{good reminder}

Yesterday evening electricity went out for awhile in our area. A good reminder to make sure you are prepared for anything that might happen. We always have lots of candles but I realized we could use couple of more flashlights. We had two handy but it would be nice to have at least one in each room. Flashlights are safer than candles when you have pets or children.

It was kind of fun walking around with a flashlight. :) It always feels so good when the electricity comes back though. When we lived in Fort Chipewyan (a small Indian village way up north), the electricity went out for hours and hours and it was totally pitch black. It started to do mind tricks on you after a while. We sure take things for granted.
Gotta get back to finishing our 72 hour emergency kit. There's still things I need to add to it.

I have mentioned it before but I'll say it again. If there's some kind of natural disaster or emergency, sometimes it takes up to 3 days for aid to start coming in. Even the government nowadays recommends that everyone should have a 72 hour emergency kit. Anything you might need for three days packed in large containers or backpacks.

Huge fires blazing in Los Angeles again. Huge forest fires over here in Canada, in British Columbia. Never know what nature cooks up for us even when living in a relatively safe area. Be prepared!

I need to remember to take some macro pictures too. A must every time we have flowers. :)

The sun was actually bright orange. It was gorgeous. We've had +30C weather for awhile now. I'm looking forward to fall and some cooler weather. I wasn't made for heat. :)

{our butterfly princess turns 4}

we celebrated sienna's fourth birthday yesterday.

this year's theme was butterflies.

invitations were made with my much-used CK creative lettering program.

i printed some butterfly clipart (found via google image search) on cardstock and voila - decorations. cheap yet oh so cute.

the giftbags had butterfly/flower pencils and erasers and foam shapes.
all from michael's.

this year's cake decoration. i found a picture of a butterfly princess outfit online, switched sienna's head on, glued it all on scrapbook paper and laminated it. added some bling.

more yellow balloons were in the playroom too for the kids to play with.

this is how we got the idea for the theme. sienna's been excited about butterfly drawings and crafts lately.

we held two birthday parties. first one was for little girls, for sienna and her friends. we borrowed a kids' size table and chairs from the church. when the girls showed up, they first made butterfly crafts. colored these pictures and decorated them with foam/shiny shapes and stickers. everyone got a butterfly wand too that they decorated.

next we ate cake.

then we had hidden chocolate bars downstairs in the play room. made sure each girl found some.

the girls then played with balloons and jumped on the trampoline.
the girls also danced to music with their wands.

opened gifts (almost forgot about that, to be honest).

and that's about it.

then came family and friends a bit later and we had another party. more goodies, cake and presents.

sienna's favorite gifts were her new barbies.

daddy curled her hair as usual.

sienna got to do this twice. :)

fun day.

is it just me or did she start behaving like she's one year older just like on cue?

oh how fast they grow. gotta enjoy every day, every minute.

{voi etta}

awww! gotta share this embroidered love note i found at the beautiful mess blog. elsie's blog is always so fun. even though her style is often so different from mine, i find her blog and her life so inspiring. the link to her blog is in my website list.

mulla on tanaan mieli maassa. spice naytti paranevan laakkeiden avulla jo vahan. ei oksentanut pitkaan aikaan. olin jo vahan toiveikas etta ehka se tasta. mutta sydamessa ollut painava olo silti. sellaista ennalta aavistusta. eilen ja tanaan sitten taas oksentelua. spice on niin alyn laiha ja heikon oloinen. luulen etta sitten onkin kyse syovasta ja ei ne laakkeet auttaneet. ensi viikolla elainlaakarille sitten taas. yritan totutella ajatukseen etta pitaa sanoa hyvastit spicelle. on se ollut niin ihana kissa. mun big boy. Y

{would be so fun}

so... lately i've been pondering about what i'll do when i have some free time as sienna will gradually spend more and more time in school. this year she's going to pre-school three times a week, two and a half hours each time. so it's not that much time but still. the older she'll get, the more time i'll have... to do what?
one thing i need to do for sure is family history. i can't get too sidetracked that i'll ignore my desire to learn more about my ancestors. it's such fun work and there's so much that needs to be done.
but what else?
yesterday i thought of an idea i've had for awhile to learn face painting. i think it would be fun and i'd love to be able to make some extra money on the side going to events and painting people.
then my mind went back years and years when i almost enrolled myself in a makeup artist school in finland. it was right before i decided to go on a mission instead. good decision of course but my love for fantasy makeup hasn't died along the years. i think playing with makeup would be so fun.
who wants to get together with me and play with makeup? halloween is coming and all. :)

(all images via google image search)

{stuff i like}

www.rockettstgeorge.co.uk

www.thevintagepearl.etsy.com

www.treepee.com

www.whimsybyjess.etsy.com

{ottawa, part V}

across the street from notre-dame is the national gallery of canada. it's been a while since i've been to an art museum so it was a real treat. the building itself was fun.
...if you got past it's guard - maman. eek! :)
why, oh why would someone make a 30' tall spider? why not a cute kitten or even a lion instead? us spider phobic people would appreciate that so much more. :)

you were not supposed to take any pictures inside the gallery. oops! sorry. :)
tama maalaus hypnotisoi kivasti kun sita tuijotti :)

this painting by lawren s. harris was my very favorite. these pictures don't do it any justice. you have to see it in real life to appreciate how amazing it was. loved it!

really liked this one too by david b. milne. i must admit i'm pretty clueless about any famous canadian painters. i'd like to learn more about these two artists for sure.

in one of the halls, they had kids' art and i'm sure i've said it million times before but i'll say it again - i love kids' art! love it, love it, love it.

in fact, every city should have an art museum with only kids' art in it. yeah! :)
hey, make it a kids' center. there would be a huge kids' play area, kids' art museum and anything else kids' related. THE place for kids (and adults who are like kids, just like me :)).

don't ask me why i snapped a picture of these homes. i just did, ok. :)

my second day ended with a visit from a finnish friend i haven't seen for over 10 years. she lives in montreal now with her husband and three cute little girls. they drove two hours just to see me! i was so honored. they ended up staying at the same hotel that i was in. we visited until the wee hours of the night and then the next morning went to the canadian museum of civilization right across the street from our hotel. here's a sampling of some of the things i saw. definately worth a visit. lots of fun stuff to see there. a great kids' museum where they could "travel to different countries", do various activities and also play. my favorite there was a room where the kids could get dressed up as various characters and then there was a stage where they could do a play for the adults in the audience. hours and hours worth of fun for kids. i kept wishing sienna could have been there.

aboriginal stuff everywhere when you live in canada. love it.

instantly fell in love with my friend's three girls. they were so fun. and they spoke finnish! awww! :) felt so guilty for not teaching sienna finnish.

loved the logo!

props at the dress up room in children's museum

this pegasus made out of wire was so beautiful. i once again had to sneak a picture because you weren't supposed to take pictures at the mythic beasts exhibition.

a picture made with stamps.

bye, bye ottawa. it was fun to visit but i was so ready to be with jay and sienna again. missed them tons. Y