A Literary Kind of Day

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

This isn't a card post, but it does involve a crafty project.

For all you book lovers out there, did you get to the bookstore today and buy Harper Lee's new book, Go Set a Watchman? It had SO much hype! Based on what I've heard about it so far, I'm not sure how well I will like it, but since I collect books and there is a lot of controversy surrounding the publication of this one, I decided to go ahead and get it, even though with a first printing of 2,000,000, I doubt it will ever be a collectible. I just hope it doesn't ruin To Kill a Mockingbird for me. I loved that book as a kid. Have you read "Watchman" yet? What did you think?

Another book that I am particularly fond of is The Hunger Games--actually the entire trilogy. My daughter just turned eleven, so I finally let her read it and watch the movies, and she liked the story, too. Whenever she reads a book that she enjoys, she often gets her Ever After High dolls and uses them to act out her favorite scenes from the book, so she has been quite busy for the past few days. Today, though, she got me involved when she drew up detailed plans for a doll-sized chariot for the Parade of Tributes scene, and asked me to help her make it. The odds were in her favor! When I saw the amount of work she put into those drawings, I couldn't say no! My daughter took this picture of the finished chariot:


I didn't want to invest much, if any, money in this project, but we didn't have wheels, so after a quick trip to Hobby Lobby, we spent the next 4 hours in the craft room. I thought we'd be done in maybe 15 minutes, but it was fun to make this with her and to hear her ideas about how to make it work with just the crafty supplies we had on hand. Besides the wheels we bought today, we ended up using a dowel rod, 2 pencil grips, rubber bands, pipe cleaners, a cardboard box, yarn, safety pins, a cork, and a couple of die cuts for a "Mockingjay" emblem, and it turned out really cute, and quite sturdy. Surprisingly, our biggest hurdle was keeping the chariot from tipping over when the horse pulled it, since wheels are only on the front of it, but eventually we figured it out. The horse actually walks by itself, and it is strong enough to pull the chariot, even with both dolls in it, so it really is something to see in action. I foresee tributes parading around our house for at least the next couple of days...or until the batteries run down in the horse.

I had so many other things I needed to do today, but I'm glad I put everything off for this. My daughter went to sleep tonight with a great big smile on her face. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back soon with my regularly scheduled programming. (Paper Sweeties' July New Releases go live in the store at midnight!!!)

~Hugs,
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2 comments :

Jill Norwood said...

Cheryl it sounds like you and I spent our day in the same way! I love the picture and what a wonderful memory for you both. My son Tim is going to a "Live Action Role Playing" event this weekend and we spent yesterday and several other days working on his "Steam-punk" costume. It has been a lot of fun helping him put it together! We are almost done....hope to finish it up tomorrow. Happy Summer! :)

Leslie Miller said...

It's things like this that help develop character and lets your daughter know how important she is to you. I don't know that I'll be able to read Go Set a Watchman since To Kill a Mockingbird was an all time favorite of mine. I'm probably being a little idealistic, but I can't bear to ruin my image of Harper Lee. I did read all of the Hunger Games books, too.