Melon-baller

It's how it feels--like someone's got one of these babies inside my skull and is carving pieces of me away. Small bits at first; at my ear canal, at my eye, even at the back of my throat. De-lish, I know. But it's one of the ways that I can begin to identify that I'm getting a migraine. I don't get auras (have once and they are certainly not as beautiful as they sound) or distortions, but I do get this.

Just hope it doesn't completely serve me up.

New Year; New Directions

It’s 2017, time for new directions, embracing things you’ve never done, and expanding your skills and relationships. Yes, as Mom said: “Try new things and meet new people.” Kids need to have New Year’s resolutions, too. They don’t have to cost much, except a bit of time and some healthy curiosity. That’s where libraries come in. Here is a list of books that children and their caregivers can use together to learn about foraging in the outdoors right where they live, or using up crafting material “ends” to make new things that are fun, useful or can move! And as always, drop in to your local branch library to find out what programs are being held for kids and for adults! Most Mississauga Library programs are free. Who knows what you’ll learn or who you’ll meet?

Check out these links for library programs:
www.mississauga.ca/portal/residents/childrensservices  
www.mississauga.ca/portal/residents/librarynews

Let Your Kids Go Wild Outside: Creative Ways to Help Children Discover Nature and Enjoy the Great Outdoors,
by Fiona Bird

J 796.083 BIR

 In this inspirational book, with ideas for children of all ages, foraging expert Fiona Bird shows the value of playing outside and discovering nature. For those who don’t want to be far from home, there’s plenty to do such as making a snail holiday village or making seasonal recipes from natural ingredients. This book also teaches children about their environment, including conservation guidelines and tips on forecasting the weather.

Bugs, Bees, and Other Buzzy Creatures: Full of Fun Facts and Activities,
by Margaret Parrish

J 595.7 BUG

 Learn about the insect world with fun activities and amazing facts. Discover why bees buzz and why ladybugs are red, as you complete fun craft activities. Each page has clear, engaging photos with clear text and step-by-step instructions.

Let’s Get Crafty with Paper & Glue: For Kids Aged 2 and Up; Let’s Get Crafty with Salt Dough: 25 Creative and Fun Projects for Kids Aged 2 and Up; Let’s Get Crafty with Fabric & Felt: For Kids Aged 2 and Up; 
J 745.5 LET

Each book in this series by CICO Kids staff has 25 activities all made possible using scraps, and bits-andbobs that you might have around the house. From paper chains to decorate your child’s bedroom, to preparing salt-dough sculptures, to creating a pom-pom bumble bee, these books can teach fine motor skills and inspire your kids to get crafty!

 Decorative Card Crafts,
by Annalees Lim

J 745. 5941 LIM

 Cards for special occasions are expensive but the personal touch is always missing. My own kids have been making personalized cards for family and friends for over 15 years! This high-interest crafting guide teaches readers how to create decorative cards for birthdays, Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, Eid-Ul-Fitr, and more!

 Let’s Sew

J 646.2 LET 

 Learn how to sew with 10 easy projects for kids and beginners. Children will learn the invaluable skill of sewing on a button as well as a running stitch. Easy to-make projects include birds, badges, and fish bookmarks. Let’s Sew is a fun sewing book that teaches practical skills to last a lifetime.

Project Kid: Crafts That Go! : 60 Imaginative Projects That Fly, Sail, Race, and Dive

By Amanda Kingloff

J 745. 5928 KIN

 Project Kid: Crafts That Go! has more than 60 inventive craft projects for parents to make with and for their children.The book is organized into seven chapters: City, Rails, Sky, Space, Water, Country, and Dirt. Projects feature clear instructions and step-by-step photographs wherever they are needed, easy for both kids and non-crafty adults to understand.

 Make Build Create: Sculpture Projects for Children,
by Paula Briggs. Children of all ages are encouraged to explore how they might transform a wide variety of natural and man-made materials through a series of open-ended projects. Inspiration is taken from architecture, landscapes, figures, and objects in the everyday environments around us. These carefully selected activities enable children to learn sculptural techniques such as casting, carving and construction while making personal sculptural artworks.

Originally published at Tough Times

Who Needs Books?

This little booklet is the transcript of a lecture given for the Canadian Literature Centre as part of the Kreisel Lecture Series. At 49 pages, it is more than ideal for a coffee-talk or brief book club meeting. It is written (and was delivered) by Lynn Coady, author of Hellgoing and The Antagonist.

The premise is that books are at their marketable end and “who needs ‘em?” The fact that this essay was published as a book after being a lecture might head-off the reader where the author is going to go. The medium is indeed the message in this case.

Coady begins with relating her first introduction to an interactive metafiction.   The book in question was narrated by Grover, as in Sesame Street’s blue furry monster, who doesn’t want the young reader to make it to the end of the book, where there is a terrible monster.

The fact that this book celebrated the physical experience of moving through a book, engaging each page as the weight of the pages shift from the one side of the cover to the other, is just as important as the fact that this brilliant little book was based on a TV show. Wasn’t television seen as “the idiot box”, or the “natural enemy of books in the wilds of modern life”, as described (tongue-in-cheek) by Coady?  Does that one villainous fact outweigh the other virtues inherent in this book that so inspired young Coady?

It is important to point out that books did not disappear in the ensuing years after television.   Readers did not give up reading in order to only watch TV. Yet here we are, bemoaning again the loss of the book under the shadow of another medium. This time it is the Internet. Despite all the worry inspired by other well-established authors who are quoted in this treatise (Jonathan Franzen, Will Self), this anxiety has proven to have little foundation.

Coady offers perspective by quoting from an 1859 Scientific American article that finds the pervasiveness of a new hobby “an amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements.” The writer is lamenting about a preoccupation with the game of chess.

Chess did not supplant books. Nor did the printing press cause cathedrals to fall (another terrific citation found by Coady), but it did make people aware that spellings and grammar vary constantly, that language is always changing--or deteriorating, if you are a negative thinker. But the presses are still churning out physical books 577 years later. And stories are not born until they are received; read, heard, seen, felt in whatever form. 
Don't you need books?

Originally published on the Mississauga Library System Nonfiction Book Blog

The Unwinter

"There's a reward at the end of a hard winter. There's a great longing for spring, an eagerness for warmth and green, an excitement for sightings of crocuses. You feel as if you've earned the right to the rain and mud.

But what about a winter that never was? A few snows, a bit of freezing rain but more thaws and mud than I care to measure; does this equal a winter? Should I be grateful?"

I wrote that in late February of 2016. This photo is of my herb garden. It was taken today. I think my thyme is actually growing. I fear this winter is going to be just the same as last year's. Why bother with a winter season if there is no snow? Hibernation cannot work if even the bugs don't know when to sleep. The temperature has been hovering around a damp 3 Celsius for almost 2 weeks, now.

January; your thaw is up. Let's get on with it.

Wolf Moon

A full moon in January has such an evocative name.

Think of it; the silence of a deep-cold night, lit in long blue shadows by a giant moon, broken by the chilling sound of a howling wolf. Prey that is anywhere in its echo will hunker down deeper, seek darker shadows, hope for the best. Food is scarce, and you yourself might just become the next meal.

Even if you are living in the city, it makes you feel utterly alone, like only fear can do. It reminds you of a time past when walls were thin, food was hard-won and light was only for the sky to dictate.

And that is all in the power of a name.

Filling Stockings While Saving Money

Family get-togethers, parties, gifts, far too many expectations from young and old…when you don’t have a big budget, what can you do? Well, with planning and creativity, a little money can go further and do more. Find some great ideas on how to save money this December in books at your local library.

 Need to host a party? Diane Warner’s Great Parties on Small Budgets can help you make cost-saving choices for parties for all ages. This book has fun and affordable ways to pull it off on a small budget, including everything from the invitations, to the decorations, entertainment, and party menu. It includes party plans and tasty yet affordable recipes for beverages, snacks, appetizers, adult fare, and children’s party foods.

You’ll need to cook. There are lots of cookbooks at your library, but some of them have you in mind instead of just the ingredients.

Canadian Living’s The Affordable Feasts Collection: Budget-Friendly Family Meals is a cookbook that helps home cooks stretch their grocery budget without sacrificing flavour or quality. Recipes are family-focused, with options for both day-to-day dinners and special occasion meals. 

The Frugal Foodie Cookbook : Waste-not Recipes for the Wise Cook by Lara Starr features recipes like “Exponential Chicken” that stretches the bird over five different courses! With hundreds of dishes and expert advice, this cookbook helps readers live well and eat better. Just thinking about the food prep takes up a lot of time and energy.

But there are other fun things to do in the month of December. Decorating can be ridiculously costly or homemade and meaningful. Fun Christmas Crafts to Make and Bake: Over 60 Festive Projects to Make with Your Kids by Anni Rigg and Craft It Up : Christmas Around the World : 35 Fun Craft Projects Inspired by Traveling Adventures by Libby Abadee are two books on fun and beautiful crafts that will involve all members of your family, teach new skills and promote learning about other cultures.

And lastly, you will feel the pressure to give. Gourmet Gifts: 100 Delicious Recipes for Every Occasion to Make Yourself and Wrap with Style by Dinah Corley is a book that can help. No need to brave the malls when you can make unique and valued gifts in your kitchen at low cost! The recipes range from simple to sophisticated, including chapters on Small Tokens, Big Batches, and Penny Wise for budget gifts, as well as level of difficulty and prep time.

May this December be a season of peace for you and yours.

Laura Bilyea, Librarian, Mississauga Library System

 Originally Published in Tough Times

Need it? Make it!

A brilliant way to combine being creative, learning new skills and saving money is to try some DIY or Maker-culture projects. Instead of buying something new, why not make your own, repair what you have or repurpose it, buy used or sell your own stuff? Don’t give in to the consumer culture or to cheaper alternatives—you can make better stuff than that! Here are some books to get you started.

Put 'em up! fruit : a preserving guide & cookbook : creative ways to put 'em up, tasty ways to use 'em up 

Brooks, Sherri Vinton 2013

Call number:  641.64 VIN

A preserving guide and cookbook all in one! This creative collection has 80 inventive recipes for preserving 18 kinds of fruit, but it also has 80 recipes for using your preserves in main dishes, side dishes, desserts, and cocktails. The flavors are fresh and contemporary, and the instructions are thorough and easy to follow. Putting up the harvest has never been so delicious! 

Fix, repair & replace : upgrade your home like a pro! 

Family handyman.

Reader’s Digest Association, 2012

Call number: 643.7 FIX

The editors at the Family Handyman magazine have packed this practical guide with expert advice, step-by-step directions, and clear photos and illustrations to help you ensure a fix and not a failure. Whether you're interested in plumbing, tiling, woodworking, insulating, or electrical repair, you'll find it inside. Get set to take on all kinds of do-it-yourself projects!

Handmade chic : fashionable projects that look high-end, not homespun

Bennett, Laura  2012

Call number: 646.48 BEN

 In Handmade Chic: Fashionable Projects That Look High-End, Not Homespun, Laura Bennett shares simple strategies for creating 40 small luxuries and high-fashion accessories. Bennett offers patterns, easy-to-follow diagrams, and detailed instructions for fabricating each glamorous project, whether it involves sewing from scratch or embellishing a pre-purchased garment.

Toss, keep, sell! : the suddenly frugal guide to cleaning out the clutter and cashing in

Ingram, Leah, 2010

Call number: 648.5 ING

The American house is one cluttered place. Frugal folks need to get their homes in order and find ways to make money from the junk they no longer need or want. Organized by rooms of the house and tasks of the day, this book becomes a veritable clutter checklist. With Leah Ingram as your guide, you'll have extra money--and a home you can be proud of--in no time!

Wise craft : turning thrift store finds, fabric scraps, and natural objects into stuff you love

Stocker, Blair 2014

Call number:  745 STO

Wise Craft is a guide to the homemade life, turning old things into special new objects that enhance the home. The book is divided into four seasonal chapters, with designs that reflect different holidays and the changing seasons, allowing you to update your home according to the weather outside. Many projects are portable or perfect to do during a family movie night, making the Wise Craft lifestyle an easy one to attain.

Call or drop in to your local library for these titles and more!

Laura Bilyea,

Librarian

Mississauga Library System

Originally published in Tough Times