While in Burlington, Vermont, we stopped by one of my favourite stores: Creative Habitat. I happened to spot these bags of wooden objects on a shelf. We were elated to find they were odds & end unfinished wooden items for just $4.99.



These objects are everything but he kitchen sink: little wooden eggs, flat shapes that I can only assume are for toll painting (including little ginger bread man shapes), drawer knobs, flat discs that look like they were for wheels on wooden cars, tiny cylinders & stick like objects – even a finished wooden yo-yo whose only problem is that the screen printing is imperfect. All unfinished wood and loads of imaginative fun! We broke these open in the hotel room and the kids had a ball. Ava likes to put the items one by one in a bowl. At first, Sophie did not know what to do with them. She expected them to fit together like a puzzle – it made me realize that most of the wooden toys we have at home are supposed to do something – so I was happy to sit silently and just let her explore the potential of these items on her own. Some of the wood became food, and she fed Ava and me. Other items she grouped together in small piles, etc…all in all I was happy to let her play creatively with no expectation that the toy has an “end”. Really wonderful purchase for a few dollars.

AS for me, I am thinking of the painting projects. I will probably get some milk paints and use some of the knobs downstairs on the many drawers and cupboards missing their original knobs. I think some of the cylindrical objects could be drilled further and then made into small vases for our nature table. The possibilities are endless & I am just as inspired as my little girls.

While travelling, we like to look for parks to have picnic lunch when the weather is nice. It’s a great way to stretch and spend some time outdoors, plus I will take a natural setting over the plastic chairs and fluorescent lights of a “family friendly” restaurant any day.

After stopping in Derry, NH at Hood Park to eat, we found that it also contained a small beach and waterfront where several children were swimming. It may not be the ocan, but we enjoyed it just the same.

Minnows! That takes me back to childhood…

Sophie (age 2) has great timing when it comes to pottying.

“I ‘av to pee!” she chimes from the back seat. We are taking a leisurely drive from Burlington, Vermont to Manchester, New Hampshire where we will stop for the night. We look for a safe place to turn off…and it happens to be by this lovely covered bridge which is located in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. So she used the potette, & Rick took advantage of the beautiful photo op.

A baby blue sky
A bright golden sun
The perfect blanket
For afternoon fun!
~Perfect For A Picnic©
By Kimberly M. Hutmacher
From A to Z Kid’s Stuff

Fitting title since we are spending our anniversary in the States! We are Bean Town bound…not sure yet if we’ll venture into the city per se or just stay in the Massachusetts suburbs. It occurred to us we are doing 4 states (Upstate NY, VT, NH & MA) in 5 days…fitting since this is wedding anniversary #4 and 9 years total – totally not planned – how appropriate!

4th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Traditional Anniversary Gift: Flowers
Modern Anniversary Gift: Linen/Silk

This was the temperature here the past couple of days:



Next week, the prediction is even HOTTER! Is this May or July? :)

Still, we have no complaints. This long weekend the whole island of ÃŽle-Perrot is hosting a community yard sale: that’s 4 different towns! Our road was relatively quiet but we decided to put out a few things Saturday and today. We sold a few larger objects we wanted to get rid of so I am happy! Plus we received a bottle of Spanish wine from one of our neighbors as a thank you for giving him an old lawn mower!

We took advantage of the festive atmosphere to soak up some rays and get to know our neighbors. Summer here reminds us just why we moved here – esp. after cold, harsh winters (compared to normal Halifax winters!).

The girls must have gotten a lot of fresh air today -they both went to bed early, quickly & with no complaint!

Happy to say we have not turned on the central air as of yet. But with predicted temps of 32 for Monday/Tuesday (and it always seems to be a few degrees hotter here) we may have to admit defeat very soon.

The EC Group here in Montreal recently was discussing on-line the pros and cons of the Potette portable potty. It’s a foldable plastic potty you could easily throw into your bag and take with you anywhere. The only problem is, the liners are disposable (recently I saw SCENTED potette liners – YUCK!) which adds up to a lot of waste for just a little tinkling.



So I shared how we creatively use our potette. I have a wet bag that I put in place of the disposable liners. In it there is a pre-fold cloth diaper.



Once finished, you zip up the wet bag & take the cloth diaper home to launder.



We do have some disposition liners – they are handy if you are travelling and laundry cannot be done. Still, we try to stay in hotels with laundry so that the use of the liners is kept to a minimum. Also, we normally bring a baby bjorn potty for over night trips.

I should point out that my girls don’t poo on the go…that would probably be a different story with taking the wet bag home!! But I would probably in that instance find a toilet where I could flush down the waste. :)

The potette has been a wonderful product for us, we have been using it since Sophie was about 9 months old. It’s great for us ECing moms, and now that Sophie is 2 and a half, she is still quite afraid of public washrooms. So if she will not go to a regular toilet she can simply potty on the go in our van. :)

See what came in the mail today:



The colours are beautiful! I can’t wait to start felting! Mind you, I am still waiting for an order of core wool, which I need for most projects, but it was so nice to touch & see all the beautiful colours in person!!

So Rick got this from me today: I had purchased it as part of his birthday present which is still two weeks away, but after coming in from the garden to inform me he had a chat with our resident woodchuck, I decided he had to have it a bit early.

We’ve had a woodchuck family living under our cabana (shed) for as long as we’ve lived here. And for the most part we like them. However, last year Rick put in some SFG (square foot gardens) and that is where the woodchuck all-you-can-eat buffet began. Needless to say the woodchucks enjoyed our vegetables more than we did last year! So when Rick was outside getting the garage tidied for this weekend’s garage sale, he comes face to face with a woodchuck – and all our lettuce plants eaten down to stubs. He said they stood and stared for a moment at each other & came to an understanding, however just in case the conversation was lost in woodchuck translation, we will put the netting up. ;)



These are available from Lee Valley for a limited time. They are only 3×3 so it will only cover 9 squares but it is still better than nothing.



They fold neatly for storage. For those of you who have ever used a pop up light box to photograph with, it is the same concept. So GUESS who will be folding these??? ;)



Above photo shot last summer.

Summer seems to have come back – early – once again, so we have been conducting many of our daily activities in the sunshine.



Darling Ava is out to play in her adorable sun hat by NanaBrowns! I have several hats for different seasons by Nicole, a sewing mama from Canada whom I found just poking around on Etsy! :) (Shirt is organic cotton, Made in the USA – from Essere Organics – actually a hand-me-down from Sophie’s smaller days.)



Sophie uses the soccer ball like a basketball: there is a hoop on her playhouse. We didn’t show her – she just has a good time doing her own thing!



Snacks are better outside! The favourite baby snack these days is kamut puffs and raisins!



What’s Sophie cooking?

I picked up a copy of Living Crafts Magazine – and this is such a good read. Their motto is: “Craft your whole life”. Creative projects for the whole family from front to back, unique suppliers advertised for all your creative family needs, and wasn’t I delighted to see a “Craft A Story”: The Forget-Me-Not Easter Egg by a Facebook friend, Suzanne Down! (On a side note – the internet is such a wonderful tool to connect creative people together – people you could never get the chance to get to know and/or be inspired by any other way!).



I would subscribe, but with 4 copies a year, I can easily pick these up each season rather than paying the extra cost for a Canadian subscription. Their website has great projects and ideas as well – for example in the case of Suzanne’s Forget Me Not Easter Egg story, the project corresponding is on their craft room page (link above)! There are so many inspiring projects – you are truly motivated to pick up a new skill!

Bravo Living Crafts, for a magazine worth every penny!