meal planning

It worked!

Laundry/shopping day was a RAD success.
Me and Bella are awesome!!!
We even managed to have the time to get a buncha backgrounds made as I was hoping...whoot whoot.
I have been slacking on meal planning for the last while, but we shopped properly and the week's menu is looking pretty good.

-lasagna, salad, and garlic bread
-Cam's AMAZING slow cooker roast
-farmer sausage and princess pasta Alfredo
-Stir fried chicken with veggies and fried rice
-hash brown casserole and a Ham
and for the busy/lazy nights we have
-Taco salad, (the super duper ever delish-child pleasing- all inclusive meal)
- and really good chicken fingers with pea soup

anyone have any really good easy recipes, specifically slow cooker recipes?
Please share 'em, we'd love that!

OK, it's boogie time, Gonna spend a few hours working into the night tonight and get way too little sleep, but I'm feelin' it and I've got to go with that when the inspiration strikes me.
ciao for now folks ;)

today

Laundry and food buying day has come.
There seems to be none of either in the house and I will be off on a field trip with Emy and her class all day tomorrow. I LOVE getting involved with the girls and their school, LOVE heading out on the field trips with them when I can, and I think that I may be more excited then she is about the whole thing!
But first comes today;

Kaiella and I are gonna rawk the laundry pile and do some smart grocery buying -with a list. Because when we make a list we spend less and actually go home with what we need for suppers all week instead of just lots of yummy crackers and yogurts and fruits and what we are hungry for at the time. Please tell me that I am not the only one who does this.

It honestly sneaks up on me every single time and I wonder how the heck neither one of these things doesn't just stay done???!
Funny thing is I rather enjoy both laundry and grocery shopping...seriously enjoy them. I am a goof, I know. I'm good with that.
Hopefully we can get both chores done as much as possible and our other running arounds in the morning so that we have some time in the afternoon to get creative together. I am really hoping to get some journal backgrounds painted and ready for whenever I decide to add to them later and Bella always loves this cuz she gets to make her sweet painted "backgrounds" too, hee hee! My stove is covered in "arting" right now. yeah, I'm making stuff in the kitchen instead of where I should be again....it has been known to happen, I just can't help myself, I get an idea and off I go with it, and duuuude, the sink is RIGHT there!!!!
it doesn't get any better than that!
I am sure that I drive Cam nuts, but he is so darn cute and good about it.
Cam Rawks, I love him.

Ok so before i head into the world you are probably wondering what the heck that mess of painty-ness above is ...not sure, it is creativity, we shall see where it goes.
I mentioned painting journal backgrounds above in my "Plan de Jour" but I guess I should explain that I have recently decided to start art journaling. I will discuss this more later,
time to take on today, happy Wednesday to you!

She's TEN!!!

MY sweet Emy was Ten years old yesterday! I really can't believe it, you hear people say when you are a kid how fast you have grown and you kinda give it a "yeah sure. ok I guess" in your little mind. But honestly from here on the other side, it really does seem to zoom by sometimes...as if she was just a curious little toddler getting into everything or a happy and confident 5 year old walking into kindergarten for the first time only last week. It sometimes seems as if I have blinked and here is this amazing young lady before me with a heart of Gold and so much faith and goodness to share with the world. We are so very proud of the wonderful person that Emy Chooses to be in her life every day; she is generous and oh so kind and uses her time to find ways to brighten the lives of others. What an angel.

It worked out great this weekend with Valentines day falling on Saturday and it being a long weekend here today ( it's called family day) It really was a weekend filled with celebrating her every day and she Loved it!
She woke up for E10 crepes with all of the toppings that she had requested; warm banana pudding, berries and whip cream and some sausages on the side. then got all dolled up and we went out to the movies all together. Nanny made a big birthday cookie for her after a wonderful dinner, and I sat together with her afterwards and gave her a manicure with all of the extras.
Special times for a special special girl.

Happy Hearts day!

All of the little pieces and words that the girls were writing out, coloring and preparing yesterday got onto their cards last night with a little help from me ;) and we got them printed out to share with their friends at school today.
So super cute!
Each girl's card was different and really embraced the spirit of them, their friends were thrilled!
Here is a closer look at one of them; this is little Bella's card. It was SO much work for her little 4 year old hands to write out all of the words, needless to say, she is super proud of herself :)

I was lucky to have a free afternoon today to head down to the school and spend some time at each girls class. they were all so cute and excited to share their treats and cards with each other. I can tell you for certain that these three are going to be dumping out and going through their valentine bags all weekend and most likely into the week!

Today I am so thankful to have a life filled with Love in so many ways, i don't need roses or chocolates, all I need is what I have; a husband who loves and supports me in all that I do, parents on both sides who are always there for us, three little girls who love me with every ounce of their being, and friends all around the world that have made my life a little bit brighter.

getting ready for Love day

This afternoon was all about productive kids. These three girls were in fine form as they worked away preparing to share their Love with all of their friends at school tomorrow. It was about baking chocolate cookies for tomorrow's Valentine parties, working on pretty pieces for me to make into valentines, and getting into the spirit of caring. They were way too cute as they worked tirelessly to prepare. Isn't it awesome how these holidays are SO huge to kids, like the whole world hinges on making sure each and every one is really super duper special?! It is one of the many reasons that I so love having little ones in my house. Where along the way is it that some of us bigger people loose that magic? where do the special days for making each other feel important and Loved become simply the mundane?

got to try and learn from the example of these wonderful small people and keep the sparkle in life, it is so great to look through theur eyes and use our days to make other people smile & share a little bit of happy.
Well, I am not gonna get all super deep on you or anything, I just wanted to pop in to say hi and share some photos of the fun, hopefully tomorrow I will post the girl's finished valentines.
In the meantime what are you planning/doing to get ready for V day this weekend, anything cool?

Quick kid craft

Kaiella's preschool teacher asked me, while I was there today, to come up with a valentines craft for them to do next week , using the doilies that she had bought. I usually need to let my wheels turn for awhile, I'm not too great on the spot. but c'mon these guys are only 3 and 4 years old, I figured i should be able to pull something out of my hat for little ones! Soooo.... I managed to pull together this flower craft using what they had kicking around the classroom and I think it is pretty fun! I don't have great photos of it but just thought I'd share in case you have some time and want to do some crafts with your own little people.

What you need is a coffee filter, a doilee, a piece of green tissue paper or crepe paper, a colored pipe cleaner and a green one, a couple beads, and some random silk flower petals.

1. place the doilee over newspaper or paper towel to protect the surface underneath. Have the little Munchkin rub paint all over it with their chubby little fingers to give it a light coat of color and set your doilee aside to dry

2. bend a colored pipe cleaner in half and get your little one to place beads on the two ends and curl them around a bit to keep the beads in place

3. cut a circle from your green tissue slightly smaller than your doilee

4. Now that the paint is dry stack up your flower:
green tissue on the bottom, then coffee filter, doilee next and pinch them all up pretty with the pipe cleaners in the middle for the "stickie-outie" parts.
Wrap the green stem around the base of your flower bunch at least 3 or 4 times to keep everything all together and then let the rest of it come down as a nice furry stem :)

5. If desired your little one can glue random silk petals in between the doily and filter to add a bit of extra "prettiness"

Kids are just so pleased and proud to have these flowers to give to mamas or Grandmas or whoever they decide needs a lovely little flower to brighten their day, it's super cute!

Green

Look at the glorious GREEN!!!!!
I left crazy cold snowy Winnipeg this morning and here I am in California surrounded with the freshness of green palm trees and grass and warmer air. mmmmmm!

Sure does a heart a little bit o' good.
Every year I wait for and totally Love the spring because after the world is asleep thorough our long winters, it comes alive with the freshest air and the sounds of nature and all of the plants begin to wake up and come alive again. It is rejuvenating.
Coming here is like a wee little bit of spring in the middle of my winter.
So awesome!
Looking forward to finding a few of my pals tonight and catching up.

Christmas bits

Going through some of our photos as I travel through airports today, and I realised that other than little Bella's songs I never got around to sharing any of our little moments from Christmas this year.
We were so blessed to have time shared with so much precious family, and also had a few moments of missing those who are far away this year or no longer with us. A big hug and hello to Dad and the crew in Ontario, Memere and Pepere, and Cam's family all over Canada; hoping these pics make you guys feel a wee little bit closer to us!
If the coloring is weird I apologize I am pulling these together on my laptop and I am never quite sure if it is right on or not.
The girls had such a great time getting all dressed up in their favorite Christmas dresses and hair-dos for all of our Christmas time visits. We enjoyed having Uncle Kyle in town for the festivities and thourally enjoyed our times around the table for ,Gigi's famous Turkey and many of our favorite traditional Ukrainian Christmas Yummies.
Each of the girls shopped for, and made their own little gifts this year and were So so proud to give them. It was adorable to see what they picked out for each person.
The letters to Santa were left with plates of cookies, and carrots for the reindeer ( they decided this year that they would make a plate EACH and fill it right full, LOL. Santa was pretty stuffed)
It was a full year for us 5, full of all kinds of goods and bads and many adventures. We are all really looking forward to everything that 2009 will hold for our family. Time to quit chatting and let the photos tell the story...

Heading out

I am heading off for California this week. Gonna hit CHA and see what's new in creative products. I have some meetings scheduled and Hopefully there will be bits of down time to spend with good friends that I only end up seeing at events like this!
It's been quite awhile since I went last and other than some business that I am going to take care of, I figured if I am gonna be able to order/plan for fresh new products in my classes in the next year then I better go and see what's cookin' in scrappy/art world!
If you are there please stop and give me a hug and a hello.

Totally off topic, check out the pic above, look how our babies have grown!!!
I told you Here that we were getting a new baby, she was only 6 weeks old in that pic. Thing is, kittens need another little kitten to play with so we ended up falling in love with her brother and bringing them both home. The kids affectionately refer to them as "the twins" and we named them Sam and Daisy. They are the sweetest most affectionate little ones and almost always found in the arms of a little girl purring away or if I am here at my desk working they come and crawl up in my lap. So sweet.

Weekend wonderful

I Love weekends...Love Love Love. It is OUR time together; time to forget about work and focus on being a family. Weekends are our time to eat chocolate chip pancakes together and get out in the sun and snow, go for walks , build forts, toboggan. It is our time to work together to clean the house and do other projects we have decided to work on as a family. It's just good and rejuvenating for all 5 of us. Today we were outside getting rosy cheeks as we headed down hills on our toboggans, our ever-faithful Bear was thrilled to run alongside with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Emy went for the jumps and the fastest runs she could find and the little two were pretty content to roll down or run and slide on their tummies like penguins. Good good fun!

Happy weekending!

new goodie time

Time to share what I've been making for this month. the first two here are in my little Dreamer store Above is a new stamp set of magical bubbly swirls that can be overlapped to build your own look or simply used on their own to add a touch of whimsy to your layouts. And below is is a happy alphabet painted on canvas and bent and cracked for some added yummy texture! These print out really nicely on plain or textured cardstock and can be cut out to add to paper projects over and over again.

And here are a couple of the guest goodies that I added to the jan BYOC kit over at the Lilypad.
Both of these are just some of my usual little touches to add a bit of carefree art to your projects!
the first is made with waxy art crayons and the second with faber castell markers of different thicknesses.
Happy creating!

Happy Birthday little Tia!!!

My sweet little angel is seven years old today.

Right exactly now she...
-Loves animals and wants to be a vet when she grows up
-draws, paints and colors all of the time and also wants to be an artist
-does her own braids without looking
-is learning to read
-Loves her new baby doll "Joy"and takes her everywhere
-Is a little mama hen to both her big and little sisters
-Helps mommy and daddy willingly and happily whenever we ask
-Just learned how to ice skate and is very proud of herself
-Has come so far in a year and we are so so proud of her.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!

3 Am creative babble

Creativity is a funny thing the way it comes and goes, sleeps and wakens at it's own pace and in it's own time...as if it has a mind of it's own while at the same time being so very much a part of a person. Something that you can't predict and cannot control but always welcome back when it decides to show up after a time away, no matter how brief.

For me it may stir as the need to get back out of bed at 4 in the morning and get my hands in paint and all kind of bits. Whatever little this and that I see around me inspiring ideas and becoming bits of what I am creating and the story that is unfolding...I sometimes watch as if my hands are moving on their own as it takes shape in front of me...I let it happen and watch...curious and interested to see where it will go, where this storm of art is headed.

It is these times, when I don't try to control what I am making, when I forget about the end result and just bask in the life of the art, in the beauty of creating, that I do my favorite pieces.

It is when I just let go and allow it to unfold.

When I create I am alive to the very most inner parts of myself, and in a way that is different than any other part of my life and who I am. It is something that I need to do, something I need as much as cold water and fresh air...it is how I am made, who I am.
So I guess I have finally found the words for what I want this coming year.
I want to find a new outlet for this art that is so much a part of me, something that requires no thought and I can just go with when the urge strikes me.

Working on that.

catching the Big one

Sometimes I can write forever and I do get quite windy, it just comes spilling out. And other times, like now, I sit and think and I simply cannot really capture the spirit of amazing unconditional friendships and the times that we share in any sort of words.
So here you go, summed up in a few photos; is our evidence of one of many seriously AWESOME days with some of the greatest friends in the world...

We took the girls and jumped in the van for a little road trip to finish up winter vacation just right. We had an amazing time away with our good friends Krista and Braden and their little guys Ice fishing in the beautiful Q'uappelle valley this past week. I used to go to camp there every summer and this is seriously one of the most beautiful places to just be and breathe it in.

It's a totally different scene out on the frozen lake drilling holes in the frigid cold, but still super super beautiful. The kids had such a blast doing this all for the first time. Making the holes, clearing them out and keeping them clear (it was soo cold that the holes were freezing back up really quickly), making a fire to roast lunch and keep warm, hugging new slimy friends ( see Emy above LOL) and being a general buncha monkey heads (of course referring to me)
Uncle Braden is now even more of a hero than he already was to them!... thanks man!It is so so good to have friends that have been around since days of young, and you know will be around till you're wrinkly, no matter what may come.
So so good.

Happy New Year!!!

We always find something super fun to do together to start the year out right, it is kind of a tradition. This year it was skating on the lake. There is nothing quite like it, SO cold, but so much fun! Looking forward to many things for 2009.
I don't really have words for them all yet but they are stirring.
What are you hoping for/looking forward to this year?
May you have a fabulous start to what I hope will be to be a fabulous year for you all.

I leave you with Dad and Daughter skating off into the glow of the setting sun.
xo