Curly Birds

For my Mother

This post is sponsored by Disney Story. To find out more about this brand-new story-creation app - and how it puts the power of storytelling in your hands - click here.

 

This Mother's Day, I wanted to do something special and meaningful for my mum. I wanted to find a gift that she would really love and enjoy.

My mum is not very materialistic and she does not like a lot of clutter, so finding something I think she'll like can be tough. Plus, we live several hundred miles away and I am limited in what I can send.

This year, I am proud of my gift. It is thoughtful, meaningful, and will last forever. 

For Mother's Day, I made my mum a story of our lives... as mother and daughter. It is a story that reminds her of the many ways she has selflessly been there for me. It shows her how grateful I am for having such a close relationship with her and celebrates our everyday life together.

I made the story using Disney's new Story app. I created the story on my iPhone and on Sunday I will e-mail it to her. 

 

 

(Thank you very much to Julia, Hannah, and Julie for sharing our family's pictures.)

While this story is all about the two of us, the thing I'm most excited about is that with this app, I can create stories for her on a regular basis. The app is so easy to use that while my girls are playing, I can tell a story of their game and my mum can see and experience their play almost immediately. How cool is that? And perfect for my story-loving, sentimental mum.

If you want, the app will automatically take your pictures and create a story. This makes the whole process super-quick and super-easy. But me, I love to curate life and make my stories just so. I have used the built-in editor to crop out the laundry piles and include some text.

I always have my phone with me and take an obscene amount of pictures with it. My pictures tend to be forgotten and are almost lost on my filled-up phone. With the Story app, I can immediately tell a sweet story and share it - very fun!

Here is another story I made of the girls building a fort for their tea party. This is what my mum is going to love the most... simple stories that will keep her a part of my girls' everyday life. 

 

 

Download the Disney Story app from iTunes  – for FREE – right here!

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Book Review: The Artful Parent

Thank you to the lovely folks at Roost Books for sending me a review copy of The Artful Parent.

I am a huge fan of Jean Van't Hul's blog, The Artful Parent, and have been looking forward to Jean's book ever since she announced that she was writting one. 

The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family's Life with Art & Creativity is chock-a-block full of very do-able art projects.

The book covers everything from choosing art supplies, talking to kids about their art, displaying kid's art, and over 60 art projects for kids ages 1 - 8. 

Even though Jean is obviously very knowledgeable about studio art, the book is so warm and inviting that you feel more like you are hanging out with your artsy friend and her sweet girls, than reading a book. 

 

What I love the most about this book is that the pictures are of real kids making real projects. 

 

With titles like 'Getting Fancy' the girls and I were ready to make!

And we have lots of plans... 

The Artful Parent is perfect for parents, grandparents, and teachers. It is the type of book that will be used over and over again and referred to for years.

The book is available from Amazon,  Roost Books, Barnes & Noble, and your local independent bookstore.

Family 3D Miniatures

How about 3D minatures for your next family portrait?

Craft Books for Kids and Grown-Ups

I LOVE crafty books. I buy them. I read them. I devour them. I dream of writing them. 

Here are my top picks to buy all the crafty people on your list.

Definitely at the top of my list - Show Me a Story* by Emily Neuburger is an award-winning book that encourages children to create with their hands and minds. My top pick for kids of all ages. You can read my review here.

Buy Show Me a Story

 

A great resource by one of my favourite bloggers, Kate Lilley of Minieco. Eco-Friendly Crafting for Kids gives simple crafts that young kids and their grown-ups can do in an afternoon and mostly with household objects. My top pick for a crafty preschooler and their crafty mum. Read my full review here.

Buy Eco-Friendly Crafting with Kids

 

Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy, has been around for a while and is still one of my favorite go-to books. The projects are really sweet and my girls love to pick projects to sew. My top pick for anyone who want to teach their kids to sew.  

Buy Sewing for Children

Joel Henriques book, Made to Play, inspires both parents to be their child's toymaker. The book covers sewing, woodworking, metalworking, and drawing. The projects are modern, clever, and really neat. My top pick for family fun. 

Buy Made to Play

 

Handmade Home for Children by Sania Pell is a lovely book of beautiful projects for parents to make for their children. The projects are so simple and so pretty that you want to make them all. My top pick for creative mums.

Buy Handmade Home for Children

 

Weekend Handmade is more of a lifestyle book that will turn your weekends into a beautiful yet unpretentious, really fun and very hip time to share with your favourite people. My top pick for your single girl-friends and newlyweds.

Buy Weekend Handmade

 

Quirky, silly, do-able, and perfect for your cat-loving crafty friends. Crafting with Cat Hair* is a sweet book of projects to make with your cat. This book makes me giggle every time I look at it. My top pick for all the crazy cat ladies in your life.

Buy Crafting with Cat Hair

 

*Please note - while I was not compensated for these reviews, Quirk Books and Storey Publishing did provide me with free review copy of the books.

Creating a Seasonal Nature Table

With each passing season, a little corner in our home slowly evolves.

As summer gave way to autumn, our nature table welcomed a little squirrel gathering acorns.

As we gave thanks for the bounty of the season, our nature table was full of nourishing food.

And, as the hedgehogs ready for hibernation, our nature table will continue to progress into winter.

 

To learn more about creating a nature table, and to see ours in full, please read my recent article on Bella Moon.

 

Bella Moon is the blog of Bella Luna Toys. And Bella Luna Toys happens to be one of my very favorite on-line shops. Owner and former early childhood Waldorf educator, Sarah Baldwin, stocks her shop with thoughtful, inspiring, and beautiful Waldorf toys.

 The buying season is upon us, and as you chose gifts for your little ones, I am leaving you with the wise words of Sarah…

As I’ve tried to stress to parents over the years, choosing toys is not about “good toys” vs. “bad toys.” Rather, it’s about bringing new consciousness to selecting children’s playthings. Is it beautiful? Does it feel good? Does it leave room for the imagination? Will it inspire imitative play? If you can answer yes to these questions, you will be providing your child with all the tools needed for years of healthy play!

 

Bella Luna Toys

 

Disclosure: while I was compensated for my nature table post on Bella Moon, all opinions expressed on my blog are my own.

Pretty Packages with Martha Stewart Crafts

When I first started blogging, I had a dream that one day I would open my front door and there would be a big box of crafting supplies waiting for me. Do you know what? My dream came true! It was surreal – I opened my door and sitting on the step was a big box of crafting supplies from Martha Stewart. Yea!

I was especially drawn to the clay and letter stamps and envisioned lots of pretty packages... 

The Martha Stewart Clay comes with molds that I used to make the leaf and flower. The clay was malleable and easy to mix the colors to create beautiful tones. I experimented with using cookie cutters to create the nibbled ginger bread man and "I love you" sign.

The Martha Stewart Ball Point Glue Pen is perfect for sticking smaller clay parts to packages. The Martha Stewart Set Your Own Stamp Case letter stamps were simple to use. The actual stamp is clear, which makes stamping on small tags precise as you can see the paper below.

 

 

Foraging and eBook: The Artful Year

Attention: Now is the perfect time to go foraging for nature supplies. Leaves, acorns, pinecones – they are all in abundance.

And when you come home loaded with beautiful acorns, pop them in the oven RIGHT AWAY so you don’t end up with pet bugs in your stash of treasures. It is the best nugget of advice I can share. And I got it from Jean Van’t Hul’s new ebook, The Artful Year:: Autumn. 

 

Book: Show Me a Story and Giveaway

I have been patiently waiting for Show Me A Story: 40 Craft Projects and Activities to Spark Children’s Storytelling to appear in my mail box. The idea of a craft book dedicated to children’s storytelling sounded like a great concept and right up our alley. 

This book does not disappoint! It is filled with great ideas and beautiful photographs. My very favorite thing about Show Me a Story, is that many of the projects shown in the book have actually been made by kids – very refreshing in a children’s craft book!

 

The first project that my girls wanted to try was the Traveling Puppets. Nola made cloud puppets that she could move in the sky as if the wind was blowing them along. Kira made a flower puppet that could grow and a second puppet of a mouse eating cheese. The idea of cutting slits in the picture so puppets could move was so appealing to the girls.

Almost immediately, Nola and Kira began to think of how to include their characters in a story, what sets they would need to make, and the plot. Such a simple craft sparked so many creations!

 

Author, Emily Neuburger, is a teacher, mother, and crafter – and it is obvious from Show Me a Story that she wears all of these hats well. The book has substance and encourages children to create with their hands and their minds. 

 

The book is well-written, uses everyday materials found around the house, and the crafts are good for young kids all the way up to adolescents. With projects ranging from story dice and memory cards to soundtracks and maps, we will be referring to this book for a long time.

 

As soon as it stops raining, we will be making these story sets. There is talk amongst my girls of incorporating the sets into their birthday party.

The girls and I often tell each other stories - Show Me a Story is the perfect accompaniment to our antics. And if you’re new to storytelling – Emily will expertly guide you along. 

 

GIVEAWAY

To enter today's giveaway for a copy of Show me a Story, please leave a comment in today's post by 8pm CST on Tuesday, September 25. I am awfully sorry, but federal regulations require that the winner be a US resident.

You can see a list of all participating blogs on Storey Publishing's blog, and enter there for a second chance to win!

 

*Please note - while I was not compensated for this review, Storey Publishing did provide me with a free review copy of the book.

Book Review: Spring is Beautiful with Flowers

Today you are in for a treat, my Aunt found this Russian children's book in an antique store and bought it for the girls. The title reads Spring is Beautiful with Flowers.

 

Fortunately, we have a friend from Ukraine who read us the book in Russian and then translated it into English. It was so cool for the girls to hear their book in two languages.

Translation: Let it rain more and more! So the grass will grow densely.

I sail in a boat, catching fish, I'll make chowder and feed all the kids.

 

The illustrations are so colorful and beautiful. Have you ever seen a sun radiate so much warmth?

The story follows the seasons of the year and how the crops will feed the children.

 

This is my very favourite illustration in the book. It is of a family eating buckwheat porridge and rye bread.

The girls and I have been reading this book a lot - sometimes the English translation, sometimes our own made-up version, and sometimes we try to pronounce the Russian!

How about you, do you have any foreign language books? Would you ever buy a book in a language you didn't understand?

Book Review: Doodle Cook

 

There comes a time in the summer holidays– after swimming, camp, bike rides, and sprinklers – for some down time. Doodle Cook, by Herve Tullet, was written for this time. It is the perfect mix of art recipes and joyful doodling. It is an invitation to make something tasty, and my girls were excited to cook.

 

The big size of Doodle Cook made my girls feel important and in Kira’s words “I like that I don’t have to color in the lines.” I must add that Kira is the type of kid who will sit for a very long time pain-stakingly coloring in the lines and focusing on minute details. Doodle Cook’s call to scribble was very freeing.

 

Kira started off timidly – as we all have with recipes – carefully following the directions. By her 4^th or 5^th dish, Kira was wildly adding spirals, finger prints and sprinkles as well as decorating the glass, knife and fork. At one point, she spiraled off the book and decorated the paper underneath!

 

It was an altogether different coloring activity and this girl wanted more. The book is well-written with descriptions such as “nice plumb scribbles” and “big and beautiful zig-zags.”

Tullet gives little artists control of their art, encourages them to design beyond the instructions, and helps them to think of creating in new ways.

“…take up your crayons… create a delicious masterpiece… suit your own taste,” Tullet encourages his readers.  Who wouldn’t want to grab a crayon and start making Magic Marmalade?

 

Doodle Cook

Available at Phaidon and Amazon

Recommended Age: 5+

 

*Please note - while I was not compensated for this review, Phaidon books did provide me with a free review copy of the book.