20 months

My little monkey, who is not so little anymore, how are you already 20 months?
Somedays it feels like you have been with us always, other days I feel like it was only yesterday that you were so small and tiny.

You are a ball on energy that never stops! You wake up shouting mama or dada and there is quite a lot of noise that follows it. No going back to sleep for you. From those early hours to the night hours, you go full force. I won't lie, it's tiring chasing after you all day. Some days I feel like I say no, and that's mama's, and are you listening to me?, more then I should, but I wouldn't trade this time in for anything.
You are desperately trying to talk and I repeat absolutely everything a million times for you. Some words come out so well, others you struggle with, and pointing and yelling becomes your mode of communication.
You amaze your father and I so much some days. It's crazy what you pick up and do. We love seeing what is learnt and what is just part of your makeup.
You love your books, and let me tell you, that makes a mama proud! You thankfully will climb on the couch and chairs and stairs as fast as you can, but haven't had the urge to climb out of your crib. I just don't think you are ready for a bed yet. Or maybe it's us who aren't ready for you to be in a bed yet!

I love the sunglasses. Glasses is a word that doesn't come out well, but I know when you want them. You can put them on yourself and it's hilarious to watch. You laugh like a madman when you put them on Gwen's face. And poor dog just sits and takes it.

Like a true Miller/Firman, you LOVE corn on the cob. There are very few kernels left on the cob when you're done with it.
Forever the water baby, you love the pool, water splash pads, and just getting wet. It has helped to cool you off throughout this hot summer.
Baby girl, I don't want you to keep getting bigger, but whether I want it to happen or not, it's going to. So we just record these moments, try to live in the now, for it will be gone much to soon, and keep smiling. Because at the end of the day, all the screams, tantrums, and tears are erased with that tight hug and kisses before bed, and we know it will all start again tomorrow. Or at least we pray it will.
Love you my little monkey!

Row, row, row your boat

If you were driving behind this little red car the other day, this is the sight you would have seen! We got so many strange looks, points and double takes, it was hilarious!
Found this perfect good little tykes covered boat sandbox near my parents house. I made Jamie go back with my dad to see what kinda shape it was in. You never know what the "free"sign entails, and it was in great shape. A little sun faded, but the cover works and it's solid! It even came with some sand toys inside. Now we have to buy some sand, oh gracious. It's definitely on the bigger scale of sandboxes, and I think the little turtle one, holds 150 lbs, so I am a little scared to find out how much sand this one will hold.
But as we are nearing the end of summer, thank god-I have had enough of the heat!- I don't think we need to fill it to the brim. Audra is going to love it!

Layered dress

How cute is this little dress? I am in love with it and am needing to make a few more for Audra. I keep putting her in it as soon as it's out of the wash. It was so simple to make and all upcycled from previous t-shirts of mine, and a spare tank top that came to us in a bag full of goodies that our friend Sequoia had outgrown. So cost to make this dress-free!

I just cut up some shirts, pieced them together, sewing them together on the right side, as opposed to the wrong side, so the more I wash the dress, it will curl the layers on the outside. It is so soft and I imagine very cozy. Or at least I hope cozy as Audra has been in it quite a bit!

There are so many of these layered dresses out in blogland, and some crafty moms have used old onesies that maybe don't do up anymore, but the top still fits, or using long sleeved shirts and heavier material for the layers and made winter dresses. Is it wrong that I am looking through my wardrobe to see what I can make into a layer dress? lol

Birthday Skirt

I am proud to say this skirt was made by me, from scratch! No pattern, no using anyone else's ideas, all me. Just a simple little skirt that I put together for our little friend Sequoia for her birthday. It's a little big, but better to grow into it. It has an elastic waist that I fed through the flower waist fabric. The skirt is rolled and doubled and then sewn up the back. I am sure there are many skirts just like it, but this one was my take on it.
Not sure if the birthday girl liked it, but her momma did.
Also made her a banner, bunting, whatever you want to call it, for her new room. It had some great vintage fabrics, new fabrics, all put together on yellow bias tape (my favourite for such projects). If I only remembered to take a picture of it. They are triangle shaped, and cut with straight edge, scalloped edge and pinking sheared. I will have to grab a picture of it once it goes up in her new room. It is nice and long, so I am curious to see how far it goes in the room.

Pantry Cover

My house is minus a cold cellar. So my laundry room doubles as a pantry, cold cellar, and extra kitchen storage. It is usually cool, but wanted somewhere darker to put all my canned items.

I need to make curtains for all the basement windows, and found this awful (but I absolutely love the pattern and colours!) fabric. I couldn't resist it. So to make a quick and temporary solution for the shelf, I cut and measured the fabric, and then attached it to the shelf.

Voila! A perfect shelf cover to hide all the filled jars. (there are usually many more items on the shelf, this picture was taken pre-jam making. The shelf is about half full now, and there will be some fruit and veg added as well!)

Dress Pattern

Here is the first sewn by me dress, using a pattern from start to finish. Yay!!!
While taking my sewing class, this was the pattern I started and finished. It worked out really well, although my model was less then co-operative while I was trying to get some pictures of the dress. Apparently these are dress in action shots.

I even made a diaper cover to go with it. The cover came from one of my favourite sites, Dana-made-it.com. It was so easy and I love her tutorials. She has an amazing beach towel robe pattern that I have been coveting. I think I may break down and actually buy it, as Audra loves her little robe that my mom got her, and we realized that little person robes are hard to come by. So why not make her some?
I have some more pictures of the dress, minus the squirming model.


There is ruffle detail on the front and on the back, and some gathering which I really like. The armholes and top panel are all biased tape, which I think really finishes off the dress. The rest of the pictures have disappeared, but the back is zippered and sewn in pretty well if I do say so myself.
Audra has worn it a couple of times now, and I think I will definitely make her another one for next summer.

Mason Jar Dessert

These lovely little mason jars are filled with some very yummy strawberry rhubarb crisp that Jamie and I made and then I tossed in the freezer for later eating. It was a super easy recipe, although I think next time I will add more crisp. I have never thought of using the jars for much more then canning, but there are so many possibilities.
The crisp is great and we have actually had some out of the freezer, and it thawed beautifully.

Had a bunch of apples on hand too, so made some apple crisp. It was just as yummy. If I baked more pies, this would be a perfect way to always have pie filling on hand.
Thinking what other fruit I could make into crisp.