The Remarkable Emily Carr

On Saturday I took Noelle, Bergen and Emma to the Chemainus Theatre to see a live performance of, The Remarkable Emily Carr. It was fantastic! With only a 2 person cast, they depicted the life of Emily Carr from birth to death, using a script taken from her own writings. We learned so much about this Victoria born, Canadian artist and published writer. Her life was fascinating, and I love how she was brought to life for my children. After the show we were given 2 for 1 tickets to tour her family home in Victoria. The kids can't wait to go. Looks like we already have our first field trip planned. 

1 step at a time

-almost done-

Today...

...we had a house filled with 8 children

we went to the park

we painted stairs

we ate popcorn

we played twister

we feed chickens

we made hair clips

we cried

we laughed

we got stung by a bee

we did puzzles

we got wet

we got dirty

we had fun!

we did NOT clean...

we will be back tomorrow with nicer pictures.

8 is enough

There is so much I want to blog about, my stairs, the Chemainus Theatre, chickens - but for tonight I am too tired. I had 8 children under 10 here today and not 1 surface of my house survived the attack.
My 3 visitors are gone, my 10 chickens and 5 children are in bed for the night, my 1 husband helped me clean the house, and I am ready to collapse. It was a pleasure to have them though. I am glad they came! Goodnight. I will be back tomorrow.

Got Bleach?

 At least they try to wash their hands.

On the Hook

Remember to be creative when you are decorating your house. You don't have to use a towel bar because that is what everyone uses in the bathroom. Why not use hooks. Especially for a kids bathroom - they are super kid friendly (the towels look neat when the kids hang them back up and we have had more than one towel bar used as a monkey bar).

I don't have enough space in my laundry room for a bar to hang wet things up to dry, so I use a coat rack. It works great!

This picture is from Home and Harmony. I love this hook (and her blog)!

These next hooks are from Pottery Barn.

The pictures below I found on the internet and have saved over time. 

I don't have a source for them. I always try to do my very best to give the credit 

to the people who deserve it, so if you know where these came from please let me know. 

If it is yours and you would like me to source it or remove it all together, I will be happy to do so.

You can use hooks for so many different things. It breaks things up a little and makes something ordinary, a lot more interesting, and they are just cute!

Recycling and repurposing at its best

I just thought that I would share a fun idea with you today that I found on the internet. This is a caddy made with a piece of wood and some tin cans from Martha Stewart.com

This is another version of the same idea from the blog Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie lynn. She is a super crafter. She has made some incredibly cute things. I think I like her version even better! 

You could use this for pencils, markers and scissors (like Martha), or flowers (as above) or to hold your cutlery at a party, or candles, or whatever else you can imagine.

 Here is another project idea for reusing tin cans.

{I don't know the source of this picture, but the credit goes to them}

Barbershop in the Bathtub

Bubbles are just fun!

The Stairs

Ever since we moved into this house 4 years ago I have wanted to paint the wooden hand rail and add some molding to the stairs. It has always just looked unfinished. I have been putting it off as I knew it would be a long and tedious job. But I finally decided to tackle it and although I had to tape around EVERYTHING, I am so glad I did.

{before}

{during}

I finished the one side and now I just have to finish the other side. But it is coming along! 

Flying the Coop

Up until yesterday our little chicks (that aren't quite so little anymore), were in our bathroom (contained, but still). This wasn't an issue when they were 4 days old, but now at 4 weeks, they are welcome in my en suite no longer. This was an problem because they are still too young to be put with the older birds in the chicken coop and we have no where else to keep them safe. We needed to come up with another option for the next 6-8 weeks. So last night this is what I built! Pretty, no. Functional and super exciting because it means that I would no longer have birds in my bathroom, YES!

The Last Straw

I was at Superstore today and I saw these really cute straws for 99 cents, and I thought, I don't have straws, I should get some for the kids {they are always asking if we have straws} and just to have on hand for get-togethers. Who doesn't love straws! They just make everything taste better. {Oh, and for the record I am a notorious straw bitter. So much so, that if Darren and I share a drink he will ALWAYS get 2 straws. Not for germs, oh, no - but because I bite!}

Anyways, I bought 6 packages {well o.k. I bought 12, but the other six packages were a different color, so it really doesn't count}. It wasn't until I got home and I was looking for a place to put them that I realized that each package contains 200 straws! I am sure that you can do the math - do you think I got enough?! 

Months ago, I bought these 3 metal nesting containers at Liquidation World. I use the biggest one for a trash can in the main bathroom, and the medium one is being used in the kids bathroom and I had the smallest one sitting on the bookshelf, looking pretty but not really doing anything. So I used it. It fit all 6 packages of straws perfectly! Now whenever the kids want a straw, they are ready and available.