knitting, notes, etc

Are you in the midst of endless winter like we are? Argh! I really don't mind winter and having grown up in the Canadian Prairies I'm a big season fan, but this winter is trying my patience. *so. much. cold. so. much. snow.* Proof you say? Well here is my son who is 5'9" shovelling snow at the back door. It's getting hard to know what to do with the white stuff.

It hasn't helped that our crew is sick yet again. Hence my absence from the computer. We are taking it all in stride and doing our best to keep our spirits up. Even if that means mid day basking in the sun from the indoors. For a brief moment it gives me the illusion that everything is green and growing outside. Yes I'm a dreamer.

map making

My girlies are big into imagination, dress up & role play and over the years I've had the opportunity to fashion many a garment or costume into their latest characters. We've done the whole gamut from princess' to mermaids, brides & grooms, pirates & thieves. Lately the girls prefer to make their own costumes out of things around the house, whatever they can get their hands on - and that just suits me fine - little designers in training.



But once in a while they ask me to help them when they are stuck or they need a little bit of mumma encouragement, I'm always willing to lend a helping hand. On this particular occasion they needed pirate maps for their treasure hunt. Originally they drew their own detailed maps on paper but soon decided that their paper wasn't old enough looking. This is where I come in ...and off to work the three of us went.



First we soaked their map in clear water for about 30 seconds after which we then hung it to dry for about 20 minutes. While the paper was drying we made a coffee paint with 1 TBSP of instant coffee to 1/4 cup of water. The plan: paint the paper with the coffee paint to give it that brown leathery look. The smell of the "paint" was divine and I highly recommend having some extra coffee on hand for drinking purposes ;) After one coat of paint we hung the paper to dry and repeated the action until both the front and back were adequately aged.





The next step was to crumple up the paper so that it has those fine wrinkles that you would expect to see with an aged map. Carefully unfold the paper and then place some distinctive folds (in the map) for effect, if so desired.



The final step is completely optional but since I had just finished reading "the Girl Who Played With Fire" I was feeling cheeky so we burned the edges of the paper with a flame. Obviously this needs to be entirely done by an adult with kids at viewing distance only - safety first! I prefer to do this kind of thing outside where the burning smell can disperse easily. When everything was cool and dry we rolled our maps up, tied them with jute and off my pirates went to play. I'm not sure if they found any buried treasure but then again would a real pirate share that secret anyway?



Happy Map-Making Monday, xo

rain, rain go away

is how I am feeling today. I'm chanting up a slew up positive vibes hoping the weather will soon change from the week-long rain we've been experiencing. Thankfully I've just checked the weather for the um-teenth time and it assures me sunny days are on their way. C'mon Mr. Sun my veggie garden needs planting and I'm raring to get my hands dirty.



...while the rain is a bit of downer, it's been good for tackling a lingering project.



...and inspiration: good ol' Jenga would make a great future quilt.



...all this indoor time calls for some clowning around: cool and scary!

hello and goodbye

A fitting title since my first post this month comes almost at the end of February. I am slow time of year, as I make my way through what I hope is the end of winter. Not that it was a bad one; our winter has been unseasonably warm this year, even kibboshing all attemps at an ice rink on the lake as customary for us. Still, I find myself day dreaming of gardening, beaches & warm sunshine on my skin, ahhh!

For now we keep ourselves busy with:













~ posies: something special to spice up a little something I made this past fall

~ tea parties: now that they are reading & writing, little notes are given to me with special requests <3

~ minecraft: because this mumma caves & gives them techie time

~ doggy cuddles: because the theme for SPFebruary is with something you love

~ kale goodness: dehydrated for chips, in smoothies, lasagna, soup - as many ways as possible.

~ impromptu weddings: since my niece recently became engaged, the talk at the table & the play has been all things weddings. Here she is a flower girl & this summer my girlies will be her flower girls :)

~ thank you iPhone for helping me capture a little bit of each day ~ 

rainbows are for everyone

A leprechaun visited the house while the children slept...







... he left behind pot a gold at the end of a rainbow ♥  ♥  ♥

I hope you find a pot of gold somewhere today.

Happy St. Patrick's day!

family movie

Every once in a while the hubby takes a weekend off from renovations and creates a little movie memory with the kids. Without further ado... "Magic Land"  Enjoy!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWwd02wi9k8&w=470&h=300]

Have a great day!

we are hunters

of a different kind: eggs and chocolate are our game - which suits this girl just fine.







How was your weekend?

low key and lovin' it

Trying to figure out what to do day-in, day-out can become quite puzzling after awhile.

So that's when I throw my hands up in the air and say "why fight it"

It becomes contagious and pretty soon everyone is doing it. Or some version of it.

That's how our February's roll here in the duckyhouse.  Our motivation for anything uber structured is low as we grow tired of winter's length.  We do puzzles, sit with our books for read aloud stories and we make lots of popcorn for a favorite afternoon movie.  It's low key and I dare say I like it that way.

PS, I'll be closing comments sometime this evening for the giveaway.  I kept them open a little while longer as one site that was promoting the giveaway had a different closing date and I just want to give them a little extra time to correct their dates.  Thank you everyone for participating, I'll announce a winner over the weekend.  Stay tuned. 

4:1

I was baking cookies with the kids on Friday. In the past when they were younger it was hectic, but somehow easier to bake as a whole family.  You'd think it would be the opposite but it seems as kids age they have their own way of doing things and require less direction for the task to be fun.  I always want the kitchen to be open for cooperation so if it means mixing things up a bit then I'm all for it. 

This time around I broke up the 4 into groups of two.  The girls and I did the first batch of cookies; I rolled they cut.  We had wonderful time cutting shapes like bunnies and hearts.  I love their innocence, this age is still so magical ~

After we had worked our portion of the dough, I turned the kitchen over to the boys.  They still wanted me on hand for the rolling in case they couldn't get it even, but the cookie cutting was all them.  The oldest, being 12 now, pre-teen and avid farside reader (thus the humor), was okay about doing hearts as long as he could put his spin on them. He thought broken hearts were in order and proceeded to crack up his cut cookie.  Of course when he did that, the room was full of giggles and laughter just as if they were little again. silly boys. 

And so we have it: magical hearts and bunnies from the wee girlies of our family and broken hearts from the pre-teen and his faithful sidekick.  Valentine's day and a 12 year old's sense of humor is a crazy
combination but I think I'm finally starting to learn how to work with being outnumbered
4 to 1 in the
kitchen.

ETA: I iced the cookies with yummy royal icing.  I sourced it from the Joy of Baking website.  In the past I have made royal icing with egg whites but this time around I tried meringue powder and am just as pleased with the results. 

ps, don't forget the giveaway, there is still time to enter!

that groundhog

I'm sneaking in before the weekend starts with a quickie post.  Things are set to get pretty busy over the next couple of days as we have a family wedding Saturday and another outing planned for the kids on Sunday which will involve lots of indoor water fun.  I think we really need the latter right about now, come February we all start to feel a bit house bound.  On more then one occasion this week I've heard it voiced by my little people that they are quite done with winter now and ready to move on to greener pastures.  But whoa, not so fast, I just heard the groundhog saw his shadow and well, we all know what that means.  I guess we'll just have to figure out fun ways to keep ourselves occupied.  For me that will be a little easier now that I've drawn up the plans. So far I've:

•• sewn ••



•• cut ••



•• stacked ••



I think that is as far I will get for now, the weekend promises to be filled with lots of living.  Happy Friday, xxx.

we are BIG fans

and it just isn't Christmas without a few rounds of whoville-opoly





he's a mean one...that mr. grinch!

what do you see?

I see:

• • children • •

• • color • •

• • creativity • •

I'm enjoying the bird's eye view of things on this end and loving how something as simple as an egg carton can spark the imagination.

A big welcome to the SewMamaSew readers.  I hope you enjoy the tutorial and thank you ladies for the feature. xxx

halloween 2009

filled with:

•• lots of imagination ••







•• a ton of sewing for this mumma ••



•• laughter and fun for everyone ••