• May 11, 2010

    Sewing and doing…


    Yesterday was the start of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. Having no time to sew, I spent some time cutting last night, and then a couple of hours sewing this morning. I made B some slippers, finished up some bibs I had already cut up, and a t-shirt for B. It was mildly disastrous, I have lost a lot of my sewing ability, and especially my pattern making ability. And the stupid machine kept un-threading (mostly my own fault). Even though my work is a little wonky, B likes it, and I guess that is what matters. He is wearing his slippers right now (based on this pattern – I made cutouts on the bottom and put a piece of fake leather I had around between the two sole pieces for grip). The bibs are pretty straightforward. The pattern is from Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing for Baby, but really, it’s not the sort of thing you need a pattern for. The t-shirt I made the pattern for using one of B’s t-shirts. The sleeves are a little off because I did them all wrong. When the Apple Store opened here, they were giving out free shirts, and I had meant to make mine B sized, because it’s not the sort of shirt I would wear, so I am glad I finally got around to doing that. B LOVES the Apple Store. I think it’s because they clapped a lot when it opened and he got really excited. And they have computers for him to play on. And he likes the mall in general.



    I finished the body of one of my Squirrelly Swedish Mittens yesterday, I just need to add the thumb. I really like the colours and they are so soft. I know they will probably pill a lot, being alpaca, but I don’t care, they are that soft. I want to finish all my on-the-go projects in the next week so I can start new ones! For Mother’s Day I got a gift certificate to Darn Good Yarn (and a really colourful necklace from Aldo that B picked out and likes a lot, he sits there naming the shapes). I ordered some Banana Fiber in Rocky Mountain, and a skein of slightly unrefined Sari Silk. I hear the Sari Silk is a bit tricky to work with, but the colour payout is worth it. And the banana fiber sounds fun! I am excited. I love getting packages in the mail. I finished the Little Seedling Soaker, but not in time. It looks pretty cute on O though, so it’s all good. It will be perfect with a t-shirt in the summer. I love the yarn, I wish I had more!


    We gave B a mohawk the other day, it’s pretty darn cute. He also got these new sunglasses that make him look extra cool. B and I spent a lot of time last week working on Mother’s Day presents. They look really simple, but the amount of energy that it takes to get a 2 year old to focus on such a task for long enough is a lot. I helped him colour two mugs and paint a tote bag. If I had a nickel for every time I told him to keep his hands in the air while they were covered in fabric paint, I’d be rich! And it worked! No mess! This week so far, we are just taking it easy, no grand plans.

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  • May 7, 2010

    Lots on the go…



    So I finished the Chronicles of Narnia baby sweater. I was really worried while knitting it that it looked too large, but upon finishing, I tried it on little O, and it fit him pretty well. Since he is a large 3 month old, and it is for a 3-6 month old girl, I’d say it’s pretty true to size. And I love the puffy sleeves. The colour work in the flowers could be a little neater, but that’s my fault for doing it on such a loose knit. Next time I need to remember loose knit=stitch it on after. But I finished it and am overall happy with it (and the choice to make it short sleeved!) Now I am just on a quick diaper cover to go with a friend’s son’s birthday present (I love the yarn! It has a nice texture and is really spring-y.), and then I HAVE to finish the Squirrel Mittens and the hoodie for O. I am not going to let myself start the next project until I do, even though I have bought all the yarn and needles. After that I have a really good idea for a mitten design I want to try to make work.


    We’ve been busy crafting for Mother’s Day this week. B survived both permanent markers and t-shirt paint without any major incidents! I am not going to post any pictures until after the day, just in case. Yesterday I was sick, so we might have had a bit of a Yo Gabba Gabba day. We watched an episode about Superheroes, and B spent some time running around “flying.” When Ryan was done working, I quickly sewed him up a cape and he loved it.


    Next week is the Kids Clothing Week Challenge, and I am trying to plan out what to sew. I for sure am going to finish the cowboy bibs I have cut out and ready to sew, but other than that, I am a little lost. I’ve been looking at Crewcuts by J Crew for inspiration. I love their kids clothes. I might try to make a summer cardigan and some pants for B. O does nor really need anything clothes-wise, so I think I will focus on B, who has outgrown most of his 2T clothing.I like this pant pattern a lot. And he really wants some slippers, for which I have the most perfect heavy wool felt leftover from his Halloween costume (I thought it was pretty smart of me to make the pirate jacket out of real heavy jacket material in this climate). Something easy to slip on like this (I know they are for babies, but they will still work well for B). I think I will spend some time tomorrow planning and cutting. Today I have to finish the diaper cover, make a grocery list/meal plan, and shop.

  • 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 5, 2010

    Easter




    I was up very late last night baking chocolate Babka for easter. I use the same recipe every year, from marthastewart.com and it has served me well. But with the 10 minutes of stand mixer kneading, I don’t know how I did it before my KitchenAid mixer came into my life. 


    The dough turned out really well. It turned out super silky. After a lot of rising (it seems fitting that an Easter bread would spend so much time rising) I added the two-and-a-half (that’s right!) pounds of chocolate (mixed with butter, sugar, and cinnamon) to the rolled out dough. I can’t believe that a dough that gets kneaded that long rolls out so easily.


    After an hour in the oven, I took out the chocolate Babka. I also decided to make one regular Babka as well, as I was curious how this dough would work with only raisins mixed in (the answer is very well). Usually I don’t do so well with such finicky bread recipes (or bread recipes at all really), but this turned out superb as usual. The chocolate did not melt as well as it should have for some reason. It doesn’t change the taste at all, because the chocolate cools down before serving, but it takes away from the visual effect of the swirls of chocolate. It disappointed me when I first cut into a loaf because it looked more like scattered chocolate chips, but then I took a bite and it was so good it did not really matter anymore. It must have been all the thoughts of puppy dogs and butterflies that I tried to keep in my head while the dough rose. I read somewhere about how it’s believed that the success of your Paska or Babka relies on the purity of thought of its baker. And that some while baking would go so far as to not allow anyone else in the house as to not ruin their golden bread by allowing bad thoughts to enter their home.


    I really liked it as a regular Babka as well. Delicious. This is one of my favorite things to bake all year. I always divide the dough into six loaves in those aluminum pans that are slightly smaller than a regular loaf pan. It fills them well, and are a good size to roll out on a counter too. I usually make substitutions or do something different, but other than the smaller loaves (that still bake for the same amount of time) I followed the instructions exactly. Side note: Someone really needs to invent a computing device that has some way to save online recipes in a “cookbook” of sorts and lets me write notes on it. That is my dream app. Maybe the Microsoft Courier will do that. Let me say it here that I thought of  
    that, so they better put me in an annoying ad (this ad was way better) about how the Microsoft Courier was my idea. 


    Me being the occasional non-thinker, did my nails before baking. Luckily I was able to fix them up. I decided that I wanted nails that looked like Easter eggs. Tiffany-blue with purple tips and a glittery silver stripe. I used China Glaze For Audrey and OPI Do You Lilac It. It was pretty fun.

    For the boys Easter basket, I spent some time sewing yesterday. I made O a Stegasaurus with ribbon tag plates down its back. It got a slobbery baby mouth of approval. I based it on this pig pattern from marthastewart.com. If I used it again, I would enlarge it, although I like the tiny dino. For B, I sewed him an Owly from his bedtime book, and a car mat. I really could have done a better job on the car mat, but I only had around an hour to spend on it, and considering that I think I did a pretty good job. I think I might remake it sometime though. Something more like this or this (I can’t wait to make things from B’s drawings BTW). I also got him some Cars Dominoes. “Play game, play game,” he was saying all day. I started to teach him a basic matching version of Dominoes, and he started to get it. He mostly loved dumping them out and putting them back in their tin. I am slowly hoping to work him up to my favorite game, Candyland.

    We had a really nice brunch with my family this morning. My sister left for Montreal yesterday, and family gatherings aren’t quite the same without her. After eating too much food we went home and all took naps. Now I am watching the Real Housewives of Orange County (!) and taking a break from knitting Ryan’s hat to type this up while my nails (a deep jewel green) dry. Tomorrow we have dinner with Ryan’s family, and after that I have knitting group. B and I are going to play some more dominoes tomorrow, and maybe break out the glitter glue and safety scissors during O’s nap. O is becoming such a social little baby. He smiles big at anyone who catches his gaze, and carries on long conversations to anyone (or thing) that will listen. It’s pretty adorable. It makes my day.




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