52 fridays -- week 9

2 self portraits this week, in nature, for the self portrait challenge.

the beauty of winter

x-mas in february

Traveling Threads is a virtual quilting bee that I am taking part in and November was my month. I have received all the blocks from all the participants and just last night finished putting the top of the quilt together.

I have 10 months to finish this quilt now!

This was also the last event on my sewing olympics list.

I have won 5 Golds!!

52 books :: book 8 :: NurtureShock

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children is written by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. They are not parenting experts or doctors, but journalists for the New York Magazine. This book is not a parenting book. I am not a huge fan of parenting books, something about other people telling me what to do...!

This book is a collection of some of their articles, ten in total, all related to children. All articles are based on research performed by doctors, universities, etc.

The topics range from the problem with praising too much, the lack of sleep and its effect on children, why kids lie (and what they lie about), how kids interact and the effects of "educational" tv shows, the problems with kindergarten "gifted" programs, why siblings really fight,  teenagers and rebellion, and more.

There are so many quotes that I could share with you from this book. I really love this book, so often I feel like I am going against the flow (other parents around me) and this book just re-affirmed my parenting "style".

There is a website, NurtureShock with many articles available to read online, along with videos. If you have a few minutes, The Myth of Praise is worth watching. The author shows some of the research that was done, comparing American mothers and Asian ones and how they relate to their children. The children were given a test and the mothers were told that their children didn't do very well. It was fascinating to me to see mothers, grown adults, lie to their children about their performance, or completely ignoring the issue. What is wrong with just telling your child the truth? I personaly could relate more to the Asian mother that told her child she wasn't doing the best she could, and then invited her to review the test together. I think that way is more respectful toward the child. 

Again, this book is not a parenting "how-to" book, but one that will make you think about how we parent. 

This book is part of my reading challenge for this year, you can read more book reviews at the main blog: 52 books in 52 weeks.

I noticed at another reader's blog this idea and decided to incorporate it from now on to my 52 books posts:

Books read: 8/52

Pages read: 2990

Next book: Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting by Carl Honore.

homemade gift bows

I love recycling and this is another great little project to re-use paper,  magazines, or catalogues. I used the cover of a Lego catalogue for this bow.

Here is the tutorial if you would like to give it a try:

make a gift bow from a magazine page.

I tried another one with a map, but I thought it wasn't as successful. It probably is because the map already has many folds.

Calendar quilt - top completed!

This is also event #3 of the Sewing Olympics!

Each colourful block of this quilt represents 1 month from 2009. The top left corner is January.

52 fridays -- week 8

traveling threads ~ march block

part of the 2nd event in the sewing olympics

this block is going far...all the way to Norway!

handmade ornaments for x-mas 2010...in february

Isn't she cute?

The back of each ornament is the same, like this one

I had listed making holiday ornaments for the sewing olympics. This is something I am trying to do once a month, all year long. Here are the handmade ornaments for February. That is 2 Gold for me now!!

52 books :: book 7 :: Tuck Everlasting

I read this small book this week, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit, as part of my challenge 52 books in 52 weeks. Beautiful story, too short in my opinion!

traveling threads ~ february block

also part of my sewing olympics : event 2, first half!

bittersweet valentine

every valentine's day for the last few years, i have mixed feelings

my father's birthday was february 14, valentine's day

he passed away suddenly in 1994

every valentine day, i think of him even more than usual

i think how he never met my husband or children

and smile to think that he would be a grandfather,

a dotting grandfather i am sure.

♥

Sewing Olympics ~ Event #1 Complete!

 wallhanging for Andre's birthday.

proud to be Canadian

stayed up last night to watch the Opening Ceremonies live from Vancouver on CTV online

what a show! so visually beautiful and meaningful at the same time

one of my favourite parts was the whales on the floor...what was yours?

my daughter and I loved watching all the countries coming in too, especially the ones celebrating their first time participating in the Winter Olympics

Sewing Olympics

Sewing Olympics:

"For the duration of the Vancouver Winter Games (Olympics) A collective group of sewists will be posting to do sewing lists and going for Gold. Each task on the list is your event. When that task is finished you've won yourself a Gold Medal! You have until February 28 to get as sewing done as you can." from the flickr group.

I AM IN!

52 fridays -- week 7

photo taken by my son Andre (10)

part of:

Wordless Wednesday ~ my angel

nature photography

I haven't been posting much on this blog so I thought I would catch up this morning! My creativity this year has been through my photography so far. I haven't touched my sewing machine a lot, only started working on a wall hanging a few days ago for my son's birthday (see previous post). But I have had a lot of fun taking photos during our nature walks. Here are a few of my favourites:

work in progress...andre's birthday gift

My son is turning 11 this month. He has loved dinosaurs since he was about 3 years old. I remember reading every single book on dinosaurs from our library, he didn't know how to read yet, but he sure knew how to repeat these complicated dinosaur names that I could barely say! His interest hasn't slowed down yet. He watched a documentary recently on dinosaurs and the process of finding the bones and transporting them back to a museum, putting everything back together again. I find it fascinating as well.

I was in a local quilt show after Christmas and noticed a wall hanging panel with dinosaurs on it. The colours and designs are perfect. I have been quilting it and will be giving it to him for his birthday.

52 books :: book 6 :: Dead Until Dark

After finishing reading the Susan Wise Bauer books and taking many notes, I was ready for something a little lighter! The Well Trained Mind and the Well Educated Mind are great books, but right now there are some stresses in our home and that is when I know that all my mind can handle is some "light" reading.

I watched a few weeks ago the full season 1 of True Blood from HBO. I still am not sure if I really like the series, but when I realized that it was based on a book, I put it on hold at our local library to give it a try. It arrived with perfect timing last Friday. I started reading it this past weekend and just finished it this morning.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris is the first novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series. The story was very similar to the series until about half way through, even some of the dialogue made it into the show. The novel is written from Sookie's point of view. I found that some of the other characters from the show were not included in the book at all, or had very little importance in it. The novel is still gory in some parts, but not as much as the tv series. I will try the next book in the series soon, but so far I enjoyed the book better than the show.

Here is how the novel starts...Sookie Stackhouse is a young bar waitress in a small town in Louisiana. She has a special gift that lets her read other people's minds. To her it isn't a gift though, as she would much prefer not to hear people's thoughts. She has learned to protect herself and to tune them out. Vampires are a part of society, they "came out of the coffin" two years before the novel starts. Sookie had never met a real vampire until she meets Bill.

You can visit 52 books in 52 weeks challenge by clicking here.

52 fridays -- week 6

This week, I couldn't decide between 2 portraits...so here they are both. First one with my little one, second by myself. Both were taken during one of our nature walks at a local conservation area. I love being surrounded by nature, and prefer to be natural myself (no make-up, no fuss!). I didn't even retouched this photos or altered them..completely natural!

So which one do you prefer?

Wordless Wednesday