We are pleased to announce that the winner of last month’s contributor trophy is Roan, for his excellent drawing of Sunset the Horse and his demanding cowboy rider! Check it out HERE.
Congratulations, Roan! You have won your choice of any book (or CD) from our catalog! Browse around HERE and then write me an email with your choice so I can put it in the mail for you!
We always love hearing from all of you out there. If any of the rest of you are interested in winning a free book or CD, send us something to post on the blog and you’re in the running! You’ve got 4 more days left to enter May’s giveaway – email us something or post it to the Bobbledy Facebook page.
This month’s theme is inspired by a video I saw about a project that was happening off the coast of Puerto Rico. Scientists sent down an undersea vehicle with a video camera on it, and scientists all over the world got to see what the vehicle was seeing as it travelled. Amazing and new-to-us sea creatures abounded:
How cool is it that there is a whole world on this planet that is yet to be discovered?
This month we’ll be posting about things under the sea – whether they’re imaginary (someone has already asked me to draw a mermaid) – or real, or that seem like they OUGHT to be imaginary. Email us your stories and pictures or post them on FB for us to share! We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
(From what I can tell from the video, this seems to be part of the NOAA Okeanos Explorer Project – more cool video can be found HERE).
We have definitely been experiencing April showers around here. It’s been exciting seeing all of the plants start popping up, finally believing that SPRING IS HERE!
I mostly think of rainy days as being rather dreary (though I enjoy the dreariness very much, especially when I’m inside and can hear the raindrops falling on the tin roof of our barn). But I remember one time in Alaska (it was mid-summer) I had the amazing experience of standing on the beach up to my elbows in fish slime (as one does when one is a commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska) being in a sunshower. A sunshower is when it is raining but the sun is also shining brightly at the same time. It was amazing – each raindrop was lit up by the sun and it looked like diamonds were falling from the sky.
I searched high and low for a video that might capture it, but the closest I came was this one:
It’s much cooler when you can stand in it and look up at the drops falling down on you (a friend who has experimented with trippy things said that if you take a shower with a strobe light on it has a similar effect, but that’s definitely something to set up with adult supervision).
I learned that across the globe, there is a lot of folklore related to sunshowers. In many countries, it has something to do with weddings:
In Algeria, Bangladesh, France, Portugal, Japan, Morocco, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and various parts of India they say it’s a fox’s or wolf’s wedding when there’s a sunshower.
In Bulgaria, it’s bears getting married.
In Greece, it’s the poor getting married.
In Kenya, hyenas are getting married.
In Korea, it’s a male tiger getting married to a fox.
In northern Iran, it’s a jackal getting married.
In parts of Pakistan, it’s a one-eyed jackal’s wedding (to get even more specific)
In South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it’s monkeys getting married
In Sudan, it’s a donkey getting married to a monkey
In other countries, it has to do with witches:
In Catalonia (part of Spain) it’s witches brushing their hair
In Poland, it’s a witch making butter
In Puerto Rico and The Dominican Republic, it’s a witch getting married
And so I wonder who was getting married, making butter, or brushing their hair in Alaska on that day when I was in a sunshower. I hope it was a monkey getting married to a donkey, because, well, wouldn’t their babies be adorable?
Have you ever imagined what a fox’s wedding might be like? Or a one-eyed jackal’s, for that matter? Draw a picture and email it to us or post it on the Bobbledy Facebook page and you could win a free item of your choice from the Bobbledy Shop!
There you will find us from 11-6 on Sunday and Saturday, standing bravely behind our table covered with books, daring people to take note and inspiring (Robbi’s job) them to hand us some money in exchange for a book.
Here are the books in question. A few of them, at least.
We will have a six-foot table at our command and will aim to use the real estate as well as possible.
We have made a few changes this time around:
1) Simplification. In years past, we have lugged along an unholy mountain of stuff—t-shirts and onesies, posters, far too many books, long aluminum poles, various attention-seeking banners. We’re leaving most of it at home this year, opting for a spare and simple presentation. We have convinced ourselves that the decision is born of aesthetic development. But I wonder if, instead, we have just gotten a little too old (read weary) for all the bells and whistles.
2) Children. All three kids have been to MoCCA fest, but only as infants strapped to our bodies. Upon learning to walk, they all have been banned. But this time, for god knows what reason, we have decided to bring Alden and Kato along. It may be the worst mistake we’ve ever made. At the least, it should lead to some bloggable moments.
As a result of these changes, our packing was both easier and harder. We are bringing 4 boxes this year instead of the usual 15.
However, we are bringing two additional suitcases, one pink and one blue with orange accents.
We would love to see you, of course. Here are the details.
Center548 548 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011 *Note that this is a new location for MoCCA
Saturday and Sunday April 11, 2015 – April 12, 2015 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Table 438 on the 4th floor
And here’s the MoCCA website, should you care to see who else is exhibiting and presenting and sponsoring, etc.
Hello all! We have been a bit behind in awarding our monthly free book. But we’re going to get all caught up now in one fell swoop!
For January, our theme was ICE CREAM. If you don’t remember anything about it, go have a look HERE. You might recall that Everett sent us in a particularly lovely painting of a neapolitan ice cream cone.
For that, we award him this trophy, along with a choice of any book from our catalog.
In February, our theme was TREES. You can read all about them HERE. Everett’s older brother Simon sent in a drawing of an ingenious contraption he named the “Poppler-Planting, Beech Beginning, Redwood Rebuting Robot” – perhaps inspired by our very own Benji McBean’s Amazing Machines?
And so we hereby award Simon his very own trophy and his own free book. I wonder if he’ll get his own copy of Benji McBean so that he doesn’t have to share with his brother…?
And finally, for the month of March, our theme was SNAKES. Though we had some great submissions actually about snakes (thank you, again, Simon and Everett, for being such fantastic contributors!), the one I’m especially pleased with is the one in which Matthew gets chased (devoured?) by hedgehogs and snakes.
You can read more about it HERE. And so we award the March trophy to Mo, for her brazen treatment of Matthew. I like that kid.
CONGRATULATIONS, WINNERS! You can browse the selection of Bobbledy Stuff in the Robbi and Matthew shop, and pick out a book (or an album, or a Bobbledy Blob). Email meand I’ll put it in the mail to you, ASAP! While you’re waiting, feel free to print out your trophy and color it in!
And thanks for sending us such great stuff! We’re always so pleased to see what you guys come up with.
