf in it. There must be one, surely.

pumpkin bread

I have been tinkering with pumpkin bread/cake recipes again. I have posted a few in the past and keep making changes here and there. This one is currently my favorite and I think it will be for a long time. It's from the excellent Grand Central Baking book (recipe here) and I changed 3 things:

• I used white whole wheat flour instead of white and sadly,
• I never have buttermilk so I used yogurt instead
• I made it in a bundt pan (and increased the cooking time) instead of two loaf pans. The second one I made last week I added chocolate chips to.

Unrelated:

• We are teaching the girls computer programming—we just heard of code.org a bit back and have been doing it for about a month now. It's pretty amazing. Pretty, swear-word amazing.

• I have been getting looser with my knitting rules and now have 4 projects going on at once. Look out! Really, this is huge for me. When I sew, it's one project at a time, and always has been so breaking of out of this mindset has been huge for me with knitting. I had to come to terms with my knitting burn-out and that it's often because I have been working on one item for too long. If I focus on taking pleasure in the knitting (process) and let go of the need for a finished item as quickly as possible (product) I tend to enjoy it a whole lot more. So, I might cast on this tonight. Make that 5 projects.