a new obsession

I first saw this idea over a year ago over at Sassy Monkey Reads. She'd posted an amazing picture of a weekend project she'd just completed (click to go see for yourself). I was delighted with the end result, but never really considered a similar undertaking. 

It seemed waaaay too contrary my Type A personality way of organizing and arranging things... 

But it looked so pretty! 

No, I told myself, I'd never be able to find anything... 

My kids would wreck it...

But... soooo pretty!

Then, not surprising, I did nothing. But I never forgot that picture. And last week when I decided to do a search on Flickr for "rainbow books", the same smile spread across my face. As I spent the better part of 30 minutes clicking through image after image of books arranged by colour, it became impossible to resist. I mean, just look at these:

1. Camdyn's colorful bookshelf!, 2. New library, 3. Rainbow, 4. Bedroom book rainbow, 5. Rainbow of Books (Explore #93)., 6. Rainbow Books

Amazing, right? So. Much. Better. So much better than books arranged by author or subject or simply by height *yawn*. I think every room can be improved with the presence of a rainbow. The colours are so bright and fun and cheerful. Dewey Decimal who??

At first, I wasn't sure we had enough colourful books to even make a rainbow. There was a lot of white and pale yellow, not much pink or purple (not surprising) and lots of blue (also not surprising). What did surprise me is that we only have one (one!) orange book*. I mean really orange. ORANGE IS MY FAVOURITE COLOUR. 

Speaking of colour, sorry about these pictures... A good reminder before my photo session this afternoon TO ALWAYS CHECK MY SETTINGS BEFORE SHOOTING. Ah well, these pictures will do for now. I'll take some more after we paint the walls grey and the shelf itself white. The antique dresser next to the shelf will also be getting a fresh coat of paint.

(Yes, that lamp shade is broken (thanks boys). And yes, those are knitting needles** sticking up out of those lovely alabaster... vases? jars? candle holders?... lovely nonetheless. Peter's parents bring them to us from Egypt.) 

So. What do you think? Peter thinks I'm a bit crazy, but thankfully he's used to it/me by now. I happen to love it. I smile every time I look at the bookshelf (and can't wait to tackle the big shelf in our bedroom and the two full shelves in the boys room).

* It's George Orwell's Animal Farm. That tiny one right in the middle of the top shelf, between Ewan McGregor's Long Way Down and Ayittey's Africa in Chaos.

** I taught myself to knit over Lent! I've actually made some things too! Another post I haven't gotten around to writing yet...

(I'm working on a page to show where this post is linked to. I'll be back! Promise! My kids need lunch now though... how annoying. *wink*)

no words, just faces

It's been 2 months since my last WW post! For more Wordless Wednesdays, head over to 5 Minutes for Mom, 7 Clown Circus, and Wordless Wednesday.

A is for... Charley Harper??

A few weeks ago, Lara at Kids in the Capital started a fun photography challenge, the ABC Challenge. The idea is simple... to take a picture that you're proud of that will fit into a particular category, one category for each letter:

Art
Books
Climbing
Discovery
Eating
Friends
Green
Hugging
Inside
Jumping
Kisses
Laughing
Mealtime
Night
Outside
Playing
Quiet
Riding
Swinging
Trees
Umbrella
Vehicles
Wet
Xcited (OH! Cheater!)
Yellow
Zoom

There's no prize or giveaway involved. It's just fun to see how other's interpret these same themes and to show off some of our own pictures. If you'd like more info, see the original post or the Flickr group that was set up for sharing pictures.

The pictures below are for the first category. They may not be an obvious choice for *A is for Art*, but I planned this little photo shoot with Andrew specifically get some pictures of him in this shirt. This LITTLE 0-6 MONTH shirt that he -at almost 16 months- is clearly growing out of. Clearly.

This shirt was one of the few new pieces I bought for him before he was born. As in bought-new-so-wasn't-a-hand-me-down. I bought it at Old Navy... and it wasn't even on sale! Shocking for me! But I just fell in love with the Charley Harper* print on the front. You may remember around Christmas '09, there was a whole line of Charley Harper products at Old Navy... shirts, board books, puzzles, a matching game, etc. I really should have bought one in each size they had... in each print, too. I love them that much.

ah, I just love this shirt!

It's so sad to have to pack up my favourite pieces of baby clothes! I just might have to obsessively search ebay for a larger size.

And so... A is for Art. In this case, the artwork of American Modernist, Charley Harper.

(Plus, I think they're pretty cute pictures of Andrew, scabbed chin and all. But I'm biased.)

*More Charley Harper images here.

win a free photo session with Muddy Boots Photo!

As I mentioned in my last post, I will be raffling off a free photo session to help Liam's friend, Léa, raise money for Leucan, an organization that supports families who have a member battling cancer. Here are the details:

For those who are local (Ottawa/Gatineau area), I'm offering a free photography session as a way to raise money to help Léa in her fund raising. For every $5 donation that is made between today, April 26th, and June 13th (the day of the head shaving), your name will be entered in a draw for a custom photography session with Muddy Boots Photography. When you make a donation through Leucan, be sure to leave at least your initials so we can enter you in the draw. Léa will draw a name following the Head Shave Challenge and we will post the winner's name here, on her blog and on Facebook.

The session will include a 1-3 hour on location session for up to 6 people with 30-40 images presented in your online gallery. This may be a family, newborn, baby, child, maternity or engagement session. You will also receive a DVD of high quality, full-resolution, professionally edited images.

If you'd like to see more examples of why this is a great prize AND WHY YOU SHOULD DONATE $5 TO LEA+LEUCAN FOR A CHANCE TO WIN, check out the rest of the images at Muddy Boots Photo... TOTALLY WORTH $5! Here's a link to some super cute pictures of Léa's younger sisters and other examples of my work.

Please consider a small donation. This is a little girl with a BIG heart. She can teach us all a lesson.

one brave little girl

This is Liam's friend, Léa. Of all his little friends in kindergarten last year, she and her family are the only ones we seemed to keep once school let out for summer and we decided to homeschool. We just can't get ride of them! *wink* 

A few weeks ago, Léa decided to participate in the Head Shave Challenge in support of Leucan and the work they do for families affected by, living with, and fighting cancer. June 13th, she'll be shaving her head not only to raise money, but also to be able to donate all of her beautiful long hair, and as sign of solidarity to children who lose their hair while undergoing cancer treatment (sorry, I know that sentence is awkward, but am too lazy to fix it).

And her hair is looooong...

And beauuuuutiful.

I think she's an amazing little girl and incredibly brave to shave her head for a cause such as this. At only seven years old! She has such a big heart and it's evident to anyone who meets her that she's going to make a big difference in this world. She's special.

I've been helping Léa's mom, Valérie, set up her blog (www.lealeucan.com) over the last few weeks. The support has been amazing! Léa is already 93% of the way to reaching her goal of raising $1000. She loves reading all of the comments there and on her Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/lealeucan). She has over 300 fans already!

So, in addition to giving towards her goal, I also decided to do something special for her to remember her  hair as it is now... a mini photo session at the park!

Val and I loaded up all six of our kids and made the drive to Brewer Park in Ottawa yesterday. And -the height of cruel- I had Léa come with me for pictures BEFORE playing. Imagine... a little girl, at a new park, being forced to pose for pictures instead of playing with her friends. Those of you who are local and have been to Brewer Park know how fun it is, especially the first time you've been there. But Léa was a great sport.

she's been playing the violin for two years

       

       

Did I mention how, before heading to the park, I took the boys over to Léa's house to play while Val and I decided on wardrobe? And how the amount of pink was dizzying? Intoxicating, even? How it was like a sparkly pink unicorn HAD EXPLODED in their room? A sparkly pink unicorn who'd been feating flowers? And rainbows??  

AND HOW I NEED A GIRL??

            

Near the end, patience was wearing thin and tummies were growling. Even though she's not smiling, I still love these pictures of Léa.

I'd love it if you'd head over to Léa's blog or fan page to look around and leave a comment to encourage her. If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so through Paypal or directly through her participant page on Leucan's site. Donations are tax deductible if made through Leucan. Really, every little bit will help this amazing organization. 

Léa is an incredible little girl who is out to prove that even children can make a difference.

* * * * * * * * * * * * 

For those who are local (Ottawa/Gatineau area), I'm offering a free photography session as a way to raise money to help Léa in her fund raising. For every $10 donation, your name will be entered in a draw for a custom photography session with Muddy Boots Photography. A raffle of sorts. I still have a few wrinkles to work out, so watch here for full details and information. 

Happy Earth Day from us and the Lorax!

This has to be my favourite Dr Seuss story. My boys also love it. I'm sure my poor mom has lost count of the times she's read this particular Seuss to her grandsons.

Enjoy! And Happy Earth Day!

blogtrotting french canadian style

I'm not sure where I first heard about the blogtrotting blog... either at BORED Mommy or Loulou's Views, I think. Either way, I signed up to join the tour.

Then completely forgot about it.

Oops.

But Carabee showed me mercy and gave me another week to work on my post. Thanks, Cara!

* * * * * * * * * * *

Peter and I moved our family out here ("out here" being out east from Calgary to the capital region), almost two years ago. We landed in Ottawa having never stepped foot in the city before and spent the first 5 weeks living in a hotel downtown. 

(IN A HOTEL. With two little kids. And severe morning sickness. It was AWESOME.)

In truth, it wasn't all bad. Ottawa has one of the prettiest downtowns we've ever seen (and we've been all over Europe and South America... we've seen our share!) and it just so happens that we arrived right before the Canadian Tulip Festival held every year in our nation's capital. For those not familiar with this festival, the history is that in the fall of 1945, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands presents Ottawa with 100,000 tulip  bulbs as a gift for the safe haven that members of Holland's royal family received during the Second World War, and in recognition of the role Canadian troops played in the liberation of the Netherlands. In fact, I think the princess gave birth to a baby while here and the Canadian government declared the hospital room as belonging to Holland so that the baby could be born "on Dutch soil". And now, every year, there's a HUGE festival around the time the tulips are in bloom.

I wrote a post about our visit to the tulips last year (with loads of pictures), but here are some pictures from that first year in Ottawa,

I was pregnant here! My face isn't normally round! 

(at least I don't think it is...)

Hey! Get that kid out of those perfectly manicured beds!

After our five weeks trapped in a hotel, we moved into our first home. We were home owners! Early on, we'd made the decision to look for housing across the river from Ottawa, in Gatineau. This area has kind of a St Paul/Minneapolis thing going on. On one side of the river is Ottawa, in the province of Ontario, and on the other is Gatineau, in the province of Quebec. So two cities, two provinces AND TWO DIFFERENT OFFICIAL LANGUAGES both sharing the same metropolitan area.

(Okay, that's not exactly accurate since French and English are the official languages of all of Canada, but you know what I mean.)

Our decision to buy in Gatineau was heavily based on the cost of living over here, but also on our desire to really immerse ourselves in French. I took French all through school, but Peter was had just begun a year of intensive language study, and we really wanted our boys to be surrounded by the language as much as possible.

The move out here was far, but we really weren't prepared for the culture shock we experienced when we moved to Quebec. It's the same country after all! But besides the obvious difference in language, here are some other noteworthy differences:

• Beer and wine are sold EVERYWHERE. Coming from Calgary, Alberta, and before that Regina, Saskatchewan, where all alcohol is only sold in specific heavily regulated stores, this took some getting used to. We just weren't accustomed to seeing beer sold at gas stations and grocery stores!
• Beer and wine ARE CHEAP. This took less getting used to.
• There aren't always turn arrows at intersections, the green light flashes to let you know it's okay to turn. Maybe this is common in other cities, but we'd never seen that.
• People in Gatineau haven't gotten the public service announcement that SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU. Seriously, it's awful. Still, two years later, I'm shocked to see how many people smoke here. And with their kids! In the car! In the winter with one window open just a crack! C'est épouvantable. 
• There are big, beautiful, ornate churches all throughout the city... and they're all empty. The history of the Catholic church here in Quebec is a sad one. In the 60's there occurred what is known as The Quiet Revolution, where everyone pretty much just turned their backs on the church. After years of manipulation and oppression and control, people had had enough. So now all the lovely, hundreds of years old buildings are crumbling because no one will pay for their repair.
• People in Gatineau speak their own kind of French. When we first moved out here and I heard people speaking, I doubted whether or not I really knew the language at all! There's slang and then there's GATINEAU SLANG.
• Sitting on one's front porch/balcony/deck is a pastime that is not taken lightly. Serious amounts of time are dedicated to this activity and its perfection.
• The Quebecois -even though Quebec is part of Canada- refer to it as "the nation of Quebec".
• In Quebec, they do things differently. From little things like registering and licensing your vehicle, to the fact that women in Quebec continue to use their maiden names even after they're married, they do things completely opposite the rest of Canada. Out of principle.
• The stories you hear about poutine ARE TRUE. People eat it all the time, any time, any where. I thought it was just a stereotype but, nope, it's not. 

The Ottawa/Gatineau area is also FULL of amazing museums, parks a plenty, beautiful historic homes, amazing architecture, festivals seemingly every other week and history everywhere you look. The French-English/Quebec-Ottawa dynamic adds the interest and the charm of this city/cities.

We certainly didn't know, even three years ago, that this is where we'd end up, but we're super happy here. We have amazing friends, a wonderful church family, and TWO great cities to explore whenever we get the itch.

If you want to read some other posts about fun we've had in/around the city, here are some good ones:

• Canadian Tulip Festival 2009 (with my mom)

• Winterlude part I, part II and part III

• Park Omega and more Park Omega

   

• our superawesomefun time at the Sugar Bush last month

So thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of the trip!

If you're still looking for more to read (because I'm THAT engaging) the following series still gets TONS of traffic from Google. If you have a young boy who likes Star Wars and Lego (whaaat? a young boys WHO LIKES STAR WARS AND LEGO?? that's redundant, right?) this may be of particular interest to you...

How to plan a Star Wars party in five excruciatingly painstakingly detailed steps:

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pre-party planning and ideas

the invitation how-to

pool noodle lightsabers

marshmallow fondant

the cake (in less than 100 pictures)

the big day

breastfeeding collage

The iheartfaces challenge this week is "collages". I love the two people in the following pictures, and I love the idea of grouping these images together. Hopefully it captures this still, quiet, sweet time shared between a mother and child.

(here are the rest of the images from our session, if you're interesting in seeing them)

when green smoothies are NOT so good

Yesterday, Andrea from A Peak inside the Fishbowl (AKA @missfish) linked to a post at Fed Up With Lunch about how to help our kids learn healthy eating habits from a young age. One of tips given was to drink green smoothies.

Although I haven't written about them recently (HERE are some old posts), green smoothies continue to be part of our routine and meal plan. Peter, who at first was reluctant to try (to the point of refusing them for the first few weeks of my green smoothie experiment about 18 months ago), is now by far the biggest consumer. He fills up an 18 oz bottle of smoothie to take to work for his morning break (I'd like to say he does this daily, but it (and by "it" I mean my making them) seems to go in spurts... every day solid for a few weeks, then I get lazy or we run out of some ingredient).

Simon and Liam happily drink them or eat them as popsicles (which we'll be doing more and more as the weather warms up), and even Andrew's eyes light up at the sight of his sippy cup full of smoothie.

Andrew, in fact, loves anything green. When it's time to eat, he'll predictably pick out the green things to eat first: peas, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, celery, avocado... If it's green, he'll eat it first.

Take last night for example...

He'd been super fussy while I was getting supper ready, but we figured it was because he was hungry. When it came time to eat, however, all we could coax into him were a few bites of sausage, some avocado, a spear of asparagus, a small stick of celery, a dozen frozen peas, and however much green smoothie he drank from his cup. Sausage excepted, do you see what these things have in common? Green avocado, green asparagus, green celery, green peas... GREEN smoothie? That's right, class, they're all green.

And mixed together, they make for a shockingly green coloured vomit. 

Yes, you read that right.

He continued to fuss after supper, so I laid down with him IN OUR BED to nurse him to sleep, thinking that would help settle him down. I should've known something was amiss when he would hardly nurse, even after eating so little for supper. Thankfully, he made a few telltale gagging noises before the main event and I was able to quickly swing him up and over AND AWAY FROM THE BED just in time. 

(I was also very thankful for easy-clean laminate flooring in our bedroom and not the off white berber we've had in other homes.)

After the tweet from Andrea yesterday, there were quite a few local moms who were talking about green smoothies on twitter last night. I was all set to jump on after the boys were in bed and Peter was snuggly tucked in downstairs watching playoff hockey and tweet about the numerous benefits of green smoothies, when I instead found myself on hands and knees cleaning up green smoothie.

But even that experience isn't enough to deter me from making -and loving- them!

dilema

I have a dilema. In the last two days I have decided that I COMPLETELY DESPISE the layout/function/design/lack-of-design in our house. Despise. Hate even. Despise in a can't-stop-thinking-and-scheming-long-enough-to-fall-asleep-so-lays-in-bed-for-hours kind of way. I could hardly sleep last night because I COULD NOT get my mind to stop thinking of all the ways I would change things, how I would do it... what it would cost...

One of my biggest issues right now is organization. A place for everything and everything in its place, right? That saying used to make me roll my eyes, but now... now with three kids, homeschooling, a getting-busier-every-week photography business, I need for things to have a place AND TO BE IN THAT PLACE.

Cause when things don't have a place, they invariably get left/thrown some place that IS NOT their place and then all THAT STUFF just looks like JUNK. And when I feel like I'm surrounded by junk, I have little motivation to keep things tidy BECAUSE WHERE DO I EVEN START?

I've come to the conclusion that this family and open shelving DO NOT go well together. We have open shelves in our kitchen, all open book shelves in our living room, the boys playroom used to be a kitchen (there was a basement suite) so there's a fair amount of counter space... The problem? Every square inch of available surface space seems to be covered in Lego.

I kid you not. I could spend half the taking every last thing off our book shelves, putting everything back in its place, returning stray objects -at the very least- to the room in which they belong, cleaning, dusting, organizing, then re-loading my now sparkly clean shelves... only to turn around AND FIND LEGO.

And if it's not Lego, it's Playmobil or GI Joes, or Nerf darts or wooden fruit and kitchen utensils. Or... OR Andrew has pulled every last thing OFF the shelves.

I just can't win.

I need furniture pieces WITH DOORS. Doors and drawers and other things to hide things behind. Preferably these things will lock... and be treated with some sort of anti-Lego spray.

(sigh)

This need for closing/locking/hiding type furniture, however, leads us to the next problem...

I've spent some time scouring Kijiji, Used Ottawa and similar sites. I've feasted my eyes on some of the loveliness to be found on various design blogs. And I've come to a somewhat surprising (to me) conclusion...

I like antiques.

I like big, thick, wooden furniture that has personality and character and a story to tell. I love the idea of hunting for amazing pieces that have history. The thought of Ikea and its clean, simple, modern lines leaves me feeling cold and sad.

I love antiques.

So what's a girl to do? We do definitely need some new (to us) pieces of furniture. But where do I start? Keep checking Kijiji obsessively? Antique stores? Are there any good flea markets in/around Ottawa?? Also, I'd love to hear about your favourite design blogs. I think I'm well on my way to kinda/sorta figuring out "my style" but I could always use more inspiration.

Eugene Levy, maple taffy and beavertail backlash

(If you missed them, here are part one and part two of our Winterlude 2010 fun.)

In this, the final Winterlude post -for, I'm sure, the entire blogosphere (since most people would've posted about it back in February!)- we bring you the Ottawa side of the river.

The afternoon started off at the National Arts Center and a family concert hosted by Eugene Levy (yes, THE Eugene Levy! FROM GHOSTBUSTERS!). I'd won tickets in a draw over at the Fishbowl and was super excited to take the family. Music, theatre and the arts in general were always such a huge part of my life growing up (I was a band geek, remember??) that it makes me kind of sad that we aren't able to expose the boys to more of it. 

Part of the issue is financial, the rest is pure logistics. What's the point of paying to take a toddler (who's in a constant state of perpetual motion) AND a three year old (who has the attention span of a Jack Russell terrier) to the symphony or a theatre production?? Well the NAC has come up with some great family oriented events that are meant to introduce children to the arts, and it was to such an event that we went that Saturday afternoon.

After parking the van at the Rideau Centre and walking at a forced march a brisk pace to ensure we wouldn't be late, we got our tickets and made our way up to find out seats. Liam and Simon were both excited, Liam moreso from his experience at the Globe Theatre in Regina over Christmas (we saw a production of Peter Pan in the round and he LOVED it!), and Andrew was enthralled with the flip down auditorium seats.

A few minutes into the program, something happened.

We were quietly sitting, enjoying the music, when our olfactory senses were hit full on by a smell so terrible, so utterly stomach-churning that, in our shock and offence we briefly discussed getting up and either moving or leaving all together. After a few minutes (and some intense fanning with our folded up programs) the scent dissipated enough that our eyes stopped watering we were able to once again focus on the performers... only to once again be thrown into a gasping stupor when we were hit by a second, even more rank onslaught.

Peter and I could only stare at each other, wide eyed, wondering WHO COULD POSSIBLY PRODUCE SUCH. A. SMELL.

Imagine...

Imagine our horror to discover that this unbelievable rankness, this stench, was coming, not from the deepest, darkest PIT OF HELL, but from the bowels of our own dear son!

And then in an instant the memories of the afternoon (and night) before came back to us. We'd fed this sweet allergy-riden boy wheat, butter, non-hydrogenated vegetable oils, and refined white sugar not once, BUT TWICE, the day before... in the form of beavertails. And we paid for it. Dearly.

No more beavertails for Simon!

After the concert, we bundled back up and headed over to the Rideau Canal to watch the skaters and wander through the ice sculpture gardens. We treated the boys to some much easier-on-the-bowels maple taffy sticks.

Liam had forgotten his mittens in the car. Good thing moms are 

invincible and don't feel cold and can therefore lend out their mitts.

After a quick hand wipe, we headed back over the canal and to the van. The fresh air did us all good (*see above).

A view of the canal. See the Poutine chalet? Is there anything more Canadian than spending an afternoon at Winterlude on the Rideau Canal, eating poutine and beavertails while sipping a hot double double from Tim's? I think not.

(Not that we did all those things. I'm just saying.)

I couldn't resist posting this last picture. See that look? SOMEONE'S TOTALLY IN TROUBLE. Ha! Love you, hon!