I love the fact that Easter (like Christmas) brings families and friends together. As a family, we usually head off camping with friends. It’s always fun with never a moment to spare, particularly when we have two or three families join us. As a result, sometimes I feel like we get so caught up in the Egg hunts and excitement of outdoor activities that we forget to take a moment to reflect on the celebration of Easter. Continue Reading…
It’s my pleasure to be the host for this month’s Biz Mums Blogging Carnival. This is a great time where we can check out other blogs that we might not normally see and share all that bloggie love. Continue Reading…
In this week’s Smart Reads we’re focusing on Easter and the wonderful world of FREE PRINTABLES! There is so much creative talent ‘out there’ it’s so hard to know where to start. So, here are a few links that will give you as many different choices for styles and cuteness I can muster up. Happy printing! Continue Reading…
Easter craft is so much fun but we’re often left more waste than we’d like. What if we could get crafty but reduce some of our waste at the same time?! Here’s the ‘how to’ for a gorgeous, recycled, Easter bunny egg basket. Magical! Continue Reading…
Welcome to our Smart Reads where we offer you a range of blogs, opinions and ideas around one topic. We try to give you a broad range of material so please remember that what you read should be guided by what you need. Happy reading!
This week we’re focusing on Easter. It’s such a wonderful time of year. Continue Reading…
If you’re anything like me, each year at Easter you are faced with the challenge of wanting a bit of variety in your Easter egg decorating. So, this year we’re painting Glow in the dark eggs. Cool huh?! Not only that, but because they’re going to be glow in the dark, we’re going to have our Easter Egg Hunt at night. Loads of fun! Continue Reading…
No doubt like me, you have a never ending supply of artwork. Like most of you though, there is no way I can physically keep them all. I’ve tried to sneak them into the recycling bin, only to find my child in tears at the thought of Mummy throwing their masterpiece away. I’ve tried hanging them all around our family room but it looked more like a classroom than a relaxing family space. I’ve tried tacking them to wardrobes but a five year old no longer wants his three year old drawings displayed for the world to see. He’s moved on, but Mummy hasn’t.
After much trial and error we now have a system that works like a treat. The kids feel encouraged because we love displaying their hard work, and we feel satisfied because our kids are obviously hard at work creating, thinking and imagining. Everybody is happy. Here’s what works for us…
In our meals area, we have a gallery wall. It’s a fantastic space and we love being surrounded with such creativity. It does take a little effort to put together but only occasionally.
We rotate the artwork each set of school holidays. We set aside a day over the holidays and we sort all the art pieces into piles – one for each child. We then decide which ones are the keepers (definitely going on the wall), the maybe’s (‘fillers’ in case one child has more to display than the others) and the recyclable. This works really well as the kids remain in control of the future of each bit of art. It’s great to see the kids faces as they remember their artwork from last semester. For us, this system is a all round winner. Not too much work, we’re all involved and artwork makes it to the wall.
Canvases and sculptures are fabulous to collect and keep however the only problem is that you can’t tack them to the wall all that easily. So, when I updated our playroom I knew I needed a shelf purposefully built for three dimensional artwork. With a little finessing the arrangement of these pieces can actually look quite impressive even to the discerning adult’s eye.
For those extra special canvases I have a little wooden easel which we use to display kids art in amongst all of Mummy’s adult decorative pieces. I love being loud and proud about my kids art as it encourages them to continue creating. This easel will change it’s passenger from time to time but only every now and then.
When the kids were younger, the amount of artwork that they brought home was overwhelming. This is where scrapbooks came in handy. It’s a great keepsake and the kids love flipping through all of their past activities. Ours live with our Special Things Box so when we updated the box recently, the scrapbooks came down too. We had so much fun remembering when, how and who they did each of the art pieces with.
Satchels are even less labour intensive than scrapbooks. They can be labelled with your child’s name and the year in which the artwork was done. You can store pieces in them straight away, or once they’ve come down off walls they can be stored away for a special walk down memory lane. It’s great to see how kids have progressed developmentally as well.
Nifty magnets with bull dog clips attached make for excellent ways to display kids art. These days we tend to just put one up at a time as our fridge gets very busy with calendars and charts and the like. However in the past we used a simple rotation system. The latest one goes at the front and the back one comes off and gets stored away. This saves having wall tack everywhere around the house and is a very simple display option. No manual labour required!
Some of the artwork that comes home from kinder is ENORMOUS and will not fit on any wall without taking over. Using these pieces as wrapping paper has worked a treat for our family. The budding artist is proud that their artwork is being used for such a special occasion as giving a gift and it saves me money by not having to buy wrapping paper.
While artwork is waiting to be displayed we have an allocated drawer that stores all of the pre-sorted artwork. It’s located in my office as all of the other drawers in the house are already overflowing. Down the bottom of this drawer you will also find some of the pieces that Mummy retrieved out of the recycling bin because she was keen to have a few keepers of her own.
I know many of my friends store their kids art on their phones and this works really well for them. I do this too, but generally it’s for the artwork that my kids have made electronically. Personally I like to keep them separate. There are also online galleries where you can store your favourite kids art. This is on my to do list for the next school holidays.
In the meantime, there are many ways we can display our kids art, these ideas are just a few. On my Pinterest board, “Storing kids art” you’ll also find numerous other ideas of how you can store and/or display your children’s artwork creatively.
I’m sure you have tried many different ways to store or display your kids art. What are some of your most successful ways?
Well hello there. It’s been a while. It probably feels like ages ago when you subscribed to my blog. You’re probably wondering why you haven’t received anything up until now. Continue Reading…
When I first married my husband, I often wondered if he was actually taught how to do housework as a young lad. It wasn’t that he was a tad ordinary at it or anything. It was that he was dead set awful!! However, I’m grateful that after 15 years of marriage some of my Jedi Master cleaning skills have rubbed off onto him. 
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In honor of Valentine’s Day I thought I’d make some delicious French Toast. Not just your bog standard French Toast though…. I mean Nutella French Toast. YUM!!
1/2 loaf of dense stale bread (normal sandwich loaf works too)
4 eggs
3 tbsp orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tbsp sugar
dash of salt
Nutella
Icing sugar for dusting
Vegetable Oil (not olive as it’s too flavoursome)
For of this special occasion I cut a few pieces of bread into heart shapes but feel free to leave the crust on if you prefer it that way. I did a bit of both.
Spread Nutella over all of the pieces of bread then squish them together to make Nutella sandiches. I didn’t over do the Nutella as I didn’t want them too sweet but if you have a sweet tooth – go for it!
Combine eggs, milk, orange juice, vanilla, sugar and salt in a shallow bowl and whisk. Next, place vegetable oil in a pan and heat to medium or medium low heat.
Dip one of your Nutella sandwiches into the egg batter until it is fully coated. Be careful not to soak it too much or you may run out of batter.
Cook until golden brown on both sides and fully cooked. Done like this, the French Toast will be thick, so you might want to place them in a warm oven for about 10 minutes or until nice and crispy on the outside. This also works well for keeping the first couple warm while you finish making the rest.
Repeat dipping and cooking the bread, adding oil to the pan each time, or as you need it.
Once they are complete, dust with icing sugar and enjoy!
What special treats do you cook on Valentine’s Day?
