Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals

eeBoo Advent Calendars on Sale at Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals

An Advent calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. Some calendars are strictly religious, whereas others are secular in content.

Today, most advent calendars are made for children. Many take the form of a large rectangular card with many "windows", one of which is opened every day during Advent. In less elaborate calendars, each window opens to reveal an image, a poem, or part of a story such as the Nativity story itself.

The origins of the Advent calendar come from German Lutherans who, at least as early as the beginning of the 19th century, would count down the 24 days of Advent physically. Often this meant simply drawing a chalk line on the door each day, beginning on December 1. Some families had more elaborate means of marking the days, such as lighting a new candle (perhaps the genesis of today's Advent wreath) or hanging a little religious picture on the wall each day.

At Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals we are currently having a sale on our two remaining styles of eeBoo Advent calendars.  Stop by and grab one before they all sell out!

[caption id="attachment_541" align="aligncenter" width="310" caption="eeBoo Santa's Flight Advent Calendar - $3.99"][/caption]

 

 

[caption id="attachment_553" align="aligncenter" width="313" caption="eeBoo Caroling Mice Advent Calendar - $3.99"][/caption]

If you are a practicing Christian, how do you celebrate Advent? Do you have an Advent Calendar? Do you move pieces of the creche closer each day, culminating in placing the baby in the manger? Do you light a candle in the Advent wreath that your child made in Sunday School?

I remember the chocolate advent calendars my grandmother used to give us each year. With 6 kids, you sometimes had to wait quite a while for your turn to come around again:) It's funny, but all I recall about those calendars is the chocolate - nothing about what the doors looked like or what the overall picture was. The chocolate was good, though. Then there was one that we had that was illustrated by Tasha Tudor. There was nothing edible about it - just the pictures. And that calendar I can see as clear as day.

LEONARDO

Have you heard of the book, Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems? Leonardo is terrible in that he's really bad at being a monster. He's not scary at all, which as we all know is the number one requirement of being a monster. So he comes up with a way to frighten people, but it doesn't work out exactly as he had planned.

If you, or your kids, are fans of Leonardo, we've got a treat for you. Newly arrived at the Fragile Earth Orphanage, may we present (drum roll please .....)

[caption id="attachment_529" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Mo Willems Leonard the Terrible Monster Hand Puppet - $24.99"][/caption]

our very own Leonardo monster hand puppet! He's soft and cuddly and desperate to go home with a good friend!

Posted by Rupert

GIVEAWAY - Paper Airplane Book

Do you know someone, young or old, who loves paper airplanes? Then, have we got the giveaway for you! Periodically, publishers send us books to inspect, to see if we'd like to try selling them in our store. Despite having the family desire of running an independent bookstore, we've discovered that we cannot compete with the mega-stores as far as books are concerned, so we remain at Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals purely about the plush. However, nothing was said about giving away the books, so you guys have a chance to score this lovely book for FREE!

Welcome to the Kids Paper Air Plane Book by Ken Blackburn and Jeff Lammers, published by Workman Publishing. This book has all sorts of great information about how to fly paper (and regular) airplanes -

including the forces of dynamics such as lift. It features games to play inside, instructions on making an airplane mobile, and how to hold airplane flying contests, amongst lots of other projects. But best of all, there are instructions on making lots of different airplanes, like the butterfly plane AND the book also provides colored copies of the plane. For the hungry among us, there's the pizza plane and for the truly adventurous, there's the count plane That's just three examples - the book is full of different types of paper airplanes, gliders, etc.  And  they give you three (count them 3) copies of each plane. Not only that, in a stroke of genius for those of us that routinely tear the pages as we try to remove them from the book, the pages are all PERFORATED! Removal made easy, baby! This book could be the perfect gift for the aviator in your family, covering all manner of information about paper and real airplanes.

And don't let the word kids in the title fool you - I know folks of all ages who would love this book. As a matter of fact, there are a few that are a little upset that we're giving it away. Know someone who'd like this for the holidays? All you have to do is leave a comment. You have til Friday night and we'll pick a winner on Saturday morning. Everyone is eligible so comment away!

Many thanks to Workman Publishing for sending us this book to peruse.

NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS - How Crow Brought Daylight

Continuing our sharing of Native American legends, today we will visit the Inuit tribe who live in the Arctic regions of Canada, the US, Russia & Greenland. Depending on where you go, they refer to themselves either as Inuit or Eskimo. Their legend tells how Crow brought them out of complete darkness by bringing daylight to their lands....

Many moons ago, the Inuit people lived far to the north in complete darkness all the time. They did not even know about daylight until Crow, who had traveled all around the world, told them about the people to the south who had light to let them see. The Inuit persuaded Crow to fly to these lands to the south and bring back some of the daylight, so they too could see.

Crow flew for many, many days until he saw light in the sky. There he saw a village and followed a girl back to her home. Her father was chief of the village and kept daylight in a box in his lodge. Crow turned into a speck of dust and landed in the ear of the chief's grandson. Crow convinced the little boy that he wanted to play with one of the balls of light. His doting grandfather, the chief, gave him one of the balls of daylight with which to take outside and play. Once outside, crow turned back into his normal shape, grabbed the ball of daylight, and flew back to the land of the Inuit people.

Once there, Crow dropped the ball of light on the ground where it shattered, letting light fill every corner of the land. The Inuit people were very excited and thankful to Crow, but he warned them that every six months, the light would have to rest and recharge and they would be in darkness again. The Inuit were happy to have six months of daylight since before all they had known was darkness. And to this day, they spend half the year in darkness and half the year in daylight, and they are always kind to Crow for bringing them the light first.

Full story can be found here

Posted by Mary Beth

NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS - Why the Crow is Black

When I was teaching Kindergarten, I spent November teaching Native American Legends. And since a rather large bird takes center stage later in the month, we here at Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals thought it would be fun to highlight some bird myths. If you follow Rupert on Twitter, you might have noticed that he spent today tweeting about crows. If I had gotten my assignment done on time, they would have made a lot more sense.

Let's start with a legend from the Brule Sioux describing how Crow became black. Originally crows were white and good friends with the buffalo. Whenever the hunters came to capture the buffalo, the crows would fly among the animals and let them know that hunters were coming. Then the buffalo would stampede and be gone by the time man arrived. The people decided they had to capture the leader of the crows and teach him a lesson. One of the warriors pretended to be a buffalo and tricked the bird. While the people were trying to decide how to punish Crow, one angry hunter decided to throw him into the fire and burn him. The crow did escape but before he flew away, his wings got singed and from then on, crows have been black.

posted by Mary Beth

THE CORDY-ROYS

I apologize for the lack of posts this past week. The techies have been very sick - the flu's been running rampant 'round these parts. Hopefully, we're on our way back to normal, or our version of normal at least. We're going to try and get everything up and running smoothly again this week, fingers (and paws) crossed:)

The techies didn't let being under the weather stop them from welcoming some new friends to the Fragile Earth Orphanage. Let me introduce you to the Cordy Roys clan - brand new from the land of JellyCat.

First, we have the kitten - sporting a lovely raspberry coat and coming in at a respectable 10".

[caption id="attachment_486" align="aligncenter" width="380" caption="Jellycat Cordy Roy Small Cat - $11.99"][/caption]

Next we have Gator who's soft green coloring allows him to hide in the marshes or wherever his little heart desires. And hiding that 15" body is not always easy, let him tell you!

[caption id="attachment_485" align="aligncenter" width="380" caption="Jellycat Cordy Roy Gator - $21.99"][/caption]

The aardvark is near and dear to one of the techie's hearts just because of her love of all things orange! And, as with all the Cordy Roys, his soft coat makes him perfect to cuddle-up with. Another 15 incher means there's all the more to love!

[caption id="attachment_484" align="aligncenter" width="380" caption="Jellycat Cordy Roy Aardvark - $21.99"][/caption]

A companion to the kitten, this soft blue puppy is 10 inches of love, trust me!

[caption id="attachment_483" align="aligncenter" width="380" caption="Jellycat Cordy Roy Small Dog - $11.99"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_482" align="aligncenter" width="380" caption="Jellycat Cordy Roy Dachsund - $21.99"][/caption]

For all you dachshund lovers out there - here he is! Slightly darker than the kitten, he's the perfect addition to your life. And believe me, he's ready to go home with everyone. 

All our Cordy Roys are just waiting to be adopted and taken home for the holidays. You can get all their particulars by clicking on the links or by going to Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals and searching Cordy Roys.

submitted by Rupert