when do I stop getting homework?

The kids have another day off school.  Do you know what that means?  Homework for parents.

Each day, including weekends, I work with 6-year old N through her LaRoue reading and this long weekend we have an assigned book for her to read as well.

Eight-year old K?  She has a science project on "l'ours polaire" that she needs to type up for school.  (She's already had to do a PowerPoint presentation earlier this year).  This project seems a little advanced for her considering she doesn't know how to type.  In addition, we work on her dictée (aka spelling) and she reads aloud to me in English or French during the work-week.

Needless to say, my first knitted scarf is advancing rapidly as I am soon to complete its second (and final) skein.  I think I'm experienced enough that, on my next scarf, I will incorporate purls and not just knitting.  Yes, there will be a second scarf as I'm only 2/3rds through the school year and I started on my current one at the end of January!  Knit away, I will, as I've got many more days of homework ahead!

I can only imagine the homework that awaits me during the upcoming Easter break!

just what I need

I have a new hobby which I learned from my friend on the Grand Canyon trip in December 2011:

It has been a productive hobby which is mostly invoked when I do the daily obligatory reading assigned to K and N and when I help K with her dictée.  I spend a lot of time assisting homework apparently!  I have learned to knit well (and am 1/2 finished my first scarf for K).  For the more experienced knitters, it is apparent that I haven't learned to purl ( ~ mostly because then I'd have to count or pay greater attention to the knitting than I can do when primarily focussing on kids' homework)!  I knit, but I don't purl!

One-half scarf down, more to come!

PS: for those curious about the Merino wool used in this scarf, it is from Malabrigo and is worsted 625 Kaleidos!  It is positively gorgeous and the photo doesn't reflect the true colours as it was taken in the evening with artificial light!  The Malabrigo website photo is better!

a mecca for Valentine's

As proof that our home is a mecca for Valentine's:

 The girls enjoy decorating the windows and re-decorating and redecorating....  In the bottom photo, you'll see my protest snowflake decorations remain throughout the house until springtime.

It is so cute to see what N chose to decorate a Valentine for her best friend.  Who would have thought that her best friend holds the key to her heart?  So sweet!

Meanwhile, K was determined 3 weeks ago to hand-make cards for each of her 26 classmates.  I dutifully went to Michael's to purchase supplies and then she resisted!  After persuasion, she enjoyed herself making Valentine's in the craft room!  It is so nice not to have to fully supervise her in the craft room!

Happy Valentine's Day to you!

the reward is in the journey, not the destination

I love travelling.  Or rather, for clarity sake, I love destinations.  I dream of destinations.  I plan what to do, what to see, and read guide books, watch tv travel shows and research to my heart's content.  I Love Destinations!

This past Christmas, we met our friends in Las Vegas.  I agree that Las Vegas was an odd destination to take children to for Christmas but it was quite prettily decorated and an artificial skating rink was unexpected.

We chose Vegas as a springboard to travel to the Grand Canyon ~ the round-trip is about 9 hours.  When we discovered in late November that our van tour operator declared bankruptcy, we had enough time to arrange a bus tour to the South Rim. I understand that the Canyon has 3 different Rims and, although the South Rim is the most famous, it is also the Rim that apparently changes the least scenery-wise.  We went to the Canyon (S. Rim), we saw the Canyon, we took pictures of the Canyon (including one photo of the girls and me wearing our Blundstones for a Blundstone boot contest where the winner wins a trip to Australia ~ I'm crossing my fingers for that one!)

It was wonderful to spend time with family and friends in Vegas and it was, without a doubt, one of the most relaxing and fun Christmases I've had in a while.  Although the Canyon was lovely, this time I can honestly say that I learned so many things on that journey:  the girls do not like being away from home at Christmas; I learned more about how to plan travel for our family than I ever expected.  The bonuses of this trip?  My back cooperated for the entire trip!!  Yippee!  And another bonus?  I learned how to knit on the trip as I needed to learn as K has been begging to learn for about 1.5 years!  This time the reward was in the journey, not so much the destination.

introspective

It's been a very introspective summer and that is a good thing.  It has also involved lots of crafting too ~ another good thing!

Currently I've been participating in Big Picture's Big Idea Festival which provides a daily one-word prompt for 12 days!  It has sent me scrambling for photos as well as for supplies but it has been a lot of fun!  I love Big Picture classes and this one is free so that's great as well!

I bought the class' products which included this great 6x5.5 inches (chipboard) mini-album.  I've never worked on an album and my scrapbook pages are always 12X12.  It's been an interesting challenge trying to squeeze my response to every prompt onto a 6x5.5 page or two!  On this particular layout, I used scrap Moda fabric and the scraps were from the first aprons I ever made.  I even sewed the fabric onto the chipboard, something I have never done before, but I used a "jean" needle on the machine so it didn't even squawk!  Today's word is "nesting" so I'm busy planning my next layout in my head.

In this class, I "met" Karla who is test-trying a new product, My Memories, made by Polaroid.  She's made some wonderful layouts which she has posted on her blog using this product.

I am interested in this product because of my experience with test-trying Photoshop Elements 9 on my iMac in June.  I was curious about Elements because I wanted to do hybrid scrapbooking or, if I really liked it, full digital scrapbooking.  Needless to say, many hours later, I gave up on trying to teach myself Elements on a Mac (as the product is obviously geared towards PC users).  Karla's blog is featuring a My Memories give-away in case you are interested in learning about this program and/or, if the winner, testing it out yourself!  Good luck!

painting folkart for Christmas

By special request by one of my readers, I have posted some of the (many) folk-art Christmas ornaments that I have painted over the years.  I started painting in or about 1996.  Painting is an act of self-discipline and repetition for me.  I started taking folk-art painting classes to exercise the right side of my brain (which is regularly overwhelmed by the rigourous workouts given to the left side of my brain being the analytical side) and as a way of getting me out of the office.  (I had discovered that my legal practice absorbed all of my "leisure time" so I needed an activity that required my attendance).  I discovered taking folk-art classes could be quite a social activity as all the class participants learned step-by-step within the class, all seated in a square.  Regretfully, there are no classes offered currently that I am aware of in my city so my painting is more in spurts to respond to seasonal demands!

Here's an early project completed in a class:

This ornament shows my progress from another class at a later date:

I painted this ornament (along with others donated for a Christmas tree) and kept this one for K's first Christmas ornament:

The remaining ornaments have been painted on my own, often based upon patterns found within folkart painting books:

2010 ornaments

Today's photography class prompt is to take a photo of a smile.  As I didn't capture any smiles early enough in the day, I decided to feature the 2010 hand-painted Christmas ornaments.  As I paint each of the girls a new ornament each every year, they chose the snowman 'Peace' ornament.  Little N painted the Noel ornament (and was smart to choose glitter glue to decorate her ornament instead of fiddling around with glue and glitter!)

quilting fabrics in the kitchen

I neglected to mention that I finally finished making the cafe curtains for the kitchen in July.  They were a bit of a nuisance to make as I had to piece together the curtain fabric because it wasn't wide enough to fit the window.

As Christmas is coming way to soon, I finally finished making the double-sided placemats for the kitchen.  The reverse side of the mats are the same yellow cupcake pattern found on the curtains.  The actual mats were easy enough to pull together.  It was the binding that was a nuisance to create and sew!  Next time(??!), I'll use a wider binding!

The pink, yellow and turquoise patterns are all Robert Kaufman Fabric from the Sweet Tooth Collection and named Camellia Cupcakes.  N loves the fabric and keeps commenting that she could just eat our curtains!  Considering I ad libbed the curtains and the placemats, I am pleased enough with their outcomes!

scrappin'

Although I've been really occupied with work lately, I have managed to squeeze a little time for crafting on the side.  I have been taking a Big Picture Class, "Adventures in Scrapbooking: Use Your Stash", but haven't been following it as attentively as my first class, "Baker's Dozen".  (I really enjoyed Baker's Dozen.)

I have managed to do a couple baby layouts using photos that have been hanging around with my baby stash (and yes, I have my stash organized based upon seasons/occasions ~ call me "uptight" but I can usually find things reasonably quickly!) ...

I was delighted to finally able to incorporate K's baby barrettes into a layout!  Every time I see them, I think of her!

This layout didn't turn out as I had planned.  Its title is "Sweet Dreams" and the word "dreams" is designed into the patterned paper and located below "Sweet".  I just couldn't figure out a way of raising attention to dreams.  Working on a layout is like working on a puzzle to me.

Journalling is a very important part of my scrapbooking.  It is fun to play with paper and tangible things (buttons, accessories) but the journalling gets me each time.  It is a wonderful way to record memories!

manually distracted

I've been a little distracted lately and I had to check my blog this evening to see whether I promised to do the draw today or tomorrow!  Eeek!  Sorry for the delay!  My dh drew 'According to Kim's name!  Congrats Kim!  The bracelet will be delivered within the next few days!

You see, I've been a little distracted by the glimmer from my kitchen!  I've been busy wiping sawdust off shelves, carrying stuff back into the kitchen and trying to organize it in a thoughtful way.  We've started reading the appliance manuals too!  I'm delighted to have this learning curve!

Without further ado, here are some photos before we moved back in Thursday (and the photos don't justify the kitchen ~ in the evening, the countertop sparkles like stars in a very dark night sky ~ click to magnify them!):

For the curious, the paint is Benjamin Moore's CC67 Gray Wisp on the bulkheads, CC680 Raindance and the walls and Cloud White for the ceiling and trim.  The school house lights and hardware are from Rejuvenation.  Adding the bulkheads was a marvellous idea and is our favourite evening lighting source as the pot-lights cause the kitchen to sparkle.  We love the fridges and the induction cooktop is as speedy as promised in causing water to boil.  I just finished initiating the oven so it is ready for baking; I have to finish setting up the steam oven!  The renovation was a little short of 6 weeks which is incredible considering we had to have the oven cabinet re-made because we had focussed on the height of the oven and not the height of the steam oven to determine how high the oven should be from the floor.  We are so delighted!

summer charm bracelet give-away

I know I've been neglectful!  To make up for my neglect (plus somewhat explain for my absence earlier this weekend), I have made a charm bracelet for give-away to a reader or lurker who frequents my blog!  If you leave a comment to this post or email me, I'll include your name in the draw!  I'll make the draw early on June 26 so I can pop it in the mail as quickly as possible!

Here comes summer!  I can hardly wait!

crafting and organizing up a storm

Yes, I realize I've been neglectful so here's my past week in a nutshell:

The kitchen reno progressed slowly last week.  The painting is done.  The delay is waiting for the countertops' material to be ordered and cut out; we expect the countertops and backsplash to be installed this week.  With the built-in oven and steam oven, we discovered that we were focussing too much on the height of the oven and not enough focus on the steam oven.  As a consequence, the oven cabinetry was reordered and will be installed this week.  Although I am itching to post a photo to show you how it has progressed, I am holding out!  The kitchen electrical/plumbing is to be complete on June 21 and we expect to move back into the kitchen then!  The initial schedule was that the kitchen would be complete by June 17; the current scheduled completion date is June 21.  This shows the amazing scheduling skills of our general contractor (as the project started with demolition on May 10).

Little N celebrated her 5th birthday!  I pulled out two frozen cakes from the freezer and iced them on my freezer so she had 1 for her daycare and 1 for her home celebration.  To celebrate her birthday, I also made her a charm bracelet in an effort to capture her interests and personality at age 5!

I've also been participating in Baker's Dozen, an online scrapbooking class offered through Big Picture Scrapbooking!  It provides a scrapbooking prompt and layout on alternating days so I have really plowed through some photos in a short time!  It has been a lot of fun and, without a question, is the highlight of my day as I ponder which photos and supplies to use to respond to a prompt.  In addition to needing lots of white space on a layout, I have discovered that journalling is one of the most important elements to my scrapbooking layouts as I try to capture the emotions and details of why I've scrapbooked the photos.  (I often include my journalling on the back of the layout in case I run out of space on the front of it!  Click on the photo to enlarge it!)

 

Easter charm bracelet

I've been quietly putting together Easter charm bracelets for K, N, myself and as a give-away for the office.  Finding charms for these bracelets was quite challenging as I couldn't find many retail.

As mentioned below, I wasn't successful with my first round of Shrinky D*nks.  I found round 2 through 4 of Shrinky D*nks much more satisfying and effective.  I used Stampin' Up stamps and punches on the Shrinky D*nk plastic (except for the birds in the nest charm which I copied from an Usborne Easter book).  The Stampin' Up route was a quick and easy way to make charms!

I tried Polymer as well.  At the beginning of playing with Polymer clay, I couldn't help but recall my unsuccessful debut (in Grade 5) as a potterer where I created colourful lumps of doorweights.  As I type, my little polymer creations are colouring the trashcan and I have wrapped up the 2 opened Polymer packages with the thought that maybe K or N may one day be able to use the leftover Polymer clay for a school project.  (I do the same thing with leftovers of undesirable meals: I place them in the freezer knowing I can't toss them in the garbage as that would be wasteful and, following a passage of 6-12 months, I dispose of the undesirable frozen meal in the trash and feel meritorious.)

Without further ado, here are my little Shrinky D*nks charms that accompany store-bought earrings re-fashioned into charms that together make up our Easter bracelets:

shrinking from this adventure

The girls and I ventured into Shrinky D*nk territory for the first time in our lives.  I had been nonchalant when I picked out my patterns as I was confident they would shrink into the teeny tiny charms that I would prefer for my Easter charm bracelets.  (I've been searching for Easter charms for the last few weeks and have not been successful finding them retail and that is why we've tried making them with Shrinky D*nk!)  After all the work of colouring and cutting out the Shrinky D*nk, I'm reluctant to try making more to get just the size I want!  They are a little over 1" each in size.  I have to admit I am quite fond of the sheep and the bunnies!  (K and N have already claimed all my pink and purple bunnies!)

K & N loved this project.  N was so delighted that I finally let her use my Stampin' Up markers.  (A common phrase in the craftroom lately is "brush with the marker, don't scrub!"  Gasp!  My poor markers!)  They loved the colouring, the cutting out and watching them shrink in the oven.  (I didn't burn any either ~ how proud I am of myself!)

Now I have a mitt-ful of bigger-than-wanted charms.  Hmmm.  What to do with them?  A garland for the Easter tree or just place 'em on bracelets that I tend to give away anyway?!

Next project?  Polymer charms.  I'll keep you posted on this new adventure too...

I'm back!

Ahhhh... I've launched a new public website.  I missed posting publicly and just having friends pop by!  Welcome back!

I attended a conference last week of which one segment was about having fun at work.  Although I hadn't planned on making a Valentine's Day charm bracelet to give-away at work, I felt inspired to do so in the spirit of having fun at work.  And so I did:

I am going to rustle through my ribbons to see if I can find some nice organza to weave through it but it is predominantly done.  I found many of the fun charms at Claire's!

And then today I discovered that one of my friends is experiencing post-natal depression!  You know what that calls for?  You betcha: another Valentine's charm bracelet coming up!  And she'll likely get some of the cookies I baked this afternoon while making a stew and putting together this bracelet.  Talk about multitasking!

I have also started my new contract doing legal annotations in my spare time.

Is there any wonder why I don't have much time to blog?