Mr Pencil and Mr Rubber on WOYWW!

These Wednesdays come round too fast!!! Maybe it is just that a long weekend makes the week seem shorter somehow!
Well, I hope you all had a great weekend and didn't eat too much chocolate -although, apparently a small amount is good for you in lots of ways (well thats my excuse anyway).

My work desk today has a few things left from yesterday and the weekend.

Keryn loved my little poppy cards but wondered if I just had a little picture instead. So, I finished off four and let her choose her favourite. Then, I decided to mount the others on a board covered with a natural linen, so that they have that rustic look. What do you think? They are all different because I always work in a very free sort of way when I am "dumfing".

They are approx. 9" x 5" overall.

At the back you can see three little boxes, containing a little gift, all ready to send off to the lovely folk who sent in best ideas and suggestions of our Bridal challenge - when we have chosen them next Monday!

If you still want to join in then pop over as soon as possible and add your idea to the list.

My box of lace and ribbon is sitting there waiting for me to dip into once I have finished today's blog. Not sure what I am making yet but lots of ideas whizzing round. Or maybe I shall be dipping into my orange stash to make brooches as I have had a request for some more.

In the middle at the front you can see my little red brooch. I finished it today and Wipso has just phoned to say that one of her customers would like it, so I might have to make another for the shop!!

Last but not least is this little book.

Our local supermarket has a Sunday car boot sale and we wandered up, this week, for a browse. I am hopeless and never find anything exciting. However, this week I came across this little book.

Its title amused me so I flicked through a few pages and decided I had to have it. It had been someone's Sunday School Christmas gift in 1928 and I could just imagine what the child who received it would have made of it. Obviously it had been treasured because it was an elderly family member of that child who sold it to me.

As a keen crafter, scribbler and occasional artist, I could appreciate the importance of Mr Pencil & Mr Rubber. This book however, holds far more than a children's story about the two characters.

Here is part of the opening sentence...

" How much enjoyment comes into the lives of boys and girls if they possess a lead pencil with which to write and draw, and, if in addition they possess a piece of India rubber with which they can rub out their mistakes."

Now I happen to think this is so true, even in today's highly technical world, in which our children live. I am not sure that many children would agree or perhaps give up their "Game-boy" in favour of Mr Pencil and Mr Rubber! Nevertheless, teaching a child to write and draw can provide them with skills that last for ever.

But the book continues with stories and homilies to help develop a child's moral and social well being - (Yes - all linked to Mr Pencil and Mr Rubber!)

"Rubber makes a good bouncer....

When a rubber ball is thrown down, it always rises again, and the harder it is thrown, the higher it will rise. Does not this teach us that if we are thrown down by difficulites we should try to rise to overcome them."

Or

"A pencil keeps getting shorter....

The continual shaving of the pencil to get a point, and its continual use, keeps reducing the days of its life and usefulness. The lives of some pencils coming to an end much more quickly that others. So it is with peoples lives, they keep getting shorter and some are much shorter than others."

Just imagine what a young child would make of that statement!

I suppose it is typical of the literature of the time, aimed at helping children develop their moral, social and spiritual attitudes. Much of it, although old fashioned in its approach, still holds good today....

"You will never be sorry

For using gentle words

For doing your level best

For being kind to the poor

For looking before leaping

For hearing before judging

For thinking before speaking

For harbouring clean thoughts ...."

And on that note I must make a start and get dumfing!

Have a great day and pop over to see what Julia and the rest are up on WOYWW!

PS
We had a fab evening out at the theatre last night...
Wipso and her eldest came with me to see Gervase Phinn. If you want a really good laugh then try to see him if he comes to a theatre near you!!