BOOK REVIEW #5 A SINGLE SHARD

A Single Shard

By Linda Sue Park

My Rating ★★★★★

I loved it. It's about a boy named Tree-ear who is an orphan. He lives under a bridge with his friend Crane-man, who has taken care of him his whole life. Then one day he gets a job working for a potter named Min. He mostly just chops wood or goes and gets clay, but he has a dream to make a pot. Then one day Tree-ear has to go to Songdo to show emissary Kim Min's work in hopes that he will give Min a royal commission. On his journey there something tragic happens to the pots so he only has a single shard to show emissary Kim.

If you want to know the rest than you'll have to read it.

~SHAWNEE  

COLOR CODED RECIPE # 1: BANANA BREAD

My mom took some easy recipes and made them color coded so its easier to understand so I can make these things by myself. This one is banana bread.  

In a small bowl you stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. set aside. 

Then in a mixing bowl you cream together the sugar, and butter with an electric mixer until blended.

Then add the eggs or egg replacer (which is what we use because I have a brother who is allergic to eggs) and the milk to the sugar and butter mixture. 

mix until smooth.

Then you need raisins:

and bananas:

Mash the bananas (riper/darker skinned bananas are better).

Alternately add the mashed bananas and the flour mixture into the sugar/butter/egg/milk mixture like this.

 Then you stir in the raisins with a spoon:

Pour batter into a lightly buttered loaf pan:

 Sometimes spills happen:

 Spread the batter and bake at 350 for the time it says on the recipe:

 The clean up isn't very fun:

 But it's worth it:

Here is the color coded recipe. Click on it to enlarge it.

~SHAWNEE 

BOOK REVIEW #4 A YEAR WITHOUT AUTUMN

A Year Without Autumn

By Liz Kessler

My Rating ★★★★★

A Year Without Autumn is written by the same author as North of Nowhere. Both books have a time travel theme but my mom and I think that North of Nowhere was a good story, but it left to many unanswered questions and was a bit too confusing. We think that A Year Without Autumn had a much better way of time traveling. I think you should read both books and see what you think. You can also see my review for North of Nowhere. (It's one post below this one.)

I loved this book. It's about a girl named Jenni and her best friend Autumn. They both go on vacation to Riverside Village with their family's. But when Jenni uses an old elevator to go see Autumn in her condo she finds out that it's not Autumn's condo any more. And when she finds Autumn she finds out that she's traveled one year into the future and a terrible accident has happened to Autumn's little brother Mikey. Jenni realizes she needs to change the future by somehow fixing the past. It was a great book and it had a unique twist at the end which made the time travel part an even better idea. 

                             ~SHAWNEE

BOOK REVIEW #3 NORTH OF NOWHERE

North of Nowhere
By Liz Kessler

My Rating ★★★★☆

Disclaimer: North of Nowhere was kind of hard to understand so it was kind of hard to write this review.

I liked it, I didn't give it 5 stars because it was a bit confusing at the end. It's about a girl named Mia whose Grandfather has vanished and nobody in Porthaven knows why. When Mia and her Mother go there to help her grandmother out, Mia discovers that the sleepy seaside village hides a mystery. And Mia's new friend Dee seems so far out of reach when her letters claim she is stuck at home due to violent storms when all Mia sees are sunny skies. Can Mia figure things out and find her Grandfather before time and the tide forever wash away his future...... and hers? Well you'll have to read it to find out.

Post Scriptum; This author wrote another book that I liked better. It's called A Year Without Autumn and I did a review of this one too. It also has a time travel theme but I think it made more sense.

 ~SHAWNEE

ART JOURNAL PAGE #2 PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA (and my room)

My 2nd art journal page is called Paris is Always a Good Idea. I made it on 8-26-16 and I got the idea from YouTube:

 These are the supplies I used:

First I stuck down Tim Holtz tissue paper with gel medium. Next I painted the pages orange and I used a darker gelato called Iced Coffee around the edges of the page. Then I printed an Eiffel Tower and a passport, a ticket, and a Paris stamp off the computer. Then I used gel medium and stuck them on the page. Next I used Tim Holtz wildflower stencil and some black paint on the bottom of the pages. Then I used Whipped Spackle and Tim Holtz Bubble stencil here and there on the page. Then I stamped the quote ''Paris is Always a Good Idea''.  Last, on the top right page I wrote Travel, Capture, and Discover. 
Take a closer look (you can click the pictures to see the dimension better):

I really like Paris things.  My room is Paris themed.  My mom got a really nice Paris bedding set at Walmart.com that I love.  
This is what it looks like:

(the curtain is actually a fabric shower curtain)

I hope you like my art journal page......I have more to show you soon!

~ SHAWNEE

BOOK REVIEW #2 THE WILD ROBOT

The Wild Robot
By Peter Brown

My Rating: ★★★★★ 

I really liked this book. It's about a robot names Roz (her real name is Rozzum Unit 7134). She washed up an island and the animals don't like her. But after awhile they become friends with her. This took awhile......she observed them, learned their language, and tried to help them.

Roz adopts a gosling that she names Bright Bill. 

A beaver named Mr. Beaver builds Roz and Bright Bill a home they call The Nest. When winter comes, and Bright Bill heads south with the other geese, Roz turns herself off. When she wakes up it's the middle of winter and she sees that a lot of animals are struggling, so she builds lodges around the island and shows them how to make fire. 

Finally spring comes and if you want to know what happens next (there's a lot of things that happen), then I guess you'll have to read the book. I think boys and girls, maybe ages 8 - 13, will like this book.  THE END.

~ SHAWNEE

MY FAIRY I KNITTED

One day (after about 6 months of needle knitting) me and my mom went to a Knitting Extravaganza.  It was all day long and we had to listen to speakers talk about how wool is made and other stuff. But then we got to go shopping and the very first booth we went to we saw a knitted fairy sitting on the table. It was so cooool!! We picked it up and examined it carefully. We saw that there were only TWO books on how to make these knitted fairy's, and one lady already took one of the books but we got the last one!! It's called Knitted Fairies to Cherish and Charm by Fiona McDonald.  It has 10 knitted fairies in it.
(here it is):

When we got home I got started right away 
but it took me 3 tries because I didn't have the right size knitting needles.  I didn't think it mattered, but apparently it did because the first time it turned out too small and the second time it turned out too big. I was determined to not give up, and the third time it turned out perfect!! Once I finally got it right it took me two weeks to make the fairy.
Here is the first two tries and the finished fairy (this fairy is called The Rainbow Dream Fairy):

The hardest part was probably the needle sculpting of the face.  I think it turned out pretty good.  If you like knitting, I think you'll like this book.  It takes a lot of time to make, but it's so awesome when you're done.  I hope to make more of the fairies when I have time.  I liked the book so much that we got several other books by Fiona McDonald.  One of them is Babes in the Wool:

  Instead of fairies they are girls, and they are a lot bigger.  The body, without the legs, is almost the same height of the entire fairy.  I've started knitting the girl named Willow.  It's taking me A LOT of time.  I'll do another blog post about her once I'm finished.  

          ~SHAWNEE