The boy

I started school in the fall with the kids this year and boy oh boy have I been busy. I forgot all about my blog, the to-do list, Christmas cards and little things like the basement which was used today for the first time in months. I have had to stick to the basics.
It is wonderful to be in school. I'm using my brain! And thank god- it looks like it still has a little energy left in it. Its also wonderful to have my own 'thing'. I have been mom for so long and now I get to do some thing for me. It will also be for the family but by in large its mine to do and my success. Its busy but we're all getting thru and tomorrow.. out of no where... J turns four. What?!? FOUR? When did he get so big? When did he start wearing size 5 shirts and start talking about the girl he likes? He's a bonafied expert on corn snakes and anything Ben 10. When did he stop being my toddler and become a boy? Apparently it happened last night while he was sleeping because today he is a boy. And tomorrow when he wakes up he'll be a four year old boy. We celebrated him this weekend and tomorrow I'll pick him and his sister up at school and we'll do something special just us three.

My day..
..today I was able to sleep in.
..today all the laundry is clean.
..today the children are clean.
..today we put up more Christmas lights. (Who doesn't love Christmas lights?)
..today I didn't make lunch or dinner and dinner was so so good.
..today my kids got new toys to play with for J's birthday.
..today I had the chance to stay hello on my blog:)
..today I was able to talk to family and visit with them.
..today I finally found an invite I really needed to respond to.
..today is the last day my boy is three years old.
..today I'm prepared for my last full week of school before the new year.
..today was a good day.

woodland theme party

When E asked for a 'forest' themed birthday. I have to admit, I was completely stumped. Ba dum bum... But seriously folks.. I drew a blank. So I turned to Pinterest in my time of need for some inspiration. Of course.. since Pinterest is awesome personified, I found inspiration. So our woodland theme took shape.
We fashioned trees, pine-cones, nuts and seeds for our decor and even a few gnomes...
I bought a wonderful party package from the Etsy shop Itsy Belle. And off I went.
We did Gnome Freeze Dance, Pin the Beak on the Owl, and a Bee pinata.. that unfortunately was too quick and brutal to photograph.
We had toad stool cupcakes and a ribbiting frog that was a perfect lure for hide and seek.
I had a lovely table set too, with a bird nest complete with eggs, and the girls had a great time playing with the Gnome Costumes. It was a wreck by the time I considering taking pictures of it.. but it was a fun two hours.. and we are still enjoying the decorations till E's actual birthday this week. Who knows whats in store for next year;)

how our garden grows

We planted our first garden last year in containers mostly with a few in the ground too. We loved having the fresh herbs and tomatoes. The kids loved watching them grow and it was a great way for them to see where food comes from.

This year we made our little garden bigger. We planted 6 or 7 tomato plants, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, onions, beans and herbs. Again, it has been a great success. Showing the kids how things grow and making wonderful foods from our plants. We have a yummy spaghetti sauce in our freezer that is full of our garden veggies and almost every night at dinner we go out with scissors and add some fragrant herbs to our meals. We fill salads with our tomatoes and basil, use the rosemary when we make chicken and I will miss our garden this winter. Here are a few of our lovely tomatoes, some beans and two green peppers. I love having green tomatoes on my windowsill everyday. They change and turn the most amazing colours. How does your garden grow?

mushrooms and forest things

I'm starting preparations for E's party and here's a little of whats happening. We have lots more planned and I can't wait to show it to you!

4 Cats

How cute are these? My 3 & 5 yr old just got back from an Orca Whale Workshop at 4 Cats Art Studio, where they made these whales.. whats that you thought? cats? I suppose I should have done the side profile. Oops. My 5yr old's on the left and 3yr old's on the right. I'm loving 4 Cats and heading off to sign them up for more!

slippers

With the 'What will it be Wednesday' fail, I was off of felting for some time, but decided to pick it back up this week and had great luck! Here's my new super awesome slippers! It turned out so well the family is putting their orders in:)

preping for a party

Ever feel like you are going to kill yourself pulling a party theme together? Ever wonder how you are going to do it all, so the party will be perfect? I suppose it might just be me but I'm going to tell you my secret. ItsyBelle. Christy from Itsybelle has been designing away and has some wonderful birthday themes. All you have to do is print and go. It just pulls it all together!
If you are looking for more help she also has a wonderful blog packed full of great party ideas. E's birthday is fast approaching and I'm using a Itsybelle theme. It's given me some great ideas and we are all excited for party day.

drooling

I know its been far too long and I'm sorry about that.. but here's a little something to drool over.. that help? If you want to make me really jealous you can hop on over to Etsy here and buy this.

randomly yummy

When we had dinner guests yesterday, I knew I wanted to try some new appetizers. So I embarked on a little internet searching and happened upon the McCormick Seasonings Website. With little more than Brie and a loaf of sourdough bread, our guests were raving about the Bloomin Brie Bowl from the website. The only change we made was adding chopped sun dried tomatoes to the mix, but it worked. Loved this and have to make it again! Definitely a website worth checking out!

is this thing on?

umm, ya I didn't forget how to turn the laptop on.. it's just been busy. Really busy. Soon I'd like to make up for it, I have a couple completed projects and once photographed I hope to be blogging up a storm.. In the mean time, here's E's hungry caterpillar. 2 strips of green construction paper, some stickers and 2 buttons. Bam- you've got yourself a cute little caterpillar.

spring flowers and pies on the windowsill

Tulips are my most favourite-est flower and I'm so happy that The Tulip festival has started! We're having great weather this weekend so I can't wait to get the kids out to see it!

We're still food obsessed here and the Mr. is getting a reputation for making fabulous risotto. This is his roasted red pepper and bacon risotto bubbling away. Spicy!

Some of our summer herbs are planted and happily growing.

My first Lemon Meringue Pie is cooling. I can't wait to try it!

With the prospect of all of us going to school in the fall we have so much we want to cram into this summer. The kids have theme summer camps, we're cottaging, visiting with friends, taking mini trips and exploring our own city. We are hoping that this can be the year we are all biking so we can start taking rides thru the city and on the trails.
Every year we try to get more out of our growing season and this year my husband and the kids have become worm farmers, (yes, you heard me right) hoping to add lots of healthy worms and compost to our organic garden. We are also hoping to increase our garden and incorporate more grown foods into our meals.

sweet tooth

Continuing with my 'if we can make it, we do' spree. I've been seeing recipes for home made mints all over the net recently and it was time to try my hand at making them. This is an easy no-bake cream cheese recipe which can be frozen for up to 3 months. That's my kind of cooking!
Recipe can be found here.

hello hello

Well, hello.
Here's a little of what we've been up to lately. We've gone 'home-made'. If we can make it, we are. So here we have a new home made spaghetti sauce.

This Pizza Sauce is from AllRecipes.Com

Rolling pasta thru the Kitchen-aid pasta maker.

More home-mades to come. Happy Wednesday!

cookie love

I made these yesterday and there isn't even one left to take a picture of. If you don't know what to do when faced with a house full of preschoolers these will make you a superstar! Not only were they good, they look great and are easy peasy! Check out the fabulous V and Co. for the how to:)

sunday morning

This is my breakfast this morning. Bacon and egg cooked in phyllo pastry with a little whole grain mustard and cheddar cheese. So yummy. We will be making these again.
We also used our phyllo pastry to whip up some mini quiche with sauteed onions, hot peppers and bacon, topped with cheddar cheese. Also voted yummy by our panel of judges. Happy Sunday everyone( :

what will it be wednesday

This week I'm doing 'what will it be wednesday?'. This 'thing' in the picture above is 100% pure noro wool and was knit on size 13 needles. I did 112 stitches in the round and made it a little over a foot long. I then single crocheted the bottom of the (bag?) for stability and I'm knitting a separate shoulder strap to felt at the same time and to be attached later. Will it be a tiny purse? Will it be a big market bag? What will it be?

soap

The Soap Keeper. This is the fastest, easiest thing I have crocheted yet. So fast in fact that I just kept making them for fun and to use up all my little balls of cotton yarn. I tailored the bag to the bar of soap so it's a perfect fit for gift giving. These bags are great for all those little bars of soap that are not quite big enough anymore. The bag acts as an exfoliator and when hanging stops soap from getting all goopy in the soap dish.

fun birthday party ideas

(Salad dressing on J's face at Brown's Independent)

The kids were lucky to be invited to several parties lately and all were at great businesses in our community. If you have little ones and are looking for something out of the house this year I recommend these fun spots.
E had a great time at Corona Gymnastics.
J & E had fun at Playtime4kids and also had a great cooking class at Brown's Independent. You might even remember we had E's birthday at Saunders Farm which is also a great spot for those summer babies. If you prefer having the gang at your house, one of my first posts was about the Princess we hired for E's 4th birthday. Another wonderful party the kids really enjoyed. Thanks to all the kids who invited E & J out- they had a blast!

snow day

This was our second snow day so far this year and we knew just what to do with it. We now have a lovely assortment of cupcakes in our freezer for the next time we need a little pick me up. (that is if we dare to eat them... fruit loops on icing get sort of gross)

After the sugar high they had a nice time running it off in the snow:)

hat obsession

yeah, I might have shown you this before.. but I enjoy it so..

my newest blue bonnet (yes I know its quite large on her tiny head- its for me)

newest hat for E, the flower is the colour of her snowsuit. Have I mentioned that I love my colour coordinating wardrobe for her?

Happy Thursday.

today

...today was my 6 year wedding anniversary
...today I missed a book club meeting to spend the evening with my family (since it was our ann)
...today I had poutine when we had dinner at Costco (I could pretend to hang my head in shame but it was good. Damn good!)
...today I remembered to send my daughter to school with a show and tell object that DOES start with S in french.
...today I was lucky to have 2 wonderful friends over and my boy got the play date he's been needing
...today I jammed my finger and still have something stuck between my nail and the quick.. ouch!
...today I cleaned up poonami 2011 but i love my almost completely potty trained brood.
...today my family all called to wish my a happy anniversary-YAY!
...today the house was mostly clean
...today was sunny :)
...today was a good day.

things I'm crushing on

so much inspiration so little time! Etsy, Supermarket, Pinterest, Ravelry and all my local Yarn and crafts stores. You do me in!

If you are ever in town looking for some inspiration there are many little stores besides Michaels that can inspire you to create.
Take a look at Yarn Forward, or Wabi Sabi

Here are my random favourites from todays ventures..

http://pinterest.com/b_persun/random/

http://pinterest.com/pin/5243500/

cowl obsessed

When I saw the pattern for the 'Gap-tastic Cowl' by the lovely and talented Hey Jen Renee. I was hooked! So I made it out of Roving to match my mittens and now have a lovely set that I wear every time I go out. GAP-tastic!

something I forgot

Somewhere in the christmas shuffle I forgot all about the ornaments the kids made with our cookie cutters and crayola Model Magic. After a day to dry they were free to colour them in all sorts of marker splendor. We used several as gift tags and several on our tree.

i'm still here

January was a very busy month for us with many changes. So I'm happy we are on to February and it's already shaping up to be my favourite month of the year. (with valentines day and our anniversary is usually is)

In preparation for Valentines Day E & J have started hand-made valentines and we are in pretty good shape so far.

We used Melissa & Doug paints, but you could use any crayola or kid safe paint.

kids room tour j's edition

J's room is really in progress. He inherited my grandparents furniture that is well over 70 years old. It has never been re-finished and boy does it need it. So we are slowly starting the process. The bed is done and we still need to do the desk, dresser and book shelf. I hope its done before he's 15 because the ikea dresser won't last much longer.