Wings and Winners

I am Icarus. 

Except instead of wax and feathers,
I'm patched together with glitter glue,
writing morsels and
cups of hot tea.
Struck by a blaze of new story lightning,
I'm going down.

That's a good thing, right?
...Right?

Muttering at walls, scribbling
"Words are my wings!" on sticky notes,
covered in ink smudges,
I'm delightedly doomed.

But not too doomed
to help with peg dolls.
Indeed!
And Ancient Greek peggies at that.
Thank you, Margaret Bloom!
 
Here is Athena, patron of wisdom, and arts and crafts!
She's an owl lady.
 
Aphrodite, patron of love.

Posiedon. Sea guy. And that's his trident.

Hera, wife of Zeus, patron of marriage.
Peacock lady.
Also compared to a cow in some circles.
Now you know.

Parthenon?

Ruler. Cardboard. Scissors. Tape. White glue. 



And now for the drum-roll, please...
we'd like to announce a winner!
 
A hearty thanks to all of you who entered
Margaret Bloom's Making Peg Dolls giveaway,
and thank you to Margaret for the fantastic blog tour.

Our winner is... Barb Davis-Pyles. Congratulations, Barb!

I hope you will all go out and find this beautiful book.
You are going to LOVE it.

And did you know SACRED DIRT has a facebook page?
"Like it" to get posts on the beautiful mess of artsy writing,
daily dirt, and parenting sent directly to your facebook feed.

Ancient Greece on the page:

Greek Myths For Young Children, by Heather Amery, ill. Linda Edwards
Explore Ancient Greece!
Greek Myths - Ann Turnbull, ill. by Sarah Young
A Gift From Zeus - Jeanne Steig, ill. by William Steig
The Adventures of Odysseus, by Hugh Lupton, Daniel Morden, ill. by Christina Balit
Aesop's Fables - Lisbeth Zwerger

Making Peg Dolls: Giveaway!

It begins just like the other days.
Almost.

Hanging up the washing.
Nubby and bare,
naked as day.
Wishing.

All pegs have wishes, but Jane wishes most, and longest.
For color, aliveness, adventure
beyond the laundry line.
Little does she know that today is the day.

Today the wind is listening.
It twists into a great spiral,
knocking the orderly yard to pieces.
A folding chair barrels across the green.
The chickens gawp, the dog haroops.
Wind whips like a sandblast
and all in one great whoosh, down comes the line!

Socks!
Pegs!
Helter-skelter, shilly-shally, willy-nilly, down! 

And Jane, the wooden wisher, is free. 
 
Free!

Free to don paint and petals,

from Making Peg Dolls, by Margaret Bloom

her owling self,

from Making Peg Dolls, by Margaret Bloom

her fairy face.

It doesn't take much time.

Jane and the family find their secret selves:
Greek gods!  
See, there's Jane in her purple hair.
She's waiting for wings.
She's changed her name to Athena.
Her coming-out party is next week.  
Adventure awaits!

Making Peg Dolls, by Margaret Bloom is here!

Margaret is the creative genius mother of Wish Baby, 

and the magic behind the blog We Bloom Here.

Making Peg Dolls

 There are umpteen reasons we love this book:

Margaret's illustrations tucked in and around the text. 

Tiny peg bears.

from Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom

Can you say darling? Oh my nubs!

from Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom

Fairy tale dollies.

Owl peggies. 

It's practically flying off the shelves.

This book is THAT hot. 

I packed a Peg Doll Get-Well-Kit for Pip's recovery.

Bliss!

Paint! 

Why don't we do this every day?
I had no idea how joyful and addicting it would be.

 
The thing that amazes me about Making Peg Dolls

is how Margaret has made this process accessible 

to adults and kids of all sizes.

We are smitten. Absolutely smitten with this book. 

I am convinced you will be, too!

And I have a copy of Making Peg Dolls to give away! 

It's simple: Just leave a comment.

You'll be entered in the drawing. 

I'll announce the winner next Wednesday. 

Exciting!

Entries end at midnight on Tuesday, February 26. 

Thank you, Margaret!

To Buy Making Peg Dolls:

 Steiner Books and Book Depository (free shipping worldwide!) 

are just two great sources to buy this book delight! More here.

Salty Valentines, and Tonsils, Take Two

Here we go again! 

Tomorrow is the big day. 

Tonsils out!

 

I'm reading about the hero's journey lately -
the road a character takes
to become changed in a story
- a.k.a the story arc. 
Writing and life are so linked, don't you think?

We're all on a journey.
We face monsters, magic, trials, portals every day - they just look a little different in real life.
Tests, school, work, laundry...
Pip's monster this week is tonsils.
We're trying to equip her with happy times,
to sustain her on the road of liquid food and couch time.

So we took her ice skating.

And experimented with pennies.

and made some copper valentines.
 
Did you know salt and vinegar can make some pretty impressive green crystals?

 

Then it was time for invisible ink, made of baking soda and water. 

  
and purple cabbage juice to reveal our secret messages.
 

Very spy-like. 

To go with the spy theme, I'm making her a book treasure hunt.

Like the book geo-caching we did last year when Winnie said goodbye to her tonsils.

Sticky note clues hidden in favorite books: "The Nutcracker" ill. by Maurice Sendak, "The 5,000 Year-Old Puzzle,"  ill. by Melissa Sweet

And speaking of books,
Margaret Bloom's "Making Peg Dolls" book giveaway is coming to my blog soon!
Stay tuned!

Happy, healthy hearts to you!

Sick days, valentines, and writers' journeys: