This Book was a Tree giveaway winner!!!

8 days in, and the cosmos seedlings are taking off. Still no sign of the sweet pea sprouts, but I'll give them a couple more days in their little egg incubators before giving up hope.

Thanks to all who entered the giveaway for Marcie's book - random.org picked Anne as the lucky winner!  

And by the way, I agree with Sarah - Nellie Oleson was my favorite too. She was so evil, but her curls were so perfect! 

Yesterday was spent in the backyard doing another project - this time dyeing eggs, our fingers and the dog. Best tip ever - use a cupcake tin to hold the dye. Definitely easier than using a bunch of little bowls! Thanks to Britta for the idea.

This Book Was a Tree / Cackleberry Sprouts! / Giveaway!!

My good friend Marcie's book came out this month and I'm so proud to write about it and be part of her blog tour!

This Book Was a Tree: Ideas, Adventures and Inspiration for Discovering the Natural World is magical. It's filled with get-out-there-and-experience-the-world-around-you projects of all shapes and sizes. Want to make a magnifying glass out of a water bottle? Create your own sundial? Turn old wool sweaters into felted flowers? Marcie knows how to do that and shares her wisdom and hand drawn art throughout. But most importantly, she encourages her readers to put down the screens, and get outside to explore the world around us.

I love these lines: "I'm not here to convert you into Laura Ingalls Wilder (me: I wish!) nor am I advocating you adopt a Davy Crockett lifestyle. Instead, I simply wish for you to cultivate a healthy relationship with the national world here in the present."

Who doesn't need more of that? I definitely do. My kids definitely do. After being indoors for most of the winter, yesterday was spent in the back yard, planting Cackleberry Sprouts, one of the "try this" projects in her book.

some of Marcie's original art. she's awesome.

What's a Cackleberry? It's a slang word for egg, popular in the 1950s, and no, I didn't just know that, Urban Dictionary told me. And Marcie tells me that the calcium in the egg is important for healthy soil, so why not use egg shells as nurseries for wildflowers? I did the messy stuff - cleaning out the eggs - and let my middle guy do the fun stuff, filling, planting and watering. We got dirty, we got wet, we had fun, and no one said "can we go in and watch tv?" That hasn't happened in very long time!

we planted sweat pea and cosmos

now these guys spend a couple weeks indoors - when they get some hearty leaves, we'll crush the shells a bit and plant somewhere sunny

This boy was so inspired he spent the rest of the afternoon digging up holes and planting old bulbs all over the yard!

And this guy discovered how to spray the squirt bottle directly in his face. And it did it again, and again, and again….

Now go outside and get dirty:) But before you do, buy the book, visit Marcie's site, check out the other fabulous blog tour stops and comment below with your favorite Little House on the Prairie character to win a copy of Marcie's book! Winner will be chosen at random on Thursday, April 17.

Week One:
4/1 House Wren Studio
4/2 Mindful Momma
4/3 The Long Thread
4/4 Maya Made

Week Two:
4/7 Rebecca Sower
4/8 Sara Bakes Cakes
4/9 Donuts Dresses and Dirt
4/10 Tinkerlab
4/11 Resurrection Fern

Week Three:
4/14 Small Measure
4/15 Lil Fish Studios

Happy Spring!