books - chikaustin

books

December21st

4 Comments

holiday toadstool project

Posted in: books

Up for some last minute crafting? Or do you want to get a head start on next Christmas? Well check out the new downloadable book from Lark Books – Fa la la la Felt. The book includes 45 decorations, ornaments, and stockings made out of felt.

The book isn’t in stores until next year, but you can buy it now at Zinio and download it as an eBook. How cool is that?!? The book is chock full of super cute patterns to deck your halls. I know you’ll want an actual copy to hold in your hands, but this is a great way to get started on your holiday crafting. Plus, the Craft Hope book may become an eBook as well so you might want to take this baby as a test drive before you check out the Craft Hope book.

And as a special gift, Lark Books is offering a free tutorial for this cute little mushroom ornament from Cathy Gaubert. Click on the image above to download the .pdf file.

Happy holidays!
June25th

30 Comments

a little secret

Posted in: books, celebrations

I have this little secret.

One that I’ve been wanting to share with you for a couple of months now.

And since I just signed my contract last week, I am overjoyed, over the moon, ecstatic.

I got a book deal. Did I just say that? I got a book deal. Sometimes I have to say it aloud just so that I believe it.

I’m working with Lark Books on a great new project for Craft Hope! And I can’t wait to share it with you very soon. I’m blessed to be working with some incredible editors and fabulous designers/bloggers, who I am also proud to call my friends.

So in all of my free time (ha) I’ve been researching, recruiting and networking. I’ve been writing, brainstorming and planning. I’ve stayed up late to catch my friends on the other side of the world as they are just waking up. I’ve gotten up early to catch the others as they are finishing up their day.

I’ve sat at the bookstore researching. I’ve sat quietly alone at my desk working.

All of this while changing diapers, potty training, pool dates, play dates, laundry, house cleaning, cooking, blogging, blog reading and running Craft Hope.

My major deadline is running exactly the same time as my due date. How about that for timing?

I can’t wait to share more with all of you. Stay tuned!
February3rd

2 Comments

artist trading card swap

Posted in: babes in toyland, books, kid crafts

As Makena is getting older, it’s fun to watch her drawing skills develop. Her people are now getting clothes, glasses and shoes. She’s beginning to draw pictures of animals she sees in a book. And she can easily whip up a field of flowers. Always noticing the tiny details that I might forget.

We have yet to move past the Crayola section of art supplies since they are washable. On a recent outing, I picked up a wooden set of nesting dolls that weren’t painted.

I brought out her Russian matryoshka dolls to use as an example and let her go to town. Creating her own work of art.

I’ve been drooling over this kids art book for a while now written by Eric Carle, Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art.

Since she’s getting older and wanting to do more, I signed her up to participate in a Kid’s Artist Trading Card Swap by Wise Craft and House on Hill Road. She’s very excited! It’s for kids 4 and up. She’ll create five very small artist trading cards and send them out to her swap partners around the world. And as much as she likes to check the mailbox and receive a letter, she’ll really love the art. It will be fun to look at the globe and see where the art is from. The deadline to sign up is this Friday, so head on over there and sign up your budding artiste!

I think it’s time to improve upon her art supplies. Anyone have suggestions on what pencils and paints are good for kids?
January4th

8 Comments

their own space

Posted in: babes in toyland, books, home sweet home, kid crafts

With the cold front, that blew the summer-like temperatures out of here this morning, came the need to nest and stay at home. So the Christmas decorations came down as quick as they went up. The pine needles were swept away and a new space was made for the kids.

Their very own art space. In the living room.

As soon as the art supplies were arranged, the kids were drawn to them like magnets. They dropped everything they were doing and hurried over to their new space. To create.

We’ve been fascinated with this new book checked out from the library. A lot of the kid’s art is ish. Tree-ish. Flower-ish. House-ish. People-ish. Car-ish. Takes the pressure off of making it perfect. One personality trait that keeps their mama from trying many new things in the crafting world herself.

As Keegan was drawing circles as fast as he could, he screamed ‘baseball.’ Baseball-ish.

Now that the kids are getting older and library visits are less-stressful, I’ll update this space when we find new books that we love.

These happen to be our current favorites:

Little Hoot :: Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Little Pea :: Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Do You Have a Hat :: Eileen Spinelli

I *heart* the illustrations and sweet story lines. Jen Corace is the illustrator for Little Hoot and Little Pea. Incredibly talented she is. What children’s books are you loving right now?

Oh my grace, I almost forgot to mention… As I was scrolling through the ohdeedoh website, I found Makena’s room featured as a Most Popular Nursery Tour :: July, 2008! I was thrilled when I came across her room!!! Quite an honor. Thanks ohdeedoh!
September2nd

16 Comments

Stitch in Time

Posted in: books, crafting, home sweet home, in my kitchen

I’ve had a few projects on the brain lately that I finally completed this weekend. Oh how I love three day weekends.

This pillow that I had seen in this book. It is not a crafty/pattern book. It’s more of a lifestyle book. How to really live at home. I have gotten several ideas for decorating and simplifying in this book. I used some of my favorite fabric and linen. My first time working with linen and I have to say that I love it. I struggled forever trying to do an invisible stitch and just finally gave up. I couldn’t quite ever make the knot big enough to not pull right through the linen. And if you haven’t picked up a copy of this book yet, you really should. It’s one of my favorites.

I also made some cafe curtains for my kitchen window.

Adds a spash of color to the kitchen and ties in the red from the rest of the house. I’ve been wanting to add some orangey-red (official name) to this space and it just feels right.

For my birthday I was given this sweet mixed media art piece by a wonderful friend. She’s a scrap booking genius and has started making and will soon be selling her work. I’ll keep you all posted on this. She has an etsy shop in the works. The quote above the owl says “The art of being wise is knowing what to over look.” Wise words. Very wise indeed. Sarah and I were talking about our knee jerk reaction to situations. A constant work in progress for me. This sweet picture will remind me of that everyday.
April10th

8 Comments

Wishes & Fairy Houses

Posted in: babes in toyland, books, out back

It’s beginning to feel a lot like August. Summer in Central Texas can be sweltering. It’s hot, hot, hot. So this time of year we spend as much time outside as possible. Right now it seems like everything is pollinating, birds are migrating, flowers are blooming and the bugs are out with a vengeance. We have these oak trees that surround our property. We are literally engulfed in cedar and oak trees so depending upon the time of year our allergies are irritated. The oak trees are pollinating as we speak. There is a bright green presence lurking throughout the countryside and stuck onto everything.

Also, right now we have these wormy things dropping from the oak trees. In fact, it’s so icky when you walk under an oak tree you are engulfed in their webs. Now I’m sure they aren’t worms and I’m even more positive they aren’t web building worms, but it sure does feel like it. I think they are caterpillars building their cocoons. Nonetheless, I wish it weren’t where we spend most of our time. So now we are sitting under the cedar trees. Thank goodness it’s not cedar fever season.

Amidst all of nature taking its course, we still managed to get outside.

Make a few wishes.

$Browsing Amanda\'s New Book$

Read Amanda’s new book. Oh, how we need a bigger blanket.

Pick flowers.

And build a fairy house. Yep, you guessed it… under the big wormy webby oak tree. The rest of the time was spent looking for decorating accents for the fairies. Of course they’d like fresh flowers to come home to. Then it was off to hunt through the yard searching for fairies. Maybe we need a vacancy sign.
December29th

8 Comments

fit for a king

Posted in: books, in my kitchen

The house is quiet, except for the pitter-patter of tiny toddler footsteps and voices. All family is now home safe in the comfort of their own homes. As I sit and look around at the devastation around my house, the piles of laundry yet to be done and the presents yet to find a home I sip from my glass of Beaujolais Nouveau red wine, take a deep breath and relax. Home.

This evening we quickly bathed and tucked the kids into bed since they haven’t made their bedtimes in say… about a week. For Christmas, Miles got me a fabulous cookbook that I would very highly recommend to anyone and everyone. The book, My French Kitchen, is written by Joanne Harris who is the author of Chocolat, one of my all time favorite movies. The recipes are simple although you do have to go to Whole Foods to find some ingredients like fresh tarragon. The photography is exquisite and the selections are divine. From creme brulee, ratatoullie (no, it’s not just a movie) and spinach gnocchi. The list goes on and on. Tonight I drug Miles into the kitchen to teach him a thing or two. He was in charge of the chopping of the vegetables and in the middle of dicing the shallots, with tears in his eyes, told me how overwhelmed and grateful he was with the meal. Funny guy.

Together we made filet mignon with a tarragon cream sauce on top of a portobello mushroom served with a side of roasted asparagus spears and sliced baguette. The entire process took 20 minutes. Need I say anything else?
December4th

11 Comments

can you feel that breeze?

Posted in: books, celebrations, home sweet home, in my kitchen, mama life

That’s a Texas winter right there my dear friends. It will stay pretty mild here for most of the winter, with a few days really cold and a few days unseasonably warm. This is the view from my kitchen window where I spent part of the afternoon making oatmeal cookies for my book club that came over last night. Sorry I don’t have a fancy recipe for you. I used the recipe from the Quaker Oats box and it was just perfect. It’s the simple things that are the most rewarding.

These cute little guys are my vintage Santa and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers set. They were given to me from my Mema. They sit there and watch over me as I attempt to create our own holiday traditions.

Book club. A good evening with great friends. Using books as an excuse to get together. Shhhh… don’t tell anyone our little secret. Sharing hopes and dreams. Using this night as a recluse. To reinvigorate and rejuvenate the soul. To discuss world issues and solve them from our perch. We are reading The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards if anyone wants to read along with us.
November4th

No Comments

apples for jam

Posted in: books

Thanks to Amanda over at SouleMama for suggesting Apples for Jam. This is probably the most beautiful cookbook I have ever owned. The vintage pictures combined with her eloquent writing about childhood and recreating those moments is worth the cost alone. Not to mention there are great recipes included. Check it out for yourself!

Ummmm….. it’s Sunday and I’m up at 6 am. What’s wrong with me? Stinkin’ daylight savings time. Ugh.
October25th

11 Comments

eat your veggies

Posted in: books, in my kitchen

The UPS man showed up today with BOOKS! I’m so excited I can’t even begin to explain it. So I recently learned about a new book by Jessica Seinfeld titled Deceptively Delicious. The book is full of recipes and tips on how to get your kids to eat their veggies. She suggests you steam your veggies, puree them and then mix them in to all kinds of foods. I went right out to buy a steamer and get steaming. I try and try to get my kids to eat veggies. The only way these kids are going to eat veggies is if I fool them.

Let me tell you that the book is fabulous. It is full of great recipes like pink pancakes which includes pureed beets, spaghetti sauce with pureed carrots and zucchini, chocolate chip cupcakes with pureed pumpkin and yellow squash. Need I say anymore?!? I do know there is some drama about another book just like this that is alleging that this book is just like another book already published. To be honest with you, I don’t care who published this book. I’m just happy to have found a veggie solution!

So tonight I dove right in and made my spaghetti sauce recipe but added the carrots and zucchini. I even used the sauce in the eggplant parmigiana. I fooled everyone! Not only will my kids not eat veggies but Miles is the worst. His mother warned me when we were newlyweds that I would have to puree his veggies for his stuffing at holidays or he wouldn’t eat it. He will pick out every little piece of crunchy vegetable if he can find it. He has gotten better after ten years of marriage but it’s still an effort.

Keegan ate two bowls of spaghetti, Makena finished hers and Miles ate it too! Unbelievable! Miles said he couldn’t tell the difference. I will continue to use this book as a reference and simply stand back and smile as everyone eats their veggies.

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