The ABCs of summer may really be more like the BBQs and Ts, because that’s all you need on a hot day like today: your coolest, comfiest T-shirt and a delicious meal (carnivorous or otherwise) fresh off the grill. Rob, a Workman sales rep in the UK, and his daughter Flossie know the importance of those two hot-weather staples—and they even know how to put their own spin on the old classics.

While we here in the States were celebrating Independence Day, our friends across the pond were ringing in the summer at Grillstock, a celebration of all things barbecue. Flossie, 14, was game to help her dad sell some of Steven Raichlen‘s spectacular grilling books—that is until she saw the uniform. The Raichlen shirt was cool, with a hot slogan to match (“Hot enough for you?”), but it was also way too big. And did she really have to wear the same thing as her dad?!

Rob, flanked by BBQ books, models his Raichlen T-shirt—just right for a dad, but for a young T trendsetter? Not so much.

So like any fashion-forward T-shirt reclaimer, Flossie busted out her craft scissors and her copy of Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt and revamped the plain black T into a smokin’ fashion statement!

Flossie shows off her refashioning skillz.

We’ve never seen Generation T and The Barbecue! Bible shelved together, but thanks to Flossie and Rob, we can see how these two books make the perfect summer pair.

How cool is this?! The awesome librarians at Ida Rupp Public Library in Port Clinton, Ohio threw a “Create Your Own Papertoy Monsters” event in June that brought in a total of about 30 local,  glue-stick-wielding kids. According to Jennifer Buch (Ida Rupp’s Youth Services Librarian and monster mastermind of the event) many, many new friends fiends were made that day and everyone had loads of fun.

Eeny, Meeny, Miny...Monster!

Just punch out the templates and glue the tabs together!

Fasten your seatbelts, folks, The Blob is about to come to life!

We at Workman couldn’t be happier to welcome these new little monsters into the world! Rawr! The monsters will be displayed at the library until the end of July, when their skillful creators can collect them and take them to their new monster homes.

Cover Monster Icy Huggy is flanked by OctoPup, Hoorgue, and The Gloomy Pack.

The event was so much fun and such a success that Ida Rupp Public Library will have another Papertoy Monsters event this August – which means Port Clinton, OH will be overrun with cute little monsters! Watch out, Ohio, you’ll have to start installing “Monster Crossing” roadsigns!

Halloweeny leads the Papertoy Monster parade (along with a very literary giraffe!).

For more information on Ida Rupp Public Library’s upcoming events, including the August Papertoy Monsters event, visit Ida Rupp’s website and/or visit the Ida Rupp Public Library Facebook page. And for more news and the always-entertaining monster pics, visit the Papertoy Monsters tumblr page and “like” the Papertoy Monsters Facebook page.

When plans to escape the city fell through on a sunny Saturday, my friends and I did what any backyard-deficient New Yorker would do and headed to Central Park. Packed in our bags were the essential staples of a summer afternoon—a frisbee; a baseball and gloves; salads of the egg, fruit, and potato variety—and the bible of the season, Suzanne Brown’s Summer: A User’s Guide, a book packed with tips for making the most of a warm afternoon.

Like Ms. Brown, I am madly in love with summer—the smell of Coppertone is enough to get my heart racing—so in honor of the first day of the season, I bring you one of her tips for living life to the fullest in the upcoming months:

How to Play Beach Volleyball

Scout out a quiet place away from the water and sunbathers, then draw lines in the sand that measure approximately 30 feet wide by 60 feet long.

The serving player must hit the ball over the net and inside the court lines within three attempts. If the server fails to successfully place the ball within three serves, the opposing team gains control.

Players rotate positions clockwise whenever their team gains control of the ball (Thus, each team has a new server at that time.)

Once the ball is hit over the net to the opposing team, a player cannot contact the   ball twice in a row unless the first touch is off a block at the net. A player cannot grab the ball, allow it to come to rest in his hand, or touch the net. If he does so, he forfeits the ball to the opposing team.

A point is earned when the serving team wins a rally, or an ace is served.

The first team to reach 15 points wins. A match is played in sets of three or five games.

* * *

This summer (which officially starts TODAY!), before you head off to your beach bungalow, pack a picnic for the park, or spend a day in the shade, pick up Summer: A User’s Guide and make the best of this short and sweet season.

There’s a knitting maven in our midst.

Readers might not be surprised to learn that we’ve got our fair share of cooks, gardeners, animal lovers, and crafters around the Workman offices. But recently, an inter-office spy tipped us off to a superstar knitter so driven to purl and cable she refers to patterns as “porn for knitters.” She comes from a knitting family (her grandmother owned a yarn shop and her sisters are similarly inclined/obsessed); has around four projects going at any one time; tries to knit for at least a half-hour a day; prefers to watch movies at home because movie theater darkness cramps her knitting style; gives most of her projects away but keeps socks for herself; and owns around 50 pattern books that she uses mainly for inspiration (or, errr, titillation). In the rare event that she finds herself with a question, she always comes back to Stitch ‘N Bitch for, she says, the clarity of the instructions and illustrations. We give you… General Manager Jill Dülber!

Jill modeling her cape

A gift for a Workman baby

Baaaaaa

A sock is not a gift

Sheepy Time sweater from SNB Superstar, p. 220

The mothership

Welcome to another installment of Inside the Author’s Studio, where we give you a peek into the minds and studios of your favorite Workman authors.

Today, to celebrate the release of his new book–and just in time for two events notorious for inspiring sucky video (graduations and weddings)–we venture into the studio of Steve Stockman, author of How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck. Let’s hope he can save us all.

Recent book you loved/learned from

Loved City of Lost Girls by Declan Hughes/learned from The Information by James Gleick/always recommend  The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

Favorite bookstore

I’m glad you asked.  I’m having a contest to figure that out right now.  It all revolves around shelf display for my new book…. But while that contest is underway, I’ll give a shout out to our great local book store Village Books in Pacific Palisades, CA.

Hidden talent

Would you call forgery a talent or a craft?  Hmmmm.  I’m also a pretty good cook.

Bookmark, dog-ear, or virtuality?

Dog-ear if it’s mine and my wife is unlikely to read it, else bookmark.

Book you are most ashamed never to have read

I took a course in college called “Proust, Joyce and Faulkner.”  Read all the Faulkner.  Skipped all but one of the Proust with no regrets whatsoever.  Still sorry I never read past page 20 of Ulysses.  And still have an incomplete in the course.  I think the professor retired this year.

Most frequent form of writerly procrastination

My real job.

Favorite childhood book

Follow My Leader by James Garfield

Alternate ambition (i.e. If you weren’t a writer, you’d be…)

I’m a director, but what I’ve always really wanted to do is act.

Your perfect meal

A giant loaf of hot Greek-Italian bread from the Columbus Bakery in Syracuse, NY, and some awesome cheese.

Big dream

A line of “….That Doesn’t Suck” books.   That I don’t have to write, but that I still get checks for.  Not sure if this is a “dream” or a “fantasy.”

Super power of choice

Immortality probably has its downsides, but I don’t think I’d notice them for the first few hundred years.

What viral video do you wish you had shot?

I’m very fond of “Where the Hell is Matt?”  I like its spirit.  I talked about it in the book (page 114) and did a blog post about it here:  What in the Hell is Unity?

For those of us hitting the air conditioning hard this summer, what are your recommendations for the top 5 films to line up in the ol’ Netflix queue?

I got to do my top 100 or so titles in the back of the book, which was a blast.  So from that list, here are 5 good summer flicks from that list that you may never have seen, or forgotten and need to see again:

-Animal House (1978) School’s out.  Really out. The father of raunchy R-rated pics like The Hangover.  

-Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) For the 4th of July: A fast-moving catchy musical that time travels you back to America’s 20th century war efforts.

-The Empire Strikes Back (1980) The best, by far, of the six Star Wars movies. If you haven’t seen it lately or shown it to your kids, do it! 

-The Sixth Sense (1999) An intelligent horror movie that will scare the hell out of you and make you cry? Yep. A must-see even if you know the surprise ending already. 

-Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) Tarantino again. Why aren’t there more female action heroes? This should be a trend. I count this as one film. 

What Workman book would you like to receive as compensation for your involvement?

I still haven’t got around to reading Water for Elephants.  And I promise it won’t be like Ulysses.

—

Steve Stockman is a writer and director of commercials, short films, music videos, and TV shows–and the author of How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck.

Did you know that Michael Jackson’s patented gravity-defying lean is actually…patented?! It’s true! In 1993 the smooth criminal himself was granted U.S. Patent #5,255,452 for a “method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion.” (Spoiler alert: It’s not magic.)

M.J.’s not the only celebrity inventor out there. Near the end of his long career, Marlon Brando created a new device for tuning a drum. Back in the day, famed escape artist Harry Houdini dreamed up an improved diver’s suit that’s easier to put on (and take off) than previous versions. And in 1987 Eddie Van Halen secured the patent for a musical instrument support apparatus that helps a musician hold his guitar perpendicular to his body, thus allowing for more tasty licks per minute than ever before in the history of rock.

So what does this have to do with you? Well, you’re an independent inventor, right? You’ve thought up an idea for the next big thing—we’re talking bigger than sliced bread (and you’re just in time, too, because it’s National Inventors Month). But before you go bringing your invention in front of potential investors, you’ll want to make sure your creation is protected. Nothing kills the high of a “Eureka!” moment like someone ripping off your million-dollar idea—or, maybe even worse, someone claiming that you ripped off theirs. That’s where the United States Patent and Trademark Office comes in. Secure a patent and you can “prevent others from making, selling, or using your invention (or its functional equivalent) for a twenty-year period from the date the patent application is first filed.” That’s a pretty sweet deal.

Of course there’s much more to learn before you release your product to the masses—regarding patents and beyond. For more about getting your idea off the ground and into the hands of many, pick up a copy of The Independent Inventor’s Handbook by Louis J. Foreman and Jill Gilbert Welytok.

Welcome to Inside the Author’s Studio, where we give you a peek into the minds of your favorite Workman authors.

In honor of Mother’s Day on Sunday, we’re celebrating with a visit to the studio (aka kitchen table!) of “Crafty Mama” Abby Pecoriello, author of Crafty Mama Makes 49 Fast, Fabulous, Foolproof (Baby & Toddler) Projects. Here, we ask her a few questions, speed round style.

Recent book you loved/learned from:

I recently read The Blessing of a Skinned Knee (I know, 7 years after the fact…) and I loved it! I know this sounds cheesy but it’s helped me be a better mom.

Favorite bookstore:

The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah!  They were the nicest, craftiest, most fun people I met on my whole book tour!

Hidden talent:

I don’t hide much–I’m soooo OUT THERE! But one thing I can do (which people know about because I’m only good at keeping other’s secrets, not my own) is that I can tie a cherry stem in my mouth with my tongue!

Bookmark, dog-ear, or virtuality?:

Dog ear. Totally. My daughter always yells at me about this.  She’s the bookmark queen.

Book you are most ashamed never to have read:

Book…you mean BOOKS!  I don’t tend to read any best-sellers or anything Oprah talks about (sorry Oprah!) but then again I’m not ashamed I didn’t read them so…lemme think.  I don’t know that I’m ashamed about books… I studied Comparative Literature so I think I’ve read all of the classics and loved them. I’m more ashamed that I never saw The Godfather movies or Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Most frequent form of writerly procrastination:

Writing emails.  But hey, that’s still WRITING…right? Write!
Favorite childhood book:

I remember living for a book called Anne likes Red! – I just found it online, and I’m SO going to get it!  Now my favorite kids books are the Alexander books by Judith Viorst. I LIVE FOR THEM!  Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible No Good Very Bad Day! are so insanely funny…the voice, the pacing, the essence is brilliant!

Alternate ambition (i.e. If you weren’t a writer, you’d be…):

An actor and a creative consultant. But wait, can’t I be all three? I think I am.

Your perfect meal:

Peanut Butter and Jelly on a Bagel. Love!

Big dream:

I want to be tall.  That’s literally and figuratively BIG!
Super power of choice:

Flying, for SURE!

What was your first craft project? What was your daughters’ first
craft project?:

I don’t know what my first craft project was…finger painting, something with clay, crayon candles…  My daughter’s first was…I should know this, right?  Um…she’s always been into crayons and drawing and gluing everything to everything else…but her first real craft project was WAND MAKING!  She was a fairy-aholic at 2…and had about 27 sparkly wands.  We made several of them out of straws or chopped sticks and star or heart shaped card stock with glitter.  They worked like magic to get her to eat her veggies (NOT!).

Crafty “weapon” of choice: Hot glue gun or Staple gun?

Staple gun–what’s that?  HOT GLUE ALL THE WAY, bay-bee!

What Workman book would you like to receive as compensation for your involvement?:

Surprise me!  I’m OPEN to anything!  (Except cookbooks cause I don’t cook!)

—

Abby Pecoriello is the author of Crafty Mama Makes 49 Fast, Fabulous, Foolproof (Baby & Toddler) Projects, and mom to two beautiful,  creative, and goofy girls. She’s a genius with a hot glue gun, and have you seen what she can do with a veggie hot dog?

We all know that once upon a time, Humpty Dumpty suffered from a great and unfortunate fall, but did you know it happened when he was attempting a grand-plié-triple-pirouette-arabesque-jump? Or was it the Electric Slide? Or maybe it was the Humpty Dance. (As you can see, my sources are fuzzy).

From puppeteer Noel MacNeal, author of 10-Minute Puppets, here’s a brand new 10-Minute Puppet just in time for Easter that will definitely put make your eggy more leggy! (Just steer clear of tap-dancing across–or sitting on–any walls.)

Materials:

-The Dancing Easter Egg template

-2 colorful, square Post-it notes

-markers or crayons

-lightweight cardboard (file folders work well)

-glue stick

-scissors

Make it:

1. Cut out the foot template and line up the straight edge of the template with the sticky edge of one of the Post-it notes. Trace it and repeat with the second note. Cut out the feet and set them aside.

2. Color in the egg and glue it onto a piece of lightweight cardboard.

3. Carefully cut out the egg (don’t forget the holes!).

4. Insert your first and second fingers through the holes in the egg to be the egg’s legs. Press the tips of your fingers onto the sticky part of the Post-it feet.

5. Now let’s see a high kick…crack!…is that an emerging chick?

The Dancing Easter Egg is a brand-new puppet by professional puppeteer, Noel MacNeal, based on his book 10-Minute Puppets. Catch him in a segment with Shelley Goldberg on NY1 (and corresponding markets) this weekend, where he’ll be appearing with one of his many puppet alter-egos, Lionel, from Between the Lions!
UPDATE: Watch the segment here!

A few weeks ago I rediscovered my love of origami in time for National Craft Month in March. I have an aunt who spent her childhood in Japan, and growing up she used to feed my addiction for paper folding with a steady stream of brilliantly colored paper: delicate sheets of red and gold, pink cherry blossoms, and angular bamboo poles. I had the patience to sit and follow the step-by-step instructions in my origami book, carefully folding and turning until the flat squares in front of me had transformed into three-dimensional majestic paper cranes, sailboats, fans, crowns, and my personal favorite: the jumping frog.

So I was more than a little excited to find instructions on how to make a jumping frog out of a business card in Margaret Van Sicklen’s Origami on the Go! It was perfect timing, because my Workman business cards had just arrived. Before I looked at the instructions, though, I tried to make one from memory and was pleasantly surprised to find that my fingers instinctively remembered the order of steps needed to turn my new business card into a toy.

Ribbit!

I went home to visit family and friends in Boston that weekend and proceeded to make business-card-frogs on demand—it made networking that much more fun!

Origami on the Go! is filled with 40 cool crafts that are a perfect way for kids (and origami-loving adults like me) to kill time in the car (especially with those summer road trips coming up!), on the plane, or just on a quiet afternoon. It even comes with assorted paper and stickers that correspond to the models (the Zambia Giraffe, Grand Canyon Rattlesnake, and Egyptian Mummy are a few standouts).

I'm not the only one in the office with an origami obsession...

Now that April’s here, and Earth Day is coming up, it’s time (as it always is) to think about our environmental impact. I’m resisting the urge to head to Chinatown for new paper in favor of utilizing the (many) forms of paper all around me. (I mean, I work in a publishing company!) The frog is a good first step, in a way, because who doesn’t have a stack of outdated business cards lying around? But what about pages from old magazine and newspaper issues (hey, publicity department, I’m looking at you)? Or snack wrappers, or…

The Bronx Zoo cobra strikes again!

I stole an idea from a friend and saved my favorite Christmas cards this year to use as gift tags next year, simply by cutting off the front cover of the card and hole-punching the top. It’s a good way to reuse old cards—and save money. I’ve been known to save wrapping paper over the years, back when I was going through a decoupage phase, so I’m going to dig that out for my next round of folding. If you’re feeling especially crafty, make your own paper from bits and pieces lying around: check out Storey Publishing’s Trash-to-Treasure Papermaking, out this month.

And if that’s not enough Origami for you, pick up a copy of The Joy of Origami or keep an eye out for our 2012 Origami Page-A-Day Calendar—a unique project for every day of the year!

Just watch out for paper cuts…

–Adrienne

My perfectionism stepped boldly out into the limelight these past two weekends. You see, I was busy constructing the aptly named “tote-ally awesome tote bag” from Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp, because, as you may have noticed, this month is National Craft Month. As it turns out, I am not really a burgeoning fashion designer (sob!). Being an excellent seamstress is apparently not a genetic trait waiting to be manifested at the mere sight of a needle and thread. But, despite my utter lack of experience, and any negative monologue I might have had, I now have proof that a perfectly functional and adorable tote bag can be made (very easily, I might add) with a few cuts, snips, and perhaps a stray stitch here and there. Now, I know my grandmother would have ripped out every seam until each one was perfectly straight, and I defintitely had the urge (still do, actually) to undo all of my hard work and start again until every stitch was exactly in line, every millimeter flawless. But I do not have five years to make this tote bag. It does not need to be perfect. Tim Gunn is not going to stop me on the street and scold me because the handle is a little wider over here than it is over there. This bag just needs to hold things. So, I set about to make the cutest bag I could, that, while still functional and sturdy, was allowed to have some awkward stitching.

Of course, no craft project is complete without an initial mini-crisis of equipment. Sewing machines draw thread from above and below the fabric, and as soon as I started to feed material through the machine (a spellbinding moment of OMG, I’M SEWING), I noticed that the lower thread was actually producing big loops where tight, concise stitches should be. Urgh! My sewing machine does not have a tension adjustment for the lower thread. And if you’ve ever tried to read the manual of a sewing machine, you’ll know that no one really edits those things, so it took a bit of floundering to figure out what exactly would correct the problem.

However, once my accomplice* and I figured out how to waggle the bottom thread into the magical, invisible tension spring, the tote bag started to come together. I attached one side of fabric to the other (right sides together!). I ironed interfacing onto the lining to add sturdiness. (I learned never again to use the steam function on my iron because it is, in fact, broken, and will leak water all over your feet as well as the thing you were trying to flatten.) Corners were clipped, seams were pressed, a handle was attached, and voila! The polka dots you see on the outside of the bag are complemented by clusters of artful cartoon-ish trees on the lining. I imagine that those trees are waving happily at me, begging to use them to carry home a manuscript, or basking peacefully in an eternal sunshine, without judging that one spot where I kind of had to start over because the zigzags began to clamber off the fabric, or because I zoomed over the edge a little too quickly, a bit eager with the foot pedal.

In related news, I am definitely going to procure a rotary cutter and some more patience before I embark on any projects that actually need to be well-made, and um, at least, almost perfect.

* So, the cutest part of this story is that my boyfriend’s mom, a woman famous for making several wedding dresses for friends and family, and, perhaps most notably, a five-year-old’s dwarf costume complete with fabric ears and long robes, came over to help me finagle my new machine and just for general fun purposes. I’m thankful for her expertise!