I love to read. Always have. Doesn’t matter what form, books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, I’ll read just about anything.

So when we had children, I was determined to pass my love of reading on to them. I even read to them while they were in the womb (TMI?). When they were little, we read to them constantly and starting taking them to the public library.

Now that they are both in school, they visit the school library once a week and are always excited to show me the books they bring home. And they love going to our local library to pick out even more books.

We also read together as a family. My kids would much rather sit at the kitchen table and listen to an audiobook while colouring, than sit in front of the tv. It’s an activity we all enjoy. In fact, our son likes to read so much, he has read the entire Harry Potter series and he’s only 8!

January 27th is Family Literacy Day and Jessica Roy, the librarian at the Main Branch, asked me to share this with all of you:

Families are invited to celebrate Family Literacy Day at the Ottawa Public Library, Main branch at 120 Metcalfe this Sunday, January 22nd from 2-3pm. Children’s entertainer, Suzanne Pinel will help present literacy awards followed by a fun and highly interactive performance by children’s musician, Doug Barr. The event is free and no registration is required.

You can find more information on our website here:

http://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/main/program?eid=36455

So if you are looking for things to do this weekend or a place to warm up after a skate on the canal, drop by the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. Sounds like a lot of fun and great way to further a love of reading in your own children.

My nephew T is now a six year old. Six!!! I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around that since my daughter’s six birthday is not far behind.

Anyway, this year he decided he wanted Lego Ninjago to be the theme of his party. Now if you know my sister at all, you know that she loves to buy paper goods, particularly those found in a party store. So just imagine how she felt when she discovered you could not buy Lego Ninjago themed party goods. The horror!

What do you do when you can’t buy what you want? You make it. We scoured the Internet for ideas, although there weren’t many and managed to come up with some ideas that made the birthday boy very happy.

It was my job to create the birthday banner and cake. First I found a good template of a Ninjago Mini figure and used the head for the banner. This is what I came up with:

For the cake we decided to do a cake / cupcake tower combo.  T’s favourite Ninjago character is Kai, so I based the cake portion on him and my husband created a Japanese Torii to go on top.  The cupcakes were simple with the faces of Kai, Jay and Cole. I was very happy with the way the icing colours turned out, especially the black!

My sister also got crafty and created some Ninjago balloons using yellow balloons, tissue paper and photocopies of their eyes. Awesome aren’t they!

Last but not least, she also created some themed cups and loot bags.

The kids had a great time, the birthday boy was extremely happy and maybe, just maybe I may have cured my sister’s addiction to party good stores. Well a girl can dream can’t she.

I have always been very crafty and have tried my hand at various things such as cross-stitching, sewing, baking, over the years. My latest obsession is stamping and paper crafting.  I joined Stampin’ Up back in the fall, during their Big Shot Promotion – join Stampin’ Up and get a free Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine.  Seemed like a no-brainer to me since I had been coveting one of those machines for a while. And when I joined, I really had no idea how far I wanted to take things (I’m still working on that!). But I do know that I am having a great time discovering all their wonderful products, learning lots about the art of stamping and building some great relationships along the way.
I love browsing other blogs and sites to get inspired and that’s how I discovered Mojo Monday.

Each week there is a different sketch introduced on, you guessed it, Monday and the challenge is to come up with a card using that sketch.

This week’s sketch:

My card:

I was inspired by the new pack of paper I received last week, called Everyday Enchantment. It’s absolutely beautiful and will be available during Stampin’ Ups Sale-a-Bration, starting January 24th (contact me for details).

I’m pretty happy with my first attempt at Mojo Monday. Here is what I used:

Stamp set: Happiest Birthday Wishes
Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral, Soft Suede and Everyday Enchantment DSP
Ink: Calypso Coral
Tools: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, 1 3/4″ Scallop Circle Punch
Embellishment:  Basic Pearls

Thanks for taking a look.