photographer . magic maker

make your own magic: christmas cookies in hankiland

because the year has been anything but average in so many ways, this holiday season we are making sure to fit in all of our favourite traditions that make the season special and create a sense of normalcy for the kids. from our annual tree hunt to decorating gingerbread houses to baking all of our favourite treats, we’re fitting in as many much-loved activities as we can to highlight the best bits of the holidays and make things feel as festive as possible.

it really isn’t a holiday in hankiland if we aren’t making cookies, so we partnered with save on foods this month and were able to squeeze in some baking and decorating after school to add in some extra cheer at the end of a long week. while the sun may have left us halfway through, the magic sure didn’t.

EASY ROLLED SHORTBREAD COOKIES.

1 cup softened western family salted butter
2 cups flour
3/4 cups powdered sugar

mix all ingredients in stand mixer until dough forms a ball.
roll out to 1/3 inch thickness (hot tip: we use icing sugar instead of flour on our table and rolling pin!) and cut out using your favourite cutters.
bake at 325 on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes.

THE BEST BUTTERCREAM EVER

1 cup western family salted butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4-5 tbsp heavy cream

cream 1 cup butter until fluffy.
add in icing sugar, 1 cup at a time, until fully combined.
add in vanilla extract and pour in cream, starting with 4 tbsp and adding more until desired consistency is reached;
use food colouring to create your favourite colours and have fun decorating! (we use piping bags when we have them but have settled for popsicle sticks or butter knives when we don’t!)

baking with kids is never about perfection, but about having fun and enjoying time together, and celebrating the beautiful messes that ensue. this year we’ll be looking at the holidays much the same — things may not be perfect but as per our 12 days of magic list, you better believe we’ll be doing everything we can to make the most of these messy, beautiful days.

happy baking.

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.

giggles and airplane rides and thirty cute toes

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!