SHIFT News – Climate Change and Rethinking Electronics

Editor’s Note: If you missed our morning post today, be sure to check out the new format of our BUMPS column as the first of many birth stories is shared HERE. Now, as the United Nations Climate Change Conference continues in Copenhagen, Susan MacVittie from the Comox Valley’s own Watershed Sentinel is here today to [...]

Dr. Amy Wells – Natural Remedies for Holiday Stress

Editor’s Note: Happy Friday! This morning we have Dr. Amy Wells on site with ways to keep the mental pressure of the holiday season to a minimum. Here she is:
As the holiday season begins, most of us feel excitement and anticipation as we prepare for gatherings, feasts and gift giving.  We all have a vision of [...]

Register Today for the OBE Heritage Holidays at Filberg Lodge

Editor’s Note: If you missed our morning post today, check out Bobby Herron’s take on why music lessons aren’t always the right path for your budding musician HERE. Now, it’s time for some holiday cheer and a fun, old skool Comox Valley event that is all about family, stories, treats and the traditions of the [...]

A Mom’s Guide to Greener Holidays

Tis the season to consume. The holidays are all about stuff. Why is it that this time of year brings out the worst in spending? People go crazy with trend and forget all about tradition. The season is supposed to be about joy, gratitude, family and friends. But this appears to be lacking, at least [...]

Monday Morning Moms – Holiday Sanity Savers

Oh my holy no, no, no… it cannot be a month until Christmas. Seriously, how is it possible that I reach this day every year and shudder at the reality that I am so far behind and there is no turning back? Now, it’s all just about getting it done as fast as possible, with as [...]

Guest Craft Tutorial – Stamping 101

Editor’s Note: I am taking a few days off here so we’ve got a couple of guest writers this week including energetic Stampin’ Up demonstrator Susan Spyker who is here today to give us all a lesson in how to fine tune our stamping skills.
This tutorial on how to get a perfect stamp every time [...]

Friendship is Key to Managing Stress in Pregnancy

Editor’s Note: I have the most wonderful friends. Seriously, I couldn’t ask for better. They have enormous hearts and are entirely some of the most generous women I have ever known.
But, when I need them the most (ah, it’s the Cancer crab in me…or some serious issues, I’m sticking with astrology) in times of [...]

Movie Adventures & Family Flick Favourites

I am more than a bit under the weather today, reluctantly submitting to at least a few days of bed rest as while the tiny person in my belly seems to be A-OK, my body is struggling a bit through this part of pregnancy.
Being mostly couch bound is not really my speed. But, when the [...]

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 [...]

Homemade Holiday Treats – Baklava

It was my childhood Winter wonderland – this magical place where all things flour and powdered sugar, pecan tart and almond brittle converged and I knew I had caught a glimpse of perfection.
To the average person, that place looked like my grandmother’s basement. But, to me, with it packed – literally – from floor to [...]

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 [...]

Holiday Crafts – Old Skool Snow Flakes

When I was a kid, scissors were the coolest thing ever. I would, literally, spend hours during the holidays cutting out snowflake after snowflake in an effort to coat every inch of window space in our house with the white stuff.
Growing up in the Rocky Mountains, snow for the holidays was never an issue. But, [...]

Stained Glass Twinkle Lights

Has pregnancy ever sent you into the cave of solitary confinement? It’s like I know I won’t be capable of making it through more than two or three hours in any given day without some narcoleptic moment so I don’t even try to plan to do anything more than the basics any more.
The tiny person [...]

Blog Book Tour – This Is The Feast

When I first got the invitation to join in the blog book tour for This Is The Feast by Diane Z. Shore, illustrated by Megan Lloyd, I wasn’t entirely confident as we here in Canada have long passed our Thanksgiving holiday.
But, all it took was opening the package, personally sent from Shore, with a handwritten [...]

Stress-free Holidays – Tips for Getting Organized

Editor’s Note:
If you are anything like me, it generally dawns on me somewhere around Dec. 10 that Christmas is two weeks away. In the mommy universe, that very late recollection of time and, well, time, is a not-so-happy moment.
Now that we have a baby on the way (holy cow, yes, it’s true, we are pregnant [...]

The Farm – Cow Lips

Happy Canada Day.
While you are soaking up all of the family good times in the Valley that is celebrating the nation’s birthday, we are busting out our maple leaves and saluting the cow in Canada – in honour of our Hands-On Farm Friend Popsicle.
First, a few facts:
- Popsicle is a Holstein, the breed of [...]

Spinach Pesto Fettuccine

On this, the week before Mother’s Day, I’d like to offer up a recipe that I have come to love for its simplicity- or in other words- I have come to love this recipe because it is easy enough for my husband to prepare, and is downright delicious.
I know there are many husbands and partners [...]

Mother’s Day the Together Way

There’s a running debate amongst my girlfriends about whether or not we personally should have a hand in what happens on Mother’s Day.
Yes, there is a wonderful charm about waking up to a magical surprise this Sunday morning (yes, gulp hard dads, Mother’s Day is Sunday) completely crafted by your partners and tiny people to [...]

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 [...]

The Babka Kitchen Adventure

Before I get started, here’s more farm fun from Day 2 at the Hands-On Farm. The place is hopping with tiny people (and tiny lambs, two that are just one-week old):

Christa and I have teamed up today to offer up a Spring Break Adventure in the form of a family day in the kitchen.
The [...]

Easter Tic-Tac-Toe Craft

How about that sunshine? The gray is back. But, we’ve had a great couple of days hitting the beach, wandering the trails and lounging in the backyard playing dominoes. I even hung a load or two of wash on the line.
I am so ready for a return to full-time sun.
That’s pretty darn evident in the [...]

Family Craft – Pop-Up Thank You Cards

Before the husband and I took off for some time on our own this week I knew there was one thing the tiny person and I had to finish – the thank you cards from all of the great holiday gifts that showed up at our door this year.
If there’s one thing I am religious [...]

Recycle Your Christmas Tree

I have decided that the most depressing day of Winter is the day that the family takes the Christmas tree down. It’s no wonder some folks leave their lights up until February. Once the twinkle of the holidays gets packed away, waiting for the weather to warm up and the sun to come out makes [...]

Celebrate 2008, Family Style

Ringing in the New Year is generally considered an adult-style event. With traditions that focus on alcohol and late-night parties, plugging the kiddos into any celebration is a challenge to say the least.
That’s where the Comox Strathcona Regional District, Tim Hortons and McDonalds have jumped in to save the day with Family New Years celebrations [...]

Top 10 Tips for Boxing Day

It’s Boxing Day around these parts and that means one thing – SALES!
I had big plans to be out the door by 7 a.m. this morning in search of the deals of the century. But, a perogi hangover (those things are brutal in the food coma department) left me less than energetic and I am [...]

Homemade Wrapping Paper

I am not going to try today, in any way, to lead us all down the path of making our own paper in a by-hand, from-scratch sort of way. If I had infinite hours in the day and unholy amounts of patience, I might personally go that route of fiber, water and binding agents. But, [...]

Holiday Green Guide 2007

Pulling the trappings of the holiday season together and getting them ready for the big day is where you can really make a difference environmentally this year.
Millions of rolls of wrapping and tissue paper will end up decorating presents in the next few weeks – and I was seriously shocked to learn that not [...]

Holiday Family Cooking with Kids

I am NOT the queen of the kitchen.
Growing up in a family of pretty darn great cooks, I never bothered doing much of it myself. It was something so much more beloved to other people. I happily watched while they created.
What I discovered years later, when I finally felt confident that our daughter could safely [...]

Dr. Carl Ivey – Family Holiday Survival

Campbell River parenting coach Dr. Carl Ivey is back today talking about ways to lower the stress factor around your house this holiday season.
I hate to say it. But, the grumpy season has officially kicked in. I was hoping it had skipped the Valley this year – folks had been all smiles and really enjoying [...]

Holiday Mini Photo Books

While I realize most people aren’t generally as photo junkie-ish as I am (I take the camera to the grocery store…I know, it’s an issue), everyone always seems to have a giant pile of snapshots shoved in a drawer or in a computer file somewhere that needs pulling together.
With families living all over the globe [...]

Sugar-Free Holidays

So, there we were – Christa and me – brainstorming at 11:30 p.m. when both of us knew we should be asleep.
What the heck was today’s post?
Then, just as she e-mailed me about her sugar-free baking experiments, I found myself recalling all of the conversations I’d had lately with moms trying to cut the sugar [...]

Holiday Stress Busters

My parents are in town.
It’s all good, as they seldom make the 3,000-mile journey around the holidays. So, it’s a fantastic chance to hang out, tour the island and have one of those classic family moments that is the idyllic notion of Thanksgiving.
Oh, the expectations.
I don’t think I’m the only one around who busts out [...]

Talking Turkey

Are you as underprepared for the the onset of the holiday season as I am?
With Thanksgiving less than a week away, I’m starting to think I should be concerned that my parents will be here tomorrow and I’ll be lucky to have the bathroom cleaned much less have gotten all holiday-ish (although, we did make [...]