[DOCUMENT] Photo Garland

Professional Day + Rain + Cozy Fire + Hot Chocolate and a ridiculous Fred Movie = Craft Time for Mama.

A couple weeks ago I ventured into Michael's to drool over the illuminated tin shapes that are worth a small fortune and lo and behold...THEY WERE ON SALE. After the well deserved happy dance ended, I dove into the bin and pulled out the most perfect, galvanized heart. I instantly fell in love (and who wouldn't at 70% off) and yesterday I found the perfect spot on my window. Of course, this little addition to the living room meant redecorating the entire room and taking a closer look at this window. It needed a little something something so out came the scrap booking supplies, washi tape, glue and Instagram and voila.

A photo garland!! I've seen this idea for weddings and birthdays but why not everyday. I downloaded some of my favourite Instagram images and printed them at 3.75" x 5" and left some photos as a square with a white band below for text and some I cropped to fill the entire rectangle.

On the square images, I added strip of washi tape and a bit of text. The rectangle images were left as is, or had the addition of some fun cutouts I had in my stash.

The small prints and text are from an Ali Edwards Project Life kit that I've had for ages...glad I didn't sell it. I love it!

[FAMILY + NATURE] Island Living

No we don't have malls, skate parks (although, that would be fun) movie theatres or even an indoor swimming pool, but we do have beaches, tide pools, meadows and trails. We made really great use of all those 'facilities' this weekend. First up, the Nature Dive.

Chloe and I had so much fun on Saturday, that we decided to go back to the dock with the boys to show them all the little starfish and gunnel fish we had found.

Next we headed down the road to the meadow and tried our hand at fishing off a little bridge that crosses a creek. It was filled with beautiful rainbow trout and crayfish - we caught five trout and a couple crayfish!

Last on the list was to have a bonfire at the beach to cook our bounty, but the weather had a different idea and instead we headed back with our friends to our place to BBQ, have the first fire of the season and listen to the thunderstorm. Island living bliss.

[FAMILY + NATURE] After School Home School

We are so blessed on this island to have the most AMAZING community school. The class sizes are relatively small, the teachers are top notch, community and parent involvement is encouraged, nature is at the centre of their everyday learning (heck, they back onto a forest) and we are kept in the loop of everything that is happening both in the class and out. We couldn't be luckier. The academics, physical activity, music, languages and social interaction is all covered, which leaves us the freedom at home to focus on what we're interested in without sacrificing any of the above.

So how do we 'homeschool'? We dive into nature. We pack up our explorer pack, we grab our nets, our buckets our test tubes and head out. We collect specimens, we research and we share. Our classroom is the beach, the forest, the front yard. We have been invited to help create a nature table in my daughter's classroom...to say I'm excited is about the biggest understatement of the century! It was as if the trees were listening to that conversation, as this week has been naturepalooza at the Degner residence!

First find was this amazing juvenile Northern Alligator Lizard which was spotted at our local eatery. We captured him/her in a coffee cup and got down to business creating a temporary habitat.

We researched what they eat, where they live, how they defend themselves and how large they are when full grown. And hey, did you know that Norther Alligator Lizards give birth to live young??!! Neither did I!

As if that wasn't enough excitement, we also found a birds nest on our property which looks as though it used our dogs fur to make it nice and cozy inside. During our lake walk yesterday we discovered a beautiful dragonfly, a dragonfly nymph casing, mystery eggs in the lake which we are guessing are snails, a beautiful large, blue crayfish claw and some small white eggs under a log. Our classroom never disappoints!