Blue Frogs Legs

Creating...

2012-02-02T17:50:00.000-05:00

Snowshoeing Bliss

2012-01-21T20:15:00.000-05:00

Well, the new year has come, and my internet has gone... so while I search for a new internet provider, here are a few photographs of our fabulous day spent snowshoeing...

Hoping everyone is doing well, and looking forward to showing everyone the cool stuff we have been creating...

Bring on 2012

2011-12-31T12:38:00.000-05:00

The countdown begins...

Another year comes to a close. A year full of lessons, friends, creativity, happiness and joy. One more year older. One more year of watching the Peanut grow into the wonderful little person she has become (though not so little anymore).

A year of more lessons (sometimes I am a slow learner), confusion, colour, striving for balance, connections, and learning from all of my mistakes and plotting my path towards the Kelly I was meant to be.

2011 was a good year, but bring on 2012 - I feel it is going to be even better!!

Wishing you all a very safe and Happy New Year.

Thank you for coming along this creative journey with me...

Merry Christmas Everyone

2011-12-25T15:57:00.000-05:00

I truly hope everyone is surrounded by family and friends and enjoying the true spirit of the season.

The Peanut and I wish you all the very best this holiday season :)

Reindeer Handprint Ornaments

2011-12-24T23:12:00.002-05:00

Ok, these turned out far better in person then the picture does it justice. We painted the Peanut's hand brown, and she made handprints on the LARGE balls. Then we turned them into reindeer - or should I say specifically Rudolphs. They had red gem noses and pom pom tails. On the back of the balls are her name and the year.

These are the finished ornaments that the Peanut has been working on, with gem ornaments on the trees, cotton baton beards on the Santas and googly eyes on the snowmen. She pumped out dozens of these...

I love 'em!!!!

And here is a funky tree we made for Gramma & Grampa. We put minilights in the holes and looks awesome all lit up. Kinda wish we had made one for ourselves...

Here is wishing everyone a safe and Happy Christmas :)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

2011-12-21T12:36:00.001-05:00

A little late getting the tree this year, but the important thing is we have it :) We have a family tradition where we go to Grandpa's farm and the Peanut picks a tree, and Grandpa cuts it down. Very strange this year though, because we have no snow!!!!!!

Another one of our little traditions is decorating the tree with our Santa Hats on, while singing Christmas carols. Gotta luv those little traditions that hold us tight and keep our memories strong!

Our tree is filled with decorations from past and present, many of which were gifts, many of those are homemade, and of course all of the ones that are made with love from the Peanut :) Speaking of which, I promise to post the reindeer hand ornaments that we made this year - they turned out really well!!

Merry Wednesday!!

Wooden Christmas Ornaments

2011-12-15T12:51:00.001-05:00

A few things we've been up to lately...

The Peanut has been a busy little elf doing up some wooden ornaments to her liking. She plans on finishing the Santa ones with cotton baton and who knows what else for the creative touches to the other ones...

We are also doing up some really cute handprint reindeer ornaments. Will do a post on those once they are finished (hoping to get them done tonight).

And I love the "Merry Christmas" Plaque the Peanut has made for our front entrance (we picked up the wooden sign at our local Dollar Store. I especially love the eyelashes she felt Santa needed to have!!

Hope Everyone is safe and warm, and enjoying the Christmas Season. Happy Thursday everyone!!!

Wordless Wednesday - A Visit from Santa

2011-12-14T15:34:00.000-05:00

Pretty Flower Cupcakes

2011-12-12T11:03:00.001-05:00

The Peanut decided she wants a Fairy Princess Birthday Party this year. It started out as an Under the Sea Party, but she decided at the last minute that she wanted fairy wings and an all girl party... good thing I didn't start sewing those mermaid tails!!!!

For her class, we made these pretty flower cupcakes which look amazing, are really easy, and were made out of what we already had on hand!!!! Gotta love that!

First you bake cupcakes as per the package or from scratch, and let cool. My cupcakes always seem to have some pretty wonky tops. so I cut the tops off so I have a flat surface to work on. Apply icing to the top of the cupcake.
Using mini marshmallows that you have cut in half diagonally...

Dipped in colourful sugar...

Apply to iced cupcake in circles, working from the outside in. ...

Finish with ju-jube middle (or smartie, or whatever candy you choose or have on hand) and voila!! You can use the coloured mini marshmallows as well, which makes a really pretty effect!!! Easy peasy lemon squeazy - as the Peanut would say! A little time consuming, but once you get a rhythm going, it goes quite fast. And your results look so professional and amazing :) And most importantly Peanut proud!

Happy Monday everyone, I am off to work and trying to think up some fairy princess games/crafts to do at the birthday party...

Inspirational Canvases

2011-11-29T21:42:00.002-05:00

Working on some inspirational canvases I hope to get into my shop soon ...

Train With Holiday Spirit

2011-11-25T00:00:00.002-05:00

Have you heard of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train? What a great Pay it Forward story with Holiday Spirit. It runs through North America, so check the schedule for the closest place to your town to view this awesome event - and don't forget to donate food for the food bank.

"Since the program's inception back in 1999, more than $5.6 million and over 2.45 million pounds of food has been collected in Canada and the United States.

The goal of the Holiday Train is to collect food and money for local food banks and to raise awareness in the fight against hunger. At each event, the Holiday Train provides a box car stage, a line up of great musical talents and a corporate contribution to the local food bank. The community, in turn, is encouraged to donate food and funds, all of which stays in the community."

This awesome event is a great family night of entertainment and Christmas cheer, are you going to be there?

My Story Started to Get Really Interesting When I Chose to Truly Be Me

2011-11-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

Been without my computer for awhile... missed all of you... here's a little something I was working on...

Home Sweet Home

2011-11-10T00:00:00.000-05:00

Home. It truly is where the heart is. I never fully understood that little saying until rather recently. For me, home means love, warmth, family. The where or how are just details. The material stuff is just icing, but the meat or heart of the home lies in the organic parts. The parts that can hug you back, or that provide you with that happy tingly feeling, no matter what they may be.

What does home mean to you?

October Daily Days 20-31

2011-11-09T03:24:00.002-05:00

We've been under the weather here, but I finally finished my October Daily Album, and I am very pleased with the outcome :)

Here is my October Daily album, I apologize for the not so great photos:

Now we are slowly switching gears towards the Christmas season. The Peanut and I saw these cool cone penguin, Santa and snowmen that we are going to try to make.... stay tuned!!!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T23:56:00.001-04:00

I am following a little behind as I had to get re-certified for ground search and rescue this weekend, so my Halloween plans were put on hold. We did manage to carve all of our 14 pumpkins, though - and they looked absolutely AWESOME all lit up! The Peanut went out tonight as Hannah Montana - my goodness she looked so funny with so much hair, LOL!!!

The Real Hannah Montana

The Peanut Montana

We ended up meeting up with some of her friends from school so she had a blast - not that we wouldn't have on our own. She was feeling a little under the weather and was happy with only a couple hours of Trick or Treating :) We lucked out with the weather, here, and the rain held off.

Another season down....so many plans for next year, and I will post my finished October Daily Album hopefully tomorrow.

Happy Safe Halloween Everyone!

FrankenFeet

2011-10-27T09:57:00.008-04:00

Today the Peanut and I had fun painting our feet green :) And let me tell you, for two people with the world's most ticklish feet - this was no small affair!!

After painting them green, we made green footprints on our page...

Very reminiscent of the ghosts that we did a few years back...

We then utilized our artistic prowess and turned them into FrankenFeet!

Elegant yet Macabre Halloween Wreath

2011-10-26T21:49:00.002-04:00

Do you remember last year's Spooky Halloween wreath made of feathers and eyeballs ?

I love this wreath. May be my all time favourite one. It is hanging in our kitchen. But we decided we needed one on our front door (because if I hung that one on our door, the only time we would ever see it was when we was coming or going from the house). So I saw this cool macabre, black rose wreath somewhere (can't remember where), and decided we needed something like that. So.... I took a wire hanger and started my wreath the same way as the last one (no point in buying a wreath form when I can whip one up with stuff on hand). We wrapped it in some dark fabric from my material stash...

Then we hot glued some fabric roses on...

And filled it up...

Then spray painted it all black!!! I love how there is a touch of the deep red in the base of the flowers that comes through, providing a deep, rich colour.

So easy, yet elegantly macabre and Halloweeny :)

It looks perfect on my porch where the Peanut and I have our slew of pumpkins, and we made some easy, peasy cardboard hanging bats.

Next up, Frankenfeet, hanging bats, the latest October Daily, and some more Halloween surprises!!!

Are you getting in the Halloween Spirit yet?

Frankenstuffies

2011-10-25T00:55:00.003-04:00

Meet Larry, one of the newest members of our family.

Today the Peanut and I were inspired by an etsy artist known as Monstermaud. You should definitely check her out. She sells the coolest stuffies around :)

Inspired, feeling creative and a little Frankensteinish (reminiscent of our creepy skeletons from last year) and in the Halloween mood, we decided to give some old stuffies some new life.... (And I am ALL about re-purposing, re-using, and creating)

And thanks to a sister with a washing machine who loves to eat socks (or at least one of each pair)...

The death of a stuffie...

An old, lonely sock, and the inards of a fallen friend, make the new head...

Use a ring cut off sock to tie head...

Another sock part makes for a perfect body...

Put stolen appendages in body (inside out)

Like so, just before sewing closed...

Once sewing is finished, turn right side out...

Stuff body...

Cut random pieces for arms, fold and sew along top and sides. Flip inside out and stuff. Note that the thinner you make them, the more challenging it is :)

Cut holes in side of body to stick arms thru - sew in. Put head in body and use another spare piece of material to tie it in place. Then embellish new friend as desired. I utilized Pony's mane as a mohawk, and the tail was used by the Peanut as hair. I even added a buttoned down collar to Larry. The Peanut told me James said he needs glasses.

Here is the Peanut borrowing Froggy's legs...

My little imp wanted to write "BOO" on his bum :)

The Peanut named her creation, James, while mine is named Larry. They are our very fun new housemates.

I definitely think we will be making more of these :) Alot of the stuff we just hot glue-gunned on such as the eyes, ears, some arms etc.... Frrankenstein has nothing on us!!!

Halloween Howl

2011-10-24T23:41:00.001-04:00

Well we sure had one heck of a weekend here :)

Started out with a Halloween Howl and a whole bunch of kids and their owners, some pumpkin carving... some gourd painting...

(ours is the one with lightening bolts for hair)

Some campfire songs with hot chocolate and marshmallow roasting...

Then a night hike with some owl calling. Very cool. Very fun. Very Peanut approved :)

And what better way to start out Sunday morning with some Halloween Pancakes?

Even earned a "thank you Mommy, this is the best breakfast, EVER"!

How did you spend your weekend?

Halloween Decorations TO the Max

2011-10-21T16:40:00.000-04:00

As you go into the weekend, I will leave you with thoughts of how you are going to decorate your house for Halloween..... wonder if you can beat this?

October Daily Days 17 - 19

2011-10-19T17:13:00.000-04:00

If you are just joining, I am doing an October Daily Album (documenting visually this month) and days 1-16 can be found here.

Here are Days 17, 18 and 19. I had forgotten to take photos, so used only remnants of our life :)

October Daily Days 1-16

2011-10-17T09:50:00.002-04:00

So here are my finished pages for my October Daily Album thus far...

Cover (clear acrylic):

Day 1:

Day 2:

Days 3 & 4:

Days 5 & 6:

Days 7 & 8:

Days 8 & 9:

Day 10 (The Peanut is pointing herself out!):

Day 11:

Day 12:

Day 13:

Days 14 & 15 & 16 :

Here's a cool card and Mummy hand that the Peanut made for me at the workshop:

Wonderland Camp Spooktacular

2011-10-16T14:11:00.000-04:00

The Peanut and I went to Wonderland the weekend before, and all October they have a Camp Spooky going on for the kids. Very cool!!! The Peanut was all excited to go on a treasure hunt...

When we arrived in Kidzville, the Peanut was given a treasure map...

The first treasure found was a Pirate Scarf... and then an eye patch...

The third one was a gold coin...

Then there was some ugly, rotten Pirate teeth...

A Pirate Hat...

And of course at the end some candy...

Here we are posing for a picture (those aren't my real teeth, just incase you were wondering)

Arrr arrr Matey...

And what Wonderland experience isn't complete without a Snoopy and friends singing show, and a homemade, watch them make it before you eat it, funnel cake!!

This day got a Peanut thumbs up!!!!

Halloween Arts and Crafts

2011-10-15T17:01:00.007-04:00

I was so excited about the Halloween Arts and Crafts workshop that I put on at the Art Gallery today. And Of course I had to dress the part...

For this workshop we did a Halloween card, a Spoon Witch and a Toilet Paper Mummy. Here are my mock-ups:

But the great thing about getting in a room full of creative kids... a whole bunch of unique and individual creations... one lil ingenious guy even made a coffin for his Mummy :)

I love how they all did different hair and different colour combos!! See the one on the right with one large eye, fangs and blood dripping...gotta love their imagination...now if we could just harness this awesomeness...

Note the glow in the dark spiders for the witches eyes and the funky ears on the right...

One girl had a broom with a cat on it, and notice the toothy grin in the middle...

And of course the Peanut came as my Lil Helper, and was a HUGE help handing out supplies and cleaning up ... and made a creative thing or two throughout the day! And then had a much deserved snack of grapes :) All in all an amazing Saturday!!! What did you do today?

School Zoo Trip

2011-10-13T11:50:00.000-04:00

The Peanut had a school trip to the zoo today, we had so much fun!!! Her favourites are still the snakes, and all of the beautiful HUGE aquariums. She was also mesmerized by the jellyfish. They have such a trance like beauty in their fluid movements. The penguins were quite entertaining and engaged the kids in their swimming and antics.

I can still remember taking school trips to the zoo and science centre when I was a kid. Many memories there. How about you?