SouleMama

Our Winter Reading Favorites

A note about Amazon: Since the start of this little blog, I've always used and linked to Amazon as a matter of ease and familiarity - Amazon as a website is one of the tools I use to organize my own book lists, seek out new books, and generally gather information. With that 'information' - I then head to either our library (when my fines aren't too high!), one of our favorite local independent bookstores, Powell's, or yes, sometimes Amazon, too. I want to let you know that I have recently begun participating in the Amazon Associates program, whereby I earn a small percentage of all sales made via links through this site. So, for example, if you follow any of these links below, or the Amazon links in my sidebar, I would earn based on anything you purchase in that shopping trip. I made this decision with the confidence that one - nothing in my content has changed or ever will change; two - my own personal buying habits will continue to remain as they always have; and three - that the earnings will - in a small but helpful way - contribute to my family. If you have questions about any of this, I'll do my best to answer them in the comments. I am not, however, up for debate. I trust that you will make the best decisions for your family, and  ask that you respect the ones I make for mine. Thank you!

And now let's talk about books...

There are a lot of books in this house - thrifted books, vintage books, purchased books, hand-me-down books, library books. They're on shelves, in baskets, under tables and chairs and in drawers. Really. While sometimes that feels absolutely magical and limitless when choosing a book, sometimes I know it can feel overwhelming too. So, for us - a system that's turned out to be really helpful is to pull them into 'themed' baskets - some that stay the same and some that change frequently. (As a side note - the kids love labeling the book baskets, with little tags they make for them, "library books, winter books, etc".)

Around the transition of each season, I pull - from all the various spots - our favorite 'seasonal' books, and these stay in a basket close at hand for the duration of the season. So the books are always around - they're just pulled a little closer to view when they're something we're focusing on, or the appropriate time of year. (The exception to this would be the straight-up traditional "Holiday" books that do get packed away with holiday decorations, because I just cannot bring myself to read The Night Before Christmas in July. I just can't do it.)

I tried very hard to keep it to our Top Ten, but you can see I failed miserably at that. I couldn't imagine leaving any of these out - they're all quite treasured by my family. So without further adieu, I bring you the favorites of our Winter books.

Christmas Treasury - Jan Brett
I can't imagine winter reading without Jan Brett's stories and tales full of scandinavian traditions. The Mitten, The Hat, and Christmas Trolls are our favorites, but I just found this treasury with a few more pulled together as one holiday collection. (As a side note - if you don't know about Jan Brett's website, and you have little ones, you must pay it a visit. It will keep you busy all winter long.)

Snow - Uri Shulevitz
This classic is simple and sweet and beautiful. When the snow starts to fall around here, we find ourselves quoting this one to each other a lot. "'It's snowing' said boy with dog. 'It's nothing' said Man with hat." It's one that contains enough repetitive phrases and such that it's a perfect read for the very-beginning readers among us.

The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice - Wendy Pfeffer
A wonderful non-fiction picture book which explains the significance of Solstice, as well as some of the traditions and ways that cultures throughout history have celebrated it. There are activities and experiments as well, making this one a really wonderful homeschool or classroom resource.

The Little Fir Tree - Margaret Wise Brown
I found a vintage copy of this one illustrated by Barbara Cooney that we adore, which includes music for the carols. I haven't seen the illustrations in the new one I've just linked to, but the story is a lovely one of a living pine tree and it's presence in a family's holiday. Brown's rhymes are so sweet and the story is soothing.

The Return of the Light: Twelves Tales from Around The World for Winter Solstice - Carolyn McVickar Edwards
This collection contains traditional tales that tell how different cultures celebrate the magic of solstice. While the faiths and different cultures vary greatly, the connecting themes of 'renewal' and 'change' and 'light' connect us all, and this collection is a wonderful demonstration of that through story.

Ollie's Ski Trip and Peter and Lotta's Christmas - Elsa Beskow
Two wonderful stories by one of our favorite author/illustrators. Calvin claims Ollie's Ski Trip to be his very 'favorite book of all' - (and we have a little bit of Jack Frost  in our dress up rack). It's one of mine too - full of magic and wonder at the winter season. Peter and Lotta's Christmas is equally as beautiful as Beskow's other stories, and includes a few sweet Swedish Christmas traditions in the tale.

Owl Moon - Jane Yolen
Owl Moon is essential winter reading! Jane Yolen so perfectly captures the simplest of activities and the magic and wonder and beauty within it. A walk in the woods to look for owls turns out to be a beautiful tale of all the magic of parent & child, nature & animals. This book has inspired many a nighttime walk around here. They're definitely magical.

The Big Snow - Berta and Elmer Hader
A wonderful tale of the animals of the wood preparing for winter, with a little help from some human friends. The children love to identify the 'signs' of winter that the animals sense. "They just know winter is coming, Mama!"

Nutcracker and Swan Lake - Lizbeth Zwerger
I fell in love with Lizbeth Zwerger's illustrations after recieving The Wizard of Oz from Amy a couple of years ago. Since then, our books illustrated by her continues to grow, and theyr'e always some of our favorites. These two tales are no exception - her illustrations bring these classic tales to life in a new way. In putting this post together, I discovered her illustrated version of The Night Before Christmas. I had no idea this one was out there, but it will most definitely be on the top of our wish list this year.

Winter - Gerda Muller
Gerda Muller's four seasons board books are one of my favorite newborn gifts to give. Without words, the pictures tell the tales of the seasons - in nature, animals, and people. I always think my children will have 'outgrown' this book, but they continue to love it. (It seems to not be available on Amazon, but it is available here at Nova Natural, where you can find a lot of the books I have in this list).

The Story of the Snow Children - Sibylle Von Olfers
Is there anything more magical than the thought of staring out the window at the snowflakes and having them turn into little snow children that carry you away on a magical winter adventure? Oh my. So much delight and goodness. The illustrations in this are simply stunning. (Not available through Amazon, but I did find it here at Three Sisters Toys.)

Nutcracker - E.T.A. Hoffman, Pictures by Maurice Sendak
Yup, two versions of the Nutcracker. Who can resist Maurice Sendak? Not I. The boys and I actually really love finding different illustrated versions of the same book - it's so fascinating to them to see how differently artists can interpret the same words. And well, this Maurice Sendak Nutcracker is a lovely one, and it's with the original text so it's a hefty and wonderful read.

Christmas in Noisy Village - Astrid Lindgren
This tale of Christmas contains all that I hope my children will remember from their own childhood holiday seasons - handmade gifts, baking, singing, celebrations with friends and family, and much joy.

I know there are other wonderful Holiday/Seasonal Book Lists going on out there in BlogLand, so if you've made one on your own blog, be sure to leave a link in the comments so we can see it! Additionally, if you have a favorite that hasn't been mentioned, let us know that too!

Happy cozy winter reading to you and the little ones in your life!

'tis the season of outtakes

It's time! For the annual Holiday Card family photo attempts. I always like the outtakes best (past years' evidence here, here and here). The smiling family shots are always lovely and treasured, of course...but the realness of the out-of-focus, off-centered, silly and funny ones will tell me so much more about how we live our lives and who we are years from now. And right now, they make me smile.

Cheers to all of you attempting the big Holiday Photo - wishing you some fun outtakes, too!

and so it begins...

{Thank you all so much for your support with yesterday's Shop update! Really, Thank You!}

First...there were the tiny sprinklings of snow.

Two hours later, the children's Wintry Wonderland and tree were set up in their room with much excitement.

Followed by the much-anticipated opening of the box of 'Winter Books". (I'm thinking about putting together a blog post with a list our favorite Winter Books - I did this two years ago, but it could use some updating. Would that be helpful?)

And that was all before Thanksgiving.

Then, with many every-ten-minute-all-day-long requests, and since our tree was ready and waiting for us from our family land DownEast, we figured...why not now?

And now...the first holiday craft project. Calvin was browsing Flickr over my shoulder on Monday and spied Sarah's Stacking Fabric Tree tutorial. "I'm making that!" he said with absolute certainty and headed to the fabric scraps. And so he did (his first project with interfacing - he was quite excited about that), and then created this little table centerpiece for it that I'm pretty much in love with.

And so it has begun!

Holiday Shop 2007

The Shop is Open!!

(Remember that The Shop has moved from Etsy to it's new location at Big Cartel. I'm getting lots of questions about this move, and I must say, I love Etsy! I just think the switch is going to be easier for the way I update and keep my shop. On the buyers end, there should be no difference - you can pay easily via Paypal, or even with a plain old credit card. Fancy that.)

You've already seen the quilts that are in the shop - "Dancing Leaves" and "Winter Drops."

Also in the shop are a small handful of cozy Linen Tote Bags. I say cozy because for some reason, this particular batch of linen that I bought is so buttery soft. These are just the size that I'm such a fan of - not huge, but big enough to carry what I really want to have with me all the time. There's a little bit of vintage goodness or embroidery on each.

And my new project - one that's been in the works forever (really. forever.), but finally coming to fruition - greeting cards from some of my photographs. In choosing what photographs to make a set of, I really had all my dear crafty friends in mind. Those special people who get as much pleasure looking at a pile of yarn as I do, but are sometimes a little tricky to buy for. These cards are for them. Or you. Each of the four cards in the set is a different needlework project (therefore, titled, "Needle Work" - I'm not so clever in the naming department) - knitting, embroidery or sewing. Blank on the inside, with envelopes.

In addition to the straight-up set of four cards, there is another option in The Shop. The Cards & Wrap - which is the "Needle Work" card set together with a linen, lined pouch. I wanted to design a holder for the cards that could then be used for so very many other things - as a notions bag, a wallet, etc.

There are a limited number of 15 of these Cards & Wrap sets available. They're all red linen and lined with a grey cotton. The embroidery on each is one-of-a-kind, but all in the same colorway of grey, red, brown, and light blue.

I had a really wonderful time dreaming up, making and photographing this collection of things for The Shop. I hope you enjoy seeing it!

Winter Drops

{Top and bottom photos by Steve}

This quilt has been such a fun sewing project for me the past few weeks. I fell in love with that one amazing little doily in the center while out antiquing recently, and the rest of the quilt grew from there. The quilt is grey linen on one side, and white swiss dots on the other. The circles of fabric - some new, and some feedsack - are all hand or machine appliqued, with some embroidery in there as well. And with a layer of cotton batting on the inside, it's very cozy. I could get attached to this one...

The beach was the only place I could imagine photographing this one, so that's where we headed this weekend. The beach was empty, and it was cold, cold, cold. But despite the cold (I knew it was time to stop photographing when I couldn't feel my fingers anymore!) and the early setting sun (really? 4:00?), it was beautiful there and I do believe the quilt got a little Maine beach blessing in the breeze before it will head out into the world somewhere else.

I'm very excited to share with you the rest of what I've made for The Shop - I've had a lot of fun putting this collection together. And no worries - there will be much more than quilts - with prices starting at $18 on up. So, yes...11 am EST tomorrow - (Tuesday) in this location. I'll post here when it's all up and live!

earlier tonight...

A photo shoot for The Shop had us on a little 'follow the moon' detour tonight, and this is where we landed - Portland Headlight. We nearly got locked in the park for the night - with Steve and I playing with cameras and the kids running around playing on the forts until well after dark. The boys were very disappointed we made it out - a sleepover at the park would have been much preferred (but COLD!).

saturday in the studio

Getting ready for Tuesday's Holiday Shop Update...

...with company from one of my helpers working on her favorite 'studio visiting' project - moving pins from one cushion to the other (No worries - she's perfectly safe - we learn these things early on around here);

...getting little pieces of magic like this one (Ezra's 'fancy letters') slipped under the door to me from my other helpers;

...dipping into my favorite basket of vintage bits and pieces in the sunniest spot I can find;

...with some new studio art inspiration from Samantha Lamb Photography - this photograph makes me so happy;

...and now, back to work!

post-thanksgiving

{before}

{after}

The during was lovely, too, of course. Full of family excitement: starting off with a turkey that didn't fit in the pan (oh, yes); news of an engagement (yay!!); and much feasting and celebrating and noise and laughter.

Today I'm hoping for a little bit of that second photo. (and some pie.) Who knew all that cooking and feasting could be so tiring?

Enjoy your Friday, friends!

from the kitchen

Above: the (short) life of a brownie.

I had some rare and lovely solo cooking time earlier this week, and ended up at Martha's Super Fudgy Brownie recipe. It's a good one. I'm picky about brownies (I know I'm not alone in this) - and the chewiness factor on these are just to my liking. The particulars of mine (in addition the recipe) are 4 oz each of semisweet and bittersweet, as well as semisweet chocolate chips mixed into the batter at the end. Um...so good. I shared them at a little evening gathering of crafty gals, and saved a few for breakfast for my little ones. Because that's always a good idea - swapping out the oatmeal and yogurt for chocolate and sugar before 7 am. Yikes. But fun.

The kitchen is where I've already been this week, and it's where I'll happily plant myself (and all my helpers) for the next 48 hours. The lists are made, the bread is rising, and my apron is on. Tomorrow promises to be a lovely day and a yummy one, too. The kids have been talking about the gratitudes we share following our Thanksgiving meal blessing. "But how do you choose just one...or even two!?" one of them asked. Exactly. There is so very much to be grateful for.

For those celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow...and for everyone else, too - I'm so grateful for each of you - the time you spend here and the many ways you contribute to my life. Thank you.  I hope your day is full of joy and goodness and many yummy things shared with those you love. 

bed of leaves