Moonlight, the Halloween Cat — by Guest Mom Katherine Center

Moonlight, The Halloween Cat (by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet) is a new book at my house. Our neighbor brought it over the other day to read to my kids, and while she was reading, this line caught my ear:

Moonlight walks the night.
She sees lights going off in the houses.
Now only pumpkins will shine.



The language was so simple and poetic, I stopped what I was doing to listen to the rest of the book. The language reminds me of Margaret Wise Brown. Simple words, simple motion, a repetition that feels like rocking. The language is easy and elegant here. It tells the story of Moonlight, a cat whose favorite night is Halloween:

She walks, soft and black,
Over the grass, along the fences,
Through the trees.

There’s something very cozy about the book. I’m not sure how, exactly, a book about a black cat prowling around on Halloween night manages to feel cozy—but I think it has something to do with the simple and pleasant description of her travels.

Pumpkins smile at her.
Straw laps welcome her.
And children are out.
Moonlight loves children.
She follows them, but they don’t see her.
She is black, like the night.



It’s fun to think about what cats might do and where they might go after people are all tucked in. It’s immensely soothing to think of raccoons and bunnies and owls going about their nighttime business after the stars are out. Moonlight also feels so at ease moving through the night air. It’s clear there’s nothing to be afraid of, even on Halloween.



Part of the cozy feeling also comes from the beautiful illustrations. The colors are so rich, and there’s so much contrast. The night sky is a deep, brilliant blue, the jack-o-lanterns are a cheerful orange, and the yellow light just seems to overflow from the houses’ windows—balancing the cool darkness of Moonlight’s travels with all the promise of warmth and brightness waiting at home.

Happy Halloween!

It's a busy day at our house, as I'm sure it is at yours. We carved a simple pumpkin last night so we're ready for our trick-or-treaters. This morning is the Rag-A-Muffin parade at school. Then the Halloween party at the community center for my littlest two. Tonight will be the grande finale. What a great month it's been. I'm looking forward to the next.

Because of all the busy-ness, I'll leave you with 4 things:

1) BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!! I'm introducing a new feature on my blog tomorrow. That's Thursday, November 1st. No major clues, but I think it's going to be awesome, and hopefully very useful to you. Be here tomorrow to check it out.

2) You have until tonight at midnight (spooky!) to enter the Projector Rental Giveaway. Just leave a comment on the Giveaway post.

3) Need a last minute costume? I like these quick and creepy ideas from Martha.

4) To celebrate Halloween in good form, I leave you with a bonus post from our recent Guest Mom, Katherine Center, all about one of her favorite Halloween books.

A Spooky Halloween to one and all!!

Random Giveaway: Projector

It's a different sort of Giveaway today. The prize is valued at $400. But you don't have to find a place to store it. What is this mysterious prize? A movie projector from Projector 123! Projector 123 rents out projectors by the night or by the week. Fedex drops the projector off and Fedex picks it up. And they can get the projector to you in 24 hours.



Why do you need projector rental? Um, seriously. Do I even need to answer that? You need a projector rental because you want to throw a movie party:



Tomorrow is Halloween, and you want to project classic scary movies, like Frankenstein or Dracula, on your garage door for the neighborhood kids to enjoy as they trick-or-treat.


Or for your child's next party, you want to project Man From Snowy River on the side of your friend's barn or cabin while the kids bundle up with blankets and caramel popcorn. Or maybe you'll gather the party guests in the playroom to watch Toy Story projected on the wall.



During Thanksgiving weekend, you'll want to project the home movies you've been editing on iMovie in the living room, so the relatives have something to watch while the pies are baking.



Or for your Christmas party this year, you can invite everyone to dress up in something fancy and drink hot toddy's and watch It's a Wonderful Life in your family-room-turned-movie-theater.



Of course you need to win a projector rental! Why do you need a week-long projector rental? Because being a parent is kind of crazy. Schedules don't always work out as planned. So having the projector for a whole week just makes sense. In case. And in case you're certain that you really aren't the type to throw a party, well, enter anyway, and if you win you can just gift the prize to a more festive friend.

A week long rental of the brightest projector from Projector 123 goes for $400. Which is what you could win if you enter this Giveaway (so get commenting!). But there are other options. Rentals start as low as $99.

I really do love the idea of a projector rental. It's something that seems silly to own, because I wouldn't make use of it enough to justify storing it. But having it available from Projectors 123, to be delivered the next day — or even the same day in some instances — allows me to still throw an impromptu party. Curious about Projector 123's services? Check out their faq's page.

Thank you Projector 123!

Final Note: What with the Frankenstein posters? Well, it's Halloween tomorrow, and I found these and thought they were cool and wanted to share them. Plus this is a Giveaway about movie projectors. So we're going to pretend it all fits. I found the movie posters here.

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Random Giveaway Guidelines:
-You have until midnight PST on Wednesday, October 31st (that Halloween!) to enter this giveaway.
-Just make a comment ON THIS POST to enter — any comment.
-Anonymous comments will be ignored/removed.
-One entry per person, please.
-The winner will be randomly picked and announced Thursday morning.
-What are Random Giveaways? Read about them here.

k studio

Remember Ryan Wright, everyone's favorite Guest Dad? Well he just sent me a link to k studio. A company that makes fantastic custom pillows. k studio is run by a mom and her daughter. They design and make everything, with an eye toward sustainability, out of their shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The coolest part: when you order from their website, you can choose whatever materials, designs, and stitches you want — mixing and matching as you see fit.




Some of their patterns are sold at 2modern and Design Public but the mix & match options on their site are the most fun. If you want a pillow but are having a hard time making decisions, just go with what Ryan picked — the "neighborhood" design, light blue stitch, grey felt material — he has excellent taste.

Stalking Santa

We're so excited. We have these friends, Christopher and Lisa Clark. You may know Lisa from her fantastic week here as the original Guest Mom, and also as the sister of Maroon 5's awesome guitarist. And you may know Christopher from his excellent blog, The Jolly Porter, and because he's the brother of well-known bloggers Nie Nie and cJane, and because he grew up a block away from my husband.

Well. Chris and Lisa are talented in dozens of various ways, and they happen to star in a movie called Stalking Santa. The same Stalking Santa that will be featured at the Angelika Theater, right here in New York, on Thursday, November 8th. The same Stalking Santa featured in the trailer above.

Christopher will be flying out to the big premiere and we can't wait to see him. And we can't wait to see Stalking Santa. And the best part is: YOU'RE INVITED TOO! In fact, you can bring your friends, you can bring the whole family — it's going to be fantastic. Halloween will be a fond memory by that time and you'll be so ready to get stoked for the Holidays. A movie like Stalking Santa will do the trick.

Extra special bonus: the showing is free dollars and thirty free cents. Yep. It's a FREE movie, so no excuses. Put it on your calendars right away. Tell your friends.

Come to the Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston St. (@ Mercer St.), New York, NY 10012, on Thursday, November 8th at 7:00 PM. I'll be there. My husband will be there. And if you say hello, I'll even try to introduce you to Mr. Christopher Clark himself.

UPDATE: I just heard from the Stalking Santa people. They mentioned that you can print out tickets here.

Lego Cake

Knowing Legos are a huge deal at my house, my little sister Jordan sent me a link to this brilliant Lego cake, made from a sheet cake and halved marshmellows. Oscar turns 3 in January and I'm thinking I'll start now to get him excited for a Lego/Duplo Party.

via MamaSaidShop.

Ken Jenning's Alphabet Mural

Remember Ken Jennings, the guy who made headlines winning like a bazillion rounds of Jeopardy? Well apparently, in addition to knowing every possible bit of trivia in the world, he also paints awesome murals on his child's bedroom wall. What?

No, seriously, he does. He's up to "H" now and is taking suggestions for which children's book characters he should feature on the rest of the mural. What a fantastic idea. You can read his post about it on his blog.

Thanks for the tip, Heather!

Trunk or Treat 2007

Every year we decorate the trunk of our car for Trunk or Treat. Ralph gets really into this and makes elaborate plans involving scary music and mist and puts his siblings to work making paper-plate skeletons and lots of drawings. This year, we tried something different.


In our garage, there was a huge magnetic dartboard we'd made for a school fair booth a couple of years ago. It's maybe 4 feet by 6 feet. I realized if we covered the blue paint and the logo, it would look Halloween-y. So we did. Then we added black magnet darts.


We had 5 different baskets of candy as prizes, depending on which part of the target the trunk-or-treaters hit.


We won "Most Spooktacular Trunk" which is the greatest possible accomplishment in the world of Ralph. (Note: I think we may have been the only entry, I was too busy managing the dartboard to make it around to the other cars.)

To make your own giant dartboard, glue two pieces of sheet metal from Home Depot to one piece of press board or particle board. Not all sheet metals work — bring a magnet with you to make sure it will attract. I can't remember what kind of glue we used exactly, but I know it was super-duty and was applied with a caulk gun. The glue had to cure over night and then we painted the metal with little bottles of craft paint. The circles aren't exact, but they're good enough. The center was printed on a 8.5 x 11 sheet of label paper, then trimmed and applied. We used a spray can of clear gloss over the whole thing to protect it and make it shine. We purchased the darts here.

Finished Costumes 2007

Trunk-or-Treat was Saturday. Which means costumes had to be finished Friday night. I'm glad to report that everything turned out wonderfully and the kids were proud of me because I didn't freak out trying to getting it all done. (Mom, Grandma, or anyone else that's interested, I've posted lots more photos here.)

The Mummy (pictured at top).
We half-sewed/half-hot-glued it together. I love it. Ralph loves it. And it's really easy to get on and off. Everything but the head wrap is attached to the shirt or pants and it's all very stable.


The Jack-O-Lantern.
Betty was very excited to put this on. And it was cozy. And she's at the perfect chubby stage, so she filled it out well.


The Witch.
This is Olive's best witchy expression. I keep calling this the Princess Witch costume. Because it has a tutu and is totally girly. We picked this up at Target and embellished the skirt hem with thick upholstery fringe to beef it up.


The Werewolf.
Oscar was napping while everyone else got ready, so when he came downstairs and saw what was going on, he was super-psyched to get into the werewolf costume. Here he is pictured mid-howl.




The Mrs. Frankenstein.
Maude was delighted with how this turned out and so was I. The hair was super-fun to do. I love the belt detail. The turtleneck and dress were picked up from Old Navy (not part of their costume line) and will be absorbed into her regular wardrobe post-Halloween.

Thank you Katherine!

I can't believe how much I've enjoyed our Guest Mom Katherine's book posts. It's so wonderful to have an excellent writer write about excellent writing. Depending on Katherine's time this week, she may or may not send over a finale post featuring one of her favorite Halloween books.

But just in case her time fills up, and we don't get a chance to hear from her again this week, I want to officially thank her today. Katherine, you did an amazing job. Thank you. Please come back anytime.

And know that we'll be watching your website in anticipation of your next writing projects — or even a possible blog.

Crafting at Martha's

Thursday night, Maude and I were invited to Martha's offices in Chelsea to do some crafting. I was told I could bring all my kids, but crafting is especially Maude's thing and we haven't had a Maude/Mom date in awhile. So it was just the two of us. And it was so much fun.

I couldn't have planned a better night with Maude. She was the only child there and received tons of attention. The Daily News interviewed her and took a dozen or so photos of her with glue and glitter in hand. At one point, she said, "Everyone is talking to me, because I'm the only one here who is 8." So true.


We both had a wonderful time. We saw a preview of the Martha Stewart Craft Holiday line that will arrive at Michaels stores on Nov 4th, and we glittered ornaments (like these oversize, 6-inch acorns), and stamped stationery, and learned to tie Martha's favorite bow.

A note on the bow: I have heard references to Martha's favorite bow before, but I was never clear on the advantages of this particular bow until Thursday night. If you use this technique with patterned ribbon, the pattern remains facing out the whole time — instead of one loop being inside out. Now I get it.


The craft line is lovely. We caught our breath when we saw the advent calendar house — a kit that helps you construct a pretty paper house, fill its little rooms and compartments with treats, and then glue on the paper roof with the numbered advent windows. Maude was definitely the most excited about that particular craft.


I was especially in love with some oversized snowflakes that had been glittered and hung over a work table. They caught the light in such a lovely way. They would be wonderful hanging in a window or over the dinner table.


Most of all, I loved all the little packaging options for treats or cookies or small gifts. Scallop edged boxes. Poinsettia topped packages. Little bags with cellophane windows. Perfect for neighbor gifts or a teacher's gift. Packaging gets my imagination going like nothing else — what would I put in the little bag? the little box?

We came home covered in glitter — very glamorous — with our hands full of crafts and crafting guides. A wonderful night. And we were so grateful to be invited.

Giveaway Winner — Pomegranate Inc.

Announcing a Giveaway winner is pretty much the best way to start a Monday morning. And reading 530 comments on the Pomegranate Inc. Giveaway is also pretty darn wonderful.

Congratulations to: April who said, "thanksgiving is at my house this year; this would be perfect!"

Hooray for April!! Please email me from the link on my blog with your shipping address and the names/sizes of the Dish Towels, Apron and Tablecloth/Table Runner you prefer, and I'll send your info to Pomegranate right away.

Thank you kindly to everyone who participated. Thank you to Pomegranate Inc for the generous prize. Watch for another Giveaway tomorrow. . .

Dr. Suess — By Guest Mom Katherine Center

After much struggle, here are my Top Five Dr. Seuss Books: Horton Hatches the Egg, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Sneetches and Other Stories—and, in particular the three-page story Too Many Daves (which cracks me up every time), There’s a Wocket in my Pocket, and Green Eggs and Ham.

Dr. Seuss is not news. Everybody knows him. Everybody loves him. The man wrote 44 books for children. He was a children’s book juggernaut.

But there’s a reason he wrote and illustrated all those books. He was really, really good at it. I could write about anything Seuss: His bold, charming, and totally unique illustrations. His distinctive and lovable characters. His plots, and the brilliant and accessible ways they instruct. His choice of words, both standard and made-up.



But I’m going to write about his rhymes. Man, could he rhyme. He was a genius, and that’s one of his many legacies: He’s the Shakespeare of the children’s book world.

There are a lot of children’s books that rhyme. Paying attention is a learned skill, and for little ones whose language is still developing, rhymes help keep them caught up in the story, in its sound, even if they don’t understand everything. Rhyming is a good thing. But not that many authors do it well.

Because rhyme is not just about sound: it’s about rhythm. More than anything, it’s about anticipation. It’s about setting up an expectation for the motion of the words.

Lesser writers lose the rhythm all the time. But Dr. Seuss never does. His stories are music. And I mean that literally. James Brown could bring his band to your house and back you up as you read. Reading those words out loud creates nothing short of a groove.



You remember The Sneetches? It’s just one of a hundred examples. The Star-Belly Sneetches think they are better than the Plain-Belly Sneetches—and then Sylvester McMonkey McBean comes along to profit from their snootiness. He brings machines that can remove and/or replace belly stars, and he starts a Sneetch frenzy. The story builds to this wild climax that is so fun to read:



All the rest of that day on those wild screaming beaches,
The Fix-it-Up Chappie kept fixing up Sneetches
Off again! On again!
In again! Out again!
Through the machines they raced round and about again,
Changing their stars every minute or two.
They kept paying money. They kept running through.
Until neither the Plain nor the Star Bellies knew
Whether this one was that one . . . or that one was this one
Or which one was what one . . . or what one was who.



The rhythm here is impeccable. He owns that rhythm.

All the REST of that DAY on those WILD screaming BEACHes
The FIX it up CHAPPie kept FIXing up SNEETCHes.

And then the rhythm shifts:

OFF again! ON again!
IN again! OUT again!

The accent shifts to the first word, and the exclamation points add a staccato undertone. Then a longer sentence :

THROUGH the maCHINES they raced ROUND and aBOUT again.



He shifts the accents and the rhythm without ever missing a beat—emphasizing different parts of the story, matching the sound to the meaning. It’s phenomenal. I’ve read The Sneetches a hundred times at least, and, like his others, I never get tired of it.

On the rare occasions my kids let me choose a book, I go for Seuss nine times out of ten.

Even Doing the Dishes is Pretty

Things of Random Coolness introduced me to the work of the SHCH Graphics Group. Man oh man do I love calligraphy-like artwork. Most of their portfolio features lettering or body art — all very beautiful. But these swirls around the sink drains are the most clever of all.

Random Giveaway: Pomegranate, Inc.

It's October 25th. Chances are, whatever you're doing for Halloween has been decided and prepared. Which means it's the perfect time to take a moment and think about what's next: Thanksgiving! And all the guests, and entertaining, and cooking that come with it. So I've got the perfect Giveaway to get you in the fall entertaining groove. Leave a comment and you're entered to win 3 fabulous items from Pomegranate, Inc: an Apron, a set of 3 Teatowels, and a Tablerunner or Tablecloth!


That's like a mini-kitchen-makeover. And the best part is, the winner gets to pick her favorite Apron. Her favorite Tea Towels. Her favorite Tablerunner or Tablecloth — any size, any pattern. You get to choose the perfect thing for your home.

Just imagine yourself in your cute new apron, peeking in the oven to check on the turkey. You hear someone at the door, wipe your hands on your pretty new tea towels, then invite your guests into the dining room where a fabulous new tablecloth catches their eye. What will you pick when you win?

And if you're loving the Pomegranate patterns as much as I am, you'll be glad to know you can find them on pretty much anything you'll need in the kitchen.


Like on these great-looking, ruffled oven mitts.


Or on these handsome 20" x 20" napkins.


Even on a smart line of totes and bags. Maybe you're playing guest instead of host this year and need a great weekend bag. . .

Pomegranate is a new-to-me company, but with their fantastic textiles and patterns, they had me at hello. My crush deepened when I realized that their patterns are created from original artwork and printed exclusively for Pomegranate. I hear the owner, Angela Beck, takes her inspirations for the line from her own backyard and from her travels. Well, Angela. Thanks for passing the inspiration along — now my minds all aflutter imagining a beautiful Thanksgiving table — and I'm not even cooking this year.

Thank you Pomegranate!!

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Random Giveaway Guidelines:
-You have until midnight PST on Sunday, October 28th to enter this giveaway.
-Just make a comment ON THIS POST to enter — any comment.
-Anonymous comments will be ignored/removed.
-One entry per person, please.
-The winner will be randomly picked and announced Monday morning.
-What are Random Giveaways? Read about them here.