Organization: The Homework Basket

I recently found this basket at the thrift store.  It reminded me of an old locker basket and had plenty of space to hold tons of stuff.  

But even  with no real use in mind, I brought it home and hoped inspiration would hit. 

And it did - that night at homework time!! While the kids and I scrambled to find pencils and erasers  to do that night's assignments, I realized we needed a permanent place to keep everything we needed for homework completion.

So the next evening, I collected everything together.....

And here it is - The Homework Basket!!

I added a  mason jar full of sharp pencils.  We are never going to run out mid- homework!!

 Four pair of scissors - one for me and one pair each for my three kidlets.  

A jar of erasers.  We make a lot of mistakes!!   :)

Gotta have these - a whole slew of sharp pencil crayons.  Even my hubby wanted to try them out!

Post-its --these are perfect for practising spelling words and doing the "rough work" involved in mathematics.  

As a teacher myself, I love it  when parents send in notes on pretty papers and cards.    

So, I threw in a few packages of  blank note cards in so that I can easily whip off letters to my kids' teachers.

Last but not least,  we needed glue sticks and a calculator.  ( My youngest, who is 4, loves to press the buttons on the calculator and read them back to me.  Wonderful number-knowledge play!)

This is one of the best organizational things I have done in our home.  We use it faithfully EVERY night and my children have become experts at making sure everything goes back in it safely for use next time.  

I have a small shelving unit on the edge of my kitchen countertop.  Our basket sits comfortably there, within arm's reach of the kitchen table, ready for action!!

This may seem like a small little project - but in the grand scheme of raising 3 small children on top of my own full-time job,  it's the little things that make life easier!

Hugs and smiles to all,

B.  

Off to Florida

Just a quick note to let you know what we are up to this week. . . . .

YES!   Florida!

In fact, we are staying in my Aunt's house in  . . . . . .

. . . where we will pick and devour many oranges from the nearby groves . . .

. . . then spend one day enjoying the charms of . . .

. . . and another day frolicking in  . . .

Hurray!! I can't wait to begin  another wonderful adventure with  our family!!

Oh... I really  hope the weather cooperates.  And if not, it will still be better than the freezing temperatures we've been dealing with at home!

See you in a week!

B.  

An Easter Mantel

Man.  It's still winter here on my area of the world (near Toronto, CAN).  The kids keep asking when spring will arrive. We tell them that it "officially" arrives on March 21st, but it will be over a month after that before the weather stays "springy!"

Luckily we are off on a family trip to Florida in 6 days (Woo-hoo!) so we'll get some "summer" before the spring arrives.  

To help move the season forward a bit, I did some Easter decorating in our living room this past weekend. I'll be hosting Easter dinner at our house so the whole extended family will be able to enjoy my hard work!  :)

Let's start at the top of my mantel-scape - my lacy paper chain.  I cut these strips using my Martha Stewart double-edge punch.  I had bought it before Christmas to make chains for the Christmas tree, but never got around to it.  

I'm glad I got to use it now!!

I grabbed this bunny at HomeSense a few months back.  I knew he would look perfect on my mantel.

I can't wait for my REAL pink hydrangeas to be in bloom!

My Ikea storage jar is full of second-hand eggs.  I like the element of "glimmer" they give.

Hmm...I wonder what kind of bird lays this kind of egg?

Peek-a-boo! Aren't these darling?  Another second-hand store find...

Does my mantel feel like Spring to you?  Is there enough pink and green and adorable living things?

My kids (and hubby) give it the thumbs up! And, really, isn't it them that have to look at it all the time??

I hope spring arrives soon in your neck of the woods!

Love,

B.

Easter Bunny Pennants

Since we are heading away on vacation in 7 days (Hurray!), I thought I'd better get a start on some of my Easter decorating today.  

This morning my daughter and I worked side-by-side and created some paper Easter bunnies.  She wanted to hang hers on her bedroom door, I needed mine for across our mantel.  

Here's how we did it:

I created a bunny template by tracing two glasses - head and body.

I cut the ears separately and added them afterwards.

Once happy with the shape, I re-traced the parts on another card, all in one piece.  

I chose some pretty, pastel papers and traced the bunny shape on the wrong side of the paper and cut them out.    

To age the edges,  I inked them with a silvery grey.  

I was going to make yarn pom-pom tails for our bunnies, but my daughter wanted to use "fuzzy fabric" instead.  How about felt, sweetie??

She agreed.

I used THIS technique to make a tail for each of our bunnies.

To attach the rabbits into a line to sweep across my mantel, I punched holes in each ear and tied pink baker's twine between them.

And here they are hanging across the front of our mantel.  Can't show you the whole thing yet, because my Easter mantel decor isn't complete yet.  Hopefully I can post about that in a day or two. 

And how did my daughter's bunnies turn out?

Just as sweet and cute as she is!!

Please visit again soon,

B.

Knitting for Baby in Hydrangea Blue

This is Baby A. Isn't she adorable? And she has a personality to match!    She belongs to my  dear friend Paige (and her hubby, Brad!)

Baby A has the most beautiful blue eyes (you can see them in the picture above). So when her first birthday approached, I knew I wanted to make something blue, yet feminine, for this little lady. 

It didn't take long to choose this lovely shade of "hydrangea blue" yarn, but it was bit tougher to choose a pattern .  In the end I went with a short-sleeved wrap sweater that could worn with a onesie on warmer days, and with a long-sleeved tee-shirt on cooler days.  

The yarn knit up like a dream - it has a slight sheen to it, slightly "sparkly" as my daughter put it.  

Once the sweater was sewn together, I decided to add a small feminine detail - a crocheted picot edging around the whole neckline.  

Instead of the double ribbon enclosure that the pattern called for, I  added some buttonholes and sifted through my white button collection for the perfect little pair of buttons. 

What did I choose??  White, shiney and shimmery!

To me, the neck of the sweater still looked awfully plain, so I opted to crocheted a rose.   

Isn't it sweet?  I love how it turned out!  

It's fun to make "little things" again.  Now that my youngest is four, it feels like ages since I made something for a baby.  

And knitting like this makes for a nice change from all the crocheting I have been doing.  

Hmm....what other little people in my life could use something warm and homemade??

Smiles,

B.  

Chocolate Orange Shortbread

Hi all!  Though I am longing for spring, winter is still rearing its head here in my little part of Canada.  However, yesterday we took advantage of the slightly warmer temperatures and headed out to a conservation area not far from our home.  We live on an escarpment so much of the area is rocky and hilly.However,  the place we visited has tons of huge crevices in these rocks.  Cool to look at, and exciting to crawl into !!

The kids (and hubby!) were nervous at first, but in the end, they were very glad to have gone on this "adventure."  We climbed down snow-covered  ladders, jumped over cracks and the kids threw snowballs into the rushing rivers.  So much fun - and the perfect way to spend a lovely winter day. 

After returning home, I let my daughter choose any recipe out of my favourite cookie cookbook she wanted.  

Her choice - Chocolate Chip Orange Shortbread.

Cookies:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 tbsp grated orange peel

1  3/4 all purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

3/4 cup miniature chocolate chips

Glaze:

1/2 chocolate chips

1 tsp shortening

1.  Blend sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.

2.  Stir in orange peel.

3. Add in flour and cornstarch; mix well.

4. Stir in 3/4 cup of chocolate chips.

5. Divide dough into 4 evenly-sized balls.  Spread each ball out on cookie using fingers or a rolling pin.  

 6.  Bake 375 degrees for 16 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown. 

7.  As soon as they are removed from the oven, cut the circular cookie into slices (like you would a pie!) using a knife or pizza cutter.  

8.  Once the wedges are cool, melt the chocolate and shortening together and dip the wide edges of the cookies into the chocolate.  Let the chocolate set and ENJOY!!

Wishing you  a warm and cozy last few days of February.

Bring on March - BRING ON SPRING!!

Hugs,

B.