Favorite Children's Books

My cousin recently called to ask for some book recommendations for a friend's new baby. As someone with former aspirations to be a children's librarian, I realized I had a lot to say on this subject. Here is a list, in no particular order, of some of my favorite books:

• Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
• When Sheep Cannot Sleep: The Counting Book by Satoshi Kitamura
  
• The Frog and Toad Collection by Arnold Lobel
• Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel
  
• Vera the Mouse Books by Marjolein Bastin (these may be out of print)
  
• Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban
  
• The Secret Staircase by Jill Barklem
• Hippos Go Berserk! by Sandra Boynton
  
• George and Martha: The Complete Story of Two Best Friends by James Marshall
  
• Professor Wormbog in Search of the Zipperump-A-Zoo by Mercer Mayer
• Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
• Alexander and Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
• Ollie the Stomper by Olivier Dunrae
  

Another great resource is Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves.

Quote of the Day

"It is impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you."
~ Nigel Slater
British cookbook author. Quote from his memoir, Toast.

Pancakes or Patchouli?

Every year for Christmas my family gets a package from friends in Colorado. The package always contains homemade jam and some baking mixes. This year the package arrived per usual and contained huckleberry pancake mix. The problem began with the fact that the pancake mix was in a cloth bag that smelled like patchouli soap.

I'm sure the mix was purchased at some nice gift shop that sold lots of nice stuff including soap, but it was as if the mix has been stored in a box with soap or incense for a very long time. The aroma was overpowering. I made the suggestion that we should, perhaps, toss the mix. However my dad said that because there was a plastic bag inside the cloth one, "It'll be fine!" I was informed we would be having it for breakfast the next morning.

The next morning my dad makes the pancakes and thinks as he is cooking that it does smell soapy, but thinks it's the cloth bag sitting on the counter. I am served the first pancakes and am presented with a pile of what can only be described as steaming soapy pancakes. I don't want to be deemed as picky and they do look normal so I am brave and take a bite.

This was a big mistake, the pancakes taste just as they smell or maybe worse. My mouth is engulfed with a soapy, horrible flavor. I spit the bite back on to my plate. Luckily, my mom has been equally dubious since she smelled the pancakes cooking and takes a small bite and also spits it back out. We ended up having toast for boxing day breakfast instead.

Random Pretties for 2009

Winter Fawn by Stephanie Congdon Barnes from her holiday shoppe (Sold Out)

Chasing Feathers Bangle from ModCloth.com ($14.99)



ilee's 2009 Letterpress and Silkscreen Calendar avaliable on etsy.com ($22.00)
I bought one for my mom and one for me!

Christmas Crafting

I've been busy making a few ornaments this season. I have been experimenting with felt this year. I don't really know how to sew. I can sew on a button, but that's about it. So, its been a bit of a challenge, but I made a couple things that I thought looked pretty good.

A tree for Margaret.

A little owly for Eliza.

A little stocking for Ona.

Filled with a licorice stick!

Selected Holiday Links

Claymation Christmas "Carol of the Bells"

The Doghouse Video

Claymation Christmas "O Christmas Tree"

Terrible Santa Photo Advent

Betty Crocker Cookie Commercial (totally lame, but it still makes me laugh)

Claymation Christmas "We Three Kings"

This is What Shuts Down Seattle

Seattle was hit with an unusually large snow storm last week, with a city full of hills and where buses are the only public transportation we've been quite ill equipped for the storm. My boss is calling it Snowmageddon.

Here is the view from my bathroom window.

Some ducks walking on frozen Greenlake.

Below are a few quality news items around Seattle's inability to deal with snow:

Sledders take to area streets, and injuries sometimes follow

Crews Remove Buses From I-5 Near Denny Way

Snow Forces Metro to Shelve Its Lowriders

Seattle refuses to use salt; roads "snow packed" by design

This is what the tree search should always look like

We had beautiful, if cold, tree hunting weather this weekend. I thought I'd share the festive photos. My mom was very excited to get a non-flocked, "wild," tree.

Admiration

I have spent the last day catching up on Vinyl Cafe podcasts and admiring the stories of Stuart McLean. His stories are touching, funny, beautiful, and thoughtful. Every time I hear one it makes me appreciate life a little more.

For father's day last year I bought tickets for the live Vinyl Cafe show in Seattle. This October we finally got to go. As we left my theater, my dad turned to me and said, "My stomach hurts." My thoughts immediately turned to the dinner we'd gone to before the show, afraid he was going to be sick. He saw the look on my face and said "No, my stomach hurts from laughing so hard." It was a great evening.

The Vinyl Cafe also encourages people to send in little stories and each week Stuart reads one on the air, "Christmas Tea Rings" is one of my favorites.

Do you know me at all?

Click on the above to enjoy "Nobody Knows Me At All" by the Weepies, one of my favorites.

Sing-along?

Last night I attended the Holiday Sing-along with the Seattle Symphony Chorale. I bought the tickets weeks ago. I was so excited to belt out tunes at Benaroya Hall. I conned three friends into going with me.

As we sat in our seats we took out our programs looking to see what songs we were going to sing we noticed a small note at the top of our programs, "The audience is invited to join in on the selections listed in bold." Apparently, it was a selected sing-along. We were invited to take part in approximately 40% of the music. The evening was not exactly panning out the way I thought it would.

Especially odd was the local weatherman, Jeff Dubois, they got to MC the event. Why do you need an MC at a chorale performance? The answer is you don't. In between classical sets to have a weatherman doing "shtick" was just wrong on many, many levels.

Overall, the music was pretty, but it didn't fill Benaroya. I didn't realize that it was only the chorale and not any part of the symphony. They had an organ player who rotated between the piano and organ. It was actually kind of quiet.

The two highlights of the evening were Fantasie on Adeste Fideles which was an organ solo which was unique, to say the least. During the song the dad in the row in front of us leaned over to his son and said, "Do you think he's gone mad?" I thought the dad might be right. During the song I counted five kids that had to be taken out of the hall crying because the song was just too much for them. The show ended with exerpts from the Messiah which were indeed gorgeous and finally highlighted the specialty of the chorale. My recommendation for anyone is to just buy tickets to theMessiah performance and skip the "Sing-along."

Calm

I am a major escapist reader. My nightstand has a whole shelf of books that I pick up when I want to forget about what is happening in my life for a little while. Most of these books I would never really recommend to anyone else, but they all offer a bit of comfort for this sentimental girl. Perhaps sometime I''ll publish the list.

Today, I would like to share a book that I do feel comfortable recommending to anyone. I laughed and cried and in the end I ended up going back and rereading some of the book. Listening is an Act of Love is a series of interviews done for the StoryCorp where people sign up to go into a booth an interview each other about some portion of their life. It can be a momentous event or just a story about their everyday life. What comes out is remarkable, touching and beautiful.

Check it out from your local library today!

Ready for the Season?

Every year I am always excited for the holiday season. I make cards, I bake, I get a tree, I play carols way too much, but this year the season is filling me with dread. In our current economic crisis everything feels excessive. How do you celebrate when you feel like the world is crumbling around you?