BUTTERFLIES GALORE

 I just got a library book on how to raise, identify, and help butterflies! It is SO cool, and the author obviously loves these beautiful and delicate creatures, often referring to the caterpillars he raises as his "babies"! The book got me super exited about the possibilities of butterfly raising and/or breeding- maybe a little flock of the pretty fluttery things would look great in my nature-themed bedroom? (will have a hard time convincing mom about that one...) I have always, always, always wanted a pet(s), and after multiple schemes (all failed except for the one where we eventually got some tiny feederfish and a Betta) involving cats, guinea pigs, goats ( :) ), parakeets, and many, many, many more, I have figured out that if I want a pet at any point between now and when I move out, pretty well the only thing I just might be able to convince the parental units to get is chickens. But now this butterfly thingy is making me think... Since I get home schooled, maybe this could be a self-assigned biology project or something!! I guess whoever built this butterfly aviary got butterfly-raising permission from their mom so it must be possible:



Guess what: even butterflies are on the Endangered list. :( Let's help raise awareness and SAVE THE BUTTERFLIES! They're probably becoming endangered because of people destroying their native plants&habitats. See which butterflies need the most help at :http://www.prairiefrontier.com/pages/butterflies/endangered.html
On a brighter note, go to http://www.thebutterflysite.com/facts.shtml to learn fun facts about butterflies.Or just copy-and-paste some animated butterflies (from http://www.free-nature-animal-butterfly-wallpaper.com/animated-butterfly.html ) into an email or onto your blog to brighten someone's day. I am so glad that that butterfly book exists- it helped me really open the door to butterflies; we see butterfly motifs so often that they're more an emblem in our minds than amazing creatures!

the lorax

A couple days ago we went to see The Lorax movie,an adaptation of Seuss's book The Lorax. I thought it was quite good and the whole audience laughed many many timed throughout.the movie actually has a fairly good website at http://www.theloraxmovie.com/index.php#/truffula . Since the story is so environmentally minded, the Lorax project is doing cool things in the real world! check it out here http://www.seussville.com/loraxproject/ Or go to http://clubjeb.blogspot.com/p/jeb-eco-projects.html or the J.E.B. site's homepage, http://clubjeb.blogspot.com/, to hear me go on and on and on about the movie,how it will help people to raise environmental awareness, and so on (and on and on)I really loved how a beloved old story that I had read (and been read to) came to life on the big screen. One thing I definitly did not expect it to be- a musical. That was very unexpected! It inspired me to paint this pastel-watercolor resist painting of some candy-hues Truffala trees- because "truffula trees are what everyone needs", after all.

completely unrelated: this is an easter painting i made recently

My Manga Drawings

here's some recent Manga (Japanese comics style) drawings and sketches I did recently. I had not drawn in FOREVER- so I had a bit of trouble getting back into it. But, I have managed to make a few (i think) nice ones...

I had to think a bit on how to make a bubbly shower picture that was appropriate for posting online, but it worked out great!

Drawing II of my Bubbles series. This is a spunky drawing of a spunky girl at the beach, done in pen, pencil, colored pencil, and (you'd better believe it!) eraser.

Drawing I of the Bubbles series. After the shower girl sketch, I guess I just had bubbles on the brain... plus they're fun to draw!

This one was partly inspired by a character in the bedtime story my dad is reading to Ella and I.(don't mind the creepy sketch on the opposite page- it was just a practice page)

Drawing III of the Bubbles (so far) trio. This was drawn the night after we watched Lilo and Stitch 2, and was inspired by it, but it is not supposed to actually look like Lilo or anything.

A sketch probably born of  the nervous thoughts about my first real gymnastics competition, coming up this Saturday.(see previous post!) The Gymsuit is supposed to look like my team's gymsuit. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a self-portrait or just "a gymnast that looks vaguely like a Mangafied me".

Two cute kitties on a couch. What more can I say? (Ella picked out the colors for the sitting cat and mom selected the brown kitty's cozy tones)

I am proud of what I've accomplished with my drawings!I even feel I'm beginning to develop my own signature style somewhat- I've been trying to start to work on that for a  long, loooooong time. I feel that my drawings are unique, special, and creative, and that's what makes the spirit of Manga so fun!If anyone has feedback or ideas for future sketches, please post them in a comment! If you'd like to vote on your favorite of all of these, see the "My Manga" poll.

Wild West Fest-

-s a gymnastics competition  in KAMLOOPS (my very FIRST gymnastics competition road trip!!)the wild west fest's site: http://www.kgtc.ca/wild-west-fest. I am in the Interclub category, along with the rest of my Interclub gymnastics team (my gym club's site: http://www.fitkidzcan.com/default.aspx ) My whole family plus grandma are coming to watch me and Ella! i have routines on floor, bars, beam, and vault. Well actually I'm doing just one vaulting move; the Handstand Flat-Fall. It's where you run up to the vault, then um, do a handstand on the vault then a flatfall (its technicaly a banana hold-fall, because you don't actually land flat)onto lots and lots of crash mats(the name says it all).I'm most nervous about the floor routine!!The timing is the most finniky on that one because of the music.

My very first attempt at crochet!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, it's slightly deformed. and, okay, it does have a lopsided shape and no, you're not just imagining that the holes are a bit big, but this post is called "My very first attempt at crochet!!!", so what were you expecting? Anyways, thanks sooooooo much to Mom for teaching me this fun new hobby/obsession, and thanks to a book, Yummi 'Gurumi: Over 60 Gourmet Crochet Treats To Make , for inspiring me to try crochet. Can you already crochet? Need inspiration for another project?Or have you always kinda wanted to learn crochet but didn't feel sufficiently inspired? In both cases, or if you're just curious, click HERE to be taken to a page of awe-inspiring Google search results I recently researched.
The amazing thing is, if you get really good at the basics of crochet and spend some time practicing and trying new projects and stitches, you can do pretty well anything with crochet. When I did a search for Amigurumi (if you don't know what that is,CLICK HERE for the Wikipedia definition) One of the first "related searches" options was " Amigurumi Dragon" . And so I was curious. And was further amazed by the varying styles of this unique category of sweet amigurumi animals; they range from

impossibly cute and simple..

 to impossibly elaborate...

to somewhere in between!

                    My advice if you're going to try to learn to crochet: don't try to learn from a book (get someone to show you how!!).Why? Because chances are, if a book tells you how to crochet, the author already knows how, and therefore the instructions will make no sense. Trust me, I tried.
Good luck and happy crocheting,
-Ivy
Psst-the nice rounded shape of the top flap was entirely by accident...           

LEGO

I've added a new page to this site,specially for my LEGO and motorized LEGO creations! you can access it by way of the Pages bar (below the site header). It shows, in simple pictures, how you can make them yourself at home, and the motorized ones also include videos of them IN ACTION!

all dolled up..



Meet Lavender, who has kindly agreed to model her new gymsuit for us.
Last Sunday evening she was playing gymnastics class with her friend Julia (not shown) when their foil-and-scotch-tape gymsuits prevented any movement and kept tearing and (also, they made them look rather like paranoid spacemen) so on Monday morning, a flurry of sewing activity started off our day (much assisted and encouraged by Mom and her sewing machine).



Lavender relaxes in her new gymsuit, the same color as her namesake



a small gym bag and a pair of pigtail scrunchies that mach her suit complete Lavender's ensemble



a larger green bag and green scrunchies to mix-and-mach with her purple set or to coordinate with her green gymsuit (an earlier test gymsuit that was slightly deformed),witch is not shown here because I couldn't find it

a pink knotted scarf , another new addition to Lavender's funky handmade wardrobe

the lavender spandex gymsuit when not being modeled

if you're interested in making some of these clothes/accessories for dolls, go to the "Ivy Online" page of this website and email me. I'll send you an email saying how we did it and how you can too.

Y.D.D.G. (Youth Dance,Drama,and Gymnastics) Valintines Festival

Jessica and I are planning a valentines day themed Gymnastics/Dance/Drama show at my house soon (maybe around Feb. 11th or 12th or so) And we made a combination Gymnastics/Dance/Drama routine to this song.. 

It's very funny! Jessica is Inspector Clouseau (UGG...that is SO hard to spell! If anyone can tell me how to spell that please comment the answer on this post!) And I am the Pink Panther. Surprise, surprise; us two 10-year-old girls have not even decided on the date yet but the costumes are already fully planned in great detail. If you are one of the lucky few who will shortly receive E-invitations to the event and are interested in attending,  supplying some refreshments for the concession, helping with lighting, music, or show setup/take down,please wait till you have received your invitation, then check the Ticket Code on the invitation, then email me at ivyhiebert@gmail.com, (remembering to include the Code in the Subject bar) to state what you would like to help with. If you wish to confirm your R.S.V.P. for the event, you can also email me about that at the same address. 

Luau Cup

The competition was SUPER fun! I even got 2 Golds + 2 Silvers!!!!!! My next competition is in March in Kamloops for the Wild West Invitational Meet. P.S. check out this other website I made recently: http://www.clubjeb.blogger.com/

My first ever gymnastics competition is in a few weeks! here is a video of one of my first times practicing  my bars routine for it: 

Projects Fair

Press the play button to start.

To pause/stop, click on the play button again.

To go back or seek, drag the cursor thingy as desired.

To adjust the volume, drag the the cursor on the small bar beside the Blogger icon.

Please leave a comment if you liked the video!

Email me if you are intrested in entering a project next year

at ivyhiebert@gmail.com

Additional info about the "Illumination" project can be found on Grandma Pearl and Pappa Larry's blog.

Halloween

This Halloween we have some fun events planned, including:

1. The Halloween Haunt at the pool!
2. Dinner and Trick-Or-treating with friends!

I am dressing up as the Greek goddess Artemis (she is the goddess of the moon, the hunt, and the wild and also of "maidens" )
my costume is a  silver dress over leggings, some kind of circlet thing, and a bow and some fake arrows.
Ella is being a niad (greek minor water spirit)  and Ez is being an astronaut because mom found an awesome  little kid NASA suit costume at ValueVillage.
I am EXTREMLEY exited about the Haunt  because me and Ella are going together WITHOUT adult supervision and almost all my friends will be there! And also because it's fun and involves exess amounts of candy.

A really cool math (x,+,-, and division) Game!

The Town of Murb - an educational town with fun monsters

THANKS, AMIGOS OF 2011

You are awesome....Thank You!

Press play to start.

Have fun watching!

Hope you like it.

If you do, please leave a comment! 

Kelowna Day

Sunday was very fun!
First, the E's and I and dad met Grandma and Grandpa for lunch at Arbys. Then Dad went to a radio show thingy and Ella and Ezra and Grandpa and Grandma and I went to Scandia (an arcade/mini-golf place in Kelowna ) And then to DQ and then to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where we found snails, fed them lettuce, made them an awesome terrarium, dubbed them Alfred and Yancovic, polished their shells(using gentle  fingers,scraps of foam, and water), and observed them.(they were VERY active for snails, often sliming  up walls or actually curling themselves around bits of lettuce seemingly for our enjoyment) after a delicous supper, we went home and went to bed. and now it is morning.

Manning Park

 I am sorry, Manning park was a loooooong time ago and this post is soooooooo delayed. I wrote this a while ago but just recently got the video on the computer and now it's not even working. Trrgggggg! :My family and I went to Manning Park for a BC parks 100 years celebration (for witch about 12 people including us showed up at )and short holiday. We all had fun there!! My dad had the classical music and epic photo opportunities, my mom had beautiful hikes and the clear cold 3foot-deep river (which she dunked in), and The E's and I had the pool, saltwater taffy, candy-coated popcorn, mini sausage rolls, and a super (maybe overly) cozy 6-by-8-foot room with 2 bunk beds! Ezra in particular loved the huge areas of soft brown grass with millions of little gopher holes, and to him, it seemed like magic that the adorable furballs popped up in one place, and then scurried back into it only to reappear someplace else only minutes later! the whole trip was amazing and I hope we can go back soon! at the pool, me and Ella learned to dive......soo cool. 

Friesen Family Gathering

The weekend before last, my yard was more like a campground than a backyard. Only, we knew all the people there! It was one of the most memorable weekends of my life. My grandparents, cousins, and aunt & uncle were there from Winnipeg, as well as another 2 uncles (with their labradoodles, Sunny and Jemma, for part of it) from Calgary. Truthfully, though, I was most exited about the cousins because of the facts that we don't see them as often and they are closest to my (and my sister's) age. It was awesome, and me, Ella, Tyra, and Marissa did FIVE SEPARATE SHOWS for the adults. The first was The Cousins Club NutMix, a random collection of songs, skits, and synchronized gymnastics. the second was a rerun of the NutMix for the latecomers, the third was an amazing hip-hop routine taught to us by our uncle, Roel , and the fourth was a thank-you routine for Roel. The fifth and best show was a more advanced routine also taught to us by Roel. other activities included painting a camper, making blueberry-pie filling- filled camp irons, beaching,and generally having fun. OK, OK ,here's one of the photos you've all been waiting for.....

cousins jumping off the dock. from left to right appear Ella, Ivy(ME), Tyra, Marissa

UNFORTUNATELY, none of the other pics are uploading properly so this is it for now. I am also going to Manning Park on August 18th for 2 nights so watch for that post coming up soon!

Flip Flop Summer Craft

Here's a cool way to dress up some old flip flops. My grandma got the idea for the craft from Hannah, a piano student of my great-aunt, who called my grandma to tell her how to make them. Thanks for the cool idea, Hannah! It takes about 10 minutes to cut enough strips for one pair and about half an hour to do the craft. Here are the steps:

1. Cut lots of different colours of fabric into 1" x 5" strips
2. Double-tie the strips onto the toe straps of the flip flops. Tie two knots for each strip.
3. If you want symmetrical colours, tie the same colour at the same place on each of the toe straps on both flip flops - so four of one colour.
4. You can just pick random colours too - it looks just as good.
5. You can trim the ends a bit if you like or leave them long.

Here are some pictures of the flip flops we made:

fiddlekidz CD recording

It's not every day a nine-year-old kid gets the chance to record a CD ,even with a group, but that's exactly what I got to do on may 26th! It was at the Pen-High school in penticton with Justin Glibbery. (a friend of my teacher's) For me , the most amazing part is that when you'r playing, you know that you will hear this song ,exactly as it sounds now, a few months from now on CD! Also, my dad's designing the cover and inside leaflet so I think he probably won't put a picture in that cuts off my head or something!!(I hope!)

MY ROOM IS DONE AND IT'S AWSOME

YAY YAY YAY YAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

here's the photos!!

and here is some in-progress ones:

TERREN PETS PACK

to request a copy of the terran pets pack, (terren pet organizer book, terran species field giude, and coupons) which is an informative kit telling you all about the process of adopting a pet from the far-off planet of Terra (an imaginary world created by ME):

1. GET a form for this offer at your nearest TERRA BOOKS location, or request one be sent to you by mail (just leave a comment here stating your mailing adress), or ask for an email copy to be sent to you,(tell me the email adress in a comment)



2. FILL OUT the form(TO MAKE YOUR PACK ENTIRELY FREE: add secret code e457mm? to your form)



3. SEND your sheet to ivyhiebert@gmail.com . now just WAIT for your pack to arrive!!

FOR ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT TERRA BOOKS PLEASE EMAIL TERRA BOOKS AT ivyhiebert@gmail.com OR LEAVE A COMMENT CONTAINING YOUR QUESTION, OR VISIT THE NEAREST TERRA BOOKS LOCATION!

summer contest

I was thinking that it would be fun to do a sort of summer checklist

where when you did a certain thing and then checked it off on your sheet.

then, after a certain date, everyone can return their sheet.

every participant would get a ribbon or maybe a small prize.

the person who had filled in the most check boxes will win the

Secret Grand Prize (I'm not telling you what it is, ha ha ha.)

If you like this idea, please leave a comment stating your name,phone number,email, and complete mailing address! I'll send you the sheet! if you have ideas for on the sheet, leave those in your comment, too! actually, just copy-and-paste the form below into a comment and fill it out:

_____________________________________________________

Name:_______________

Stereet:___________________

House Number:_______________

City/Town:______________________

Postal Code:____________________

Province:_________________

Country:_____________________

Telephone:________________________

email adress:________________________

ROOM PLANS

I have decided on a room color!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LIME GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lime green isn't my all-time favorite color,but it'll go well with my shimmery blue curtains!! I'm sorta setting the color for the accents at blue, with the lime-green walls it will look awesome! I'm also hoping to get some of those wall sticker thingies, maybe black ones. Wer'e planning to paint it in a few days, maybe this weekend or next weekend, depending on how fast I can do a total cleanup and reorganization of my room! I'll post a pic of my room after and before the paint job after it's done.

Dominion Astrophysical Observatory

me + Hannah walking to the observatory (Hannah's on the right,I'm on the left) these are all pictures that Dad took at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, wich we went to a few days ago with my friend Hannah and her dad, Andrew. The topic was intresting, and the Radio Telescopes were super cool. But then a guy and this other dude and a tour guide asked if we wanted to join their tour, and it sounded fun, so we did, but the talk was actually 1 whole hour long and me and Hannah were dying of boredom after the first 10 minutes. But, all in all, it was worth it, because we had a fun time on the walking trail going there and back, and in the car, and after we all went for lunch in penticton and I had a whole can of root beer all to myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope we do another dads+daughters outing again someday!

Ivy

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just found out a new blogging feature: you can actually become a member of a certain blog, and than you sign in and stuff when you get into the blog and you can send other blog members messages to their email without even knowing their email address,all right from the blog! Thanks a lot to Grandma Pearl, because her cool member icon drew my eyes over to the "members" area!!!!

Big Bedroom Plans.....

It's MY space, a place where I set the rules. Like my own quiet paridise in wich to hang out with friends or just be alone. It's like my own little bubble, practicly a diffrent world than earth altogether. But... I'ts kinda boring me to death right now. the whole point is to have a place to express myself, and I haven't even done that yet! So lately i've been thinking about that a lot. Of course, my dream bedroom is not going to happen in real life, but there's certainly things I can do to make my bedroom the best space it can be! Mom said I can paint it, wich will help a lot! I've also been thinking abot other ideas,such as stenciled or painted designs on the walls, or,(VERY unlikely, but Ezra got one, and not DEFINETLY not) a REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY sturdy shelf-like thing for a loftish thingy! This Last idea actually has an attached bit of justice that I can use for a barganing chip if the Parental Units don't like t5he idea: Ezra has one, and Ella has a Top Bunk Area, wich is sorta like a loft! (granted,if Ez didnt't have a mini "upper floor" in his room, he would LITERALLY not have A SINGLE INCH of extra space around his tiny toddler-matress: he sleeps in an old craft nook thats about thew size of a large closet. and not a walk-in closet. I mean an ACTUAL closet!) So if any reader of this blog has any ideas, PLEASE leave a comment stating your idea, name, and phone # (or email adress) so that I know who to thank for the idea that made my bedroom the awsomest place in town!

happy room designing,(if you are redesigning your room)

IVY

okay,YAY ME! I actually rembered to (finally) do a roadtrip post!

today(Friday,April 8th,2011, the 5th day of our trip,the 3rd whole day here in Winnipeg) we went to the Forks for breakfast. for those of you never been there, the whole thing is almost uncannily like Granville Island, exept it's almost all indoor. All right,enough chitchat. Here's the photos:

above: breakfast at the Forks (far left: me,Ivy. middle:Ella. Far right: Ezra)below: yum! we got delicious bacon+eggs breakfasts from a weird little booth at the Forks

below: cute indoor "allyways" make the Mall at the Forks a supercool tourist attraction

above: the Forks's large potted plants,huge windows,and warm temprature can almost fool you into thinking it's summer.......an effect ruined by the cloudy,bleak sky and ice-floe laden river!

below:grandma looking out of a window

above: this spacious, quiet, and sunny dining area is where we ate.

alltogether,this was a really fun visit!

Roadtrip

me, Ella, Ez, + Mom are going to hit the road on Monday, April 4th, 2011! I'll try and keep this blog updated to record the stuff we do in the exotic location of.....drumroll please...... Winnipeg,MB Canada. nevertheless, we'll see cousins and grandparents, so none of us is complaing! Mom's bringing the Laptop, soI'll be trying to update this thing often with video, pictures, + posts!!! until next post, Adios me amegos! Ivy