Toot and Puddle

Toot and Puddle

Holly Hobbie 1997

Toot and Puddle lived together in Woodcock Pocket.

Holly Hobbie's sweet story about a pair of piggie friends was always the perfect analogy for my friend Margaux and me. (In fact, I'm pretty sure I've given her this book!) 

Puddle is perfectly happy cooking in his kitchen, walking through the woods, swimming in the pond.  While Toot craves travel and adventure.  Throughout the year as Toot sends Puddle postcards of his trip around the world, Puddle enjoys the changing seasons in Woodcock Pocket.  What a wonderful way to show how two friends can want to see the world differently and still find a way to share that with each other.

When I first met Margaux I was Puddle (home with two little children, baking, walking around our small town) and she was Toot (off traveling the world on her own).  All these years later there's been a bit more world travel in my life and Margaux has settled into her 5 acre wood.  I think that's the wonderful thing about a long friendship, you grow and change and become a little more like each other in some beautiful ways.  

Holly Hobbie's The Night Before Christmas

Anyone who has been to my house knows that I don't do "sparse".  And because our house was built in 1950 (and our kitchen is still entirely original) I'm also drawn to 40's/50's brightly colored kitsch.

But there's a part of me that would love to have my house so simply decorated for Christmas just like Holly Hobbie's illustrations.  This poem has been illustrated a thousand times and each of our copies vary greatly in style.  But I love every one of them!

 The Night Before Christmas

Clement C. Moore

illustrated by Holly Hobbie 2013

 Other Holly Hobbie:

 Holly Hobbie's Christmas Book

Gem

Other "The Night Before Christmas":

Twas the Night Before Christmas- Jesse Wilcox Smith

The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Rene Cloke

The Night Before Christmas- Gyo Fujikawa

Gem

Gem

Holly Hobbie 2012

Our friends Soren and Silas were over this week and we "read" this book together.  The charming wordless pictures show the story of a little toad and his adventures.  Soren and Charlotte got quite a giggle out of it. 

Last summer we had our own toad explorer in the backyard.  We held him and passed him around, admiring his bumps and big eyes, then we set him free.  I hope he comes back for another visit this year.

Holly Hobbie's Christmas Book

Holly Hobbie was around when I was a little girl.  (I remember having a gazebo playset with Holly Hobbie dolls.)

Holly Hobbie's Christmas Book

Holly Hobbie 1980

This book is a collection of her distinctive country/victorian pictures and various Christmas poems, recipes, carols, and sayings. I really just like looking at the drawings and wishing that I could dress Charlotte like them!