Our Favorite Winter Books.

Cai loves to be read to. This week he has started bringing us books and sitting on the couch so we can read to him. He has some clear favorites, and so do I. We tend to read books over and over again for several days in a row. Partly because I'm lazy and don't feel like putting them away and getting new ones out. Partly because I remember hearing that little ones learn best through repetition. Partly because if we read different ones all the time I end up feeling like we read them all, all the time. Right now we've been focusing on Christmas and winter books, so we've been reading these often. 

Here are some of our favorites.

We bought this one last year in an effort to start a tradition. It's a collection of twenty four stories that you read leading up to Christmas. A mother bear is telling the stories to her little one, Benjamin. The stories are all about a little bear who is traveling to Bethlehem to meet the Child who will be born. He meets people and creatures along the way such as an eagle, a man in red, a beggar, a giant, a rosebush. Each story ends with a little moral or truth. Honestly, this one isn't my favorite. I LOVE the concept, but the execution could be better. If anybody knows of a better book out there with the same concept, let me know. Still, it's neat for all three of us to sit in Cai's room and read it before bed.

This one is a classic. I remember learning in my chidlren's lit. class in college that it was a big deal in the world of children's books when it was released because it has a black main character and because it is set in the city. I just like it because it helps you to see the snow through the eyes of a little one.

I just bought this one from Sam's Club a few weeks ago. It is a very simplified version of the Christmas story told in rhyme. It's basically pulled from the book of Luke. It begins with Mary and Elizabeth. The pictures bother me a little because they're a little silly, but other than that I really enjoy it. It does a good job of telling all of the major parts of the story. Steve liked that when the wise men visit Mary and Joseph and Jesus are living in a house, not the stable. I really like that it ends by telling of Jesus's death and resurrection, making the story complete.

This is a favorite from my own childhood. Technically we haven't started reading this one yet, because the board book version is in Cai's stocking. It tells the story of a little boy's lost mitten that becomes shelter for the animals in the forest. All of them. At the same time. I love the illustrations. My favorite thing is that each page has a border with little peaks of what is happening on the next page or what has already happened on the page before. 

This is another Jan Brett book, so it has the same great illustrations. This one is a twist on the traditional gingerbread man story. It ends with the little boy making a house for the gingerbread baby. The board book version has a little flap you can open up and see the gingerbread baby inside the house which Cai loves.

We actually don't have this one in our house, but I want to. This is another one from my childhood that I loved. It tells the story of the first snow of the year in a small town. I remember that one lady knew it was going to be a big snow because her big toe hurts. All the grownups act the way grown up do about snow, but the kids just enjoy it. I'd like to pick this one up for Cai.

This one is out of print, and it's quite dated, but I still love it. I think it's based on a true story. It's about a brother and sister who are staying with their grandparents while their mom gets settled in their new house. It's only November, so when the snow starts falling in the morning, Gramma says it won't amount to much and will melt quickly. But it doesn't! The repetition of the line, "But the snow kept on falling," is one I remember reading out loud with my mom when she read it to us. Cai like to see all of the animals on the family's farm. 

What about you? What are your favorite winter or Christmas books? Do you have certain ones you read every year?

Wooden Nativity Set

I thought I'd share the little nativity set I made for Cai for Christmas.

I wanted to have a set that was safe for Cai to play with and that we could set up in his room every Christmas.

 I won't be letting him play with it this year, at least not with complete freedom, but next year, I hope to be able to.

 When we have more little ones, Lord willing, I want each of them to have their own little set to keep in their rooms.

I bought two diy kits from  Hobby Lobby. The first was blank wooden dolls that I painted myself.

The second was a foam build your own stable with a star and square black manger. It came with the foam stable in six pieces, the star and its stick, and three already made peg figurines.

I gave Cai the figurines to pla with, well, Mary and Joseph; Jesus is a bit too small.

Merry Christmas!

How to Make Six-Pointed Snowflakes

I have a confession. I am a little prideful about my snowflake making abilities. I make pretty awesome snowflakes. But here's another confession; anybody can make them. They're SUPER easy.
So I thought I'd share a quick tutorial. There are probably hundreds of these tutorials online, but, oh well, here's one more.

Start with a piece of white paper and scissors.

 The paper needs to be square in order for these to work, so with a regular piece of 81/2"x11" you need to start by making it square. Do this by folding one corner up to meet the other side. Cut along the edge.

 Leave the square folded in half in an isosceles triangle.

Now comes the trickiest part. You're going to fold the right corner up toward and past the center. Then do the same thing with the left corner. You want all of the side to meet up and a perfect point, so this takes a bit of trial and error.

Right side

Left Side

All edges line up.

Good point.

Edges don't meet. Needs fixing.

Bad point. Needs fixing.

 Once you've got all of you're edges lined up and a nice point, you're going to fold the whole thing in half.

It really doesn't matter which way you fold here, as long as you fold in half.

Now that you're done folding, you can start cutting. It's important to notice the difference in the two sides before you cut.

The side shown above, that is closed, while make the points of the snowflake.

The other side, pictured above, the open side, will create the space between the points. I usually start by cutting into the open side.

So you can see here, the left side will be the point.

 Now it's up to you. The more space you create by cutting, the lacier and more delicate your snowflake will be.

Cutting into both sides as pictured above, will create a snowflake like the one below.

Cutting into to only the open side, like the picture above, will create a snowflake like the one below.

Be sure to cut off the tip also. This creates the hole in the middle of the snowflake. You'll find that different kind of cuts here create different shapes in the middle.

I love the way the house looks when the sun shines through the windows. Snowflake shadows everywhere!

Christmas!

The promised pictures are here. I'm actually giving some of the wine glasses as Christmas presents myself. As soon as I'm done making this post, I'm going to list them on my Etsy. If any of you are interested in purchasing anything in my Etsy shop and live locally, please talk to me directly rather than paying the shipping price on Etsy.

These didn't turn out quite as nicely as I had hoped. It's a little difficult to see, but they are cranberry colored flowers with gold stems and leaves.

I think these are fun. I've done them in both the small tumblers and the claret glasses. It's difficult to see the detail in the pictures, but there's a little outlet at the bottom.

Though you can't see it against the white backdrop (I need to come up with a better plan for taking pictures), There is a small snowflake on the bottom left and top right of each word.

I actually made these over a year ago buy never listed them. I guess they're kind of cute.

I'm hoping I'll actually get some sales with some of these because I don't want them sitting around my house until next Christmas. I guess we'll see. Thanks to all of you who have been commenting and offering your support. It means a lot.

Slippers Galore!

So I finally have made the time to make another blog post. I've been working hard with school stuff and Christmas present making and a little while ago, planning Traci's shower. I hope to post pictures of that soon. Not the shower itself, but the decorations because I'm so proud of how I coordinated everything. For that I must wait until Traci returns so I can commandeer them from her camera.

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make some slippers, but not the grandma-ish ones my grandmother makes (go figure), but rather something that's at least cute if not stylish (can slippers be stylish?). So I did a google search for free patterns. It took me awhile to find one that I liked AND understood. Because Oma taught me to crochet, I don't know alot of the terminology; I've had to teach myself most of it through books, etc. Anyway, I found a free pattern by The Little House by the Sea which I really liked, then I embelished it a little with details, different yarns, buttons, and fabric paint on the bottom to prevent slipping. The outcome was a Christmas gift explosion. Below are some of the pictures. I'm thinking about posting them for sale on my etsy shop, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Opinions? Suggestions?


I hope to also soon be posting some new glasses I've painted, Christmas glasses, as well as pictures of the mugs I made as favors for Traci's shower. I plant to post all of them on my etsy this week and promote them as Christmas gifts. Anyway, stay tuned to see them!