Beauty, created by an app

Time for Tuesday's Slice of Life Sharing at Two Writing Teachers
                     Come join us!  Tweet at #SOL14

Part of my life, as many know, is reading blog posts. I enjoy them, I learn from them, and share what I read often. Last Saturday, Tara Smith wrote here at TWT about her amazing end-of-the-year multi-genre project. While I loved every bit of the description of her work, what caught my eye also was the mention of an app for IPad & other devices named Waterlogue. I've been playing with it since then. We've had snow since Saturday night, so Saturday I raced around taking pictures of those flowers that were already blooming because I knew we would soon lose them. Here are the pictures, but created into watercolor paintings from this app. I just had to show you! There are multiple choices of the look one selects, and one can frame them, or create a postcard from the art, print and mail. It was super easy. Here are the basic pics I chose. The snow pic Monday morning, then the flowers from Saturday, plus one of apples because I wanted to try it. Enjoy looking, and then perhaps create your own!
          FYI-I'm also excited that I'm leaving Thursday to visit my son, daughter-in-law and grandson in Texas, to see Carter's spring concert & two baseball games! Can't wait!

          And-discovered late, my 'water-based' poem is being shared at Michelle Barnes Today's Little Ditty. You can visit there to find out about Laura Purdie Salas' poetic challenge, and to read the poem. 

It's Monday - Time To Share

         Thanks to Jen at Teach.Mentor.Texts and Ricki and Kellee at Unleashing Readers for hosting our Monday Reading community. It's just great to see what everyone shares. 
          Tweet at #IMWAYR

      It was a great week of reading, some finds in my school library and some read at a bookstore made the week fun.

         This book meets the 2014 Latin@s in Kid Lit reading challenge that shares more books from Latino authors or about Latino people. You can read about the challenge by clicking on the sidebar button.

Love And Roast Chicken, a trickster tale from the Andes Mountains – written and illustrated by Barbara Knutson –

                 The first reason I found this book is because of the beautiful cover. With bright colors emphasized by black outlining, it is so appealing. The story follows the usual structure of a trickster tale and while the back matter says in the Andes mostly the trickster is a grey fox, this time it’s a guinea pig, or “cuy”-guinea pig in Spanish, mixed with the ancient languages of Quechua or Aymara (what is spoken in the Andes).  Other Andean words are included in the story, like “pobrecito” (poor little thing) and “Que ridiculo” (how ridiculous). The dear guinea pig finds himself in various scary situations, which he smoothly talks out of, tricking the fox time and again. It’s a book to use for predicting, with lots of laughter at the fox who keeps believing that CUY again and again.

Celebrating Words, in conversation

Thanks to Ruth Ayres for Celebration Saturday! Tweet at CelebrateLu  Link up here!

             This week, I'm celebrating the gifts of words: 

• I celebrated my mother yesterday in a poem for all mothers. It's for all of you, too, if you didn't get a chance to read it. You can find it here.
• Today I celebrate my daughter and daughter-in-law, wonderful mothers who, like many of you, juggle such full lives, raising children, managing the household, their professional lives, and offering me such support, especially in these past challenging years. A proverb for them: "Mother is a verb, not a noun."
• I started a writing workshop for a small group this week. We'll only meet for a few weeks, and they were so excited. They all have chosen personal goals:

Poetry Friday-Mother's Day

           Poetry Friday is hosted by Jama Rattigan, of Jama's Alphabet Soup. Missed you Jama, and thank you for hosting with love today.  

           My poem today is for all mothers, but especially my mother, gone for a while, but still in my heart every day. I've messed about with words all week trying to choose the 'how' and 'what' of a poem for her. It became too specific, it was too flowery, it was too vague. Hm-m. Well, then I thought of all the songs she sang to me, all the songs I sang to my children, all those they sing to their children. Most of the lines are lifted from lullabies I know. It's a thank you for love, for music, for comfort. 

Happy Mother's Day to you and yours!

Non-fiction Biographies

       
  Sharing with Alyson Beecher's Non-Fiction Picture Book Wednesday here!  Tweet at #NFPB2014

       I don't have many non-fiction books to share, but found two more biographies to celebrate. Both are interesting people who show such passion in their chosen work. Read on...

When The Beat Was Born, DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop – written by Laban Carrick Hill and illustrated by Theodore Taylor III

               I’ve never heard of Kool Herc, and this story of how he became the DJ who started the dance parties in the Bronx, created the “break” between records by using two turntables, which became “break dancing” and hip-hop. You never know when something you love so much becomes what many others love, too. The illustrations are graphic and vibrant, like hip-hop! It’s a “Kool” biography!