Green onions

I'm baaaaack.

You probably didn't realize I was gone. Yesterday we were without power for nine hours after a crazy wind storm. We managed pretty well. Mr. Crafty Ave got to leave work and we headed into my parents town which still had power for the most part. This is the second time this has happened recently. We're going to have to put some kind of power outage plan into place. Both times the cell phones were dead and we don't have a land line phone that doesn't run off electricity. Also we'll be needing some jugs of water since the well pump requires electricity. That means no tap water or toilet flushing which is an issue with a potty trained two year old who has to go every two hours.

See what's been growing in my house lately? (Besides Loo who's growing out of all those fancy/crazy/party pants I made him a couple months ago.) Green onions!

Did you know that after you cut your green onions all you have to do is put the ends (which have those nifty white roots) right into a jar of water and within days you'll have more to eat? I've been doing it a few weeks and we've already had a few "harvests". I plan to put some in the garden and plant some in a pot to grow inside year long.

I might never buy a green onion again.

At the farm

I love having a farm in the family. It's the best place to take pictures, such pretty backgrounds. Since I suck and haven't decided yet that I'm comfortable showing my kids faces on the net here's just a peak at our Easter on the farm.

Loo and Mr. Crafty Ave searching for eggs. Some how this twosome managed to collect more eggs than Loo's three older cousins. The joke was on us though as we realized how much chocolate Loo got to take home.

And my little Beri pie in one of the two dresses I've ever bought her full price from a real (not second hand) store. Gosh she's cute. The dress still fits her from Christmas and I'm definitely going to kept it forever and ever.

Also while you're taking a break from your day and spending time here in blog land you should check out this giveaway on one of my favourite blogs. Gorgeous, I like the house and trees. Wait a minute maybe you shouldn't cause if you win I'm gonna be real jealous...

Smelly stuff

I've been thinking. I'm trying to get myself and our family using healthier products. I was at a yoga class a few years ago and the teacher was talking about skin and beauty products and the chemicals we put on our skin and our children's and I haven't been able to get that thought out of my head. Since then I've been moving us gradually onto more natural and organic skin care products.

So now I'm going to talk about deodorant. It's okay if you feel the need to stop reading...

Still here? I've been using JASON deodorant for the past couple years and have been very happy with it but now that I'm almost out I'm wondering if now it the time to take the plunge into making my own? I remember reading this post by Amy Karol on Angry Chicken years ago and thinking, yup that's lollipops all right, I would never do that. Now, I really want to try...

 source

I've been reading up and there's lots of different recipes. You can even just apply baking soda and that might do the trick. I kinda love the look of these homemade creams in tins though so I might go for that. I'm also thinking that if I get my hands on some shea and cocoa butter I might be forced to make all sorts of exciting things.

I'll be sure to give you an update if I make some. Do you make any of your own skin care products?

Crafty books & self esteem

The other day I loaded Margot, Loo and Beri into the van* to go to town to run a couple errands. As we passed the library we noticed a "book sale" sign and Margot and I looked at each other and knew we had to go in. I'm not a real thrifter. I feel sometimes like I should be and when I do I enjoy it but my outings are few and far between. This book sale reminded me of the great treasures you can find out there.

Block Printing (1974). This book really got my creative juices flowing. I was hooked by the first line "This is an unusual book by an unusual author" and could barely put it down. I can't wait to try creating my own fabric for a project.

Next I picked up three books (1973) on sewing techniques. The Internet taught me to sew. I have a lot of respect for the Internet and it's taught me a lot but it's not the same as reading a book. These books are packed with information on reading patterns, adjusting them, sewing tricks, tools, techniques, how to sew a zipper (still scared!), things I'd never heard of (facings) even an introduction to hand embroidery.

Lots of pretty pictures.

A wealth of information for my crafty little brain to soak up.

Then I turned to this page.

Chubbies?

What the what?

Oh, I see.

Thankfully it's from 1974 so I'm guessing they don't still sell Chubbie patterns but still! Ladies why do we do this to ourselves our children? It gave me a bit of a chuckle and a big reminder of how important my job is to foster a fantastic self esteem in my little Beri. Not only to teach her to feel good about herself but to remember that she is listening every time I make those bad comments about myself.

* Mr. Crafty Ave and I   *L O V E*  our mini-van. I don't know why the world seems to be so against them but I can remember in the early years we were both looking forward to the day when we could fill our mini-van up with kidlets! We love it and it's cool, so there.

A very happy Easter

I meant to post this earlier but here's my better late than never Happy Easter wishes, or happy Sunday if you're not celebrating.

Things to be thankful for? Food and family. Three days worth of family and food. I'm stuffed and happy and exhausted. Time for a relaxing evening. Regular things to be thankful for will return next week.

Hope you had a great day!

Chocolate treats that will break your teeth

I saw these no bake treats on Prudent Baby the other day. I got all the ingredients and whipped them up  yesterday. Aren't they cute? Don't they look good? Well let me tell you a story.

 Turns out that these noodles

are not the same thing as "crispy chow mein noodles".

They might  look similar.

They might be the only chow mein noodles you see in your grocery store.

They are not the same thing.

You'll find this out when you bite into a chocolate treat that tastes like chocolate covered raw spaghetti noodles. Mr. Crafty Ave and I did some further investigating and learned that you're supposed to cook Norman Sue Chow Mein noodles in boiling water and add them to your Chinese stir fry.

Mr. Crafty Ave then suggested we cook them and then cover them in chocolate. I'm pretty sure that soggy noodles covered in chocolate might be the one thing worse than uncooked noodles covered in chocolate. So we picked all the mini eggs off them and threw all the chocolate nests out.

They sure looked good though didn't they?

Luckily Loo was napping during the entire ordeal or else there would have been a lot less laughing and a whole lot of tears as we chucked our chocolate. I kind of think it's hilarious, they gave us a good laugh, a funny story to tell and now I've got an awesome treat to make next Easter...

Eggs!

Can you be in love with eggs? I think I might be. I've had these rubber cement dyed eggs on my to do list for awhile. I got around to them yesterday and I love them. Keep in mind you can't eat them if you try this. Not a problem here since I forgot to boil them first which made for some very careful handling while I took pictures of them. Blarney was running back and forth and dropping his ball on the porch making me just about lose my mind.

 

I really like how you can see all the brush strokes from applying the rubber cement. That might be my favourite part.

I also let Loo do some of the traditional draw on the eggs with crayon and drop them in the cups of dye. It was lots of fun but a very anxiety rich craft with unboiled eggs and dye splashing everywhere. Some foresight and planning might have made it a wee bit easier.

If this is all too pretty for you don't fret, I've got another Easter project that crashed and burnt that I'm going to share with you later today.

Overnight oatmeal

Right right. Back to this whole food thing. I'm still trying to get the whole family eating better. We've had some successes, little Loo eating raw spinach leaves and roaring like a dinosaur and some failures like me drinking Coca Cola for breakfast instead of my planned on green smoothie because the blender was dirty. Anyhoo I'm still trying hard to break my two coffee's for breakfast routine.

Here's what I've been enjoying lately.

Mmmm. Overnight oatmeal, who knew? Simple to make and super delicious. Here's my favourite recipe so far which I adapted from this one on Oh She Glows. You can visit there for tons of other variations including some summer oatmeal parfaits.

• 1/3 cup oatmeal
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 sliced banana
• 2 tbsp ground chia seeds
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix it all together at night then put it in the fridge. In the morning eat cold or warm up and add a drizzle of maple syrup. Delicious!

The best and worst part is that you have to make it the night before. As long as I remember to take the three minutes to mix it up at night, my breakfast is ready when I wake up. An almost foolproof way to make sure I eat in the morning.

Yummy!

Five years ago

That's mommy and daddy outside.

They were in the jungle.

Mom put on a new dress.

Daddy said "Let's be a family."

That picture is in our dining room and that's the story Loo told me about it last week.

Five years ago! Happy Anniversary Mr. Crafty Ave!

It's date night, as in our first date since Miss Beri was born. Woot woot!!!

We're pretty sure we're married, it was all in Spanish. Cuba wedding vows are a little weird. Like how they said we "should live together but it isn't necessary". Hee hee hee.

Tunic

Here's my Lil Blue Boo Tunic. I got a little sneak peak of the pattern on the weekend before it went on sale. It was pretty exciting and took just a few hours from start to finish. It's made of recycled shirts (of course!) And if it ever gets warm enough I might be able to wear it.  Seriously mother nature, it's the middle of April do we really need snow and freezing rain?

Did I mention I loved this pattern? I think I'm going to alter it to to make myself some summer tank tops as well. The grey striped fabric is an old Gap t shirt and I added the grey ribbing to the neck and arms and really like how it turned out.  I love how well written tutorials and patterns keep amazing me by cranking out clothing that I never thought I could make.

What is a tunic? Is it a shirt or a dress? As much as I like it I am 100% sure of the fact that I cannot and will not be wearing this without pants.

Yes those are towel racks on the back of our bedroom doors. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Critters in my cupboards

I think these two are going to be big trouble one day. They're already working as a mischievous brother-sister team....

Success!

Conversations with a two (and a half) year old

Mr. Crafty Ave:      I'm losing my voice.
Loo:                       That's OK. I will get my tools and fix it.

Loo:                       I'm the mailman.
Me:                        Do you have letters for me?
Loo:                       Yup. Here's your favourite letters, E, F and G!
                              (He handed me 3 rocks.)

Loo:                       I'm a pineapple.
Me:                        You're a pineapple?
Loo:                       No I'm not. You can't cut me up.

Me:                        Loo can you go talk to Beri cause she's crying?
Loo:                       It's OK Beri. There's no monsters you don't have to cry about it.


Beri do you want to smell them with me? We are like butterflies!
(Loo and Beri smelling flowers.)

I don't want raindrops.
(During the pink eye fiasco earlier this month. Raindrops = eye drops.)

That baby bunting is crying. Baby bunting you go to sleep.
(Talking to Beri.)

Mom I'm running around with this bean.

Mmmm Beri pancakes. I will eat you. Yum Yum.

I like spinach too. I'm a good little spinach.

That one's scary, he says roar. He's a dragon bug.
(Actually it was a dragonfly.)

Oh I am good looking!

Mom! Don't sing!

I'm rolling my eyeballs at you.
(I'm sure I deserved it.)

Upcycled dresses for a friend

Remember that sneak peak from a few weeks ago? Well I made a couple dresses and a hoodie and they've been mailed and received so now I can share them here. To recap a friend mailed me a bunch of her old shirts to work with and I decided to make her two year old daughter a couple things to say thanks.

First up, a dress. Totally cute since I remember my friend wearing this frog shirt back when I first met her over ten* years ago. I used the Sienna dress pattern from Lil Blue Boo.

Second, a Lil Blue Boo hoodie. I love this pattern and they come out so cute and comfy. Loo loves both of his (here and here) and chooses them out of his shirt drawer all the time.

And then I made another simple shirt dress using this pink striped shirt I found at the dollar store.

Sorry the pictures are horrible but I still wanted to share. That's what happens when you rush to take pictures of things then mail them away before reviewing the pictures. They would have looked way cuter on a two year old but since there were dresses involved and I don't have a two year old girl model the bed had to do for our photos. Of course I did try them on Loo to make sure they fit and even though I don't post his face in pictures Mr. Crafty Ave forbid me I decided not to take pictures which would embarrass him years down the road.

Speaking of Lil Blue Boo, I'll show you the Pieced Tunic that I mentioned yesterday later this week. Hope your Monday if fun and your lawn is green unlike our snowy morning here, weird!


* I started University over ten years ago? That can't be right can it, now I feel old...

Things to be thankful for

Another weekend, another family dinner. I love them!

Sewing during nap time and being able to hear the wind and rain.

Being online at the exact time Ashley from Lil Blue Boo put a call out for pattern testers for her Pieced Tunic pattern. That's what I sewed this morning/ am wearing right now!

That little tuft of hair that always sticks out.

Baking cupcakes with Loo on Friday night and making a special one for Blarney's birthday and singing Happy Birthday to him.

Printing pictures of friends (I take so many pic's but rarely go get them printed!) Loo was excited to look at them and name all his baby friends.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge. I'm so up for that!

Loo and Beri both having a tantrum while we were shopping today, and it didn't phase me at all. I just held Loo and hugged him while he screamed his little head off. I remember when I first became a mom I was terrified of him crying in public.

The drape cardigan I finished for me yesterday.

Rae's Spring Top Sewalong.

Taking the family to the local pool for some swimming in the heated pool.

Waiting in the van when we got home (kids sleeping) to hear the end of a good song on the radio.

Loo telling everyone who will listen that he's two and a half.

Hope you're having a great weekend with lots to be thankful for.

 

30 months

So Lewis, this is what you're up to now that you're 30 months old...

• You talk in the third person. "Can Loo have a donut?"
• You are off the toilet and back on the potty. It was good while it lasted.
• I gave you your third haircut. They keep getting better and I'm convinced by the time your old enough that it matters I'll have it figured out.
• You like to watch Corner Gas with your dad at night. You're pretty serious about it and pay attention. You also like Road to Avonlea. (Go Canada!)
• You've decided the words 'poo' and 'bum' are funny. You say"Blarney-poo-poo" or anything else with one of those words tagged on the end and then go into hysterical giggle fits.
• You like to eat whole bananas. You say you're a monkey. Last night in the grocery store you were eating one and making monkey noises.
• You eat oatmeal again. It took you a few weeks after I replaced instant oatmeal with the real stuff.
• Your dad lets you walk around the grocery store. It gives me heart palpitations. Last night he said you almost started eating a peach you found in the produce section.
• Your new favourite song is Fishing in the Dark. We've been listening to it constantly the past few days and you're this close to knowing the words.
• You like to wear leg warmers on your arms.

YOU'RE TWO AND A HALF ! ! !

ps. Happy 5th Birthday Blarney!

pps. 5 years ago today Mr. Crafty Ave and I headed to Cuba an unmarried couple...