Snowday Shrinky Dinks

Even before I knew that today was be our first full snowday of the school year, I had read the Writers Almanac and discovered that Jan. 18, 1882 was the birthday of A.A. Milne. Hmph, I grumphed, I have no Winnie-the-Pooh earrings. As soon as I discovered that school was cancelled, I decided on one snowday project: Shrinky Dinks to honor A.A. Milne.

Knowing full well that Milne did not draw the illustrations, I made an extra pair, and a bonus necklace (well, really I made it first and discovered that the plastic did not shrink quite as much as expected and the resulting dangler was too big to hang from my ear).

Now I just have to remember to wear my other pair to honor Ernest Howard Shephard (10 December 1879 – 24 March 1976) later in the year.

While I've read that both Christopher Robin Milne and Ernest Shephard felt that Winnie-the-Pooh had overshadowed their whole lives, I still love the whimsical world of childhood that Milne and Shephard created. On this day off, I hope imagination is inspiring many North Pole Expotitions and Woozle hunting parties.

"Wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing."     -A.A. Milne