Planet IndigenUS at Harbourfront
Planet IndigenUS is one of the largest international Indigenous arts festivals in the world and we were able to catch some of the presentations while everyone was here. For approximately ten days, people from all over the world came here to perform or experience the different artistic styles through dance, music, art, poetry and storytelling.
More than the indigenous people from North America, we were able to enjoy some smooth, mellow sounds from Rhombus (Wellington, New Zealand) – Visit their site: Rhombus
and a very high-energy performance from Ernest The Magnifico (Sydney, Australia) – Visit his site: Ernest the Magnifico
Free Printable Alphabet Worksheets from AnimalAdventureBook.com
Just finished putting up some more free printable worksheets on AnimalAdventureBook.com.
If you know a little one who loves animals and would like to practice their writing skills… or just need something to occupy the young ones while out, please check out the site (by clicking the photo below).
I would also appreciate to hear what you think about the current site, so if you would please give me some feedback in the comment section below, I can then make the site better for the children 😀
How to – Simple (and Inexpensive) Back-to-School Set
When little ones start school or go back to school, they always want to be more like the “big kids”. Although children in preschool and kindergarten don’t require notebooks, it’s possible to make an easy DIY personalized notebook just for fun. Throw in a few more things to go along with it and they will instantly feel more important and organized for their “long” days in school.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take photos of the other items in this set so I’ll list them for you here:
- DIY notebook
- Pink pencil to match the notebook
- Printed calendar with cute animal characters
- After school schedule sheets
- “First days of school” diary sheets (one lined page and one illustration page per day for one week) .
- Pink kitty cat buttons (for crafts, clothing or bags)
- Two pink flower patches (for clothes, shoes or bags)
- One embroidered row of hearts with adhesive backing (for stationery decoration)
- Handmade greeting card with an owl (for good luck)
Everything was placed in a flexible and expandable plastic case to keep everything dry and to make room for school work.
To make your own notebook, all you need is:
- a bunch of three-hole lined paper
- two pieces of cardboard paper (same size or larger than the lined paper)
- three evenly cut pieces of ribbon
- scrap cardboard paper (preferably in a contrasting colour to the other pieces)
- adhesive (double-sided tape, glue, paste…)
Use a three-hole punch on the cardboard. Make sure the holes line up with the lined paper.
I made a kirigami flower and taped it to the front along with a line at the top for the name.
*You can find the kirigami flower instructions here.
Finally took the rest of my paper scraps to make a bunch of kirigami hearts.
Comment below to let me know what you think. If you made some of your own DIY back-to-school items, please send me a message and I might just feature you on the site!
Support Canada’s Beautiful Environment and Stop Enbridge from Lying to Us
Enbridge has been releasing many different ads promoting their plans to build a tar sands pipeline that could lead to “500 oil tankers a year laden with toxic heavy crude will have to weave through the 4th most dangerous waterway in the world, making sharp, 90° turns through twisting, rocky passages.”
To get public support for their project, Enbridge decided to simply erase 1000 km2 of islands located right in the Douglas Channel to make it seem perfectly safe. In reality, such a gamble could absolutely devastate the natural environment.
I’m sure no one would want something like this to happen right in their backyards, so please show support and stop this madness by signing this petition and spreading the word to others.
Click on the image for a closer look.
Homemade Vegetable Chicken Soup
We had a sudden shift of cool rainy weather come in, making it a wonderful time for some hearty soup.
As usual, I wasn’t quite sure what was going to go into the soup or how it would end up tasting, but I just went along with what we had and added a couple of things from the grocery store to pad it out.
The end result? One of the nicest soups I’ve had in years!
Ingredients:
4-6 chicken thighs (with bone and skin)
1 ½-2 chicken bouillon cubes
4 small potatoes (cubed)
1 large carrot (cubed)
4 large mushrooms (cubed)
1 small chopped onion
4-6 chopped cloves of garlic
1 can red kidney beans (rinsed)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried basil
1-2 dried bay leaves
1 pinch of cumin powder
1 pinch of seasoning salt
1 pinch of shichimi (You can find shichimi on Amazon
salt and pepper to taste
Procedure:
Place 1 L of water in a medium to large pot over high heat.
Add chicken thighs, potatoes and carrots.
Add 1 ½-2 chicken bouillon cubes, followed by salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, cumin, basil, shichimi and bay leaves.
Once the water begins to boil, reduce to medium heat.
On a small pan, lightly fry chopped onions with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat.
After 2 minutes or so, add garlic to the onions and fry for an additional minute.
Remove from heat and add the onions and garlic to the boiling pot.
Add mushrooms and kidney beans to the pot then boil for a few more minutes.
Add chives and parsley to the boiling pot and allow to cook for 1 minute before removing the soup from the heat.
Enjoy with garlic bread or herb crackers!
*The soup tastes even better the day after!*
