I just discovered the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog this week through a newsletter from Spoonflower (someday when the economy calms down and I start buying craft supplies again, I will buy myself some custom printed fabric!). Today they posted an announcement about their second annual Handmade Holidays, where they give tutorials and ideas for all kinds of handmade gifts. I checked out the link to last year’s list, and there’s some seriously fantastic stuff on there. Maybe I will keep the momentum of this whole make-my-own-gifts idea after all.
Archive: October 2008
Adam spent a week in New Mexico with his family earlier in the month, and he brought me back this Halloween box of chocolates from Todos Santos Chocolates in Santa Fe. They look incredible; I especially love the eyeball, which is a raspberry truffle. The silver almonds look extremely cool, and that bloody finger on the right is too creepy to eat. But I thought this was a very cool Halloween treat.
I saw Daft Bat at B&N not long ago and picked it up thinking it would make a cute Halloween read aloud for the kids at school. Tony Ross’s illustrations are very free and rough around the edges, which helps with the “daft” idea-nothing looks too tidy. It’s actually just a great story about accepting differences (and you get to teach kids the word “daft”). It was just released here in the US, but it looks like it was released in Australia and the UK two years ago.
I bought this snowglobe from West Elm as a birthday present for my stepmother-in-law, who was in town for the weekend with Adam’s family. Her birthday was yesterday, and we gave this to her. But I’m kind of obsessed with it and want one for myself. I just think it’s incredibly chic and whimsical, and even though I’ve never gotten behind the whole snowglobe movement I think this is the perfect winter decoration. I may have to get one myself.
Before I list the books, let me just tell a little side story here. Originally I had 5 books on the list, just like with pre-k and kindergarten. Paper Bag Princess was the 5th book, but I read it to one class and decided to leave it off the list. At the end of the book the princess decides not to marry Prince Ronald and calls him a “bum.” One of my more outspoken little first graders announced, “That’s what my mommy says about my daddy all the time!” She was very excited and wanted to tell the class all about it (which obviously I stopped before she got started). Another kid thought “bum” was a bad word. When I did my elementary student teaching, the kids loved this book and I never had a bad reaction. And I love it, too. But I decided not to read it with any more classes to avoid the possibility of phone calls from parents!