Monday, February 28, 2011

Read This: Beware of the Frog

I love William Bee's books.  The first book of his we owned was Whateverand it was read often and with much curiosity by Beeper as the turn of events that play out in the book are decidedly a-typical for a children's book.  I will just say it is a good morality story for children with more attitude than is prudent for their age.   And this book, Beware of the Frog, also has its own unexpected story-line--and better yet, is illustrated in William Bee's own unique style--at once lush with retro design detail and saturated with colors that pop from the white backgrounds.  I admit, the illustration style is what initially attracted me to his books in the first place.  And in fact, I picked this book up for Beeper at The Tate Modern gift shop when Mr Beeper and I were in London this past spring (everyplace I travel, I always buy Beeper a book or two inspired by the locale) which has no shoddy assortment of modern and finely illustrated children's books (and it is one my favorite places in the world to shop--lucky for those of us who live all the way across the pond from London, they have a wonderful on-line shop).
This story unfolds a bit like a fairy tale with a little old lady, Mrs Collywobbles,  living alone near a dark scary wood--alone, that is, except for her pet frog.  Yep, it's a story about a sweet little old lady and her beloved amphibious pet--and the quirky twists keep on coming, people.  
What proceeds to play out is that various creatures with their own evil intent emerge one-by-one from the woods--Greedy Goblin, Smelly Troll, and Giant Hungry Ogre...
...only to meet their match and their fate in Mrs Collywobbles pet frog.  Yes, that Beware of the Frog sign on the front gate is not an idle warning--a evil-creature eating frog is not to be trifled with.  Although, clearly, these guys had it coming.
There is a nice repetitive rhythm to the storyline, making what will happen next delightfully predictable for children--except for the completely unexpected ending.  All I will say is, who knew what that frog had up his sleeve or that Mrs Collywobbles had it in her.  Curious?  Buy a copy of the book or reserve a copy from your local library--do what you have to because this book is fun and wonderful to look at, even for big people.
Also, if you want to learn a little more about William Bee and his likes, check out his brief but entertaining web page--here. 

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Celebrating the Boy: Make a Magnetic Play Set

Oh, hey.  Hi.  Did you know that I am officially Celebrating the Boy over here today?  I am--it is all part of Made by Rae's and Made's annual tribute to crafting for boys--a full month of it, actually.  I know, it is cool.  The line-up of guest bloggers and projects Rae and Dana have going on over at their places is pretty amazing--I already have 3 projects I want to make from Rae's guests alone.  But wait--where are my manners?!?  Welcome to those of you who have taken the time to stop over here from Rae's place.   I am so happy to have you here.
So, let's get to the good stuff, shall we?  In honor of Celebrate the Boy month I have a little tutorial for you on how to make your very own magnetic play set.  This one is pretty simple to make--no special crafting skills like quilting, quilling or anything else starting with a "qu" required--really all you need to know how to do is search the internet for images, put those into a document, print them, cut them apart and stick them to some adhesive magnet sheets.  Yeah, I meant simple when I said it.
What I also love about this project is how endlessly customizable it is to whatever your boy's interests may be--dinosaurs, cars, monsters, robots, animals--or super heroes as the case may be at our house (specifically, DC Comic super heroes--because Beeper actually segregates his super heroes by comic book strain--DC or Marvel--and the twain shall never meet).
I got to thinking about putting together a project like this because I am always trying to come up with new things to keep Beeper distracted when the situation requires it--like when we are at a restaurant and Mr Beeper and I just want to drink some wine and have at least 10 minutes of uninterrupted adult conversation (did I hear someone say, That is what date night is for?  Yes, good point--but that would require having a babysitter that is nearer than 60 minutes away for us to pick up which is where our closest babysitter is located at the moment), or when in the car for longer trips (like when we need to pick up our babysitter)--you know the situations I am talking about.
Well, I am mildly obsessed with having a bag that is stocked with interesting distractions for him that I feel good about (i.e. no video games)--so this project was meant to contribute to that stash of stuff I keep in a small backpack in our coat closet.  And if you are interested, you can download the tutorial right here so you can make your own:
 I also thought this might be a good time for us to swap some info about what sorts of things you find particularly handy to distract your kids when the place or situation requires it.  Here are some of my favorites we have in our bag of distractions at the moment:
(from top Pop Zolo [mini creative building set], Monster Doodles [erasable creative drawing cards--pure genius], Knights Toob, a selection of Little Dover books [most of these are $1.50 per book and they are fantastic for distraction because they can literally fit in your pocket and the options are mind-boggling], Wild Toob, blank sketch book and a set of soy crayons)
Oh, and if you are in the market for a new bag in which to stash your own kiddie distractions, why not make the scavenger bag from Sew Grown or the messenger bag from Punkin Patterns--both are  Boy month projects over at Rae's place.  

Thanks again to those of you who took the time to stop by--it was nice having you and I hope to see you around here again. Oh, and if you have any favorite kiddie distractions, please do leave a comment and share--would love to hear about your favorite tricks.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Sharing: Projects You Should Check Out

Are you as perpetually amazed as I am at the quantity and quality of projects available to you FOR FREE out and about on the web and in blogland these days?  The amount overwhelms me--just because I want to make them--ALL of them.


Those little-people-style presidents kill me.  And I am so in love withe simplicity of the framed Liberty of London fabrics.  And anything that uses recycled tin cans always gets me--must be my inner-billy-goat.  But go see them all for yourself.  Because you should--they are good.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Curse You, Tiny Foods!

Beeper made this drawing the other day at school.  Let me explain the finer points of drawing to you: the brown man running on the left is yelling, "Curse you, tiny foods!"(except spelled like only a 6-year old would spell it: crs you tine food)--while the a gang of food items flee with their arms in the air (from the left they are: a burger, a banana, a grape ice cream cone, a green bean and a carrot).  Of course, why wouldn't a series of little foods run away in what appears to be terror?  I guess that would be my instinct if someone was about to eat me.
Well, Mr Beeper thought this drawing was hilarious and could not stop walking around shaking his fist in the air all week and saying, "Curse you, tiny foods!"  So, naturally, Beeper and I had to make him a t-shirt with the drawing on it for his birthday--it was a collaborative effort--see above.  Yes, I photo-shopped the words in so they were actually legible.  Yes, the transfer we used turned out sort of rubbery and puckery around the edges.  But still, Mr Beeper loved it. Loads.  And it does suit him.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Belated Valentines

 Everything feels belated these days.  My hands have been more than full with all manner of projects and I have this thing where I think I can actually do 3 book submissions, 1 magazine submission and 3 guest blog posts all in a month--seemed reasonable when I committed to it at the time (plus who wants to pass any of that goodness up?).  Anyway...this is just by way of an explanation for why a post about valentines is coming to you 5 days too late and why I drop off the face of my blog for 10 days at a stretch.

But here is what we did for Beeper's valentines this year.  He has been into things with beads recently so I purchased some carved stone-looking animal beads (they are actually plastic--$3 for 25--but I wish they were stone--not that a 1st-grader gives one rip if it is stone or plastic--although they might give a rip if it was made from some kind of candy...) and some colored suede cord and with a couple of knots we called it a bracelet and attached it to a little card with an animal image that reads, "I am wild about you, friend."  There were actually 4 card designs--but the lion is not pictured here because we gave all of those away.  I got the beads and suede cord from Michael's and the colored card stock came from my favorite place to buy it--Paper Source (lovelovelove all their colors of paper and card stock--my palms get sweaty every time I get in front of that wall of paper bins in the store).

But here is the card template I made, if you have a far better memory than mine and want to use it for next year...

  Happy very late Valentine's Day, blogland friends.

Monday, February 7, 2011

I Love Paris Doll Kit

I ordered this little I Love Paris Doll Kit from Miko Design a while ago and decided I might as well make it since there was a little girl I know who still needs a birthday gift (beyond belated) and already holds visiting Paris amongst her 7-year-old aspirations.  Also, there is that Rumplestiltskin challenge I am on board with and this counts as using what I already have, right? 
But isn't she pretty?  Best part, the doll itself probably only took me an hour to whip up since she comes all silk screened on one nice big piece of fabric with clear dotted cutting lines and easy instructions--but then, I did add a few accessories and extra pieces of clothing of my own design because a girl who visits Paris requires a decent wardrobe, right?  Like a little peter pan collared jacket and a beret (skirt was made from part of the silk screened design in the kit)...
...and some leg warmers (made from the neck of an old turtleneck sweater) to go with that classic french sailor mini shirt dress, as well as a scarf made from some of that Liberty of London Tana Lawn I purchased in London (because what Parisian woman does not have a pretty scarf in her wardrobe?)...oh, and the baguette, croissants, over-sized flower pin a la Chanel...
Yeah, it got a little out of control there at the end but I am really pleased with how she turned out and how simple she was to outfit.  It is the sort of thing where I kind of do not want to give here away now that she is finished--which does not happen to me very often--but I really, really love this doll.  I think it might be that stripey french sailor mini shirt dress.  Whatever the case, you can see that I have also purchased another kit from Miko Design's shop--this one was a collection of remnants that were just ever so slightly flawed in their printing (like barely noticeably flawed) and came with a mix and match set of bodies, heads, arms, legs, etc--enough to make 3 more dolls (2 french lapins and 1 more girl--these remnant sets pop up in her shop fairly regularly so keep visiting if you are looking for one but do not see one now--they are a great deal).  So you might be seeing a few more of these turning up--and maybe one for just me.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Over at Elsie Marley: Make a Scenic Sketch Book

Hey--I'm over here today--at Elsie Marley.  You should come over and visit--because Meg is not home and she has asked me (and a bunch of other uber-cool bloggers) to blog-sit while she is out.   So, that's where I am--in case you were wondering.

And this is a little peek at what you can find there:
...a visit to the Minneapolis Institute of Art...
...the resulting sketches...
...including an alternate version for those who need more choices...

...plus all the other bloggers coming to you from The North Country, offering our own input on winter, what it means to us, how we get through it, recipes, tutorials, and other distractions.  Come on over and check it out--I'll be there.