Celebration

If you don't mind my saying, I do love my colorful felt star & satin ribbon wands...for New Year's Eve Celebrations and Birthday Wishes, and small bits of magic anytime.... also putting on the Party Hats tonight! BarefootStoryteller.etsy.com

Felted Bird House

When I saw one of these created by a fellow felt artist, I just knew I had to make some too! They are a wonderful all natural, biodegradable, warm and cozy home for your feathered friends! They are weather resistant (water does not soak in) but eventually will begin to show wear...when that happens, the birds will then be able to use bits of the wool to line their new nests! These are cut with holes that suit my Chickadees, but you could widen for larger birds. Bottoms are sewn shut, but you can remove stiches to clean house if desired, and then sew back up! There's one available over at my Mothers Moon etsy shop. MothersMoon.etsy.com

Shop Local

Popular at the Ashwood Waldorf School's Holiday Faire, these last two felt "Kris Kringle" ornaments are soon be be on their way over to one of my etsy shops BarefootStoryteller.etsy.com where they'll join some other Yuletide type goodies, such as felt holly & berries pins, large felt mushrooms, soft gnome dolls or red and green, a few white doves of peace, and more. Please visit!

And please shop handmade this season, shop small businesses, shop local. Shop were it matters most.

Liesl & Po

Thank you Harper & Collins, for offering a free online reading of Liesl & Po written by Lauren Oliver and illustrated by Kei Acedera, from now until January 31st. Just click here to start reading.

Little Green (and red) Apples

Had a wonderful time at MOFGA's Maine Apple Day on Sunday! I gave needle felting tutorials on how to make these little apples, and a few other things. My booth was located right across from the cider press and it was a joy to watch the children especially take turns winding the crank, and feeding apples to the machine. The very best part, of course, was a near constant supply of the very best raw apple cider I have ever had! (at least since last year's pressing!)

Barefoot Books Opportunity!

Blogging about the latest Barefoot Books opportunity (and it's a nice one!) over here on my Barefoot Books blog

Common Ground Fair

Getting ready for my appearance at the Maine Organic Farmer's Association Common Ground Fair in Unity on September 23rd. Taking to the stage again at 2:45pm Looking forward to it!

Storytelling Festival

The Western Maine Storytelling Festival (the first annual) takes place in downdown Farmington, Maine August 5th & 6th. Simply show me a copy of The Barefoot Storyteller ad from the festival program, and receive a 20% discount on any Barefoot Storyteller event booked in August!

Maine Artisan Bread Fair

Looking forward to returning to The Maine Artisan Bread Fair event this year! You'll find me there with some wood burned items (as I wrote about in my May 25th post on this blog), some of my felted veggies (a little peek seen on this blog listing) and also little felt chicken puppets to go along with my reading of "The Little Red Hen and the Grain of Wheat". You'll also find some Maine Made Jams, and a few Barefoot Books publications such as the Kids' Kitchen deck, Herb the Vegetarian Dragon, The Beeman , The Gigantic Turnip, and more.

20% of my proceeds of the day will proudly be donated to the Maine Farmland Trust again this year.

For those of you who are unable to attend this Saturday event in Skowhegan, the wood and felt art will be added to the Barefoot Storyteller etsy shop sometime after the event (if there are any of them left!) and the Barefoot Books publications can be found on-line upon my link www.BarefootBooksStoryteller.com

Though I won't be offering any Chronicle Books for sale at this event, I'd like to share a special on-line sale for them with you...just click the button below to receive 30% off cook book orders!

Events

Summer is certainly in full swing here...and I am gardening (or local farm stand purchasing), preparing for upcoming events, looking forward to my son's presentation at Pecha Kucha Night Waterville July 20th (and his performance in a Lakewood Theater's Young Performer's Production July 30th) doing some kayaking on the pond, and waiting for a cool breeze. Not the time of year for making soaps or doing too much felting, but excellent time for hanging herbs to dry.

Should soon be ready for Waterfall Arts Lawn Bazaar and Let Art and Nature Collide on July22nd in Belfast. Not sure if I'll be inspired to tell stories, but will have the "create your own story" stand up for the kids as usual. I'll be selling my wares for sure though, thinking of doing a blending of my handmade naturals and some books, and maybe a few other items. Can't decide who to give my usual event % donation to, so will be choosing four! Maine Farmland Trust, Thor-Nox Educational Garden, Camp Forest, and, the Maine Autism Society! After that is the Belfast Bound Book Festival on the 29th, and the Maine Bread Artisans Fair in Skowhegan July 30th.

Thor-Nox Educational Garden

The soil is tiled, and the garden is underway! Now I begin a photo essay to accompany and document the experience. Located adjacent to the Mount View School complex in Thorndike, the garden sits upon a piece of the historical 420 acre farm which is under conservation easement, owned by Shirley Bessey. Kelly Desrosiers, Mount View Elementary School Art Teacher and Project Based Learning Adviser, is helping to develop this educational garden on Ms. Bessey's land, with great enthusiasm from Ms. Bessey herself. The garden will be a hands-on project for students and the community, from planting, to tending, to harvesting crops for the school cafeteria. Along the way will be nature journaling and many other activities to encourage appreciation of the natural world just outside the children's proverbial back door.

To keep up to date with the going on in the garden (including when I'll be having my Afterschool Performing Arts group presenting an adaptation of "The Gigantic Turnip"!) please visit the Thor-Nox Educational Garden facebook page

Pecha Kucha Night, Waterville

My son Jakob has been selected to be a presenter at the next Pecha Kucha Night in Waterville. He'll be sharing 20 of his hand drawn sketches of charactors from the "new" BBC Doctor Who series. We are told he is the youngest artist ever the presentation would take place four nights before his 10th birthday) to submit to PKN Waterville. I am quite proud!

MSBA 2011-2012 Reading Group

I have placed the bare bones information about the Maine Student Book Award Reading Group for Mount View Elementary upon the Barefoot Storyteller web-site. And created a Maine View Elementary MSBA Readers Blog

If you are interested in purchasing the books yourself, I have provided links for them through Amazon for ease of ordering, as they are often the least expensive. Some titles are also available through the Scholastic Book Club, and if you chose to buy through them instead you will earn free books for the entire Mount View Elementary Summer Reading Program. After you and log on to the Scholastic Store, and create your parent password, use the classroom code HL23F and you will be able to view the program wish lists and recommendations relating to the MSBA. (some may appear more than once as they are in multiple catalogs) You are also free to browse and shop for any other books there, and all books can be picked up at the Summer Reading Program.

Elementary Afterschool Performing Arts Program

Mount View Elementary Afterschool Performing Arts Program members preparing for the performance of "And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon" at the Clifford Performing Arts Center.

Wood

I love working with wood. I may never get those burl wood bowls carved, but I've done other wood carvings. Enjoy making wands with applewood, and adding bits of ribbon and felt. Birch bark is fun to work with. Any sort of small sticks are good for toad or fairy houses. And I've been known to let my creativity fly with the wood burning tool on all sorts of stuff. In preparing for the Maine Artisan Bread Fair in July I am letting that creativity fly on some bread boards, dipping bowls, and wooden spoons.

Craft Packages

These are a few little special "packages" that I put together...more information and pricing is available upon my facebook page

Performing Arts Afterschool

Working with the MSAD# 3 Elementary Afterschool Performing Arts Program on the Spring/Summer Play. Having them start "prop work" and looking forward to seeing their creative energies on giant posterboard!

Maine School Garden Network

Had a wonderful time at the Maine School Garden Network event Saturday, in Waldoboro! Brought along some of my goodies, including felted veggies: carrots, corn, & potatoes!

Chickadee Award 2011

Horray, horray! Maine author Chris Van Dusen's book The Circus Ship has won the 2011 Chickadee Award!

Here's the complete tally:

Circus Ship 3,529 votes... Lousy Rotten Stinkin' Grapes 3,267 votes... Tsunami 2,920 votes... Winnie Finn, Worm Farmer 1,497 votes... The Imaginary Garden 1,279 votes.... Hurry Up and Slow Down 1,019 votes... Testing the Ice 991 votes... My Name is Sangoel 807 votes... An Eye for Color 541 votes... Under the Snow 480 votes

Fortune's Folly

A fellow blog's short review on a book I frequently read snippets from, "Fortune's Folly"

MSBA Book Buzz

Star Wands on Applewood

I love making these fun star wands on apple wood with ribbon! The stars and ribbons are in the colors of the rainbow, and the apple wood harvested from my own trees. Make some magic today!

The Giant Walnut

A moment to share my son's own creativity, and story telling... the "giant walnut". Something that came to him in a dream, story developing, hand sculpted clay art...

The Cyber World

A thought copied from the Mothers Moon Blog... It's winter in Maine. I miss the simplicity of roadside stands and farmers markets that the other three seasons bring. But I'm vowing to reach out to folks more here on my blog, and Mothers Moon twitter account, and even perhaps create a "business" facebook page.

Edited 2-27-11: See link button to the facebook page on the right

Soaps

New Year...a nice time to think of signing up yourself or a friend for my Mothers Moon "Soap of the Month Club". Find more information about the club HERE or maybe you just want to purchase a single bar through my MothersMoon.etsy shop

Yoga CD

New Year's Sale! All Putumayo Yoga Cds in stock, just $10!

storyteller@fairpoint.net

Spring Stuff at Barefoot Books

Keeping folks in the loop with what's up over at Barefoot Books! Right now there's the annual Winter Sale going on (with up to 60% off on certain items) and, though my son is most excited for the upcoming release of the chapter book version of Shakespere's Storybook, Barefoot will also be releasing some bright and colorful new books this Spring and Summer!

Here's a sneak peek at a few:

Bears Birthday: Join Bear as he celebrates his birthday with a party for all his friends. Learn about birthday activities as the bears hunt for presents, play party games and blow out the candles on a Bear-size birthday cake. PB $6.99 6/1

I Could Be, You Could Be: Join a young boy and girl on thrilling adventures as they imagine themselves as a space-traveling astronaut, a ferocious dragon, a jungle-dwelling monkey and more. The fine line between children's make-believe and the fantastic worlds they create is cleverly portrayed through Barroux s bright landscapes. Includes a mask-making activity at the end! HC $16.99 6/1

Over in the Meadow: This traditional rhyming tale takes children on a counting journey through Jill McDonald s colorful meadow scenes, meeting a variety of busy animal families along the way. Children will relish the vivid descriptions of the animals and their activities, from a bumpy mother toad and her baby basking in the sun to a hairy mother spider and her ten children spinning webs in a den. HC $16.99 4/1

Children of the World Memory Game (Sofie Fatus):
Inspired by the title If You're Happy and You Know It, this memory game utilizes one of the greatest attributes of the book-the adorable children from all over the world-to encourage memory and matching skills. The object of the game is to match the boy and girl pairs according to the traditional dress, country name and colour featured on each card $15.99 3/1

African Animals

Preparing for a storytelling event focusing on African Animals...and will be bringing these neat Putumayo products along...deciding still if I want to make them part of a regular "package", along with the Putumayo African Dreamland and Putumayo African Playground

Putumayo Africa Coloring Book: Captions, a map and a glossary help budding artists identify the images as they color and learn about African culture.

Drawing captions
Glossary of African animals and instruments
Colorable map of Africa
Dimensions: 11.5" x 14" (29 x 35 cm)
Printed with eco-friendly soy ink
$10


Putumayo Africa Sticker Book: Curious kids can build sticker stories on the fold-out African landscape, explore countries on the full-color map and check the glossary to get the scoop behind the sticker images. These reusable stickers adhere to almost any surface.

120 colorful, reusable stickers
Fold-out African landscape
Glossary of African animals and instruments
Dimensions: 9” x 9” (23 cm x 23 cm)
Printed with eco-friendly soy ink
$12

Putumayo has sourced sustainably-derived resources in the manufacture of products. Their printer is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified and the company has taken a “100% replanted” approach, providing funds to Trees, Water, People to support global reforestation efforts.