Birthday Time!

It was birthday time around here this past weekend. Little Toddler Man and I celebrated another year older on Friday. I suppose being four years old, means he's not really a toddler anymore, is he? Maybe he hasn't been for awhile and I've just been clinging to the idea that he's still little...

I thought I'd share some pictures of the fun with you!

I made the now traditional annual birthday crown. Little Man is thoroughly obsessed with dinosaurs right now, so it seemed fitting his crown be dino related. Volcanoes and lava are also very important apparently so I thought I'd incorporate that too. I was quite happy with the result, as was he!

Rawr! 

Volcanoes and Lava!!

On Friday night we had a small gathering with a few people that weren't going to be able to make it out for the party the next day. Little Man was excited to open some presents and have some cake, but it was a late night and the birthday boy ended up pretty tuckered out by the end of the evening.

Whoot! Dinos!!

The Birthday Boy and his big sister G!

Birthday Snuggles from Aunty G!

The next morning J and his girlfriend arrived early in the day (thank goodness!!) and jumped right into helping prepare for the party! They also pitched in to help decorate the cake that was a volcano made from a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of homemade strawberry ice cream, a layer of homemade chocolate ice cream, which was all covered with chocolate buttercream and then covered in clodhoppers candies. Strawberry sauce stood in as lava and sparklers, candles and plastic dinos completed the cake that Little Man has been planning since about February.

Team Work!

Sparklers in my face - not sure I like that much...

Ready to blow out his candles!

All in all it was a good birthday weekend, which (BF)G, Baby Boy, Little Man and I finished off with a trip to the beach on Sunday afternoon!

Fun on the beach!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Inspired by Soulemama's {this moment}

" A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

In the busy hustle, bustle of life, this notion of a photo capturing a moment to pause and savor really appeals to me.

I haven't done this in so very long, but the little boys have had some amazing adventures this week. Instead of a single picture here is a whole series capturing our fun this week.

Moments To Remember - June 18 - 20, 2013

Happy Easter!

The little boys and I have been having some Easter fun and craftiness here!

Excited that the older kids were all going to be home this weekend, the boys decided we should do something special. So in preparation the other day they helped bake some cupcakes. We channelled our inner Martha Stewart... Ok, actually we just used her recipe for yellow cupcakes. I've been in search of a good one and this is definitely good.

Wearing bunny ears is apparently vital to cupcake baking success...

We froze the cupcakes and I took them out and decorated them Saturday afternoon while the boys were out with Daddy. Two key points in decorating: 1)frozen is a darn sight easier to decorate than barely cool from the oven and 2)decorating sans toddler help is a darn sight easier than with toddler help. I was pretty impressed with my efforts given I usually end up frustrated, covered in icing and staring at something that resembles nothing I pictured in my head. I'm calling this endeavour a success for sure!

Bunnies and Butterflies Oh My!

The other thing the boys had fun doing preparing for THE VISIT was to make "Easter Bags" for J and N and their girlfriends and G and her boyfriend. We shopped for treats earlier in the week then worked on the bags on Friday. I made a simple template then cut out the shapes. LTM tried some cutting, but then somehow lost interest in cutting paper and started cutting his pajama pants instead (toddlers... I will never understand them.) so I took over cutting and let the boys be in charge of assembly. I think they turned out rather cute. They even have cotton ball tails on the back of the bag. I love that each bag is unique.

Six little bunny bags all ready to go!

Our final bit of fun was to make bunny puppets! Using the same simple template I'd made for our bags, I cut out a set of shapes for each of the boys. Instead of gluing them to bags we used large craft sticks. They had a lot of fun putting them together and drawing the little details on the faces. Once the glue all dried the little puppets proved to be a lot of fun for playing with too!

Playing with bunny!

Bunny goes hop hop hop!

Lots of fun! Next up is waffles for brunch then start preparing for a big turkey dinner feast for tonight! I hope all of you have a wonderful day with your loved ones. Happy Easter from our home to yours!

Some Little "Hotshots"

When I started knitting Baby Boy's Greyson in February Little Toddler Man had some serious sweater envy. So I did what any self respecting knitter would do and leapt at the chance for another project. I showed LTM a few choices and he chose Hotshot by Julia Stanfield (she designed Greyson as well!). His only stipulation was it needed to be green.

I had a few other obligations that needed finishing up first, plus a trip to the LYS in the city was required for the yarn for LTM's sweater. He waited, somewhat impatiently, imploring hopefully every time he saw me pull out my knitting bag,"Is that for my new sweater?" then would look crestfallen upon realization that no, it wasn't for his sweater.

Finally the day came that we were going to the city. A quick jaunt over to the lys and I had a very happy boy on my hands! Knitting went really quick, as always with Julia Stanfield's patterns, it was well written and easy to follow. The sweater was done in a little over a week. Big Boy Dolly's in a day. Which apparently wasn't fast enough for LTM as he would sidle past his sweater and mutter, "Looks done to me..." despite the fact I still had needles attached.

"Looks done to me..."

I finally gave in and let him wear it before beginning the hood. Oh happy day. He was thrilled!!

Happy as a clam in his almost finished sweater!

I actually wasn't sure I was going to get his sweater back to knit the hood, but I managed to snag it away that night and start on the hood. In my haste I made an error in my stitch count, then didn't bother with the decreases because of the mistake, then in all my wisdom added an inch in height. Oi! It's a rather large hood. I may rip it back a few inches, put those decreases in and make it a bit smaller, although I've been informed by a certain 3 1/2 year old he likes it just the way it is thank you.

Little Toddler Man and his doll's sweater were a great project for not adding to my stash. Out of two skeins of Berroco Vintage and one skein of Berroco Vintage Colors I had less than five inches of the Berroco Vintage Color left and only the trimmings off of the ends following weaving in for the green Berroco Vintage. Not bad if you ask me!!! (although somewhat hard on the nerves playing yardage chicken like that!)

Cool little man rocking his hooded hotshot!

Big Boy Dolly likes his too!

Once I was finished with Little Toddler Man's I moved onto Baby Boy and Baby Dolly's sweaters. I was using old stash yarn for the main colour. I do love a good stash buster and this one fit the bill. It used up the last superwash wool that I'd bought back in 1996! It was originally bought for a (yikes!!) cropped cardigan with an all over floral pattern - kind of glad I never got around to making that particular fashion disaster for myself! I think Baby Boy's Hotshot was an infinitely better use of the yarn!

I finished it late one night long after Baby Boy had gone to bed. The next morning I was excited to try it on him and snap a few photos. Unfortunately being 2 1/2, with definite opinions on what he wants to wear at a particular moment led Baby Boy to be considerably less excited about it all.

Not too happy...

Baby Dolly makes it only slightly better

Thankfully his opinions change with the wind and a few days later he specifically requested his new sweater!

Little Hotshots

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Reading Soulemama's blog I was inspired by her {this moment}. She says,

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

In the busy hustle, bustle of life, this notion of a photo capturing a moment to pause and savor really appeals to me.

A Moment To Remember

November 28, 2012

Baby Dolly and Big Boy Dolly

I got a great little book for Christmas called Growing Up Sew Liberated. I highly recommend it if you have any children in your life that you want to sew for! I loved the first project I made as did the boys. Remember the play tent I made early in the new year?

This tent has logged a lot of playtime since the picture was taken!

My next project from the book is Little Amigo, a Waldorf style doll. Baby Boy loves babies, so I thought he might like to have a baby of his own. Every time he saw the picture in the book he'd squeal, "Baby Dolly!!". So I started researching sources for fabric, tubing and stuffing. Ordering from a few different places helped cut my costs considerably!

All my supplies - Ready to go!

All my supplies arrived in good time, so I set to work, feeling a bit like a fish out of water, but enthusiastic about my new endeavor! I ended up confused by about step two. That wool stuffing refused to become a ball of any sort let alone a firm one to form the core of the head. Frustrated, I began searching the Internet for guidance on head making. I finally got to a fabulous tutorial on the Moonchild Dolls site. After reading through Berrie's tutorial it suddenly all clicked. Head making began in earnest!

We have a head!

Several attempts later I had a head that I was happy with. (We won't discuss how many attempts embroidering the mouth took. Let's just say it's not as easy as it's single solitary stitch looks! Gah!)

And a face!

Once the head was done the rest went pretty smoothly. Only a minor set back with some overstuffed linebacker-esque shoulders that was easily solved by unstuffing some, and Baby Dolly was done. I modified the clothes pattern from the book, and followed Sew Liberated's tutorial for a braided cap for the hair. Baby Boy loves his Baby Dolly.

Almost done!

Getting closer!

.

Done!!!!!

Before tackling hair for Baby Dolly though I started work on Little Toddler Man's doll, which he tells me is not a baby, but a big boy doll, just like him. It was a pretty smooth process. For his I followed a great set of pictorial instructions for a crocheted cap. I was well pleased with myself given crochet generally confuses the heck out of me! Only problem is now I'm hooked (pardon the pun), and want to crochet all things...

Dark blue eyes for my dark blue-eyed boy

So close to being done!

Look! Crochet!!!

Little Toddler Man's doll is done!

Anyways, to wrap up, this was possibly one of the most rewarding projects I've done in a long time. To see how the boys love them makes every bit of effort that much more worth it! I especially felt it the day they both had to have their dolls sit in chairs beside them at supper so they could pretend to give the dolls supper. Or when they each take a hand of one of the dolls and "walk" it from one room to the next. Or when Baby Boy saunters through the house giving Baby Dolly a ride on his shoulders. What a fun project it's been!

Two little boys loving their bald dolls

Brother dolls done!!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Reading Soulemama's blog I was inspired by her {this moment}. She says,

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

In the busy hustle, bustle of life, this notion of a photo capturing a moment to pause and savor really appeals to me.

A Moment To Remember

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Reading Soulemama's blog I was inspired by her {this moment}. She says,

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

In the busy hustle, bustle of life, this notion of a photo capturing a moment to pause and savor really appeals to me.

A Moment To Remember

It's All About Sewing These Days

First up I should mention the amendment to my blog name. When I started out it was all about knitting. I, of course, was sewing, cooking and baking back then too, but just didn't really talk about it too much. It feels silly to have a title proclaiming knitting when lately I write more about other things. So thus the wee amendment. ;)

So... Or sew as the case may be... I've been sewing up a storm over the last week or two. It all started out with, you guessed it! Some diapers! We had a minor incident awhile ago in which an innocent dog was briefly blamed for a nasty mess on the dining room floor that is until it quickly became obvious that the wee boy pointing in horror at the mess, saying "Doggy poop" over and over was in fact unaware the mess had come from him and the diaper he'd managed to undo (while still fully clothed - it's a rare talent I know...). Anyways enough rambling. I decided at that moment all Velcro close diapers were to be banished to the deep, dark depths of the closet and from that moment on only snap close diapers would be used (which incidentally the naked little streak that just ran past makes me suspect snaps might not be 100% toddler proof either.)

To make my long story short suddenly our diaper stash was a bit skimpy without the offending Velcro closing ones, so I made a couple of my usual pocket diapers.

It's been super duper hot here lately and with no a/c in our house the boys needed some really light weight pjs. The first pair are the summer installment of daddy/son matching jammies I think (BF)G would most likely disown me if I posted a pic of him in his jammies and the boys didn't feel like cooperating so you get an unmodelled pic (with LTM's "Douglas" horse that he said really needed to be in the picture) The bottoms were made from fabric I bought about 15 years ago and the boys tops are cut from a $5 size 2XL tee from Walmart (way cheaper than buying a half metre of knit at my local fabric store!)

The second pair bottoms are from fabric that (BF)G's niece had in her stash and didn't need anymore, LTM's top made from an old too short to be decent tee of mine with an appliqué accent and Baby Boy's from stash fabric with a freezer paper stenciled accent. I think they turned out pretty cute and I love using up odds and ends!

I also am part way through a blouse for me, and have two pretty new fabrics begging to be made into something for me all me! The orange floral wants to be a Collette Pattern's Sorbetto Top and the red polka dot is destined to be Sew Weekly's MTL Day After Day Dress. Many thanks to my Mom for the birthday money that resulted in this fabric buying spree!

I've also amassed all my supplies to make my baby crazy Baby Boy a Waldorf inspired doll. I may be crazy. I was confused by step two of making the head...

I guess it hasn't been all about sewing. I've done some knitting too. I finally frogged back a few rows on the Clapotis I started back on January of 2010, figured out where I am and replaced all the stitch markers that were removed by a small boy pulling the needle out (about a year ago!). As well I am working on a secret project for Christmas. Look at me so ahead of the game! Ha ha!

Enough of my musings... The little ones are getting restless! Time to get these monkeys outside to play!