·· windy ··

Lanterns

2012-01-28T00:12:00.000-08:00

This weekend we'll be at attending the annual New Year's parade. And we're making classic lanterns for the house.

There a many good tutorials online to make paper lanterns. It couldn't be easier. We didn't use a template, we just folded and cut. It doesn't matter if the cuts are perfectly straight or even. Ours were very uneven and wonky, but you can't really tell at all when they are folded.

We used some red vellum paper we had left over from making mini kites. We punched some flower-shaped holes along the bottom for decoration. We received our decorative hole punch as a party favour and I'm won over. I never would have considered buying one, but we've had a lot of fun with it and Auggie loves it. Some glitter and stickers came next.

We punched two holes in the top to run thread through (we used silver/gold metallic thread leftover from hanging gingerbread ornaments on the tree).

Auggie was into doing some of the cuts for the lantern, but he was more interested in hanging up the red lanterns than decorating them. However, he came up with his own lantern idea, which I really liked. He took pieces of origami paper (our table had a lot of craft supplies, so he picked out what he liked) and then began making long sticker collages along the middle. He really likes making careful, long strings of stickers right now. Anyway, when he was done, we folded and cut and glued the same way as before and had these train lanterns (with some complimentary emergency vehicles). He was quite proud of them and we hung them over the doors.

It might be hard to read, but the top here image is two pieces of origami paper side by side with stickers down the middle. It has been folded and cut and then flattened out to take the picture.

I love red, yellow pink around the house in the winter.

Spring Festival

2012-01-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

We have a Snowy and Chinook giveaway coming up and a new scarf pattern. In the meantime, there is now a a spring festival board on my pinterest for recipes and children's activities. Come visit!

Welcome to the Dragon

2012-01-21T23:57:00.000-08:00

This beautiful book, What the Rat told Me, tells the story of how each animal came to visit the Great Emperor of Heaven on the Jade Mountain became part of the zodiac.

the school of things

2012-01-14T18:57:00.000-08:00

This summer we visited an exhibition of Lee Ufan (Marking Infinity). It was very relaxing. I loved the rocks on cushions (Relatum) and the repetitive paintings and prints. If you are interested in this type of thing, you can find out a bit more about the movement that Lee was a part of, Mono-ha, and see a video about Ufan here. Mono-ha may translate to "the school of things". This is apparently not a very good translation, but I like it. It seems very vague and inclusive. I feel like I belong to the school of things.

Anyway, I came across our tickets from the exhibition while I was tidying my paperwork today and we decided to do some Ufan-inspired paintings at the kitchen table. We used brushes and q tips. Auggie improvised by drawing suns over top and running a toy crane through the paint, wheel painting-style.

It was fun. And then we cut our paper up (it was thick watercolour paper) and used some for birthday cards.

Who Made This Cake?

2012-01-07T22:25:00.000-08:00

In honour of a special birthday and a fun party today: Who Made This Cake by Chihiro Nakagawa and illustrated by Junji Koyose. This is the story of a tiny team of cake builders who build a massive birthday cake. Maybe this was the inspiration behind our gingerbread helicopters.

This is a very popular book in our house.

Happy Birthday little T.

2012: the auggie bloggie

2012-01-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

One of my resolutions this year (otherwise known as a deadline) is to finish up a new series of books: Auggie in Colourtown, Auggie and the Counting Robot and Auggie's Garage. Every Tuesday I will be posting a new illustration as I work through the books, which are due to be released in September. Here is the Auggie Bloggie.

I will still post Windy-related material here on Saturdays. If we are lucky and find the time, the Little Quick team (Judith and I — we photo-illustrated the Windy books together) will have the chance to photo-illustrate a new series, too. That would be really fun.

Overnight French Toast with Panettone (or without)

2011-12-31T22:24:00.000-08:00

Last year, I put in Snowy & Chinook's recipe for pancakes, from Snowy & Chinook.

This year, I'll give you my favourite breakfast recipe. This is my version of Overnight French Toast: French toast you make the night before and then bake in the oven in the morning. This is a very kid-friendly recipe, both preparing and eating.

We love this with panettone, but if you're making this for a big group it might be better to use plain bread. I find every gathering has at least 1 anti-raisin member.

We have this on Christmas morning and sometimes New Year's. It's nice for a big group. You can grill bacon in the oven at the same time: just arrange bacon over a rack or grill (a cooling rack is perfect) which is set on a rimmed cookie sheet. The bacon will be done at the same time as the French toast and then just plate it all and serve. It's the easiest big breakfast and good for extra-sleepy or busy mornings.

This is a pretty flexible recipe, so use or don't use extra ingredients as long as your ratio of eggs to liquid is close to the basic recipe, it will be fine.

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients (panettone-style)

—butter
— 2 to 3 medium panettone or 1 big panettone, sliced to about 3/4 inch thick
— 8 eggs
— 2 cups milk
— 1/8 cup sugar, or more or less to your taste
— 1 tablespoon maple syrup
— 1 teaspoon vanilla
— 1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients (any-other-bread-style)

—butter
— 1 loaf challah, french bread, brioche or plain white bread, sliced to about 3/4 inch thick
— 8 eggs
— 1 and 3/4 cups milk
— juice of half an orange, or about 1/4 cup orange juice
— 1/8 cup sugar + 1 Tablespoon sugar, or more or less to your taste
— 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
— 2 teaspoons vanilla
— 1/2 teaspoon salt
— cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
— zest of 1/2 an orange or lemon
— 2 Tablespoons cognac (optional)

Preparation

Very generously spread butter over the bottom of a couple of baking pans with sides.

Arrange bread slices in the pan.

Beat all remaining ingredients in a large bowl and pour over top of bread. How much liquid you need depends on the bread, so don't pour it all on at once. Keep adding until there is enough to generously moisten the bread all over, but the bread shouldn't be swimming in the mixture. After a minute, turn over the bread to make sure it is all coated and soaked through. If there is any leftover liquid, pour it down the sink.

Cover with saran wrap and place in fridge. The next morning (or at least an hour later) place into an oven heated to 400 F. Bake 15-20 minutes per side, until each side is golden brown.

Serve with warm maple syrup or whatever topping you like.

·|·

2011-12-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

Gingerbread helicopters

2011-12-24T23:28:00.000-08:00

We used the recipe from my America's Test Kitchen cookbook (which was given to me by a friend who is a chef, and it turns out to be really good) for plain gingerbread and this recipe for royal icing. Then we did all sorts: fruits stars, big circles and helicopters for the tree.

Family Santa

2011-12-17T09:45:00.000-08:00

Snuggled on the couch this dark Winter morning, preparing to write a little entry on one of the best Christmas books ever (Brian Wildsmith's 12 Days of Christmas) ...

Hi Bloesem Kids!

2011-12-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

We're excited to be a part of a giveaway on the great Bloesem Kids.

For those of you that are new to our blog, we welcome you here to a few of our most popular posts:

How to make a mini-kite
How to draw an owl
Bunny origami
Making Leo Lionni rock frog & toads
Making pompom characters

If you like paper crafts, you might like to make our robot paper dolls (which could be great for the Christmas tree, too).

If you like to knit, you might like to make our Windy scarf (free pattern) or our finger-knitting tutorial.

If you like free things to download, you might like our colouring pages, our templates for shoelace sewing kits or our block puzzles.

If you are a fan of beautiful children's books, then here is a summary of children's books we like.

If you like making or listening to music, we have activities and songs to download here.

If you would like to follow our blog on pinterest, we have a board here.

Thanks for visiting!

Early Christmas trees

2011-12-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

We don't yet have the tree. But, as some of us are quite excited about decorating already we painted some trees onto construction paper with washable poster paint for the little ones to decorate.

Then, for ornaments, we cut shapes out of scrap origami, Read more »

Our December winner

2011-12-10T23:25:00.000-08:00

The December winner, for our greeting cards at buyolympia, by random draw, is: Krista Smith. Congratulations, Krista! Thanks to everyone else who enetered and again for everyone's kind comments. We'll be giving away something new in January, so try again next time!

One of our entrants, micia, has a cute blog which features this week how to make an origami Santa Claus (Babbo Natale), which you can see here. Great!

Thanks again to buyolympia for their product photograph.

Munari's Briefest + a Sack of Snow and Stars for Santa Claus

2011-12-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

You might know Bruno Munari from some of his more famous children's books, like his Bruno Munari's ABC or Bruno Munari's Zoo. We talked about his book Drawing the Sun a few months ago.

Bruno Munari was an Italian artist, poet, writer and designer. He originally began making children's books for his son, Alberto. Find out more about his work here at munart.org.

To blog for the fewest of minutes, here’s Bruno Munari’s "Chair For the Briefest of Visits”. It is petite and sloped downwards, for an immediate slip off.

And here is

a Sack
of Stars
and Snow
for
Santa Claus
(from Bruno Munari's ABC)

December giveaway: cards

2011-12-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

We are having our December giveaway early, because the prize will be more useful before the winter holidays (although these are useful all year round): a set of our greeting cards. We've just gotten caught up and restocked our cards at buyolympia.

To win a set of our cards, please leave a comment below this post. Please be sure to leave an address so that we can contact you. Let us know in the commments below. Contest ends midnight December 9. This is open to anyone worldwide and there is no fee to enter.

Our cards are 4.75 inches x 4.75 inches and are blank inside. They are offset printed on glossy cardstock and come packaged with a white square envelope. There are 4 cards in our set, Windy, Sunny with his guitar, Snowy and Chinook jumping on the bed and Chinook with a snowball. Each one has a little drawing on the back. (Thank-you to buyolympia for the product photographs.)

Ideas for the winter holidays

2011-11-30T21:47:00.000-08:00

If you didn't manage to work on our advent calendar, we've started a board on pinterest for Christmas and winter holiday ideas. (There are even a couple of nice very-very-last minute advent calendars on there.)

Our November giveaway winner

2011-11-28T22:33:00.000-08:00

Thank-you to everyone who entered our November giveaway (and thank-you for your kind commments, too). We're delighted to announce that our last copy of Windy has been won by Royce. Congratulations, we will contact you to arrange shipping soon.

One of our entries was from a real life Windy. Windy, we will send you one of our Windy greeting cards. Thanks so much for entering our giveaway.

We have a giveaway coming up very soon (December 1st). See you soon.

Match Box Advent Calendar

2011-11-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

As there's less than a week before the start of Advent, we thought we'd quickly offer a classic project that your kids can enjoy all the way until Christmas.
Here are our directions for an advent calendar made of matchboxes. Read more »

November: Watch something fun

2011-11-25T09:30:00.000-08:00

Well, finally, the end of our November week: a lazy post for a lazy activity. Sometimes it's time to curl up somewhere warm and watch something fun: Barbapapa.

November: Winter birds (Birdseed part 2)

2011-11-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

November is the time when birds' nests begin to show themselves, as the trees lose their leaves. You can read all about our homemade birdhouse and our birdseed here. We also bought a birdhouse that would attach to the outside of a window (as we don't have an easy way to attach a hanging birdhouse). It's become popular with many little birds in our neighbourhood and we have a steady stream of visitors outside our window.

Read more »

November: Windy days and early presents

2011-11-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

Here's another nice thing about November: we are giving away a copy of Windy. If you find it a little too cold to make a real kite, make a mini-one and fly it in your living room.

November: Leaves

2011-11-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

From Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins. All the leaves are printed at life size in this great book we found at the library after trying to identify a leaf on our way home.

This doesn't deserve its own post, but we've had a lot of fun making chestnut hedgehogs this week, too.

November: Soup

2011-11-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

Our third November week post from Chicken Soup with Rice, by Maurice Sendak.

November in Moominvalley

2011-11-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

Today's November week post: a whole book about November. And it's fantastic!

November: Butter in the Buttercups

2011-11-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

Today, as part of our November week, a poem from from Butter in the Buttercups, 1980, by Stella Browning.

Read more »

November

2011-11-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

It's November. The days are shorter, the mornings are darker. Hallowe'en's over. Christmas isn't quite yet here (and we have an advent calendar craft coming up soon). But there is still fun to be had.

Instead of one Saturday post, let's do 7 short ones, one for each day this week to celebrate this most serious of months.

(Drawing by Tove Jansson).

Our last copy of Windy

2011-11-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: We've announced our winner, Royce. Thanks, everyone!

This month we will be giving away the last hardcover copy of Windy from the warehouse. Simply Read will be releasing softcover editions and an app in September 2012.

We do have a special fondness for our first book with its red cover and dustjacket that has instructions on how to make a kite.

To win a copy, please leave a comment below this post. Please be sure to leave an address so that we can contact you. Let us know in the commments below. Contest ends November 28. This is open to anyone worldwide and there is no fee to enter.

Sewing for kids

2011-11-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

This looks fun: hand sewing workshop for the 5 and ups at collage collage.
Six weeks of classes, beginning November 17. Find out more here. Photo from collage collage.

Birdseed

2011-11-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we discovered birdhouses in some of the large trees around our neighbourhood. As the leaves fall from the trees, they have begun to show themselves. This has really captured the imagination of one of our junior members, and birdhouses are now on the charts (just behind trucks, snow and slightly ahead of fish).

So this week, we visited our local Wildbirds Unlimited shop to find out more about feeding wild birds in our neighbourhood. We got an enormous tub of birdseed and a bird feeder (more on that another time). The tub was the smallest amount available, but at $5, it's been giving us a lot of entertainment. This week, we make a simple 5-minute birdfeeder and hang it on some trees).

Read more »

Our giveaway winner for October

2011-10-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Jackie, our giveaway winner. (We choose our winners by random draw).

Thanks to everyone who entered our contest. We've had a chance to visit some of your sites, exciting! We have a new giveaway coming up next weekend.

Have a happy hallowe'en.

Homemade tiger

2011-10-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

Auggie decided to be a tiger this August for Halloween. I kept an eye out for a good costume, but we didn't come across anything we liked. So we decided to do an old-fashioned homemade costume. I miss homemade costumes, they're not that common in our neighbourhood.

Puzzles

2011-10-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

We've made some simple block puzzles for you to print and make, one from each book (high quality PDF link).

Simply print these out and cut along the dotted line with scissors. You can also glue your printout to a piece of card or cardboard and cut them out with a craft knife if you would like the puzzles to be a bit more durable.

Katsumi Komagata

2011-10-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here is one of many incredible books by Japanese children’s book designer, Katsumi Komagata. It’s called Feuilles (leaves) and is co-published by all of these amazing people: One Stroke (the author’s company), Les Trois Ourses, Les Droigts Qui Rêves and the Centre Pompidou in 2004. Every single one of Komagata’s books is better than the last, but this one is double fantastic as it tells the life of leaves and it’s clever tactility is as captivating for visually impaired children as for colour obsessed designers.

You can start here, click on the orange arrows, and take a tour through Komagata's work.

2011-10-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

Pinterest is pretty fun, it's like an enormous mood board. I've set up a windy board, so it's easy to follow, and also to find projects at a glance. You can visit the boards without being a member. We won't post everything to pinterest, but we will update it regularly.

Another Yarn Giveaway

2011-10-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

We had such a positive response to our last yarn giveaway, that we thought we'd do another.

If you'd like to be updated about our next project or giveaway, you can subscribe to our blog by entering your email address on the upper-right corner of this page. We keep our mailing list private.

You could use the yarn from this giveaway for some finger knitting or even pair it with some of your own leftover chunky or worsted yarn for our Lonely Doll Scarf.

Read more »

Toothpaste box train

2011-10-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

We made a train from boxes based on a craft project in Chirp magazine. If you enjoy this type of project, you might also like the Wheels project we did for Chirp. Here's how we made it.

Read more »

Finger Knitting

2011-10-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well,if you are sad you didn't win the cute knitting needles, why not try finger knitting! No need for needles. You can use any yarn, and it's easy as can be. It's great for cute little scarves for teddies or little sisters, or one year my daughter's knitting was long enough to drape around the Christmas tree.

Here are two sets of directions, a helpful video or a pdf version.

Little giveaway winner

2011-09-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

The winner of the children's knitting needles , by random number draw, is: Melissa of Sew Sweet Stitches!

Thanks to everyone who entered. It was fun to hear everyone's crafting memories. Making sleeping bags for Barbie, clay soup and many, many potholders!

Congratulations, Melissa. We'll send 'em out within the week.

We have another giveaway in a couple of weeks!

Blow, Drip and Rorschach Paintings

2011-09-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well, we set out the other morning to make some blow paintings. What could be more fun. Put a blob of runny-ish water-based paint on a piece of paper. Give your kids a straw. (Explain clearly the difference between blowing and sucking, if your kids are little, or it could be a much too exciting morning). The kids blow through the straw and off goes the paint into beautiful unpredictable forms. Of course, your paint consistency has to be just so. Ours was too runny at first, and the kids mostly sprayed each other.

Then our paint was not runny enough, but perfect for drip painting — Put a blob of paint at one end of your paper. Tilt the paper so the paint drips down, then turn the paper left or right as the paint guides itself around the page.Read more »

A little giveaway: kids' knitting needles!

2011-09-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

This is a cute one. We found these children's knitting needles in NYC (at purlsoho), and knew we needed to get them as a giveaway. Read more »

Bicycle Pasta

2011-09-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

Oops, we missed our Saturday post.

What are we up to this week? Some back-to-school scrambling, some bicycle pasta (pasta di bici) some last goodbyes to summer and some fun new projects.

We'll have more updates on Windy and Little Quick (our company) developments soon and we have a giveaway coming up this week, too.

Rock Frogs & Toads for Leo Lionni

2011-09-03T22:48:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a copy of Leo Lionni's It's Mine out of the library, published by Dragonfly Books. The book is about "three selfish frogs [who] bicker all day long. A bad storm and a big brown toad help them realize that sharing is much more fun". The book comes with a craft idea called make your own toad.

Here is photo workbook of a simplified version made with felt and googly eyes. We made three frogs: Milton, Rupert, and Lydia, and the kindly big brown toad. To make a frog, you will need: rocks, paint, googly eyes or buttons, felt or construction paper, children's glue and scissors.

We started with some rocks and washable poster paint. Read more »

Renate Müller

2011-08-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

We recently discovered this amazing book on Renate Müller, the designer of these beautiful and therapeutic hand made jute and leather toys. Of course she first designed them in the 60s, but she's still working hard today.

Vintage Baby Knits

2011-08-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

We tracked down a copy of Vintage Baby Knits: More Than 40 Heirloom Patterns from the 1920s to the 1950s and it was fantastic. Our little ones are getting to be too big for the patterns (the patterns are for 1-24 months). However, our Henry has just grown into this sweater, started last summer — lucky thing, too.

Read more »

Shoelace Sewing

2011-08-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Simple shapes with pre-cut holes that your little one can use by sewing around the edges (this isn't a practical sewing project). This activity was originally inspired by a 5-year old boy we spoke to. His kindergarten class has a wooden sewing set which is very popular with the children. Here are instructions and templates so you can make your own sewing set.

This is great for the 3-5 set and is a surprisingly easy craft project to set up.

Read more »

Sun Songs

2011-07-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ah, we meant to post this ages ago!

The fabulous Brady Cranfield & Kathy Slade put out a beautiful album called Sun Songs. It is all covers of songs about the sun. It's catchy! The beautiful design is by Christoph Keller. We have two of the beautiful songs from this album for you to listen to, with links below.

Car Trip Game

2011-07-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Do you have a long car journey coming up as you escape to your summer hideaway (or while you escape the house to do errands)?

If you need a break from I spy and 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, we have found a fun car game for you. (It's for anytime, really, but should be helpful in the car). The great thing about this game is that it's interesting for everyone, not just the 2 people taking their turn, and you can play co-operatively rather than competitively, if you choose. Very young children will enjoy playing along by shouting out words along with the players, and it doesn't spoil the enjoyment for anyone.

It's called What am I thinking? Here is how you play:
Read more »

Windy's Boat

2011-07-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

A paper boat for Windy (PDF), from the book Foggy.

The Children of Fogo Island

2011-07-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

The Children of Fogo Island by Colin Low, 1967. Watch this beautiful film by Colin Low at nfb.ca.

Colour Wheel

2011-07-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Some knitters use these to help them design their projects.

Children can make these to learn about colour. Here is a simple kid's project from Wee folk art to make a yarn colour wheel. You could do the same thing with scraps of paper or fabric, if you don't have yarn at your house.

wee folk art via craftzine.

O Canada!

2011-07-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

O Canada!, 1964. Written by Isabel Barclay and illustrated by Cécile Gagnon.

Read more »

Congratulations to our giveaway winners!

2011-07-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to announce the winners for our Foggy t-shirt June giveaway. Congratulations, gardenofmoi and AmandaSue.

Thanks to everyone who entered. We will be holding more giveaways, so there is more fun to come.

Image from Sunny.

First Quilt

2011-06-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some things I found very helpful in getting going on my first quilt: a small one for my son Auggie. If you are thinking of trying your first quilt, you might find these tips and book recommendations helpful.

I was intimidated to begin, but my great-grandmother, Henrietta, used to whip up quilts by hand regularly for charity Read more »

Foggy fun

2011-06-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

If you're new to our blog, you might not know about our colouring pages, which you can download, print and colour at home. We have one for Foggy that you can find here.
Read more »

Foggy baby t-shirt giveaway (Updated)

2011-06-18T21:00:00.001-07:00

Update: Thanks to everyone who entered our giveaway. We will be holding more giveaways, so there will be many more chances to win something fun. We chose our winners by lottery. Congratulations to our white shirt winner, gardenofmoi, and our yellow shirt winner, AmandaSue!

A few months ago we did a silkscreen workshop at Blim and made some Foggy t-shirts for for fun, and you could win one (contest closed).
Read more »

The Wouldbegoods (updated)

2011-06-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

The Wouldbegoods by E. Nesbit (of The Railway Children fame).

After getting into their elders' bad books and being sent to stay in the country 'to learn to be good', the Bastable children and their two friends Daisy and Denny formed themselves into the Society of the Wouldbegoods.
Read more »

Robot Paper Dolls

2011-06-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

These are very easy to make, and fun! If you know how to make paper dolls, you can do this freehand, using our instructions below, but we've made up instructions and templates with 2 sizes (PDF).
Read more »

Mr. Robot-o

2011-06-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

We're making robots...we'll have more soon.

In the meantime, you can make your own graph paper (dots, squares, crosses). Choose your design, grid size and colour and print it out. Perfect for drawing robots.

Image from Dick Bruna: amazing and fantastic since 1927!

O Grapefruit!

2011-06-04T23:06:00.000-07:00

O Grapefruit! So bright and refreshing all through the winter. Your season ends in a few weeks...let's have some grapefruit quick!

If you find grapefruit a little too bitter or sour, try using a paring knife to cut off all the rind and pith and remove the membranes between sections. (You can watch lovely Michelle of endless banquet segment a citrus here). Store the segments and juice in the fridge and when you pull them out for a snack, they are delicious and cool. A good June morning snack.

Now, a recipe:
Read more »

How to make a real kite, too

2011-06-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

One of our most popular posts is How to make a mini kite, but it looks like some of you are looking to make a general sort of kite (the kind you fly in sky).

We have directions for a real kite, too, here. The original directions for making a kite are on the dust jacket of our first book, Windy.

Chalk Owls

2011-06-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

Please come back, sun. We want to draw more chalk owls.

Softy Pigs (Miyako Kanamori: Part 3)

2011-05-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

We posted earlier about Miyako Kanamori's Sock and Glove (Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves). As you can tell from the title, this very sweet and simple book has easy patterns for fashioning stuffed animals from gloves and socks. A few of the patterns, such as the fish we posted about, are suitable for socks that have lost their mates. However, most of the patterns require a pair of socks that are in good condition (including the heels and toes). We don't often have extra pairs of socks in good condition, but we do often have t-shirts and sweaters that get a few holes, snags, tears or worn through the elbows. Could you just cut sock shapes out of the fabric and use the arms for the bits of the pattern calling for a tube shape?

Read more »

Yarn Giveaway: The Winnah!

2011-05-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who entered our giveaway. The winner (drawn at random) is PharmaMom who said:

My favorite red used to be a deep dark red, but now with little ones in the house I've been loving fire engine or cherry red! Bright, bright, bright and happy!

Sounds good and congratulations!

We loved reading everyone's answers (including the fantastically enigmatic "I like pickle"). 'Our favourite reds: Fire-engine and Campbell's Tomato Soup with Radish and Popsicle in hot pursuit.

Queen of the pompoms

2011-05-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

Orange Pom-pom by Kathy Slade. It is 58 inches in diameter! If you ever come across this at a gallery, you will just have to control yourself and not run over and give it a squeeze.

Thanks to everyone who entered our yarn giveaway. We'll be drawing a name and announcing our winner later today (Friday).

Container Gardening

2011-05-18T10:12:00.001-07:00

This looks fun, if you're in Vancouver. Old Faithful via poppytalk.

How to Draw an Owl

2011-05-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: These owls will be in a new book Auggie's Counting Robot. Find more Auggie drawings at the Auggie Bloggie.

If you live with a tiny art director who demands to see hundreds of owls, you become quite an efficient owl drawer. Here is a very efficient owl in 7 steps. (Our art director really appreciates the sleeping owls).
Read more »

Yarn Giveaway

2011-05-09T13:42:00.001-07:00

We're having a little giveaway this month, for anyone looking for a light, little, portable summer project: 1 ball of organically grown, Blue Sky Worsted Cotton in "Tomato" red, enough to make 1 Windy's Spring Scarf. We are not sponsored by Blue Sky, we chose it because it is soft, squishy and knits really nicely. It is also nice to knit with in warmer weather.

Read more »

Windy's Spring scarf

2011-05-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

We've made the first of our series of children's scarf patterns. This one is a light, cotton scarf (unisex), inspired by Windy's red scarf. It is very simple and quick to knit and a great first project for anyone wanting to try knitting for the first time. It's also a nice project to knit over the summer and wear in September. Our pattern also has a cozier muffler-length version for winter.

Here it is: Windy's Spring Scarf. If you are a member of ravelry, you can find it there, too. This is a free pattern.

Read more »

Spring

2011-04-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

How about a lovely Mary Blair illustration to welcome Spring to our doorsteps!

Happy Easter

2011-04-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

We're too young for Easter Egg dying this year, so we're just decorating construction paper eggs. If we were going to dye eggs, maybe we'd do these cool stripey ones. Or make eggshell planters.

If you're looking for another Easter activity, our bunny origami from last year is fun.

Happy Easter!

Henri for Henry

2011-03-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

Robin is lucky enough to have a son called Henry, and one day, in a very special bookstore, he might find Henri's Walk to Paris, written by Lenore Klein and designed by Saul Bass in 1962. If he doesn't, we will continue to thank grainedit.com for posting many of the pages.

Drawing the Sun

2011-03-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the vernal equinox (the beginning of Spring). To celebrate, let's draw the sun. For inspiration, we turn to Drawing the Sun by Bruno Munari, a book all about the many, many ways we can draw the sun. Above: ballpoint pen sun and cut paper sun. Below: pencil crayon sun.

Read more »

Collage

2011-03-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

This beautiful collage is from Typographica Magazine, an experimental typographic journal from 1949 to 1967.

A collage made out of bus tickets, or any type of everyday-material, also becomes a time capsule.

The last time we moved I found a bus transfer from ten years ago in my pocket and it looked quite special, since they've been redesigned. (I didn't think to scan it at the time, but it looked like this.)

Tiny Quilts

2011-02-25T09:38:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you want to do a craft project, or learn a new skill, but it's daunting to start. Making mini versions is a nice way to get in the game. Also, miniature versions of almost anything are so pleasing. We made Snowy and Chinook's bedding out of some fabric scraps and some felted wool (the mattress is a stack of 2 books and their sheets are paper) — we'll see if we can find a better detail to post.

The purlbee is one of our favourite resources for craft ideas and inspiration. They are currently working on a series of mini quilts. Below is a detail of their February quilt. We think this is a fantastic idea, and it has inspired our post today.

The nice thing about quilting is that the quality of the hand sewing leaves a sort of fingerprint behind. All the imperfections in the sewing make it more special. Allowing the shapes to be wonky, as in crazy quilting, makes it more interesting, rather than less perfect (image is from texasquiltappraiser).

Read more »

Mr. Brushshoe & Miss Broach

2011-02-21T11:56:00.000-08:00

Mr. Brushshoe, designed by Mats Theselius for Die Imaginäre Manufaktur in 1999. It's been sitting in our post queue for a bit, waiting for the right time to pop out.

Then this morning this beautiful felt broach from catrabbit popped up on our blog feed (via bkkids) and through it we found a sweet little blog called eatdrinkchic.

These both feel like early spring and they just make you happy to see them.

Patterns

2011-02-21T10:24:00.000-08:00

We've been developing some new, simple craft projects for the spring. Here's a little preview...Spud & Chloe Sweater yarn in "Lake"; Blue Sky Cotton in "Tomato" and Manos Serena in "Boysenberry".

While we're on the subject, Spud & Chloe have some very cute free patterns on their web site. If you would like to knit a hat, or a pear, for example!

The Lonely Doll scarf

2011-02-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thought about knitting a simple project? Here is a very simple project for beginners: a unisex scarf, sized for adults. This is designed to be a good length to wear Parisian style (when you fold the scarf in half lengthwise, place around neck and pull the loose ends through the centre and pull to tighten). If you would like a muffler length scarf, then you may add length, as indicated in the pattern.

This is inspired by the garter stitch scarf The Lonely Doll knits. (There are less stripes and it is not as long, to make it easier).

(We used Cascades Heathers 220 yarn in Walnut & Smoke to make this. However, any worsted or aran weight yarn will be fine.)

The Red Balloon

2011-02-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

"What does it take to entertain a child? It doesn't take 3D or CGI or talking animals or pop songs or celebrity voiceovers. Children's pleasures are much simpler. The Red Balloon, a 34-minute film by Albert Lamorisse, is a masterpiece of simplicity." —AO Scott., New York Time Critics Picks.

Read more »

Mr. Salteena's Plan (The Young Visiters)

2011-02-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

Here is a Valentine's gift for everyone: The Young Visiters or Mr. Salteena's Plan by Daisy Ashford. You can read this delightful book online at google books.

This is the story of a love triangle between Mr. Alfred Salteena, "an elderly man of 42" with "a small portion" of noble blood flowing in his veins, and his young visiters [sic], Miss Ethel Monticue and Bernard Clarke.

It was written by Daisy Ashford, aged about 9, in 1890. It is transcribed from her exercise books, with spelling and grammar intact (hence the title spelling).

It is full of odd twists of language and beautiful details. Mr. Salteena, very old and unloved by Ethel, comforts himself while "imbibing his tea beneath a pink silken quilt". Cows "flash past the windows" of the train as it speeds through the country. There is also this stirring passage (with spelling intact from the original) which is both tender and very funny:

Read more »

Welcome Chirp Readers!

2011-02-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

We are delighted to announce the release of a Windy mini-story for Chirp Magazine called In the Clouds. We had a lot of fun making white pom pom clouds for this story.

For Chirp readers, we wonder what you saw in the clouds. Email us at windyandfriends {at} gmail.com and tell us, or send in your drawings for our gallery. We'd love to see your cloud creatures.

If you would like to make your own pom pom cloud creatures, please see our pom pom character tutorial here and here.

Winter Break

2011-02-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

We've had our hands full with some new projects and the winter holidays, but we're back! Over the next few weeks we'll have some news and projects to share.

In the meantime, we welcome the Year of the Rabbit. This is a perfect time to try out our bunny origami! More soon.

Mermaid Party

2011-02-09T05:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend our publisher, Simply Read Books, will be launching The Melancholic Mermaid by Kallie George (illustrated by Abigail Halpin).

The launch party will be held at Collage Collage, 621 Kingsway, on Saturday Feb 12, 1 to 2 pm.

Everyone is welcome to make a very mermaid-inspired craft and listen to a short reading from The Melancholic Mermaid.

There will be mermaid cupcakes, too!

Paperclip Chain

2011-01-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

Happiness is a Warm Puppy, 1967

How to Make a Pompom Character Part 2 (Hallowe'en Edition)

2010-10-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

When we experimenting with pompom-making techniques for our workshop at Word on the Street last month, we came across this technique at Bella Dia which does not require a pompom maker. Although we didn't end up using the technique, we did have a happy accident while making it: if you don't cut through all the yarn at the end (see the link and this will make sense) you can make a squid, octopus...or a ghost! Perfect for Hallowe'en.

How to Make a Pom Pom Character Part 1

2010-10-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our friend Roger for pointing out that vancouverisawesome did a little feature on Foggy for our Word on the Street appearance.

This has prompted us to finally put up our pom pom instructions.

We'll try to put up some photo instructions, but in the meantime, there is quite a good tutorial here.

We have some Hallowe'en pom pom ideas here (see part 2).

Pom Poms on the Street

2010-09-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to make crafts with us at Word on the Street this Sunday. We made pom pom characters. Here is a gallery of some of the great pom pom characters from the workshop. We'll be putting up directions on how to make your own pom pom character next weekend as our rainy day project, so check back soon.

Thanks to Chirp magazine for hosting us. We're putting together a story for Chirp's spring issue right now and we'll be sure to post more details about that soon, too.

Pom Pom Dolls

2010-09-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

We're making pom pom dolls of Foggy and Old Al from the Windy books today at Word on the Street at the Raise-a-Reader pavilion, 530 West Georgia Street in Vancouver this afternoon at 12:45. This is a workshop for children 4–8.

We'll be putting up pictures and instructions on Monday. In the meantime, here's our first Foggy and Al.

NB: We were going to do a workshop on vehicles originally. If you'd like to make some vehicles out of household objects, please see our earlier post for inspiration.

Wee Wonderfuls

2010-09-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

Purl soho just sent out an announcement that the new book from Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls. This is great news if you like to make dolls and if you are a fan of felt!

We are working on some new projects and we will be at Word on the Street to do a craft workshop. We also have a giveaway coming up soon!

Image from Wee Wonderfuls via the purl bee.

Shoe Cake

2010-08-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

The summer is slipping by and we have some new posts to come.

In the meantime, look at this amazing shoe cake that our friend Lyndsay made. We mentioned her amazing cakes a few months ago.

This one was for Robin's son Henry. His favourite thing is a good shoe, especially with laces or buckles. This was inspired by Judith and Robin favourite Richard Scarry's shoemobile.

Odeeoh is featuring some of Lyndsay's children's book themed cakes today, too.

Cloud on TV

2010-07-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

Finally the long-awaited interview with Cloud (the co-star of our new book "Foggy") is on TV! You can watch it between kids programming on Knowledge Network, or find it at http://knowledge.ca/program/cartographies-shorts. The interview is one of a number of shorts from cArtographies: a documentary directed by Brian Johnson, produced by Leah Mallen (Twofold Films), and commissioned by Knowledge Network.

Ocean Globes

2010-07-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

We are back!

A few months ago we came across instructions for making snow globes on minimega (see the original instructions here). We recruited two young artists, Aiza and her brother Huxley, to try out the craft (along with their very cool mum, Vera).

They did a beautiful job! They made a Snow Globe and then another piece called an Ocean Globe, which is a really lovely idea and makes the whole project feel summery.

We used baby food jars — if you know any new mums, there's a good chance they will have lots. They seal tightly and are a cute little size. Adding a bit of food colouring to the water makes it nice and blue. Maybe you could add some tiny little fish, or some coral.

Here is their beautiful Snow Globe, if you would like to make a tiny piece of winter in July:

Just a little extra note: to soak labels off of jars, using hot water and dish soap with baking soda, overnight, allows you to completely slide the label off with no scrubbing.

Brown Owls

2010-06-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

We've been taking a bit of a break due to summer colds, but we'll be back soon with a book review and some snow globes.

In the meantime, here are some owls we've come across recently in our travels:

Owls and nests by the K 1/2 class at Charles Dicken Elementary and a brown owl cardigan adapted from the Owlet pattern by Kate Davies.

Edited to add one more owl, this time one for Auggie, with button eyes:

Reed Boat

2010-06-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

After working on Foggy, we've collected many different schemes to make a boat. Over the summer we'll be posting a few more.

Here is a very cool boat made out of a reed leaf. Would you like to make one? Take a look over here...

We'll be posting more again next week.

(Image from Lap(fen)lander's Natural Lore blog).

Puppet Theatre

2010-06-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a beautiful rainy day project for the kids.

Bloesem Kids and June crafts have put together templates for a puppet theatre to colour in and download. Find the links here. We made ours using a shoe box, which made it very stable and easy to use.

This is very inspiring!

You could take pictures and use them to make a book....

The Teachers' Holidays

2010-06-02T08:51:00.000-07:00

The Teachers' Holidays(PDF link) was written and photo-illustrated by the children in Division 1 and 2 at Charles Dickens Elementary after reading Foggy.

It begins: One June morning, all the kids in Karen, Jen, and Wendy's classes were looking forward to summer. The kids began to imagine what the teachers might do on their holidays....

moustache day (and a printable template)

2010-05-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to make a good moustache if you cannot grow your own.

Here is our method (PDF template). If you cut this out of stiff paper, it should clip right to your nose. If that doesn't work (or if you'd like to use felt instead) then just attach it to a string or elastic and tie it around the back of your head. No one will recognize you....

You can also draw one on with face paint, you can buy a wooden one on a stick from collage collage, or a plastic one from a kit from dandelion kids.

If you want to make a very realistic moustache, Martha Stewart has very thorough tuturial, which is probably the best one available online. You can even get a tasty chocolate moustache and eat it when you have finished wearing it!

If you happen to have the actual ability to grow a real moustache, you can grown one for charity with Mustaches for Kids.

(top image from Regional Assembly of Text)

Rain

2010-05-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.

—Robert Louis Stevenson
A Child's Garden of Verses, Golden Press
Stitchery by Virginia Tiffany

Warai

2010-05-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

Joseph Wu makes fantastic origami. You can find many origami diagrams to make at home at his web site, including original Joseph Wu designs or look for anything you can think of at the origami database.

The images here are from a collection called Warai, which means laughter in Japanese.

Hootenanny

2010-05-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

At this time of year it's hard to plan activities. One day it is a perfect beach day, the next it's rainy and you need to put on a sweater and jacket. A hootenanny is a good activity for inside and outside.

If you need some instruments, you can make a shoebox guitar and cup-shaker (PDF link) from Sunny.

Dino

2010-05-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

Dino is the most beautiful dog, full of surprises. He only has one fault...what do you think it is?

Dino is not a dog like other dogs. He is a Bernese Mountain dog, but he is also an architect (with his black coat), an anteater (with his long snout), an ostrich (with his long legs), a tennis champion (with his white socks) and more!

So what is his fault? Il pête tout le temps. Prout!

Dino is by Iréne Schnoch for naïve books, with amazing design by les Associés réunis.