Easter Shirts

There has been an unopened box of freezer paper just waiting to be used, sitting on my craft shelf, waiting patiently. This weekend I finally cracked it open and with Jamie's help, we made two easter shirts for Audra.
All I can say is, why I have not used it sooner? I now have so many ideas on what I can use it for. Some interesting clothing stencils, more clothes embellished for Audra, and the list continues on.
It is so easy to use, and Jamie has a great steady hand for cutting out, so it works out pretty well. As usual we make a great team.
These are the two shirts, post painting, and pre-peeling the freezer paper off. Both Jamie and I were dying to peel the paper off before the allotted time frame of drying, and may or may not have peeled early! lol

This is the final result. (light was really bad the day of pictures, so they are not the best quality)
Can't wait to see them on the little monkey!
And we may have dribbled some paint on the bunny shirt, so we just added some more smudges and colour and lines to match.

Easter Hat

Audra got a great little easter basket last year from her Aunt Kat. It's soft and squishy and perfect for being thrown around.
I wasn't aware that it was perfect as a hat as well. Audra has started putting it on her head and it's absolutely hilarious.

This week

Another Monday, another start to the week.
A little menu planning is in order. Have been slacking a bit and meals have not been so fantastic. It's funny, you really notice the cost of groceries go up without planning, and the sheer lack of disorganization at dinnertime drives me up the wall.

{the menu}
Monday-Taco Salad
Tuesday-homemade chicken fingers and fries
Wednesday-breakfast for dinner
Thursday-meatloaf and scalloped potatoes
Friday-jambalaya
Saturday-baked perch and rice
Sunday-meatballs of some sort/leftovers

{the crafts}
finish the fabric colour book for Audra
finish the felt food set
trace out some patterns

Very excited to have my computer back. Seems to be working well. We do have a backup disc made now, just in case. And there is always my external drive for backing up. Should be good to go now.

Peeps

I heart Peeps. Not for eating mind you, not a huge marshmallow covered in sugar fan but I love the bright Easter colours, the bunnies and chicks. They scream Easter!
So thought in addition to some Easter decorations, some Peeps needed to enter the mix.
A Peeps banner/bunting strung across our bay window. There are so many different variations of these online, took a little inspiration from Dana's Made and from Vanessa's V and Co.
How I love that window. All of our plants are so happy in it, and it gives me a great canvas to decorate.
And a wreath for our front door. I will have to change it up and put a spring one in it's place when Easter is done. I already have too many ideas, and not enough doors to put them on! lol

Audra at 15 months

Miss Audra is two days away from being 15 months. Where has the time gone? She is such a little person now, and not a baby. She is very independent and strong willed. Full of personality to say the least. She mutters and babbles and sounds like a little gremlin most of the time. She crawls with such vigor and gusto that I wonder if she is ever going to walk!
She recently had a checkup with the genetics team at MacMaster, talking to the dietitian and Dr Potter. She is doing well. She was 23lbs5oz at that weight in. I can't remember length. But that puts her into the 90th percentile for weight.
We found out that we really don't need to be giving her so much milk. Oops. So we have started cutting the bottles down. Trying to only give her milk at naps and at night. We'll get there with it. It's not a bad thing, and won't hurt her, we just need to slowly start weaning her down. She loves water so not a problem. She will stay night and hydrated.

I found this picture on the camera, and laughed my head off. This is the result of me working nights and Audra and Jamie hanging out together! So hilarious!

And why play with your kitchen when you can pull off the fridge door and sit in it? What a little Monkey! She's so cute and growing so fast. Hard to believe she was ever so teeny tiny.

Purse to match

Now if I had been smart and planned ahead, I would made all of us bridemaids a little purse/clutch for the day of the wedding. But my first version of the purse didn't work out, so I didn't have enough material to make many. But for being my first sewn purse, I think it turned out pretty nice. The blue almost matched the dress, and I kept with the theme of blue and black. It was perfect for holding a small wallet, my phone and my speech. I am sure it will come in handy again. I liked the wrist strap, although next time I would probably make it smaller.

Linda's Wedding

March 5th was my bestest's wedding, and even though it was a rainy day, it was a wonderful day. The bride looked gorgeous, all the bridesmaids in blue looked great, the groom and groomsmen in their tuxes looked handsome and my little monkey looked adorable in her little white dress.


Linda sitting with her two flower girls. All three looked amazing.
I don't have many pictures of the day, so I will have to get some more and post them. But it was a fun day for everyone.

Wreck this Journal

I found this journal and couldn't resist. It's a somewhat blank journal, with crazy instructions inside, like throw it from a high height, take it in the shower with you, and mail it to someone when done. There are some easier instructions as well, fill a page of circles, write one word over and over, and trace hands and make fingerprints. lol.
I have started filling it out, with help from Jamie of course. He has some great ideas, and it's been fun. Looking at Flickr with everyone else's crazy journals, it's amazing to see how creative everyone is. And I love how each is different and unique to everyone.

The Author, Keri Smith, posted this about the journal:
Dear Reader,
I’ve been receiving some email from “wreck this journal” users who are mentioning that they are having trouble wrecking their copies. I wanted to mention that this is in part the point of the book. That we will all come up against some kinds of blocks or impasses (some pages are harder for us than others), based on our own personal relationship with destruction and our own perfectionistic tendencies. I would like to state for their record that this is perfectly normal and expected. I myself have found there are some pages that I like to avoid, but I do know that those are the places that I probably need to visit the most. The hope is that somehow we can work through these blockages using the book, and maybe they will translate to bigger things out in the world, (or not). But in my experience usually they do. I am much less afraid of mistakes than I used to be. Time to jump in and get REALLY dirty. I know it’s scary sometimes, but you’re only here once so you better wreck as many pages (and things) as you possibly can, (otherwise how will anyone ever know you were here?). Maybe getting a bit angry will help. If it helps you can pretend to be angry at me the author for putting you through this ridiculous experience.

Snowy Days

Snowy days have come and gone but this post never got out. Some of the pictures from our snowy adventures were just too cute to not post! Audra's friend Sequoia looking out the window, waiting for us to come over and play. Too cute.


Audra all bundled up and ready to go. She seemed quite happy to be going out in the snow. Jamie doesn't look thrilled at the prospect of shoveling all that snow.

Sitting and chatting and hanging out. I love this picture, the two girls look so cute!

Jamie taking a break and pulling Audra down our front hill. She really didn't know what to make of it. Neither liked nor disliked it I think. But she was so cute doing it.

Strong Baby

The bent forks are a result of one strong baby. For some reason she has taken to bending them and thinks it's a riot! Silly monkey. Not sure why she does this. Who she learnt it from? (possibly the boys at daycare?)
We are going to need to invest in some durable, kid friendly metal forks.

Whoopie Pies

I keep seeing pictures and recipes of whoopie pies. They look so good, and finally I just couldn't resist. Had to test them out. They are similar to a little cake with cream sandwiched in the middle. A little yummy cookie. They turned out really well and I will definitely be making them again.

Gwen's Birthday

Since Audra, I won't lie, Gwen has gotten somewhat shafted. She definitely is not first priority anymore. Last year her birthday was a very low key event. So low key that we didn't even celebrate.
I thought we should change that this year.
We got her some timbits, and put party hats on, and there was a new toy to chew on. I think she had a good day!

Valentine's Cards

Made some cards for valentines, and they turned out pretty well. Used my favourite medium, felt, for some. With others I found these great print outs that I added fabric to, and there were some other cards. Added in was a very cute picture of Audra. I think back to her first valentines picture, and wow how fast a year has gone!

And the saga continues....

One of these days, I will have a fully functioning and working computer. It is currently being held hostage at Future Shop, waiting it's turn to be fixed. Here's hoping they sort through whatever bug or faulty hard drive may be wrong with it.
I really haven't put much on the new hard drive, so not a big deal to lose it again. I do have my handy dandy external for backing up now, so once it gets fixed, hopefully I will be able to resume my posts and actually get some pictures up. Audra is growing up right before my eyes. It's crazy how fast time flies.

Computer difficulties

Still having some issues with my computer. I thought getting a new hard drive would help, but not being computer savy, not sure what is wrong. I am hoping to get some of these problems resolved very soon. Makes for some frustrating blogging.
So many pictures and things I want to post, one of these days hopefully. I just want my computer to be back to somewhat normal.