An Art Exchange

Elise requested a painting day. I felt up to doing some art, so I said sure. I had thought of doing a sailboat, but realized I actually paint better alone. I decided to paint something a little bit simpler, so I didn't have to concentrate so hard on what I was doing. This also gave me the energy to answer her thousands of questions!

When Elise suggested that whatever I painted should be given to her, and the art she came up with would be given to me... I thought that sounded like a fair trade. She, however, felt cheated because she finished TWO pieces for me, while I only completed one :)

From Elise to me:

She did this piece first. I actually got to have a lot of input into the order of colours. Although, at one point, I suggested green, and she quickly nixed that. Said it just didn't go! She's the artist, so she should know!!

The second painting reminds me of something Emily Carr might have painted. I love the colours Elise used. She had fun mixing colours for this one. Her goal was to make brown by combining different paints together. She was quite happy with the results! I think this one will get a frame.

From me to Elise:

And, here is my painting that she said she will hang in her bedroom. I used watercolours, and she chose the colours I used. They don't even come close to matching her bedroom colours, but I'm getting the vibe that she wishes her room was orange. Maybe next time I redecorate her room :) I have quite a fun little girl, and I really enjoyed our artistic morning!

Sewing Fun

Like anything, sewing becomes extra fun when you have the right tools and fabrics. I just stumbled across this fabric site in the US. Love, love LOVE some of these patterns.

SkyeReve Fabrics on Facebook

SkyeReve Fabrics website

Family Easter Fun!

Yesterday we hosted Steve's family for Easter dinner. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, baked green beans, corn, veggies and rolls. Delicious! For dessert, Steve's mom brought Paska and some white chocolate popcorn = YUMMY!



After dinner, the kids got to decorate eggs. I had boiled them ahead of time (no blowing out for the kids!!!) We used Stampin' Up! reinkers in water as "paint" and then used flowers from the sticky cuts sheets that are available in the Clearance Rack right now for next to nothin'!! (Check it out :) We put glitter on the flowers and I think the eggs turned out smashingly!!! (thankfully, I had a few extras boiled, because some really did smash!!)

Singing for a cause...

I love to sing... at church, at home, in the truck, by myself, in a choir, with music or acappella, anytime or anywhere... usually it's just BEcause. But last Friday night, I had the privilege of singing FOR A cause! I was involved in the Langley Dessert Theatre that raised funds and support for Matthew's House.

The evening was a huge success... in both monetary and entertainment measures. What an honour to be included in this great event. Esther Froese had the vision for this, and together with her team of volunteers, she pulled off a great event!

Jason Brown, of Revival Arts Studio, was there taking pictures. He gave me permission to use these photos to show you a little bit of what happened at the Dessert Theatre. Steve took some short video clips, too, but I have to figure out how to post those!!

Here are all the photos he took of the evening. He loaded them to flickr. Dessert Theatre.

All photos are by Jason Brown. Thanks for the great pics, Jason, you've captured the evening well!

The Jansen 5 opened the evening with beautiful prelude music. I could listen to this group all day. They were 5 siblings ranging in age from 16 - 22 and they were truly amazing.



The room was decorated beautifully, and the tickets said to wear red in honour of Matthew, so there were splashes of red everywhere. It looked very cool from the stage!

Once the evening started, and the mc welcomed everyone, I was first on stage! I was nervous until I put my first foot on the stage, then I told the nervousness to take a hike and I became "Sister Sarah!" This all started back around Halloween when I put a little 30 second clip of myself on Facebook, singing a song from the Sound of Music. I went as a Nun for Halloween, and thought I'd pull out some old musical favourites. Well... when this fundraiser was being planned, it was remembered by the organizers that I sang as a nun, and a whole act was born. I did an 8 minute routine as Sister Sarah. It was a lot of fun. My sister made this head thing years ago when we were in a group of singers called Sister Act. I kept it purely for dress up purposes, and to make my kids laugh... on Friday I got to make 200 other people laugh, too :) It really was fun, though. And where else can you sing these amazing songs from that old movie?


This is "Uncle Hal." He is quite a character... loves to tell stories and entertained us with thoughts on just about everything, including my favourite, "The Prodigal Son in the Key of F" in which there were so many alliterations with the letter F that it left your head spinning. Clever!

It was quite fun to share a stage with the Canadian Idol finalist Greg Neufeld. He sang twice throughout the evening, and it is obvious that he really feels at home on the stage. Music is clearly his passion, and it was a treat to hear him sing LIVE.


I got to sing as just me, too. The song I sang was "Anyway" by Martina McBride. Dawnelle had put together a powerpoint to play while I sang, and it was beautiful. I think the song really fit with the evening and Matthew's House.

Last Summer, our kids were involved in a project by Revival Arts called Imagine. A collection of photos of children in the area, put together in a keepsake book. It is really beautiful. The book was a big success and Revival Arts is doing another edition. There are only a few spots left, but if you are interested in being part of this project, and helping Matthew's House at the same time (all sitting fees are donated to Matthew's House), please follow this link for more information. IMAGINE kids book.

I did it!!

Earlier today, I talked about wanting to decorate some Easter Eggs... here are my eggs :)

I started the process a few days ago with some plain white eggs.

1. Wash the eggs.

2. Poke a bunch of little holes in the top and bottom of the egg using a straight pin.

3. Make the hole bigger. (about the diametre of a skewer).

4. Carefully blow the egg yolk and whites into a bowl. You can do what you want with these, even chuck them if it grosses you out to eat them. But I decided to feed them to my family for dinner. Don't worry, I wouldn't ever do this for company, or in cookies that I might give away!!!! I would only do this for my immediate family - and they weren't actually too crazy about the idea once they saw what I was doing! But dinner was still good :)

5. Once you have completely rinsed the eggs inside and out, dry them well. Step five is to heat emboss on the eggs, or to use a white crayon to make a design which will resist the dye that you paint them with. I did a bit of both - crayon and heat embossing (I highly recommend a good oven mitt if you decide to emboss on them!!). Then skewer the eggs, and paint them using Stampin' Up! reinkers. On some of the eggs, I also used gold and sliver pens to add some detail.

6. Once I was happy with the intensity of the colour, I let them dry on their skewers, standing in a cup.

7. Once completely dry, spray a sealer coat on them. I used a clear acrylic sealer by Americana.
Then they can stand in the glass again... it'll take about an hour for the sealer to dry completely.

8. Remove them from the skewers, and add some bling if you'd like. I used Stampin' Up!'s pearls and rhinestones to add a bit of sparkle.


9. Finally, display and enjoy! Happy Easter :)

Easter Eggs

I am working on an Easter Egg post, and I headed to my good friend Google for some inspiration. Check out all these fun designs... I found these by Googling "Easter Eggs" in images. None of the following are mine, but I am hoping to be able to post something pretty fun in the next day or two that I have made :)

Red and black - one of my favourite colour combinations!

Love this Easter Egg tree!




These intricate eggs have always fascinated me. I think they are Ukrainian. I would love to be able to paint like this!

I cannot imagine having the patience to do this carving. It is so intricate, I would squish it for sure!

This group of decorated eggs is very unique. I haven't seen anything like this before. Love how they are displayed in a bed of rice.

And, if your kids like to colour, here's a colouring page that was provided on there, too. Elise is happily colouring right now!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Today was a Zoo Day for the grade ones. I had the privilege of leading a group, and they kept me on my toes. We saw all the animals, took a train ride, visited the reptiles, and even spent some time on the playground. The sun came out to play a couple times, but mostly, it was an overcast day. I am good with anything but rain when we're at the Zoo.

Here are a few pics. I took lots of pictures of animals, but most of the other photos had more than just Todd in them, so I can't post them here. They will make it into Todd's scrapbook, though! Here's one of Todd on the train - all the kids sure loved that ride!


A little bird came begging for food, but the kids weren't willing to share!!

I love the expression this hippo gave me from across the water!


Bald Eagles are one of my favourites. In flight, or at rest, I love this bird.


Time for the lion feeding. What powerful creatures.

And, finally, a majestic peacock. I love all the colours God used to create this bird. Truly amazing. I just snapped this quickly before a kid (not mine!!) chased it away. I didn't get to see the tail feathers proudly displayed today, but I love it when peacocks get all puffed up and show off!