What is a Snipe to you?

Before anyone opens up Charmed Adventures: Snipes are Real!, make sure they take a moment do the Pre-Reading activity sheet. (Click here for Activity Sheets and save to your computer to print.) Snipe is quite anxious to learn how people envision where it comes from and looks like. If you would like to share your pre-reading activity sheet creativity with other fans and Snipe, please send a scan or picture of the completed sheet to: Snipe@CharmedAdventures.com .*

* Entrants agree that personal data, especially name and creative work may be processed, shared and otherwise used for the purposes and within the context of the Charmed Adventures Fan pages and any other purposes outlined in these Official Rules. Participants have the right to access, review, rectify or cancel any personal data held by Sponsor by writing to Sponsor at snipe@charmedadventures.com.

Snow Crisis

Check out the new Social site created around Charmed Adventures. Learn about the Snow Crisis Aunt Crystal just had: http://charmedadventures.ning.com/

Now Available - Charmed Adventures: Snipes are Real!

Hi Everyone,

Join me on a Charmed Adventure with flying frogs, a glowing heart pendant, creatures from the water world and much more! This book is dedicated to all of you whom have encouraged people to follow their dreams and taught the people around them that anything can become real when you put your mind to it. I personally appreciate your support and encouragement over the years.

Charmed Adventures is a prefect stocking stuffer or gift for children ages 6-9 to introduce them to the experience of a novel without the heavy reading content.

Charmed Adventures: Snipes are Real! is now available through a link provided on the Charmed Adventures website below. As more stores & online sources pick up the book I will be adding the links to the purchase page, including book signing events. To visit, just click on the links below or paste the URLs into your browser.

www.charmedadventures.com http://www.charmedadventures.com Purchase/Events (Click on the BookLocker Icon)

I strongly encourage you to download the pre-reading and post-reading activity sheets for your young reader to engage their mind in creative thought development. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Nicole

Nicole Longhini-McElroy

Charmed Adventures - Author

M: 248.496.4620

E: nicolelonghini@comcast.net / nicole@charmedadventures.com

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time all creatures celebrate the unity which has developed across the elements of the earth. They are especially grateful to those humans that have been watching out for earth and those that inhabit it.

As you will learn soon from Nicole, there are creatures on earth whom protect the different elements of the earth. The better everything interacts on earth, the easier the creatures lives become and they are very thankful for everyone's contributions.

To celebrate the bountiful harvest season the creatures and their guardians want to Thank You whom have made a difference in the world. In return, we ask that you reach out to someone that has touched your life and simply thank them for being themselves. Thanksgiving is the time we thank those around us, we might have taken for granted what they do naturally, and let them know being themselves is alright in our book.

Nicole on becoming an "Artist"

As long as I could remember growing up my parents fostered my gravitation to art. Developing ability to draw, sew, crochet, crafting, drama and my attempts to write (content good - grammar not so much). Each area I was blessed to have talented teachers that I would see on week nights, weekends and summer break. I even looked at changing schools my junior year to a place that could provide me more advance art classes, but at the time didn't want to start from scratch friendships.

I was often seen as the "Artist" at school wearing my own unique style and hand painting clothing with my vision of cool characters. As I look back, I realized it wasn't only my parents that fostered my passion for art, but also the people that surrounded me on a daily basis. Even if they were making fun of what I was wearing, they noticed and I made my point of being unique.

In developing the book I decided to make the illustrations through another person's vision and computer skills. It was great working with Adam to direct the look and feel of the characters and their surroundings. Through my training I have developed an appreciation for other people's talents and recognize to use them where my weaknesses are (computer cartoon illustration).

"Artist" to me is the ability to create something fresh and imaginative utilizing your surroundings to enhance and engage the lives of others through your own vision.

Earth Creatures are getting Excited!

As a display of their excitement, the earth creatures are ensuring the trees around my house are at prime color for Halloween. It is the one night they get to join the humans in celebration of having fun without hiding. Most of their time is spent assuring that the young humans are without harm during their travels from house to house. Removing bad spells/charms that would prevent smiles on children's faces. The earth creatures try to make sure that tree roots and rocks stay out of the way of the children running from house to house.

At the end of the night all the earth creatures gather in their clans across the planet and celebrate with apple cider and maple sugar sticks in specially decorated pumpkin houses carved out just for the night. You can occasionally see the glowing pumpkins, but when you look inside all you see is light as earth creatures are invisible to humans.

What do the clouds hold for you?

Every time I look into the sky on a cloudy day I see an array of adventures happening. A horse jumping a fence, a dragon flying through the sky, creatures cloud hopping and many more. Once in a while you can catch a glimpse small creatures riding the rainbow from one location to the next. What you don't see what I'm talking about? Then you must need to find something special to give you the sight into the wonderful world of imagination and creative thought.

I've been lucky enough at a young age receive a token that gave me the ability to see into other worlds and help those that support our surroundings. Soon you too will be able to be part of the "Charmed Adventures" I have taken.

I look forward to expanding your vision of the world around you and the possibilities that exist.

The Rose Garden

At an early age I saw a challenge I couldn't resist: Walking the post that surrounded my mom's rose garden. Imagine round vertical posts steps set up in a half moon with the tallest post in the middle and the shortest posts at the ends. On one side of the wall of post is sedum with lots of bees and on the other prickly rose bushes with fragrant colorful flowers.

It became part of my adventures around the acres surrounding my parents house. The post were a narrow bridge that connected two kingdoms and if I fell to either side I could become hurt. If I lost balance, I always fell towards the rose bushes narrowing escaping deep gouges in my skin. The minor scrapes sure beat shot in the arm for my allergies to bees stings.

Over time it came to a point of how fast I could conquer or what could I balance in my hands on the uneven row of posts.

What I learned during these challenges was to face my fears, be creative in applied thought, to accept adventures that come your way and take away learnings you can utilize in the future.

The Pond

One of the best things about our house growing up in the summer and winter was the pond at the far end of the property. Here is where I learned to swim, canoe, fish, dive, ice skate, make boats that float and train dogs. I also met some neat creatures above and under the water. The pond was filled with blue gills, bass, cat fish, crawfish, turtles, frogs, toads, ducks, geese and other things. I would give names to all my new little friends. Almost everyday I would visit and swim for hours. My parents almost thought I was part fish from the amount of time I spent in water each day.

The neat part about water, once you learn how to swim and float, is you are now exposed to another world that lives within our world contained by the ground walls. If you learn to float, it makes you feel weightless and allows you to imagine what it would feel like to be in outer space. When diving in the water you discover another way to move in a direction without walking or touching ground. You also discover how precious

air is to your body for life and there are somethings you just can't take for granite. Just like how water is precious to fish for life.

Next time you take a leap into a body of water, think about what it provides you and develop an adventure around your experience. Did you be come a mermaid or merman? Did you help a baby fish escape from a big fish? Did a duck carry away frog eggs on it's feet to another body of water to help develop another world? It is up to you.

Queen Anne's Lace

Summer brings some of the most beautiful flowers, but to me the best is a field full of wild flowers. Bright periwinkle, magenta, purple, pink, yellow and white blowing in the wind on a peaceful day. Even if it wasn't a peaceful day, your mind could get enchanted by the swaying of flowers in the wind.

I would pick the color flowers and make bouquets for unique crowning ceremony. It took the most special wild flower of them all to create the crown: Queen Anne's Lace.

A flower that is made up of a bunch of mini flowers into the form that looks like lace. The design also lent it to be a beautiful crown to celebrate winning back territory from mean shadow people for the night riders that protect the evening skies or present a new princess for one of the secret creatures that protect the different earth elements. The Queen Anne's Lace to me was a great symbol of something that looked beautiful and delicate, yet strong and durable. Even the smallest dis formed Queen Anne's Lace was beautiful. With this being said, the crown was a symbol of beauty, strength and passion to treat all things equal and with fairness.

Next time you pass a field, ditch or a small patch of wild flowers, think about the beauty that these simple flowers bring to our surroundings.

Dogs are a girl's best friend

Growing up I had several best friends...Sugar, Bear, Snowball, Ace, Prince, and Amus. Not the most typical names for best friends, but they were not the human best friends people expect you to rattle off. Together my best friends and I would run through fields, play in the play house, dig through snow, fish in the pond and, my favorite, take naps in the cool grass in the warm sun. They never tried to tell me what to do, but knew when to snuggle to make me feel better.

I learned from my best friends the responsibility of keeping time (feeding time), ability to trust and use all your senses. Always found it amazing that I always new what my friends wanted without a word ever being spoken. It was the eyes, body moments and facial expressions that told their needs. I think it is key in growing up to learn to read your surroundings.

Today the little things mean so much in a world that moves very fast. I take adventures with my best friends...Buddy, Chloe & Shamus. We walk through the neighborhood finding rabbits, birds and bugs. Play freebie in the yard and take long naps in the sun. They make me alert about my surroundings with a twitch, sniff or growl. All done from the heart not requiring much but love and a good home.

Learn to take an adventure with your best animal friend and don't forget to thank them with love and a good home. If you don't have an animal friend, then image the adventure the one walking by you with their best human friend is having and smile.

Night Tag

At night in the country it becomes quite dark, unless the moon is out in a clear sky. The clearest thing you can see on a warm cloudy night is a lighting bug. Due to the lack of vision you start to rely on other senses: Smell, Touch & Hearing.

Relying on low vision, touch, smell and sound the game of night tag becomes a fun way to learn to appreciate everything we take for granite during the daylight. The way night tag works is there are set limits in which the players can roam in a defined outdoor space. There can be one person or a team divided from the group to catch all the other people hiding in the dark. The first person caught is the next catcher or gets to select the team of catchers that will work with them. This game can go on for hours.

Learning not to be afraid of the dark through a simple game allowed me to develop fun night adventures that expanded my days and my imagination.

Star Gazing

When is the last time you took a moment to look up on a clear night to see stars and make a wish? Back home we had very minimal light pollution when surrounded by farm fields as far as the eyes could see. This allowed the stars to be super bright and the sky a deep blue. The best nights where the cool nights on a blanket in the grass listening to classical or show tunes from the latest Disney animated movie. Every time I saw a falling star, I made a wish and wondered where it was going so fast. Was the object in the sky on a special mission, had it lost its ability to stay in the sky or was it a signal to others in another world.

Enhanced by the music the stars became a story in the sky. Sometimes new galaxies with a host of interesting creatures. Other times they were guardians made of people, pets and things that used to reside on earth that shined at night to let me know that they were protecting the world from up high. Either way it brought to light new thoughts of the possibilities of the unknown.

I knew the scientific side of the stars, but found it more fun to make up my own adventures and theories. Allowing creative energy to flow in a not so exciting country life.

If you don't create your own adventures, then what do you have to share with the world or to remember your own life?

Birthday's

Do you remember your favorite Birthday Celebration as a child?

Ever heard of a golden birthday? In my family it is when the day you are born matches the age you are celebrating. Mine was turning 10 on the 10th. Our school teacher allowed us to bring something special in for the whole class to enjoy. My special treat was bring in chop sticks to teach everyone how to use them while eating food. I can't remember what we ate, but don't forget the chop sticks. As you can imagine, a bunch of 9 and 10-year-olds could make quite a mess trying to pick things up with two sticks in one hand.

How do you plan on making your next birthday a memory for others? Sometimes it is not about getting, but about giving.

Rainy Days

I found over time that rainy days brought out the most creativity. When you are trapped inside for a day, you develop an indoor haven and world of adventure. Lucky for me my parents encouraged thinking outside of the box and sometimes within.

One of the coolest presents a child can get with little money is large appliance boxes, colored construction paper, scrap fabric, string, tape, scissors, glue, crayons, and markers. Don't discount the medium size boxes as well. Together everything can create a fun place that gives hours of play time.

Here is one creation I remember developing during a series of rainy days:

I took a refrigerator box for the castle tower. Drew on the bricks and cut out the windows. Then attached a stove box with tape and cut an opening that passed through both as a hallway. Added windows and a main door with scissors. The windows had shoe boxes attached under them filled with construction paper flowers. On the outside I drew on wood looking shutters on the windows. The door I was drawn it to look like it was carved out of wood. Then I took another large box cut in half to that had two sides and a corner to use as the roof. Using different colored construction paper I added roof tiles to the roof.

Next I furnished and decorated the inside. Taking string and fabric scraps I made curtains for the windows. Used construction paper to create frames for the artwork that I cut out of magazines and glued to the walls. Medium size boxes were cut into a table and stove. Lastly, I drew a stone fireplace on one of the walls and used construction paper with markers to create the logs and flames in the hearth.

Once the play house was set, it was to time to invite my friends (stuff animals) into the new castle for a party. Party hats and tiaras were made out of construction paper with splashes of color added with glue and glitter, sometimes an occasional feather added. We would pretend it was a grand tea party or a secret gathering to plot a take over of a neighboring castle. Sometimes being influenced by "Alice in Wonderland", "Robin Hood", and "Cinderella".

All great stories are influenced by the past, present and thought of the future. I twist some of the creative elements that I developed in my castles to describe cottages, homes and castles in the book series.

I'm glad there were plenty of rainy days to develop creative thought. May you have an insightful rainy day.

Living in a Small Town not Related

Ever heard of New Lothrop? It is a mid-Michigan farming community and most everyone in the area is related. My dad brought us here as a School Teacher/JV Football Coach/Drivers ED Instructor for one of our rival schools, therefore not related to anyone. My dad is UPr (Ironwood, MI) and mom was from the smallest city (Omer, MI). They bought a plot of land from a farmer and built their own house. Overtime developing friendships in the area with other people with similar interests.

Everything was grand in this rural world until my 3rd grade and we graduated to riding the bus with all the rest of our area's kids 3rd - 7th grade. That is where realized I didn't know many kids as others my age. Everyone being related in some sort of fashion exposed them to knowing more people and already having a report with each other. I was starting from scratch with long reddish hair, freckles, paper white skin, and a quirky fashion sense (Mixing of new clothes, hand me downs and new "Nicole" creations). Most the people in the area had nice tans, brown hair that went a golden blonde tone in the summer, and dressed similar (whatever trend had seeped its way down into the country from the local malls that were 45 minutes away). You could say I stood out a bit.

I would get picked on from the time I stepped on the bus until I stepped off it at night. Sometimes getting off several stops before mine so I could walk in silence home. Over time I became the one that stood up for others that had similar treatment. Another great lesson was I understood that no matter how someone looks, you should never doubt their inside. So the motto I ended up with over time was:

"Greet everyone with a warm smile while looking them in the eye, even when just walking by on a street. Everyone has value and sometimes needs encouragement to help them blossom to their full potential. It is OK to stand out in a crowd. If your just like everyone else, what is there to talk about when you get old and who will remember you? Develop a brand "You" that your proud of and gives you Charmed Adventures."

Omer, MI

Growing up we lived quite a simple life. Grew most of our vegetables, hunted, fished, heated the house with a wood burning stove, played in the yard, read books, swam in the pond and camped in tents on vacation. These simple things created grand memories over time and gave experiences that not everyone can talk about.

At a young age I became fascinated in tracking animals. Following their paths through the forest while my parents were cutting up dead trees to heat the house in the winter. I would come across deer, rabbits, turkeys, fox, frogs, salamanders, owls, and hawks. Each I would pretend were my friends and that they left me special marks in the forest so I could find them. I would follow forest animal paths for hours, sometimes getting lost, but not for long. I always knew North, South, West and East from the Sun and paying attention to where it was in relation to the time I left my parents.

These mini adventures grew my fondness for the great outdoors and the animals within it. Plus, I even learned about the different types of plants and dirt.

- Found I love the smell of most pine trees.

- I love the color of maple leaves in the fall.

- Birch bark and some fungus are fun to draw on with sticks and leave symbols on as path markers.

- Always use a stick to poke in front of you while walking on wet ground, some areas you can actually sink in and get stuck. A good hint: the rotting earth smell in those areas tend to give it away as a danger.

As I learned more about my surroundings the more I let my imagination grow about how these areas were protected and what creatures lived there that I couldn't see. My favorite stories to read were about gnomes, faeries, pixies, elves, and ewoks.

It is amazing looking back now how much nature can provide beyond life and foster an imagination.

While writing Charmed Adventures I've been able to blend in my childhood experiences and nature knowledge to bring to life adventures for all children to join along.

New Water - Charmed Adventures

Wow, it has been about 2 years since I wrote the concept of Charmed Adventures while remembering childhood adventures I had.

It seems like yesterday that I was living in the middle of nowhere (Chesaning/New Lothrop, MI) on some acres surrounded by fields and trees. Ok, we did have a pond filled with fish, frogs and anything else that decided to visit. My days included creating adventures of traveling big seas (pond), building big castles (tree house), riding in carriages (wagon pulled behind a family dog), living with Eskimos (piled snow dug out in the center), and many more.

This place called home was the start of creating many adventures, but never the end. Every summer my family would pack up the family van and travel the US and Canada to see the many treasures this world of ours has to offer. I learned a great deal from traveling. You can make friends with other children even if you don't speak the same language. A smile, hug and hand shake don't need words, but have similar meanings. You can have all the money in the world, it doesn't mean you will have fun. The most satisfaction comes when you use your imagination and put your mind to things. Laughter is the best medicine and those that learn to laugh at themselves have the fastest recovery.

Not everyone has the most charmed life. Life is what you make it. However, if it takes a charm to open your world to new adventure, then pick it up and use it as the power to give you the imagination to create an new adventure. A person can make anything become real in their own way. Not all minds think the same or work the same, but can come to the same answer.

The book series "Charmed Adventures" has been created to help children to think outside of the box and to encourage them to make their own adventures. As a child, I was not the "smart" one, but the "creative" one. However, based on the ability that I could make anything become real, I always found a way to figure things out in my own way. This allowed me to take an adventure through the work world of interior design, tooling design, automotive chassis design, GM engineering, GM marketing and consulting. Now I'm inviting you to join me in my new adventure of authoring my first book series "Charmed Adventures".