Here are the polar friends, nearly finished,
hoping to bring light and love
into the world.
They kind of make me feel like the party has arrived.
See? They even brought candy canes and made cookies.
I kind of forgot to make Christmas cards
so these are going to be my tiny love and light-bringers.
And these.
Happy Advent, my friends.
May thankfulness,
love
and light
fill you up
and bring you peace.
Apparently, it's Poetry Month.
Only, I've been a little distracted.
I skipped off to the city
for my local SCBWI meeting -
an art show,
a lecture from book-wise and witty
editors Mary Kate Castellani and Caroline Abbey,
and then a consultation and workshop with
art director, professor, and story genius Joy Chu.
This is the same Joy who guided me over the last two winters
in visual storytelling classes through the UCSD online extension program.
I'm still reeling with inspiration.
I could have listened for days. Months. Years.
Now I'm home, all bright and hopeful,
waiting for my brain to shape so many beautiful tips
and ideas into working order.
Time to let the front thoughts simmer.
Time to play with poetry.
We started with a poet-tree.
The wildebeests and I cut out branchy trees and labeled each branch with simple word:
sky, go, sea, etc.
Next, we cut out dozens of leaves - in all flutters of color,
because it just looks more exciting that way.
Each branch grew rhyming leaf words:
sky = cry, my, pie, etc.
Because we like to make life even more thrilling, and sometimes complicated,
I thought it might be fun for the older wildebeests to thread their leaves on yarn.
Winnie added a button.
Pip used gold pen. She's really into gel pens lately.
And their finished masterpieces.
I'd love to meet a tree like this someday, shimmering with colors, yarns, and words!
I think I'd move in.
I'll share more poetry play next time.
Until then, here are a few favorites:
A Kick in the Head, An Every Day Guide to Poetic Forms - compiled by Paul Janeczko, ill. by Chris Raschka
The Random House Book of Poetry - edited by Jack Prelutsky, ill. by Arnold Lobel
Switching on the Moon - collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Peters, ill. by G. Brian Karas
Chicken Soup With Rice - by Maurice Sendak
When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne, ill. by Ernest Shepard
Now We Are Six By A.A. Milne, ill. by Ernest Shepard
I am Icharus.
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.
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
Who gives heavy, blunt instruments to toddlers for Christmas?
I'm pretty sure this is what inspired "The Lord of the Flies."
My
Making-Merry-on-the-MiniGeoboard Kits are a hit.
And as far as homemade gifts go, how simple is this?
A block of sanded wood.
A bag of screws and nails.
Yarn and rubber bands.
All packaged up and ready to be assembled.
We wrapped a hammer and screwdriver kit for Sugar Snack, too.
He's in Fix-It Heaven,
stomping around the house,
adjusting all the screws.
I keep waiting for the doors to fall off
with the next
ACHOOO!
I don't know how safe a gift of nails
and screws is for the preschool crew.
I've tried to remind them to keep the sharp points
away from mouths, noses and electrical openings,
but you never know.
It helps to have ample adult supervision
when you're dealing with all those hammers.
So, let's just have a proviso here:
For crafty, writing, or artsy tips,
visit me with gleeful abandon.
For safe parenting tips,
go to
someone else.
Happy New Year, my friends!
May it be gloriously rich in the simple joys
and surprisingly glad in all the rest.
Books:
Tools by Taro Miura
Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann (Safety tips AND cuteness)
We take Christmas as we find it.
Big or little. Rich or poor.
Our December began with a broken car.
Growing kids bursting out of their coats and socks and shoes.
And a skinnier piggy bank.
So we're doing homemade this Christmas.
And humble, homemade gifts won't hurt us a bit.
In light of so much sorrow around us this year,
all we have is gratitude.
The messes don't matter.
I am unspeakably thankful for these eight small hands,
alive and healthy,
for the joyful chaos that surrounds them,
for my imperfect, half-finished jumble,
the light, the squeals, the squabbles.
The egg carton bells.
Popsicle stick snowflakes.
Trying on wreaths as hats.
What matters is already surrounding us.
Love encircles us,
wraps us in glowing strands,
and though it doesn't magically take away the sorrows
of our broken world,
Love is the thing that will mend us.
It anchors us when winds and sorrows come.
Smooths out the wrinkles in our weary, bleary furrows.
Makes us small candles to give courage in the dark.
Simple, homespun gifts may not be sophisticated,
fancy, or exactly on everyone's wish list,
but they are offerings of love.
and I'm okay with that.
Because love goes deeper than wish lists.
Christmas began with a gift
wrapped in old clothes and straw.
A humble gift.
A love gift.
Love to you, my friends.
Love.
Connecticut. Haiti. Japan.
Rwanda. Middle East.
Love to you.
Picture Books We're Enjoying this Week:
The Christmas Tapestry- Patricia Polacco
Christmas in the Barn- Margaret Wise Brown, Barbara Cooney
A Child is Born - Elizabeth Winthrop, Charles Mikolaycak
Gleam and Glow - Eve Bunting, Peter Sylvada
Christmas with the Mousekins - Maggie Smith
The Little House Christmas - Laura Ingalls Wilder, Garth Williams
One Wintry Night - Ruth Bell Graham, Richard Jesse Watson
The Joy of A Peanuts Christmas - Charles Schultz
We made ornaments this week...for the birds.
Because they ate all our cherries this year?
Because they pecked holes in the eaves
and made attic nests?
Heh.
But then we went birding.
A day's adventure into the wet, into the wind,
unconnected
from my technical world,
no busy busy, no run arounds, no errand hopping,
just listening.
Squinting into far off brambles.
Surprisingly, I connected. With the herons in the tree.
With the brown-headed eagle, the sparrows, the finches.
Like the time we stumbled on a barn owl and we lingered there, watching,
till the sky turned shadowy.
Or the day we pulled over the car to observe scores of starlings bathe in muddy puddles.
Maybe it's just the act of stopping
in the midst of a life that whirls
-watching birds go about their day,
breathing in a piney forest,
feeling rain pelt and pummel -
Maybe that's what slows me down.
wakes me up.
brings me peace.
And peace is what we all need this time of year.
So we made gifts for the birds.
I never thought I'd buy lard.
Or thistle seeds, for that matter.
Who needs more thistles? Birds, I guess.
So we squished together birdseed "cookies,"
threaded cheerios onto pipe cleaners
and bent them into hearts.
Where did Birdy's cheerios go?
The big kids strung popcorn, nuts and apples into garlands.
I cut up felt and old jeans and t-shirts into bird-ish shapes
for ornaments and pins.
It was a good project for little sewists.
And then we gathered our bounty
and strung it up
in the climbing tree.
"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
- and wild and sweet
- The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
- Had rolled along
- The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
- A voice, a chime,
- A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
- "For hate is strong,
- And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
- The Wrong shall fail,
- The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Peace to you, my friends...
peace that lifts,
peace with wings.
And some beauteous books to warm your winter!
The Birds of Bethlehem - Tomie dePaola
Night Tree - Eve Bunting, Ted Rand
The Candle in the Forest - compiled by Joe L. Wheeler
Uncle Vova's Tree - Patricia Polacco
The Trees of the Dancing Goats - Patricia Polacco
The Birds' Christmas Carol - Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Mitten - Barbara McClintock
The Mitten - Jan Brett
The Money We'll Save - Brock Cole
Owl Babies - Martin Waddell, Patrick Benson
Owl Moon - Jane Yolen, John Schoenherr
No Two Alike - Keith Baker
I'm at a blank!
I know my plot, my scenes,
my characters and their backstories to the nth generation.
I have tidy rows of index cards in Scrivener
spelling me all the way to the end.
I know what NEEDS to happen next
but I just can't picture WHERE it happens.
On a ship? In a shack?
(Sounds like something from Green Eggs and Ham)
Outside? Moonlight? Storm clouds? Hammocks? Dock? Bridge?
This is no end of frustrating!
I recently read
this advice from author Molly Blaisell
about writing novels.
One of the gems she writes is to Stop Rushing Yourself.
So I'm playing with the kids.
A fruit box puppet theater is a good way to try different settings for the novel...right?
While a fruit box has a perfect open shape
for marionette-style puppets,
my kids wanted stick puppets.
So I cut a hole big enough for four pairs of hands
plus
By:
Faith Pray,
on 12/14/2011
Blog:
SACRED DIRT
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When elves visit,
be they wee bairns,
or white-whiskered and jolly
it is best to
provide snacks
and woolly stockings.
Might I also suggest
a means of documentation -
for doubters, and writers alike.
How else will people believe us?
I've started keeping a notebook and pens at the ready,
in case elves, or story lightning strikes.
6 Comments on When Elves Visit, last added: 1/12/2012
I talked with the kids about peace this week.
"Peace is when your heart isn't troubled. It's also -" Their dad chimed in, "-tiny! I have peace. A tiny piece of rice." The evening erupted into wild fits of hilarity. "I have piece! of pizza! ...piece of paper, piece of pie.... " Peace talks all done. Try again next year.  A little more sacred dirt to remind me that both life and children do not fit into boxes. Would you like to know what my children squabble over the most?  The singing manger scene. "Give me the baby Jesus, stink-head!" That's right. Maybe next week we can talk about love. We'll see how that goes...
The sketches are part of my homemade Advent calendar, done old-school style in India ink and Prisma colors on Canson paper, cut out like paper dolls, glued onto envelopes and attached to mat board.
By: Faith Pray,
on 11/9/2011
Blog: SACRED DIRT
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Pip and Winnie's fairy door.
Do you ever find portals while reading?
Lucy Pevensie's wardrobe Alice's rabbit hole Harry's Platform Nine and Three Quarters Dorothy's tornado Meg Murry's tessaract
Characters in these stories are ordinary people, minding their own perfectly normal business when whoosh! - in zips a talking rabbit, a parliament of owls, an envelope in emerald ink, bag ladies spouting Latin -
and the next thing they know they've been carried away into a gloriously different world - and life is never the same.
Children, lunatics and writers live on the edge of that line between fantasy and reality.
Life is good here.
It takes less work to believe in books, to look for fairy doors and hang out near them, hoping for a way in.
At least, that's my excuse when I find myself wishing for Diagon Alley, an invitation to Camp Halfblood,
2 Comments on The Fairy Door, last added: 11/9/2011
By: Faith Pray,
on 10/8/2011
Blog: SACRED DIRT
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Sinkers and Floaters.
This summer we made an entire fleet of homemade boats. We wanted to see which would be the most seaworthy.
If you're an artist or writer, you may be able to relate.
How do you view what you've made -
as experiments, or tiny pieces of your soul?
Too often as a writer, I send out tiny pieces of my soul I like to call manuscripts.
My manuscript souls wobble out into the blue -
some of them proud and brave, others nervously checking their rigging, desperate to sail smooth waters.
But when those manuscript soul pieces, (dare I call them horocruxes?) hit bad seas or... or...
sink
we simply had to do something for Japan.
Hurray for Dolly Donations, the blog who connected us with the right people! The kids helped me make three dolls for displaced children in Japan: repurposed pants and silk vest turned into Fuzzy Pink girl,
quilting scraps became Princess Leia Buns and Blue Bunnie. (Thank you, Sharon, for the beautiful scraps!)
0 Comments on Japan as of 1/1/1900
We've been watching Haiti, wanting to do something.
And I've been looking for a way to help that involves my kids. At the same time, the twins have been begging to learn how to sew. We got a sewing book for Christmas. We discussed our favorites, which dolls we would make first, what kind of dresses we would make for them. They're taking dolls to orphans in Haiti. What better start to our adventure with the Wee Wonderfuls book?
The Dolly Donations drive asks that the dolls have a love note or prayer tucked inside the body.  Pip and Winnie got to help hand sew the faces.  The skin, hair and dresses are made from repurposed fabrics.
Started experimenting with printing on fabric this weekend:
More crafting on Flickr.
I made my 7 year old niece a dancing outfit to go with her disco ball for her birthday. Of course I had to try it on first before wrapping it up...
I think my favorite thing about crafting is actually seeing other people enjoy the fruits of my labor (or enjoying it myself). While I like the creative process, it isn't the only rewarding thing, there's the sharing part too. Luckily I have two fun nieces to share my stuff with.
I also made my Seeeeester a reading blanket to get cozy with this autumn. I like the colors I picked, buttery yellows, flannelly grays, and hints of orange to perk it up. I didn't get a photo of the completed project, but I've got some leftover fabric with another project in mind already...
Anyway, happy birthday G & Seeeeeester!
I'm off to California next week for a conference and to celebrate my own birthday in yet another new city, San Francisco! Should be fun!
So I've been fairly good so far in my quest to not be a consumerist pig and buy needless clothing and stuff to fill my closets. Good by my standards at least. I did in fact return the infamous trench coat after being completely wracked with guilt for not lasting 24 hours.
It's been about 6 weeks now, and I *have* purchased a few not completely necessary items: a lemon zester, a digital food scale, 4 books, a tube of cherry blossom lotion, 4 pieces of printed paper from the Paper Zone, a not-exactly-dirt-cheap-but-less-than-$8-so-it-was-really-really-really-hard-to-turn-it-down hat from BR (more on *why* I allowed myself *inside* of a clothing store in the first place later), and some fabric for projects. I know, for some of you, that's more than what you buy in a year, but for a girl who could go shopping once a week, it's not bad.
Let's examine these purchases in detail, shall we? 1) Lemon Zester & Digital Food ScaleOkay, fine, yes I went to the most extreme of all shopping experiences: the Outlet Mall (on Labor Day weekend, horror of horrors). But only because I was headed north with some friends and they had some shopping to do (nevermind that I was the one who suggested it).
Two things I realized: 1) it's super hard for me to be within purchasing distance and not purchase. I was determined to not look at clothing. So I managed to convince myself that I had no means of grating citrus fruit and that my baking was suffering for it (and now that I've actually used that zester, whoa boy, I think it might actually be true). The digital scale was also on my culinary wishlist and it seemed like a good chance to score a deal on it. 2) there's really only one point of being at an Outlet Mall: buying. Putting yourself in the middle of that kind of zoo and not coming away with *something* is almost degrading. It's like fighting in a war and not getting at least *some* kind of recognition for laying your life on the line.
Can you feel the guilt yet?
2) 4 Books I'm a librarian. And a bibliophile. And I've actually done pretty decently this year, mostly because I have awesome friends who showered me with awesome books for my birthday last year. That and I also have a kickass public library that I pillage on a regular basis. However: a week spent in Bellingham with its many wonderful wonderful wonderful bookstores is too difficult to resist. I saw it as an opportunity to support small business owners and expand my own brainpower at the same time--a win-win situation: 1) Slow Food by Carlo Petrini--basis of my current obsession with eating local, definitely a good thing; Urban Walks: 23 Walks through Seattle's Parks and Neighborhoods--explore my city by foot, always a good thing; The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery--Paris + precocious tween = an interesting mix, which is also always a good thing; Linen Wool Cotton by Akiko Mano--sewing in general is always a good thing. I feel absolutely no guilt in purchasing books, especially used ones, so I feel completely fine with this. All titles completely complement my book space (yes I have room) and my current interests, so my brain is happy.
However:
3) Cherry Blossom Lotion *Total and complete* impulse buy. It smelled good and my hands were chapped at the time. Moving on.
4) 4 pieces of printed paper This one is kind of an interesting one: I have a slowly dwindling stash of pretty paper products from when I was all gung-ho on papercrafting. I'm working through the stash, which is actually a pretty awesome feat. However, at some point, your creativity starts to fail you when you're working with the same old stuff. That pattern loses any inspiration for making an interesting shape. Or brown just doesn't cut it for you like it used to. Or do we really have to see the same 10 stamps over and over again? Creativity is a pretty important outlet for me, so needing to revive the stash was an acceptable reason to break out the cash. So while on my way to the grocery store to buy birthday cake ingredients, I also stopped by Paper Zone to buy pretty birthday card material. I bought 4 sheets of paper that will probably last me another 2 years, but will boost my creative spirit. Yay! No guilt!
5) not-exactly-dirt-cheap-but-less-than-$8-so-it-was-really-really-really-hard-to-turn-it-down Hat (in other words, complete and thorough guilt) I completely blame my sister for this, even though she was not there in the flesh. Thursday nights my sister is often on her own as her husband has a regular get together with friends. Fairly often in the past, I'd get the call around 4:45--"what you doing after work?" "not much" "want to meet at U Village?" and off we'd go on our shopping excursion, a regular sister bonding time, which color?, can I pull off wearing ruffles here?, those jeans look really nice on you!, etc, etc. A grand time for all involved. Besides Anthropologie, Banana Republic is another favorite shopping stop.
So a Thursday night came and I found *I* was on my own. My cousin's birthday had come and gone and I had nothing for her. No ideas, absolutely empty handed. So what did I do? I fell back on the old trip to U Village, where I found myself saying, "you're getting something for M, not yourself." Except for that darned freakishly-cute-on-my-head beret. A beret! on my cute round head! And only $7.99 at Banana of all places! I had that same trenchcoat feeling of a total score for me, expert bargain finder! Before I could start to feel guilty I bought it, complete with the all-sales-final tag attached to it. See! I couldn't even return it if I wanted to!
See my cute head wearing this hat? This is what denial looks like.
(ps: I ended up making a super cute oilcloth lunch sac for my cousin using fabric from my stash. Yeah, I know.)
6) fabric for some projects Fabric in my stash usually was purchased for a future project. I have a lot of future projects: baby blankets, summer dresses, brown-haired dolls, a stuffed doggie, placemats, chair cushions, patchwork skirts... But none of these were what I actually wanted to make for my sister in law: a Julia Child-style chef's apron with chickens on the pocket. Yes, with chickens. Because she wants to raise chickens, so it had to be chicken themed. And I had no chickens in my stash. In fact, I had no fabric big enough beside a couple of yards of blue flannel, to make a long apron. And flannel aprons are not quite the thing. So off to the fabric store I went. No guilt.
------
So believe it or not, I'm learning a lot about myself and in most ways, being more conscious of the stuff I buy and why I buy. I have some weak moments (hello cute hat!) and some creative logic going on, but I'm getting better. And as I told my sister today, one of the things I've learned about giving something up is to understand what you actually gain from that loss.
And so far I've gained a lot of insight into my bad habits, have found ways to fill my moments of boredom with more fulfilling and creative activities, have spent more time with people just talking and not shopping, and have found more satisfaction in the stuff that I do have.
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They kind of make me feel like the party has arrived. 
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Merry Christmas to you and your sweet family, Faith! Keep shining your beautiful light! xo