At Grandma's Place

It's wet and miserable today, with sudden downpours of rain that are too heavy for a fun walk in the rain and certainly too cold to take two small boys puddle jumping. But they will be here soon looking for an exciting afternoon adventure with grandma. Fortunately, I've stocked up on indoor activities for just such a situation. Today's plan?... a wonderful mini vegetable garden.  'Woolworths Fresh Food' store's latest shopping incentive for families and the latest in their range of collectible cards, is Jamie Oliver's Garden. The collectible cards are very attractive with some textured, embossed and even heat sensitive that change if you hold your finger on the print. There are also some cards that are fragrant. An optional journal can be purchased to store the cards and stickers or you could also buy a coordinated designer tin. I noticed that, among other matching items that can be purchased, there were some small aprons, gardening trowels...

I love glossy magazines, especially the home-beautiful, country-living, vintage craft style of magazines. After a busy week filled with constant activity and endless demands on my time, I love to curl up in a favourite chair in the sun, relax and read a beautiful magazine. But I recently discovered a magazine I hadn't seen before, an European publication, and I've really enjoyed it. In fact, I returned almost immediately to the newsagent where I found it to buy one for a friend and all the copies had sold. Have you found it yourself? It's called 'Daphne's Diary and you will find the website here>>> It's beautifully presented with a vintage flavour and includes articles on antique furniture, herbs, country cooking, home decorating and journals. There's a segment on travel, antique dolls and a frame-able poem that reflects on a new year. There are some lovely pull-out pages of postcards to use and some folder tabs to detach and adhere to yo...

Have you ever watched the look of intense concentration on the face of a child as they draw, paint or create a masterpiece of art? I often wonder what thoughts are going on behind that intensity. Yes, art is fun. Yes, young children enjoy getting messy with paint and feeling the textures of different media. I love watching them concentrate on a new paint texture and try out ways of using it or changing it. But it's so much more than just 'fun' for a child's education and development. Studies show that, through art, children learn to think creatively, to observe, describe, analyse and interpret. They learn to express feelings with and without words. They practice problem-solving skills, critical thinking,  and develop related language and vocabulary. It also develops confidence. So.. as a grandmother, I encourage my grandchildren to explore art and to create. It's a real thrill when one of them rushes up to say, "This is for you, Nan. I made it '...

Recently, I discovered a creative idea to make your own small table tray using a photo-frame. It's not a large tray but perfect for decorating the tabletop or as a small tea tray. The idea was very simple but the end result looked really good. You can find the original idea in a post by Aimee Song here . She provides step-by-step instructions so it's well worth the time to read the entire post. And I've included an image of her completed design below. But the concept did make me wonder whether I could change it slightly to create an unique display of my family and, in particular, my grandchildren. Amy uses a photo-frame as the basis of her tray. She pops in a decorative paper and then attaches handles to the photo-frame. It looks really good. But, since the design uses a photo-frame, I wondered I could include some photos of my grandchildren instead of the decorative paper. My completed project is a little more rustic than Aimee's sophisticated version....