Category Archives: holidays

Silly Daddy

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I have been trying to catch up on things here desperately before getting into the portrait season – I have been experiencing some serious photo biz withdrawal over the winter! In looking at images to put into X’s Baby Journal of the first three years (I know, I am soooo behind!), I came across this shot of Steve from June 0f 2009 when I was testing out my new Canon 70-200 2.8 IS lens. Sweet Love! The boy, that is….and the lens!!!

Found this one of L.

And X…

And, I am now trying to find a pic of Xman for his third birthday. I know it must be around here somewhere. I did, however find this one of Steve when we had the boys’ Halloween birthday party of 2010. Gary, this one is for you:

 

Valentine’s Day craftiness and inspirations

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I decided this time around we would make some Valentine crafts and I went to some blogs for inspiration. Oh, too much inspiration! But, I narrowed the ideas down to just a few and we had a great time making things! These hearts were fun to make and easy! I just used some scrapbook paper cut into hearts. Then the boys had fun punching a hole in each and hanging on the branches. If you are feeling crafty you must check out Little Birdie Secrets! I made this banner (finally!) after seeing it on the Simple as That blog. I chose some well-known love poems and then cut the letters out of the same paper I used for the heart tree. I let the boys glue them on to the poems and we strung them up together. And yes, I kind of copied the picture style from the blog with my iPhone. That’s flattery, right??? I had ready Sandy’s Circus with the boys and we were inspired to make our own mobile, with hearts, of course! It’s an ode to the inventor of the mobile, Mr Alexander Calder. The boys had a great time making the hearts and figuring out how to create the mobile so that it was balanced sufficiently. L drew a schematic on paper for me and I cut the string accordingly. He may be a good engineer someday – (or Lego Creator)! When I came across these super kewl cards I just couldn’t help but try them out myself. So so easy and fun! Don’t be surprised if you see one in your mailbox sometime! This one was for Steve. I put a quote on the inside: “When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.” William Shakespeare. Perfect. We got the boys just a bit of chocolate and Pez. The Lego tags I found from Eighteen25. Yet again, awesome site. L and X did their own drawings of Mommy and Daddy too! L’s drawings… X’s drawings…   All in all we had a great time being crafty. I loved having the boys so interested in helping out and making the house full of heart-love! I think we may have to keep the banner and heart tree around all year! xo

Christmas portrait…

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We just took this picture today. Usually, we take the pic on Christmas day every year but somehow didn’t manage it this time around. Now, it’s time to take the decorations down! Yay, in a way, because we get our living room back. 🙂

The house is back in order (yay) which means a full schedule of lessons begins next week. It’s easier when the bookshelves are in place and books are easily available. The boys had a challenge today as they played chess against other kids at the library while I went to yoga with a friend. Steve lost to the provincial champ. He is 10. Smart kids! Okay, Steve has only played a few times and I have never. After dinner L and I played a game of checkers (L wanted to play chess but it would have been a short game) while Steve and X played Battleship. See pic below: Let’s just say, L’s pieces are the yellow ones. Oh, and X sank all off Daddy’s battleships! Kids these days! 🙂

 

This afternoon Catherine and I went to yoga and did 108 Sun Salutations with about 50 other wonderful people. It took two hours to get through all 108. One sun salutation set includes about 8 to 10 postures. Multiply that by 108 and that’s a tired but satisfied girl! Dont’ know if I’ll be able to lift my arms tomorrow…totally worth it!

~namaste~

 

 [UPDATE] Conner wasn’t 10. He was 12. Sheesh! Give me some credit. 😛

-stephen

Getting things done – and catching up…

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Yesterday was a very productive day and I even found some time to relax. It’s a new way I have of doing things. First, I admit to the fact that as much as I hate being a stickler and anal, being anal about scheduling can be a good thing. Maybe anal isn’t the right word here. I am not stressing if I don’t get through the schedule, but I am adding less to the schedule and including time for me. I don’t try to deviate too much and so far, it’s worked!

The boys and I did the Yoga Kids video when we came downstairs in the morning. (We’ve done various yoga dvd’s three days in a row now! Yipee!) Then had breakfast and I made some GF banana chocolate chip muffins. Then some of this awesome Historic Grains GF bread. I thought I’d give it a try using my hands like many wonderful women before me who didn’t have the luxury of a Kitchen-Aid mixer, mind you it was at least a little tempting to pick one up when they were $200 off during the holidays. Instead of using the mixer for four minutes to heat up the yeast and make sure all ingredients are well combined, I put four minutes on the microwave timer, have a seat and mix with my hand. Ouch. Pretty tough labour there but well worth it. The taste is well worth the work!

Steve came home with a migraine early afternoon for which I do not envy him at all. So, while he chilled with the boys, I went on to other things on my list. Mind you, the rest of the list came after the boys had finished their lessons for the day, including some fun grammar involving acting out the poem Dancing by Eleanor Farjeon. What does this have to do with grammar. Verbs, of course! Gotta love school!

Okay, on with the list. I managed to fix X’s new Pidove. He is a Pokemon that X picked out as part of his using a gift card from Nanna and Pappa. Then, I mended the seam on a stuffed snake he got a while ago when we went to a reptile place, ah the right word escapes me for that place, but it was while we were visiting Nanna and Pappa two years ago. The seam split probably about a year ago.

I’m getting better at this mending thing though as the last piece of the pile was the bottoms to X’s new pj’s. Each Christmas eve the boys get new pj’s and Xman’s bottoms were stupid-huge in the waist. Totally too big. But, he loved them and the top fit perfectly. Go figure. So, I fixed the bottoms. I had to pull out a lot of the waist band and in making it smaller, had to make the back/bum seam smaller, too. I have never done this type of surgery and was hoping that the elastic around the waist wasn’t sewn into the waistband but it was. That’s okay. I got to use the serger setting on my new sewing machine! I am in love with my sewing machine in the way anyone who loves sewing can be and can’t wait to do more! I bought it used on Kijiji months ago because the one I have weighs a ton, more like 30 lbs at least and if I dropped it I’d easily crush my foot. Easily, pinky swear. And that freaked me out a bit. So, I got the new machine from a wonderful older lady who purchased the machine, used it once, and then realized it was more than she needed. Thank you Kijiji. And, it only took me two months to finally sit down and use it which is way better than the history of my serger, which never left the box. Steve, don’t say a thing. 🙂 I eventually sold the serger to a textiles student at the art college who was thrilled to take it off my hands for half of what I paid. No kidding.

Not too bad a job for a first time doing this type of thing and really wanting to finish it so X could wear them to bed. I finished them as Steve got the boys into their bath. Whew!

It’s not as neat as I’d like around the waist but it won’t come apart and I barely had any material to fold over. So, I’m okay with that. 🙂

Well, goodness me! I almost forgot! I finished this too!

“What is that?” you ask. “It’s my first felted piece and I’m totally thrilled with it!”, I say. “It’s a tea cozie (duh) and felting it was easier than I expected!” It finished drying overnight and is a perfect ‘grandé soy chai latté’ fit!

I’m going to do these nests next, as X decided to take the cozie for Pidove.

Okay, that’s three posts in two days. Sweet! Now, what’s next on my list is….ah…hmmm…didn’t plan this far ahead. Apparently, there’s a hole in my scheduling planning. Gotta work on that.