Wordy Wednesday

One kind word can warm three winter months. Japanese proverb

Up Up and away - Paper Mache hot air balloon

Even though these dollies had their choice of transportation

(hot pink barbie car, sparkly purple horse and so on)

they were not satisfied till they had a HOT AIR BALLOON !

A Valentine's Day Prayer

A VALENTINE'S DAY PRAYER - the ultimate love

Ephesians 3:16-21

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you MIGHTY inner strength through his Holy Spirit

And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love.

And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should,

how wide,

how long,

how high,

and how deep

his love really is.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so GREAT you will never fully understand it.

Then you will be filled with the FULLNESS of life and power that comes from God.

Now GLORY be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.

May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.

Snowy Science

Mom, what melts snow?

What do you think honey?

Ice!!

Well let's see...

Ice? - Nope




The furnace? (aka sun) - Yep!



Salt? Kind of - not really



Hairdryer (aka Warm breeze) - Oh Yes!

Wordy Wednesday : Winter 2

A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn. ~Author Unknown

Snow day baking

Who needs a mud pie
when you can have a snowy cupcake

Snow day play

Baking supplies transformed into snow stencils

Wordy Wednesday : Winter

In the depth of winter,
I finally learned that within me
there lay an invincible summer. Albert Camus

Those tiny hands

Sometimes I wonder how I will survive 20 years from now. That these times I'm in right now might simply be the highlight of my life. Those tiny fingers, chubby cheeks, the little ones following me everywhere ( and I mean absolutely everywhere). How they want to be with me. What if this is it? How can I live with a quiet house and no tiny legs pitter pattering everywhere. The day will come when they leave... when they think someone else is their "BEST", then what.

Oh it hurts my heart to think of them all grown up, distant - perhaps in body and in heart.

So what do I do?

I leave the house's messes, the phone calls for appointments, the way overdue thank you cards and I nuzzle my nose in that soft little neck. I listen and delight in the tickling squeels and I savour, sovour, savour every moment....

Until tomorrow when the tantrums and 4 year old attitude drive me bonkers and I imagine the day they'll play by themselves for more than five minutes.

Celebrating Winter

I'm a beach bum, born and raised in Sunny South Africa. As a girl you could always find me in a pool or in an ocean, basking in the sun with bleach blond hair and freckles galore. I love love love the sun and water...and yet here I am. In peaceful Canada. A country with cold winters, a country with loooong winters, a country where everyone complains about the winters (including me).

So after another rant by me how I need to get out of here, how I need to go south, how I need to escape right now, my husband suggested I take a walk outside and try to find the beauty in winter. I huffed and puffed while I took 30min to put on all the gear, got outside in the pitch blackness (it was only 6pm) and I started walking....

And what I found was ...well... It was beautiful!

Slow falling snow flakes, tree branches illuminated with white snow sparkling in the moonlight , huge bright stars, full moon and the sound ... of nothing...simply quiet. Like a deep breath between the decay of fall and the hustle of spring.

So here is my vow. This winter I will look for the beauty in my current situation. And I would like to share that journey with you by sharing tons of art and craft projects inspired by winter. Every Friday will be "snow day" so pop on by, have a mug of hot coco with me and lets marvel at this season full of hidden treasures

It's a marshmallow world in the winter

Who knew that simple ingredients like corn syrup, sugar, salt and gelatin can be whipped up into these delicious homemade marshmallows in only 15 minutes.


What is baking in your kitchen this winter?

Weekend wishes

May your weekend be filled with happy "twists and shouts" with your kiddies and nice slow dancing with your hubby!

Dancing - a new technique

Sometimes when I've sketched an image I see so many possibilities for the colour scheme. But once painted I only have one final piece to show.

So I've been playing with our scanner and photocopier to make tons of little ballerinas. Then during craft time Semay and I dressed them up. Hers had fairy wings, mine looked like this...

Wordy Wednesday

There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. ~Vicki Baum

Ballerina craft

This was so much fun!


Semay started drawing faces without bodies so we decided we'll make this ballerina a tutu out of pipecleaners. .. (I sure love this girly)

A new year! A fresh new year...and I feel like dancing!

In our house there is a lot of dancing.

Little jigs, twists and shouts and even the occasional headbanging.

But mostly it is the softer kind, the kind done on tippy toes with long arms up in the air. With giant fluffly tutus (lovingly made by aunties) and sparkly shoes.

So I dedicate this week to dancing. And especially to ballerinas young and old.

Happy Fresh New Year!