Oh oh oh, I reccomend the movie Everything Is Illuminated…fine movie :D (it’s PG-13, some subtitles, but not many, and oh so worth it.

I also just watched Astronaut Farmer…best movie I’ve seen since the previous mentioned movie ;) LOLOLOL…Great finds…totally digging the McCauly doll ROFL

A movie – I recommend Blood Tea and Red String. :)

willful creatures by aimee bender is my most favoritest book of late

i would like to recommend the book _The People of Paper_ by salvador plasencia. it’s really beautiful and heartbreaking and magical realism. i have been re-reading it every year now.

I was camping this weekend but we didn’t stay up late enough to see any of the meteors. 8(
I also really like the music in The Songcatcher. Have you seen North by Northwest? It’s really good; not too action-y but not too boring.

I think about your Blog when I see funny / unique toasters!

Last year you screen printed some shirts (I think you sold them at the Rengade craft show), and I really loved those! :D I was wondering if you still had any or will be adding any to your shop sometime?

I have been a fan of yours for ages and never commented. A goodie box from you would make my year. (I’ve been unemployed due to layoffs since January and things are looking bleak)

Here are some recommendations:
A book: The Time Traveller’s Wife
A movie: Sliding Doors

Something to make you laugh:
Flight of the Conchords
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOohBytKTU

Have a fun and safe trip! I love the movie Harold and Maude. Quirky and touching. :)

Love those dolls! What a find!

I recommend The Time Traveler’s Wife and Gross Pointe Blank.

One of my most favorite DVD’s to watch is “My Neighbor the Yamadas” put out by Studio Ghibli. It is a bunch of shorts on life in general. Oh, it is an animated movie based on a Japanese comic strip. Think I put this on at least a couple times a year.

LOL! Now I have that song stuck in my head! :)
I have to recommend The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. It’s one of my favorite books and it really holds up. I think both of your boys are old enough for it. I’m a big fan of the Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials series as well. These two recommendations are “juvenile” fiction but I think any adult will love the writing.
Have a great trip!

Have you seen Water directed by Deepa Mehta? Is is such a wonder of storytelling, with beautiful art direction – plus, for an added bonus, John Abraham is easy on the eyes . . .

Crazy, super easy recipe for fruit salad given to me by my mother-in-law ( my husband loves it):
You will need one small box of vanilla pudding mix (not instant) and one small box of tapioca pudding mix,some canned fruit, bananas, and maraschino cherries.
Open and put both dry mixes together in a small saucepan. Get a can opener and open two small cans of mandarin oranges, drain liquid into saucepan with the dry mix. Dump fruit in a serving bowl. Open a large can of pineapple chunks ( in natural juice preferably) and drain that juice into the same saucepan too.Add fruit to the bowl with the oranges.
Put saucepan on medium heat and stir. When the liquid starts to bubble it will turn glossy and translucent. Turn off heat and set aside to cool. Cut two bananas into slices and put in the bowl along with the drained fruit. Add about 1/2 jar maraschino cherries (cut each cherry in half).
Now add the glossy contents of the saucepan to the bowl and gently fold into the fruit. Chill and serve.

Frito Salad-1 can corn drained and rinsed
1 can kidney beans drained and rinsed
1/2 bell pepper (any color)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 chopped tomato
2 cups cheddar cheese (or soy cheese)
Right before serving add:
1 bag of Fritos
1 bottle of Catalina style dressing (or less, if desired)

Mix and enjoy!

Have you ever picked daisies and queen anne’s lace and placed them in a vase with water and food coloring. The flowers drink the water and turn color. My daughter thought this was great.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is my all time favorite book.

By the way, you have to be the most fun mommy ever!

i love the things you make. i sew plushies and so does my boyfriend.

good movies:
royal tennenbaums
Pans Labyrinth

good books:
canery row
Of mice and men

good things to eat in the summertime:
watermelon

when i was little my mom would always offer to play sleeping beauty with me, but only if she got to be sleeping beauuty. then i would procede to fight dragons and ride horses and be fairies and evil witches and things until she woke up from her nap. my mom was sneaky.

ps. parks and kites are wonderful things to do. so are gardens, i used to always be so happy when my dad would need to go to home depot, cause it meant that i could come and pick out a pretty flower to plant in my own personal little section in our backyard. they usually died, but when they didn’t i loved feeling responsible for making something beautiful in our garden.

I highly recommend the book “Madeleine is Sleeping” by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum. It’s like a modern, twisted French Alice-in-Wonderland story.

yay fun! A good movie I have seen lately is Junebug. I don’t know why I liked it so much but i did :)

Three random beecharming facts, just because it’s Tuesday!

1) All the worker bees in the hive are female.
2) Queen bees and worker bees are both born from the same type of egg. The only difference between the two is diet – the Queen eats nothing but Royal Jelly. Incidently, because of this, the Queen can live up to 6 years, while the worker bees only live about 6 weeks.
3) Bees will fly tens of thousands of miles in their (short) lifetime, and in that time only produce about 1/2 tsp of honey for all their trouble!

I hope you have a lovely time on your vacation! Thank you for your website – it inspires me on a daily basis :)

I agree with the other 2 commenters about the His Dark Materials book series – my most fave books ever! Another recommendation is Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Movies…Velvet Goldmine is fun if you like glam rock and dolled up pretty boys. :D

Have an amazing time on your trip!

I have to recommend the movie Doggy Poo!! It’s pretty much the best movie about a piece of poo that has and will ever be made.. I am pretty sure of that. It’s actually a really bitter sweet movie I think you and your kids will love.

I saw you got “Cake Mania” for your DS. Try “Diner Dash.” Way addicting.
Movie? Hairspray… I have taken my 6 year old twice, and she is asking to go again. Good for boys too- my 10 year old loved it.

Haven’t watched a movie in months, so I will probably check out some of the suggestion above myself ;-)
But I can recommend a book “The Secret Garden”by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Ok, so it’s not new, but I recently found an old book at a fleamarket and just had to get it. Especially since it was one of the first books I attempted to read in english, but failed misserably back then…not a problem anymore :-)

read: “The Life of Pi”, that one still has me wondering two years later!

thanks to the Frito recipe above, constantly on the hunt for yummie veggie recipes!

i can definitely suggest a movie! i recently saw Tideland and it was really great. it is dark, but also very visually stimulating and it has SUCH heart and imagination put into it! definitely netflix it!

Alrighty! Since I love all your stuff, here goes!

A movie – This is England. A UK flick about the Thatcher years in the North of England and racism and 80s wierdy punk fashion! Not one for the kiddos.

A fun activity for the kids – It seems like you do a million fun activites already! I’d say take a trip and be a tourist in your own town – go to museums and fun places you’d never go because you can go there any time!

A recipe – Quinoa and Grilled Zucchini recipe from http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/print/quinoa-and-grilled-zucchini-recipe.html The whole site 101cookbooks is a must!

A book – I really enjoyed Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story when I read it recently and I think I need a Booya Moon of my own! I also love anything by Thomas Hardy, so there’s that!

Something else – Not sure if you can get this in the states, but I love Sudocream which is for nappy rash, but it clears up my cranky peeling hands and mild zits on my face like nobody’s business!

Book Recommendation: Einstein’s Dreams/Alan Lightman

This is the PERFECT travel book. It’s a small book that can fit into a coat pocket and is a read done in 2 days or a roundtrip flight. And it’s fantastic to boot!

Fishing with John!!!

Have a great vacation :)

Love the vintage toy finds. Laughed when I saw the Home Alone figure.

Good book to read: The mercy of thin air.

Have a great trip!

(smileybug53@yahoo.com)

Hi, I sometimes comment on your Livejournal as “notsofresh,” but I’m actually Jenny and I’ve been watching you make fantastic stuff for a long time.

I really liked the movie “Once,” it is out now if you haven’t seen it. And the soundtrack is so bittersweet, the whole movie is the most beautiful thing, musically.

An adult novel: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
A ya novel: Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli
2 picture books (because they’re short): Adele and Simon by Barbara McClintock and Library Lion, by Michelle Knudson

A recipe: I just tried this yesterday, and the kids loved it: Roasted Beets with Gremolata (inspired by Barabara Kafka’s Vegetable Love)

Trim, wash, and peel 8 medium sized beetroots. Toss with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Roast at 450F for 45min to an hour (until tender). Meanwhile, chop up a generous handful of parsley leaves, a clove or two of garlic, the zest of one orange and one lemon, and about 1/4 cup of blanched, sliced almonds. Scoop into a bowl, squeeze in a bit of the lemon and orange juice, and sprinkle with salt. Stir together. When the beets are done, and slightly cool, toss with the gremolata.

Okay, and now, for a fun project with the kids! This one is pretty simple, but my kids always have a ball with it, and it requires only a few materials. Brief description: make stick puppets and write and perform a puppet show! A few details: gather paper, markers/crayons/colored pencils, etc, glue or glue stick, straws/popsicle sticks/kabob sticks/twigs/anything similar that you don’t mind glueing stuff onto and (optional) embellishments like buttons, feathers, beads, etc. Pick a theme that suits your interests (dragons, pirates, monsters, sea creatures, horses,etc) and have the kids draw a few, decorate, cut out and glue to the sticks. Then collaborate on a story to act out with your stick puppets. I usually act as secretary, which allows the kids to focus on making up a great story. We’ve spent hours and hours on end doing this — it’s my answer to dd’s wish to do the sort of ‘amateur theatricals’ the March girls did. Okay, this is going to be a long comment! Have a lovely trip and thanks (from a first-time commenter but a long time visitor) for a very lovely and inspiring blog.

Hi Heidi,

I should be getting Songcatcher in the mail tomorrow. It was on my cue for so long and I’d forgotten about it.

I love The Red Balloon, To Sir With Love (a bit cheesy but Sidney Poitier is pretty cool in it), anything Hitchcock especially Shadow of a Doubt, the film noir Laura, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Blob (Steve McQueen is in this. It is actually good).

cheers,
-el

Not sure if you are a fan of Princess Bride, but there is a current movie in theatres called Stardust that is great in a similar way.

I absolutely loved The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It’s so romantic, but not over-the-top, which was great. I can’t tell you how much I love it.

Also, everything you make is so cute!

A cool thing to do with the kidlets: Have a color-hunt, where you root around the house (or outdoors) for objects that are a particular color (the color is decided beforehand), arrange the objects on the table and marvel at the subtleties and variations! This also works as a shape-hunt (find all the round things in the house, etc.).

A movie recommendation : “Dancer in the Dark”, with Bjork … I don’t often cry during movies, and I usually don’t like it when people randomly burst into song in a film, but this is an exception.

As for books, “Jimmy Corrigan : The Smartest Kid On Earth” is a graphic novel by Chris Ware with the most incredible colors and typefaces and drawings (not to mention a beautifully meandering and complicated story to tell).

Hooray!

Thank you for sharing all of your amazing talent with us through this blog!

I used to LOVE this one random children’s book called “Porcupine’s Pajama Party”! It’s so cute! I recently discovered it at a yard sale and so it came to mind as I read your blog! Enjoy!

I am going to look for TheSongcatcher. I grew up with that kind of music. My grandmothers were from the Ozarks and Appalachian Mountains. The music is raw and natural.
If you are looking for a good book, I just finished Ink Heart. It is a young adult book. Published by the same company that originally published Harry Potter. A really good book to get lost in. I just watched Pan’s Labyrinth, and 300. I really enjoyed them, and an older one but still great is The Hours. Thanks so much for sharing!

I just recently saw Edward Scissorhands (yah I am behind) and loved it!

Have a fun trip!

The Michaulay doll rocks!

Paris, Je T’aime!! excellent movie!

im not trying to cheat. the page didnt refresh when i sent that. so erase that second message and this one.

hi! what a wonderful blog you have and you find the most AMAZING stuff!
a film i would recommend would be either The Labyrinth with david bowie in it, or a movie which isnt really a movie but actually a tv show and its called alfred.j.kwak its brilliant! check it out on google! i think you would love it judging by the other stuff i have read about you on ya blog!

I’m new to your blog, but mentioned yours on mine recently because we share a first name! If you haven’t already, you could always read your kids the book, “Heidi.”

I recommend any books by Laurie Notaro. She is a brillant author and hilarious. Start with the first one – Idiot’s Girls Action Adventure Club. Would be a great read at the beach! I lub lub lub your blog and wanted to tell you what a wonderful inspiration you are to my sister and I. We simply adore your creations!

holy crap, a lot of people read your blog ;)

heidiiiiii i’m living with vic now! hang out with me!!

hmmm…i like chuck palahniuk’s books. although i really shouldn’t read them due to their content. you mentioned once that you read house of leaves & really liked it. i also read it because it was a book chuck palahniuk read. it took me forever to get through it, but i zip through chuck’s books. they’re crazy & disturbing & i just can’t help it ;]

as for kiddos…i like to make mini booklets & have my kids fill them in w/ stories, pictures, stickers, & what-not.

ooh, I would recomment the book ‘specialtopics on calamity physics’ because it’s quite brilliant! very intriguing ^^

I saw the Paperhouse a while ago and loved it. It’s a thriller and really different.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098061/

Hi:)
Whenever I’m bored and/or the weather is bad; I always like to make something sweet:) Lately, since I bought a book called “Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World”, I tend to make cupcakes; steadily baking my way through the whole book (gorgeous tasting cupcakes, even if you are not vegan (which I’m not)). The recipes are really easy for children too, however you need to wait until the cupcakes are cool to frost them…patience is maybe not a child’s/or anyone’s main quality;) So I thought I would give you a really easy recipe for chocolate pudding that a child will easily accomplish while feeling a bit like a “magician” (seeing the pudding thicken seems to be very exciting, in my books, anyways).
So here it is:

*Mix in a heavy saucepan 1/3 cup sugar; 2 tablespoons cornstarch; 2 tablespoons cocoa and add gradually while stirring 2 cups milk (could substitute with soy or rice milk too).
*Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened.
*Add 1 teaspoon vanilla essence (and optionally 1 tablespoon margarine)

Enjoy warm or cold:)

All the best,
Christina

Hmm. I thought The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd was a great read. As far as activities, you could make a time capsule. I made one when I was a kid.
=D