Natural Kids Team folk tale guest post

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

Folk and Fairy Tale sets/ Life Update

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.)

Two Playscapes, Limitless Play

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

The Author and the Baker in Doll Form

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

Mary's Garden

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.

Blue Valentine Doll

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

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!

Candy Cane Fairies

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.

My Felt Wee Folk Hero*

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.

Completed Dorothy Dress

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

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.

Crafty Thursday: Autumn Themed Dolls

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.

Crafty Thursday: Two Little Witches

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

Waldorf-inspired Nativity Set

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.

Crafty Thursday: In praise of green

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.

Storytelling Fabric

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.

Four Seasonal Naturescapes

Quiet reflection in the living world is a rare, dearly sought-after state. Quiet on the blogfront comes across at best as benign neglect. I should at least let you enjoy some visuals of what I've been working on to put together for this year's gala auction class project:

Four Seasonal Naturescapes

I miss you. I will return. At the very least, I have a blog post to write about storytelling for The Book Chook's hosting day as part of the Blog Literacy Tour, Share a Story- Shape a Future 2010. That should be up by March 7. Hold me to it!

Five Year Celebration and a Giveaway

[Note to those reading this in RSS readers: this is the real blog post.]

Five years ago, I started a storytelling blog. My daughter was not yet two years old and I was still working as a children's librarian on a substitute basis. I had as a goal for that year to learn guitar or sewing, and surprised everyone (most of all myself) when I started lessons for both. Throughout the years, I've learned to know new people through blogging and have even got to meet some of them. Relationships with old friends with whom I'd been out of touch as well as acquaintances who've became good friends have been possible because of blogging.

I'm thankful for all of you. Today's celebration is in thanks for your friendship. I am hosting a giveaway of a doll I made especially for this day: an Astronomy Magus to aid you in storytelling or inspire you as you work.

The doll is made with hand-dyed dark blue wool felt and embroidered with blue and white stitches. To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post with a reflection on one or more of the following items:

1. A description of a beloved story from your childhood that you have not yet located. Be as specific as possible, and someone might be able to find the information to reunite you with that story.

2. A song you really enjoy that you don't think a lot of people know. Please provide a verse or two.

3. A scenario of a book you would love to read that to the best of your knowledge has not been written. Only share the story idea if you're not planning to write it yourself!

4. Explain quantum theory as if it were a story.

I will need to be able to contact the recipient of the Astronomy Magus, either through an email address found on your blog/website profile or through a private email you sent directly to me at: saintsandspinners [at] gmail [dot] com. If you send me a private email, please be assured that I will not use your address for any purpose but this giveaway.

"Why an Astronomy Magus?" you might ask. Some of you know how much I love outer space. The science-fiction I enjoy most has to do with interplanetary travel. You might not have been aware that when Carl Sagan says, "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be," my soul leaps with joy, but you've probably suspected that I watched every episode of the new Battlestar Galactica series. It is my hope that when I bring my first book-length story to completion, it will incorporate stories, songs and textiles into a science-fiction genre. That is why the Astronomy Magus is my gift.

The drawing for the Astronomy Magus ends Friday, February 26, at 6 P.M. Pacific Standard Time. You may comment multiple times, but each name will be entered only once. Parents and siblings of the House of Glee plus Brad the Gorilla are welcome to comment but will not be eligible for the drawing.

Briefest of Updates

The "wheels spinning in the mud" metaphor is apt for my current mode of thinking. I know that emerging from a hard place takes a certain kind of mindset that allows for gentle pressure of the gas pedal plus a goodly amount of spare cardboard to put under the wheels (wasn't it lucky that I had cardboard the last time the car got stuck in the mud?). Still, I'm a little amazed that when it comes to writing, my mind just goes blank. I can't even come up with original metaphors! I was glad when a customer gave me inspiration for a series of dolls to do for the NaturalKids "spring challenge." Here are four Blossom Princesses:

By the way, my five year blog-anniversary, sometimes called a "blogiversary," is coming up on February 21. That's a little over two weeks from now, and I'd like to do something nice for you all to celebrate.

In other news, my daughter had her first public performance last Friday. The assistant kindergarten teacher gave a concert where she sang and friends accompanied her on instruments and vocals. Lucia sang "Hey Ho, Nobody Home" with the teacher for the last song. She enjoyed herself on stage and was beaming for hours afterward.

Crafty Thursday: Heralds of Spring

I just realized that it's Crafty Thursday! For the most part, I've been working on small dolls for the class auction project, but I recently completed two larger dolls for a custom order, and was able to list some dolls in the shop as part of my Heralds of Spring 2010 Collection. The Spring equinox doesn't officially begin until March 20, but I am ready to be done with winter. Bulb flowers are peeping through the soil, the forsythia has bumps on its branches, and the flowering white currant bush has survived another year. (Unfortunately, the flowering red currant bush died in the heat wave last summer despite my hope that it had simply fainted.) I am bringing forth my spring collection in anticipation of the end of chills.

The Pussy Willow and Forsythia dolls have already sold, but as of today, the Daffodil is still in the shop, pictured with a thimble for size comparison:


Daffodil Doll With Basket

If you go to the listing, you'll see that the daffodil comes out of its ball of felt "dirt."

Here is the Forsythia Doll with Blossom Child:


And here is the Pussy Willow:



What are your favorite early spring flowers?