Final quote for an 8 year old kid!

Well, I finally have to admit to myself that I was more interested in giving my son the gift of interesting quotes than anyone else. It was a fun little ride though. Thank you to the few who did stick their necks out and participate. Some very good quotes came out.

The last quote will be one from me. Good old Mom gets in the last word. I guess its fair since I do love him so!

"If you ever find yourself saying those ever so common words - I'M BORED! just clean up your toys. You'll find you suddenly have oodles to do!" - Mom

I'm serious! When the toy mountain gets out of control in our house we have a giant clean up day. First we set the ground rules:

1. We need a full day because we have to have time to play. You want cleaning up to be fun so leave time to play and give gentle reminders for another round of sorting.
2. Anything that is broken gets tossed.
3. Baby toys are set aside for little cousins.
4. If we can fill a full rubbermaid bin with "no longer my favorite" toys for charity, then we can go to the store to buy one new toy of $25 value.

If you have all of the storage bins labelled "balls, lego, puzzles, cars etc," then you can encourage your child to put one toy away before taking out others. Another fool proof method is our dog who thinks every toy is his chew toy so no toys can ever be left on the floor.

This clean up day ends up being a fun challenge to get rid of the old, clear the clutter and have fun playing with toys that have been buried unseen for ages! My son has learned to deal with broken toys with no tears and he doesn't cling to oldies (except Boomer the gigantic frog of course!) He can let go of a full bin of old toys because it is his choice and it opens the door to one new cool toy. Give it a try. Your kids will love it!

A fibre artist's dream store

I have taken so many great art classes in surface design, painting and most recently, dyeing fabric. At every class I seem to find some new product that I learn to use and love so I am constantly asking teachers, "where did you order that?" They tell me it's from this distributor, or that website, but one name that stuck out in my head was MAIWA. This was a website that I was going to visit to order some Setacolor paints, some cottons, and some natural dyes.
Today, I was wandering through the shops of Granville Island and came across their shop! I stopped in my tracks. I didn't even know it was a physical store and I had no idea it was there! I was thrilled. I spent an hour perusing through the paints, dyes, wools and fabric and left with my arms full and my pockets empty. I even found some wax to try my hand at batiking. The staff were very friendly and helpful and the store was gorgeously colorful as you can see. If you are ever in the Vancouver area, this store is a must see!

Take a moment

Here's a quote submitted by my dad. It sounds like a famous quote but it may just be because my dad feels famous to me. Or it may be an unknown quote. If you know who wrote it, send me a comment to post. Here it is...
"Don't measure life by the breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away."
It's nice to write this while sitting on a lounge chair on a cool sunny morning looking at the lake and the mountains.