My Mom gave me the cutest little village that she’s had forever, and I always thought was meant to decorate a mantle or something. I was so excited when I inspected them recently & discovered that they all have holes in the back big enough to poke a tree light through.

If you look closely at this pic you’ll see that all of the houses have “stained glass” windows (I’m thinking plastic or cellophane), that glow beautifully when lit from behind.

I’m thinking I’ll put a bit of effort into mending these and will put the kids to work with cardboard, colored cellophane, glue, and paints to make our own little set for next year.

Related posts:

1. Christmas village
2. Magnifying gems
3. Stocking stuffers…

It was the perfect activity after freezing his finger-tips out in the piles of snow that came down over-night. Now he has a long-if-narrow green scarf to wrap up in the next time he heads out.

Here’s a good video to get you started, too.

Related posts:

1. Finger puppet fun
2. Why I’m glad we tossed the T.V.
3. Mamie’s new blanket

This one is a list of crafty and creative people (mostly bloggers) who inspire me with all sorts of ideas for things to do and share with my family. From food to garden, to recycling toilet paper rolls, they’ve got it all. Here’s a quick round-up of what I’ve got so far, I’ll add here and on my list as I go.

What I especially like about the lists function is that you can add people that you don’t necessarily follow (handy, if your follow has gotten as out of control as I feel mine has). You can also follow other people’s lists which can be a time saver — so long as they don’t delete or hide the list you like.

If you’re looking for me, I’m @veroniquec on twitter. Don’t forget to add your nominees for the list here in the comments!

BloesemKids | irene hoofs | blog

court_russell | Courtney Russell | blog

craft | craft magazine | blog

kidscraftweekly | Kids Craft Weekly | site

makeandtakes | Marie LeBaron | blog

mollyirwin | Molly Irwin | blog

alittlehut | Patricia Zapata | blog

zakkalife | blog

campcreek | Lori Pickert | blog

notmartha | Megan | blog

playfullearning |Mariah Bruehl | blog

meetmeatmikes | pip lincolne | blog

yougrowgirl | You Grow Girl | blog

SparklingInk | blog

mommycoddle |molly balint | blog

Scribbit | Michelle Mitchell | blog

sewmamasew | blog

yvestown | Yvonne Eijkenduijn | blog

weewonderfuls | blog

camillaengman | camilla engman | blog

Loobylu | Claire | blog

_HeatherBailey | Heather Bailey | blog

CraftyCrow | Cassi | blog

GreenHour | Green Hour | blog

candaceapril | Candace | blog

KayePrince | Kaye Prince | blog

SweetPepita | Shannon Delanoy | blog

Sbsterling | blog

Related posts:

1. Creative block
2. Creative Fall
3. Inspiration: Creative Summer

I’m been a bit blue these days, so instead of stressing about finding something to write about I’ve decided to just share something happy. Hyggelig Happy is a flickr group I happened upon the other day & bookmarked straight away. It’s full of happy pictures of happy people, happy crafts, crafty things, and crafty homes. Just lovely.

Related posts:

1. Happy belated!
2. Happy Holidays!
3. Happy Mother’s Day!

I happened upon a cute Etsy store the other day that had these lovely painted rock magnets and I am determined to do this as a project with the kids at home one day soon.

I’ve stuck magnets on all sorts of things in the past, as we’ve made magnetic paper dolls and glass stone magnets as gifts many, many times. But I’ve never seen small rocks painted so prettily as these. I love the vibrant colors highlighted by golds and silvers.

You’ll find these particular rocks for sale on ZamZam Design’s Etsy shop. I think they’d make a fab gift whether you buy them or make them yourself.

Related posts:

1. Painting with chalk
2. Painted lamp-shade
3. Painted T-Shirts

While visiting family in Europe this summer I snapped a quick shot of this amazing sailboat. It’s was made entirely out of paper and tape by a young cousin of ours. I’m keeping this picture handy for a rainy day to see if I can egg Maggie & Bjørn into making something equally spectacular

Related posts:

1. Paper bag pumpkin
2. Emil’s boxcar
3. Paper airplane party

Yesterday, I had a funny moment while browsing the web. I suddenly realized that several of the sites I was enjoying were Scandinavian, and had a distinctly Norse quality to them. Folks who know me & have been reading this blog a while will know that my husband is Danish, and that we incorporate many of his country’s traditions and crafts into our daily lives. To be honest, I’m quite design-challenged, so I love reading magazines and blogs that demonstrate the lifestyle & life trappings I enjoy. Today, I thought I’d share some of my favorites for those of you who are similarly inspired.

Scando-tinted blogs:

Hygge house is a long time favorite of mine. Alex is French-Danish (as are my children), and shares her view of the world via pictures and words in a way that always captures my attention. The corners of her home that she shares are always beautiful and have an Anthropologie-in-Denmark feel to me.

White Country is written by a crafty mom named Outi who lives in Finland. I am determined to one day host a “Rapujuhlat” (crayfish party) as she does every year, and wish I’d had a garden to build a child’s playhouse in when Maggie & Bjørn were small.  I can’t tell you how excited I was when she mentioned that her new Christmas book is out & (pinch me!) she’s launched a brand new Christmas blog — if nothing else, I am a huge fan of all things Scando-Christmas! I’ll order a copy, hope that there are plenty pictures, and make a point of inviting a Finnish firend or two over to help translate.

Sparkling Ink is one I stumbled upon yesterday & it shares a lovely perspective on food & decor. The time I spent on the site left me hungry & eager to run to the market to get supplies to try out a recipe or two.

Scando food-TV

I love Ina Garten, and TiVo her show almost religiously, but you should see the excitement in my eye when Perfect Day or New Scandinavian Cooking pop up in my viewing queue. The shows are very campy (literally & figuratively), with the hosts cooking all their food outdoors in various Scandinavian locales that boast stunning views. The recipes are interesting and presented beautifully, even if some of the hosts are a wee bit difficult to understand with their strong accents. I sometimes find myself wishing they’d use sub-titles when they give the local names for their dishes or the places and events they are describing.

Scando style in print

Bolig Liv & Mad & Bolig magazines are among the few that make it through my yearly magazine purges. I especially love their holiday issues.

Lotta Jansdotter Simple Sewing is a must-have for easy sewing projects with a Scandinavian twist.

The Paumes series of books is produced by a Japanese publisher, but they have several titles covering home decor in Scandinavia. I have all five of their Stockholm books, as well as Children’s Rooms Copenhagen, and a handful of others — I love them all. {and, oh! I just clicked over to their site & see there’s a book called Copenhagen Apartments that is not in my collection!}

Scando shopping

Nordic House is in Oakland, CA. and we order from them whenever we have a craving for Danish liver paté or need to re-stock our Danish flag collection.

Ingeborg’s in Solvang, CA. has the most amazing Danish artisanal chocolates. They deliver.

And of course there’s always Ikea which I miss having five minutes away from home as we did when we lived in Palo Alto. I’d stop in just for the yellow napkins & some tea-lights, and stock up on frozen shrimp, lingonberry jam and knackebrod.

Please let me know if there’s a book or site you think I need to see. I’m always happy to add just one more to my feed reader

Related posts:

1. Inspiration: Paumes books
2. Inspiration: Kids’ activity books
3. Inspiration: L’imagier du Père Castor

I am so excited that the folks at Green Hour are highlighting our leaf-prints today! I met Anne, who runs the Green Hour blog, at a conference about a year ago & was a little bit jealous when she told me about her project (she has a dream job!!). I was tickled when she emailed to let me know they’d be linking here — sometimes it’s the small things that do wonders to lift your spirits

Green Hour is a wonderful program run by the National Wildlife Foundation. The program objective is to encourage parents to give their children a “Green Hour” a day — a bit of time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world — to set them on the path toward physical, mental, and emotional well-being. And at GREENHOUR.ORG, you’ll find inspiration and ideas to do just that.

Make sure you visit, comment, and check through their archives, they have so many great activities for your kids!

We also have a ton of outdoor activities posted here on Little Elephants, I hope you’ll take a minute to poke around & stay a while.

If you like what you see, don’t forget to subscribe!

Related posts:

1. Planning birthday parties
2. Inspiration: Kids’ activities for Fall and Winter
3. mini swap no.3 (!!)

I just had to share this picture with you. While we were in Denmark this summer we visited Tomas’ cousin and her family. Their home was straight out of a fairy tale, with a thatched roof, fruit trees throughout their property, and this amazing boxcar.

Louise built it for her son some years ago out of found objects and a heck of a lot of creative thinking and ingenuity. I’m hoping to convince Tomas that Tor needs one just like it!

Related posts:

1. Blogaversary give-away!
2. Emil’s paper boat
3. So in love with Bloesem Kids :-)

I know I’ve got some orphaned Lotteria cards around here somewhere that will be perfect for a number of her projects. Joy!

Related posts:

1. Inspiration: dothis (on del.icio.us)
2. We’re on Green Hour today!!!
3. Crafty and creative peeps to follow on Twitter