what are we reading { part 5 } ?

one of jane mount's brilliant * ideal bookshelf  * prints

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sure has been a busy week here: meeting a WHOLE BUNCH of fun new friends in the blog-a-thon,  making art from special mementos , oohing & ahhing over cool stamps and lovin' gold!

so let's cheer our friday by taking a little break, and hear what you're reading these days. novels? cookbooks? inspiring blogs? great magazine articles?

tell us {&  what do you think of it so far?}

hope your day is filled with yummy tales, nicies!

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what are we reading? {part 3}

reading by alifethroughthelens

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sure has been a busy week here: renewing my crush on a mannequin, giving away lots of fun prizes, excitedly getting ready for summer & remembering our first art & celebrating my little sweetie's birthday!!

so let's cheer our thursday by taking a little break, and hear what you're reading these days.

tell us {&  what do you think of it so far?}

hope your day is filled with yummy tales, nicies!

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:: inspired reading :: the imaginary garden with guest blogger deanna

watching the clouds go by print: jennifer lommers

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i've asked a dear friend, deanna, to be my first-ever guest blogger! she's always inspiring me with her wisdom + wit, kindness + generosity, supermommying + love of handmade. she's a delight & i know you'll love her too. in her series: inspired reading, deanna shares & discusses a fabulous book,  as well as a beautiful indie-find garnered by her reading of it. yay to  great books & great friends!

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During a recent camping trip, my little reader and I decided to investigate the woods near our campsite. As we were stuffing our pockets full of red leaves and collecting handfuls of acorns, I realized that summer was ending. Fall is a beautiful season, my favorite in fact, but as September departs, I'm already mourning the end of those lazy summer days in the park, me and my little reader laying on a blanket under the trees, perfect blue sky above the canopy, all the neighborhood gardens in bloom, gladiolus and hollyhocks, towering sunflowers peeking over fences. I will miss it all.

Then this morning, I pulled from the shelf a new favorite book: The Imaginary Garden, written by Andrew Larsen and illustrated by Irene Luxbacher. This charming children's story centers on the tender relationship between Theodora and her grandfather, Poppa. Poppa and Theo love gardening together, but when Poppa moves to an apartment, his new balcony proves too windy to accommodate a real garden. Theo is heartbroken by the thought of going without flowers, but she and Poppa soon discover the perfect solution when Poppa props a large canvas against the balcony wall. Donning gardening hats, Poppa and Theo take up their paintbrushes and set to work creating a beautiful imaginary garden.

Today I asked my little reader if she'd like to make an imaginary garden of our own. It would be as simple, I told her, as going to the art supply store and buying the biggest canvas that I could carry. We'll get out our paint bottles and brushes, put on old t-shirts, and lay the canvas on the lawn. Together we'll paint petals and stems, grass and leaves, dirt and sky, and more than enough sunshine to see us through the colder months ahead.

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about the blog author: Deanna does most of her reading in Guelph, Ontario, where she's a stay-at-home Mom to a spunky 5-year-old daughter. Besides reading, she spends her time writing, baking, and hanging out at the park.

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wonderful! thanks so much dear deanna!
little rikrak + i love this book, too! and we loved how it inspired handmaking with kids, too!

so how about you?

have you read the imaginary garden?

what did it inspire in you?

read a book that's inspired YOU lately? 

please tell us! we'd love to hear!

have a create-your-own-fun kinda day, nicies!

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:: inspired reading :: Nikolski with guest blogger deanna

indie finds inspired by the book Nikolski

:: top :: geekel + gbrosseau  + holli 

:: middle :: maverick photo +  donnageissler + sushipot

:: bottom :: jenwildcat + blurrylens

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i've asked a dear friend, deanna, to be my first-ever guest blogger! she's always inspiring me with her wisdom + wit, kindness + generosity, supermommying + love of handmade. she's a delight & i know you'll love her too. in her series: inspired reading, deanna shares & discusses a fabulous book,  as well as some beautiful indie-finds garnered by her reading of it. yay to  great books & great friends!

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Have you ever felt that life was getting a little too ordinary, predictable, or just plain dull? 

I started the summer off in a bit of a rut. The sun was shining but laundry and dirty dishes seemed to pile up as fast as they could be done. One day, while chatting about books, a friend mentioned Nicolas Dickner's debut novel Nikolski, which had somehow eluded my notice in spite of its numerous literary awards. Fortunately I took up this recommendation the next day.

Nikolski tells the story of three young Montrealers. There is Joyce, a fishmonger with pirate ancestors who also freelances as a dumpster diver. Noah is an archeology student who spent his childhood as a nomad, traveling across Western Canada with his mother in a 1966 Bonneville station wagon named Grampa. And there is also an unnamed used bookseller with an heirloom compass that points towards Nikolski, Alaska.

The novel is imaginative, beautifully written, and terribly funny. More than once I was reminded of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez. As with Márquez, the ordinary laws of physics and probability don't always apply in Dickner's fictional world. Magic is commonplace. Coincidence reigns. Noah awakes one morning to find the ghost of his great-great-grandfather sitting at the kitchen table. One night Joyce discovers the perfectly mummified body of an office worker in a downtown dumpster. The booksellers' flooded basement transforms into an icy sea complete with shells, urchins, and a Leviathan.

Nikolski is one of those novels you don't want to end. Even now, weeks after I turned the last page, I still find myself thinking about its characters and their stories. After finishing the book, life seemed a little more mysterious and amazing. In short, it was the perfect cure for my summer rut, and left me feeling as if one morning I too might find a distant ancestor sitting at my kitchen table.

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about the author: Deanna does most of her reading in Guelph, Ontario, where she's a stay-at-home Mom to a spunky 5-year-old daughter. Besides reading, she spends her time writing, baking, and hanging out at the park.

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wonderful! thanks so much dear deanna!

so how about you?

have you read nikolski? 

what did it inspire in you?

read a book that's inspired YOU lately? 

please tell us! we'd love to hear!

have a magical weekend, nicies!

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