Stepping Back In Time

Ontario Specialty Co.

I grew up in a small town that actually had a general store. While this may conjure up images of one room schoolhouses and Laura Ingalls, I promise you it wasn’t that long ago, and I did not call my parents Ma and Pa. The shop pictured above, however, is exactly what it reminded me of.  It’s on Church Street in Toronto and has been around since 1939; the interior seems to confirm that.

It’s a gem of a store and when you enter, it really does feel like you’re stepping back in time. It’s a great place to take your kids for a visit and show them what kind of toys used to be popular. There are lots of wind up toys, a serious collection of sunglasses, as well as a nice selection of faux vomit and plastic poo. I have no problem fessing up to the fact that I owned at least one of those at some point in my life, and yes, it brought me great joy.

Be warned, you might end up hearing things like: “It winds up and moves forward? That’s it? No laser? I can’t connect with it?” Welcome to the past.

If you want to teach the young’uns about general stores, it’s all here: http://www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/genstore.html

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Rubber Band Ball

Every morning, a skinny brown elastic band comes wrapped around my newspaper. Others make their way home on broccoli stalks and asparagus. Those are the much coveted beefy ones that come in bright colours. Sadly, I think about these things. In the past, they were either thrown out or tossed in a drawer until a mission came their way. Now, all that’s changed.

I live in a home where golf balls roam, and one day I saw an opportunity: “Balls + Elastics!” I said to myself. My results are rather pitiful when you consider that the ball above represents several years commitment, but that’s because I basically settle for whatever elastics come my way. I do not actively hunt them down, which reassures me that bizarre activities will not get the better of me. Continue reading

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Delicious Nonsense: Queen of Hearts Card Project

What could be more delicious than Tim Burton interpreting the magical children’s story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? A strange story will now become even stranger I’m sure. This inspired me to come up with a project involving the Queen of Hearts, who so torments poor Alice. 

 

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Bumpy Pencil Holders

At one point, I had a serious addiction to wasabi peas. For two years I easily went through a tin a night, which had my husband pointing me in the direction of Chinatown for cheaper alternatives. Not being one to throw anything out that has the potential of being transformed into an arts and crafts project, I ended up with hundreds of wasabi pea tins in my basement. No joke. Do the math. Naturally I had to come up with various projects to make use of them, one of which was the bumpy pencil holder. Children have really enjoyed making them, but of course there are only so many bumpy pencil holders one can make. The remaining tins were eventually donated and I have now moved on to chips.

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Origami Star Card

The origami star is a beautiful, yet fairly simple shape to make. Once assembled, it can be used to make an impressive greeting card or decoration.

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Crazy Collage

Children love making these collages because of how hilarious they end up looking. The idea is to come up with unusual combinations of images that make no sense at all.

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Colour Wheel Bugs

These cute bugs are a great way to teach young children about  primary and secondary colours.

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Recycled: The Perfect Euphemism

While I’m all for encouraging everyone to create, storage is another matter.  Picasso may have been one of the most prolific artists of his time, but he had a steady stream of buyers to cart off his work. Toddlers, on the other hand, are not so lucky.  I have every intention of hanging on to a selection of my children’s work; a manageable representation of the stages they went through, which leaves us with THE REST. While I have no problem purging and moving forward, they tend to freak out when witnessing their macaroni-embellished paper plate being tossed. Discretion is key. Language is key. Take the word recycled, for instance. “Where did my black and red wooden sculpture with nails that I made last year at day care go?” When faced with such inevitable queries, one can simply reply “I recycled it honey.” At this point a big smile and distraction are in order, unless you intend to explain what that overused word really means. One more tip. I highly recommend the ‘temporary-holding-zone’, where things to be ‘recycled’ are piled in a corner for a certain period of time (works well for husbands too). If cobwebs start to form, or paper becomes an agar substitute for growing mould, you can safely throw it out. Anyone asking for it wouldn’t have wanted it anyway.

"Why did you throw it out?!?"

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Laminated Bookmarks

Making bookmarks is a great activity for children of all ages. They’re a wonderful way to preserve drawings, and they also make really nice gifts. 

Bookmarks collected over the years

 

Laminated bookmarks

 

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Carnival Paper Mâché Masks

February is carnival time and Rio, the Caribbean Islands, New Orleans, and Venice are all celebrating. This project involves making some great paper mâché masks, inspired by the centuries-old celebration in Venice.

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