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make your own magic: twelve days of magic

as the holidays approach, i wanted to create a list of fun and easy activities to bring some extra joy into your days.

this might sound silly to some of you, but i’ve learned over the years that daily advent activity calendars can overwhelm me. it’s not so much the number of activities that is the issue, but the obligation to cross one off every day and the feeling of getting “behind” if i miss a day.

i figured i can’t be the only one with this problem and that’s why this year i created our ’12 days of magic’ list instead.


i love the fact that whenever we have some down time or need to inject some magic into our day, we can pick an activity (or three) to do, but there is zero pressure to fit one in every single day.

we’d be thrilled to have you play along with us in any way that feels right for you — whether that means crossing off every item on the list or just picking one or two that seem like a good fit. you’re invited to:

  • print the graphic, cut the circles out and place in a jar, and draw one to do each day,
  • save the image to your phone and pull it out whenever you need a bit of extra cheer,
  • pick one or two activities that feel good for your family and leave the rest,
  • or play along with us on instagram! our family will be checking off the activities as we go with the hashtag #todaywefoundmagic and we’d love to see which ones are bringing joy to your family.

i’m secretly hoping we space things out well enough that the activities will keep us feeling festive through our holiday break!

wishing you the very best this holiday season, and always.

one last family picnic in the first house they called home

i photographed their earliest days in this home. alice’s newborn session took place while i was thirty nine weeks pregnant with cole, and leo’s while oscar, just a few weeks old at the time, was in the swing in their living room as i worked.

for close to six years, i watched these kids grow up here alongside my own. as they all grew older and their friendships blossomed, their mama became one of my dearest friends. from nursing babies (exhausted) over tea in the living room, to cookie decorating and crafting (and the associated messes to clean up) in the kitchen, i got to witness a lot of life in this house. when it was time for them to say goodbye to it, it was an honour to document one last picnic, read a book in the room where they rocked their babies to sleep, and to photograph one final walk down the stairs.

gretchen rubin said it best, “the days are long, but the years are short”. i am so thankful to have had the opportunity to tell this story they will look back on when this first house is just a faint memory, and to show them a bit of the magic that happened here in the midst of their ordinary days.

storytime, twirling and marshmallows in the backyard

it’s been a long while since i’ve blogged, but a handful of images on instagram just wasn’t going to cut it for this one. feeling pretty honoured to have had the chance to officially announce all three of this awesome family’s pregnancies. and there truly is nothing like capturing families loving on one another in their own home — more of this please and thank you!

 

 

 

 

hi, i'm andrea.

 

i believe in celebrating the good

in every day and i feel so lucky

to get to tell the messy,

magical, authentic stories

of busy, beautiful perfectly

imperfect families like yours.

never underestimate
the value of tiny
explosions of magic
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