mamaroots

rainy days

Rainy days after school will often find us at the library.  Surely you have figured out that with all of my book love, reviews and reading that I don't own "too" much stock in the children's book world.  The library is a staple for us.  I see many upcoming books come across my desk at work as a book buyer for a bookstore, but I enjoy just walking the stacks at the library for new inspiration.

I am so thankful to live in a village where we have a fantastic library.  I felt a little sweet kinship to this simple little book Otto the Book Bear.  He is a bear that lives in a book and it quite content until his book is left behind in a move and he makes a big journey until chance would have him arrive at the library where he meets other book characters.

The simplicity I enjoy in this story also comes from that simple notion of what happens when you read a book- you know good old fashioned, in your lap paper and board book.  You create the characters on and off the page.

A tip also is to check with you local library, often they will have a book sale to move through discards.  It can be cut throat, but you can pick up some dandies.  The spring children's book sale is coming up in T minus 46 days, but who is counting!

Support your library- it is there for you!  Next time you are there, ask if they have Otto!

cleavers!

I am super excited to learn about "cleavers"  I did not know that there was medicinal properties to this plant, but that is the wonderful thing about what Kristine does with Herbal Roots ZIne- such a great resource!   She lists the other names that this plant is known by: Bedstraw, Clivers, Goosegrass, Stickywilly, Stickyjack, Stickyweed, Stickyleaf, Catchweed, Robin-run-the-hedge and Coachweed.  How can all of those fun names not entice you huh?  Looks like I will be making an earthworm next month- how fun, I love making bugs!

Would you like a chance to win the March issue of Herbal Roots Zine?  Just leave a comment here between now and Wed Feb 29 at midnight and I will draw a winner's name and e-mail you on Thursday March 1. Let me know which name you like the best for this herb.

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Good luck- and if you are feeling really lucky, head on over to Herbal Roots for a chance to win my snowy owl!  

itty bitty

As we enter the last week of February and the first hints of the tiny bit of springs show them selves, it was fitting that I found an itty bitty treasure at the fleas this weekend.

I was actually on the lookout for a desk chair for Silas.  While I was home with my sick fella this past week I did a big clean up in his room-a little spring detox ironically and realized that it was time for him to have a better chair at his desk.  I did not expect this sweet little book to find me.

It is a fun little vintage fictional look at the process of rain with some whimsy thrown in for good measure. The book is called The Itty Bitty Raindrop and was written in 1948.  It has the approval of Silas who read it out loud this morning who learned a new word "brindled" you know- as in cow!

So, inspired by the hopeful spring months that will bring the rains, I made a itty bitty raindrop for the shop. I am equally inspired by the colors for a fresh coat of paint that will come to the laundry room this spring as well!  Oh and that sweet little chair was there too!  Thank you fleas!

mark it with a b for the boys and me

Little planning for tomorrow.  Find the flour, baking soda, sugar.  Yep Shrove Tuesday.  Well before daddy makes us come blackened fish, red beans, rice, and king cake- there will be pancakes after school!  Enjoy your day no matter how you celebrate!  Don't forget there is a little story project from the archives in case you need a little storytime fun for tomorrow!

"Mix a pancake, stir a pancake, pop it in the pan.  Fry a pancake, toss a pancake, catch it if you can."

green review

 

I set out to do a product review for you on Cuppow, and then realized there was quickly a "green" theme developing!  So going with the flow, and enthusiastically looking forward to green coming back with the spring here we go!

Have you heard of Cuppow?  It basically is a nifty little invention by a couple fellas that allows you to turn your Mason Jar into a travel mug.  For us Mason Jar lovers this was intriguing.  I don't really like the standard travel mugs, tried the insulated ceramic mugs (too small) and have been using regular ceramic mugs which always run the risk of spilling my precious tea on my early morning drives to work.

So this seemed ideal!  I put in my order in and it took a couple weeks, but there my Cuppow arrived safely with a nicely done simple letterpressed packaging.  I gave it a test run yesterday and the verdict is good.  It is BPA free, uses minimal packaging and let's me use my loved mason jar on the go.  

One thing I did discover though for us tea drinkers that if you are like me and like to steep your tea a while, if you bring your string outside of the lid it will leak when you tip to drink.  So keep the strings inside.  

The other thoughts I had was concerning was 2 issues, 1- glass does not conduct heat as well as ceramic for hot beverage drinking, and 2-initially it is hot to hold.  Thus I tracked down a wool Mason Jar cozy from A Yellow Kitchen.  

I liked the cozy from A Yellow Kitchen since it had a bottom as well as sides and I thought it would insulate more and not slip off so easily.  This wool green cozy was just the thing.  I could hold my tea and it was still warm after an hour.  

Just when you think the green review is done, the tea I was drinking was Caribou brand Green Tea with a hint of citrus- yum.  And I spent the afternoon browsing my 1000 Fruit Jars book by Bill Sschroeder to further indulge my senses in Mason Jar love.  The icon that the Mason Jar has become always makes me happy.  Now it also honors my traveling tea as well! I am on the hunt for a "Root" blue mason from the early 1900's in case you see one out there wink wink!

Cuppow, umm I mean Kuppow! That is probably just about enough brand product endorsement for a while here- back to some books and toys shall we?

oh elsa!

I wanted to give you a book review from me for the newly released Elsa Beskow book Children of Hat Cottage.  I wanted to talk about the stylistic elements of how there is a lovely since of independence of children in the stories- a welcome theme in our helicoper parenting world.  I wanted to talk about the quirkiness of the old man/gnome character that seems to show up in so many of her stories.  I wanted to talk about so much more in this review.  

But in the end I read it with the boys this afternoon and asked them.  Silas- "hmm those children did not know about fire" Jasper- " I am not sure why, I just liked it"  Good enough for us- and really do I need to entice you more than the notion of children living in a cottage shaped like a hat?  Well how about the fact that she rows ashore from the island to get yarn to make her children yarn because her children are so active outside they wear out their clothes?  Oh Elsa- you did it again!  

love you sew!

 

Word light, picture heavy but wanted to share just a few pictures of an unexpected day that the snow fairies brought yesterday!  Hoping you had an enjoyable day that brought lots of love to your heart!  Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

 

 

in the making

plenty of glue, stamps, and origami paper spread throughout the floor to make the the 39 needed Valentine's for classmates tomorrow.  We settled on a monster/love balloon theme- nice and simple with using what we had on hand since the snow storm did not give us a desire to get any other supplies.  With love to all of you on the eve of Valentine's Day.

flea market style

 

February- a week out from Valenines and I am starting to put out just a few of the simple things that I have for Valentines.  But I wanted to share a couple blog post about some of my known loves- flea market styling.  One styling element that is fun to bring into your home is enamelware or graniteware.  A country utility item that has been around for a while, it really grew in popularity in the 19th/20th century country homes.  

I remember my grandma having several pieces when I visited her on the farm.  It is pretty prevalent at the flea markets and antique shops, and unless it is a collectible color you can often find it at pretty reasonable price.  It makes great storage containers, organizers, and just fun in the kitchen.I have to try and control myself, it is just so very fun and country.  The old chamber pots seem to get a chuckle from folks who know what they are.  My mama was telling me stories when she saw an old chamber pot/now trash can in my bathroom- it brought back some memories from the farm.

Before you go out and get some new cheaper made items at the store- think about going to the flea market instead- most of the enamelware is really well made and has such sweet charm.  Some of my favorite pieces around the house are our food dishes for the old ladies of the house our dog and cat.

 

 The old trays make great organizers for focused learning areas for your kids- this is Silas' writing tray.

Organizing yarn is quite fun in this old baby bath tub.

But this is my favorite, I was not sure what it was when I first saw it and actually walked away and then did some research.  It is actually an old french lunch pail.  Once I researched it and realized what good shape it was in, I went back to get.  Took me a couple trips back to the fleas to re-find!  Apparently I was not the only midwestern that did not understand what this was!

 

 

The boys have modern Tiffin lunch pails that work just great for them and has really cut back on our use of plastic bags, but this little sweet vintage pail fits much better in my backpack!  

Ironically I recently found a modern version of this on-line, it looks pretty neat sweet but I am quite tickled to have my vintage one!

How about you- any fun memories of enamelware?

pom pom critters- all natural

Have you seen those vintage pom pom critters out and about as we get closer to Valentines?  For some reason I also loved these little buggers when I was little.  I saw them at Target recently too as a kit for kids to make and picked it up and did my normal groan when I saw all the "foam, plastic, and nylon" materials inside.

I thought it really can be made all natural and even cuter!  So I rummaged through my supplies and put together a little fella.  It is pretty quick and would be a super cute little friend to Valentine friends!

Supplies:

natural material yarn- I used a varigated cotton yarn

wood heart

pom pom discs

glue

wool roving in white and black

1-Create a yarn pom pom, I used the largest disc set in the Clover pom pom making kit- but you could adjust this depending on the size of your hearts.

2- After you have your pom pom all trimmed up, glue to the heart so that the upper part of the heart creates the feet.

3- Take some white wool roving and wet felt in between your fingers to create to small wool balls.  Dry in a towel, the take a small bit of black wool roving and needle felt this on the white ball to create eyes.

4- Glue the eyes in place and your critter is all set to keep your Valentine company!