Let’s all just settle down

How many times have your felt angry or frustrated and you struggled to find a way to calm down?  Sometimes it’s hard to “find your calm” …and the result is often a bit messy. If you sometimes find it hard to settle down, try making a  calming jar. This fun project is easy to do with just a few crafty things.  Why might you want to make a calming jar? For starters, it’s…well…calming 🙂 . It also helps to settle down your mind so you can be in control of yourself. When you’re super angry or frustrated, often your feelings are in control. It is important that YOU get back control, and tools like calming jars, can help you do that. Here’s how you can make one:

How to make a Calming Jar

Happy Friday!

I hope you all know what this weekend is…Mother’s Day! I thought I’d post a fun little recipe you kids can make to honor your mothers.  This is one of the prettiest summer drinks that is perfect for your momma…and everyone, actually. You just need a few ingredients and a blender. Here it is:

Strawberry Lemon Crush

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (250 ml) hulled strawberries (that means the green top is removed)
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) granulated sugar (white)
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) lemon juice
• 1 and 1/2 cups (375 ml) cold water
• Ice cubes
• 2 unhulled strawberries or mint sprigs for garnish (that means to make it look pretty at the end)

Method:

• Place hulled strawberries in a blender
• In a bowl, combine sugar, lemon juice and 1/2 cup (125 ml) of the water, stirring until the sugar is dissolved
• Add to the blended berries, slowly puree and add the remaining water until mixture is smooth
• Serve over ice cubes in a pretty glass and garnish with unhulled strawberries or mint sprigs

ART JOURNALING

Art Journaling is a fun, creative way to cope with the changes going on right now.  Using art to help you get through stressful times can have many benefits. It can be calming, relaxing, bring joy, and give you a way to express your feelings and emotions, and art journaling is a great activity to explore at home.

You can use magazine cut outs or draw your own pictures. You can use swirls and colour, line and white space and dark space…the options are as vast as your imagination! You can create an altered book journal using old books or magazines that no one will read anymore (if you are having a heart attack at the thought of “destroying” a book, consider that you are rather giving a book new life 😉 ). You can also, of course, use a regular journal – either lined or blank – and doodle, draw and write.

The beautiful thing about art journaling, is that there are no rules!  Some art journals are more like sketchbooks, some are like diaries, some are like scrapbooks – and some are a smash up of all those things.  Your art journal can be whatever you need it to be. The key is to just get started, and let it become whatever it needs to. Here are some of the reasons that you might want to start art journaling:

1. Get your thoughts and feelings from inside your head, to outside your head
2. Goal setting and dreaming
3. Spur on creativity
4. It’s fun 🙂

Journaling can be very therapeutic – meaning it can make you feel a lot better. When you are writing in a journal, you get your thoughts onto paper so they aren’t stuck inside your head.  Art journaling does the same thing as writing, just in a different way, through a different method. If you like to write, then journaling probably isn’t new to you.  Art journaling, however, might be!  There are lots of different tutorials online that can get you started, but basically all you need is the following:

1. Journal – old book, blank notebook, even blank sheets of paper stapled together
2. Pencil, pen, markers
3. White glue
4. Old magazines or pictures
5. Craft paint or watercolour paints
6. Whatever other art supplies you have on hand

I would like to encourage you to explore this way of coping in this stay home season.  As always, I love seeing your works of art – so keep sending me your pictures!

Til next time – stay safe, stay positive and stay home.