crooked house

It's Never a Mistake to Be Friends Valentines

I found these little Valentine erasers at our local Superstore -- they were six for a buck, or something like that.  The little heart-shaped notebook pictured was also from a package of six for a buck. They came from our local dollar store. I used my label-maker to print out the text, only because I'd run out of ink for the printer. But the fact that it printed in the form of adhesive tape was actually a bonus.

Of course, after I'd made them Luke decided he preferred to use his store-bought Spiderman ones. Oh well. I had fun anyway. It may not be a mistake to be friends but it is certainly a mistake to assume your child will be enthusiastic about your ideas. Maybe I'll send them to the next twenty people who "friend" me on facebook.

Book Alphabet

Books are made up of letters -- these letters are made up of books. Via @kirstinbutler.

Found Alphabet

I'd like to compile and frame a found alphabet (like this one) of my own. This would be a great project to do with the kids. I'm also trying to collect as many versions of the letters "L" and "S" for them as possible.

Cloud Letters and The Cloud Appreciation Society

Daniele Siebenhaar has managed to spot and photograph all 26 letters of the alphabet as formed by clouds. She is a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society. Here is a brief article about her, which says she makes the photos into birthday and Christmas cards for her friends and family. I would love to see these in a book -- Chronicle Books? Simply Read? (Via the ever-wonderful Sara O'Leary.)

Now I must go join the Cloud Appreciation Society.

Dalton Ghetti's Pencil Tip Carvings

Click on the image to see the teensy tiny letters carved out of the tips of pencils by artist Dalton Ghetti. If this were a poster I'd buy it in a heartbeat. (Thanks, Nela!)

 

 

Take A Look: A Selfish Giant Armchair, Sequels to Books Whose Authors Are Dead, The Insides of Security Envelopes, And The Dullest Horror Movies Ever

Oscar Wilde's "The Selfish Giant" in the form of an armchair by artist Hannah Wilmot. Via.

Laurie Halse Anderson on how to write a picture book. Via.

Dracula, Winnie-the-Pooh, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy all get new sequels by someone other than their (dead) original authors. I'm curious, at least about Return to the Hundred Acre Wood and And Another Thing..., but have not yet read anything like this that actually worked.

Pictorial Webster's: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities (via) looks gorgeous. Bookmaker John M. Carrera restored engravings from 19th century Webster's dictionaries and compiled them in this book. Stamps and wall cards are available, too. It's like a professional version of one of William Davies King's odd hobbies. King, whose Collections of Nothing I read last weekend, has a number of collections of the kinds of things most people would throw out -- one of them is a notebook full of images like these that he cut out of second-hand dictionaries. He also has a collection of the beautiful insides of security envelopes. My only complaint about the book was that I wanted more pictures. And if not pictures, then the address of a website featuring some of his collections.

Speaking of the insides of security envelopes, Design Sponge has a great tutorial about how to turn those envelopes inside out.

I just added The Man Who Lost His Head, to our Christmas wishlist, thanks to Betsy. And Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, thanks to CAAF. It sounds intriguing, despite the fact that the construction of that subtitle sounds like something FakeAPStylebook might mandate: " 'How the Relentless Promotion of ... Has Undermined America' is a little-used and useful subtitle."

And this morning's twitter fun? Dullest Horror Movies Ever. "Children with Corns," "The Exersaucer," "Benign Cyst," "The Potatoes Have Eyes," "The Curds," "Accountant on Elm Street," "A Lien," and "Resident Card" are some of mine. But my very favourite is fredricktoo's "The Blog."

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A father and his four-year-old son paint the letters of the alphabet. Via Letman, via Heart Fish.

Spring Letter Paper Cuts

I just bought this gorgeous paper cut on Etsy.  This is likely to be the first letter of the new baby's name -- and if not, it's still the first letter of mine.

At dinner last night there was a lot of animated discussion about the arrival of spring. Our friend Bonnie showed Luke where it said "First Day of Spring" on her calendar. "It's going to be spring at 8:22 am tomorrow," she told him. He was suitably impressed.

This morning when he woke up, his first words were, "It's spring today!" He ran to the window and looked out. "Hey, there's still snow on the ground!" he said, extremely put out. "Why is there still snow on the ground? Will it be gone later today?"

Further discussion revealed that he'd expected to see green grass, leaves on the trees, and flowers in full bloom. If only it worked like that. I don't expect him to be comforted by this paper cut L bursting into bloom I just bought him but, well, it comforts me.

I almost sprang for this one, too:

The artist, who isn't named on the site, works with rice paper in the traditional Chinese style and has almost two hundred paper cuts, some of them incredibly intricate, in her shop.

Sara Midda's How to Build an A

I've got my eye on Sara Midda's How to Build an A for Christmas for Luke. He recognizes most of the letters most of the time and he can find them on the keyboard -- to spell his name, for instance --  but he's not yet very capable with a pencil. This alphabet book comes with foam blocks you use to build the letters. I can't find a picture of the blocks online but I've seen them in a couple of magazines and they look fairly large and sturdy -- and they come in a mesh bag for storage.

Type the Sky Font

Type the Sky via swissmiss.