art lessons

The Princess loves to draw, to colour, to cut, to glue, to paint. I love all of that too, but because we don't have a studio or even a corner where I can leave a project out indefinitely I don't do it very often. And I hate to be interrupted when I'm painting, which doesn't make for a very good mommy.

Sometimes though, I give in to the constant refrain of "let's do a craft Mommy! Let's make a picture!"; and on Monday I pulled out some old watercolour supplies and taught the Princess how to use them. She blew my mind.



" the sea " watercolour by the Princess, January 2009



Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? (Cheap frame from Ikea - fabulous for displaying children's artwork)

Watercolours are the perfect medium for children. The mess is minimal, and they are entranced by the way the paint glides and flows on the paper. Besides, the best results come with loose free strokes, which is natural for them. If you know a child who loves art, this is what you should get them for their next birthday.

A few tips: 1. buy a watercolour block, which is a pad of paper that is glued all around the edges except for a small section where you can slip in a knife and pull each finished painting off once it's dry. This keeps the paper stretched and flat.

2. And real paint. It doesn't have to be expensive, but get a student quality set from an art supply. Pans are better than tubes for little ones.

3. The paper can take a lot of water, have them brush clean water over the entire surface of the paper before starting.

4. The paint will dry lighter, so if they want vivid colour, have them load it on.

5. Give them some salt (I like sea salt best for this, but experiment!) to sprinkle in the wet paint to make a speckled effect.

6. Although some pigments are more permanent than others, sometimes paint can be removed from the paper by wetting and blotting with a tissue or paper towel (Q-tips are good for small areas)

Let me see your kids' best work. I love all of it.

11 minutes

That's how long the boy was dressed today.

It's snowing and it's cold and I had no compelling reason to leave the house this morning; so we ate breakfast late, and I puttered around for hours while the kids played. I finally hopped into the shower at 12:00, and to be honest, I only did it because I know I have to go out to the Princess' school this evening. As is his custom, Bad came storming into the bathroom the second the water started and stripped off his jammies to join me. (a warning: should you ever want to shower here, you're more than welcome, but don't think you're going to be allowed to do it alone)

He played in the tub while I got dressed and did my hair, then I called the Princess to come get dressed, threw clothes on the boy and made peanut butter sandwiches for their lunch. 2 seconds later Bad was covered in his chocolate milk. I took him upstairs and opened his drawer. I had a pair of jeans in my hand when I thought, it's 'snuggle-up and read' night at school, and all the kids are supposed to come in their pyjamas, so what's the point in dirtying another outfit? I dropped the jeans and grabbed some fleece pyjamas.

You've got to be kidding....

When I took Bad for his 2 year well-baby check in December, our doctor expressed some mild concern over his speech development and told me that she was going to refer him for a speech assessment. He definitely doesn't talk as much as his sister did at the same age, and he leaves the first syllable off a lot of his words, but I'd never really worried.

Today I got a call telling me that his referral had been received, and an information package had been mailed to me that I was to fill out and send back. "And then," said the chipper voice on the other end of the phone, "as soon as there's an available space, we'll have someone call you with an appointment. The waiting time right now is between 10 and 14 months."

10 and 14 MONTHS? I think Bad will catch up on his own, and I know my doctor likes to take a pro-active, early intervention approach with speech issues, precisely because the wait times are long; but that's just ridiculous. No child should have to wait that long for an assessment, let alone help. Methinks the healthcare system needs yet more tinkering. Preferably by someone not in government.

And it only took me 3 1/2 years!

I painted the background of this canvas 3 1/2 years ago, but I didn't like the way the subject was progressing, so I propped it on the mantle to ponder. It has sat there and mocked me ever since. Then, just before Christmas, I was doodling and colouring with the Princess and we made a big picture together that I loved. I laid it on top of the canvas and the juxtaposition of the two really struck me. Inspiration! At last! The result (and sorry for the crappy photography, I need a new camera!):





'just the way love grows' - mixed media on canvas

The Forever House

Hubs and I have a big dream. The forever house. A house that we'd have custom designed and built. My background is in interior design, and Hubs works on the peripheral of the design industry, selling industrial products to kitchen and furniture manufacturers. We know what we want in a house, and now we just need to get there. We love our current home, but she's an aging and demanding mistress; we want a less complicated romance.

Yesterday I was e-mailing with Jen about the building of their dream home, and she was full of amazing resources and advice. Then I went over and read her whole house blog which documents their journey. (The house is almost finished. And. It. Is. Stunning. If I didn't like the girl so much I'd be sick with jealousy.) The chat and the blog brought our house dream back to the forefront of my mind, we know it's at least 5 years away, but that's no reason I can't start planning.

So - without further ado, the first draft of the wish list:

The Forever House of Bad

1. A huge soft deep sofa under huge south-facing windows for afternoon naps.
2. A big mudroom with cubbies and closets for coats and boots - and a spot for washing up grubby pets and children - separated from the rest of the house with a door.
3. Closet organizers in every closet. And there will be many, many, closets.
4. Low maintenance house. Low maintenance finishes inside and out.
5. Efficient and healthy systems - HVAC, windows, appliances
6. A gas stovetop - I'm not going electric for anyone.
7. A master bath where the wc can't be seen from the tub.
8. High ceilings - at least 9', and hopefully something cathedral somewhere.
9. Ergonomic kitchen
10. A pantry and a coldroom
11. Big mainfloor family space - I don't want, ever, to have my children shunted off to the basement (okay, maybe occasionally, but not as a way of life!)
12. Central vac (with a slot under the kitchen base cabinets you can sweep directly into)
13. A room of my own - to paint, to write, to make messy with projects, that I can just shut the door on.

Tell me - what do you love most about your home, why, and what should I add to my list?

Livid

We don't have a lot of expensive furniture, but we do have a beautiful sofa. We ordered it custom, and the company had never made it as a sectional before, but they did, and it turned out so well that they added it to their regular collection. And they feature it on their website, and in the fabric I chose, no less! This is what my sofa looked like this morning.


And this is what my sofa looked like this afternoon, thanks to Bad and the ballpoint pen he stole off of Hub's desk.


I scrubbed out the pen, but my sofa is now covered in blotchy spots and I'm hoping that a steam cleaning will fix it, but I don't know if it will ever be right again.

I'm way more upset than I probably should be; all my children are healthy, afterall. (Something of a miracle in itself, don't you think?) Please, if anyone knows anything about upholstery cleaning, let me know. I'm going to try to arrange something tomorrow or Monday.

Unbalanced diet

I hope that the old adage "you are what you eat" won't really hold true, because so far today my 2- year old has eaten:

Breakfast - 3/4 of a can of this (he saw it in the cupboard and refused to entertain the idea of any other meal) , a glass of chocolate milk (but not so very chocolately - after he'd seen me making chocolate milk for the princess' school lunch, you didn't think he'd take his plain, did you?), and a slice of toast with peanut butter.

Lunch - 3 x 100g containers of bio-best yogurt (2 blueberry, 1 raspberry) and 3 slices of toast with peanut butter (And he's standing on his chair shouting "More! More! More!").

Whatever could I make for dinner to round out this wholesome diet day?

I suppose it's to be expected

Since I weaned him, Bad has been having a lot of temper tantrums. Truly alarming temper tantrums. A LOT of truly alarming temper tantrums. I guess he's realized that he's got a good 14 or 15 years before he can get in any quality boob time again. I think that would hit any man hard.

On the flip side, Hubs is grinning like a teenager who just copped his first feel.

Silver Linings

I woke up this morning with my nose as stuffed up and useless as if it had been filled with cement. My head was pounding. My tongue was thick with the disgusting film that breathing through your mouth all night brings. I moaned in distress, "I'm sick!" Through my haze of misery I detected a little niggling at the back of my brain. I lay still and let it swim to the front where I could catch it - drugs. Drugs! Glorious drugs! Bad is weaned. For the first time in almost 3 years, I can take a decongestant. I can take painkillers stronger than a regular Tylenol. For the first time in 3 years, and after countless colds and sinus infections suffered in stoic and drug-free silence, I can take medicine! What's more, I can take it without first staging a finger-wagging internal debate. Yay! I'm off to Shoppers now, to lay claim to my own little slice of pharmaceutical heaven.

xo Badness

Kick me when I'm down - the Happy New Year's edition

We actually had a wonderful New Year's Eve. We threw a mattress on the floor in front of the sofa and loaded it down with blankets and pillows for family movie night. (Complete with popcorn and peanut m&m's!) Only Hubs and the dog made it to the countdown, but the rest of us were confident that the New Year would safely arrive whether we stayed up to welcome it or not.

Yesterday morning held another first, the one that makes me feel a bit battered, because it makes me feel like my baby really is growing up.



What the HELL is she doing to me?


Well....alright....if you want to give me a lolly....



Happy New Year's dudes....you might want to start locking up your daughters.