Review: Tin Cups and Tinder: A Catholic Boy's Little Book of Fire, Food & Fun

Alice Cantrell does it yet again!  First, she came out with Sewing with St. Anne ... a classic hand- and machine-sewing book for girls that I've used extensively with mine own lovely girls and recommend to others for teaching sewing.  Then a few years later, she wrote Tea and Cake with the Saints: A Catholic Young Lady's Introduction to Hospitality and the Home Arts.  These were both directed at the girls in the family -- sewing and cooking and welcoming others.  The books were replete with great explanations of HOW to do all these wonderful skills.  These were proof that you could teach 21st century girls how to embrace the good, the true and the beautiful.

But what about the boys in the family?

Introducing Tin Cups and Tinder: A Catholic Boy's Little Book of Fire, Food & Fun.  This volume proofs that boys, too, can be taught the good, the true and the beautiful! If attractive pictures/presentation are half-the-battle for hooking a young audience today, than Cantrell has won the war.  The book includes gorgeous pictures of antique camping and outdoor cooking equipment and beautiful pictures of the final products ... if that doesn't get the boys in your house chompin' at the bit to use this book ....

The book begins by explaining cooking in the kitchen as well as cooking outdoors.  She then follows that section with a section of amazing, boy-friendly recipes:  cornbread, pancakes, brownies, and hot chocolate mix to name just a few.  

For more hands-on fun, the boys are taught to sew -- simple hand-stitching that comes in handy for sewing on buttons.  But, Cantrell adds some fun sewing projects:  a pot holder, haversack and a pocket-sized sewing kit.  She also explains WHY boys should sew!  These are projects that teach useful skills while also giving the boys something useful to have. 

The final section deals with book-binding -- making a nature notebook and a portable plant press(to keep in the haversack the boy made in the previous section).  What better way to have boys off couches, away from the video games, and out into God's creation than to have them create their own nature journals?  And the plant press is an ingenious use of out-grown board books.

Scattered throughout this useful book are quotes from male saints as well as biographies of these saints that help guide our young men to His Kingdom.

I can't recommend this book enough -- it's so wonderful to find a useful, beautifully presented, practical guide to life skills for boys.  And it's Catholic to-boot.  What's not to love?  This book needs to be high on every parent's Christmas list for their boys (and girls could get quite a bit of good stuff out of it,too).

 

Nurturing Creativity Daybook ... the week at a glance 05/24-29/2010

Here's this week's creativity in the heart of our home:

• on my needles: I have just started another project for the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program; the "Season-spanning Cardi" and the "Felted Fair-Isle Yarn Basket" should be up on the Knit Picks's site soon. I just finished "Memories of Eire" ... a vest in a gorgeous dark heathery green that was wonderful to knit.  I just have to finish drafting the pattern, and that will go out this week.  I'm putting the finishing touches on  "Fisherman's Jacket for the Boys" and will hopefully send that out at the end of the week.  I have a few other projects backed up .... and some submission out for approval. 
• more knitting:  I've opened a Ravelry store and started posting some of my designs -- some freebies and some for sale.  Check 'em out and see what you think....
• on the craft table: SEWING projects have still not gotten started but they WILL get done this week; String Bean and I need the fun skirts, dresses and capris we'll be sewing. 
• on the kitchen counter: we're trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables ... so this past weekend we made Celeste's famous beet salad (finally got the recipe from the dear woman!) and onion soup.  I'm going to take the greens from the beets and saute them in bacon grease (after I've fried-up crisp bacon) along with some grape-tomatoes and serve it all over whole-wheat thin spaghetti.  Doesn't that sound great?  With Kotch home for a while this summer .... we'll be having fun experimenting with food-stuffs for dinner this week ... 
• Greek festival is our end-of-the-week destination! Talk about nurturing creativity -- music, food, crafts, lots of great non-typical stuff to enliven our family conversations
• in the garden: we've had lots of rain 'round these parts and the garden is bursting -- all the transplants are going well and the seeds are popping up with lots of greenery and hints of later color. 
• more in the yard:  we're designing a modular tree house that we'll add to bit-by-bit to make a "castle for the kids". We've had to put the construction on hold with all the rain ... but we do have the railed-platform up and dh will be building the ladder on the screened-in porch to best the rain
• in the school-room: we'll continue thru the summer on a lower-gear with readin'-ritin'-rithmetic to ensure a smooth transition next Fall.  We'll enroll in the summer reading program at our library and be doing special projects throughout the summer (including taking a class or two down at a nearby farm).  Also, a group of homeschooled kids are getting together a version of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses".  All three little ones are in it ... and we'll be practicing all summer long.  String Bean will also, God willing, start piano this summer while the boys have started fencing.
• miscellaneous creative pursuits: our friend's dog finally went into heat and we're hoping to spend much of the summer visiting our future family pet!  Mini-schnauzers are beautiful and full of life (these will be raised in a house full of kids so will be very used to the active-ness of little ones) ... while being small enough so that even dh is fine about it!

So what are you doing to nurture creativity in your home?  

Nurturing Creativity Daybook: May 3-8, 2010

As I mentioned in a post last week ... I can't keep up with "daybooks", but week-at-a-glance seems doable!  Here's this weeks creativity in the heart of our home:
Week-at-a-glance:

• on my needles: I have just started another project for the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program;
  the Season-spanning Cardi and the Felted Fair-Isle Yarn Basket are knitted, drafted, packed and off to the post office this morning.  The one that I've just started is titled "Memories of Eire" ... a vest in a gorgeous dark heathery green that is wonderful to knit! 
• on the craft table: SEWING projects WILL get done this week; String Bean and I need the fun skirts, dresses and capris we'll be sewing.  Today, since it's rainy out, will be a fabulous day to start!
• on the kitchen counter: ground turkey thawing for the kids' favorite dinner -- spaghetti with meat sauce!  Dinners are gonna be quick'n'easy this week as I'm stage manager for Rumors and we're in "tech week" ... 6:00pm call time for rehearsal and performances this weekend.
• in the garden: I have seedlings coming up, HUGE transplanted azalea that has taken, and all the other transplants this past month seem to have taken.  Rick and I worked on the front garden, tilling and mixing and augmenting the amazingly dense clay soil so that I could get flower seeds in and we could transplant Japanese maples into the center of the two gardens.  The gentle rain yesterday and today will help TONS in getting these things established.  Looks like I'll be weeding this weekend!  Kids have planting (including watermelon seeds) to get in the ground this week. We're designing a modular tree house that we'll add to bit-by-bit to make a "castle for the kids".  Stage 1, the swing, is shown here and we'll work on finishing the 4x8 platform atop this week. 
• in the school-room: winding down the heavy schoolwork (altho we'll continue thru the summer, just on a lower-gear); got May Crowning on Friday; end of the year projects to work on.  I'm going to pull out some various craft supplies a couple of times this week and let them make what they will.  Charlotte Mason-ites call this "masterly inactivity", I call it "free explore", the kids call it just fun!  We're also field-tripping this week since this is the week of the anniversary of the battles of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863) and Wilderness (May 5-6, 1864) .. since they're in our "backyard" ... this is a great excuse for heading out and exploring (and maybe re-enacting a few of the bloodier scenes!) 

So what are you doing to nurture creativity in your home?

Crafts: sewing a duvet cover ...

... we have a lovely, spring/summer weight cotton quilt that we love.  It's nice and bright and looks and works great, that is until the temps plunge down to the 50s overnight.  That's what's been happening around here lately ... and since we leave the windows open, it gets right chilly in the house and this quilt just isn't enough.

What to do?  What to DO?

How 'bout making it into a duvet cover ... so on the warm nights we can use the light quilt, but once the temp drops, we stuff a down comforter in and it's cozy warm!  Well this project took MAYBE an hour today ... seriously!

Our bed is a queen (as are the quilt and the down comforter).  I took a flat queen sheet (happened to coordinate with the blues in the quilt cover!) and pinned it to the bottom and edges of the quilt. 

Because I didn't want to fuss ... I didn't iron the sheet nor did I cut it to fit ...   Instead, I tucked equal hems on either side and then used the extra fold at the top as an envelope to hold the down comforter in (so I wouldn't have to add ties or snaps or velco or buttonholes, all would have taken too long!).  A simple 9-st/inch straight stitch (about 1/4-inch inside the edges) attaches the quilt on three sides. 

Here, you can see the down comforter (really white) tucked into the cuff of the blue sheet while the top of the quilt is loose, but lays flat without additional attachments. 

The back of the new quilt/duvet cover looks neat and tidy (and when the down comforter isn't in, it is just a thin sheet layer added!)  The blue sheet coordinates nicely -- and we could even flip the "duvet cover" over and it would look like a completely different cover!

Doesn't the "new" winterzied duvet cover look lovely?