crooked house

The Nibble Cake Pan: You Know You Want One

For when you want to eat your cake and have it, too: the Nibble Cake Pan.

Grace Weston's World

I am so excited by Grace Weston's hilariously creepy work. And, in this video, she is endearingly enthusiastic about doing it. An art critic quoted on her site describes it as a sort of combination of Mr Roger's Neighborhood and Hieronymous Bosch and yes, that about sums it up. Apparently, some of her photographs appear in Microworlds, a book I really must have.

Children Not Looking at Art

This is a great photo, as fellow Nova Scotian Chelsea Nichols, the curator of The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things, points out. I bet there are a lot of photos out there of children not looking at the art in museums. I bet there are a lot of photos out there of people in general not looking at the art in museums. Wouldn't that make a great art show?

Sandwich Bag Art

David LaFerriere, a graphic artist, has been decorating his sons' sandwhich bags since 2008. There are hundreds of them. Watch a video of him here.

Yuvi Zalkow interviews Thaisa Frank

The Failure of the Intended Story (with Thaisa Frank) from Yuvi Zalkow on Vimeo.

I took some writing workshops led by Thaisa back around the turn of the century, in San Francisco,* and I agree with Yuvi, she is insightful and riveting. I think Yuvi's mind got a bit blown. (He also has a toddler.) I miss Thaisa and her workshops so much!

* Don't I sound all fancy, also ancient? Excuse me now, while I go sort the laundry, clean out the kitty litter box, and shout at my children for shouting.

Buy Pretty Jewelry, Support the IWK

I bought this pretty hairclip for Sylvie from Susan of DeChamp Designs at a recent craft show. Every October, Susan donates 20% of her sales to the IWK Foundation. Here is why.

Susan makes gorgeous, very intricate chainmaille and crochet jewelry, which she sells at amazing prices. Now's a great time to start your Christmas shopping with her, since you'll also be helping out kids at the IWK Children's Hospital. She's also joining our Mother Christmas Fair on November 24th at the Mahone Bay Centre.

The Dunkley Motorized Pram From 1923

This is the Dunkley Pramotor -- a motorized pram sold in 1923. "We should get that. That's what I'm thinking," says Sylvie as she looks over my shoulder.

Whenever I had to lug around one of those incrediblyawkward and heavy removable car seats with one of my babies in it -- say into the grocery store -- I liked to imagine that in the future, a podlike car seat would hover in the air beside the mother, trailing her wherever she went. Recently I tossed around the idea of a kind of remote control stroller that would follow a parent, so he or she could be hands free for shopping or holding the hands of bigger toddlers or whatever. Are these ideas as crazy as this stroller looks? Via I Cannot Go to Bed -- There is Epic Shit Happening on the Internet, which I found through Lizzie Skurnick.

Nieves' Cloud of Protection

I love the snake-oil packaging on this Cloud of Protection by Nieves, a small skin-care company based in San Francisco. I wish more of my cosmetic products came packaged like this. Via A. N. on pinterest.

Sprinkles on Frosting Birthday Party Invitation

While looking for birthday party invitation ideas for Luke's upcoming birthday,  we found this gorgeous hand-lettered assemblage made out of sprinkles on frosting. I also love Rose's "theme." Luke had already decided that his was going to be "Roblox, Ninjas, and Angry Birds."  Don't know if we have the time and the patience to make an invitation like this one, though.

Harvey Potter and Harry Potter

Last night Luke asked me to read him a book he had picked out himself at the library called Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm by Jerdine Nolen. I was surprised by the name "Harvey Potter" and wondered if it was meant to be some kind of parody of the Harry Potter books. It wasn't -- it was simply the story of a man named Harvey Potter who grew crops of magnif'icent balloons on his farm instead of more mundane crops. The narrator, a little girl, spies on him and discovers he does this with the help of a magic "conjurer stick" in the middle of the night. The story is quirky and fun and Luke absolutely adores the illustrations by Mark Buehner -- we had to spend quite some time on the pages devoted to the fields of balloons.

According to the publication date of the book on Amazon, it came out in 1994.  J. K. Rowling didn't finish the first Harry Potter book until 1995, according to Wikipedia at least, and it wasn't published until 1997. How weird. The books are completely different except for their central, similarly-named  characters who also happen to be magic. Imagine Jerdine Nolen's surprise at the stratospheric success of the Harry Potter books. If I were her, I might entertain the notion that Rowling had seen the book and perhaps inadvertently borrowed the name for her own character, but I'd be more likely to chalk it up to coincidence. Or I just might think I was psychic!

You can see more of Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm here.