[MAMA MADE] Natural Curiosities

I love to obsess over collect little bits and pieces of our GORGEOUS island. Everything from seashells to wasp nests, snake skins to lichen are welcome in our home. Our nature shelf runneth over and is now two shelves...which are full! So after many many hours spent taking a peek at Pinterest, I was overloaded with inspiration. Unfortunately, my husband has been working, working, working this summer (and rock climbing...no jealousy or ill thoughts there...), my kids have been snotty (from the nose...and a bit in the attitude department), I've been super sick with allergies and of course, our poor kitty, had to be put down in the middle of all this...so my crafting took place in my head, in the middle of my non-drowsy, cough syrup induced insomnia. Such a pretty picture.

Anyhoo, I decided that it was high time I put some of my ideas of having a 'Natural Curiosity' table at the summer market into action. I started with some simple, little terrariums. These plants were all found on the cliffsides of one of our favourite spots on the island. Lichen, grasses, succulents, stones, driftwood and feathery moss fill these small glass containers. I planted them a week or so ago, to make sure all the plants took, which they did - can't wait to package these beauties up with some pretty twine and tags listing the plants, and place where discovered.

Another idea I had, was to make little specimen boxes with some of our beach and forest treasures. I started these yesterday and am really having fun putting them together. The boxes are made from kraft jewelry boxes, which I trimmed the inside with washi tape (why don't they make the kraft paper go all the way to the bottom of the box...looks so messy, ARGH), and the artwork is adhered to wooden game pieces I purchased a few years ago, which just happen to fit perfectly! Rather than using the box lid, I will be making match box style sleeves to slide over. So fun - but almost seems a shame to have these little pieces hidden...hmmmmm...perhaps some shadow boxes may need to happen.

Forest terrariums will be started today. They will be in larger containers that match and have stainless steel, screw top lids. These will be filled with ferns, sweet woodruff, moss and whatever other treasures I can find. Really looking forward to putting these together - will post pictures when complete.

Next up...nature bauble jewels, driftwood boats and 'fishing rods', and beautiful seashells all sparkly and clean! Stay tuned.

[TUTORIAL] Preserving Seashells

Searching the surf for the perfect seashell - there it is glittering just under the surface. You grab it before the next wave rolls it away. It's colours are irridescent, vibrant and beautiful. You take it home to show off your new prized posession, only to find that it has dried to a dull grey, it's texture is gritty and dirty; and so like the shells that came before it, it gets shoved on the shelf, or in the bowl, with all the other beauties that were.

Well, no more my friends - let's learn how to bring these treasures back to their natural state.

STEP ONE Grab a bucket, head to the beach during a low tide, and collect EMPTY shells. Now some people have no problem taking shells that are occupied, but personally, it does not seem right to me. So, these instructions are for empty (or dead) shells.

STEP TWO Gently arrange your shells in a pot, cover with water (water should be about 2" higher than the shells) and bring to a boil. This is to kill any little creatures that may have made their way inside the shell (example: barnacles, sea lice). Boil for 5 - 10 minutes.

STEP THREE Carefully examine each shell (use tongs as they will be very hot to the touch) and give them a good rinse and shake (if snail shells) and set aside.

STEP FOUR Rince your pot and add a ratio of 1 part bleach to 5 parts water (this was my ratio...if you want less bleach go for it). Carefully place your shells in the bleach mixture and let sit for 5-7 hours or until you see the periostracum (leathery/flaky coating) coming off.

STEP FIVE Grab an old toothbrush (not your spouses...although, I was tempted) and gently give each shell a good scrub under fresh water and place on a sheet to dry. If there are any barnacles on the shell, they should just pop right off after the bleach bath.

STEP SIX Once the shells are completely dry, you'll have a moment of 'what the...why are they all grey again?!? ARGH!! That lady had no idea what she was talking about' - oh but I do!! Grab some mineral oil, or baby oil and a paint brush, and give a good coating to each shell. Leave them to sit for a couple hours and then gently wipe the excess oil off with a cloth.

Ahem....did she know what she was talking about?? Apology accepted!

[EXPLORE] The Creek

This little creek is our new favourite spot to stop and explore. We start by quietly searching the little stream that feeds into Terminal Creek for red legged frogs. We have been quite lucky, and have found several this past week. They are quite large in size (approximately 4 - 6" in length) and have beautiful red markings on the underside of their legs. We LOVE them!

We then continue down the trail to the creek itself - shoes off, pants rolled up, and in we go. We can easily spend an entire morning exploring this creek. There's logs to climb, a little waterfall to play in, a beaver dam, young salmon and fun waterbugs that glide across the surface.

Today, we headed down with our friends and off went the big kids, net in hand, and look what they came back with...

That's right, a CRAYFISH!! What an exciting discovery. This little guy is absolutely beautiful. When it's front legs are raised, you can see the beautiful irridiscent turquoise colouring on it's underside. GORGEOUS! The big kids disappeared again, and came back with ANOTHER CRAYFISH! This creek just keeps getting better and better!

Next, we strolled through the meadow and played at our favourite bridge that covers a somewhat marshy area, and creek (I'm guessing it's also Terminal Creek). Here we found teeny, tiny tree frogs, pretty snails and tadpoles.

Our kids have no idea how lucky they are - we are so incredibly blessed!

[LIVING LAB] The Original

I just finished a beautiful walk through the meadow with our friends, Ben and Sasha, who are fellow Bowen Islanders that have been living abroad in Bali for the past five years. Logan wanted to show his buddy, Sasha, our favourite spot for catching snakes - we found many snakes in the tall grass today, as well as, a beautiful snake that was in the midst of shedding it's skin when it met it's death (from the small puncture wounds, we're guessing it was a hawk or owl). We also found a loooonnngggg snake skin that was still intact, but far too delicate for me to collect (darn). Pretty exciting stuff!

I was telling Ben about the research labs we like to set up in our home with the creatures we find. I was just looking to send him a link of the first lab we did, only to find that I had never shared those pictures. So here's some pics of our first ever lab. It was quite something!

This is Wiggles. Wiggles was a very beautiful leaf insect that we were given on a whim one day on the ferry (one of the more odd things we've taken home from the boat, that's for sure). He/she ate blackberry leaves, and was so much fun to watch and hold. We only kept Wiggles for a couple weeks, then passed him/her along to the grade three class at the school. What a cool class pet!

These two frogs we found at Quarry Park near our house. Logan named them George and Harold. Little Harold was missing a leg - we're not sure if he was attacked or born that way. We fed these little guys teensy,tiny crickets. We kept them for a very short time, then returned them to the pond where we found them.

This beautiful salamander, I found on a walk around Kilarney Lake. I surprised Logan with it when I picked him up from school. He was so excited, and right away went home to set up a beautiful habitat for 'Sally'. We had a den for 'her' and a shallow water dish that she liked to curl up in. We kept her for a few weeks, as she was doing very well in our care and was so much fun to watch (I never realized how fast they can move when stocking their prey). Plus, she was a great way to get rid of the slugs in our garden, as that's one of their main staples...and we had a lot for her to dine on.

Last up is 'Slither' - a little baby snake we found in the meadow. We brought the terrarium with us and collected some of the dry dirt from the ditch where they live, along with, tall grasses, some plants and stones. We learned a lot about the different habitats needed for our creatures to survive when setting up this lab. Such a fun way to learn.

We have had a couple more labs since then (more pics here). In fact, there are still tadpoles living on my balcony. They're HUGE...like two inches in size!!!?? Remember these guys...yup those are the tadpoles I'm talking about!

[TUTORIAL] Orange Pomanders

SNOW DAY!! My kids lasted all of half an hour in the snow this morning, before coming in begging for hot apple cider, a warm fire and demanding a craft to keep them occupied. Luckily, I had some cloves and oranges on hand, and we got busy making some lovely smelling pomander balls. It's a great craft for little fingers and helps develop those ever important motor skills. Here's what you need...

SUPPLIES:

• Oranges
• Whole Cloves
• Toothpick or skewer
• Ribbon or yarn if hanging

STEP ONE Poke holes in orange with toothpick

STEP TWO Poke long ends of cloves into holes

STEP THREE If tying, you may want to do this first and then decorate. Just simply tie the orange as you would a present. Knot at top of orange and then knot excess ribbon to create a loop to hang. Et Voila!

[FAMILY] Astronaut

My son...the astronaut. I do not know how this came about, but at some point during the last few weeks of school last June, Logan became obsessed with building a spaceship and travelling to outer space with his pals, Ethan and Christopher. Apparently, there is a nasty storm happening right now on Jupiter, and these budding scientists are worried that it may get out of hand and destroy the earth. The fate of the planet is in their hands (and their pets).

At first, the constant chatter and planning of this space mission was so sweet. Logan talked and talked and planned every day for this adventure. He made diagrams of how to build the rocket, lists of what food he needed to bring, emergency supplies and so on and so on. But then I realized, that this was going beyond imaginative play, and he was very serious that he needed to get into space. He started asking daily if we could please go to the building centre, and buy his supplies because this needed to be accomplished before summer was over, to the point that he was near tears or angry, when I tried to explain, that they don't sell rocket ship supplies on Bowen. I suggested we find some big cardboard boxes, and make a pretend ship first for practice. This made him very upset, and the obvious anxiety he was feeling towards getting this spaceship built was starting to build. When I tried to explain, that building rocket ships and becoming an astronaut meant going to a special school when you're an adult, he became very irrate, upset and heart broken. It made me feel terrible. Did I do the right thing? Where do you draw the line between allowing their imaginations to run wild, and bringing them back down to earth (pun intended).

He stopped talking about the rocketship shortly before school started, as we were very busy with end of summer activities. It has started up again, now that he is in kindergarten, however, he seems to be using this 'story' more to reel in new friends. One of the first things he does, when meeting someone new is tell them about the spaceship he wants to build, and then asks if they would like to join him. He then comes home, and adds their name to the ever growing list and explains to me the special skill each of his new friends brings to the mission.

Did I do the right thing, or should I have continued down the make believe path, and come up with a new excuse every day, why we were not pulling out the welding materials and scrap metal to construct a space craft. Comments welcome.

[FAMILY] Happy New Year

Well, we are half way through our first week of full day kindergarten. Logan is doing amazing. Much better than I expected, and I...well, I am also doing a lot better than I had anticipated. I think a lot of that is seeing how excited he is to attend the 'big kids' school. He loves his teacher, his classroom, the playground, gym class, library...he loves it all. He is making new friends, bonding wonderfully with his new teacher and enjoying being in a split Kindergarten/Grade One class

My days are so quiet without the constant chatter in my ear. I miss it...I miss him, but I will admit, the quiet time I now get to spend with Chloe, is lovely. I am seeing a different side of her. A much calmer side. I really haven't had the chance to get to know this little person as well as I would like. She's never had me all to herself - it's always been her and Logan, and then trying to focus on Logan while she naps, or goes to bed...but never the other way around.

I am really excited to see what this 'new year' has in store for us. I think it's going to be nothing short of awsome.

[DOCUMENT] Project Life Update

I've been busy playing catch up on my Project Life pages these last couple weeks. It's coming together wonderfully. I am incredibly proud of it.

I think my favourite part of this journey is realizing just how much I do with my children, my home, my friends, my family...my life - it has been a real eye opener. I sometimes feel I'm not making good use of my time home with them, or that our days and weeks have not been very fun and exciting. But then I sit down and start to put together our pictures, read over my notes from the day, and realize that 'hey, I'm doing a pretty good job!'

As you can see in some of the photos, I have used sticky notes to keep me on track with the dates of the week while I catch up on my journaling. I have briefly re-capped our days in my daytimer and when I get a (rare) quiet moment, I will type them up and print on my 4" x 6" recipe cards.

My children love this project too. Chloe looks at this album almost every day - in fact, I have to hide it or she'll drive me nuts wanting to look at all the pictures. She has the album memorized to date, and has funny little smiles, noises, faces she makes for certain images on the page. It's adorable.

note the little hand 'helping' me turn the pages while i take pictures (why some images are blurred...had to be quick!)

[FAMILY] Capture

I may not bake my own bread, grow my own vegetables, have the cleanest house on the block (although i would love to do/have all of the above), the one thing I have done consistently since our first little nugget arrived, is taken pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. I have tried my best to document my little family unit, through my lens.

Since joining the iPhone crowd last December, I have been slacking in taking my 'real camera' on our daily explorations. So out came my trusty friend, charged the battery, cleared the memory card and headed out to one of our favourite spots on the island. The Meadow. This is my favourite image captured from the day. My beauties.

Speaking of captured moments. Is anyone out there still participating in Project Life? I have managed to hang in there, and am only about a month (maybe two) behind but am hoping to have some time to myself soon to get caught up. What a wonderful project. Here's some inspiration I've been collecting to keep up the creativity and remain motivated.

xox

[NATURE] A Pox On Our House

Welcome sunshine (finally!). We've had a nasty bout of the chicken pox sweep through our house the last week or so. Luckily, the weather co-operated for most of our housebound days, and we were able to get outside and walk the mutt, explore the meadow, catch snakes and eat yummy salmon berries. Some days I feel I need to really rack my brain, to try and come up with something fun and interesting for my children...and yet, simple is always better. Who needs all this planning and stressing, when we have nature. It's the best playdate companion a mama could as for.

[MAMA MADE] Diorama Rama

Hello Friends! It's been awhile. Life with two children, is certainly taking it's toll on the productivity front in these hear parts. Let me re-phrase that: the crafting, sewing, making anything to do with me kind of productivity. It seems my crafting consists of surfing Pinterest on my iPhone while nursing Chloe. So, my boards are bursting and lovely to look at. sigh.

I did manage to get one little project completed recently. I seem to have developed an obsession great interest, in dioramas. Yup, you read that correctly. Dioramas. I'm a nerd. But seriously...aren't they too cute?!? My little girl loves carrying them around. They are fun, magical little worlds. And, they are easy and fast to make, which seems to be my kind of craft right now.

For these two, I used 2"x3" kraft jewelry boxes, scrapbooking paper, washi tape, thread, tiny plastic figurines, glue and lots of patience (these little pieces are tricky).

Leave me a comment if you are interested in a tutorial, and I will get one up as soon as the monsters my angels give me a chance.