May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14 NIV

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Read-Alouds Anyone Can Enjoy

I just saw a blog from someone who was cleaning out her mother's home.  She came across many favorite children's books that she remembered.  Instead of keeping them, she took pictures of them.  I don't really have a lot of the books from my own childhood but I do have several that I used to read-aloud to my kindergarten and first-grade classes.  

I think the newest one among these is Shel Silverstein's book.  They are all "old" by the standards of when they were written.  But it didn't matter.  The children all loved the stories.  So I got to read them over and over again to each new class.

The classes loved the silliness of these poems and his "The Giving Tree" is a classic. 

Old fashioned classic.  Any kid can relate to the antics of this boy. 

So many kids were unfamiliar with this book but they knew of  Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland.  They grew to love it as we read through it.  


The book is so different from the movie.  We would watch the movie after we finished it and then have a comparison discussion. 


Once again, an old classic has become a movie.  I was reading this to kids long before the current movie came out.  I hope the movie has inspired kids to read it.

Holding on to a real book, snuggling in with a blanket, and reading (or being read to) is one of life's simple pleasures.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

How To Wish Your Son Happy Father's Day....

.....offer to take the darling grand-daughters for a sleep-over so he can have a date night with his wife.  Then get back together again on Father's Day for a jazz concert in the park and a BBQ at home.  Great weather in the SF bay area provides an extra bonus. 

"sew" here is how I entertained the DGDs: 
Makayla can now reach the foot pedal and sew on slow with supervision.

The beginning of a nine-patch quilt.  Fabric selection by Makayla

Violet sews while sitting on Nahn Nahn's lap.  She'll be independent soon.

Pillow design by Violet.  The modern scrappy look.
We had a great time together.  Sunday morning we made waffles for Pop-Pop and the day was complete by bringing out Legos (that their father used to play with).  Now we're off to the Jazz Concert. 
Makayla created a Family Room following the directions.

Great fun and so creative!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Stephen Tribute - A Little Bit More

Some projects need to marinate alot.  That's the way it has been with my Stephen tribute quilt.  I got it out last week and began to add some more detail.It took some time to add nails and knotholes to the shutter.


Now I'm thinking that it needs some vines or something over on the left.  I'm really stumped about how to do that.  Wouldn't bougainvillea look pretty?  There is no way I'm going to try to applique bougainvillea. So I thought to myself "Maybe I can find some silk flowers that can be taken apart and used for applique?".  Looking on line, I discovered that silk flower bougainvillea sprays cost a small fortune.  I decided to try my local Beverly's.  Beverly's has lots of different silk flowers but no bougainvillea or anything resembling it. 


 I bought a couple of California poppies (Stephen was after all a California boy) to bring home and play with but they are too big. They do look good on my mantle for summer.
I also bought some grassy looking sprays to play around with.  Those I may use. 


In the meantime, this project may have to go back to marinating mode for awhile.