A Jane Austen Education & Summer Books

One thing I have been doing with my non-working life is trying to read a lot more. My long term goal is a book a week. Which honestly I could have done just as easily when working but I never felt like I had the mental space I guess for lots of reading and opted instead for TV when the girls were in bed. I have been working with BlogHer as a book reviewer as part of their new book club. It is pretty cool!

Most recently for BlogHer I have reviewed A Jane Austen Education - click over and check it out! I really felt like the book tied together so many things for me in regard to why Austen is so enchanting.

My husband is reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (thanks Pattie!) and I can't wait till he is done with it. I am dying to read The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party. I walked into Barnes and Noble today and just glancing over their summer reading table mad me feel like I have been missing out on so much reading!

What are you reading?

worth sharing 2

  

Imogene's Antlers and these free downloadable paper dolls would be the sweetest gift for a little girl. (Thanks Design Mom and Silly Eagle Books for the idea!)

You should check out Silly Eagle Books because you will really like her! (or I do anyway)

Ava is going to LOVE tracing animal projections - we have been working on the idea of tracing and she is figuring it out - such a smart girl. 

The word from the boss is that we are headed toward a Go Diego Go third birthday party this summer (ugh) so I have been looking for some cute ideas but finding nothing - I am thinking maybe I will just make Ava a rescue pack, have a Diego cake and then just do lots of girly orange and blue. Seriously why can't she just want a cat party like this one - I NEED to make those little cat carrier party favors.

Shop for earrings and this doll and especially this singing bird in a cage at DarlyBird. How cute would an easter basket with things from DarlyBird be?! 

I want to stencil an accent wall with something from here!

Good people SWEAR by the CeraVe line of skincare and it is really affordable. The ladies I know that use it talk about it as if it were a religion. My moisturizer is almost out and I think I am going to pick some up. I love the title of the most popular review of it on Amazon: "more effective than steroids, immune suppressants, or light treatments" ... like a religion.

Finally, I haven't tried it yet but I really needed this advice for removing white heat marks from furniture. 

Totally Unrelated things but worth mentioning - oh and more free things to download

1. Did I mention I am trying to post Monday to Friday - sometimes i'll miss and that's cool. Since I have about 20 people subscribing to my blog and 250 people have read it in the past week (can you believe that!)...I thought maybe it would be worth throwing it out there. Oh and if you are reading Thank You - really, not too sure what I am doing here yet. 

2. This Umbrella photo is beautiful and I think I am going to print it for our guest room. Download here from OhBrooke. (Found link via MakingitLovely.com)

3. I am having magazine frustration. All the magazines I loved have folded - Cottage Living, Jane, Cookie, Domino. Grrrr and I can't find a new one! If anyone can help with ideas, please do! Sometimes I pick up Dwell and Real Simple but they are just missing so many important elements! Are magazines dying with the papers?

4. More download and print Valentines! Free Vintage Valentines - Just print and cut - so cute! (I posted several other free Valentine downloads here.)

5. Free download and print Valentines to give to adults! I am going to print these for my co-workers - but I want to give everyone the fighting birds! (I posted several other free Valentine downloads here.)

6. We have a few small projects going on this weekend that hopefully will get my goals of starting to post my crafts and our home photos to the blog underway. We have made so many major changes to our 1957 Ranch House, including gutting the bathroom and kitchen and completely re-building them and turning a one car garage into a master bedroom. (Don't worry the bathroom and kitchen were vintage in a very bad way.)

7. I have been thinking about the goals of the blog, admittedly it is a little more work than I imagined coming up with things to post each day! A big part of the reason why I wanted to write the blog was to create accountability for myself to be creative. I also want to look for, share, and keep track of creative things. Finally, I want to record and celebrate life. Hopefully, I can figure out how to pull those elements together and allow myself also to be a little more transparent. My favorite bloggers are so transparent, but in a really good way.

Have anything totally unrelated you want to share? This is the place!

My top 5 toddler book recommendations

First I will mention that I love children's literature, I have several perspectives weighing on my choices -
#1: In college I took several classes on children's lit. while completing my elm. ed. degree - yes it is interesting how I ended up in arts marketing :)
#2: I have shared books in classroom settings for years.
#3: I have a 17 month old who is actually quite the reader.

For a children's book to make any of my lists - it needs to be 'real' children's literature and be something both my daughter and I enjoy reading. This is tricky, because she is really very interested in pointing at pictures of real animals and reading about Elmo - Sesame Street books are not on my list - even though (shudder) we have several. Neither of us ever tire of reading the following:

My 17 month old can read this book by herself - well she has memorized it and pretends to read it.













I am not crazy about all of Katz's books - some of them are flimsier than others and some read like they were made for the sake of making more books to sell. This one though is so fun to act out with your little toddler.









This book taught my daughter to recognize the work 'no' at about 13 months old.












Sensory, flaps, animals, tails - what isn't to love?





Boynton is by far the most consistent toddler author as far as entertainment and quality.

What is your favorite children's or toddler book? What is your toddler's favorite book?