Our 200th Post

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200th postHoly smokes, artichokes it’s our 200th post! It seems that only yesterday I was lovingly crafting this little scene for our 50th post. Suddenly, we’re at 200. Wow.

This blogiversary coincides perfectly with an announcement I’d like to make. After some soul-searching and schedule-arranging, I’ve decided to return to posting twice weekly. Starting next week, we’ll have fresh posts on Tuesday and Friday mornings. Huzzah!

And now, I must excuse myself and devour this blog set. These are no ordinary cupcakes. They are from House of Cupcakes, a local bakery that won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars in 2011. Mmm-hmmm.

Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you Tuesday!

Royal Pie

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royal pieThe challenge…to make a pizza that will please Her Royal Highness. The prize? To be proclaimed the finest pizza maker in the land and be adorned with a gold pizza making medal!

We read The Princess and the Pizza by Mary Jane and Herm Auch (Holiday House, 2002). Princess Paulina’s father has decided to give up his crown and open a wood-carving shop. Paulina does her best to adjust to her new life, but she misses things like princess-waving from carriages and walking peacocks. But Paulina perks up when Queen Zelda of Blom announces that her son, Prince Drupert, is to marry. Paulina arrives at the palace (along with a crowd of other hopeful suitors) and passes a number of princess tasks (sleeping on a pea, fitting into glass slippers, writing an essay about the virtues of the odious Queen Zelda). The final task is to prepare a royal feast, but Paulina only has flour, yeast, water, tomatoes, a chunk of cheese, a bit of garlic, and some herbs. So she invents…pizza. Paulina’s pizza wins the contest, but she no longer wants to marry the prince.  Instead, she opens “Princess Paulina’s Pizza Palace.” And guess who her most loyal royal customers are?

You’ll need:

  • A large circle of brown wrapping paper (mine was 22″ in diameter)
  • An oval of red construction paper (mine was 12″ x 13″)
  • An oval of yellow construction paper (mine was 11.5″ x 12.5″)
  • Extra red, green, yellow, and brown construction paper for pizza toppings
  • A strip of yellow poster board for crown (approximately 4.25″ x 22″)
  • A selection of large gemstones (optional)
  • Stapler, scissors and glue stick for construction
  • Markers for decorating

crownWe started off by making beautiful bejeweled crowns. Cut crown points out of the top of a strip of yellow poster board. Then decorate the crown with markers. I used Crayola glitter markers. They were awesome.

glitter markersOnce you’ve decorated the crown, circle it around your head and staple it closed. Use hot glue to add some jewels if you like. You are now fully prepared to make a royal pizza…

pizzaLay a 22″ circle of brown wrapping paper on a tabletop. Slowly roll the edges of the paper inward, rotating the circle as you go. This creates your pizza “crust.”

pizza crust stepsGlue a red construction paper oval to the crust. This is your “sauce.” Glue a yellow construction paper oval (i.e. “cheese”) on top of the sauce. Finally, cut a variety of construction paper toppings and glue them to your pizza. We offered pepperoni, green pepper slices, brown mushrooms, and little scraps of extra cheese. We also offered black olives, which started as reinforcement labels:

reinforecement labelsReinforcement labels are used patch up torn holes in pieces of paper. But when you color them with a black Sharpie marker, they make an awesome set of pizza olives!

pizzaTo make the pizza-making portion of the program extra fun, we placed the toppings in different areas of our gallery. Then we drew a map of “The Magnificent Kingdom of Pizza.” Kids journeyed to the “Mushroom Cave,” the “Well of Endless Cheese,” “Pepperoni Pond,” “Green Pepper Fields,” and the “Black Olive Forest” to collect their toppings. Then they  glued them to their pizzas.

While the kids were traveling around the gallery, Katie and I suited up in our Medieval garb. I was the queen, and Katie was the herald. Placing a hefty leather chair in the gallery, Katie proclaimed it to be the throne. Then she announced that when the queen arrived, all kids would present their pizzas to Her Royal Highness. If she approved, they would be declared Royal Pizza Makers. I emerged from a side door, sauntered over to my throne, and was seated.

One by one, the kids were announced (loudly) by Katie. Each kid walked up and presented me with his/her pizza. I examined the pizza and then decreed (equally loudly) “This pizza doth please me very much. I hearby appoint you Royal Pizza Maker of the Realm!” I put a pizza medal around their necks, and used a plastic sword to tap their shoulders and head.

royal pizza makerThe pizza medals were similar to the medals from this snail race. Attach a large gold embossed foil seal to a circle of poster board, and hot glue a ribbon between the seal and the poster board. The only change we made was to glue a picture of a pizza on top of the poster board circle.

medalMany thanks to the costume shop at the Lewis Center for the Arts for loaning us the splendid costumes! Katie looked especially impressive.

katie with pizzaAnd speaking of Katie, it is my sad duty to inform you that she is in Europe. For a year. A YEAR! Her husband went on sabbatical, and the family decided to go with him. So Katie’s going to keep sending me shots of splendid places, and I’ll keep receiving them (while growling softly with envy). But Katie will definitely be back.

steen castleBut now, I have the distinct pleasure of introducing you to Marissa, who will be my assistant while Katie is away! Marissa has rolled her sleeves up and jumped right in – crafting pigs in majorette uniforms, mixing batches of fake blood, researching Viking history, and dressing up as the White Rabbit. Here is the official “passing of the crown” ceremony we had at Katie’s cupcake sendoff!

crowning marissaWelcome aboard Marissa! Katie, send me some chocolate already! Geez!

Postscript: I am happy to report that Katie DID sent me a big box of European chocolate the week after this post went live. I dutifully shared some, and then scarfed the remainder.

A Priceless Little Doodle

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006405What do you do with one of the most important books in the history of the English language? Well, if you’re Miss Elizabeth Okell, you do a little creative doodling on its pages.

The image above is from the First Folio (officially titled Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies). Published in 1623, the First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s work. Its significance to the world is monumental. Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed, and many were not published in his lifetime. It’s only through the First Folio that we were able to learn of plays like Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, and As You Like It. The Folger has 82 copies of the First Folio, by far the largest collection in the world (currently, just 233 copies are known to exist).

This particular First Folio bears the inscription “Elizabeth Okell her Book 1729,” on one of its pages. It was a family treasure passed down through the generations from 1630 to the late 1800’s. While it’s not entirely clear if Elizabeth made the doodles herself, someone did it. I especially like this one. It appears to be some chairs and a table with paintings on the wall. Maybe it’s a room? Maybe it’s a stage set?

first folio detailOh, and did I mention that the First Folio is worth 5 to 6 million dollars? Yup. That’s an expensive little drawing pad. I saw this First Folio and other absolutely amazing treasures during a visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.

008928The Folger is the world’s greatest collection of Shakespeare materials. It also has major collections of Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art. Take a look at the library’s exhibit space, The Great Hall (which is open to the public and requires no admission fee):

2013-10-01 10.33.45And here’s an image of one of their reading rooms. Specifically, this is the Gail Kern Paster Reading Room. See the huge table in the foreground? It’s from the 17th century (and I got to pet it).

054568My absolutely favorite part of the Folger, however, is its theater.

FSL Interior: Folger Theatre View CWalking into the theater is like walking into a gorgeous, wood-paneled dream. It’s a beautiful acknowledgement that Shakespeare is meant to be acted, seen, heard, and felt. In fact, the Folger’s collections, its exhibitions, and its theater form the perfect trinity. Preservation of, education about, and devotion to the works of Shakespeare.

Not surprisingly, the Folger also has a stupendous Education Department, with a full roster of community, school, and teacher education programs. In 2016, the Folger is launching First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, an ambitious traveling exhibit that will take the First Folio to all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. In addition to the exhibit, the host sites (which include 23 museums, 20 universities, 5 public libraries, 3 historical societies, and 1 theater) will offer free educational programs and related events for the general public and families. It’s a huge undertaking, which is being deftly directed by Maribeth Cote, the Public Engagement Coordinator.

I asked Maribeth to give me a Shakespeare quote that describes her feelings about her endeavor, and she gamely stepped up to the plate:

“O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work, which not to have been blest withal would have discredited your travel.”

Antony and Cleopatra – 1.2.169

First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, and by the generous support of Google.org and Vinton and Sigrid Cerf. The exhibition is a partnership between the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Cincinnati Museums Center, and the American Library Association.

All images courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library.