Today, I am unloving...

Today, I am un-loving... that the classic children's stories like The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rumpelstiltskin and Little Red Riding Hood are no longer easy to find. The books nowadays - even the old Little Golden Books - are mostly about cartoon characters from TV and the movies.

I recently scoured a popular bookstore for The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, The Hare and the Tortoise and even The Emperor's New Clothes for Noah. But there weren't any nice picture books of these classics. I found a few sets of these classics but they were more narratives than picture books so I knew I wouldn't be able to keep Noah interested. I did find compilations by Miles Kelly that collapsed our old well-loved stories into five-or-ten-minute stories. They made for wonderful bedtime stories - just the right length for a tired & sleepy mom and an eager, story-hungry Noah, but I would have preferred it if there were a little more illustrations and if the stories did not slightly differ from the classics I grew up with.

I have yet to find Hansel and Gretel, The Ugly Duckling, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Elves and the Shoemaker. Sigh... Today, I am un-loving... that classic children's stories are not readily available these days.

Photo from annniegirl.

Click here for previous posts from the Today, I am un-loving... series. Click here for a previous post on minimalist posters of children's classics. Click here for a previous post on the fairytale of marriage.

oops, my neurosis is showing...

This is the original image. When I first published this post here, I initially used this photo. But its color palette just didn't go with the colors of the Rudolph image. And I was obsessing about it... All day at work on the day I posted it... And the day after... So as I drove home on night #2, I decided to re-create it in white background.

... even if I had no idea how to use photoshop. So I made layers of rectangles and circles and eventually made a copy.

... of that beautiful & amusing minimalist poster that deserves to be featured. It was my favorite among this fairytale set from Christian Jackson.

I agree with Jo, the wolf's paw is pretty creepy. Just as creepy as my neurotic obsession with color palettes that have to go together.

Photos from acupofjo.

the fairytale of marriage

Most young people think
marriage is happily ever after.
I'd never been one to believe that
Fairytale? I said, "Never!"

But right after the I-do's
as soon as my honeymoon ended,
I was proven wrong,
Marriage is a fairytale indeed.

John came home from work
and by the clothing trail,
from our bedroom door to our bed,
he had turned into Hansel, or even Gretel.

Shoe here... Shoe there.
As if Cinderella just fled.
Sock... Belt... Shirt... And other sock...
Trousers strewn across the floor and bed.

And that evening, around midnight
With his incessant huff and puff
it seemed the man beside me
had turned into the Big Bad Wolf!

When finally the snoring came to an end,
I felt a wave whenever he tossed and turned.
Seemed so much like a big Pea
on the bed of the sudden Princess in me.

And when our little one came,
during every midnight feeding,
John turned into Aurora
and just wouldn't stop sleeping.

Truly I was mistaken
because marriage has really turned out,
despite (and because of) these, to be
a fairytale I really CANNOT live without.

Inspired by The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus by Sonya Sones

As with Sones, my husband is NOT
the husband in this free verse.
Really, seriously,
this wife unequivocally swears.

Photo from theessentialist.