• May 3, 2010

    Baking and making…


    So I decided to take the make-it-yourself plunge today. I really want to reduce the amount of processed junk B eats, and keep O from eating too much. At least when they are at home. I’ve been talking about it for a bit and reading and planning as I am one to do. Last night, I decided to just jump into it. Since we have a lot planned over the next week, I did not need to do too much grocery shopping so I decided we’d go to Organza and the Bulk Barn this morning. Checking their website I found that Organza opened at 10 this morning, which is awesome, because B usually naps around noon,which is when I would have gone. We got some good stuff like blood oranges and butter lettuce grown in Landmark and funny organic cookies shaped like Priuses (is that the plural of Prius?)and windmills. We had some time to kill between Organza and the Bulk Barn so we decided to go to the Forks and get some coffee and delicious cinnamon buns (I always want to try the roasted vegetable bread pudding, but always seem to be there between meals). Then to the Bulk Barn for some baking supplies. I needed stuff to start making stuff. I picked up some organic gummy bears for B, and they are really really good. Organic gummy bears might seem a little overkill, I know, but it’s the junk they replace sugar with that bugs me the most. I mean, if my kid is going to go crazy on anything, it better be the gold standard in sweetness, not corn. Corn is barely nutritious in its unadulterated form other than the fiber, so I don’t like to think about what they do to it to make it sweeten food. It just does not seem right. Anyways. Next weekend I think we’ll go shopping at the Forks, it opens at 9:30 and has cinnamon buns.



    So after we got home, I got to some baking. I took the “goldfish” cracker dough that I had made last night out of the fridge and all cut up. I could not find any fish cookie cutters, so I got a hippo, a triceratops, a squirrel, and a bear (which really looks more like a burly dog). And I cut and cut, till I had filled my two cookie sheets three times each. Which is a lot of little crackers. And I baked and baked while they puffed up. B helped by stealing all my kitchen implements and insisting I find more for him to pretend to cook with, while O giggled at me. And when they were done, I gave one to B, nervous over wasting so much time baking something he would not like. And then he left the room and brought me the crackers he had been eating earlier and said “No more this, more THIS!” and pointed at the crackers I had just made. Victory! Flour, butter, cheese, salt, and pepper, so simple but really really good. If you have a cheesy cracker lover in your house, you should make these. Then I got super hippy and made Ryan some granola for breakfast, because he likes it. With oats, brown sugar, raisins, cherries, almonds, coconut and honey. So good. Tomorrow I am going to try to make something Bear Paw like with the old bananas we have around. I can’t find a recipe so I am going to wing it. It feels good to make things. Something about baking elevating your mood.


    I also quickly sewed up some snack pouches. They are more prototypes, and I did not have much time to do them, but they turned out pretty good. I dig it. Easier, cuter, and less garbage making than ziplock bags. Especially the cuter part. And when you flip the top they form a nice bowl. After I do a few tweaks (and maybe a trip to Fabricland) I am going to make some more. Making wise, I am still working on the sweater. I just moved the sleeve stitches (I made them extra poofy) to some waste yarn, and don’t have too much more to do. Mostly because I am making it short-sleeved. The flowers are a touch wonky, but they just need some fixing with a crochet hook when it’s all done. Yup. And now I am going to relax and work on it.

  • April 26, 2010

    Things I have learned from Wife Swap



    So today, while doing some knitting (I finished the main body of the sweater!) I watched a recent episode of Wife Swap. While watching, I realized that I should probably take a few lessons from these ladies such as

    • take more 5-6 hour naps 
    • run the washing machine so Ryan thinks I am cleaning (so I can take more naps)
    • spend more time internet shopping
    • make the kids do pushups when they forget to say “Yes ma’am”
    Anyways, it has been a busy few days around here. Friday was a long shopping trip with my mom and sister. B got some new sandals, so now when we tell him to get his shoes on he goes “NO! Sandals!” And I found him some good summer clothes. I picked up some soft purple yarn to make these slipper/boots out of when I finish the sweater I am working on. I need to figure out how to use two circular needles at once. And I also found an excuse to go to Michaels that day. We needed to get Mother’s Day and general crafting supplies. We have a lot of fun things to do this week with paints and markers (and sidewalk chalk!). And B picked out some super fun sparkle paint that we are going to use to make a birthday card tomorrow. I am excited to make things. I love the drawings and makings of children.

    Saturday was library day, and B had fun as usual. O was just amused at everything going on. B really likes going to the library, he picked out a few new books to read, and loves trying out all of the couches. We walked around in the sky walks for a bit after and he really liked that. Mostly the being on top of roads part. Then it was grocery shopping. I am proud that the fresh half of my list was way longer than the not-so-fresh stuff. I’ve been making more effort to plan things out, and that is going really well. After shopping we all went for a drive to Lockport for dinner, which was really pretty and relaxing.
    Today we just had to exchange something and go to the Bulk Barn. I picked up various dried fruits in hopes of getting B to eat them. We’ll see how that goes. And then we barbecued. B loves BBQ-ing because he runs outside while Ryan is manning the grill and plays with his sand table. Or dirt rally table as it seems to be.

    I think that I am going to try the Kids Clothes Week challenge next month. I have enough time to prepare, and I love sewing little clothes. Finding patterns that don’t look completely dated for little boys is hard though, so I might have to come up with my own. I need to hit up Fabricland (and use what I still have around) to prepare! If nothing else, I can make a week’s worth of shorts, but hopefully I will find or come up with something better. I still have a couple of weeks to figure it all out.

  • April 22, 2010

    Making houses and stuff.


    So after finally finishing O’s little sweater, you’d think I’d take a break, but no, I immediately cast on for the next sweater. What a difference size 8 needles make. I am almost halfway down the body already. It’s going to be a quick knit. I really like the pattern, it’s knit from the top down with stitches held and then later picked up for the sleeves. Which means minimal finishing work. I think I might add pockets, mostly because I like pockets a lot, and partially because I think the front needs to be broken up a bit. I flipped through a knitting pattern book while we were driving around on errands today. It’s called Favorite Mittens, and I really recommend it to anyone interested in either knitting mittens, craft as folklore, or both. The author collects traditional knitting patterns from all over the eastern coast and has stories of their origins with each pattern. I picked it up from the library because I am really into the mittens, but I think I might have to own a copy. The introduction is really informative too, going into all of the things that make a good mitten. I really need to get some more smaller double pointed needles. I have been eyeing this set from knitpicks. The wood is so pretty! There are so many mittens I want to make. I am still working on the Squirrelly Swedish Mittens right now, mostly because I was working on the sweater.


    The boys have been keeping me very busy. I’m slowly starting to toilet train B, but I’m not in a hurry. He spent most of the day pushing the vacuum around the house. If he was not just getting over a huge fear of it, I would have turned it on so he could have done some cleaning too! He is finally pretty much unsick, but his molars are still coming in, making him a drooly monster. I finally took the two boys to the park by myself the other day. It is a lot of work.


    Tomorrow I am going to do some shopping. I am meeting up with my mom and sister at the mall with the boys. B wants/needs some new sandals. He found his ones from last year and tried to put them on. He looked at me and said “Too small. Buy new ones. MAAAALLLLL!” And since I love excuses to shop, that is what we are doing. O does not need anything, as I probably bought too much of everything for his older brother. But it’s so hard to resist the cute little stuff. 


    The other day B brought me a toy catalog he found, and was pointing at a house. He then brought me his little Makka Pakka, and said “House, sleep!” And I deduced that he wanted me to build him a house for the little guy. Instead of breaking out the Mega Blocks, I dug out an old shoe box and some gift bags I found next to it. I used a holographic glittery bag to line the box, and quickly crafted a bed out of a gift box I found in one of the boxes. I added a blanket, put some art on the walls and cut out a door. I also made a magazine holder and re-purposed the gift tags from the bags as magazines. The best part about this box is that it slides out matchbox-style, leaving a perfect spot for a garage. Luckily, B’s taste is not discerning, and he does not care that all I have is masking tape to put things together with, and he loved it. Especially since there is a garage. He loves garages.


  • April 2, 2010

    Easter eggs and projects.


    Today I came up with a genius idea. I was getting B to help me make cookies (ok, and by help make cookies, I mean place ready to go Pillsbury pucks on a cookie sheet) and I was trying to figure out how to include him more in a pretty basic purpose. I then remembered that I had food colouring markers in the fridge still so I marked X’s on the parchment paper so B would know where to put the cookie dough. And it worked! B was soo proud of himself. And then I went and negated my flash of brilliance by using a tea towel to take the cookies out of the oven and burning my index finger pretty bad. It’s not a good finger to burn pretty bad.


    Holy yoke Batman, I did not realize how many rows of yoking there is to do on the baby sweater I am knitting. It almost makes me want to reconsider the hood, but in the end I know I will do it. I have to take a temporary break from working on it due to my finger injury though, the small stitches and needles are too much for it. So I am working on two larger chunky projects, a Mustard Scarf on 13 needles (I started it on 15 needles, but it was just a little too hole-y so I started again) which is knitting up quite quickly, and a Simple Slouchy Hat for Ryan, who shaved his hair off last night.


    B and I decorated some plastic Easter eggs the other day. I figure I’ll hold off on the hardboiled eggs until next year, because I had visions of him squeezing them to hard and being really sad about that. And he is a long way off from making Pysanky. I sometimes can’t believe we were making them in elementary school when I was in grade one. And that I can’t recall any open flame or hot wax disasters. So anyways, we made Cars eggs, which B was really excited about, and then proceeded to pretend they were cars and had them drive all over the place. Cute.


    The other day, while I was making dinner, B dragged his toy kitchen in, and made dinner himself. He stole a mushroom and some broccoli and various utensils, and it was so adorable. He even put his dishes in his toy sink when he was done with them. And put the broccoli in a metal measuring cup and pretended it was a pot. It made making dinner take twice as long because I couldn’t stop admiring his cuteness.



    We had a fair bit of running around to do after Ryan finished work yesterday. We went to the mall to get some dinner, but B was too excited about playing in the play area to eat. While Ryan watched him play, O and I did some shopping. I went to The Children’s Place to see if I could find Easter outfits for them, but they were out of everything good in B’s size. So frustrating! It’s hard enough to find cute little boy clothes as it is. And even sadder was that they were all out of B sized matching sweater vests (well, they had the purple and green ones, but I wanted the blue and yellow ones). They had lots in O’s size though. Disappointing. I had great plans of matching Easter outfits. Well, there’s always Christmas. I might still yet go check the Polo Store for this shirt, because it was pretty nice, the picture does it no justice.


    After that, we had to go to Sally Beauty to pick up some clippers to do Ryan’s hair with. I figured with 3 guys in the house, it made sense to get some better quality ones. And it was an excuse to take advantage of their buy 2 get 1 free on all nail polish sale. I just picked up some Sally Girl mini bottles (there are some seriously cute colours), and some nail polish remover. The dark green is seriously pretty. Right now my nails are Purple Panic. It’s insanely bright. I think I’ll go pastel for easter, doing something fun with For Audrey and Do You Lilac It.




    Why does it have to be so gloomy out today! Ryan has the day off, but I think we are just going to take it easy. I think I am going to sew up the car holder I posted the other day out of whatever fabrics I have around the house (which is not much so it might clash a little). And I might make O something with ribbon tags, because he loved the little blankets I made him. I need to make a grocery list for tomorrow morning. I wish grocery stores were open today. And make sure to get everything to make Chocolate Babka.



    I’ve decided my goal is to crochet a dorky Granny Square Afghan. And of course finish up the baby clothes quilt I started with B’s old clothes. I first need to figure out how to crochet, and then how to crochet a granny square, but that should not be too bad. I’ve been looking at lots of pictures of them on Ravelry. There is so much consideration to make in the colours. Do I just use scrap yarns I have around, or do I just buy a few colours of yarn to make a more focused afghan. Once I go through the yarn I bought the other day I will start working on it, because I am not allowing myself to buy anymore yarn until then. If you have Ravelry, I love this one, and am tempted to do something really similar, with the four colours and white edging. I also really like this one a lot, and how the chaos of all of the colours is pacified by the strong white borders.