Stimulate your child’s senses—right in your own backyard! Steer your little ones away from their screens and into the outdoors with projects designed to spark their insight, dexterity and imagination: Just add mud! With parenting blogger Sophie Pickles’s expert guidance, you’ll transform your backyard into a lively space where your children can experiment with different textures—there’s even a taste-safe alternative!—and understand the wonderful world around them. Using natural ingredients that are on-hand or easily obtainable, you’ll help your kids explore concepts like environmentalism, culinary science, creativity and math, while never losing sight of all the delightful sensory stimulation. Bond over the sheer fun of Shape Play, or try out Muddy River for an introduction to physics. Watch them delight in creating their own food station, with projects like Juice Bar and Mud Café. Better yet, help them build the blocks of critical thinking and observational skills, with activities like Mud Investigation and Mini Beast Hunt. With Mud Kitchen Crafts, education meets fun in a major way.

Whether you’re entertaining garden sprites, feeding a regiment of toy soldiers, or simply whiling away a lazy afternoon, Mud Pies and Other Recipes is the only make-believe cookbook you’ll ever need. With Marjorie Winslow’s timeless guide on hand, you’ll never be at a loss for something to do in your backyard or by the seashore; you’ll be busy scooping up sand (a filling for Stuffed Sea Shells), hunting for flower petals (they make lovely hors d’oeuvres), and collecting raindrops (essential for brewing up Fried Water). The book is organized by course, and includes a general discussion of yard cookery along with detailed ingredient lists, methods for preparation, and helpful serving suggestions. And on every page, Erik Blegvad’s delightful pen-and-ink drawings ensure that Mud Pies and Other Recipes is a feast for the eyes as well as the imagination.

In the mid-1950s, legendary avant-garde composer John Cage and artist Lois Long created a truly marvelous object. Part artist's book, part cookbook, and part children's book, Mud Book is a spirited, if not satirical, take on almost every child's first attempt at cooking and making. Through the humble mud pie—add dirt and water!—Cage and Long encourage children to explore their imagination and to get their hands dirty, and they offer this warning: "Mud pies are to make and look at, not to eat." A unique hybrid of art book, unconventional cookbook, and inspiration for young makers, this new edition of Mud Book will delight children and parents alike, and makes a charming gift for all ages.

Earth ovens combine the utility of a wood-fired, retained-heat oven with the ease and timeless beauty of earthen construction. Building one will appeal to bakers, builders, and beginners of all kinds, from: - the serious or aspiring baker who wants the best low-cost bread oven, to - gardeners who want a centerpiece for a beautiful outdoor kitchen, to - outdoor chefs, to - creative people interested in low-cost materials and simple technology, to - teachers who want a multi-faceted, experiential project for students of all ages (the book has been successful with everyone from third-graders to adults). Build Your Own Earth Oven is fully illustrated with step-by-step directions, including how to tend the fire, and how to make perfect sourdough hearth loaves in the artisan tradition. The average do-it-yourselfer with a few tools and a scrap pile can build an oven for free, or close to it. Otherwise, $30 should cover all your materials--less than the price of a fancy "baking stone." Good building soil is often right in your back yard, under your feet. Build the simplest oven in a day! With a bit more time and imagination, you can make a permanent foundation and a fire-breathing dragon-oven or any other shape you can dream up. Earth ovens are familiar to many that have seen a southwestern "horno" or a European "bee-hive" oven. The idea, pioneered by Egyptian bakers in the second millennium BCE, is simplicity itself: fill the oven with wood, light a fire, and let it burn down to ashes. The dense, 3- to 12-inch-thick earthen walls hold and store the heat of the fire, the baker sweeps the floor clean, and the hot oven walls radiate steady, intense heat for hours. Home bakers who can't afford a fancy, steam-injected bread oven will be delighted to find that a simple earth oven can produce loaves to equal the fanciest "artisan" bakery. It also makes delicious roast meats, cakes, pies, pizzas, and other creations. Pizza cooks to perfection in three minutes or less. Vegetables, herbs, and potatoes drizzled with olive oil roast up in minutes for a simple, elegant, and delicious meal. Efficient cooks will find the residual heat useful for slow-baked dishes, and even for drying surplus produce, or incubating homemade yogurt.

Inject style, personality and comfort into your rented home, whatever your style or budget. You've got the keys from your landlord, moved into your new home, and the boxes are unpacked. Now you want to put your stamp on the place, but how do you do this when you can't paint the walls, refurbish the kitchen or replace the old, tired flooring? And can you really live with magnolia walls? What about those outdated kitchen cupboards? Not to mention the tattered lampshades, old sofa and sparse furniture... In this invaluable book, award-winning interiors blogger Medina Grillo shares her favourite tips, tricks and DIY projects for transforming a rented space. Discover ways to add a splash of colour with removable wallpaper, learn how to hang artworks without damaging the walls, and turn your hand to upcycling those furniture bargains you picked up at the flea market. With chapters covering all aspects of the home, from walls, flooring and lighting to storage and accessories, Home Sweet (Rented) Home will enable every reader to make their house feel like home, whether they are a DIY expert or have never before lifted a paintbrush. Filled with photography and illustrations, it is the perfect read for any renter looking to live in a beautiful and stylish home.

The little blue cottage waits each year for summer to arrive—and with it, the girl. Through sunny days and stormy weather, the cottage and the girl keep each other company and wile away the long days and nights together. Until one year, and then another, the cottage is left waiting and empty season after season. In this heartfelt story about change, Kelly Jordan’s lilting text and Jessica Courtney-Tickle's lush art captures the essence of cherishing a favorite place.

In this classic Australian picture book, a dingo catches a wombat and wants to cook him in a stew. But all the other bush animals have a plan to save their friend. They trick the dingo into using mud, feathers, flies, bugs and gumnuts in his wombat stew, and the result is a stew the dingo will never forget!