Madeline Island

Cliffs of Madeline Island

Old Fishing Cabin on Manitou Island

Lake Superior Rocks

Canoe near the Lagoon on Madeline Island

Mr Beeper and Beeper Exploring Manitou Island

Old Fishing Camp

Cabinet Remains in Fishing Camp

Lagoon on Madeline Island

Rocks and Drift Wood

Tim Naps on the Dock

Sailboat through the Grass off Manitou Island

Tom's Burned Down Bar

Mr Beeper's Favorite Sign at Tom's

Mad Island Style at Tom's

Hammock in the Yard of the Mad Island Public Library

Little Miss Lily Leaps into Lake Superior

Beeper Fearlessly Hops In

Canoes on Mad Island

As a rule, given the inhospitality of the weather around here most of the year, we deliberately make our vacation plans for near locales and try to make the most of the what is right here while the weather is lovely--you may have noticed this.  Thus, we have been away in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior, staying at a friend's wonderful new home on Madeline Island--and then saved a few days on the back end for a short trip to Ludlow's Island for our annual summer's end visit.  I had never been to the  Islands before and as you can see, the beauty is pretty staggering.  For me, few things can compete the with the rocky shorelines, fresh water lake-swimming, boreal forests, and that rustic-feel of Lake Superior.  Having grown up in northern Minnesota, those red cliffs and cold waters feel like coming home and I can shuck off whatever else may be preoccupying me and just be right there, right then.


And for future reference: when it would seem I have disappeared off the face of my blog, you can probably safely assume I was on vacation.  I always have the best intentions of dropping in here to say hello, let you know where I am,  squeeze a post in here or there about whatever we are up to--but somehow, I just fall into my vacation headfirst, forgetting everything else.  I hope you understand.

I will be back tomorrow to announce the winner of the Tea gift certificate--I pinky-swear.

Christian Jackson: Children's Story Posters

I love all of these modern and minimalist posters inspired by classic children's fairytales.  I would like a room filled with them--maybe even my own workshop space.  They are all by Christian Jackson.  You can find all of the designs here--and buy them here.

Tea: Children's Clothing and a Lucky Day Giveaway

I recently was contacted by a children's clothing company I had never heard of before: Tea.  They were familiar with my little blog and kindly offered me a $100 gift certificate to purchase some clothing for Beeper in exchange for offering a review of their products right here.  Now, you all know I do not usually do this here--but I have to admit that when I wandered out to their website to check out their clothing, I was pretty readily convinced that I would like to share it with you.  Let me start by telling you a bit about them...

Tea strives to bring together modern children's fashion and inspiration from locales around the world.    The design team at Tea actually travels to locations around the world, which later become the inspiration for their seasonal collections. They spend time absorbing the atmosphere and flavor of the place and then return and use this inspiration to shape a destination-influenced line of clothing for children from 0-12 years of age. They also make a point of using natural fabrics that are a little luxiurious while being durable. I am happy to attest to the quality of the fabrics after having felt them with my own hands--for instance, the t-shirts are a super-soft pima cotton with a nice heft that I am certain will stand up to my boy's head-first style of play.

What you see in all of the photos here are the pieces of clothing I recently purchased from Tea--initially, I thought I would just purchase a few things for Beeper, but when I took a peek into the girl's collection, well, I could not resist purchasing a dress for our little friend, Miss Bean (what you do not see here are the matching bloomers under her dress--so sweet!).   For Beeper, I chose some pants that  he can roll up for summer but then wear full length when he goes back to school. I was also instantly attracted to the beautiful blue plaid hooded shirt--just because it is more interesting than the standard tee or hoodie, while being less formal than a button-down shirt. Again, perfectly transitional for summer to fall when layered. And the worn-looking "el artista" tee?  Okay, this may have ended up in the order because I sort of wish I had one for myself in my own size because I would wear it with old jeans, boots and a casual patterned scarf looped around my neck--but still.

All of these clothes are from their Catalonia-inspired summer collection.  I would note that only a few pieces from the summer collection remain on sale--however, they do have a new fall collection inspired by Modern Mexico with clothing inspired by Mexican folk art and pop culture, sarapes, and Mayan graphics--which then make its way to designs on hoodies, tees and all manner of dresses.

From a pure parenting point of view, I am happy to tell you that their clothing sizes really seem to run true-to-size--I ordered all size 7's for my 7-year-old boy and, as you can see, they fit him perfectly with just enough room to grow through the next year. I also ordered a size 3 dress for Miss Bean and found the same to be true for her.  

Oh, yes, and now for the really, really good part--Tea has generously offered a $75 gift certificate to give away to one of you.  Yes, $75 to spend on anything your heart desires from their lovely new Modern Mexico collection.  And did I mention they also have a small women's collection?  Yep--I certainly wouldn't tell if you won the gift certiifcate and quietly tucked it away for you, all you.  All I ask is that you leave a comment here by the end of Saturday, August 13th, sharing something you like about their clothing, or what would be on your wish list of items to buy from Tea should you win--and I will announce the winners back here early next week (see how I slyly sidestepped committing myself to a specific date--I have learned that I cannot be counted on to meet my own deadlines...but I promise I will announce the winner sometime next week)

And you should know, both of the kids liked the clothes so much they did not want to take them off after they put them on for the first time--that's as close to a certifiable stamp of approval as you get from kids, right?
You can find all of Tea's wonderful clothing for boys, girls, babies and women here.  

Look What You Made...

Counting Bean Bags made by Liz at Living My Sweet Life
(the numbers are freezer-paper stenciled--brilliant!)

Girl Pin Cushion from the Child's Sewing Kit made by ThisYoungMama
(so nicely done I almost wish it was a whole doll!)

Mooshy Belly Bunny made by Kristena at Thimbly Things
(described by Kristena as a jail-break-bunny)

Child's Sewing Kit by Linaloo
(love the denim cover with the applique heart)

Spelling Bean Bags by Tappity
(made with such a lovely array of repro feedsacks I feel a little nauseous with envy)

Nature Explorer Bag made by Kendra
(actually, she made 3 and she made them to be beachcomber bags for her kids)

Counting Bean Bags by The Crafty Kitty's Eco Crafts
(made from some luscious Cloud 9 Organic Fabrics and then
stashed in a fabric box designed by Stephanie to fit the bean bags--
and I love the blanket stitched numbers)

Rainbow Sunshine Plushie made by Larissa at MmmCrafts
(the chenille lion's face adaptation of my design just makes me smile)

Cloth Napkins by Kay at I Got a Notion
(like the letters done up in an array of calicos--very homey)
Some of you have been busy again--busy making stuff from my tutorials, busy making lots of counting bean bags especially, and busy making them all your own in that way you have.  I love to see what you put up in the Beeper Bebe Projects Made by You Flickr group--and love to flaunt what you are doing around here.  Because it should be flaunted and shared.  In my perfect world, everyone would stop what they are doing to admire all the things so many people are out there hand-making, everyone would give handmade gifts, everyone would understand the value of handmade, and everyone would have a scotch and soda with a twist of lemon at 6:00pm sharp each day.  Mmmm, scotch and crafts...

And just in case you got disoriented there for a moment after viewing so many awesomely realized projects, you can find the instructions for any one of the projects right over here.

Eat This: More Homemade Popsicles

I made more popsicles again this summer--really, I made enough that I could open my own frozen confection shop in my 'hood.  I made 6 new flavors, in addition to a couple of our faves from last year (pineapple coconut & orange vanilla cream--recipes here).  I am telling you though, this year's layered coconut raspberry is lovely--and the strawberry lemonade really hits the spot on a hot, hot day (or day after hot, hot day as has been case up here this summer where the weather has felt like you are living inside someone's moist, fetid breath).  

You can download my latest popsicle recipes right here:

DOWNLOAD NEW HOMEMADE POPSICLE RECIPES

Mostly, I just want to be the mom all the kids like because she dolls out popsicles like they are smiles--despite her humidity frazzled hair and mood.  Blueberry lime raspberry bomb pop anyone?  

Kids' Crafternoon Book Give-Away Winners

Oh, hi.  Did I say I would announce the winner last Tuesday?  Really?  Are you sure?  Well, Monday is almost Tuesday--I mean, if you wait a whole week it is.  Without any further ado, here are the winners of the Kids' Crafternoon books:

Commenter #20: Sweet KM wins the Paper Craft book

Commenter #33: Amber Dubberke wins the Sewing book

Now, you know what you need to do--email me with your mailing address so I can get these sent off in the post to you and into your crafty hands.  

The photos above are my own of the two different projects I have in the Kids' Crafternoon Sewing book.  And if you have not seen been joining Kathreen on her blog tour for the books, you should at least check out the tour stop at Checkout Girl where  Melissa's daughter makes her very own i-Pod Creature Cozy and offers a review of the project...

Read This: D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths

I fell in love with Greek Mythology when I was in first grade--I actually learned to read using early reading workbooks that contained simplified versions of Greek myths.  I became such a mythology nerd, I had a poster of mythological creatures hanging over my bed in 3rd grade, and for my 6th grade special project, I made a hallway long mural that I drew of Greek gods and monsters (yes, uber-nerd, might be more appropriate). I even carried this love into college where I briefly became a classics major and studied the ancient Greek language, and ancient history, as well as literature.  Suffice to say, there is a reason I was attracted to this book,  D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire.

I gave this book to Beeper as a gift this past year.  Each night we read a several stories--sometimes several more than we should have as we pushed out bedtime in order to read one more.  Usually, Beeper falls asleep while we are reading--he never fell asleep while I was reading this book. Almost as soon as we finished the book, he wanted to read it together again.  The way I see it, either my love of Greek mythology transferred to him genetically, or this book is just really good.  Probably the latter.

 The illustrations are a-freaking-mazing--lush and color-filled and even the bronze or black and white illustrations are clamoring with detail.  Beeper and I would spend long quiet moments just examining the illustrations together before continuing to read the stories.  The illustrations by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire, are truly works of art in and of themselves--both European born, they used an old-world, labor-intensive process of stone lithography which involved tracing their images on slabs of Bavarian limestone, which then produced the extraordinarily vivid illustrations you see in the book. 

The writing of the myths themselves is perfectly balanced for a child--they are faithful to the myths themselves, revealing the gods and goddesses' might as well as their very-human-like pettiness and other foibles--while balancing just enough detail with just the right amount of action.

Beeper loved learning about each of the Olympian gods and goddesses and how they came into being (Athena emerging fully formed from Zeus' head during a headache, Venus arising from the sea on a cushion of seafoam), the great powers of the gods that once helped to explain natural phenomena to the ancient peoples (Zeus' lightning bolts forged by the Cylcopes, Persephone's return from Hade's underworld and to her mother, Demeter, precipitating the return of spring), as well as about the mortal children of Zeus, many of whom are the heroes of mythology (Perseus who cut off Medusa's head, Hercules and his 10 labors, Theseus who slayed the Minotaur).

This is just good stuff.  Reading this book with your child will add a whole new layer of understanding to the world around them as our world is rife with references to Greek mythology--in classical and modern art, in great literature (Shakespeare) as well as popular books (Percy Jackson), in movies, and in popular phrases (Achilles' heel)--and suddenly Beeper catches and recognizes this stuff everywhere. 

Whatever the case, you can find D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths here for just a little more than $12.  It is a nice large format, measuring about 9x13 inches, and contains everything you ever wanted to know about the Olympians, the minor gods, and their mortal children.  Who knows?  Maybe Beeper will one day be the classical studies major I never was--or maybe he will just have an abiding love of Greek mythology his entire life, just like his nerdy mama.