Mermaid Kisses and Sea Star Wishes Pajamas and Free Printables

Now Hazel and I frequent our local Gymboree store often. Someone Steve graduated from high school works there and through our visits to her we have gotten to know basically the whole staff. Hazel feels at home there and loves to go in to see if there is anything new in stock. She loves their clothes and has quite a few. A couple of weeks ago we noticed the Starfish Wish Two-Piece Short Pajamas .

Starfish Wish Two-Piece Short Pajamas

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.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Sukey and the Mermaid

This week we will be looking at an American version of Cinderella. Sukey and the Mermaid by Robert San Souci is a different version of Cinderella taking place in South Carolina. In the author's note he comments that it is a brief fragment of Elsie Clew Parson's Folk-Lore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina published in 1923. He also states that it is one of the authenticated African-American folktales involving mermaids. He also searched for more complete narratives. In Caribbean folklore "Pretty Jo" or "Mama Jo" is derived from "Mama Dio" or water mother, a term for mermaid. Since he did not find the root tale in the Caribbean, he looked at African tales and believes this is a West African tale. Now again, this is a very different version of Cinderella and is not your typical story involving a prince, etc.

Source

South Carolina is a southern state. It was the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788. It was the first state to secede from the Union for the start of the Civil War and rejoined the Union in 1868. It is the 40th most extensive and the 24th most populous of the 50 states. The state capital is Columbia.

Source

King Charles II of England gave eight aristocrats a charter to settle Carolina, which means Charles Land in Latin. It was so named for King Charles' father. Carolina did not develop as planned and split into two colonies due to political reasons.

Some interesting more recent history of South Carolina is it was one of several states to reject the 19th Amendment (the right for women to vote). It later ratified it in 1969. South Carolina is one of three states that refuses to use competitive international math and language standards. South Carolina has the highest rate of strokes in the United States. South Carolina is the only state to own and operate its own fleet of school buses. (Source)

Now onto our book. This story is about a young girl named Sukey. She lives in a run down cabin with her mother and stepfather, Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones does not work and forces her to work. He yells at her to work more and not to take breaks. Sukey spends her days hoeing the vegetable garden. One day when Mr. Jones is not looking, Sukey sneaks off and runs to the coast where there is a white sand beach. It is her secret spot. She sings a song she heard somewhere which calls for Mama Jo. Mama Jo, a mermaid appears. Sukey has heard tales of mermaids being mean and trying to pull you into the water with them, so she is very weary of Mama Jo. Mama Jo is patient with her and they spend the day together. At the end of the day Mama Jo gives Sukey a gold coin to take home so her parents will not be angry with her. When her stepfather sees the gold coin he sends her back to the water every day to look for more. 

Sukey loves spending time with Mama Jo and every day Mama Jo gives her one gold coin. She invites Sukey to come live with her, but Sukey refuses. One day Sukey's mother follows Sukey and witnesses Mama Jo giving her the coin. That night Sukey's mother tells Mr. Jones. Early the next morning they go out and try to catch Mama Jo. After that Mama Jo will not appear for Sukey. Mr. Jones forces her to hoe the garden again until Sukey becomes very sick. While sick in bed, she dreams of Mama Jo and Mama Jo says she will appear to Sukey once more if she wants to come live with her. Sukey drags herself to the water and sings the new song Mama Jo told her in her dream. Then Mama Jo uses her magic hair to take Sukey to her underground cave. They live there happily together for a long time until Sukey begins to miss the sun and birds singing. She begs Mama Jo to take her back to the land. They finally agree to take her back and Mama Jo gives her a bag filled with gold coins and jewels for her dowry. She also tells her to only marry a man named Dembo. If she marries any other man the treasure will disappear. 

Sukey returns home. Her mother has been grieving her loss and Mr. Jones has grown even meaner until he sees the dowry bag. Young men come courting when they hear about the treasure. Sukey refuses them all until Dembo comes. They fall in love and her mother and neighbors plan a grand wedding for them. While Sukey and her mother are out the night before the wedding, Mr. Jones kills Dembo and steals the dowry, hiding it under his mattress. Sukey is devastated when she sees Dembo dead. She runs to the water's edge and calls for Mama Jo. Mama Jo tells her this is the last time she will come to her, but gives her something to bring Dembo back to life. When Dembo comes back to life he tells everyone that Mr. Jones is the one who hurt him. Mr. Jones grabs the treasure and hops into his canoe. The crowd watches as a storm cloud appears over him and the ocean swallows him--canoe and all. Dembo and Sukey are sad to have lost the treasure but are glad to still have each other. They get married and afterwards go to Sukey's favorite spot and she digs her feet deep into the white sand and feels something. They dig up the dowry treasure bag. She sees green and gold in the distance sparkling in the sun and Sukey blows a kiss to Mama Jo.

Sew Sweet Handmade Clothes for Girls Book Review

For Advent, I thought I would share each post where our Mouse and the Miracle Mouse (Holy) has been up to. (He now has an elf friend named Elfie who often is hidden with him.)

Watching the visitors come to see the Newborn King!

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I am going to share with you a wonderful sewing book which I have had for way too long and have not shared. My plan was to make one of the adorable dresses for Hazel, but my serger broke and I have not been inspired to sew as much and well it has not happened. The book is Sew Sweet Handmade Clothes for Girls: 22 Easy to Make Dresses, Skirts, Pants & Tops Girls Will Love by Yuki Araki. 

Shell Pictures

 Disclosure: I was sent these craft items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I added links to the particular products for your convenience, but not for any compensation. 

Well, Hazel and I went to visit my parents this week and I got lazy on here. Sorry. I started writing a post last night, but never finished it. I'll safe it for next week. Of course visiting my parents always brings beach ideas since they live on Cape Cod. Although we did not go to the beach this trip, we did check out one of our favorite stores that always has fun shell artwork. We are inspired to do even more with these products that Oriental Trading sent us. 

Sewing and Family

This is a very busy and somewhat stressful week in my house, but I wanted to hop on here and share a few things. I have my 12-year-old nephew visiting because he was staying with my parents, but my mom is having surgery on her heart tomorrow, so we are watching him while my parents are in the hospital. As a result, I have not had much time to share things or make things. Here are a few things I have sewn lately.

I made Hazel a fun pillow case dress with fairy pockets. I hoped to make one for her doll as well, but I didn't have enough fabric. Oh, well. There are tutorials for these dresses all over. Here is one on Sew Like My Mom: Easiest Pillowcase Dress Ever.

Hazel has been wanting a mermaid tale for her dolls (well actually she wants a couple in different colors). I have been playing with patterns including one I found at Peek-a-boo Pattern Shop: Dressing Up Dolly: Mermaid Tail. She had a pattern for a 15-inch doll, so I made my own. I also am making a green one using a method someone showed me that sells them professionally. It is not done, so I won't share pictures yet.

I will post a pattern and tutorial for the mermaid tale once I have the pattern finalized to what I like best. Sharing Saturday will still be happening, so stay tuned!

Starfish and Sand Dollar Wreath for a Touch of Summer

 Disclosure: I was sent these craft items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I added links to the particular products for your convenience, but not for any compensation.

So while at Cape Cod last week, Hazel and I were in one of our favorite shops and I saw a pretty wreath made with white starfish. It looked very simple. It was a chipboard wreath form painted white with white starfish glued all over it. I showed it to my mother and Hazel and said we could make that. The owner of the store even commented how he considered getting out his glue gun to make one. I think it was on sale for about $17 dollars. I remembered the wonderful starfish I had received from Oriental Trading and thought let's make one when we get home. 

Easy Paper Doll Clothes and Creations

The other day I found sticky notes that were shaped as shirts in a bargain bin. My first thought was that they would be fun to dress up the cardstock people I bought ages ago. I pulled them out and then pulled out some cupcake liners and crepe streamers as skirts. Hazel and I had fun making them.

The shirts do not fit the people form 100%, but they are good enough for us. We used yarn for hair and Hazel drew on faces. We added a little glue to the bottom of the shirts when we glued on the skirts.

Hazel made up stories with them. I offered to glue sticks onto them to make the puppets, but she liked them this way. As she told me a story with them, she also mentioned that making them is more fun than playing with them. She also picked out one to be her and one to me.

I thought the one with the butterfly skirt and brown hair should be me, but she picked the long yellow hair. I guess she really enjoyed them, because when I was making something else the next day, she made this one.

She told me she used tape instead of glue so she wouldn't have to wait for it to dry. I need to put some of our people away so we will have them to make mermaids at her mermaid themed play date in August. Otherwise she will be using them all up on me very quickly.

These dolls remind me of Flat Stanley. Anyone want to make a Flat Stanley for us so he can continue his trip around the world?

For more paper doll type of ideas check out:

• Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed Activity
• Making our Paper Princesses
• Korean Paper Doll
• Creative Mermaid Craft

The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen -- Parragon Book Buddies

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me a copy of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Parragon Books sent us a copy of the soon-to-be-released The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen retold by Mandy Archer. Now you know we love our fairy tales. We have read many fairy tales and versions of fairy tales with our Fairy Tales in Different Cultures Series. However we have not read too many of Hans Christian Andersen's tales.

Snoopy Play Date

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

Hazel LOVES Peanuts®!! She cannot get enough books out of the library to read the old comic strips and we take out all the DVDs as well. She also watches whatever she can On Demand. Therefore it is no surprise she wanted to have a Peanuts® or Snoopy Play Date. (She wanted a Snoopy birthday party, but didn't want to wait that long!) I showed her the many Peanut products at Oriental Trading and she got so excited!! Her absolute favorite thing is the Color Your Own Peanuts® Snoopy Playhouse.

Disney Princesses Sightings and Peg Dolls

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Disney World Princesses

As you know we went to Disney World in June. Hazel loved meeting all the princesses. There is a McDonalds near our house that has had many of the princesses and I have taken her to see them there, but they only have the white ones since the actress is white. So on her must see list were Jasmine, Pocahontas and Tiana. Of course whenever we saw a chance to meet a character, Hazel wanted to even if she had no clue who the character was. We spent a lot of time waiting in character lines. I think she has now decided the princesses at McDonalds are actresses, but the ones in Disney World are the real ones.

To remember our visits I made Hazel some peg dolls for the princesses. (I still need to make a Merida and hope to make a mermaid Ariel one as well.) I got the idea from Pinterest. Apparently there are many out there and I cannot find the exact pin to give you the source I originally saw. I however played with their hair in different ways.

Now one of my favorite photos of Hazel meeting the princesses is this one of her and Rapunzel. She has just told Rapunzel that she dressed as her for Halloween.

Our count for princess sightings: 

Cinderella we saw 3 times.

Aurora/Sleeping Beauty we saw 3 times.

Belle we saw 2 times.

Ariel we saw 2 times (once in a dress and once as a mermaid).

Jasmine we saw 1 time.

Pocahontas we saw 1 time.

Tiana we saw 1 time.

Merida we saw 1 time (and it was after the heavy downpours so we were soaked).

Rapunzel we saw 1 time.

Snow White we saw 1 time. (Sorry, I cropped out her friend since he was in every picture of Hazel with Snow White.)

We did not see Mulan since we do not know her story and Hazel really has no idea who she is.

Now Hazel knows who the princesses are, but does not know all the stories behind them. She also has not seen many of the Disney movies since she is scared easily. She likes to watch Cinderella and Pocahontas, but that is about it for those movies. I won't let her even try Snow White or Aladdin. I remember seeing Snow White when I was five and I had nightmares for weeks afterward. My mother was not happy with my father for taking me. For Hazel the princesses are about beautiful dresses. She is at the age of loving dresses and the fancier the better. I remember being like that too, so I do not worry about how this will influence her since I know I grew up the same way.

Imagination Builders -- Back to School

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Have your children started school yet? Almost everyone I know has or will this week.  I have decided to share products that will help everyone who homeschools or just supplements their kids' schools with learning at home. Today's focus is building imagination. For reasons why building one's imagination is important you can check out this article in the Wall Street Journal and this article at Huffington Post. The first item I am sharing is a new book by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston called A Child of Books.