I love Dover Press…in unhealthy ways. For a while now I’ve subscribed to their free weekly sampler. Great stuff.

McCain and his wife…notice the bullet proof vest.

Anyhoo…they are now offering McCain and Obama paper dolls. I am thinking the girls might need a set. Especially since big sis has been taking such an interest in the election this year. She was pro-Hilary (a girl thing) but now she is pro McCain. She says she doesn’t like Obama because “All he ever talks about is change, and if you are he president you should like America and not want to change it all the time. AND he never says what he is going to change it to.” Her words.

The Obamas, so as not to show any preference to either candidate. All authentic outfits.

It is funny, as a teacher I try pretty hard to keep my opinions to myself. When politics come up I’ll ask questions, or point out a news story, but I really don’t want to preach my point of view. Especially with coaching debate, I really want them to analyze it for themselves, and really just look at stuff from a different point of view. It probably doesn’t hurt that as an army brat my parents were not allowed to be members of political parties of outwardly display preferences in races (folks are often surprised by this…)

But at home?

We’re trying pretty hard to just keep our opinions to ourselves and let her be interested. The husband is a journalist, so a lot of politics get discussed at home. Little-sis has an absolute bias against Doug Wilder since he dominates so much of our dinner conversation. “Doug?? Again???” Her words.

Another fun part of this election is the husband has interviewed both Eric Cantor and Governor Kaine multiple times. They are currently on the VP list for McCain and Obama, respectively. Seems unlikely either will get it, but still adds to the fun.

Oh, once you have your presidential paper dolls, you can sign up for their free weekly sampler which will include new outfits for your dolls. And a poll as to which doll is selling better. This cracks me up.

And to the person that complainedin the comments about my spelling -if ya’ don’t like my spelling, to quote my mother, tough toots! Scoot elsewhere. I can do multivariable calculus, know six programming languages, and knit a sock in a single soccer game. My brain is too full for spelling. And yes, my students constantly point out that I use spelling more, but my brain just doesn’t go there, so there.

We are seconds away from summer break around here. I actually have been doing a lot of knitting lately…will try to post pics now that I have some free time.

To go along with all these knitted items I made some gift tags. All of my knitted gifts tend to be machine washable…giving someone a fussy handwash item for a new baby seems cruel somehow.

knitting_care_cards.pdf

These are too snappy:

• From the Museum of Childhood a paper toy theater. This reminds me of a Puss in Boots Pantomime book I have from the 1880’s. I cannot wait to do this with the girls.

• And from Big Huge Labs -This reminds me about my fav Pocket Mod, but it lets you use your own photos. If only the two sites could merge…I love their site. Lots of ideas for making toys from Flickr. It has anouther feature that will generate a palete from your photos. Here’s the panda from the SanDiego Zoo two years ago:

Just like my growing collection of old books, I also love journals. I am a journal junkie. I used to try to keep separate ones…work, craft, garden, personal, etc, plus a calendar. No more.

For the past few years I have just done it all in one. My ideal is about 4×7 with over 100 lined pages. I paste in some library card pockets, a calendar and a few sudoku and we are good to go. I go through about 5 a year.

I know, way too much info. The pic above is from a website called ex libris anonymous. Perfecto! They turn old book covers into journals. I had seen these a while back and just re-found the site.

I am really thinking I need to get myself a birthday gift…after all I turn 35 on Thursday.

Not the most exciting thing ever-but we are practicing addition. This is a worksheet math puzzle. You do the problems and then fill in the blanks to get an Egyptian joke.

Anything to try to make 9 + 5 more interesting….

Little-Sis woke up this morning insisting that she needed cards for all her “kids” at preschool. She’s just learned to write her name, so I came up with these. Yes, it’s the same art I used for the Doggie Bookplates. Can’t help I, I love these dogs.

These would work as tiny cards for kids, or as gift tags. They’re all in a PDF and can be printed in color or black and white. Enjoy!

OK, I admit. I spent all day yesterday hanging out in my jammies. Sat’s debate meet went great, but after 12 hours of running back and forth I was pooped. I didn’t even knit.

This afternoon the girls and I worked on some holiday stuff. Big sis still wants to be the first librarian in space. We used her date stamper to make wrapping paper:

I love simple wrapping papers, and this is perfect. It’s red and white, and no mess to clean up.

Handmade Holiday is rolling along. Here’s the updated list of Handmade Holiday folks:

• Billingtons
• Crafty Bits and Bobs
• Kathryn Ivy
• mk carroll
• Rosie
• Tara

Be sure to stop by the flickr group. Amazing!

Tomorrow I’ll add some more ideas of what to make. Right now the husband and I are going to watch Transformers and I am going to rework a yoke on a sweater for little-sis. Every time I start to knit for them they insist on growing!

Oh, and check out the Flickr badge to the right.

We’re finally getting some chilly weather here. Lots of hope for snow this winter. Last year, after the move back from Florida we got about 3 flakes, so my little flakes really do not remember what snow looks like.

We’re starting to work on our Christmas list. Last spring I made the girls a Family Memory game. I think we might duplicate this for their cousin in Williamsburg. The girls have love this, and it’s been a fun way to remember everyone.

We’re also starting to think about teacher gifts. This is a hard one for me personally. I teach, and the last thing I want is to saddle someone else with a bunch of “apple-crap”. I am also on a public schoolteacher’s budget, and like the idea of hand made.

So we’ve been working on a hot chocolate recipe, and think we’ve hit the final formulation. Little-sis likes to play Top Chef when we do our taste testing which is pretty funny. The plan is to put this in small cellophane bags and put this in a holiday mug.

Hot Chocolate:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Put in small jars or gift bags.

For the tag:

Mix 2 teaspoons with 1 cup of hot milk. Stir and enjoy.

Growing up is hard. Little sis is a thumb sucker…big time. The dentist has suggested that unless we want to spend our meager retirement on braces and headgear that we try to get her to cut back a bit. She’s OK at home and school and in the car, but we’re starting by trying to get her to stop in public places…store, library, etc. Basically just get her to remember it’s in her mouth.

We’ve used this technique before a few times with big-sis. Basically every-time they are successful they get to color one picture. Once they are all done they get a preselected prize. For us it has worked best when the prize is purchased about halfway through and left to sit on top of the fridge.

In the past we did trees, or fish, but she requested candy. Funny to think that candy might be good for her teeth.

Summer vacation is over. Tomorrow back to work. The girls officially have one more week until they start back at school.

I have spent today piddling around the house. The dog is from some new clipart I am working on. I found a whole pile of old ephemera from the 1920’s and 30’s.

I love children’s books from this era.