Just Breathe

Today was one of those days where absolutely nothing seemed to be going right. By the time dinner rolled around I was shattered and a little bit ready for something to send me over the edge. Anyway, I know after-the-fact you look back and think how ridiculous it was to feel so overwhelmed, but It's the silly little things adding up, like spending a whole morning driving around doing boring & unsuccessful errands, going to exchange something that isn't available at that particular location you drove the distance for, a little boy who wants to be picked up constantly but then never held (???), or the needle on your serger breaking - twice! That was after driving so far to the sewing shop to get a new needle. I guess maybe I should stockpile the needles for while I'm still learning... There is more to my story, but really none of my complaints are any more exciting than the ones already said so I won't bore you with the details.
Needless to say, this evening I wanted to do nothing but put on my jams and hit the hay, but alas, here I sit at 11:41pm telling you about my crappy day.

Once my hubby came home, we ventured out to pick out our perfect Christmas tree (which, no joke, is the most perfect tree EVER!), a little sewing project was started, a tasty dinner was made and eaten, and a nice walk over to a nearby park was had where a tree lighting took place. As my sleepy head is now desperate for a pillow to crash on I'll just leave you with a few images from my evening (which turned out to be pretty great) and encourage you, just as Twig & Toadstool has, to S-L-O-W-D-O-W-N and just breathe.

Our tree farm visit -

Would love to trek out and cut our own next time, but apparently the selection wasn't great among those this year, and we just couldn't seem to make it to the farm before 5pm all week which was the cut-off time for that adventure.


This awesome tasty Broccoli-Walnut stir-fry recipe can be found here on the blog of a good friend of mine. I took her advice and used fresh ginger, adding 1 teaspoon. I think adding a Tablespoon may be the ticket here, and I think I'll try that next time. Definitely this stir fry will see a next time!


The park near our house had a tree lighting, free hot chocolate, free baked goodies, and Christmas carol singing. Totally prefect for lifting spirits!




Hello Perfection! :)


Enjoy the awesomeness of this season and try not to be too jealous of our crazy amazing tree ;)
xo

Christmas Advent Calendars

Ah, advent calendars. Almost better than the big day itself. Almost!
They are the key to our anticipation, and the fuel for planning and progress.
Today is the Day the countdown truly begins. I suppose it can fuel anxiety as well considering now all I can think about is that the countdown has started and I have a lot I want to do!

There were times in my childhood where we had at least 3 daily advent calendars as well as the traditional Sunday advent celebration of lighting a candle and having a bible reading or other devotional. I imagine at some point there was probably even 4, if only to appease the 4 kids that all want to be the one doing the advent on Christmas Eve. It was a very big deal to be the one to velcro that little sequined star or angel to the top of the felt tree!

I inherited one advent calendar that my Aunt Sandi made for us when we were young, and we continue to use it every year. A couple felt ornaments have been lost, but new ones have been made. The occasional fix-it is required but it is in great shape for a nearly 30 year old advent. I'm not sure how old it is, but I can't remember not having it.



I bought this advent calendar at a second hand shop for 5 bucks! What a steal. It is so cute. Now that I have refastened the knob to the end of the dowel, and re-glued down any loosey goosey velcro bits, tomorrow I will choose it's home for the month - only an acceptable one day late. I have 23 days to replace the one missing ornament. A job I should think I can handle, but we'll see how much I procrastinate on this small task.





Check out these advent-related posts:
Pomegranate Chronicles for a super sweet, child friendly craft idea
An awesome cute freebie from PolkadotPrints
A lovely post on celebrating advent at Plain and Joyful Living

24 days until Christmas!!

Beachy Craft Time

Well that's me all caught up on posts that I had wanted to blog about while in the Dominican. This is the last little taste of my beach week, and it's hard to believe I was there only a few days ago... :(

A beach, the sound of the breeze in the palms, one shining sun, and a wee bit of craftiness.
Can there be a better combo?



I knew that amidst all the relaxing I would crave using that downtime for something creative, and cross stitch is just so portable (though remember, NOT airplane friendly what with the scissors and needles). I have lost at least a couple great pairs of mini scissors to the folks checking hand luggage at the airport. I think I have learned my lesson, but only time will tell...



This book is really awesome - if you dig needlework, which I do. It is packed full of super cute motifs and ideas for how to use 'em. I've just started another mini project from it, but sorry I just can't share for the sake of surprises!

A "Belly" Good Holiday

Belly enjoying a virgin bevy


Belly off for a walk


Belly having a bite of steak


Belly at the "bus stop"


Belly at the buffet


Belly with big brother


Belly at the sea

Postcards From The Dominican

From Sand and Sea, To Snow

Well I tried daily but the connection just wasn't strong enough to upload any photos, publish posts or even just save drafts of posts.

We spent the past week at a resort about 25km from Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. It went by in a flash and yesterday we went from this..



To this..





It is always so great for our little guy to have his mom AND dad 24 hours a day for an entire week. Every time we return home from a trip I really notice a difference in him with Jim back to spending his days at work. He goes through a brief period of being extra sensitive and cuddly – making sure I am always close by.
It was also so awesome for me to have all the extra round-the-clock support - and of course have Jim by my side all day each day.

It took us a couple days to adjust to holiday time in which we still have the responsibilities of home with our little one - as it does.
He didn't go to sleep until well after midnight for the first two nights. We always seem to pass through a time of trial where we need to let go of our expectations of home, relax, and just go with the flow.
We did finally reach that space and enjoyed our days lounging on the beach immensely.

The staff were so amazing throughout the resort. We had 24 hour room service which rocked! We never order room service because it is always so pricey, but just another one of the benefits of a resort - no need to worry about money once you've paid for the trip.
Levi had a little accident on our bed one of the nights and we requested clean sheets. We felt guiltily like maybe they thought we were unhappy with our room, as two women came quickly over at 10pm and spent 20 minutes not only replacing the sheets, but putting up balloons and curling the piles of ribbons attached. I think the more excited Levi was by the balloons, the more the women wanted to put up which may be why, by the time they left, every corner had been decorated.

One night was spent laying awake (for freakin' AGES) to the sound of our clearly childless (at least while travelling) neighbour's making a ruckus with their headboard. Yikes! Like I need anything to add to my tiredness...
There are a lot of little reminders to the differences in travel with a young one at an all-inclusive resort. The beautiful thing is, mostly they bring relief. Like when you realize you are not the one being sick in the bushes outside your room, and no that was not you being carried out of the sea from an overdose on rum punch and sunshine.

We spent so much time in the lobby where so many people seemed to congregate and Levi loved watching the other little kids. He is such an affectionate, social little guy - though I feel some kids are a little overwhelmed by his aggressive need to hug and kiss constantly when he meets someone he thinks is great. :)

This was our second time at a resort, the first being for our wedding in Mexico about 5 years ago. It's hard not to compare everything to that first time which was special for totally different reasons. We did really enjoy our time this week especially with the totally awesome staff (our cappuccino girl in the lobby xo), and the beautiful powdery sand beach (which IS the one thing definitely better than the resort in Mexico).

We tend to need to see absolutely everything when we travel, so a resort is sort of ideal in that we are in a spot where we are forced to chill out. Even still we spend a little bit of time trying to schedule our days and plan some stuff, but in the end are just maxin’ out in the sand with our little dude and his trusty pail and shovel.
I must say that although it is highly depressing to be putting on shoes AND socks again, and it's a bummer that my belly can no longer get a bit of fresh air without being mighty chilly, it does feel pretty sweet to be home with the snow coming down and Christmas on it's way!

This is the Life...

{this moment} Inspired by Soulemama- A photographic moment from my week

Maybe this one needs a disclaimer?? ;)

Handmade Holiday: Ornaments

I love Christmas tree ornaments. I love taking them out of storage and examining each of them, placing them on the tree one by one, gifting them, making them, and collecting them.
They are such a huge part of the holidays - for me anyway.

Every year on Christmas Eve my brothers and I would open up a single gift which was always a pair of pajamas topped with a dated ornament. When each of us was married and moving into our own family home, we were given our ornaments collected through the years. It certainly was a nice little start for us, and decorating our tree is filled with precious memories from our childhood.
This tradition is definitely one to be carried on. I can't quite remember Levi's ornament last year, but this year I have sewn him a rocking horse from a 1983 Creative Circle pattern that was my mom's. My mom has made several from the patterns in this package.



Almost done! A few more stitches, attaching the reigns, and of course a ribbon for hanging.

Tree decorations are such a simple (usually), and fun project to add that little something something to the top of a present, or they make a great gift on their own. I generally love to top as many gifts as I can with one.

Sometimes I'll buy existing ceramic or wood cut-out decorations and paint them. It is one of the easiest things and you can often pick the ornaments up on a crazy post-holiday sale.



My next ornament I am planning on making is a holly hobby style one that has always hung on the Christmas tree at my mom's house. I took a photo of it which is floating around somewhere and I also drew a little picture of it so I have the general idea. It is a basic ornament so it shouldn't take too long, and yet it's these mini-projects we embark on -because we think they will be quick and easy- that tend to soak up a great deal of time.

One year I went mental on the origami paper for everything, and decoupaged these using existing papier mache type ornaments I grabbed on the extreme cheap.



Here are a couple I made just this past week. A quilt block which took surprisingly long, and a small felt one to be gifted.



A small accomplishment on my list of handmade items for this holiday.
xo

New Additions

It does seem like I do a whopping number of posts about fabric. I do love it though!

There has been a lot of it coming through this house lately.
A few vintage fat quarters from an antique market.



A few fat quarters from The Workroom - a great little sewing shop in Toronto that holds workshops.



And a big old stack from the thrift shop.



It has become quite difficult to pick up second-hand pure wool sweaters. I was hoping to pick up a few, felt them, and make a couple things, but I am finding them so rarely.

I'm waiting on three yards of Michael Miller fabric which I purchased through Etsy so that I can sew the "Quick Change Trousers"
from Anna Maria Horner's book Handmade Beginnings. They've been shipped, so it won't be long now.



It is fun to just rummage through the stash occasionally and imagine what different bits will be. I think I need a system where I label certain pieces with my imaginings.
Sometimes it's hard to find what you want or remember what you have, so I aspire to compile a little notebook with swatches of fabric from all my half yard and larger pieces. Then I wonder if I cut out a small swatch and then wanted the entire piece as a quilt backing or something that would mess up my plans, so then I think I should photograph the materials, but then you don't have the feel of them in the notebook hmmmmm.....
Now to figure out how to group them. By colour maybe makes a lot of sense, but then by type would be a good idea as well. Therein lay the problem with thrifted material - it can be very difficult to figure out what certain fabrics are made of. Someone should teach a workshop on that...

I've definitely got some thinking to do on this little plan of mine, or maybe I should forget organising and re-organising and
JUST SEW SOMETHING!!!

Hiatus

My connection to the outside world just resurfaced. My husband just spent some time with the phone company being talked through the problem. It seems the guilty party was our wireless router.
It was probably good for me to lose my internet connection for a couple of days, and yet still terribly annoying...
No telephone was not so great, seeing as my current priorities that were meant to be finished today were all phone calls!! This time around I am an unwilling procrastinator (kidding, I'm always willing).
But I digress, I will be back tomorrow with bells on and an actual post. Don't give up on me now. My posts are few and far between as of late but I do have them on the brain at least if that makes any difference?

Loving the sound of the pouring rain right now. Perfect time to lay my head down for the night. xo