Saints and Spinners

Chemistry and Computer Science Gnomes

2012-01-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

I am a bit incredulous that I only wrote two blog posts for January, not including this one. I've been better about reading other people's posts, even if I've only lurked. During the January 15 week of snow that shut down much of the city, I hung out with Lucia for most of the days, sewed, strummed guitar, and sewed some more. We walked in the snow quite a bit, too, and I was glad that we were able to visit a friend's house two miles away with no complaints from the girl about getting tired. It was during that week that I made this color wheel of flower basket babies.

This past week, I decided it was time to make the chemistry gnome for my science and math gnomes series. I used a purple felt that the color swatch guide called "orchid" but that I deemed would have to serve as a shade of mauve. Mauve, named after the mallow flower, was the first dye created in the chemistry lab. Eighteen year old chemist Sir William Henry Perkin, was trying to synthesize quinine, when a particular purplish residue as a result of his work caught his attention. Perkin patented the dye and made his fortune, helped along by the popularity of Queen Victoria's mauve silk gown.

My attempts to embroider a mauveine molecule on the back of the doll's cape were abysmal. Hexagons are challenging to get right. Then, I thought about how important chemistry was in the kitchen, and decided that the sodium bicarbonate/baking soda molecule would be a fitting symbol for my chemistry gnome. After I completed that embroidery, I added little embroidery representations of carbonation fizz. That's why the chemistry gnome has a tassel-- it's more "fizz."

Chemistry Gnome with sodium bicarbonate skeletal molecule model

The computer science gnome is an homage to mathematician and "mother of computer science" Ada Lovelace, whose notes for Charles Babbage's analytical engine are considered to be the first computer algorithm. Lovelace loved bright colors, and the red of the gnome's cape was inspired by the portrait painted by Margaret Sarah Carpenter. I made felt gears for the cape, and framed the gears with zeros and ones, the binary numerical system used in computer coding. I thought about a circuit board motif, but decided that it would require green embroidery on a black background.
I'm currently reading The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's Daughter, by Benjamin Woolley. I also have Ada: a Life and a Legacy, by Dorothy Stein, in my to-be-read piles.

Computer Science Gnome

There are still a few science gnomes I'd like to stitch. The Physics Gnome currently has me stumped. I know what I want to do with the Entymology Gnome, but I am saving that one because it will be fun to revisit the embroidery of insects. I'd like the Geology Gnome to make an appearance, too. Maybe it's time to learn some shading techniques?

Science and Math Gnomes

2012-01-17T10:45:00.000-08:00

Botany, Math, and Astronomy Gnomes upon a stage made by Willodel

I used to make Math Gnomes inspired by the dolls used in Waldorf schools, in which the four processes (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division) had personalities that helped children comprehend their duties. Ruling over the four processes was a royal personage who went by "King Equals" or "Empress Equals," depending upon the teacher. As enjoyable as math gnome sets were to make, I stopped sewing them for the shop when I realized that I had never actually sold a single set-- every set I made was for home use, a school auction, or a trade.

I decided to make single math gnomes for children and adults to have nearby for encouragement and inspiration. I wish I had secretly carried a math gnome in my pocket when I was in school. I struggled with math, not because of lack of aptitude, but because I needed more time to work through equations and learn to understand them than the curriculum allowed. Later, chronic absenteeism (or rather, dread of school literally making me too sick to attend school) compounded the problem. A math gnome in my pocket would have kept me company and in my imagination would have encouraged me.

My daughter's teacher has her second graders say, "I am a brilliant mathematician" while stroking their imaginary beards. How can I help but think of math gnomes? (Though to be fair, brilliant mathematician Ada Lovelace was beardless.) I've started to sew STEM Gnomes. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. In the past, I've made variations of astronomy and entomology dolls, but this is the first time I've made them with a series in mind. I'm sewing them for creative whimsy. I enjoy making fairies and maidens with flower baskets, but I want to develop my sewing skills as well as the stories in my head.

Speaking of stories, I remember perking up when I first heard about "story problems," only to find out how tedious the plot-lines were. There's not much dramatic tension in figuring out the rate at which a car will overtake a bus, for example, unless it's actually a car chase. Then, I'd like to know why the passengers in the car were chasing the bus. Did someone steal a painting? Did someone forget her keys? The human interest angle is important!

In the year of 2012

2012-01-04T13:22:00.000-08:00

Valentine Heart Fairies listed January 2, 2012

Happy New Year! Like many of you, I've got plans and daydreams. For my shop, newly renamed on Etsy as Alkelda Dolls, I've made a few changes. I'm now listing my creative offerings once a week: Mondays by 8 PM Pacific Standard Time, unless otherwise indicated). I'm taking a break from custom orders, though suggestions, requests, and recommendations are always welcome.

In 2011, I was so concerned about promotion and sales that worry clouded my enjoyment of the creation and presentation of the dolls. Now, I've acknowledged to myself that the modest profits I make after materials and fees help justify the time spent in creating dolls for children and grownups. Reports from customers reveal that both boys and girls enjoy the dolls I've made for their pretend play and storytelling.

This year, I would like to resume visiting and commenting on blogs in a more focused way. My online friendships are as important to me as the "off-line" ones. At the same time, I want to refrain from getting sucked into the "Facebook minute", i.e. "an elongated and obscure period of time spent distracted on Facebook when the original intent was to merely check your messages" (Urban Dictionary).

The end of the year

2011-12-30T20:35:00.000-08:00

When I first started this blog, I was almost 34. Now, I am almost 40. I will turn 40 three days after the Big Climb in March 2012. In my thirties, I had a child, learned to play guitar, and learned to sew. I read Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World and began to build my own "baloney-detection kit." I realized that I really, really liked my planet, and wanted to spend as much time on it as possible. My resolution for the new year: to do my part, and endeavor to do more to take care of our planet and its creatures.

Happy New Year! I wish you well, and hope that we may meet, or meet again.

December Holiday Wishes

2011-12-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

The Natural Kids Team has a variety of good wishes for you.

The Airing of the Grievances

2011-12-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's therapeutic to grizzle and groan, and MotherReader provides such an outlet with Happy Festivus: The Airing of the Grievances. ~~Happy~~ Grouchy Festivus!

St. Lucia/ Saint Lucy Day

2011-12-10T08:30:00.001-08:00

I wrote another post for the Natural Kids Team. This post is about Santa Lucia Day. In the post is a link to a gluten-free recipe for St. Lucia saffron buns, created by Nicole Hunn of Gluten Free on a Shoestring.

St. Nicholas Party

2011-12-03T07:32:00.001-08:00

I wrote a post for the Natural Kids Team about St. Nicholas Day, a festival that takes place on December 6: St. Nicholas Day Memories (with festive punch recipe)

What I didn't share in that post was my first attempt to have a St. Nicholas Day Eve party. In my first library system, we hired a featured storyteller for the event. In my naivete, I decided that it would be great if everyone shared a story. When I invited people, I asked them to prepare a 3-5 minute story or memory to share.

Instead, many people brought stories to read. Long stories. Plus, I had 25 guests. What had started out as a merry gathering turned into an excruciating example of the alternate definition of "captive audience." I should have had a little bell or timer. Better yet, I should have been the featured storyteller or asked someone else to fill the role. I may yet host another St. Nicholas Day party. You're invited, but remember: keep it short, keep it sweet, and know your audience. (I neglected to mention that one of the few oral stories was a hair-raising memory told by a friend of a friend in cheerful oblivion to the presence of children in the room.)

The Claus Family with trees by The Enchanted Cupboard

***
Next year, I may sew a St. Nicholas or Father Christmas, but this year I made Santa Claus, joined by Mrs. Claus and a Noel Gnome. If you follow the link, you'll see a photo of Santa Claus hanging out with his good friend, King Winter.

Happy December!

In brief

2011-11-25T16:56:00.001-08:00

Where have I been? At home (sewing, cooking, cleaning, homework help), out in the world (running, running errands) and back home again (hosting, more of the above). I'm awash in gerunds.

I posted seven Etsy listings today, including this King Winter, Snow Queen, and Snow Child set, and a Green Yuletide Angel. I've been working at this cottage industry for over two years, and I still am surprised that the activities taking photographs, tweaking of the photographs, and listing the dolls take about as long as the creation of the dolls themselves.

Incidentally (Natural Kids Team related), I read a new-to-me version of Tolstoy's "The Turnip" called Hugin and his Carrot, posted by fellow Natural Kids Team member SuperSkivvies. It has a song! I don't know the tune to the song, but I will find out. I have ways.

Martinmas Songs 2011

2011-11-10T08:21:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow (November 11) is Martinmas, the feast of St. Martin, the Roman soldier who gave half of his cloak to a beggar. St. Martin was a Roman soldier, so it's a fitting coincidence that his feast day falls on Veteran's Day. I gathered together my resources from previous years in a Natural Kids Team post, which I am linking here only so that if you've spontaneously decided to have a lantern walk, you don't have to hunt long for songs. The hot cider, pumpkin bread, and bonfire is up to you!

The House of Glee is not attending a lantern walk this year (though I am grateful to the person who invited my family to attend her school's gathering tonight). If Lucia was still in attendance at her old Waldorf school, we would rally, but both Bede and Lucia are struggling to recover from coughs and colds.

I plan at least to light the candelabra in our fireplace. In lieu of roasted goose (legend had it that St. Martin hid in a barn to avoid being appointed a bishop, but the hollering of the geese revealed his makeshift refuge), we'll have curry. There are three chocolate pumpkin bread muffins left, too.

And they are good.

E.L. Sapo 13th Annual Holiday Artist Market

2011-11-09T07:29:00.000-08:00

Are you going to be in the Chastain area of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, between Thursday, November 17 and Sunday, November 20? Artist English Norman of E*L Sapo is hosting her 13th Annual Holiday Artist Market, and some of my dolls will be in attendance! Follow the url, and then click on "M" for market for more information.

English Norman has been an enthusiastic supporter of my work, and I am grateful that she has encouraged me to take part in this artist market. I wish I could be at the market in order to admire other artisans' works.

Nativity Set collaboration with Bossy's Feltworks

2011-11-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Two summers ago, Mandy of Bossy's Feltworks collective commissioned two butterfly fairy dolls from me as Christmas presents for her daughters. She asked if I would be interested in a trade, and I replied that yes indeed, I appreciate flying chickens. Last summer, I wrote Mandy a note in which I said, "I've often thought about how much fun it would be to do a combined Nativity set with different artisans." Kari, another member of Bossy's Feltworks, replied to that note and said, "I love the idea!" And so, a collaboration was born. I finally got to meet all three of the artisans (Mandy Troxel, Kari Van Gelder, Amy Lum) on Labor Day weekend when my family went to visit Orcas Island for a little vacation prior to school's starting. The day was sunny and warm, as were the artisans. You may read more about them here.

Our four 13 piece Nativity sets are complete, and each shop will list two sets. Mine are here and here. I made a little stop-action animation video to showcase our work (and thanks to The Enchanted Cupboard, there are wintery trees in the background):

The Finish Line

2011-10-31T00:30:00.000-07:00

I am the person in blue on the left, just after crossing the finish line of the Run Scared 5k run. Bede and Lucia plus two of our cousins participated in the 4k walk portion of the event, and my mom took the photo of me crossing the finish line. This time last year, I had no plans to run at all. I was merely trying to get in shape. I walked and stair-climbed, and that was good.

However, I have friends who love running, and they encouraged me to try a 5k. I said I Did Not Run. I cited the miserable experiences I had in gym class. I mentioned how easily I got cramps when I ran. My friends said I hadn't given running a proper chance. One day, walking started to feel a bit slow, so I ran for 5 minutes. It felt okay, not horrible. I ran for 10 minutes a couple of days later, and that was okay, too.

I slowly built up my minutes over time, had some setbacks along the way (the short story is that I drink coffee 2 times a week instead of 2 times a day in order to avoid cramps), and finally signed up for the Run Scared 5k on October 30, 2011. I trained 2-3 times a week, following a plan that had me run for 9 minutes and walk for 1. Most times, I felt better having run than being in the midst of a run, but there were moments of enjoyment, too.

The morning of the 5k was drizzly-wet and chilly. I started the run at a steady pace, and only sped up to dodge around the 4k walkers strolling four abreast and toward the end, when the finish line was apparent. My net time for this 5k was 35 minutes and 26 seconds. My goal was to finish in 38 minutes or less. I am pleased with the results. It doesn't seem that long ago when I gasped and staggered through the one mile course in gym class.

Halloween Fairy redux

2011-10-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

I have a new post up at the NaturalKids Team blog: Too much candy? The Halloween Fairy wants it.This year, my daughter said that she was giving all of her candy to the Halloween Fairy because she wanted a really good present. I'm relieved to hear it. Last year, November 1 was a mess. Bede and I don't know how many factors were actually involved, but the combination of excitement the night before, plus party treats, plus candy with blue food coloring may have contributed to the meltdown at school the following day. This year, her class is having a Halloween party during the last hour of the school day, starring store-bought cupcakes, fruit juice packets, and a nod to health with a fruit platter, (i.e. sugar, sugar, and sugar). Then, the hopped-up 2nd graders are unleashed!

The House of Glee acknowledges its addiction to sugar. We usually deal with it in small increments and have occasional treats. At this point, the sugar addiction is a self-correcting mechanism because when we have more than our systems can take (and it doesn't take much), we have everything from temper-tantrum meltdowns to the equivalents of hangovers that affects our attention spans, moods, and creative outputs. The Halloween Fairy is a pleasant counterpoint to the sugar onslaught.

Word Choice Matters

2011-10-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Scientists are from Mars, the public is from Earth, by Phil Plait, discusses a list of commonly-used words that science writers use, and how the public interprets them. For example, "theory" means "scientific understanding," but the public interprets it as "hunch, speculation." The word "manipulation" when used by science writers means "scientific data processing," but the general public interprets it as "illicit tampering."

Plait writes, "There are times I fret over a word in a post. It took me a while to start using the word "denier" instead of "skeptic", for example, but the difference is important. I’ve fought for years to teach people that skepticism is not cynicism or denial; it’s asking for and looking at evidence logically and rationally (in a nutshell). What’s funny is that now the media uses phrases like "climate skeptic" when talking about some people who are not skeptics, in that they are not looking at the evidence logically and rationally. They look at evidence so they can figure out how to spin it, cast doubt in the mind of the public over something that is actually a fact."

Can you think of other examples of what you meant/what they interpreted?

Baby Planet

2011-10-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

Bede sent me a link to this news: Hawaii astronomer captures image of forming planet

However, the picture you will see is an artist's rendering.

The newly forming planet's name is LkCa 15 b, and it's 450 light years away. "LkCa 15 b" is no name for a newborn. How about Luka Callista?

Steamcon III

2011-10-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, the House of Glee attended Steamcon III, an annual steampunk convention. This year's theme was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We were all dressed nicely, though Lucia was the only one who had a proper alt-Victorian ensemble. Then again, as Steampunk empress Diana Vick says, "Steampunk needs historical accuracy like a dirigible needs a goldfish."

Alisa's Totally Random Blog has a nice overview of Steamcon III, plus many great photos. Favorite costumes of mine included a friend's deep-sea diver costume for the bathing suit competition, the lady with the ship on her head, and the humorous deep-voiced fish. Lucia made a couple of friends, one of whom you can see here. She was enchanted with a lady who went by the name of Princess Eugenie, and they had a spirited talk about which of Princess Eugenie's castles would be the best place for the next ball.

One of the highlights of Steamcon III was the Amphitrite Society Afternoon Tea, during which the bathing suit competition took place, followed by the gorgeous cello playing and singing of Unwoman, a.k.a. Erica Mulkey. Visit her site, listen to her music, feel the chills.

One of my few purchases of Steamcon (and don't think I wasn't tempted by many beautiful, wonderful creations!) was Unwoman's album Casualties. Lucia lucked out with a portrait by silhouette artist Kerry Cook:

Silhouette by Kerry Cook

We have plans to attend Steamcon IV, which will take place closer to Halloween. Its theme is Victorian Monsters. I joked that I planned to go as a Morlock, but in actuality, I'm drawn more toward aviator chic. It would be fun to dress as Deryn Sharp from Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy, and make a badge ribbon that says, "Barking Spiders!" (There's even a Leviathan contest going on to win Deryn's flying cap and goggles, which you can enter here.) Then again, sometimes I just want to wear silk bustled skirts. In lieu of fabulous dressmaking skills, I am keeping my eyes open for inspiration in thrift shops.

Your One Book From Planet Earth

2011-10-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

Imagine that you are preparing to leave Earth in a spaceship. You are traveling with your closest loved ones far away to a new world, and you will never return to your home planet. The spaceship is an older model than the fancier ones used by rich colonists. The spaceship was meant for exploration journeys, not colonization, and there is no time to upgrade the computer to store the vast richness of humanity's history and literature. Really-- there's no time. The Disaster is imminent. Because of space limitations, each person in your family may take one hard bound or paperback book. You don't get to consult with other people outside of the family who will be traveling with you (because of the aforementioned time constraints) but you do get to talk with your family members about what you will bring.

That is the premise for The Green Book, a first-person plural point of view science-fiction novella by Jill Paton Walsh. The book was originally published in 1981 by MacMillan, and republished in subsequent editions by Farrar, Straus and Giroux's Sunburst imprint. The Green Book is available as an e-book, too, which is amusing, given the premise of the story.

I've read The Green Book several times since I was a child. It was published before personal computers and cell-phones, and yet (with a few tweaks to account for why the passengers can't bring their audio-visual media devices) remains relevant science-fiction for today's readers. It works as a contemporary children's book, too, as children, not adults, find solutions to the problems of how to survive on a new planet.

Here is the inevitable question: If you had the same constraints as the colonists in The Green Book, what is the one book you would bring? What book would you have brought as a child? It could be literature, or a how-to manual, or a science textbook, but it has to be one volume. You can't take the whole Enclopedia Britannica, for example, but you could take volume 15.

If I were leaving now, I would take my Globe Illustrated Shakespeare with the idea that even if someone else on the ship takes Shakespeare's complete works, it would be handy to have more than one copy. I know Shakespeare's an obvious choice, but I am thinking about my fellow colonists, not just myself! (Besides, I've not read most of the history plays, and I'd hate to leave Earth without knowing them.)

Lucia says she would take Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (and have to explain to the other children what happened in previous volumes). Bede is not home, so I don't know what he would want to bring, but if I had to guess, he'd bring something by Plato. If I were Lucia's age, I would probably have chosen my mother's copy of The Melendy Family, by Elizabeth Enright, which conveniently had three books in one: The Saturdays, The Four Story Mistake, and Then There Were Five.

Ada Lovelace Day

2011-10-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

My friend Jules of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast alerted me Ada Lovelace Day, which is today. Ada Lovelace, born Ada Augusta Byron in 1815, is considered to be "The World's First Computer Programmer" because of her extensive mathematical work on Charles Babbage's analytical engine that produced the first computer algorithm.

Ada was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron (whom she never met) and Anne Isabelle Milbanke. Lovelace's parents separated soon after she was born, and her mother had her tutored in mathematics and science in an attempt to steer her daughter clear of poetry. After learning the story of Icarus and Dedalus, Ada decided that she would design her own flying machine, and and spent an extensive amount of time on what she dubbed "flyology." Even after her marriage to William Lovelace and three children following, Ada's focus and dedication to mathematics continue until her death from cancer at age 36.

I first learned about Lovelace from a local Seattle store, Ada's Technical Books. From that bookstore, I purchased two biographies: Ada: A Life and a Legacy, by Dorothy Stein (which raises questions as to just how extensive Lovelace's work influenced Babbage), and an English children's book import called Ada Lovelace: The Computing Wizard of the Victorian World, by Lucy Lethbridge.

While so much of mathematics is still a mystery to me, I am trying to rectify as an adult the lack of a firm mathematics foundation I had as a child and teen. I did have one teacher who extended herself beyond her obligations to help those of us who struggled: my Algebra I and II teacher, Mrs. Hoffman. In her class, and after school, I learned so much that there were quarters when I actually got A grades in math. (Unfortunately, the E grades I got the other quarters averaged out to C grades for the year. That's the way averages go.) Thank you, Mrs. Hoffman, for giving me a glimpse into how exhilarating math can be when one can understand the concepts in addition to plugging in the formulas.

GeekGirlCon 2011

2011-10-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

The House of Glee is looking forward to the first GeekGirlCon this weekend. GeekGirlCon is "a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting awareness of and celebrating the contribution and involvement of women in all aspects of the sciences, science fiction, comics, gaming and related Geek culture." Everyone is welcome, and children under 10 are free when accompanied by their ticket-holding adults. LoneStarMa, the concept of this convention was made for your daughters!

Sun, Moon, Star, Witch-- dolls for play and storytelling

2011-09-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

I listed a few new dolls in the shop last week. I created a Sun, Moon, and Star set inspired by the Grimms' story of The Seven Ravens. I made this set a part of the NaturalKids Team's fairy tale challenge.

Sun, Moon, Star doll set - front

Sun, Moon, Star set - back

It doesn't seem that long ago that I made two little witches inspired by the children's books I read as a child. This year, I decided to make a red witch:

Little red witch with a pine broom

Over the next weeks, I will be working on winter and December festival themed dolls, both for the shop and for custom orders. My output is less than it has been in previous times, in part because I have more responsibilities that take me out of the house and away from my workspace. Still, I enjoy making the dolls, and hope that you enjoy looking at them, too.

Bigger than a Bread Box: a book plug, a divorce story

2011-09-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

Laurel Snyder’s forthcoming book, Bigger than a Bread Box, is a story with a theme ofdivorce. In her blog post, "What we talk about when we talk about divorce",Snyder writes,

Grownups control the waydivorce gets discussed. But kids experience it too. Grownups reallyneed to believe, when splitting up, that “divorce is for the best” or that“we’ll all come through it okay” because “kids are so resilient.” Their need to believe these things affects the way they talk aboutdivorce… and the way they remember it too.

In the blog post, Snyder requested a story about otherpeoples’ experiences of divorce. I thought about this for awhile. I wondered if I couldtell my own story without infringing upon my parents’ privacy. The author Anne Lamott said, "Write as if your parents were dead." I can't do that. They are alive, and my imagination is not so flexible as to pretend otherwise.

My parentsseparated when I was 15 and divorced when I was 19. Although I felt thereverberations of the separation strongly, my two younger brothers, born 5 and7 years after me, were the true “children of divorce.”

My father was also a child of divorced parents. I had three sets of grandparents, and I was the only childfor five years. I felt lucky to have a wealth of family members. My aunts anduncles were in their teens, my six grandparents had time to spend with me, and Iabsorbed their attention. Still, I was a “lonely-only,”and I welcomed the arrivals of my brothers.

In the1980s, many of my classmates had divorced parents, and I remember one friendtelling me with ominous importance, “It’ll probably happen to your parentstoo.” I thought she was probably wrong, but I wondered and watched.

In the summer of 1987, my parents called me into the masterbedroom to tell me in private that they planned to get a divorce. They asked meto keep the news quiet until they told my brothers. I could tell my boyfriend,but no one else. I think my parents wanted us all to have one last familyvacation together.

From my 15 year old viewpoint, the difficulties my parentsfaced were nothing compared to my sense of injustice and outrage. I resentedkeeping the secret from my brothers, and wished my parents would just hurry upand get on with it. As Snyder wrote,“Grownups control the way divorce gets discussed. But kids experience ittoo.”

Over twenty years later, my parents now live in differentparts of the country. They have celebrated the birth of a granddaughter andmourned the loss of a son. While I don’t live as close to them as they did tomy grandparents, they have a good relationship with my daughter independentlyof each other.

This is not the whole story. It's not even an accurate representation of what happened and how I felt. However, I can look back on the time of my parents' separation anddivorce with more compassion and understanding than when I stood before themand received their news on a summer day in 1987. I can believe that they didthe best they could with the resources they had. What more can any of us dothan that?

2011 KidLitCon

2011-09-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

In 2004, a year before I started this blog, I read The Hollow Kingdom, by Clare B. Dunkle. Soon after, I sent Dunkle an email in appreciation of the book. Dunkle replied, and we shared a correspondence for a time. My daughter was not yet one year old, I was exhausted all the time, and I relied heavily upon email correspondence for grownup conversation that didn't have to do with parenting. At one point, Dunkle mentioned her book-reviewer friend Sondy Ecklund (at the time, both were living in Germany), and said that she thought we'd enjoy getting to know each other. I can't remember who wrote first, but Sondy and I started what would be a years-long correspondence.

Last weekend, Sondy and I met for the first time at the 2011 KidLitCon children's and teen literature blogging conference, held here in Seattle, Washington. It was good to meet Sondy and talk in person. In addition to book-reviewing, writing, and being a librarian, Sondy is a self-described "math nut" (see her post on her prime factorization sweater).When I asked for advice on bringing math into the home, she recommended board games, and Monopoly Jr. in particular, as it encourage multiplication. I've not yet played it, but I ordered a copy of the board game for Lucia's benefit. Sony blogs and reviews at Sonderbooks. "Sonder" is a German prefix that means "special," which is an apt description for the lively, passionate Sondy Ecklund.

At KidLitCon 2011, I got to talk with a number of bloggers, including Sarah Stevenson, co-author of the blog Finding Wonderland,, Els Kushner, who currently blogs for Tor, Pam Coughlan of MotherReader, Anne Levy of the Cybils Awards, Holly Cupala, Shiraz Cupala,, and Lee Wind. I finally got to meet Martha Brockenbrough (who also writes SPOGG). I'd been a fan of her writing for years. but only recently realized that we were also neighbors. It was a pleasure to meet "science-journalist by day/kidlit blogger by night" Lisa Song of Reads for Keeps. I ended up talking with co-conference organizer Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray for just a few minutes (about bacon jam, of all things), but there were a number of people with whom I wished I could have gotten to know better. There's only so much time, and the day was filled with a variety of sessions. I stayed up late after the Friday meet-and-greet, but on Saturday, ended up leaving soon after the dinner was done.

The session highlights of the day for me were Scott Westerfeld's keynote, which was a presentation on the history of illustration in chapter-books, and the final panel on diversity in YA/Teen literature. I finally started reading Westerfeld's books this year, and have enjoyed in particular the alternative World War I steampunk historical fiction books in the Leviathan trilogy, particularly because of Keith Thompson's illustrations.

The link to the 2011 KidLitCon roundup is here.

Natural Kids Team folk tale guest post

2011-09-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've written a new post for the Natural Kids Team blog, called Life Lessons in Folk Tales. I featured three folk tale picture books by storyteller Margaret Read MacDonald, plus crafty offerings by my fellow artisans. As I worked on the post, I asked my teammates if anyone would be interested in making a gecko to go along with MacDonald's Go to Sleep, Gecko! and Little Elfs Toyshop delivered:

Green gecko by Little Elfs Toyshop

St. Ninian's Day Ginger Muffins

2011-09-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

I'm fascinated by legends of the saints in a similar vein to the Greek and Norse myths of the gods and goddesses. (I'm a fan-girl of both Athena and Hera, and had I been Paris presented with the golden apple, I would have had to employ stalling tactics.) The saints I like best are the obscure and apocryphal ones. Take St. Ninian, for example. He's a 4th or 5th century saint who was supposed to have been a missionary among the Pictish people of Scotland. Not much is known about him, but there are a lot of churches dedicated to him.

St. Ninian came to my attention today when a friend on Facebook announced he was making ginger muffins to commemorate the feast day.

"What do ginger muffins have to do with St. Ninian?" you might ask. It's a fair question. I am in favor of scrutiny and the scientific method, but when it comes to ginger muffins, I get a little distracted. My answer is that I have no idea, but I'm shameless enough to use the feast-day as a catalyst for the creation of ginger muffins.

You can the muffins today to celebrate being alive, or make them in the future to celebrate being alive another day. If you don't like ginger, you may like these muffins. Then again, you might be pleasantly surprised. For example, I generally don't care for eggplant outside of its baba ganouj disguise, but there is one restaurant in Seattle that makes grilled eggplant taste so good that I order it every time I'm there.

My friend modified the recipe from Evelyn Birge Vitz's A Continual Feast (about the original recipe, he wrote, "The results [were] penitential in nature --- dry and unappetizing") and I modified it further. Here's what I came up with:

Ginger Muffins

Whisk together:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons dried ginger

In another bowl, whisk together:

3/4 cup milk (nondairy okay)
1/2 cup butter (ditto)
1/3 cup molasses
1/3 cup unrefined sugar
Optional: 2 teaspoons of ginger juice (because I had it on hand)

Mix wet with dry, and then stir in 1/2 cup chopped candied ginger. I used the kind that wasn't covered in sugar.

Pour into greased muffin tins and bake approx 20 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. I got 10 muffins out of this recipe, but I think I could stretch it to 12 next time.

Folk and Fairy Tale sets/ Life Update

2011-08-30T07:18:00.001-07:00

A post I wrote for the NaturalKids Team blog, which you may find here, highlights some folk and fairy tale-themed creations my fellow artisans have in their shops. There should be more next month, as the team is working on a "fairy tale challenge" right now. I'm kicking around the idea of making the sun, the moon, and the stars in personified form as part of a Seven Ravens set. I suspect many of our offerings will come from retellings by Grimm and Perrault, and I would like to break from choosing Western European stories without being a culture vulture.

***

Speaking of fairy tale stories, summer is almost over, I have performances coming up next week, and I need to polish my new stories. I've enjoyed being ~~at home~~ out in the world with my daughter this summer. We can actually do things together now. My aunt jokes that Lucia was in "boot camp," because Lucia walked 4-5 miles and read two books every week day during the summer.

I'm training Lucia to do stair-climbing for The Big Climb next March, and yesterday, she stair-climbed 293 steps four times. That's 1, 172 steps. Meanwhile, I'm training to run my first 5k this autumn for Run Scared, while Lucia and her daddy walk the 4k portion (almost 2.5 miles).

Out in the world, I try to be low-key about my daughter's progression, but here on this blog, let me be braggy for a moment:

GO, LUCIA, GO!

(Pretend there's a scrolling marquee tag for that.)

We brought back science books

2011-08-24T18:23:00.000-07:00

The House of Glee visited friends and family in Portland, Oregon, this past weekend. We went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) for the first time, and were impressed that the chemistry lab was an actual lab with chemicals and experiments, and the physics lab had a theremin and static electricity to play with. Bede and Lucia finally got to try freeze-dried ice cream, too.

The science section at Powell's Books now has its own building (along with math and technical books), which is new since we last visited Portland. It used to be that I could park myself in the science section while my daughter browsed the children's books. At Lucia's request, I got for her Jeff Kinney's The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book, which occupied her attention for the rest of the trip. I would never have guessed that Diary of a Wimpy Kid would be the book to turn her from someone interested in stories to an avid reader, but that was the book that first grade boys carried around last year. While I am a little tired of hearing about the "cheese touch," I am getting a kick out of the drawings she's come up with.

I'll admit that I went to town in Building 2 of Powells. I found a used copy of Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars, plus an out-of date but much enjoyed book both Bede and I pored over when we were children: National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our Universe, by Roy Gallant. I also decided to capitulate to the purchase of a few science and math Basher Books, a series aimed for children and published by Kingfisher. The books provide overviews and explanations of basic science and math concepts as first person anthropomorphized accounts.* The House of Glee currently owns the following:

Chemistry: Getting a Big Reaction
Physics: Why Matter Matters
Math: A Book You Can Count On
Algebra and Geometry

I hovered over The Periodic Table: Elements with Style at Ada's Technical Books today, but made myself practice restraint. Funds aside, we've got plenty to read. Speaking of funding, I always get a little frenetic around the time of Seattle Public Library's annual furlough because of budget cuts. I hope my fellow Seattleites have stocked up.

*August 26 update: The problem with giving objects and concepts personalities (as in the Basher Books) is that one inevitably has to deal with the sex of the anthropomorphized subjects. In Physics: Why Matter Matters, when personal pronouns came up, they were male. My daughter notices. I notice. She can change the text to suit her, i.e. decide that Gamma Ray and Photon representations are female, but she shouldn't have to. Inclusive language would have been so simple.

KidLitCon teams up with Reading is Fundamental

2011-08-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

KidLitCon* is joining up with Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), a nonprofit children's literacy organization. Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray has the scoop:

KidLit Con teams up with RIF because it is the right thing to do

*From the website: "The “KidLitosphere” is a community of reviewers, librarians, teachers, authors, illustrators, publishers, parents, and other book enthusiasts who blog about children’s and young adult literature."

Neon Fairies with Hair I Wish I Had

2011-08-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

In 2007, when Lucia was 4.5 years old, she received her Little One named Snowdrop from the Little One Meadow. The Little Ones were not dolls, the kindergarteners informed their parents.

I enjoyed hearing stories about what the Little Ones did in Lucia's Waldorf kindergarten, as well as their antics in the Little One Meadow. The first time Snowdrop needed a hair and dress refurbishment, I told Lucia's teacher with a straight face that Snowdrop had traveled to the Little One Meadow to meet up with Dahlia, the Little One's resident hair-stylist and makeover artist. Once Snowdrop came back with black hair, not brown, because ~~that was the only wool roving I had~~ Dahlia used walnut-juice as a temporary hair-rinse.

Dahlia never had access to these hair colors:

I recently put these Neon Fairies (or angels, if you like) in the shop, and gave their hair hues names inspired by those found on nail-polishes and hair dyes. From left to right, they are: Over-the-Brink Pink, Luna Moth Lime, Anime Blue, and Manic Mauve.

There's part of me that wanted to dye my hair bright blue or purple, but never wanted to do what it would take to get those vivid colors. Now, I content myself with giving the dolls the hair that I admire.

Little Lost Lamb

2011-08-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Smudge, my brother's stuffed-animal lamb that my mom bought at the PA Relief Sale years ago and dyed black (as well as the wool would take the dye). Smudge was based upon Little Lost Lamb, by Golden MacDonald (a.k.a. Margaret Wise Brown), illustrated by Leonard Wisegard. The link is to the Japanese edition.

When my mom misplaced her copy of Little Lost Lamb after moving across the country, I searched for a reasonably priced copy for her and ordered it. However, it went missing when I went on vacation, despite the vacation hold notice. I did all I could to locate the package, and even though the post office was sure it had gone back to the sender, the tracking information indicated that there was a good chance it was still in Seattle. Several days ago, our new postal carrier presented me with the package, which the previous mail carrier had tucked away in his truck during my vacation. Thus far, USPS has always given me a happy ending.

Even if you've never read the book, you know the story:

"High in the mountains where the green grass ends and the snow begins, the shepherd was singing.

Below him in the green grass huddled the sheep-- a great gray moving field of young lambs with their mothers. And in all that soft flock of moving gray was one little black smudge.

It was the black sheep born in every flock. A sweet little black lamb kicking up his stiff young legs-- leaping with the gray lambs in the small dances of baby animals."

The little black sheep goes wandering off, but,

"For all the the little black sheep cared, it was the sheep and the shepherd who were lost."

The shepherd boy must bring the sheep home, but a storm comes on, and the shepherd goes back out to look for his lost sheep. He finds the sheep, who never knew he was lost to begin with. The shepherd sings,

"Oh, wind, blow softly over my sheep
Away from the lion
And over the lamb
Blow softly.

Over the grasses
And pointed flowers
Blow softly.

Oh, wind, blow softly out of the blue
Over the white
And the black sheep too.
Blow softly."

That is the story of Little Lost Lamb, by Golden MacDonald. In many ways, it is the story of my youngest brother, too, who died on August 8, 2003. I think of him often. This anniversary did not sting like the others. I will always feel his loss, but it's not as sharp as it was the first seven years.

Note to readers: Sometimes people contact me to ask if I will scan for them the pages of an out-of-print book I own. For liability reasons, I cannot honor those requests. If you're looking for a particular copy of an out-of-print book, I will do my best to look with you.

Two Playscapes, Limitless Play

2011-07-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

Sunshine ~~has finally come~~ briefly came to Seattle! I'm celebrating with two colorful playscapes:

Strawberry Hill Playscape by Alkelda with flowering shrubs by The Enchanted Cupboard

Picnic Playscape by Alkelda with trees and flowering shrubs by The Enchanted Cupboard

KidLitCon 5: this time in Seattle, WA

2011-07-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

This year's gathering of children's and young adult/teen literature bloggers will be in Seattle, Washington. It's called KidLitCon, and it'll be held September 16-17, 2011, at the Monaco Hotel in Downtown Seattle. Information and registration is here.

Avid book blogger Jen Robinson, who has been to all of the KidLitCons (even when she had a 6 month old baby bookworm), writes about why going to KidLitCon is a good idea.

It's easy for me to say "Please come," because I live here. I'd like to see you, though, and show you my new octopus tee-shirt.

Crafty Thursday: The Jewel Tones Doll Series

2011-07-07T20:55:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine grew up with three other friends who called themselves "The Gemstones" and took on different monikers based upon various precious and semi-precious stones. These friends have stayed in touch and periodically have reunions. They inspired me to create this doll series called the Jewel Tones (not to be confused with the Bay Area or St. Louis performance groups):

The Jewel Tones: Garnet, Carnelian, Lapis Lazuli, Peridot, Amethyst

In other crafty news, I'm doing a link trade with fellow NaturalKids Team member Germandolls, which is why there's a photo of her dolls in my sidebar with a link to the shop. Germandolls blogs here, where she writes about her Waldorf-inspired dolls, shares recipes, and reflects upon life experiences.

Last, I made my best treasury yet: Gnomes vs. Aliens, inspired by Zombies vs. Unicorns (which I have not yet read).

Pippi Longstocking Fans

2011-07-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of weeks, I've read aloud Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking books to Lucia. We'd finished Ronia, the Robber's Daughter previously, and Lucia really enjoyed that book, so I brought out Pippi to see how the humor would work with her. (Lucia herself is reading beginning readers series.) Often, things that are funny have to be explained to her why they are funny, but Lucia has been laughing outright over Pippi's utterances and actions.

I realized recently that Pippi is a child's superhero. She has amazing strength, and she uses it for good to defy those who would squelch children, i.e. bullies, robbers, domineering grownups. Her table manners are deplorable, but she is generous and sensitive to those in need. She is "rich as a troll" with her suitcase of gold coins, but she herself wears rags and lives in a ramshackle house called Villa Villekulla, and uses her wealth to buy presents for others.

Lucia admires Pippi greatly, and wants to be like her. We've had to talk about some caveats besides the obvious (don't eat mushrooms in the forest, drink coffee before you've stopped growing, or tell tall tales about how people live in other countries). We've also had age-appropriate talks about post-colonialism and perceptions of people outside one's own culture as "other."

In the meantime, Lucia has made paper dolls and dioramas inspired by the Pippi books. Here are her latest creations:

Villa Villekulla with Pippi (Mr. Nilsson the monkey is on her shoulder), Tommy, Annika, and the horse

Tommy, Annika, Pippi

Last night, we learned of the the existence of Astrid Lindgren's World. Who's up for a trip to Vimmerby, Sweden?

How I spent (the first part of) my summer vacation

2011-06-28T19:48:00.001-07:00

Go to Sleep, Gecko! a Balinese folktale retold by Margaret Read MacDonald, has a message that is oft-quoted in our house: "Some things you just have to put up with." I heard geckos for the first time this past week when I was in the Florida Keys for a wedding. I smiled when I heard them. However, I was not smiling when I attempted my daily walk, only to come home with scores of mosquito bites. Geckos eat mosquitoes, but the mosquitoes ate me. I got some relief when we sailed out on a pontoon to arrive at a sandbar:

What you don't see in this photo: dolphins, tiny starfish, intricate coral, stingrays, herons, and fish that dive out of the water.

While we were in the Keys, we visited the Hemingway Home and Museum. Bede, Lucia, and I enjoyed exploring the grounds of Ernest Hemingway's last residence. Bede and I were comforted to learn that this was the only residence where Hemingway had his own separate writing space (in other words: No Whining about our lack of writing space!). I read a lot of Hemingway between college and graduate school, and while I didn't care for his novels besides For Whom the Bell Tolls (The Old Man and the Sea was a novella, and well worth the fuss), I enjoyed many of his short stories. A Movable Feast is a favorite too, though one has to keep in mind that Hemingway did not write that memoir with a critical eye. It's fun to read for all of the name-dropping.

A piece of mosaic at the Hemingway house:

I have jetlag. Like Gecko, I'm going to Go to Sleep.

My Life in Felts and Flowers

2011-06-09T19:10:00.001-07:00

Greetings! Tomorrow is the last day of Lucia's school, and I am incredulous. There are times when I just want to catch her and hold her. Other times, I've cheerfully scooted her out the door so I could get some work done.

In May, we attended The Magic Flute as a family, and I was inspired to create Papageno and Papagena dolls for the shop:

I decided I wanted a series of dolls at lower price points, too, so I created six flower-box babies. You can see them here, attended by Strawberry Girl:

In case you're wondering, Strawberry Girl is singing The Garden Song to them.

Any requests for what to make next?

Speaking of gardens, I am trying to put my weeds and stones in order. In among the proliferation of dandelions, however, a new plant showed up. I decided to let it be, and today, found that it was a pinkish-purple foxglove.

I'm pleased that the trillium have doubled. Here are two toad trillium:

Tribute to Bridget Zinn

2011-05-26T14:17:00.001-07:00

Upstart Crow Literary posted a tribute to Bridget Zinn, who died from cancer yesterday morning. Bridget Zinn was a Teen/YA librarian, blogger, and author, with her first novel, Poison, due to be published next summer by Disney/Hyperion.

I'd met Bridget at the second Kidlitosphere conference in Portland, Oregon. We found we had a mutual friend: a college friend of mine was her library school friend in Madison, Wisconsin. When friends started an auction to help pay for medical expenses, I donated a sunflower root child doll. I didn't know her beyond the Kidlitosphere conference and online connections, but I was glad to know that she had a wide circle of family and friends.

My wish for all of you is that you should have that kind of compassionate support that Bridget had, regardless of what you endure. I wish for you courage, strength, and grace.

Song and motion for language development

2011-05-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

My mom sent me this article from The Guardian: Singing to Children May Help Development of Language Skills, by Amelia Hill

As Daniel Dwase, editor of the online Child Development Guide, points out, songs with actions help children to learn "balance, co-ordination, body awareness and rhythm." The best songs with movement I learned came from Lucia's Waldorf kindergarten. At some point, I should teach you the song that begins thus:

Show me your foot and let me see your shoe
We will do what the washing women do,
We're washing, we're washing, we're washing all day long. 2X.

After we wash the clothes, we wring them out, dry them, iron them, and fold them. When we're done, I announce, "You've done such a lovely job with the laundry. Now, the rest of your family to put their clothes away." I've tried to implement this policy in real life. It sometimes works.

Smitten

2011-05-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

I do Music Mondays with the kindergarten and first grade classes at my daughter's school. Today, one of my favorite kids informed me that eagles and vultures were not sugarlumps ("Fly Through My Window"), germs were not pretty ("The Green Grass Grew All Around"), and moss was not beautiful ("On Top of Spaghetti").

I said, "That's a matter of opinion! But tell me: what do YOU find to be beautiful?"

He replied, "Rainbows, puppies, my mom, my dad, my grandma, my Wii, and your singing voice."

Happy Birthday, Eight Year Old Girl

2011-05-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

Today, Lucia is eight years old. We had her immediate family + godparents celebration on Sunday (i.e. Mother's Day) because today is a choir day rehearsal. Here, Lucia blows out the candles on a gluten-free chocolate cake with coconut buttercream frosting (both recipes from the Gluten Free on a Shoestring cookbook):

It feels as if the years are speeding up.

Characters with Disabilities

2011-05-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

Newbery Books Lack Characters with Disabilities, Study Says, by Debra Lau Whelan, is a School Library Journal article that caught my attention. In addition to the representation (or lack thereof) of characters with disabilities from different races, there is also this concern:

"Characters with disabilities often were eliminated through death, were sent away, or recovered by some miraculous cure. In most cases, the disabled character wasn't the protagonist and was often used in supporting roles that facilitated the emotional growth of other characters." [Italics mine]

Two books I enjoyed last year with protagonists who have Asperger's Syndrome were The Half-Life of Planets, by Emily Franklin and Harmonic Feedback, by Tara Kelly, both Teen/Young Adult. A number of people recommended Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erskine, but overall, it didn't resonate with me, as it tried to pack too much into one storyline. I believe I've mentioned Virginia Euwer Wolf's Probably Nick Swansen, (another YA book), about a 16 year old boy with learning disabilities who deals with the loss of his sister and his feelings of responsibility over her death.

On my wishlist is a book with a main character who has Asperger's syndrome where the story is a comedy, or at least has really funny elements. Oh, and I'd like it to be science-fiction, too. (Maybe I need to write it?)

The Author and the Baker in Doll Form

2011-05-04T19:04:00.001-07:00

The author and the baker are happy with their new dolls. They were so much fun to make!

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Muffins et al

2011-04-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

I posted a Gluten Free Sweet Potato Spice Muffin recipe over at the Natural Kids blog. The muffins freeze well. Here are some other yummy gluten-free* items I've made recently from Gluten Free on a Shoestring, by Nicole Hunn (blog link has her book link on the sidebar):

Popovers

I boiled the bagels...

...and then baked the bagels:

When a friend said that he wanted biscotti, I baked those, too:

I haven't yet attempted Hunn's newly-developed gluten-free pita bread recipe, but I've got my pizza crisper now, and I'm going to make it. Soon.

*My daughter is on a trial gluten-free diet. So far, so good.

Mary's Garden

2011-04-18T07:34:00.001-07:00

I just posted a new song over at A Storytelling of Crows. It's called "Marie in the Garden," and it's a simple game that a Waldorf teacher taught me a few summers ago. She worked with my daughter for an afternoon, and in thanks, I made for her a little doll. She said the doll would be perfect for "Marie in the Garden" and sang it for me.

Recently, my daughter sang the song for me, and I posted it in a video here.

Here is the back of the doll I made to accompany the song:

The thinking behind the flowers on the cape:

The three different kinds of flowers are those one might find in a Mary Garden: rosebuds, forget-me-nots ("Mary's Eyes"), and grape hyacinths ("St. Joseph's Bells"). I had intended to stitch a lily on the back of the cloak, but shading is not in my repertoire as of yet. I decided to embroider rosemary instead, but my needle seemed to have its own mind, and grape hyacinths appeared instead.

Humor?

2011-04-01T08:22:00.001-07:00

April Fools' Day of my fourth grade year was uneventful... until bedtime. When I was getting ready for bed, I tried to put on my pajamas, only to find that my mother had sewn my pajama bottoms together.

Today, my daughter asked, "Will you sew my pajama bottoms together for April Fools' Day?"

I replied that I couldn't even get done the sewing I had to do (i.e. the cherry blossom doll a friend commissioned, the green dress that once would have taken mere days to complete).

I reminded her to be aware of the other kids today. A few days ago when the class had a substitute, one of the tricksters in her class changed her behavior card from green to red.

He told her it was an early April Fool's joke.

She said, "It wasn't funny."

He replied, "I wasn't laughing."

Neither was she.

When my daughter was younger, her laughter was full-bodied and contageous. Maybe the loss of unrestrained laughter an inevitable part of growing up, but I don't like it. I want to bring it back.

My daughter wants an April Fools' Day joke that isn't mean. Do you have any ideas?

My Big Climb 2011 Award

2011-03-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning of March 20, 2011, my family woke at 6 a.m. so that they could take the 7:25 a.m. bus with me to downtown Seattle. They wanted to wait in the lobby while I ascended the 1311 steps of the Columbia Tower for The Big Climb:

I was an untimed climber set to go with the 9 a.m. group. Before getting into line, I wrote these numbers on my hand:

My team leader said that it helped for him to divide the stairclimb into manageable goals with stairwell numbers. There are 69 flights in the Big Climb, but the final floor is 73.

We went in intervals, and by the time I set off, the time was around 9:10 am by my watch. I started up the stairs, kept a steady pace, took the water when it was offered to me, but never stopped. Posted on the wall were different photos of people currently struggling with leukemia or lymphoma as well as photos of those who had died of a blood cancer. I was happy to see the posted photo of my friend who is a leukemia survivor, but it was hard to pass by the photos of the people who had died.

I reached the top approximately 25 minutes from the time I started. I had followed the rules by not bringing a camera with me (Crivens! This always happens.), but there were a number of people at the top who were taking photos of the Olympic Mountains in all their crispness. If you've not yet seen the Olympic Mountains in person, I hope you will visit Seattle during the summer, when you are most likely to get a view without the risk of rain. In the meantime, you'll just have to take my word for it that they are glorious.

When I got home, my daughter made an award for me:

I was sore yesterday, and am sore today, but I raised $500.00 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I hope that's $500.00 closer to people getting the help they need to deal with these blood diseases.

Lydia Purpuraria, Patron of Dyers

2011-03-08T18:54:00.001-08:00

Do you remember when I wrote about Lydia Purpuraria, the patron saint of dyers? Unless you were with me in the first couple years of this blog, you probably don't. I wrote about her here in 2007 and as part of a series of "saints as action figures" here in 2006.

In real life, Lydia Purpuraria would never have worn purple, as it would have been too expensive for a harvester of the many Murex brandaris shellfish needed to make a small amount of the Tyrian purple dye used in the clothing of royalty. However, this representation in doll form required it. Here she is:

Lydia Purpuraria doll is pictured with trees and shrubs by The Enchanted Cupboard

The Big Climb 2011

2011-02-13T16:08:00.000-08:00

The last time I took an active part in a fund-raiser involving exercise, I was in fourth grade, and I had people sponsor me for 10 cents a kilometer to walk 10 kilometers (approximately 6.2 miles) for the Crop Hunger Walk. Sometimes a sponsor would pledge 20 cents a kilometer, and I was thrilled. I was less thrilled when I walked the 10 kilometers only to realize that I had lost my sponsor sheet, but this was 1983--years before online donations.

I just joined a team to take part in Seattle's 25th annual Big Climb, of which all proceeds will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Here's my personal page. It's five weeks before the big day, which is March 20.

Why am I doing it? you may wonder. There are several reasons:

1. This is on the front page of The Big Climb: "The Big Climb is a stairclimb up the Columbia Center - the tallest skyscraper in downtown Seattle. There are 69 flights of stairs, 1311 steps, and 788ft of vertical elevation. Although it will be challenging, it pales in comparison to what blood cancer patients go through."

2. I'm climbing with two specific people in mind.

3. The more I do things that are really hard (but beneficial), the more I will be willing to do things that are really hard.

The Blue Valentine, revisited

2011-02-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Two days ago, I received the out-of-print copy of The Blue Valentine, by Gwen Schutlz, illustrated by Theresa Sherman, that I mentioned in my last post. The plot is a little bit different from what I remembered, so I will summarize it for those who are searching for the book and want to make sure that the out-of-print copy they order is the right one. The book was published in 1965 by William Morrow and Company. I would really like to see it republished with new illustrations. Aside from a few minor details (the mention of a hatbox, all the first graders going home for lunch before returning to school for the afternoon), the story could easily take place today:

Cindy is a first grader who has recently moved to a new school. She is shy, doesn't know anyone, and her attempts to be friendly to other children are rebuffed. When she finds out that blue is the favorite color of her teacher, Miss Kelly, Cindy decides to make her a blue valentine for the Valentine's Day party. Blue is Cindy's favorite color, too. She spends a lot of time and care in the creation of the valentine, and makes an envelope to go with it. The morning that Cindy, is to bring the special valentine to school, she falls into a puddle, and the envelope gets wet. Cindy arrives at school, and is the first one to put her valentine in the box.

The following week is the party. Cindy only gets four valentines (instead of each child having to give one to every other child in the class), but her minor disappointment is nothing in comparison to the anticipation of Miss Kelly opening her valentine. However, Miss Kelly hangs up all the other children's valentines, but not hers, remarking that red and white are such cheery colors. Cindy is convinced that Miss Kelly hated the valentine because it wasn't a traditional color, and slips away from the party.

The next day, Miss Kelly tells the class that she checked the box one more time and found an envelope that had gotten stuck at the bottom. She shows the class the blue valentine, and someone sneers, "How can a valentine be blue?"

Miss Kelly replies, "A valentine can be any color we want to make it....This one is blue because blue is my favorite color, and someone was nice enough to remember. I think because her favorite color is blue, too." She tells the class that Cindy made the valentine, and that, "Most of us don't know Cindy very well yet.... We don't know what lovely things she can do. This is one of them."

At Miss Kelly's request, Cindy shows the class how to make the intricate valentines. The blue valentine gets put on display in the class case outside the classroom. The final scene has Barbara, a girl who snubbed Cindy earlier, walking home with her. The last part of the book has nine pages of diagrams on how to make both the valentine and the envelope.

I read this book to my daughter on Thursday. Immediately, she ran for her art supplies, and said she had to make valentines like the one in the book. She ended up making her own versions inspired by The Blue Valentine.

Blue Valentine Doll

2011-02-03T18:33:00.000-08:00

I finally ordered a copy of the out-of-print Blue Valentine, by Gwen Schultz. What I remember of the story is that the main character's favorite color is blue, and she makes a blue valentine for her teacher. The main character's classmates deride her for this unconventionality (of course), and much of the narrative involves worry over whether or not the teacher will be pleased. The storyline seems slight, but there must have been some emotional current with which I connected.

February 12, 2012 update: Here is the synopsis of the book.

Here is the doll inspired by the book:

Blue Heart Queen Doll (background trees by The Enchanted Cupboard)

Molecules and Microbes in Felt

2011-01-21T21:26:00.000-08:00

I've been long overdue in featuring another artisan's work. I enjoy the science-themed Flickr photo uploads from Sasha of What. No Mints? My favorites are the amoeba and paramecium pieces made of Eco-felt:

"Microbes in Love"

When my daughter saw these, she wondered if Sasha would make red and white blood cell magnets. (That was when she was fixated on blood cells. Currently, she is fixated on God, Crayola crayons, and stories of Anansi the Spider.)

I also like the molecules:

Dopamine Heart Ornament for pleasure

Serotonin sun ornament for happiness

I wish for you plenty of serotonin and dopamine to come your way!

Update in the early 2011

2011-01-14T19:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Bede's and my 10th wedding anniversary, but Bede was not in town to celebrate it. Last Friday, he flew to Canada after we learned that his mom was in the hospital after experiencing a heart attack. The prognosis changes by the day, but the fact is that she's eighty years old and has struggled with emphysema for years. It is hard.

Lucia is enjoying her new school. The teacher is great. The teacher emails me every day to tell me how Lucia is doing (and she does not have much of a break at all), and if there are questions or concerns, we can talk about strategies. It is fortunate that this particular class is small, mellow, and kind. Homework is something new, and although Lucia did not go to an academic kindergarten, she is doing well with her homework. It's frustrating to her that she does not yet read with ease, but her progress thus far has given me the confidence to assure her that one day reading will be pleasurable. I help her prepare for spelling tests, but she does not need my help for math. How about that! Bede and I incorporated math in conversations in the hopes that Lucia would have a positive attitude toward it. I am requesting a gold star for each of the members of The House of Glee.

I lookforward to Bede's return. I miss him. We'll celebrate 10 years of marriage. I hope we get to share 55 more years at least. Here is a photo of the House of Glee as we are now. Bede is almost 41 and still ruefully handsome. Lucia's toes are alive and wiggly. Here I am, too, 10 years older than when I got married, but finally back to my pre-pregnancy weight. The difference is that 10 years ago, I would have never worn 3 inch stiletto heels. Sometimes it is fun to wear foolish shoes.

Art Show 2010

2010-12-29T21:15:00.000-08:00

My husband, Tony Dowler, had his first art show opening two weeks ago at Cortona Cafe in Seattle. If you follow the link, you'll get to see some of his work (the website itself is a work-in-progress). Currently, two-thirds of his artwork at the shop has sold, plus he's obtained some commissions as a result of the show.

Here is a photo of the two of us at the art show, taken by a friend of mine with the Hipstamatic app on her iPhone:

Many good wishes for a satisfying new year.

Addendum: Tanita wanted a picture of Tony's/Bede's ponytail, and here is the best shot I have from that evening:

Math Doodles

2010-12-20T19:44:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Tanita Davis for this video by Vi Hart with an accompanying NPR article by Robert Krulwich. The article is called I Hate Math! (Not After This You Won't) and the video is "Doodling in Math Class: Snakes + Graphs."

P.S. In a little under three hours (as I write this), our family may be able to see the 2010 lunar eclipse.

Candy Cane Fairies

2010-12-14T12:43:00.000-08:00

It's not yet Crafty Thursday, but I just completed two candy cane fairies and felt compelled to share them:

The snowy evergreen trees were made by Beccijo of The Enchanted Cupboard. Beccijo also sent me a host of other beautiful hand-painted creations to give as gifts. I made for her two playscapes: autumn and spring.

Change

2010-12-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

This is the last week of my daughter's time at her local Waldorf school. We spent much of November scrambling to find a school that would take her mid-year. Officially, her current school "cannot meet her needs." This isn't an appropriate forum in which to go into why the school has decided this after over 6 years of attendance (2 years of parent-toddler class, 1 year of preschool, 3 years of kindergarten), but the House of Glee is grateful that our local parish school has a first grade teacher who is experienced with children on the autistic spectrum and teaches a small class of caring, compassionate 6-7 year old children.

There's a lot more racial and economic diversity at the new school, and it is an easy walk from our house. It's a small, struggling school, but all reports from people I've talked to say that the community is strong, and the older kids look out for the younger ones. What a refreshing change that will be!

Lucia enjoyed her visit to the new school, but is sad to be leaving her old school. I think it will ultimately be a good change, and in years to come, we will look back with relief. But still, we will miss the Waldorf curriculum, the festivals of Michaelmas, Martinmas, Winter Spiral, May Day, and Whitsun (White Dove). Lucia was the oldest girl in her class, and she would probably have been the girl who got to wear the crown of candles on Santa Lucia Day. We will continue to celebrate those festivals in our own way, I hope.

My Felt Wee Folk Hero*

2010-12-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

Jules has posted her interview with Salley Mavor over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Mavor is the author/illustrator/embroiderer/master crafter of Felt Wee Folk, a Pocketful of Posies, and other books that you can find here. Thanks to Jules for the interview and The Library Lady for alerting me to the existence of A Pocketful of Posies.

*That's corny, but sometimes I can't resist.

Rebecca Varon's work in Tokyo

2010-11-23T08:36:00.001-08:00

I'm so proud of Rebecca Varon, artisan of the Etsy shop Nushkie. Her work is premiering in Tokyo. Here's the article:

Fiber Artist Rebecca Varon’s Needle Felted Soft Sculptures to Debut in Tokyo and Raise Money for Habitat for Humanity, Japan

Peace and Quiet-- A Felt Board Story

2010-11-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

Why has it taken me so long to acquire a copy of Judy Sierra's The Flannel Board Storytelling Book? Her stories are easy to tell and the felt-board pattern pieces are distinct. After borrowing the library's copy, I ordered a used copy for my own collection.

I recently used patterns for a Eastern European Yiddish folktale called "Peace and Quiet," which follows the same plot-line as Margot Zecmach's It Could Always Be Worse. In "Peace and Quiet," the rabbi's role is played by a wise woman, and the harried protagonist is a farmer who lives alone but cannot get any sleep due to the creakiness of his house. I simplified the pattern pieces, used thread instead of glue, and opted for imagination instead of cutting out a felt house. I acknowlege that goats generally are not green and cows are not pink.

Here's what I came up with:

The farmer consults the wise woman

The harried farmer tries to get some sleep

I try to use craft felt as much as possible because pure wool felt is expensive and I need to save it for my dolls. Craft felt can be found at many hobby stores as well as textile shops.

Completed Dorothy Dress

2010-11-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was working on a Dorothy from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz dress for Lucia's Halloween costume. She was going to be a witch until I found blue and white cotton gingham fabric. I had told her, "You know, you could still wear the silver shoes and be the Wicked Witch of the East before Dorothy's house landed on top of her," but Lucia did not think that was funny.

Here's the dress (Princess the blue dog plays Toto):

We saw four other Dorothy costumes last night, including a wee toddler in arms, but Lucia was the only Dorothy from the book, not the film.

Crafty Thursday: Dress in progress

2010-10-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

Promo for the week:
Handmade Spark recently posted a nice Holiday Gift Guide featuring the Natural Kids Team. Unlike Bede and Lucia, I'm not a bowling fan, but even I was drawn to the Mushroom Bowling set by MuddyFeet.

[/End Promo]

Currently, I have a number of custom orders in the works, plus I am working on a simple version of Dorothy Gale's blue and white gingham dress from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I was in a hurry when I bought the pattern for the custume, and did not realize that this pattern had the pinafore sewed to the white shirt with a zipper up the back. If Dorothy Gale had been a real person, her shirt would be separate from the pinafore and there would be no zipper. The book was written in 1900, after all. My genius niece/master seamstress says someday she will send me a tutorial on how to make a buttonhole insert for patterns that require zippers.

In the meantime, I'm making do with what I have, which is a modification of the same dress Lucia's had for years, only with a square neck. I'll post a photo when I'm done. Lucia plans to wear this dress with silver-toned shoes as depicted in the book. To represent Toto, Lucia will carry Bede's favorite stuffed animal from childhood, a blue and white dog named "Princess." Princess was named after Princess Leia.

Reticence

2010-10-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Author Sarah Prineas wrote a guest blog-post I appreciated on Shrinking Violet Promotions. It's called I Will Be Your Friend But I Will Not Be Your Fan: A Rant About How Authors Use Social Media Promotion. I took time to read through the comments as well as the post, as they provided some good counterpoints to the rant. Prineas follows up that post with Solutions: One Way to Deal With the Self-Marketing Frenzy, Plus a Shout-Out to Publishers.

I am reticent to do self-promotion for my online shop because I am easily overstimulated, and operate from the assumption that you are easily overstimulated as well. Still, I would like for people to find my shop easily through internet searches when what I offer is what they want. I've considered a paid ad, but as one who doesn't often click on ads, I wonder how prudent the expense would be.

Enough about promotion! I am happy that I now have a childhood favorite book called Little Witch, by Anna Elizabeth Bennett. I plan to read it to my daughter after slogging through the rest of The Road to Oz. I enjoyed rereading the first few books as an adult, but despite the presence of Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter,I realized I was Done With Oz when we came to the chapters with the head-throwing Scoodlers.

Crafty Thursday: Autumn Themed Dolls

2010-09-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

For this week's Crafty Thursday post, I am pleased to present four autumn-themed dolls photographed with autumn trees by The Enchanted Cupboard and wooden flames by Mamakopp:

The four dolls in the photo are a Lantern Walker for Martinmas(shop link will added after the doll is listed), Salamander King fire elemental, Night Queen, and Guitar Player. Here are pictures of the backs of the capes for the Night Queen and Salamander King:

Night Queen's bat

Salamander King's creatures

As I wrote in my shop listing, the legend of the fire-resistant salamander may be inspired by the species that hibernate on logs. When people threw logs on a fire, the salamanders woke up and fled the flames.

Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience

2010-09-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

The first song on Natalie Merchant's album Leave Your Sleep is Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience, by Charles Causley, a title evocative of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. I'm abashed that this song is my introduction to Causley's poetry. I don't know how to write about poetry in a way that isn't choked with cliches. I'd rather just read it, think about it, and appreciate it anew when it's set to music. However, if I had to choose one word to describe Causley's poetry, it would be the German sehnzucht, which roughly translates to yearning and longing. Here is a video of Merchant performing "Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience."

This essay by Dana Gioia mentions Walter de la Mare as an influence. Yes. Causleys' work immediately reminded me of Mare's work, whose poems appear at first as if they are meant for children, but resonate with adults as well.

Crafty Thursday: Two Little Witches

2010-09-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

I recently made two witch dolls inspired by the books I enjoyed as a child. An Amazon recommended book-list helped me remember that one of my favorite books was Little Witch, by Anna Elizabeth Bennett. Other books I really liked were The Resident Witch and The Witch Who Saved Halloween, both by Marian T. Place, The Wednesday Witch, by Ruth Chew, and The Witch Family, by Eleanor Estes. I was also fond of The Witch Next Door, by Norman Bridwell, and am sad that this book is out of print while Bridwell's large rouge canine continues to thrive.

Blue Witch Doll
Purple and Black Witch Doll
Trees and fly agaric mushrooms: The Enchanted Cupboard

Paper Doll Art

2010-09-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Bede is going to have two art shows at local venues this winter. One art show will be at the coffee shop 3 blocks from our house. Lucia is planning an art show, too, and has already started hanging her pictures over the fireplace. I hope that some of her paper-doll art inspired by Elisa Klevin's The Paper Princess and sequels will make it into the show. Here is a scanned reproduction of one of the paper-dolls:

The Big Ship Sails...

2010-09-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

I had two good gigs last Friday and Saturday. Here's what makes a gig good:

1. I like my stories and songs.
2. Other people like my stories and songs.

Bede and Lucia came to my Saturday gig, and afterward Bede said that my performance style had become a lot warmer and less formal. Lucia pretend-snored during the final song, because she is seven years old and she thought it was funny.

The last song I played was a Travis-picking version of "The Big Ship Sails" (also known as Illy-Ally-Oh, and Ally-Ally-O) inspired by Kate Rusby's version. I even managed a simple guitar solo with suspended chords.

The lyrics of the original song are much more interesting than the version I played. I'm in the wrong time period and part of the country to sing to preschoolers about ships sinking to the bottom of the sea and staying there. My lyrics:

The big ship sails on the illy-ally-o...
The big ship sails and it's rocking on the sea...
The big ship sails and the clouds are racing by...
The big ship sails and it's coming home again...

Like many folk-songs, this one has 3 chords and follows a I,IV,V chord pattern. However, the suspended chords give the song more texture and helps to evoke a daydreaming mood. That's why my daughter pretend-snored, the stinker. I'll try to put together a simple recording (of the song, not the snoring) for the blog.

After both gigs, I heard people singing "The Big Ship Sings" as they gathered up their books and children. That was good to hear.

Waldorf-inspired Nativity Set

2010-09-09T07:37:00.001-07:00

Here is my first Nativity set of 2010:

Listed on Alkelda: Dolls for Storytelling

This is only my second year of sewing dolls for the shop, and I am not used to thinking of the winter holiday season this far in advance. I'm posting the first set here to help it be more easily found in internet searches.

A favorite song from (not too) long ago

2010-09-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

My favorite Duran Duran song is "Secret Oktober" which was the B side of the single "Union of the Snake," back when singles had sides. The song was written and recorded in a twenty-four hour time period before the "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" album tapes were sent off. In the 1983 original, only vocalist/lyricist Simon LeBon and keyboardist Nick Rhodes are on the track. Recently, I found this cover by musician Michael Aaron, and I like it better because I'm predisposed toward stringed instruments. The rapid images of the video itself are distracting, mainly because I want to see what the guitar chords are. You can listen to the original here.

Some of you (like my mom) will say, "I didn't like the band then, and I certainly won't punish myself by listening to one of their songs now." Fine. Go ahead. Disparage away. When I was 14, I officially threw over Top 40 for heavy metal but quietly kept most of my old music. When it comes to musical preferences, I tend to acquire new genres without losing my appreciation for the old ones. The one exception may be modern musicals a la "Les Miserables" and "Phantom of the Opera." I remember listening to one of those musicals while I washed the dishes only to have my mom enter the kitchen and say, "You know, I preferred Motley Crue to this."

Interview on NaturalKids

2010-09-04T16:00:00.001-07:00

I've got a Friday Feature on the NaturalKids Blog! Here it is:

Friday Feature With Alkelda

Crafty Thursday: In praise of green

2010-09-02T20:26:00.001-07:00

Earlier in the week, I provided a collection of favorite green items from my fellow NaturalKids Team members which was posted on the Natural-Kids blog.

Beneath the Rowan Tree added my Weeping Willow Princess to a collection of green favorites for their Waldorf Friday feature, which you can see here. Today, I listed a Luna Moth Fairy Queen:

I've never seen a luna moth in person. They are supposed to be quite common, but because adults only live for a week and come out in the evening, they can be hard to spot. My introduction to the luna moth came from chapter five of Then There Were Five, by Elizabeth Enright:

Floating out of the dark, knocking against the overhang, came something so beautiful, so fairylike that Oliver hardly dared to breathe. The thing was a moth, but like no other moth that he had seen. Its wings were as wide as his two hands opened out, as frail as a pair of of petals, and colored a pale, pale green: a moonlit silvery green.

"Gee," whispered Oliver. He sat there staring. "A luna! I never thought I'd see a real luna."

Luna moths are significant in the books The Woman in the Wall, by Patrice Kindl, and Luna, by Julie Anne Peters.

Rainbow by my feet

2010-08-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

I was at the farmer's market in Beaverton, Oregon this past weekend, which is where I saw the rainbow in the fountain. From my point of view, the arch of the rainbow passed directly in front of my feet. Although eye-witness accounts are often not accurate, everyone present officially confirmed that that the only thing at the "end" of the rainbow was wet grass. As we walked toward the car, I found a little treasure in the form of a Venetian glass disc pendant. While the two occurrences were not connected, the glass pendant will always remind me of the rainbow.

What Could Go Wrong?

2010-08-20T22:35:00.001-07:00

After reading about Adrienne's fire in the kitchen, I proposed that she and Tanita (author of A La Carte, a novel with recipes) start a cooking show that ends in a culinary disaster every time. Adrienne or Tanita said, "We could call it 'What Could Go Wrong?'"

My brother burnt rice once, and for years was razzed as the guy who couldn't cook rice. I stay away from cooking pasta because inevitably I burn my foot when boiling water leaps up out of the colander over the sink. I've thought about wearing boots in the kitchen, but now I just stay away from pasta. Only recently was the pine-nuts moratorium lifted for Bede. As much as I love my mother's cooking, I still get a little nervous when she picks up a kitchen knife, because I remember the blood.

Despite the failures, a lot of yummy things have emerged from our kitchen. I can recall only one time that we made something so awful that we decided to give up and go out to dinner. We return to the kitchen because we are living creatures and we must eat. Besides, what could go wrong?

Please post your kitchen adventures in the comments. Feel free to embellish.

Dolls with Wings

2010-08-17T22:15:00.000-07:00

Here's what I've been working on lately in terms of sewing:

Butterfly Fairies:

Rainbow Butterfly Fairies:

Butterfly fairies can be found in my shop.

Black Butterfly Fairy Queen:

This one is listed here.

Blue Frost Angel (sold):

I hope things are well with you. We've had our proverbial ups and downs this summer, but I am grateful for this life.

Whatever you lose (like a you or a me)

2010-08-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of "Maggie and Milly and Molly and May," performed by Natalie Merchant and based upon the poem by E.E. Cummings. It's off of the album, "Leave Your Sleep." I read the poem aloud to my daughter, and then she wanted more Cummings poems. I realized that I was going to have to search for awhile in my Complete Poems collection for the ones appropriate for her, so I decided to switch to Carl Sandburg's collection for children called Wind Song. Has anyone set Sandburg's poems to music?

StoryCorps Video

2010-07-25T22:35:00.001-07:00

Jules of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast sent me this video by StoryCorps. It's an animated video of Joshua Littman, a 12 year old boy with Asperger syndrome, interviewing his mom, Sarah:

Q&A from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Capsule Review: The Brian Waite Band

2010-07-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

I have a stack of children’s music CDs to review. I’m chagrined to say that by now, none of them are new releases. Still, maybe I can do some good by writing capsule reviews.

I’ll start off with The Brian Waite Band's concept album, 20,000 Volts Under the Sea. The songs chart the story of the band’s journey to Atlantis City to play at the Neptune Theater, but are almost foiled by the machinations of Disco Don. The album itself is a homage to the seventies and early eighties music of various power-guitar rock bands, plus reggae, funk, disco, blues, and the requisite Elvis tribute. Much of the humor has arch references that mainly grownups who grew up in those decades will understand, especially in the “audiobook” at the end (with a narrator’s voice that sounds suspiciously like an impersonation of Greg Paige of The Wiggles. I initially wondered about the CD’s accessibility for children, but the more I listen to it, the more both my daughter and I enjoy it. We both agree that the songs are well-written and fun to listen to, but don’t care for the surfeit of silly voices. Favorite songs include the Queen-esque “Get Down,” and the hair-band anthem “Tidal Pool Party.” Warning: regardless of how you feel about the song “Disco Don,” it’s an earworm that will follow you and haunt your dreams.

Who I’d recommend this album to: fans of Eric Herman, Recess Monkey, plus my guitar teacher and my younger brother (who doesn't have a website). I'd recommend the album to El Jope Magnifico too, but I wonder if that's just a ploy of mine to get him to bring his daughter to the concert next Tuesday, July 20, at the Douglas-Truth Branch of The Seattle Public Library. It's on a workday morning, but rock and roll often plays at unruly hours.

More reviews to come....

Sock Monkey in a Car

2010-07-05T21:50:00.001-07:00

I am so out of it that I just found out that there was a KIA commercial shown during the 2010 Superbowl featuring a sock monkey. My godmother's younger sister, Bonnie Connelly, designed both the sock monkey itself and the large sock monkey costume. Connelly is the creator of In My Own Dream Studio and author of Everything's Coming Up Sock Monkeys.

I still have my own sock monkey made by my aunt before I was born. Monkey doesn't look like any other sock monkey in creation. I bit the tassle off when I was a baby, and my aunt has often rued that Monkey has no ears. For some reason, when my friends see Monkey, they start to snicker. Poor Monkey!

Song Practice Update

2010-07-01T18:49:00.001-07:00

I've started to learn to fingerpick melodies on the guitar using the Homespun Video DVD Easy Steps to Guitar Fingerpicking by Happy Traum. I already know how to play alternate bass notes and have the basics of Travis Picking, so it's handy to have those skills already, but my playing is still pretty methodical. My current goal is to "have the music flow with variations that sound pleasing to the ear. I'm working on the first song on the DVD, which is "Skip to My Lou." (You can hear Pete Seeger sing and play the song on the banjo here.) It's only two chords, and I'm reminded of how I felt when I first started out. I needed to take lots of breaks to let my brain and fingers absorb the new information. I got tired of the song. Every time I returned to the song, I found that I had remembered a little bit more than I had before.

I think I'll have "Skip to My Lou" underway by the end of next week. After that, "Spike Driver's Blues" is next (link is to a YouTube video with a Mississippi John Hurt recording).

The Summer Program

2010-06-19T09:38:00.001-07:00

Other than a week of camp in August, I have full daily care of Lucia this summer. I will need to be particularly mindful to make sure that she gets regular social contact with others children. I am fine when other children come over to play and they can entertain themselves fairly well without grownup interference. I took a tip from a friend to tell children that they need to work things out so that everyone is satisfied, rather than stepping into conflicts to propose solutions.

Lucia started weaving with her new peg loom yesterday. At school, she discovered how much she loved weaving, and would come home to exclaim about the new colors on her loom. Yesterday, after she wove three colors, I read aloud the Grimms' Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle. There are multiple variations of the rhymes that the maiden calls out, and when I studied the fairy tale for my library school storytelling class, I looked for the most satisfying rhymes:

Spindle, spindle, speed away,
Bring my suitor home today.

Shuttle, shuttle, weave and glide,
Bring my suitor to my side.

Needle, needle, sharp and fine,
Come adorn this house of mine.

Other activities planned for the summer are library programs (though they are quite sparse this year), storytimes at bookstores, weekly park days and daily walks. There will be some piano and swim lessons, too. Quite possibly I will dig out the paving stone kit she received as a birthday present years ago.

Through all of this, I need to work on my manuscript, practice guitar, and sew dolls for the shop. Some days all I want to do is read. When I cook dinner, I try to find recipes that don't require a lot of attention other than occasional stirring. That way, I have no choice but to sit near the stove and read.

Mennonite Artist Project Interview

2010-06-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

I was recently interviewed by the Mennonite Artist Project. You may read the featured artist interview here.

Update: I didn't realize that you needed a Ning account and password to sign in to read the interview. My apologies. If you don't want to create a free Ning account but want to read the interview, send me an email (see profile).

Fifth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge

2010-06-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

MotherReader is hosting the Fifth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge from June 4-6. I'm not officially taking part in it this year, but I may be able to ~~find~~ rationalize some tasks this weekend that require taking 10 minute breaks here and there. Anyting that involves tending to the stove, for example, is best served by me staying nearby with a book. I'm in the middle of a number of books right now:

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, by Carl Sagan

Life as We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search for (and Synthesis of) Alien Life, by Peter Ward

Darwin's Universe: Evolution from A to Z, by Richard Milner (I'm really just browsing it at this point.)

LoneStarMa recommended Endymion Spring, which just came in, so I'll take a look at that too, plus a friend of mine just lent me The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales, by Oliver Sachs. I am particularly interested in the first essay, which deals with prosopagnosia, a condition in which there is an impaired ability to recognize faces.

Building a world in less than 4.5 billion years*

2010-05-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

I often get so caught up in the background research for stories that I can easily allow that research to eclipse the true task, which is to write. As I work on creating a believable landscape for my current story, I need to figure out weather patterns, seasons, agriculture and technology so that I don't inadvertently create an equatorial desert next to an arctic tundra. Whatever I make up, I want to be plausible. I just ordered this book in the hope that it is useful: World Building, by Stephen Gillett. World Building is part of Ben Bova's series called Science Fiction Writing.

*In this case, 4.5 billion years is 4.54 × 109 years ± 1%. An American billion is a thousand million, whereas a British billion is a million million. To quote Lone Star Ma, "Grrf."

Brontë Sisters Power Dolls

2010-05-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me a video of the mighty Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë Sisters represented as action figures battling the evil publishing industry:

Bronte Sisters Power Dolls

Watch out for the powerful Brontë-saurus!

She Wanted Pink

2010-05-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

When I was little, blue was my favorite color. Later, I became smitten with green. I actually appreciate most colors, but for a long time, I recoiled from pink. Pink was not cool! Pink was for girls! Wait a minute... pink was for girls, therefore I hated it? How did that make sense? And who made up the notion that pink was for girls, anyway? Theories abound, but for me personally, once I realized that I was perpetuating a preposterous notion, I decided to give pink equal consideration.

For a birthday present, a friend of my daughter received this utterly pink doll:

By the way, I realized I never shared with you the little doll I made for myself, based upon the embroidered overalls I had when I was five. Here is a link to the four photos: Weeping Willow Maiden.

Entr'acte?

2010-05-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

I had no ethical qualms about blogging about my daughter when she was little. My parenting of her was intertwined with the stories and songs I learned. As she grows older, I am drawing back from writing about things that are potentially intrusive to her privacy.

I used to write under a nom de plume. It wasn't that I had anything in particular to hide, but there was some grace in being able to write and have friendships without worries that my real name was out there for people to see. At one point, I caved in to what I perceived to be pressure not to be anonymous, and added my name to the blog. Something changed after that. I felt more exposed and less willing to take chances with writing. I have tried not to "overshare" on the internet, but still, I'm uncomfortable. I've given up too much of my privacy.

That may be a good deal of why this has been a reticent blog for the last while. I've not wanted to let the online friendships slip away, and blogs help keep conversations going. I care about books, music, science, and textiles, but the drive to write about them doesn't manifest itself in blog form anymore.

This is not the end of the blog, nor is it my last blog post, but it's only fair to acknowledge that the regular writing is done, at least for this time. I will update on occasion. I don't want to lose touch with you.

Update: If you would like to read occasional updates from me, please send an email to: saintsandspinners [at] gmail [dot] com.

Alice's Celestial Globe

2010-05-12T12:32:00.001-07:00

The Bainbridge Island library has a copy of Alice's Celestial Globe made by Greaves and Thomas. John Tenniel's illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Thought the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There are matched with many of the known constellations. The link has photos that are much better than the ones I took last Friday plus explanations of the constellations.

The Orrery Cafe in the Isle of Wight is a planetarium that depicts Alice's celestial globe. When the House of Glee finally visits England, we must also visit the Isle of Wight for the Orrery Cafe alone.

Exponents and Nature By Numbers

2010-05-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen The Powers of Ten (10) by Ray and Charles Eames? It's a short film about exponents that extend outward toward the cosmos and inward toward the atom.

A friend recently sent me Nature by Numbers, a film by Cristóbal Vila. It's about math in nature with a particular focus on Phi (ϕ). It's beautiful, but makes me feel a bit melancholy that ammonites are no more.

CBTNW: A Teeny-Tiny History of Nearly Everything

2010-04-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

I recently finished Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Initially, I accidentally ordered A Really Short History of Nearly Everything. I asked Bede, "What's next, a board book series?" and started to think about a post for Children's Books That Never Were. Here is the letter from hapless editor Garrulous MacKenzie recommending some edits:

Dear Bill Bryson,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript for a board book entitled A Teeny-Tiny History of Nearly Everything as a companion piece to A Short History of Nearly Everything and A Really Short History of Nearly Everything. The concept of two-page spreads that illustrate contrasting items is standard of the board book genre, and you execute it brilliantly with the atom and the galaxy:

I enjoyed browsing through some of the other subjects, too. The chemical elements with the smallest and largest number of atoms (hydrogen and lawrencium!),and the oldest and newest sets of hominid skeletons were standouts. However, there are two major problems which need to be addressed before we can conceive of publishing your board book.

First, despite the catchy title, in no way is your board book teeny-tiny, or even “brief.” The ideal length of a board book is 10 pages long, which includes both sides of the boards. Your manuscript is 10 ²pages long, which is exponentially more than a single board book can accommodate. It’s possible that we could split the manuscript up into 10 equal parts and feature it as a box set, but in the meantime, I suggest that you work on trimming some of the sections. For example, you could eliminate the Permian-Triassic extinction event, also known as “The Great Dying,” as it might make people concerned about climate change. Science is supposed to be fun, after all!

Second, you say that this manuscript is a “history” of nearly everything, but the subject matter is natural science, not history. Studies have shown that the general public does not take kindly to being misled. Remember the controversy over A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway, where everyone thought it was a travel cookbook? There was a similar outcry over A Room With a View, by E. M. Forster, as 99 percent of the story took place outside of the room in question. Children are even more discriminating than adults when it comes to deception. For the sake of clarity and truth, I recommend a title change along the lines of A Practically Microscopic Scientific Examination of a Whole Lot of Stuff.

Sincerely,
Garrulous MacKenzie
Sharper & Crow Publishers
***

Disclaimer: This post is a work of fiction mean to be for fun. As far as I know, Bill Bryson is not actually working on a board-book series.

Saturn Slide Show

2010-04-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

Take a look at these photos of Saturn from the Cassini spacecraft, hosted on the New York Times website:

Saturn Up Close

Photo number 13 shows sunlight reflected off a lake of Titan.

My Mom Had Worms: A Story for Earth Day

2010-04-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

For the purposes of Earth Day (which really should be every day), I am going to exploit some family history:

My mom was a fan of compost long before compost cones made the whole setup easier. The little compost container by the side of the sink was a regular fixture in each of our successive homes. A homemade structure out in the back yard would contain all of our leftover fruit and vegetable peels. However, when I was in graduate school, my mom ordered a worm bin and put it in the basement.

The first day that the worm bin resided in the basement, my mom called the worm bin hotline to ask why the worms were looking so peaked and tired out. "They have jet lag," the customer service representative explained.

My mom asked, "Do they have personalities?"

The representative paused, and then said, "They have a collective personality."

Soon after, the worms staged their first jailbreak. Mom got them back into the bin, but after that, my brothers and I refused to go near it. My mom tried to convince my brothers and me that the worms were actually good tenants. We said NOTHING DOING, and told her that we would continue to put fruit and veggie scraps into the compost container upstairs, but when it came to feeding the worms, she was on her own. Every time the worms broke free, mom would yell, "Worm alert! Worm alert!" and try to get us to help her round them up. We were stubbornly uncooperative. Years later, when the worms finally died, my mother wept over their carcasses.*

These days, vermiculture is quite fashionable. My daughter does not care for most animals, but is a fan of insects and earthworms. I might be persuaded to host a "wormery" for her sake, but not until all of the other household projects on our list have been completed. That's a pretty safe statement to write.

Happy Earth Day!

*Yes, okay, that is an exaggeration. Many thanks to my mom for letting me take creative license with this story.

Felt Board Tutorial

2010-04-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

Kristy of Textiles4you has a tutorial on how to make a travel felt story board. She's quite crafty and is passionate about upcycling.

WIP: Two Goats on a Bridge

2010-04-15T15:13:00.000-07:00

I started out simply telling stories as I learned them. When I took up guitar, I began to look for ways to incorporate music into the stories. These days, I rarely tell stories without music intertwined somehow. It's a matter of adapting to attention spans. Some people are master storytellers and can keep a toddler's attention for 30 minutes without the use of melody. However, those tellers still use rhythm and rhyme, so I would argue that they are employing the use of percussion.

Right now, I'm working on an all-musical version of "Two Goats on a Bridge," a Russian folktale you can find in Margaret Read MacDonald's Peace Tales: World Folktales to Talk About and Three Minute Tales. It's got a jaunty tune that has one minor chord for spice. Once I'm reasonably satisfied with it enough to use it in performance, I'll test it out on my Third Place Books Friday morning crowd. There's a preschool that often comes when I perform, and they help keep me from getting mired in a performance rut.

It would be great to be able to do a felt-board play along with the song, but I would need a third hand to make it work. There are times when I wish I had a storytelling partner like Adrienne has with Jason. I also wish I had a writing partner, but that's a discussion for another time.

(Regarding the title of this post: WIP stands for Work in Progress.)

A Vacation: to there and back again

2010-04-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I was fortunate enough to be able to accompany my aunt on a three day trip to Vancouver Washington and Portland, Oregon. Bede took care of Lucia on Friday, and on Saturday, a friend of mine with three children had Lucia play at her house for a few hours. I had a wonderful, relaxing mini-holiday. Powell's Books was a significant part of my travels, as was Multnomah Falls. Early Sunday morning, I woke up and wrote for an hour, then fell back asleep. Later on, it occurred to me that I would be far more creative on a regular basis if I got more rest.

Here's what's coming up: more visitors, a gig at the Children's Museum on Thursday, and more visitors after that. I'm also planting two raspberry canes in a raised bed. This may not sound exciting now, but if one takes the long-range view, it may very well be something over which to kvell. Gardening is one big game of, "Maybe this time it'll be different. Maybe this time it will grow."

Crafty Thursday: Spectrum

2010-04-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

One of the most challenging things about my doll-making business is taking accurate photos. Photos have improved since I invested in a photo light tent last autumn (the two homemade version I tried didn't work). Still, there are some felt shades that simply don't show up accurately and require Photoshop skills I do not have. When I presented to the NaturalKids Team my challenge regarding a recent doll I made, Daria of LaLa! Shoes revealed that she had extensive Photoshop skills and offered to help. She said that the human eye can register more color shades than a camera, and that it's even harder to reproduce those colors in prints. Daria is working on a tutorial for me so that I can learn to do the work myself, but in the meantime, she changed my lavender doll from this:

The doll is dressed in a pleasing shade of mauve; however the felt itself is not actually this color.

To this:

This orchid color is the true shade of the felt.

It is an odd construct that one has to edit a photo to make it an honest representation. Photography is both art and science.

Adrienne, Amish Guitar, Handwork, and Odd-Fish

2010-04-03T18:37:00.001-07:00

Here are a few items that I have gathered into one blog post. If I were clever all the time, I would have made them four separate blog-posts, but I am only clever on Tuesdays and alternate weekends.

1.
The wonderful Adrienne of What Adrienne Thinks About That came to visit me in Seattle after the Public Library Association conference in Portland, Oregon. She drove up with a friend on my birthday and we got to hang out for a day and a half before she had to fly back to New York. That visit was a wonderful birthday present. This was the first time my husband and daughter got to meet Adrienne, and my daughter was besotted. She would occasionally burst out with, "Adrienne? I loooooove you." I felt the same, but was less demonstrative.

2.
At PLA, Adrienne met up with Amish Guitar who gave her a handy Emergency Guitar Kit to deliver to me. This kit came in a zip-lock bag with a number of smaller zip-lock bags that included:
a. Emergency Guitar Strap with lock-clip (string with a bread-tie)
b. Emergency Capo (toothpick with rubber band)
c. Emergency Chord Charts (need a magnifying glass to read them)
d. An I.O.U. for an Emergency "Bad Gig" candy bar

Not included: Emergency Guitar Tuner

Emergency Guitar Kit

3.
Angela Mobley of The Artist the Mom wrote a guest post on The Magic Onions about handwork in the Waldorf curriculum. Here's the post: Discovering Waldorf- Handwork in a Waldorf School.

4.
A couple of months ago, James Kennedy, the author of The Order of the Odd-Fish, sent me an email to let me know about fan art inspired by his book. I was intrigued, but when I went to my library system's online catalog, the only copy of Odd-Fish was in electronic format. After the rigmarole of downloading the program required to read it, downloading the book, and attempting to open the file, I remembered why I had deleted the program the last time I tried to read an electronic book, and gave up in a short burst of temper. However, James Kennedy had the publishing house send me a copy of Odd-Fish newly released in paperback. Thank you, James Kennedy!

Fairy Ring

2010-03-31T20:19:00.001-07:00

Book widget recommendation?

2010-03-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

Today, Jen of SewnNatural presented a nice writeup of some of my latest activity with the NaturalKids team. The book suggestions I will be posting on a regular basis in the sidebar will need a nice, neat widget. Are there any recommendations out there? I have a GoodReads account, but my initial attempt to make a widget just for specific book recommendations on a bookshelf has not been successful, as it ends up pulling books from other bookshelves.

Update: We're going with Shelfari.

Storytelling Fabric

2010-03-23T18:38:00.001-07:00

Local illustrator Julie Paschkis has helped create some of my favorite picture books: The Great Smelly, Slobbery Small-Tooth Dog and Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile are two particular stand-outs in terms of how well the pictures and text work together. Jules of Seven Impossible Things has featured Paschkis a number of times including last Sunday's post here and an interview here.

On Sunday, when I visited the local fabric store to pick up some embroidery thread, I was surprised to find that Paschkis now has a line of fabric designs for In The Beginning. The collection is called Folklorica and its target audience appears to be quilters. I do not quilt, but I do sew a little, so I bought some of this fabric to make a merry storytelling skirt:

I would enjoy looking at someone's vision of a quilt made out of Paschkis' fabrics. If you ever make one, please let me know.

The Magic Onions: a guest blog post

2010-03-18T11:10:00.000-07:00

I wrote a guest blog post on storytelling as part of the "Discovering Waldorf" series in The Magic Onions. You may find it here: Discovering Waldorf- Storytelling.

Spring themed storytelling dolls on a nature display