The Velveteen Rabbit

A Pink Panther plush next to a fuzzy rabbit plush, on top of a pillow decorated with stars.

Tonight, C’s bedtime story was The Velveteen Rabbit. Fresh from a bath and rosy-cheeked, she curled up under the covers and held her own stuffed bunny close under her chin, her eyes gleaming in the low light. Serene and soft and warm in that way that only tired toddlers get. I have always loved The Velveteen Rabbit. And the obvious parallelism of the moment wasn’t lost on me – my baby in bed with her soft rabbit held close, and the boy in the story with his deep love for…

Impressions in the Snow

Impressions in the Snow

There have been several big snowfalls in a row this winter. I came home from a rare Sunday spent at the office and could barely get the car into the driveway. I didn’t want to shovel. The teens were occupied, hanging out with their cousins; my wife wanted to nap. I wanted to spend some overdue quality time with the toddler. But I needed to clear the driveway so we could park two cars in it. Could I get two birds with one stone, maybe? “Come help me shovel,” I…

“As butter over too much bread”

Toast on a plate, butter melting on it, with a butter knife set upon the plate.

Sometimes a writer just gets it right. Tolkein’s “butter, scraped over too much bread” is a masterclass in understated imagery. I get you, Bilbo. I’m feeling thin, too. Stretched. I said so to my wife tonight. I tapped the fingertips of each hand together and pulled them apart, slowly. The gesture illustrated stretched clearly, but it wasn’t right. It was intentional, gentle, taffy-making. This stretched is more haphazard, not linear; a wearing, tearing friction, the result of too much too frequently without realizing how thin things had already gotten. There’s…

Confessions of a Reformed Participant Observer

The sweet selfishness of living life, not farming #content and inspiration It has been a long time since I’ve written anything for Love Make Share, and that started out as an accident. I had all this content planned, a schedule, and then things slipped. Work got busy, our baby got a little older and needed more intensive attention, and new diagnoses in the family meant a nonstop carousel of appointments, research, and work. (We’re all fine and figuring things out.) I made a couple of videos, I posted a handful…

The Crash

Wrecked car on tow truck

In January, I was in a car crash. I crashed my car. It was a good crash in the way you want it to be. I was the only one in my car. The other driver was the only one in the giant truck I rear-ended. Traffic was moving slowly. It was a freak accident that, if I had hit any other vehicle, I think we both would have driven away from it. We would have bounced around, and then squinted at each others’ bumpers and decided it wasn’t even…

DadLabs Sent Us A Gift!

Laser-cut Love Make Share logo

Nick, #cretindaddy over at DadLabs, sent us something in the mail. What could it be? SOMETHING FANTASTIC IS WHAT. Follow DadLabs! https://dadlabs.com/ https://www.instagram.com/dadlabs/ https://twitter.com/dadlabs https://www.youtube.com/user/DadLabs https://www.facebook.com/thedadlabs/

Fleenk-Shnert Means…

love

“You know what the most annoying thing you do is?” I admit, I wasn’t quite prepared for that question from Sprints. “I mean, when you put it that way – no, not really,” I laughed. “But go ahead.” She looked me straight in the eye, laid down her fork, and said, “You tell us you love us, like, all the time.” It’s true, I admit it. I’m pretty relentless with the affection. But she’s my Sprints. The Artist Formerly Known as Little Fish. The one who, for a brief time,…

Happy Birthday, Whistler

whistler-birthday-small

I had a much harder time coming up with what to say about my Whistler’s birthday than I had talking about the profound experience I had with my little fish turning 8. In the summer, we had a bit of time to enjoy the event, to consider and to reflect. Not so with Whistler. Her birthday came hot on the heels of the wedding, so her seventh was more of a throw-money-at-the-problem sort of situation than a moment of contemplation. I think that it was harder with Whistler’s birthday, too, because her development as a…

Many Roads Lead to Rome

droid make kids craft hot glue

True to the name of this blog, we frequently make things as a family. Often I’m part of the process, but when my eldest, 8, came to me the other day, I encountered a new angle that I hadn’t expected. “Trevor, I want to make a craft with you,” she said. “I need your help.” “Okay, little fish,” I said. “What do you want to make?” Her eagerness turned into despair. “That’s why I need your help. I don’t know what I want to make.” This is an experience I…

Miniature Comet Set (Work in Progress)

miniature comet surface set

The product of some pretty awesome work by my ladies (with my help) this afternoon. A great WIP model set for some indie filmmaking. #make #mo365 A video posted by Trevor (@lovemakeshare) on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:30pm PST This is an upcoming build. The girls are helping me to build a miniature set (which will loosely mimic the surface of comet 67P when it’s done) as an exemplar to use in my film class. Man, were they into it. A more detailed post and probably a podcast is definitely forthcoming…

Make: Kids’ Tron Costumes, Part 4

Read Part 1 – Read Part 2 – Read Part 3 Well, after a pretty big push in the last post, I figured that it was time to do another. After all, at this point I’ve got five days left to get these assembled and finished. No pressure. The list of things that needs to be done is getting pretty short at this point. The kids’ Quorra costumes are moving along at a good clip, and as of recently, Natalie Joy has made headway on hair and makeup: But my…