DIY STORIES: A FAVORITE DRESS, A LITTLE OVERCOAT, AND SOME EXTRA YARN

Be sure and leave a comment on my post from yesterday (click here) for a chance to win my Give-Away of Valerie Greeley's book, WHITE IS THE MOON - the winner will be chosen on Friday, April 20, 2012.  And don't miss Valerie's website, her Acornmoon blog or her Etsy Shop!

Are you an Etsy fan?
If you haven't heard of this website, Etsy.com is a huge shop full of hundreds of thousands of unique handmade and vintage items from an online community of independent sellers around the world.  Whether you're looking for a hand-knitted teapot cozy, a unique bookplate, or a plaid collar for your pet, someone has probably offered it on Etsy!

Ribbon available from guess where....Etsy!

I don't know if the DIY Etsy trend inspired these books, but crafty kids and their parents will love my picture book recommendations today: the first is about a young fashionista and her creative mom, the second is based on a Yiddish song about remaking things, and the third book involves a town, a little girl, and a ball of yarn...and they're all perfect for reading aloud.

I stumbled across this adorable book, I Had a Favorite Dress, a couple of weeks ago and snapped it up, because I know just the little fashionista who will love it.  What girl doesn't have a favorite dress? The unamed girl in this story wore hers "every Tuesday, because that was my favorite day of the week."  But there's a slight problem: little girls eventually grow - out of their favorite dresses!

Not too worry. Snip, snip! Sew, sew!  The distraught girl's Mama is ready to improvise and teach her daughter a valuable lesson: "don't make mountains out of molehills" - make a new something out of an old something!  You'll be delighted at how many times (and stylish ways) this crafty Mama transforms the dress! Julia Denos' whimsical collage style art makes Boni Ashburn's fun story jump right off the page.

As I was flipping through the pages of I Had A Favorite Dress, I kept thinking that it reminded me of another tale.  Sure enough, it's a modernized (and frilly) version of a Yiddish folktale, which was also the inspiration of Simms Taback’s Caldecott-winning book, Joseph Had a Little Overcoat.

Like the main character of "the dress book", Joseph also has a favorite piece of clothing: his overcoat - "it was old and worn".  So he makes it into a jacket, then a vest...until finally, there is nothing left. But then he makes something out of nothing.  What's the "something"?  You'll have to get the book and find out. I absolutely love Taback's mixed-media artwork, with bold and colorful die-cuts.

The last "crafty" book I recently read and fell in love with is Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, with pictures by Jon Klassen.

Jon Klassen's understated style matches this quirky, sweetly told tale. At the very beginning, we're told: "This looks like an ordinary box full of ordinary yarn.  But it turns out it isn't."  A girl named Annabelle come across the box "filled with yarn of every color" on a cold winter day in her cold, drab town.  With the seemingly endless supply of yarn, she makes rainbow colored knitted creations for everyone (and everything) in the town - even the mailboxes and buildings.

A pompous and greedy archduke appears on the scene and tries to buy the box from Annabelle, who's not interested in selling it for anything.  He manages to have it stolen, only to find it empty. In a satisfying ending, we realize the box wants to be with someone who is generous in sharing any "extra" with others!

Feeling Crafty?
Did these books get you in the mood to do some sewing or knitting? I could't resist sharing a couple of links to some fun projects I've seen on Pinterest lately:
1. The Shirt Skirt from Sew Like My Mom

2. The Reycycled T-Shirt Ruffle Hat from Tao of Craft









3. Finger-Knitting Project for Kids from Craftzine

THE TRUE STORY OF ST. PATRICK

Zachary Lynch's Life of Saint Patrick, Enlightener of the Irish, published by Conciliar Press, tells the exciting story of this beloved Saint. Born in Scotland, he was captured at the age of 16 and brought to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep.  During this time, he came to have a deep faith in God, and eventually escaped.


After returning home, he became a priest and then a bishop and later went back to Ireland as a missionary, bringing Christianity to its people.  He died March 17, 461. 

Lynch's gorgeous Celtic illuminations bring St. Patrick's story to life, and draw us into the isolated land of a pagan Irish King and his druids.

St. Patrick Puppet Craft
Your kids might enjoy making this cute paper bag St. Patrick puppet.  The instructions can be found here...

source

The Lorica ("Breastplate") of St. Patrick 

The story of this prayer is that Patrick and his followers used it to protect themselves from many dangers and from the people who wanted to kill them as they travelled across Ireland. (It is also called the "Deer's Cry" because their enemies saw not men, but deer, as they passed by in pursuit of Patrick and his followers). It may not have been written by St. Patrick, but is considered to reflect his theological focus on the Trinity. It is one of my favorite prayers, especially helpful during times of trouble or distress. 

Iconography by Dn. Matthew D. Garrett - source

You can find a link here, but I'll include a short verse:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left
Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

LAST MINUTE VALENTINE'S DAY...BUTTONS?

Button Hearts (for some reason, I called Candy Dots "buttons" when I was little):
These are the easiest homemade Valentines ever - make a bunch in a hurry!
From Martha Stewart [Source]

Try these cute last-minute Valentine's Day ideas I recently found on  (click the red "button" to follow me there, but I'm warning you: pinning all those ideas/recipes/crafts/books onto virtual bulletin boards can be addictive!).  Look what I found to make: Button Hearts,  Valentine Pretzel Buttons, Cute-As-A-Button Valentine Cards, and a Sorted Button Valentine Heart.

At the end of my post you'll also find some fun books about buttons (and about something else, that most of us can't resist!)

Valentine Pretzel Buttons - Lately, when I go and visit my sister's kids, we make some form of these.  It started when a friend gifted them to me for Christmas one year (using the square butter pretzels, Rolo candies, and red and green M&M's)  I can't wait to try this version!

Recipe found HERE

Cute-As-A-Button Valentine Cards - A great way to use all those extra buttons you've collected through the years. I think these are adorable, but to make them with kids, I would just glue or tie on any cute "extra" buttons you have (without first making them into earrings).  The dowloadable card template is free...

Download the cards and tutorial HERE 

Sorted Button Valentine Heart - Look at this little guy, sorting his buttons into a muffin tin and gluing them onto his red paper heart!  What could be more fun?

Check out the finished MASTERPIECE!
[Source - Hands On: As We Grow]

HERE ARE THE BOOKS:

Corduroy, by Don Freeman. Remember the teddy bear in green overalls who lives in a department store and wants a home? One day a little girl named Lisa comes and wants to buy him, but her mother tells her she's already spent enough money; and besides, the bear doesn't look new: he's missing a button. This fact sends him off in the middle of the night to search for it...maybe someone will buy him if he can find his button and fix his broken strap!

All at once he saw something small and round. "Why, here's my button," he cried. And he tried to pick it up. But, like all the other buttons on the mattress, it was tied down tight.

Will Corduroy ever find his button - or a home?

The Button Box, by Margaret S. Reid, Illustrated by Sarah Chamberlain.  This little book takes me back to a rainy day during my childhood, when I remember my mom getting out her Mason jar full of "extra buttons".  My siblings and I spent the afternoon counting and sorting all the colorful buttons. We eventually ended up threading one onto a sturdy, but thin piece of string or ribbon to play "Button Button, Who's Got the Button?" The colorful illustrations in this book show the buttons the boy discovers in his grandmother's button box - how they can be sorted, and where they may have originally come from.

The Belly Button Book, by Sandra Boynton. Okay, well I know this isn't really a book about "buttons", but who can resist bare-bellied hippos and reading aloud the word, "Bee-Bo"?

Did you know Sandra wrote and illustrated a book for us grown-ups, too:  New York Times bestseller Chocolate: The Consuming Passion (you knew I had to work chocolate in here somewhere for Valentine's Day!  That was for you, Carol B-McK!)  It's out of print now, but hopefully you can find it at the library.

From the book jacket: Boynton's apologia for chocolate misses nothing. Myths are debunked: "chocolate is not fattening", she argues, "especially when the caloric expenditure of carrying it home from the store and hiding it from company is factored in". Directions are supplied: "to remove stains, lick them". Plus, "how to grow chocolate at home", a foolproof method for determining if chocolate is in season (does the name of the month contain the letter A, E, or U?), and a recipe for Hippo Pot de Mousse.

NO SEWING REQUIRED: FUN & EASY BOOK BAG PROJECT YOU CAN MAKE AT HOME

In the old days, you carried your books like this!
(Click here to see more from this vintage photo shoot by
 Becca Bond Photography)

Kids love having their own book bags to tote their library books around in, so when I was invited to have a "Good Books" table at the Placentia Library's Summer Reading Celebration last weekend, I decided to make a couple of book bags to give away to my young visitors. I held an opportunity drawing for all the families who came by my table and signed up for a chance to win.

I don't sew, so I went to a local fabric store and found cute, inexpensive canvas bags, and iron-on alphabet letters and patches.

Since I couldn't personalize the bags, I decided to put "B-O-O-K-S" in iron-on letters onto each tote.  I chose a denim-blue satchel and robot patch for the boy winner, and a white-and-pink satchel and mermaid patch for the girl winner.

  

It only took me about an hour to cut out the letters and iron them, along with the fun patches, onto both bags...I think they turned out pretty cute!!
  

Here they are, all ready to mail to my two winners so they can take them along on their next visit to their local library.