February book picks!

Ok, the books have been picked so here is a teaser! Please check them out and read along!

Living Craft joy in Washington

As a teen, I can remember being so anxious for the mailman to bring my newest subscription to Teen or Seventeen magazine. At the time it felt like my lifeline to what was new and cool at the time....It gave me a window in the lives of other teens and ads for the latest and the greatest in fashion (which I obviously never listened to anyways! ha!).

In my early twenties, it was Cosmo.... the newest trends and styles... and the articles on "How to meet Mr Right" are almost laughable now... what was I thinking!? lol

As a newly married woman of 23, I can remember being anxious to get my newest Better Homes and Garden edition... again, thinking it was my view of what is new and cool in the way of cooking and keeping a house . Are we seeing a trend here? :) I moved quickly past that one and right on to the world of Martha Stewart! :)

Being a new mother a few years later, I found that same excitement when the mail carrier would deliver my Parents and Parenting magazines and thought they were just the greatest source of information about kids, the newest trends for toys and safety and helpful how-to sections for moms.... That worked for a little bit but then I discovered the fact that talking to other moms is a better education than any magazine will own up to! lol

I have since moved passed all of these magazines and honestly look back on them all with loving thoughts but have kind of burned myself out on their repetitive articles and rather lame creative ideas....




Which brings me to the newest periodical love of my life! Living Crafts magazine is definitely the new joy of getting mail! :) I literally can't wait for each edition (4 yearly) to come and feel much like a stalker when I know it is on it's way! lol  During our move, my summer copy got forwarded before I was able to get the address updated and I really thought I was going to go crazy waiting for it to catch up to me!!

This magazine is THE magazine for any Waldorf/nature inspired, green crafting family. It has articles that I even share with my girls... our favorite being one written by Fiona Duthie called "A sweater for a year" which took us thru the entire process of raising a sheep, sheering the wool, making the yarn and knitting the sweater! I just love to know the how and why about the everyday things we use without even giving credit to how they came to be. Appreciation of life and everything in it is key...

This magazine also has articles on story telling and how to incorporate it into the lives of the children around us and the puppets (which you know I am crazy about!) to go along with the stories!I find so much inspiration in these publications and want to shout it from the roof tops every chance I get! EVERYONE should be reading this magazine!

One of their newest endeavors is their  new blog! They always seem to be adding more and more ideas and tutorials for making amazing, high quality crafts that will last for generations!! My favorite new blog post is the next thing on my list to create! I have been wanting to make a set of post office items for the girls and this looks like a perfect gift for Valentine's day!

So please, go check out Living Crafts magazine, I just know you are going to love it as much as I do... your kids will thank you for it!

A mishap month

I don't know about you, but I am having trouble getting back into a routine this month and I'm sure you've noticed that this blog has been out of sink too! So... I thought for now, I would just share with you weekly about some of my favorite go-to craft books! What better way to start the new year than with inspiration right!?

Just because things are a bit crazy at our house with reorganizing (long story) and other school work plus some other unexpected issues of life, doesn't mean we aren't reading and crafting... just not as organized as I would like to be! And definately nothing worth sharing for all to see! lol So, this month's blog posts will be more about ideas than story topics and we'll hopefully get back to our regular schedule, if not a better one, in February!

And so... for this week's craft book I give you....

This is by far one of my favorite crafting books and has gotten so much use it's ridiculous!

Woolbur in WA

It was a Moms Night Out, way back when we were still in TX that I stumbled upon this book. You see, our MNO events always ended with a few of us going to our favorite Hastings store for coffee, book shopping and girl talk. Somehow we always ended up in the kids section, looking thru books. It figures, that on our one night "off", us homeschooling moms couldn't just shut it off and have some down time but instead surrounded ourselves with our favorite friends and children's books! Yes, I know... we are strange... but boy do I miss them...

Anyways, I found this book, about none other than a sheep that thinks outside the box (an idea that has plagued me my entire life!) and wool yarn/knitting! What could be better than that! I thought about that for months until I actually got it as a gift from my mom! lol I guess liked it enough to talk about it ! haha!

And, so.... on this cold winter day in the Pacific northwest, I urge you to go check out this book. Snuggle up with a warm cup of tea and enjoy... I'll be back later this week to show you what we've been up to!