A few of my favorite things

I created 5 more blogs this week. Click on each title below to check them out! After that you can find links for them permanently on my "This is Reil fun" blog.


an Airplane and a Farm
(travel dreams)

1,095 Meals a Year
(dinner ideas and other recipes)

Amazing Additions to Holiday Traditions
(holiday crafts and more)

Down Memory Lane
(pictures of our childhood homes)

Barbarian Princess
(I love beautiful baking, but this site is not about dessert- it's about painting, but actually I get lots of inspiration from amazing cakes!)

Card Kits

Next week a group of my friends and I are getting together to swap and make cards. We'll each design one card and then put together kits for everyone else to make it. So this week I did my prep work designing my card and making up the kits. With spring around the corner, I thought this could work for a baby/bridal shower, Easter, Mother's Day, or to write whatever note you'd like to a girlie-girl.

Lucky Clover

We're a month away from St. Patrick's Day so I made up this little guy to add to our holiday decor. I'm so excited though, because this St. Patrick's Day Len & I will be on an airplane heading over to the British Isles. Len has work to do in London and Dublin and I'm going to tag along with him. I feel so lucky!!

The Books of Bayern

If you like a "modern" retelling of a classic fairytale, you should check out these books:

Season's Greetings

I know Valentine's Day is in 2 days, but this week my project was to scrapbook all the photos, newsletters, and cards we got for Christmas last year. It's been so long since I scrapped I think I forgot how, but I still enjoyed myself. I have our Christmas mail from the years 1997-2006 completed, but maybe in the coming weeks I'll get caught up on the years 2007-2009.

Another Title

Elijah of Buxton is our book for February's book club. Elijah is the first "free" child born in the village of Buxton, Ontario that is settled by former slaves. It's his coming of age story and it was very cleverly written. It does take a while to get into the language, but it's not difficult. I do have to warn you though that I bawled my eyes out at the end. My husband kind of teased me and asked if I really expected a fairytale ending to a story about slavery. The truth is, if I could have my way ALL stories would have fairytale endings, that's just who I am. But you do get a "consolation prize" ending that was realistic and beautiful in its own way.

Nieces and Nephews

Between our 3 families, Len and I have 9 nephews, 8 nieces, and another niece on the way. They are all super kids that we just adore. Here's a shout out for my darling niece Madison, who won my little giveaway- you rock girl! I'll get the little painting in the mail soon. Love, Auntie Jen =)

My BIG baby and a little GIVEAWAY

I did some painting yesterday. 4 hours of backaching work, but it was pure bliss. I didn't know what I was doing, I just did it and it was completely therapeutic.


I finally finished my 3 foot by 4 foot canvas, and I actually think I like it (hooray!).


I was so excited when we bought our house that our family room had a space for our TV above the fireplace. I had dreamed of being able to hide said television with a nice painting over top, and now I was going to be able to!

It only took me a year and a half to get her done, but now that she is I like it so much I think we might not be watching very much TV anymore (ha ha).

While I was painting Gavin kept telling me that my "flower was so beautiful, mommy." Kaleb told me he liked it too and that it was "cool and abstract." I didn't even know he knew the word abstract, I think that's cool! Len, Noe, and Teague were very enthusiastic about it too. I love you family, thanks for cheering for me!

If you look close in the above picture, you'll see a mini version down in the bottom right corner. I painted that last year with my young women as inspiration to finish my big one. Now that I have- I no longer need it. I think there are maybe 3 people who read this blog from time to time, but if you'd like to have the mini one (it's very simple and more whimsical and only 7 inches by 9 inches) leave me a comment and if anyone responds I'll choose the winner next Friday, the 11th.

If you've ever contemplated painting, I highly recommend that you pick up a brush and go for it!

Happy Mail

Remember how I mentioned I won a dozen handmade cards from my friend, Trina? Well they arrived this week and they are beautiful! Thanks so much Trina, I love them!!


Remember how I finished my 2008 Blurb book a couple of weeks ago? Well it arrived this week, only 8 days after I ordered it. It's 414 pages of a year in our life and I love it too!


I'm inspired to get working on 2009, 2010, and I'm going to start 2011's now and work on it a little each month so it's not a huge project at the end of the year. I love happy mail!

Another New Year

I'm always sad when we take down our Christmas decorations. To help me feel better, we put our Chinese New Year decorations up right after. This year we added a couple of new things to the mix.


We wish you good fortune in the year of the rabbit!


The rest of the Zodiac animals wait for their turn to be honored.


Our firecrackers are up and we were going to keep the Christmas cards up until the Lunar New Year too, but Teague had other plans. Once he started ripping them off the wall, I took the rest down to go in the scrapbook.

The new additions are the framing of the mini and super mini qipao dresses.

The mini ones in the 11x14 frames are supposed to be used to give gifts of wine in.

The super minis in an 8x10 frame are supposed to be used as cell phone bags. I think they look pretty cute all framed up!