boo !

I'm playing with tiny paper people lately.
It seems easier to figure out than real Halloween costumes.
I keep hoping the wildebeests will agree to dress up like book characters.
Easy characters.
Like Baghead by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

That sounds reasonable, right?
Grocery bag?
A costume that doubles as a trick-or-treat bag!
Okay I'm mostly kidding.
The tiny guys are my way of getting ready for a virtual boo party
with Puddle Jump Collective.
Coming soon!

 Do you have any easy costume ideas to share?

The Cake Ordeal, or Trial By Frosting

Birthdays for one small Two

and two big Sevens

all in one whippy whirlwind of a week. 

Whew! 

With such a mouthful of birthdays,

we partied nice and mellow...

except for... the big girl cakes...

 

Uh.

A few words to the wise: 

Betty Crocker

invented cake mix for a reason.

The reason?

She had twins plus two toddlers

and could not juggle kids and kitchen.

My attempt turned out two overly dense 

six-layer rainbow pink berry chocolate cakes

with floppy, sloppy frosting... 

sound yummy?

hmmmm.

I have learned from my mistakes. 

From now on, I will stick to wordy, artsy things

and leave baking to the Big Whisks 

and their foodie blogs.

Goodbye, high rise glorious 

skittle skat roarious.

It's cupcakes from now on.

Five days later, Birdy's birthday began

with a houseful of pink balloons.

Heaven!  

 

What else does a newly two need?

 

A frilly dress-up,

a home-sewn crown

fuzzy old chenille in a soft new quilt,

giggles

and some really easy cupcakes from a stress-free mama

and a

"blow-the-candles-out!"

Yummy Cake Books:

The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious
High Pie Angel Food Cake - Nancy Willard, Richard Jesse Watson
The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies - Heather Forest, Susan Gaber
Round is a Mooncake - Roseanne Thong, Grace Lin 
Clever Jack Takes the Cake - Candace Fleming, G. Brian Karas
Mud is Cake - Pam Munoz Ryan
Thunder Cake - Patricia Polacco
Moon Cake - Frank Asch
Babycakes - Karma Wilson, Sam Williams
The Fairy Tale Cake - Mark Sperring, Jonathan Langley

What are your favorite yummy books?

Hoots

A wise old owl sat in an oak

 the more he saw, the less he spoke

the less he spoke, the more he heard.

Why aren't we all like that wise old bird?

Pip's owl costume.

Remember our birthday tree?

Well, it turns out birthday buntings 

double as owl suits. 

 

Whether she's recognizable as an owl, whoooo knows, 

but she's happy.  

After twenty costume scenarios, 

and dozen more cooking

in her imaginative mind,

Winnie was finally lassoed into being a cowgirl.

Cookie monster:

Sisters' fuzzy hat and sweater,

Ping pong ball eyes. 

Baby giraffe.   

"These notices had been written by Christopher Robin, who was the only one in the forest who could spell; for Owl, wise though he was in many ways, able to read and write and spell his own name WOL, yet somehow went all to pieces over delicate words like MEASLES and BUTTEREDTOAST."

- Winnie the Pooh, A.A.Milne

Some Owlish Book Love:

Owl Babies - Martin Waddell, illustrated by Patrick Benson

 

Owl at Home, by Arnold Lobel

Owl Moon - Jane Yolen, ill. by John Schoenherr

Whoo-oo Is It - Megan McDonald, ill. by S.D. Schindler

Peek a Who? - by Nina Laden

Finding Your Inner Pirate

What pirates do before they pillage...

How do you reach your inner pirate?

How do you get in touch with your characters?

And even more importantly, 

do you dress up?

If I was Jo in Little Women, I'd scribble novels 

in writing smock and red beret. 

As Harriet Vane in Gaudy Night,  I'd jot down mysteries in garnet silk dressing gown, armed with ample cups of tea and cream scones. 

But in real life, I am dull as toast. 

I wear comfortable, mostly black clothes, 

type on the laptop, scribble in notebooks, 

do small art 

in my small corner 

and drink coffee 

(decaf! )

with animal crackers. 

  

my corner "studio"

squashed into the corner of our dining room. 

This 

is where 

I write. 

My home

for short slips of time,

usually when the little guys nap

I nurse a hot mug

and dive deep

to other worlds,

draft cities,  

waft characters 

onto page 

and into breath

craft injuries, death,

sparks and embers,

and then return 

to 

the squashed corner of the dining room,

to the end-of-nap time 

and rolling snowball of day's end. 

but if I could get away with it, I'd dress up...

clown around,

play gingerbread girls

or princess Leia x2

What is your secret

for getting into character as you work?

Do you have a magic rubber chicken,
a writing shawl, a special bottle of writing potion,
perfume, massage chair, a pair of slippers?

Give me your tips. I'd love to know!


Book Love:

Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke, illustrated by Kerstin Meyer

Thy Friend, Obadiah by Brinton Turkle
Obadiah the Bold by Brinton Turkle

Edward and the Pirates by David McPhail

How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long, illustrated by David Shannon

Roger, the Jolly Pirate by Brett Helquist

The Serpent Came to Gloucester by M.T. Anderson, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline 

Although not pirate-themed, you must see this modern classic.

I am absolutely wowed by Bagram Ibatoulline's illustrations. The text is ballad style,  clean and lilting as a sea shanty, the art intricate and masterful as an old world wonder.