a peek inside the fishbowl

First of all, thank you so much to all the people who’ve voted for my brunch menu so far. Three cheers for candied bacon!

MMMmmmm, BACON:

If you haven’t voted, GO VOTE. If I win, 20 of you will win some free groceries. And who doesn’t need groceries! (Er, please read this post if you have no idea what I’m talking about.)

I’ve had so many nice comments about our DIY/draw-on-it “tablecloth” idea from yesterday’s post that I thought it’d be nice to share a few extra details about it.

The paper was purchased at Ikea for only five bucks. It’s called MALA and it comes in a giant 30m roll and you’d find it in the children’s department. It’s supposed to be used with an easel but we use it as Endless Doodle Paper. And it’s fantastic.

At some point I decided to start using it like a paper tablecloth (two long sheets pretty much cover our dining room table). The girls loved the idea and went to town with it.

THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES.

You and your kids can:

• – doodle to your heart’s content
• – practice letters and numbers
• – draw your favourite foods (with special emphasis on the food groups of course)

Older kids can think about it as homegrown graffiti! And it’s recyclable!

Here’s one Sarah started. She decided to draw place settings – including food – for each member of our family. This lucky person got sushi:

It’s a really sweet thing to do, and nice for me as well. I liked prepping dinner while the girls sat and drew and chatted.

It occurred to me that this activity would be really fun at Thanksgiving when there are extra people around the table. (How about caricatures of guests instead of place cards? Sketches and menu labels? i.e. “AUNT FRANGELINE’S NOODLE STRUDEL – LOADS OF NUTS”)

I got into the action as well… added a few things to our latest design:

I’d say that was five bucks that was VERY well spent, wouldn’t you? ;)

If you try this at home I would love to see your results! If you blog about it or post photos, please let me know in the comments below!