my helper

Celeste likes to help me with organizing the Scholastic book fliers. I have an account for our homeschool and also take care of these for our local homeschool group. She has been a great helper!

no photos ... but a trailer

I am not sure why, but Blogger isn't letting me add photos to my post tonight. It is very frustrating. I like having photos on my blog! It keeps telling me "server rejected". I have tried uploading from my computer and from an url. Nothing works. So it will have to be a no picture post for today's mojo quest post.

But because I can't just leave a post without something visual, I will share a trailer from the latest Harry Potter upcoming movie. I have read all the books and enjoyed all the movies of Harry Potter and I am looking forward to this last one, even if it is in two parts. I might need to re-read that latest book though to refresh my memory...

homemade scrappy camera strap cover

I have always wanted to make one of these camera strap covers for myself! I don't know why I waited so long, they are simple and quick to make. I used scraps from my calendar quilt project.
I made a little wider than my camera strap because I find it too thin, and secured it on with a couple of stitches at each end. I can undo these stitches when the strap needs washing or if I make a new one. I really like the scrappy look and it feels so much more comfortable around my neck!

homemade headbands

I made two more headbands yesterday while we were watching the movie Amelia. I had made a couple last year, you can see one here. My kids use these headbands mostly to keep their hair out of their faces while washing up. I also use them while I am running. They are super easy to make and only requre a small amount of fabric and a few inches of elastic.
This time I chose to make them with 2 different fabrics so that they are reversible.
You can find the instructions here at Old Red Barn Co. blog.

architecture and history

My oldest daughter and I went to visit some of the Doors Open Ontario places today. We visited nine in total. Most were historical homes, one was a church built in 1842, another a World War II Hangar, and also an elementary school built in 1927.
I will be writing about our day more on my homeschool blog soon, but I wanted to share a couple of my favourite photos from today with you. I haven't touched these up, they're straight from my camera.

From Willistead Manor, built in 1904-06:

From the World War II Hangar of #7 Elementary Flying Training School:

Detail on the church, built in 1842-45:





We loved looking at all the architectural details and learning more about the local history this afternoon.

a little treak-or-treat bag

I wanted to make something quick today,

while the kids were relaxing watching a movie,

so I thought of a simple bag.

The little quilty square in the centre with Snoopy I had made last year.

 I used it and added some more Halloween theme fabrics.

All the fabrics were given to me by two awesome quilty-flickr friends!

The handles are a bit long on this bag, but Celeste didn't mind.

We can use this bag as a library bag over the next month and

as a trick-or-treat bag on Halloween night.

Here is the opposite side of the bag:

52 fridays and BAM ~ week 38

I am back on the treadmill after 22 days off it!

Why did I stay off it? I am not quite sure, but I am very happy to be back on.

This photo was taken by Celeste, my 6 year old. It is blurry and I look weird on it, 

but I still like it so I am using it for this week's self portrait and BAM photo.

my mojo quest :: daily blogging challenge

I joined four other ladies in this daily blogging challenge. One of the ladies mentioned giving herself a challenge of posting every day until the end of October on her blog. I thought right away that I should join her and work on this blog of mine. I am pretty good at keeping up with my homeschool blog but not as consistent with my corner.

I then thought of creating a cute little button for this challenge and giving it a name. Someone else mentioned having lost their mojo with sewing and quilting and wanting to get it back. That's when the quest for my mojo popped in my head. I created the button below first, then the fall colours one above second and shortened the name to the mojo quest.

The challenge starts tomorrow. I have no idea what I am going to post about on here for the next month and a bit...but I will figure something.

Wish me luck!

shoes...

i love this photo and

my 13 year old...she loves shoes...

the pair of black boots in the top left corner came home with us,

she bought them with her own money. 

we love the local thrift store!

The Happy Book :: Thank You

** please read all the way to the end of this post! thank you! **

This past week's assignment was all about gratitude. Jamie asked us to think about who we would like to thank. I am a little late with this post, but I did think about this all last week.

The person I feel I need to thank the most is my husband. He is so patient with me, listens to my dreams and worries, takes an active part in raising our children and does whatever it takes so that we can continue homeschooling. He also supports whatever adventures I want to take, he is very supportive.

I also want to thank my children. They make me smile everyday, and laugh often. We love spending time together, playing, learning, hanging out, and tons more.

Another thought that popped in my head this week, was to thank my life. It might sound very simple, but I am so grateful for the life I have right now.

For more info on this online book club, visit the Next Chapter:

I just read the new assignment for this week, and I need your input!!!

This Friday will be like a dance party at the Next Chapter, we are to make a list of our favourite dance music, including our friends' choices too.

So, what is your top favourite dance song? Please leave the title and artist in the comments.

I will compile a list all week and do a playlist this coming Friday!

♪♫ Thank you ♫♪

52 fridays and BAM ~ week 37

Here I am again, it's Friday!

It was time to cover my greys again, so today's self portrait is brought to you by the colour yellow.

My new yellow hair in my yellow bathroom.

I wonder if blonds really do have more fun?

I am going to find out I guess, but one thing is for sure, blond covers my greys nicely!

I also dried my hair a little differently after the colouring, I might do this again, I like the change. 

preserving summer a little

I have done some canning before, but not peaches or pears before. I really enjoy making preserves. I am not sure if the fruit is supposed to be floating like it is now!

I used the 1 litre jars, so only ended up with 3 jars of peaches and 3 jars of pears. I only used a basket of 5 litre each fruit. I think I need to make more and use smaller jars...

The Happy Book :: Photo Scavenger Hunt

We love scavenger hunts! This week for the Happy Book project, Jamie gave us a list of words (I underlined the words) to photograph. We found most of them. I hope it was ok to combine a few! Here are our photos for this week's assignment:

treasure  + morning + smile  + home

fresh + yum

circle

tree through the fence

sky

sparkle

red

52 fridays and BAM ~ week 36

taking a moment to smell the flowers.

we brought a few back from my husband's grandmother funeral.

in the front are several of her little plants.

she had tons of these in her appartment, little african violets.

we didn't want them to be thrown out, so we are going to take care of them.

52 books :: book 41 :: The Atlantis Complex

Adrienne and I both wanted to read this book and we only had 14 days to do so! We did it! She read first, and I finished it just this morning.

We both have read the other 6 books in the series. The Atlantis Complex is book seven in the Artemis Fowl series written by Eoin Colfer. Artemis is a young boy what happens to be a genius and a criminal.

The stories are full of adventures, including interesting characters like Butler, Artemis' bodyguard and Captain Holly Short who is an elf police captain.
This latest story finds Artemis at 15 years old, trying to save the planet. He has turned good and has committed his entire fortune to his latest project. He also discovers that he is suffering from Atlantis Complex, a fairy condition that is similar to OCD.

I have really enjoyed this last book, as much as the others. They have all been funny, fast-paced, and full of action.





Books read: 41/52

52 books :: book 40 :: Canadian History for Dummies (ongoing)

I have been reading through the Canadian History for Dummies (2nd edition) by Will Ferguson for the last month or so. This will be an ongoing book for me, I am reading along as we go through the different time periods in Canadian History in our homeschool.

I have read the first five chapters so far, covering topics from First Nations, First Contact to the Explorers and the start of New France. I have found this book to be very interesting so far and I have enjoyed learning more about Canada's history.

The Happy Book :: Adventures with MIEP

The assignment this week for The Next Chapter book club was to bring our mascot along for some of our daily adventures. We have had a busy few days, with a funeral out of town, so not as much fun stuff that we wanted to bring MIEP to, but on our first day back home, we took him out to the park.

He watched us play tennis.

He had fun hanging upside down on the monkey bars.

He went on the swing and did some flips on one of the bars on the playground.

And of course, he had to go down the slide too...

but I don't think he liked that last part much...he didn't land too well!

I think we'll take him along for more adventures while we are doing this Happy Book project over the next few weeks.

The Next Chapter :: The Happy Book :: introduction and MIEP !

Last year, I participated in an online book club called The Next Chapter. I read a couple of books with the club, but the most memorable one was Wreck This Journal. It was a family effort and as you can imagine, not really a book to read but more of an activity to do. It was FUN and I met some really cool people online too through that wrecking experience!





The current book covered by The Next Chapter is The Happy Book, but so far it has been a book traveling circle, a few books traveling between a few people. I wasn't interested in that, but just a few days ago, I noticed that Jamie opened up the book club to include everyone. I saw our chance to sign up and do this again together!

Here is a mosaic from our wrecking adventure:

Jamie asked for an introduction...
I am Alex. My husband and I have 3 children. A 13 year old girl, an 11 year old boy, and a 6 year old girl. They are at home with me, we are homeschoolers. We love learning together! We also have pets, 1 dog, 1 cat and 2 guinea pigs. We live in SW Ontario, Canada.
This blog is my personal blog, my corner, to share my own adventures. Some of my interests are, in no particular order, running, reading, the simple life, healthy food, movies, quilting, repurpose sewing...

The kids and I chose our mascot for the next assignment...
Introducing MIEP...a little monster I made last November.
We came up with the name MIEP by using our middle initials...Madeleine, Isabelle, Elizabeth, and Peter!
MIEP will be coming along with us over the next few days and will post of our adventures soon.

If you would like to find out more (or join) the Next Chapter online book club, you can visit the blog here.

another snackmat!

{houses on one side, turtles on the reverse}

This one makes me smile...houses with quilts hanging and turtles!

it's about time!

I haven't touched my sewing machine all summer!

Yesterday, I helped a friend with her quilt and pulled my machine out for that. I had also noticed late Thursday that I was thinking about sewing something. I had no idea what, just that I needed to.

So today, I looked around flickr a bit and noticed talk about a mug rug swap. I couldn't join it, and didn't want to anyway at this point, but thought the project was cute and since it is so small, fast too.

I made the one you see in the photo above first, the photo below is the reverse side. All fabrics came from scraps leftover from the Traveling Threads quilting bee I took part in last year.

These "mug rugs" are perfect for putting my glass of water on my computer desk! I prefer calling them oversize coasters or snackmats as a friend suggested!

Andre came in from playing outside and noticed what I was doing. He wanted to make one for himself too. He picked the fabrics and set to work. He has sewn before, so he needed just a little guidance. He chose a Snoopy theme for his.

The photo below shows our work in progress. The one with the houses is my second oversize coaster in the works.

I love a fabric mess!