Spruce Up Your Front Door With Your Child's Art

Artwork by Quin & Mama

Every year in June, our local library has a children's art show. It is a lot of fun for everyone involved. Last year, Quin and Andre made a painting and dropped it off together while I was at home with a brand new babe :). We all made it to the show's opening, including a two week old, Emmanuelle. When the show was over, we decided to hang the painting on our front door. Ever since then we have showcased Quin's art there (and all over the house). It makes me smile every time I come home. And people who stop by for a visit always comment. We decided to put some new work on the door a couple of weeks ago, right before I hosted a spring clothing swap. It really brought a touch of spring to our entrance. You can do the same, in a few easy steps, using recycled cardboard and yarn or ribbon. Yippee for kiddo art!


How to Showcase Your Child's Art on Your Front Door
By Tiffany Teske

What You will Need
~ Your child's art
~ Poster board
~ Cardboard
~ Hole Punch
~ Yarn or ribbon

1. Cut either your child's art to fit on the poster board or the poster board to be larger than your child's art. I like a 1" - 2" border. Glue the art on the poster board using white glue. Smooth out with your hands, making sure everything is well attached.


2. Cut cardboard to a bit smaller than the poster board and glue them together using white glue. Smooth out and make sure they are well attached.

3. Punch two holes at the top of the poster board, a couple of inches in from each side, using your hole punch. Here I used a regular round punch but I have used shaped punches for a more decorative hole.

4. Thread your yarn or ribbon through each hole from front to back, then knot each end. Voila! It is ready to hang on your door and make people, especially your little one, smile.


I love this photograph of Quin diligently photographing her art...


A view of some of the items for offer at the clothing/book/housewares swap my friend, Kim, & I hosted. Here is a post I wrote in the fall about how to host a clothing swap. It is a great way to socialize with friends and meet new people, Plus you keep your old items out of the landfill while finding some new used items for yourself.


Aren't these tulips a lovely springy hostess gift?! Thanks, Amelie!

Robin Red Breast & Cozy Cave Cake

A couple of days ago I saw a robin red breast land on the freshly fallen snow. It made me smile and roll my eyes at the irony of what is called spring in our area. We seem to have had more snow since the first day of spring than we had all winter.


For my three year old daughter's Easter bunny gift, I bought a cake from my friend, Alannah's, amazing bakery, Cozy Cave Bakehouse. My 10 month old and I walked to town in a spring blizzard to buy it (another spring blizzard, more irony). What I love about Alannah's creations, next to the taste, is how beautiful they look and how much attention to detail she puts in the packaging. I could have bought anything chocolate that day but I bought the cake because we could share it, it was indeed a chocolate egg, and because of the vintage egg shaped box it came in. Thanks to Cozy Cave we have one awesome Easter bunny who comes to our house. He also brought the most delicious iced sugar cookies...

Happy Spring!

Yippee! Spring is here! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE winter, but ours has been so mild this year that I am ready for spring. Just the other day I was thinking about how the kiddos and I are lingering longer outside. In the winter I am a good mom for taking the time for memory making in our home but I tend to rush through our outdoor activities in an effort to get where we are going. My husband is the winter "outdoor" guy. Once spring rolls around I start to slow down and yearn for the outdoors. I am inspired to be playful as I watch Quin and follow her lead.


It is so important to balance on a parking curb, to jump in a puddle, to jump off a step, to smile and to stop for a treat (ok, so I do those two things all year round).


If you need some inspiration on embracing spring with your kids, please read a very good friend's post about 10 Ways to Welcome Spring.

Easter Weekend, SO FUN!

We had a really great Easter weekend. Quin and I made onion skin dyed eggs, as you can see in the post below. We were visited by friends who are as close as family for dinner on Saturday night, and we have had Andre's parents here with us since the 3rd. Andre made a great dinner of tenderloin from a local butcher, Valbella Meats, with all the fixings on Saturday night. I am a vegie, so none for me, but I was happy to see everyone enjoying their Alberta beef. My hubby is great in the kitchen!


The "Easter Bunny" brought Quin this cute little wooden doll family, in a plush Easter Basket my mom gave her last year.


I also found this beautifully wrapped Italian chocolate egg at Mountain Mercado Cafe in Canmore. This is the first year that Q has really "gotten" the whole holiday thing, which makes it a lot of fun. Although, we don't like to go overboard, and this day was full of overboard when it came to chocolate. The two photos below are worth a thousand words, when it comes to how good chocolate covered cream puffs are...




We did find a way to fit a lot of fun Easter crafts in along with the chocolate... And to have a lovely day surrounded by friends and family in our wonderful community of Banff. Since my eyelids are closing I will resort to captions for the rest of this post...


PAPER BUNNY DOLL CARD FROM GREAT GRAMMA MEME



EASTER BONNET WITH FELT APPLIQUES THAT WE PUT ON OURSELVES, DIY EASTER BONNET KIT


COOKIE DECORATING AT EASTER BRUNCH AT THE JUNIPER


FACE PAINTING AT THE AWESOME YWCA EASTER PARTY



MAKING BUNNY EARS AT THE YWCA


HANGING WITH BUDDY "E"


HUNTING FOR EGGS AT THE YWCA


ONE OF MOMMY'S FAMOUS BATHROOM SELF PORTRAITS AT THE JUNIPER


EASTER FAMILY PORTRAIT OUTSIDE THE JUNIPER

Crafting with Our Senior Friends

My inlaws are visiting but they took the opportunity to make a two day trip to Golden, BC, to ski Kicking Horse. So, I brought Quin to the class I had to teach at Mount Edith House on Tuesday. I knew that Sue and I would be working with the residents to dye Easter eggs, so I knew Quin would enjoy it. Turns out two other children joined us, since they are on what is called March break (even if it is April...).


Sue outdid herself this time. I always wonder why she even hires me to come and "teach" since she is the one who gathers all the supplies and then gets right into it. I pick the project, and I guess I am there as the "expert" but she is so organized and into it, that I always feel like I am not earning my keep. This time she has gathered pussy willows, rice, and brightly colored plant pots, and when I got there, she had the other little girl filling the pots with rice. Quin helped, too. The other girl must be about 7 years old. She was very kind to Quin.





Soon after the girls had set the pots up on the table, and our senior friends had gathered, Sue and I decided that since we didn't have access to a stove top, that we should scrap our original dying idea (which I will blog about in my next post) and she opened up the various dye kits she had that involved drawing and painting color onto hollow eggs. These techniques worked very well for Quin, who got right into it, with the help of a friend of mine's very sweet grandmother. By the end of an hour, the table was full of beautiful egg creations and pussy willow trees. I think I like Easter a bit more each year. Maybe it is because each year I look more forward to spring...





Another successful social crafting session with our local friends!

Snow Day?!

Ok, so after a very springy day yesterday, 16C/60F, we were a bit surprised to wake up to a bit of a morning blizzard. Not that it would be unheard of to have snow in mid April, but at about 1 AM it was POURING outside. And at 9 AM, well, there was about 4 inches of snow stuck to everything. A winter wonderland. And once I got over my annoyance that it is still winter, which by the way IS my favorite season, I was a bit overjoyed by the beauty. And Quin was of course happy to don her snowsuit for a bit of a frolick on the back deck...





The craziest part is that we needed to go to Canmore in the afternoon and about an hour before we needed to leave I thought about staying home. Then, all of the sudden, it warmed up and everything melted just like that! I was really glad I had taken the time to capture this fleeting morning gift.