Christmas crafts circa 2006 (the good ol’ days)

We’re in the middle of Seasonal crazy, you just can’t avoid it.

I thought I would remind you of some good seasonal stuff from 2006 – when I could muster a little more energy for crafts than one small window of paper snowflakes.

In 2006 Phil and I had a second baby and simultaneously started blogging about children’s crafts and activities over at kiddley.com — we soon discovered that maintaining multiple blogs, jobs and having a newborn was enough to drive anyone bonkers so we dropped it (the blog, not the baby) in early 2007. We were sad to let it go as it was a popular spot and kept us motivated to try some great things we would otherwise never have considered.

One thing that was especially super awesome about kiddley was all the guest posts we got for the holiday period in November and December. Some of my all time favourite craft and parenting bloggers were so very kind and generous with their time and creativity, contributing their favourite projects for the season. I look at this list of amazing women and think about the years since and all the things that have happened in their lives : the sweet things, the sad things, the successes and the friendships. I still consider these women some of the most important on the internet, to me and to their legions of fans.

Look and find:

Advent stockings from Amanda Soule of Soulemama

Crazy hat crackers from Amber Carvan of Kids Craft Weekly

The incredibly popular Gumdrop Wreath from the beautiful, beautiful Alicia Paulson of Posie gets Cozy

Dress up paper doll and ornament from Sarah Neuburger of The Small Object

Christmas fun jar from Andrea Corrona Jenkins from Hula Seventy

Junk Food Ornaments from Heather Bailey of Hello My Name is Heather

Tealight Place settings from Carly Schwerdt from Moopy and Me

Festive Bird Finger Puppets from Lyn Roberts from Molly Chicken (sniff! miss her)

Paper Santa Lucia crowns and hats from Stephanie Congdon Barnes (oh and how I miss her too!)

Pecan + pretzel + chocolate = delicious from Amy Karol of Angry Chicken

Camping with kids and Presents for kids to make for their friends and Cheap and Easy Gifts for multiples of  kids from Kathreen Ricketson of Whipup

Planning for the holidays from Asha Dornfest of Parenthacks

Paper garlands from Fiona Dalton of Hop Skip Jump

Christmas Piñatas from Alison Brookbanks of Six and a Half Stitches

Pom-pom garland from Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane

Making candy cane and lollipop ornaments from Christina Gordon of Jam Fancy

Pinecone hedgehogs and Origami Advent Calendar from Myra Masuda of My Little Mochi

Advent Stick Jo from Artsy Fartsy Mama

and last but by no means least,

Fall Leaf Art from Blair Stocker of Wisecraft

 

dodgy phone photos of advent activities

Are you adventing this year? We are trying to squeeze things around all the commitments. As I’ve said before, don’t try moving to a small community to find the ‘quiet life’ – there is no ‘quiet life’ – even with a four-day school week things just  keep on getting busier.

So yes, Advent: While Lily is still busting with excitement with each new day’s simple idea, I have discovered that Amelia is less enthused about the activities this year. She wants to be excited and then when she opens the card she does a little sigh of disappointment. There is such a fine line between keeping it simple (achievable) and making it appeal to the jaded pre-pre-teen crowd. She cut one snow flake before telling me it was “kinda boring” and headed for the hills. Breakfast for dinner (not just a bowl of cheerios but the full eggs and bacon extravaganza) was apparently “no offence mum, but pretty lame.”

That being said, it hasn’t been a complete fail – She really, really liked our “unplugged night” (thanks to Maya for the idea) where we ate and read by candle light. Unfortunately Lily hated it, being terrified of the dark. Last night we did “fancy dress for dinner time”. The air was thick with the smell of hair gel and everyone looked sharp. Sock puppet story time still seems to be a favourite, despite Amelia’s grand old age of 9. Next year I might add in some extreme sports to spice things up.

12!

Hey!

Last Saturday night we were distracted by a homestyle rib-fest celebrating a nephew’s 25th birthday but it was also a special day for my blog. It turned 12 years old.

My blog is OLD. My blog used to be called an “online journal” – that’s how old it is. My blog was once cut up into the tastiest of tasty html chunks and uploaded as a static page, every day. Seriously geriatric!

I really don’t have many thoughts about this particular milestone other than “OLD”, but you know? I like my blog. I like it even when it isn’t doing much. I like being a blogger even though I’m not creating an empire or a magazine or a platform. I like it when you come by to visit, so thanks for persisting despite the quiet. You’re all my favourites.

Brrr…

Snow! Beautiful Saturday morning.

We didn’t do a lot this last weekend. The weekend seemed to be brought to us by the letter P:

Pale and wan. Puzzles. Popcorn. Pizza. Puss in Boots. Pumpkin pie.

This puzzle is a brilliant family puzzle. So many good little bits. It seems to have great balance between concentrated effort and ease.

1) Speaking of snow – I’ve been listening to the new releases from two of my favourites – Kate Bush (listen to a stream here on NPR) and Bjork. Oh yes. New wintery tracks in abundance. Also listening quite obsessively to the gorgeous  Chris Bathgate. And also listening to locals Fish & Bird and also Jon & Roy – although at this point, certain family members are starting to suggest that I’m turning into a hillbilly.

2) I made this thai curry upon my friend discovering lime leaves in the grocery store. Next time I would use less lime leaves and not even expect that the children might like it.

3) They do, however, like pumpkin pie – even if I do forget to put on the kitchen timer and burn it.

4) Are we talking about Christmas yet? …I didn’t think so.