Old School Week Spirals On

Did you Spirograph as a kid? That little construction right there, turning a noun into a verb, is pretty new school, so maybe I shouldn't have used it during Old School Week here, but actually, it's more about classic old books and products, not about writing in a retro style, so I'll repeat. Did you Spirograph as a kid? I did. I loved putting the little circle inside the big circle, sticking a ballpoint pen in the middle and making hippy dippy trancey spiral designs. As it turns out, all of those designs have definite mathematical formulas, but I never bothered with that aspect of the activity. I just liked decorating my notebooks, folders, and any piece of scrap paper I could find. The version I had back in the 1970s was put out by Hasbro and could keep me entertained for hours. A few years ago, my daughter received the "Hypotrochoid Art Set" pictured above as a birthday gift and fell in love with it. I hunted it down on the Internet (definitely not how my original set was purchased back in the day) and bought several to give as gifts at birthday parties. Patina Stores sells it for $7.95. By the way, Patina Stores has lots of other fun and sometimes retro gift items for the tweens and teenagers you occasionally shop for. Klutz books has The Spiral Draw Book which includes spiral wheels and pens but apparently it is not as easy to use and is more expensive than the Hypotrochoid Art Set. Therefore, I've only given you the link to Patina Stores. Have fun!

Ethan Allen, Eat Your Heart Out

Earlier this summer my husband built bookshelves for my daughter's bedroom. She had fun planning them and helping him build and paint them. I'm having fun watching her organize her books and treasures on them. It reminds me of that wonderful quote by Anna Quindlen: "I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."

Duck! Rabbit!

I have tried on my shopping list/teacher note/scrap paper book above to recreate for you some of the doodlings of my youth. Back when I was in elementary and middle school, all of my textbooks had to be covered. There were no Book Socks then. We used brown paper shopping bags- the perfect canvas for doodles and scribblings. If only Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenfeld's fun and clever Duck! Rabbit! had been around in my youth, you can bet your Sharpie markers my notebooks and grocery bag sheathed textbooks would have been covered in duck/rabbit doodles. Apparently, the is it a duck or is it a rabbit visual puzzle has been around for years, but it's new to me and my family. This delightful picture book presents two disembodied voices, one on the left side and one on the right, arguing whether the animal in the center is a duck or a rabbit. It begs to be read aloud to a group. It also tempts readers to draw their own duck/rabbits. This book is a big hit with my kids and their friends who have come by the house and picked it up off our book bench. Some of these kids say it's a duck, others say it's a rabbit, and all agree that the bar code turned into a zebra on the back cover is an excellent final note! How cute would this one be stuffed in an Easter basket?!

Ha! Ha! This Old Dog Has Learned A New Trick

Do you see that colorful little yarn pom pom ball? I made it! That's right; I made it! And sadly, I felt compelled to do a little end zone dance in my dining room upon the pom pom's completion. You see, I'm not very skilled at handicrafts, and I'm even less skilled at following how-to instructions. My eight year old daughter Hayden, on the other hand, is a genius at following written instructions. She is our family's go-to person for assembling new toys and troubleshooting Lego model constructions. That's why her hands are pictured knitting below and not mine. I just can't get the hang of it.

Clearly she inherited this ability to follow directions from her father, who built a gorgeous fourteen foot wooden sailboat from blueprints or from my grandfather who taught himself how to play the piano (well) from a series of articles in the New Yorker magazine. I'm lucky I can follow a recipe. Twice a year there's mild profanity to be heard in my driveway when I have to pull out the minivan owner's manual to set the clocks back and forth. I don't want my children to suffer as I do so I try to give them many experiences with maps and plans and recipes. Much as I hate to do it, I also try to model good direction following habits. So yesterday when Hayden wanted to make yarn pom poms to embellish some of her creations, I breezily suggested she consult her small (two volume) library of knitting books. She came up empty, so of course we turned to the computer and found a great crafting blog, Bella Dia, and followed its "Pom Pom Tutorial." The tutorial was easy to follow with pictures! I created that lovely little pom pom above and never broke a sweat. Of course I'm not showing you Hayden's pom pom or the example from Bella Dia or you would leave this blog post declaring mine the lamest little knot of yarn you'd ever seen.