November 14, 2014

Cool Stuff I Like

Happy Friday Novembery peeps! This lovely tree lives in our backyard. Sadly, it is lovely no more - all the leaves have dropped. It's amazing for about 4 days this tree - vibrant, fire red and then boom, it drops all the leaves in one big swoosh. It's very cold right now! Is it cold where you are? (don't answer, California friends, I know it's not cold where you are) I've been going to bed way too late and I just can't do it. I feel like someone punched me in my brain when I stay up past midnight. So today is going to be short and to the point. When has THAT ever happened on this blog?

Hanna Andersson has opened Hanna Home, a decor division.


Fun crafts for the holiday season.

Thanksgiving recipes that kids will like.

Cold weather accessories a la cute. (that didn't make sense, I know)

I will be 1ST in line for this new translation of Grimms' Fairy Tales, with much scarier, undiluted, original versions of the stories!

Saw this tree skirt and thought, oh that's pretty! And then saw it was almost $300. Oh Anthro.....

Did you know there was a website called Now you do.

Swedish Christmas Books. Yep. We're officially doing Christmas now!

Cool Book(s) of the Week: The 'Ever After High' series, by Shannon Hale. Alright. How to proceed......well, basically - MY KIDDO ADORES THESE BOOKS. Like, looooooooooves. Super loves. I've noticed that sometimes, if a book is too long, or doesn't capture her interest in just the right way, she will abandon that book and just move on. I'm trying to encourage her to focus on one book at a time and not be too scattered with her reading. But I didn't have to encourage with these books - she just tore through them until she was done, and then she begged for the next one. The set would make for a nice giftaroo for the holidays.....

I will attempt to explain the plot, which mostly I've gleaned from watching the show. Julia is in stitches over how confused I get about what's going on. (Is that guy a bad guy? Why is he bad? Why did they throw that book down a well? What do you mean, it's not the REAL book? What the hey is going on????) All the offspring of fairy tale characters go to school together and Do Stuff. One of the main characters, Raven Queen, is the daughter of The Evil Queen, (but Raven's good) and everyone who goes to the school is supposed to sign some Book of Legend because.....I don't know why. Life will then unfold the way it's been predetermined. Or something. But Raven doesn't want to because she wants to make her own story and chart her own path. So there are two groups of kids, Royals and Rebels. Royals are like the preppy, do-goody kids, and the Rebels are kids who don't care as much about fitting in perfectly. Or something. That's about all I know.

Anyhoo, Julia's wild about the books and if I had had these books when I was her age, I would have been too! I kind of want to read them so I'll understand the show a little better.

Ok so that was neither short or to the point. OH WELL. Have a lovely weekend!



  1. It's a always a pleasure to read your Friday Cool Post! I agree that it's never too early for Christmas! My niece also loves the EAH book series! If only the dolls looked more like the cartoon/books! I am not sure I want to read the original Grimm fairy tales! They are too grim! I need something cheerful after reading that article! Ok let me browse the Christmas books :)

    1. ha ha ha! Too GRIM! tee hee! Crazy huh! The let's go a-slaughtering one? What the what??

      yes yes - let's just turn our attention to Christmas, shall we! And lovely treats. I do wish the EAH dolls didn't have those weird, jointed stick arms - otherwise they'd be cool, they have fun costumes! SO much better than Monster High, ick. But is it too much for a doll to just look nice and not all weird limbed?? Does it cost too much to add more plastic material to the arms?? Huh, manufacturers?? :)

    2. I think the limbs are actually a plus-ball jointed dolls are very popular and can be super expensive. I'm no expert, but my daughter is-and I have gleaned a bit of information over the years. She loves the Monster High and EAH dolls, she collects them.

      That tree looks amazing!!

    3. this is all very intriguing! I vastly prefer the EAH dolls to Monster High, but what I really love are little Japanese anime dolls. Like Little Dal and Little Pullip, have you seen those? SO cute!

  2. Haha, Little Sis has those four episodes on Netflix on repeat, I swear! She got a doll for her birthday, and I didn't want to go there (too Monster High for me), but I let her. And I do like Shannon Hale, so I've wondered about the books. Big Sis has the Christmas music on on the radio, all the time (unless she's listening to her new Taylor Swift cd). The Swedish Christmas books make me feel sad, because I don't get to go to Lindsborg for Lucia this year. If Big Sis continues to do The Nutcracker each year, then I never will, because it will always conflict. So sad. I added that Grimms book to my Amazon wish list two days ago! I've read a lot about the changes in The Annotated Brothers Grimm by Maria Tatar, but it will be awesome to actually read them for myself! I just showed Mr. B the stuffing site. I thought of you when I saw the Hanna Andersson stuff the other day. I wish my kids would go for some of the Thanksgiving food on Hello Wonderful, but I know better. That dry clean-only, $300 tree skirt is for use with artificial trees only, right? ;) My computer keeps telling me I'm low on memory, and therefore will not load all the crafts on the Apartment Therapy page, but the bowls at the top are pretty? Sigh. Happy Weekend, dear friend!

    1. ooooh thank you for the Taylor Swift idea, I think J would love that as a Christmas gift! My daughter is not a fan of sweet potato with marshmallow and when I was little, that was pretty much the only T-day food I would eat! I would LOVE to see a Lucia celebration........:)

  3. as you could probably surmise fiona is also OBSESSED with these books, and the show and she now has like, 4 of the dolls. she claims she is a rebel and of this i am proud.

    1. The rebels are where it's at. :) I like the Red Riding Hood girl - I think I see an EAH doll in J's future at holidaytiiiiiiiime :)

  4. I know what you mean. Boom - one day all down. It's usually my favorite trees that do this too.

    That tree skirt is darling!