Toddler crayons!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted... Guess I've been on vacation from blogging!

I've been on the search for good toddler crayons but they are just so darn expensive to buy! So I bought 2 boxes of 24 crayons for $0.99 each.

I peeled, sorted and broke them and put them into the muffin tin. Melted for 9 minutes, stirring every 3 minutes. I think they would have turned out better (more swirly and pretty) if I hadn't over-stirred.

Right now I'm just waiting for them to cool. Here's hoping my muffin tin makes it out alive :D

Hair Do Day for Cats & Ponies

There have been a lot of blog entries going around Pinterest the last while on how to detangle doll/pony/Barbie hair. I recently dug some My Little Ponys and some long hair cats out of the shed.  I saved them all these years knowing I would someday spruce them up for my own children. Morgan is still too little to appreciate these gems, but I thought I'd clean them up anyway! Maybe the big girls will enjoy them when they come over to play!

Here are some before shots (But they were already dunked in hot water, I forgot to take a true before pic):

And this one, as you can tell, was always my favourite! Her mane is VERY well loved… I was worried how it would turn out:

I didn't have baby oil or fabric softner, so I just used a LOT of conditioner. Washed them up in hot water, left conditioner in their hair for 5 minutes or so, and rinsed it out while combing (and I mean combing over, and over, and over again…).

(Didn't use the olive oil, they turned out great with just conditioner!)

Yellow hair Pony got a tiny trim to fix her split ends before she could get braids in! :)

A little blow drying, a little curling, and voila! They look so great I want to play with them myself…!!!!

:)

More Baby Leggings!

I finally found colourful knee socks… Yippiee!! I decided to make more leggings for Morgan. Now that she's got a fluff-bum I want her to have more instead of always wearing pants… Let her show off her cute diapers!

I made these ones differently and I already love them 100% more than the first pair! And if you thought the first pair was easy to make you won't believe how much easier this way was!! Literally all I had to do was cut off the foot and sew a zig zag stitch around the end. Can you say 2 minute project??

The best part of this may be that each pair of socks only cost $1.25! So I have a few more pairs to make (I bought 3 pairs) but basically this is so sweet!

I think she may be the cutest baby in the world. Look at all that leg chub! <3 Nope, I'm not biased. I just speak the truth! :D haha

(Don't worry, I acknowledge just how many freakin' adorable babies we know and how many kids I know that I used to say the same thing about!)

WIth all the time I have to spare from this quickly project I even had time to write this post BEFORE baby goes to bed. WOW!

… And now off to cook supper. Have a great night everyone!

Dolly Diaper

Well, this happened last week actually, but I'm just getting around to posting now!

I went to fabricville in search of bamboo fleece to make diaper inserts. Instead of finding the bamboo, I found the cutest PUL material in a new diaper making section! Ugh!!! I said to the first lady working there "I would never make my own diaper"... But by the time we left I had a whole bag of materials!! I'm such a sucker . . .  lol

But seriously, look how cute this material is:

Well I came home and started searching BBC and pinterest right away for tips and tutorials. I came up with a moderate plan, then I made a pattern and got to work with making a practice dolly diaper! I figured I might as well give it to my nieces to play with . . . It'll be a LONG time before Morgan need toy diapers :)

It turned out moderately ok, I will make a few more before I use the good material!

Now here's he funny part: I had to practice making a pocket diaper, but I thought to myself "the girls are going to be confused when their dolly diaper has a big hole in it, so I'll make them an insert"

Family Board

This week is going to be interesting . . . I am going to try to stick to a cleaning schedule for me and a nap/sleep schedule for Morgan. Eek, not my forte.

So I thought I'd make a family white board. I took a photo frame that we were NEVER going to use and used scrapbook paper to cover the inside. Then I put it together and voila! Instant white board, but way cute, yes?

And here it is with the beginnings of our weekly schedule:

Now the only thing to figure out is how to stick to a schedule? lol. At least it's pretty.

Saturday Night Bean Bags

Tomorrow morning we are having the youth at our church lead games for the younger kids. Yay! Should be lots of fun. One of the games is bean bag toss . . . and as I was planning for tomorrow it occurred to me: we don't have any bean bags! LOL

Minor detail.

So off I go to the sewing room. I love scrap projects, they are my favourite kind of project. This is also great because I've been wanting to make bean bags for Morgan for a while now! I made a set for Silvia's 1st birthday, so it was a great reason to get busy!

I was in a bit of a time crunch, as I started this at 9:30 pm tonight, so instead of doing a neat and tidy whip stitch, I cheated and did a messy, ugly straight stitch with the machine. Ick. Someday I will seriously regret this!

So here are the 'front' sides . . . lots of funky fabrics!

'Back' sides, also lovely.

Let the fun begin <3

Is this post really about spoons?

Last night was a long night. A very long night.

Little miss was waking up every hour and so was I. We are both stuffed up, me more than her, and morning couldn't come quick enough! She is also finally at the stage where she sleeps like a big kid- doing the starfish and stretching as far as possible with her little limbs! Cute but it makes me sad! What happened to the little bundle who fit in the crook of my arm? *sigh*

Well it took great effort to do anything today. I was fearful that my sluggish ways would reflect on our day. In an effort not to provide boring company for Morgan, I pushed through and tried to keep busy!

We went to the park and to say happy birthday to Nanny Linda! Then we cane home and made a pseudo quilt for the kitties (as part of a new plan to try and keep Duncan from sleeping on our heads...). We also got groceries. This is where I got excited...

I set out to buy baby spoons with metal. Morgan will now let me feed her of it's a metal spoon(!) I couldn't, however, bring myself to spend $6 on the playex one I found. I figured it was a lost cause (after all, most people want plastic). Then I saw the cutest pack of mini spoons in the real cutlery aisle! Yay! (Yes, really, this is what I find exciting)!

(Hard to tell but the package was uber-cute too!)

She played with them at supper. They were a hit :)

Can't wait to serve something that needs a spoon, maybe we'll have applesauce for breaky tomorrow!

Someone's Camping Lord...

Kum-bai-ya!

Okay, so I'm not camping, but I am thinking a LOT about camp lately. This year I really have a longing to be at camp. Sherbrooke is going to have a great summer with my dear friends Laura and Kate in charge!

I guess maybe because this will be my 3rd summer not there that it's starting to be missed! I can't wait to go back someday (in the very far future) and direct with my own kids running around all summer. I'll have my own little free range children on the loose :) That is a long way away! Need to have no babies and not be prego for that day to come. (Just one so far, nobody panic!)

I have been asked to give a speech at Camp Kidston's training session, which is coming up this Friday. It's about 30 minutes on exceptional campers and special needs etc. For some reason I feel very nervous, which makes no sense! I've spoken on this before and lived through helping many kids in the past. I guess maybe because it's the first professional role I've had since being off almost a year. I am having a hard time even sitting down to brainstorm what I will say which holds any value. I think I just need to sit and do it. I'm happy to be speaking at their training though, Kidston was my first true UC camp love! Happy to be helping out. Another camp which is in good hands this year, my friend John is taking the lead! (Which is awesome, he was a Sr camper my first year counselling at Kidston. How time flies!)

I was also asked just today if I could be a part of the training program for the Sackville Sports Stadium Daycamp… Another camp near and dear to my heart! I started volunteering for camp at 13, worked ages 16 & 17, and of course was a camper age 5-10. Not sure the details on the one yet, but sometime in June!

It is so nice being involved with camps long after I've gone, nice to know there is always a connection.

And just because today kind of a cloudy, glum day…

… It's always a beautiful day at Sherbrooke Lake!

Feeling Spicy

One thing I hate about cooking is that my spices are totally unorganized... So much so that I'm always buying duplicates because I have no idea what I need!

I bought the cutest little jelly jars today to help organize it all!!

Look how cute they turned out!!

The bag of spices didn't quite fit into a jar, so I still have lots of leftovers... But now they all fit in one ziplock and I can stash them away for refills :)

I've been smokin' pot

That's right. I said it. I was totally smokin' up tonight.

LOL!!!!!!

Allow me to recap: I was having a lovely (but busy) evening with Morgan, trying to get dinner ready and keep her occupied by feeding her in intervals. I totally suck at preparing food to be ready at the same time… I had apples and sweet potatoes in the steamer while she munched on a chicken breast. After I took the apples out I didn't even check how much water was left below for the sweet potatoes to continue cooking. I didn't even think to check EVEN THOUGH I could smell burning. I even went so far as to walk through the house to find out why my house smelled like S M O K E !!

And so tonight... I'm a total burn-out :)

(Check out those burn bubbles, I really did a number on it, eh?)

Cake Order: Baptism Cake

Back in the fall of 2011 our church had a "Time and Talent" auction. I offered myself to make a cake and it was purchased by a lovely family who wanted the cake for their daughter's 3rd birthday. The special part of this story is that this girl had just been adopted from China and this was her very first birthday party/cake! This is the cake I made then:

The mom asked me to make a cake for tomorrow to celebrate this lovely little girl's baptism. I was happy to do it! I don't often sell cakes, because it's a LOT of time and work, but I am glad to have accepted this opportunity to bake for a happy celebration :) Here's how it turned out:

And now that it's almost midnight and the cake is safely stored in the frigde… it's off to bed I go! Goodnight :)

Today was sew busy

*Whew*

I am quite proud of myself today! Not only did I have a productive day with my sewing machine, I also managed to clean the house, run errands, and keep the baby alive and fed. Go me! LOL

I had a lovely request from Maggie to make a few outfits for Baby, Louise's baby doll! Baby was supposed to come to my house to get 'babysat' for the day so I could take her measurements and make sure everything fit okay. However, she spent the day in Maggie's car while she was at work. Poor baby.

I made her 2 dresses. Please keep in mind I have NOT attempted clothing of any type yet. I was glad Baby needed some, it was a very welcomed opportunity to learn and practice! Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to make something for one of the real children! :)

I have no idea what I did or how I did it. haha. Are you shocked? … I'm starting to see a pattern…

I did try my best to figure out the pillowcase dress based on a variety of tutorials on Pinterest. The second dress I was mostly winging it. For the gathering of the skirt I proudly remembered how to make a ruffle, as Joyce taught me back in October!

Oh yes. I forgot to mention, I had to use Teddy bears to make sure they would fit Baby, but I forgot to take pics without the bears! Oops! Maybe the bears can borrow them someday!

I also spent the day conquering my greatest fear: Binding a quilt! *Double Whew* I finally just sat down and figured it out! Well, the truth would be that each side gets a little bit better than the last. By the 4th side (or aka the LAST chance side) I think it turned out okay!

I said this on my FB already, but I think it is true: At least by he time she is old enough to notice all my sewing flaws she will hopefully be old enough to appreciate a home made quilt from her Momma! :D

Alrighty, nighty night!

Have you seen...

I'm looking for my self control, has anyone seen it?

I ate my way to the bottom of a chip bag to find it, but alas- it was not there :(



( Boy, when you stop eating junk it sure feels strange when you finally pig out! My body used to be so well conditioned for over indulgence. Now, I just feel yucky all over! )

Krinkles and Taggies

When I first re-started sewing in September 2011 I really needed to start learning all over. It had been about 10 years since I had even touched my machine!

One of my first project was a krinkle taggie blanket. It was ok, but far from perfect! I've since made one for a lot of babies: Jack, Alice, Silvia, & Morgan... Each one getting a bit better and less terrible!

Tonight I made the cutest one yet! A mini patchwork one, hope Morgan loves it!! Made %100 from scraps:
Ducks- from Jessica's project we did in high school
Daisies- from my childhood best friend Allison when we were in grade 7 family studies
Cats- from grade 8 family studies, had a pair of pj pants with them
Orange- from Michelle, she gave it to me to use as accents on an apron for Louise

Love pulling all these treasured bits and scraps out to create something new and fun!!

My Favourite Cakes

Last spring Maggie, Nana and I took a cake decorating class and it was so much fun. I really enjoyed it and have been continuing to bake/decorate cakes ever since! I had been dabbling with it for a while before we took the course, but now that I have a *few* real techniques its even more fun! In fact, when I look back at my first few cakes it's a bit embarrassing! No, not really embarrassing... but I definitely have improved!

I'm a beginner. There's no denying that! I have, however, been asked to make a few cakes for various occasions in the coming spring/summer months. Actually, I have 2 wedding cakes to make. That's a bit more stressful and I might have to do some practice cakes! Mmmm… practice cakes, the best kind because they need to be eaten… mmmm…

… Okay, so one of the reasons I like to make funky shaped cakes is because someone has to eat the scraps…

This post isn't about new cakes, but I thought I'd make a post about my top 5 favourite cakes yet!

Louise's 2nd Birthday: I learned how to make these beautiful buttercream roses. Is this not the most lovely floral cake for a 2 year old? No need to fight over who gets the flower on this cake! :)

Morgan's Baptism Cake: This one was inspired by a cake I saw on Pinterest. No, it didn't turn out how I wanted it to, but yes, it turned out just lovely either way!

Kiera's 1st Birthday: Some friends asked me to bake this for their little girl's party. This one was fun, they asked for duck theme and this is what I came up with. Caution: Don't eat in the tub!

Grammie's 75th Surprise Birthday Party Cake: I think this one may actually be my #1 favourite yet! I love making things for special people in my life, and she would also be at the top of that list too! I think this one was a big hit at the party, because it also had so much icing, and lets face it… butter + icing sugar = DELICIOUS

Louise and Silvia's Baptism Cake: It certainly isn't perfect (as if any of them are, haha) but I had fun learning to work with fondant. Had to do a lot of practicing for this one! Maggie helped too, she was a saviour!

I'm sure I will look back through my photos and feel bad for the cakes I didn't choose as my top 5 favs :( Sometimes I can really relate to Jillian Jigs who loved all her pigs… I love all my cakes equally, because they are interesting to make. And really, what could be better than if your favourite hobby is also your favourite food?

Just a Bunch of Softies...

Well, soft on the bum that is!!!! It's been an interesting week here for us as a family, we have decided to make a big switch to using cloth diapers!

I have been researching for quite a while now to see what kind I want and have been asking all the fellow CDing mammas I know a million questions! I'm quite pleased so far. We have gone with Fuzzibunz and BumGenius. I don't know yet which I prefer because they are both wonderful :)

Look how pretty they are:

No, I didn't just switch because they are cute… it's just an added bonus…

* * * P.S. * * *

I'd like to note that I use the term "research" much more freely than I used to… Funny how my standards have changed from reading scholarly articles for hours in the MSVU library to simply reading up on Babycenter! haha