Monday Moms – Independent West Coast Fashion

Oh how I love clothes. Really, if there is one thing in life that I know will make a grim day bright it’s a soft, pretty sweater, or that great jacket that makes me feel super confident and collected.
I generally think of myself as a fairly practical woman – rarely extravagant. But, splurging on something [...]

Product Review – Local Cloth Sandwich Bags

Editor’s Note: If you are in some serious need of inspiration to leave the house today after a fabulously hot weekend jamming at MusicFest (I was so tired I went to bed at 8 p.m. last night), I have one – cheese, of the French kind.
Natural Pastures Cheese Co. is having its second cheese tour [...]

Summer Crafts – DIY Canada Day Magnets

Ah, Canada Day.
I love this country and give it a solid go every year when it comes to busting out the patriotic gear. But, getting the tiny person plugged in to something more than the candy from the Canada parade is, well, challenging.
She’s at the age of dis-interest – too young for a bigger history [...]

Mom Review – Woodland Rogue

Editor’s Note: In honor of Earth Day (April 22) and all of the exciting OBE events going on like the CVRD Earth Day celebrations and ribbon cutting on the new Family Community Gardens this Saturday, we’ll be focusing the next couple of weeks on ways that you can think green and live gently on the [...]

Holiday Craft Tutorial – Homemade Wrapping Paper

It wasn’t an uncommon site – back in the day – for the moms in our lives to lock themselves in a back bedroom one December afternoon. I thought it was some sort of magic, how they went in and came out a few hours later rather refreshed (6 hours of peace and quiet will [...]

Holiday Traditions – Handmade Christmas Crackers

Since I was a little girl, I’ve had this picture in my head of the perfect way to make everyone in the family – wherever they are – smile at the same time and think of each other.
Maybe I did myself in early with grand visions of a Norman Rockwell holiday where everyone – for [...]

Holiday Craft Tutorial – Cookie Cutter Gift Tags

The last couple of years, as I spend more time with folks like the David Suzuki Foundation and learn from folks like the Comox Valley Regional District, I find myself a wee bit overwhelmed at the things that AREN’T recyclable during the holidays.
One thing that I never even thought about was gift tags. In fact, [...]

A Garden Full of Family Holiday Creations

With Christmas just around the corner I am starting to scramble…
WHAT am I going to get everyone this year? Ideally, each year my children and I will create a beautiful, crafty tree ornament. Two years ago we made playdoh angels. Last year is a bit of a blur.
Now it is that time again… But coming [...]

Make Your Own (reusable) Advent Calendar

Editor’s Note: Usually the last Friday of the month is reserved for Bevin Clempson’s witty Green-e-ology column. Not to worry, she’ll be here on Sunday talking about her conversion to reusable water bottles and coffee mugs. But, today we have a bit of a special feature that couldn’t wait.
Vanessa Falle of Lotus Paperie – a [...]

Hidden Secrets at Finlay Creek Farm

Editor’s Note: Today our intrepid local food writer Robyn Butler is revealing a true diamond in the rough when it comes to local charm and absolutely amazing products.
I had the chance to meet the women who run Finlay Creek Farm on Halloween and, I have to tell you, they are two of the most charming [...]

Flying Bat Puppets

Ugh. One very sick monster decided to visit our house last night, passing by everyone else and gifting his goo to me and me alone. It is remarkable how unwell a person can feel in the span of a couple of hours. So, here I am at 8:30 a.m. still making my way through the [...]

Handmade Paper Bracelets

Our daughter isn’t generally what you’d think of as traditionally girlie.
She serves tea to her monsters while having a growling competition with them, has a distinct aversion to a life that doesn’t involve dirt, thinks dolls are silly (she prefers the “human kind” of babies) and is spending next week learning the ins and outs [...]

Making Bookmarks to Track Our Tales

Our daughter loves stories.
From the second she pops her head up in the morning until she falls asleep to them at night, yarns about everything from how monsters make nutty butter to the vacations her collection of puppets are on float through the air non-stop.
She is ALWAYS making something up, building imaginary cities, talking with [...]

Seashell Maracas

Editor’s Note: In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that the NeighbourWood Walk for next week would be out at Cumberland Community Forest. I blame it on birthday brain. We aren’t in Cumberland next week. We’re out at Ship’s Point in Fanny Bay.
Sorry about that.
Read on and it may make sense to you why my brain is [...]

The Farm – Keep Cool, Pioneer Style

It is HOT on the Farm these days.
This week is blazing as the dog days of Summer set in the animals are feeling it too, bucking for shady spots and taking quick dips in the pool (they have one, ya know) to beat the heat.
Our Hands-On Farm Friend, Popsicle, was feeling a little sluggish in [...]

Mom-P-Inc. – Sarah Stromquist of Kasa Bags

Motherhood, it changes you.
While there’s a whole list that involves sagging and wrinkled, exhausted and emotional that can be wrapped in there, for many women becoming a Mom takes life to a whole other level.
It brings out our genuine loves, forces them into places creatively and personally that reveal talents and ingenuity unrealized until that [...]

Homemade Matching Games

Our daughter loves to match.
You wouldn’t guess it from her willingness to throw outrageous outfits together on a whim (although, they are amazingly colour coordinated).
But, she is methodical about discovering how things go together in a pattern, texture and colour sort of way.
She’ll spend literally hours making piles of buttons, shells, ribbon, anything she can [...]

Family Crafting – Tin Punching

When I first started collecting supplies like a mallet, a nail, wood and tin plates, Ken wasn’t too stoked about the tiny person taking part in our first crafting adventure involving actual tools.
I totally admit that the whole concept of a 35-month-old and a mallet was mildly daunting. But, she digs tools and I really [...]

Union Bay’s Coal Hills & Flower Chains

There are some places that need to be seen in the name of historical reference.
You may not be catching said locale in its heyday. But, the remnants of a past long gone are amazing clues to recreating the scene for yourself.
The Coal Hills in Union Bay is one of those places.
Ken is my reference, as [...]

Flower Stamped Mother’s Day Cards

It’s about 10 days before every holiday that demands something cute, sentimental and homemade be sent thousands of miles to grandmas and grandpas that I realize I have failed. (mail takes roughly two weeks to get where it is going for us)
I am, or at least have been, the woman who shops or makes or [...]

Family Craft – Button Flowers

“We have to go out and check the flowers!” our daughter has yelled from her room the second her eyes popped open each morning for the last week. “They might have bloomed overnight. We have to go see.”
And so, every day about 7 a.m., you can find us standing on the cedar boards of the [...]

The Northeast Woods & Hand Trees

This is the second in our 4-part series of Spring walks that include insider details and activities to pair with some of our favourite trails around the region
Check back in every Sunday in April for a new walk and some fun tips to get the family outside enjoying the season together.

Wow, it’s gorgeous outside, [...]

Nature Crafts – Make Your Own Nature Journal

I cannot even begin to count the number of science, language and history lessons that went in one ear and out the other for me in my life.
Book learning has never been my forte.
I appreciate having a book in hand – field guides take up some prominent real estate in our day pack – but [...]

MacDonald Wood and Magic Wands

This is the first in our 4-part series of Spring walks that include insider details and activities to pair with some of our favourite trails around the region. Check back in every Sunday in April for a new walk and some fun tips to get the family outside enjoying the season together.

We first discovered MacDonald [...]

The Paper-Bag Easter Basket & Easter Bunny

The other day I found myself cruising the aisles at an unnamed big-box store in complete awe of the piles of gear available for Easter festivities of the kid-related kind.
Unbelievable…really.
..and then I left, entirely empty-handed.
I was shocked at my lack of a purchase. My childhood Easters were filled with plastic eggs cracked open to discover [...]