Tag archive for ‘homemade’
Holiday Crafts – Easy Kids Cards
One thing I promise myself that we will do every year is send out homemade cards. When Ken and I were DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) we made the craziest Christmas cards ever like us hanging lights off of the Golden Gate Bridge, us as Star Wars characters, the list goes on.
But, that would mean [...]
Spooky Crafts – Owl Luminara
Good Morning. Halloween is creeping up on us and here at OBE headquarters we have an annual tradition of coming up with something we can light on fire.
Pumpkins shmumpkins. Yeah, they’re totally fun to carve and we love our ghoulish globs of orange madness. But, there’s something super eerie and a bit fun about coming [...]
Fabric Covered Recipe Binder
Editor’s Note: This morning the very creative Vanessa Falle is rockin’ the craft world with this super cool fabric covered recipe binder. Go get yourself crafty:
After celebrating a month of eating locally with the 30-day Food Challenge in July, I thought it would be perfectly timed to create a wonderful hand crafted recipe book to store [...]
Retro Saturday – Natural Nature Journals
OK, I concede. I’m EX-HAUSTED. There’s this great delusion in my head that if I just keep going my energy won’t realize that it has been non-existant since July of 2005:)
Anyway, I logged 13 hours of sleep last night (about 3 times my normal) and the price was no e-mails answered, no posts written, no [...]
Local Fresh Bread – Wheat- & Gluten-Free
Eating wheat-free or gluten-free doesn’t mean you have to give up foods you love! It seems these days.
Many families have to eliminate wheat products from the household grocery list because of intolerance or allergy. Bread lovers (myself included) find it hard enough to curb this staple from our daily diet (who can resist carbs!), and [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Holiday Tutorial – Card Making with Kids
There once was a little girl who so wanted to make her own holiday cards. Her mom, relatively junior in the crafty universe, yet fussy nonetheless, had personal issues about it all.
Preschool cards are messy and generally not so pretty in a traditional, big person sort of designer style way. They require a fair bit [...]
Presenting Our 2008 Holiday Green Guide
Good morning. As we are just about to head off to a very soggy Santa Claus Parade today I am getting more and more into the holiday spirit.
There’s lots of creating going on around our house – our first batch of almond toffee appeared a few days ago, sparkling walnut ornaments, homemade pompom bows made [...]
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 [...]
Homemade Butter/Buttermilk
Today we have with us, all the way from Wisconsin, the delicious family-focused food adventures of Mom In Madison’s Denise Cusack who also writes up her foodie ways over at Cook.Eat.Think
I really dig Denise for so many reasons and absolutely L-O-V-E her take on getting her little people involved in every aspect of food, from [...]
Homemade Non-toxic Finger Paints
My husband has spent his life in the midst of paint, charcoals, canvas and the computer as a professional artist. He’s also always passing along his concerns about our daughter’s zeal with paint. Her willingness to paint herself from head to toe leaves Ken in pieces, concerned for the tiny person’s health.
I didn’t get it.
He’s [...]
Raspberry Yogurt Ice Pops
Everyone keeps telling me it’s still only spring- that summer hasn’t truly arrived yet, and that we may see many more weeks of inconsistent weather yet.
The boots may come out of the closet again.
The SPF 45 might sit on the shelf for a week or more.
The barbeque cover might be put back on.
I’ve had no [...]
Do-It-Yourself Snail Shells
Tis’ the season of gooey creatures.
Spring rains are heaven in the universe of snails, slugs and other varieties of slimy forest friends. We are personally working on attaining “groupie” status in terms of L-O-V-I-N-G banana slugs and our daughter’s newest discovery – the forest snail.
She totally digs beach snails. A day on the tidal flats [...]
Recycling Project, Homemade Crayons
Crayons have long been a tough sell in our house.
While art is way up on the daily to-do list, crayons often linger at the bottom of the barrel in terms of preferred mediums.
Emerging motor skills and the quite possibly a bit of peer pressure from the crayon-loving crowd have made crayons at least usable for [...]
Nature Crafts – Bagel Bird Feeder
OK, I’m over all of this serious cold outside.
Brrrrrr…
In honour of coaxing Spring along, and making sure the local birds (who I think are as stunned as we are by this frosty snap) have enough to snack on, I went looking for some cool ideas for making backyard bird feeders today.
There are always pine cone [...]
Homemade Granola
My husband and I are off enjoying some well-earned beach combing and snuggling by the fire in Tofino this week. So, while you won’t be hearing much from me in the next few days, several special guests will be dropping by to keep me from having to spend even one second on the computer while [...]
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, [...]
Homemade Playdough Recipe
I don’t know how anyone else is managing this week’s worth of rain-filled, unscheduled free time. But, when we stumbled into the kitchen, peeked out the window and found rain again this morning I seriously wondered how today could possibly not involve many, many hours of Bob The Builder and Little Bear.
Hesitant to log the [...]
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