This morning I showed Miss M the paper quilt that Tiel over at TskTsk had posted. I started to tell my girl about how I’d like to do a family project like this. One where we all do a paper quilt along a specific theme. She nodded, and skipped off to our craft cabinet (a re-purposed buffet).

She had no interest in doing a group effort today, but was totally up for doing her own thing.

I still think it would be fun for each of us to make a collage either creating along a specific theme, or maybe using the same papers or palette… I’ll have to think this one through a bit. Once done, the (master)pieces would have to be displayed together. Natch.

Growing up, we were definitely a Bédé family. "What on earth is a Bédé?!" you ask? In French, BD is short for Bande Dessiné — Comic Books. I’ve tried several times over the years to introduce the Olders to the worlds of Asterix and Obelix, and Tintin. Finally, this week they have totally glommed on to Tintin. Being holed up with colds and no TV in the house might have helped since they had plenty of time to really dig in.

Over the past two weeks I’ve borrowed just about every Tintin book from the library because Tomas and my (extensive) comic collection is all in French, Danish, and Swedish — very few English editions in the lot — it feels weird to buy the same books just to have ‘em in English. I’ll probably have to work that one out at some point…

I’m thrilled that our local library also has a good collection of Asterix comics, because they’ll be next on the list. I wonder if I can convince them to purchase Lucky Luke, The Smurfs (I way prefer the French name: Schtroumpfs), Spirou, Gaston la Gaffe…?

{You can click on the images above to preview the books on Amazon.com, you’ll also find many, many more in the collection!}

This winter has be a rough one for us so far. Our house is full of empty tissue boxes, and still-runny noses, empty soup cans (who has the energy to make anything from scratch?), and piles of dirty dishes. Some days we all get so claustrophobic, such mind-numbing cabin fever, that we just need to get out.

These are the days made especially for kite flying. Even when there’s no wind to hoist the kites aloft.

My kids are forever keeping little stashes of things that they collect that Mom Must Not Throw Away. Under any circumstances. This makes it rather hard to keep any order in my house, and honestly, order is not a forte of mine, diligently as I try.

Luckily for me, I requested — and got — a label maker for Christmas several years ago. My Mother-in-law laughed and laughed at me (in a nice way), but this has been one of my all-time favorite possessions. Sick, I know.

The jars are the same spice jars I used for my snow globe adventure. If you’ve got a Cost Plus near you, they’re only 99 cents each (I couldn’t find these jars in their online marketplace…). Not too terribly spendy.

{Update: as I was taking this picture, I was laughing because Little T kept wanting to play with the bottles. There was no way to keep that little hand out of the frame. I knew that I had seen a similar shot recently, but couldn’t remember where. Well… I finally remembered! Over here on Outi’s blog! Do go take a look, I’ve become a loyal fan of hers. Her style is classically Scandinavian. Lovely.}

I’ve had several people comment on how much they liked the elephant Tomas drew for my logo so I’ve gone all out, and opened up a CafePress shop. Check it out!

I think I want one of each — how sad is that?? Even if I don’t sell a single item, it was fun to set-up & super easy. I like easy.

If there’s an item you’d get a kick out of seeing the elephant on, just let me know and I’ll see if they have it.

I am not including this site’s URL or any branding (other than the elephant) because I like the simplicity of the design & marketing makes it less, um… nice.