Monday, 19 March 2012

Schoolwork and other things - Activités d'école et autres choses

Playing and practicing French with some activities found here.

Jeux et activités de français avec du matériel trouvé ici.


Pippa tracing letters and numbers in rice...

Pippa trace des lettres et des chiffres dans du riz...



Some animal stories read to Pippa...

Quelques histoires d'animaux racontés à Pippa...

Dans la forêt d'hiver dans Histoires d'animaux de Jakob Streit
Le renard et le cheval de Grimm


New Erlin glasses for Pippa...

De nouvelles lunettes Erlin pour Pippa...


Knitting cords with knitting towers...

Tricotin...


Yarn braids...

Des tresses en laine...


Creative story writing and drawing...

Écriture d'histoires...


Tuesday, 13 March 2012

Keep Calm, Craft On: Sunbeams, Rainbows, Butterflies and a Quilt


Joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams for another Keep Calm, Craft On post.

For painting this week, we did sunbeams and the colours of the rainbow.

Lulu
Pippa
Loane

We read The Story of the Butterfly Children, and created rainbow butterflies. The idea came from our March Little Acorn Learning enrichment guide.



I also started a new quilt this week.


Happy crafting on!

Monday, 12 March 2012

Grade 3: Old Testament Stories - Histoires de l'Ancien Testament

Here is more of Lulu's work on Old Testament Stories.

Voici d'autres travaux réalisés par Lulu sur les histoires de l'Ancien Testament.




Adam and Eve - Adam et Ève


Cain and Abel - Caïn et Abel



The Flood and Noah's Ark - Le Déluge et l'arche de Noé  




The Tower of Babel - La tour de Babel


Construction of Noah's ark (clay, beeswax and wooden coffee sticks)
Construction de l'arche de Noé (argile, cire d'abeille et bâtonnets de bois pour le café) 

Friday, 9 March 2012

Creative Fridays: Rainbow Yarn Wrapped Branches, Shamrocks and Dumplings

Today I am joining Linda at Natural Suburbia for a Creative Friday post.

This week, I tried Linda's knitted Shamrock pattern which I really enjoyed. I used Cascade 220 Worsted. The colour is Ireland (very appropriate!). Thank you again Linda for generously sharing this great pattern!



The girls and I also worked on some rainbow coloured yarn wrapped branches. We got the idea from The Magic Onions. The arrangement is quite cheerful on it's own, but it might also welcome many of our spring crafts and decorations to come...





We finished our week with lots of fun in the kitchen with our dear friends who showed us how to make Chinese dumplings...



First, we chopped and grated lots of vegetables (carrots, sweet potato, cabbage, bok choy, mushrooms, celery, green onions or whatever you fancy) and mixed them with some soy sauce (we used tamari and shoyu) and sesame oil (you can also add some ginger if you wish). We then let the vegetables marinate for a little while (half hour) and drained and squeezed them (getting rid of the liquid in the bottom of the bowl). With our finger and some water  we wet the outside (contour) of the thawed pastry disc (dumpling wrappers which we bought frozen), put a teaspoon or two of veggies in the middle, folded it in half and pinched it tightly closed. The dumplings can be frozen and cooked later. To cook, heat some oil in a pan. Brown one side of the dumplings, turn, add some water to the pan and cover to create steam and finish cooking. Delicious!



Thursday, 8 March 2012

Around the House - Autour de la maison

Some winter paintings done a few weeks ago. We are now starting to think about spring themes...

Des aquarelles réalisées il y a quelques semaines. Nous commençons à penser à de nouveaux thèmes en lien avec le printemps.

Icicles - Glaçons by/par Pip
Once again, inspired by a Kristie Burns story.
Peinture encore une fois inspirée par une histoire de Kristie Burns.

Snowflakes - Flocons de neige by/par Pip
Inspired by this craft project.
Inspiration trouvée ici.

A finished handwork (knitting) project by Pip.

Un projet de tricot terminé et réalisé par Pip.



We finally gave no-knead bread a try. The results are quite spectacular. The crust is perfect, the texture of the bread is light and chewy. The recipe can be found in English here.

Nous avons enfin essayé le pain sans pétrissage. Les résultats sont spectaculaires. La croûte est parfaite, la mie est moelleuse et alvéolée. La recette en français se trouve ici et un petit vidéo se trouve ici.




Lots of wonderful play....


Beaucoup de beaux jeux...





Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Keep Calm, Craft On: More Baby Knits

Joining Nicole for another Keep Calm, Craft On post.


I am still working on baby knits this week (I am obsessed!). I have no finished projects to show other than a pair of baby leg warmers that I am about to cast off. They are made with Cascade Yarns Eco Duo Undyed Baby Alpaca and Merino. Such soft yarn in beautiful earthy tones...


Another project that I just cast on is a pair of bootees in Noro Kureyon. Amazing colours!


I am getting really inspired by two books that I have been looking through and I thought I would share them here. I am very happy with my recent purchase of Vintage Knits for Modern Babies after seeing it so many times on Tonya's blog. It does have many interesting projects that I would like to knit. Also, the Emroidery Companion is one of the cutest embroidery books that I have come across in a while. I recommend both, although I have not yet tried any of the patterns in Vintage Knits (soon though...).


Happy crafting on!

Monday, 5 March 2012

9

Our big girl turned nine this weekend.
Notre grande fille a eu neuf ans le week-end dernier.




Her birthday table...
Sa table d'anniversaire...






Some gifts...
Quelques cadeaux...




My Little House Crafts Book


Little House Paper Dolls



We love you so much and we are so proud of you. Happy Birthday!
Nous t'aimons tant et nous sommes si fiers de toi. Bon anniversaire!