[EXPLORE] Solo

Look what I did this morning...I explored a NEW to me trail WITHOUT kids. This never happens...actually, I'm not sure it has EVER happened. It was lovely. No arguing, no complaining...was able to stop and investigate or just breathe in the scents of Spring. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE exploring with the littles and seeing the world through their eyes, but today, this hit the spot.

[HOMESTEAD] Happy Hatch Day!

Look what happened at our house (the kitchen counter to be exact)! I thought for sure our precious eggs were doomed after a bit of a rough start AND a power outage...but life prevailed and so far, we have four beautiful little (and I mean teensy tiny) balls of fluff happily chirping in the brooder.

We received our eggs from Candace of Breezy Bird Farms in Winnipeg - a hatchery specializing in exotic poultry. If you get a chance, check out her Facebook Page as her photographs are beautiful...will make you want to get started on that coop.

When we received the eggs, they were FREEZING as they had been put in our outdoor mailbox - so I brought them home and warmed each egg up in my hand, popped them in the incubator (which I later learned, I shouldn't have done so quickly...oops) and nervously turned every few hours for the next couple weeks.

During this time, we had a power outage that lasted for several hours - the poor little creatures were quickly cooling as our fire had not yet started to warm up our home. As if that wasn't stressful enough, I accidentally scrambled the poor little guys when trying to move the incubator closer to the fire - oh man...by this point I was convinced they were doomed.

I had calculated our hatch day to be last Sunday/Monday - well those days came and went...as did Tuesday, Wednesday...and now here we were on Thursday. I was positive there was no life in that big styrofoam box on my counter when suddenly I heard peeping. My first thought; "dammit Juniper...now what have you caught" but then realized it was coming from the incubator. There, flopping around and chirping it's little heart out was, the cutest, slimiest, pinkest little baby bird. Then two...then three...then four!! There are still more eggs dancing around in there, so we'll see what happens. But these four have totally won my heart - oh man are they sweet!!

[EVENTS] Valentine Pop Up

I am overwhelmed by all the creative endeavours in my life at the moment, that I find there are not enough hours in the day for me to produce, reflect and let all this beautiful inspiration around me, sink in. My little Island Collective is attracting some amazing local artists and the ideas and future of this collective is starting to take shape and is incredibly exciting.

This past weekend, the Bowen Artisans Island Collective hosted a Valentine's Market at the beautiful Sugar Cube Gallery. Our newest artisan wares melded perfectly with our existing members creating a beautiful market for the senses. 

Now that the Collective has been operating for a little while, I have decided to update the branding to better reflect our wares and our artisans. The goal is to create a more 'Indie Inspired' look and feel to our markets, our social media and our NEW BLOG coming soon. Lots to look forward to!! Inspiration overload xoxo

To learn more about our markets and our talented artisans, please visit our site.

[LIVING LAB] Owl Pellet Dissection

Good Morning. Here's a little update on our Owl Pellet find from yesterday. After letting the hair ball pellet dry out for a couple hours, it looked a bit more appealing...no that's not the right word...approachable? Sure, we'll go with that. 

We set up our tools - two pairs of tweezers, toothpick, magnifying glass, paper towel and a petrie dish for viewing. We slowly started pulling apart the bits of fur and collecting all the teensy, tiny bones. We found teeth, claws, a skull, and many small bones. It was amazing how much was packed into that small mound.

LOGAN CAREFULLY PULLING APART THE FUR USING TWO SETS OF TWEEZERS

MY LITTLE SCIENTIST GETTING A CLOSER LOOK AT THE BONES COLLECTED

Little L has done this project at school a couple times and found it fascinating...it became a bit of an obsession goal of mine to try and find pellets in nature. So what a score yesterday when we found not one, but TWO! We sent the other pellet home with our friends (much to their Mamas dismay) and can't wait to see what they found!