It’s summer. Ever since I was a child summer equalled excessive reading! My tastes in reading ran the gamut of literary genres, BUT the one commonality amongst all my summer books I read was my ability to chose them for myself. These were not books selected by my teachers, although I often read books that would have pleased them, nor did they need to be books off anyone’s reading list. The freedom was exhilarating! As an adult I can now chose any book I want to read at anytime, HOWEVER, there is something so sweet and self indulgent about a summer read. We take books to the beach, on vacation, and out to the hammock under the trees. I have many nooks and crannies where I can be found reading on a summer’s afternoon. As a parent I enjoyed sharing summer reading with my children, and now, as a Gammy, with my grandbabies.
The picture above is a special area in our green belt at the back of our property. We refer to this area as our Serenity Garden, for obvious reasons. Although the bench is cement and does not have back support, it is still a wonderful spot to read for a while, especially if reading short stories or poetry.
And although summer reading is indulgent and fun, having a special bookmark accompany you on your literary journey just makes it that much more enjoyable! Today I’m sharing a pattern for a sweet little mouse bookmark, donning a very long and useful tail. This bookmark could easily be made by even young children if you glued it together instead of sewing it together and you could use paper instead of felt. Directions and patterns for the Mouse Bookmark can be found HERE or in our FREE Pattern Section. Enjoy!
BTW… Do you have a favorite animal you would like a bookmark pattern for? If so, leave a comment and we’ll pick at least one other animal to turn into a bookmark!
I would love to have a pattern for a koala bookmark. I don’t really know how you would make it so that it has a long part to run through the book though.. Hmm..
What a cutie!!! I posted a link on Craft Gossip Sewing:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-felt-mouse-bookmark/2009/08/02/
–Anne
it’s too cute for words!!! i’m going to make one now. 🙂
my fave animal is bear.
What a great Reading Spot! Parents and Grandparents are such good examples when they are “caught” reading. I miss the days when my kids were little and we would read out loud to them. We read the whole Harry Potter series out loud to them, going to the midnight events to get each new book. Reading out loud as a family even when they were too old to be read to! We’d sit outside in the summer, set up tiki torches and have our bean bags and blankets on the front porch. I’m sure my neighbors thought we was nuts! Now my kids and I can share our favorite reads.
As a first grade reading teacher, books and reading are very dear to me!
How about a Bookworm for a book mark? Or maybe a CAT to go after your adorable mouse! 🙂
I also had the same feeling as a child…I would go into our huge library and stay all day if I could. But we lived on a working farm and I often could not read that much when I was young because of chores or little brothers and sisters to watch so that my parents could work.
I love your mouse…he/she is so cute! Does your mouse have
a story or adventure of it’s own? How did she/he get to love books so much? hehe!
I think that a swallow (bird) would be lovely…her tail could keep the page..or maybe a mythical creature…mermaid,
dragon, unicorn or a phoenix? They may love to sleep safely in the pages where they can hear stories of all of their
adventures. Can’t wait to see what you make.
How’d you know mice are my favorites?! It’s always hard to find mouse crafts.
My second fav would probably be a bunny. My sister thinks lions are to die for!
Very cute. We love collecting bookmarks. I know it’s not an animal, but a kite would work well with a long tail.
Reading is magic. Anything we can do to help our children discover and enjoy reading is time well spent. I lost my mum early, but til this day I remember her reading to me. I had my son after we came to the states and I hurt so bad because my mum would never know him. But I remember some of the books she read to me and I’ve been sharing them with Trystan. I love making little reading nooks around the house to curl up with him and read. I already made your cat bookmark and I will whip this one up tomorrow. Thank you ever so much for an incredible and generous blog. You guys rock! My very favorite animal is a hedgehog. Bless you.
That is such a cute little bookmark! I am so glad I found your site…so many cool things! I will be back for ideas!
Finding your blog is like coming home. YOur crafts are exactly the kind of things I want for my own family. I have 7 children so I don’t have a lot of time to craft, but I do make some time everyday. Looking at your crafts it seems like they are doable and not over the top. Plus everything is so darn adorable. All I can say is WOW. You guys have one of the greatest blogs out there. I will be back often!Q!!