Crafty Weekends

It is school vacation week here, so I have been focusing on family time and haven't got a craft to share or product to review. So it is time to see what you have been creating!  Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our last party.  There were some great ideas shared. Below are a few of the features from our last party, but be sure to go back and check out the many great crafts shared! A new Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop started today so go share all your diverse and cultural posts there.   I can't wait to see what your latest creations are!!

Crafty Weekends Link Party

Let's party!! It was a small party (after all it is summer), so there are only a few!! Since our numbers are dwindling and my focus is on back to school for Hazel, I'm going to have this the last one until the week after Labor Day! Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our last party.  Just a reminder that we do not feature any of the food/recipe posts and ask you not to share them here. There were some great ideas shared. Below are a few of the features from our last party, but be sure to go back and check out the many great crafts shared! Please remember Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is a place to share all your diverse and cultural posts there.  I can't wait to see what your latest creations are!!

Sew Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure:C&T Publishing sent me an e-version of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!


As we are getting ready for the holidays, I wanted to do a bit of holiday sewing. Tonight I am reviewing a great quilt book. It is Sew Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Mary Hertel. 

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Little Sister and the Month Brothers

Today we are going to discuss a wonderful Cinderella story called Little Sister and the Month Brothers. From the research I have done it looks like this story is from Czechoslovakia. There are also other versions around, but I have not checked them out yet. In the collage below are the other two versions as well as both the paperback and hard cover of our featured book.  I also found another version on-line here.

Before going into the story a little history on Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state from 1918 to 1993. On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia split into two countries: Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Source

From 1939 to 1945 Czechoslovakia was under Nazi Germany rule, however its government was still operation in the United Kingdom. In 1945 the Soviet Union took over the eastern part of the country.(Source)

Now onto our story. I found the full text available here.

In this story, there is Little Sister. No one knows her name and everyone calls her Little Sister. She lives in a cottage with her stepmother and stepsister. Little Sister is an orphan and her stepmother makes her do all the work. However Little Sister is always singing or humming to herself and always pleasant. Each day she grows more beautiful and kinder. One day the stepmother realizes that if a suitor was to come to the house he may choose Little Sister over her own daughter. The stepmother and stepsister plot to rid themselves of Little Sister. They decide to send her out in the cold winter weather to look for violets. They lock the door behind her and tell her not to return without the violets.

Little Sister knows she will not find violets in the winter, but searches for them anyway. She walks without a coat through the fierce wind and snow. Finally when she feels she cannot take another step she sees a light high above her. She goes towards and and uses all her courage and energy to climb a tall rock mountain. At the top of it she finds twelve men around a fire. She knows at once that they must be the Month Brothers. She approaches them politely and January asks her what she needs. She asks politely to warm near the fire and then explains about needing violets to return home. Since she is so polite, January tells his brothers they must help Little Sister, so he passes the staff to Brother February. February passes it to March  who passes it to April saying April is the only one who can give violets. Sure enough with each pass of the staff, the weather and trees change like the seasons. When April has the staff the grass grows and the violets grow. April tells Little Sister to pick as many as she would like. She uses her dress to hold them and fills it and runs home.

Stepmother and stepsister are amazed to see her with the violets. They do not thank her, but try to come up with another scheme to get rid of Little Sister. The next night they send her out with a bucket telling her not to come home without fresh strawberries. Again she does not have a coat, but she knows where to go this time. She heads to the Month Brothers. Again she is polite and they help her. The staff is passed to June. June tells her she may pick only five strawberries, which she does and runs home. The stepmother and stepsister greedily eat the strawberries and find them to be the best thing they have ever tasted. They ask her where she got them. The next day the stepsister dresses in all her fur to go out and get more. She finds the Month Brothers and when January asks what she needs she says she will only talk to June and is very rude. The brothers do not like this so January bangs the staff on the ground and there is a blinding blizzard and stepsister cannot see. She tries to find her way home, but cannot. After waiting quite awhile for her daughter stepmother becomes worried and goes to look for her. They were never seen again. 

Little Sister still had to do all the work, but now there was no one to complain, yell or order her around. One day an honest farmer came and asked her to marry him. She did and they lived happily in the cottage sharing the work with  minimal complaining.

Our craft for this story was to color twelve outlines of men as the Month Brothers. Then we made them into a wreath. We used an embroidery hoop wrapped with  four seasons of ribbon.

We taped the men onto it and then added some tissue paper in the center to be their fire.

Origami Fun -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Want to learn origami? Or have your kids learn it? I have some great kits and books for you today for different levels of origami makers from beginner to master. Look at some of the fun things I made with these products.

Easter Craft Books for Kids -- a Crafty Weekends Review and Link Party

Disclosure: Candlewick Press sent me these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

It is hard to believe Easter is only a few weeks away. I have three fun "craft" books to share with you that are perfect for kids or adults. The first is perfect for younger kids play. It is Make and Play Easter by Joey Chou. 

Sharing Saturday 15-17

Thank  you to everyone who shared last week!! Once again I am amazed by all the great ideas! These features are just a sampling of the posts shared. I hope you will go and check them all out! This week our features consist of  Gardening and Bees, Booking Across America, and Some Favorites. 

Pumpkins and Potters Wheel -- Crafty Weekends Crafts & Link Party

This has been a bit of a crazy week and weekend. Last weekend we met my sister at Old Sturbridge Village and discovered our admission fee got us a second trip within ten days, so we went back today. Hazel was very excited when we discovered that one of the hands-on crafts that you could pay to do was making a bowl on a potters wheel. She always wanted to use a potters wheel, so we splurged and let her make a bowl today. I had wanted to have her use a potters wheel back when we looked at Juan Quezada, but didn't find a good option. You can see some of the photos above of her dish and her making it.

It's a Small World Felted Friends -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Have you entered my giveaway for a 16 x 20 canvas print?

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing sent me this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Tonight I am sharing a fun needle felting book. It gives instructions to make miniature needle felted animals, buildings, and other things that make you think of certain countries. It even includes a mini flag garland. The book is It's a Small World Felted Friends by Sachiko Susa. 

Mermaid Dioramas -- Crafty Weekends Craft & Link Party

Mermaids seem to be everywhere this year. Of course with a young daughter mermaids are always in at our house. We have had a lot of fun with mermaids over the years. I bought her the mermaid Valentine kit at Paper Source this year and put it away. I liked the Valentine kit versus their every day mermaid craft kit because of the colors. Of course it is no longer available, so if you want to make these buy the every day one. We had fun putting together a few of them.