Groomsmen Ties & Vests

There were two of us sewing for this wedding.  I had the easy job of the dresses for the girls and the ties for the boys.  Sue's sweet, sweet mother had the difficult task of sewing her wedding dress, (phew I could have never taken that on) and the boys vests.  Don't they look handsome!!

I love the above picture of Tato, we had just put the binoculars away that he wanted to play with and was letting me know that under no circumstance was he going to pose for this picture.  And as Auntie Nana's should do, I quickly informed this sweet little boy of the impending cupcakes (you got it I bribed my nephew) and he quickly decided he was game on.  He & I had some funny conversations while he was here  I love that boy.

I made the ties with a tutorial I found online but the link no longer works for me to share it with you but there are tutorials all over the blog sphere to use.  Isn't my buddy boys handsome!

I loved that Sue's mom took the creative liberty to insert super hero fabric into the inside of their vests.  Seriously when Buddy Boys got his vest he asked "Papa" (John, my kids call him Papa too) if this was his to keep.  Papa told him it was and in his four year old mind I'm sure he thought he was invincible now.

Guitar Strap

Buddy boy, my little super star just turned 4 years old.  He's been asking for a guitar for a while now, and really didn't think he wanted one that bad.  So his birthday came and went without a guitar.  Until this past weekend when we got a surprise visit from Uncle Kurt and Fiance Laura who came with this fancy guitar for my little boy.  He totally was super excited about it.

He spent about four hours on Saturday just walking around banging it into my walls playing sweet tunes and not being able to keep a hold of it and play at the same time.  So down I went to the see what scrap pieces of fabric I had to make  him a strap.  I had some 2 1/2 inch binding strips left over from his bedding that I made him.  It was already cut out so it only took me about 10 minutes to sew it together.  I put little elastics on the end to tie on.  I realized once I had it done that the elastic was too loose so I did a back stitch on it so it would stay on the guitar and not fall off.  Don't you think this star fabric is perfect for my budding superstar?  I do.

Happy Birthday little buddy!!  Enjoy his first performance, I think it's super cute!

Happy Mother's Day!

"May each of us treasure this truth: One cannot forget mother and remember God. One cannot remember mother and forget God. Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one." Thomas S. Monson

Today I'm thankful for the privilege of being a woman!  I'm grateful to my mother for giving me life (I love you Mom), to my children who have made me a mother, to my loving mother in law, to all those of you in my life who have not had the privilege of being mothers yet but have cared for and nurtured me or my children, THANK YOU!  I hold sacred the blessing and privilege of being a mother and am so thankful that I've been blessed with these two precious children. 

(Photo by HMF Photography)

I love you Coconuts and Buddy boys, I'm so thankful your all mine! 

Happy Mothers Day to all of you!

(The painting at the top was made for me by my Sweet Coconuts!  Isn't she just so talented, and crafty I might add!)

Yummyliscious Waffles

Yes Yummyliscious is a word.  Just ask Buddy Boys because he made it up.  Around here if something is just a bit better than yummy it's got to be Yummyliscious.  That's just what these Waffles are.  The key to their success however is the Belgium waffle maker.  It's deeper than a regular waffle iron and keeps your waffles soft (as long as you don't leave them in too long).  The other thing that makes these good are the strawberries and blueberries that were hand picked the summer before, then lightly sugared.

Waffles

2 Lg Eggs

2 C Flour

1 3/4 Cup Milk

1/2 C Vegetable Oil

1 Tbsp Sugar

4 Tsp Baking Powder

1/4 Tsp Salt

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl or in your Kitchen Aid mixer.  Cook in the waffle iron and serve with all  your favourite toppings.

Bob the Builder Birthday Cake

Tomorrow is Buddy Boy's birthday party.  His first one with friends, he's so excited.  I had decided not to make him a cake you see as he's been sick this week and I've been home with him.  I thought that my local grocery store would carry a Bob the builder cake and voila, I'd order one and that would be it.  Unfortunately that was not the case and I've been promising him this cake for months.  I couldn't let him down.

Here's what I came up with.  I sure hope he likes it.  Happy Birthday Buddy Boys, Mama loves you!  Hope you really enjoy your Birthday!

Here he is the morning of his party.   He loved his cake!

I am momma - Boys Shirt Entry - Freezer Paper Stenciling

Here is the shirt I made for the I am momma Hear Me Roar Boys Shirt Contest.  I got together with a friend of mine Karlie and we made some sweet shirts for our boys.  Doesn't her little boy "J", make Buddy Boys look ginormous?  Can I just say here that Buddy Boy's Birthday is this week and he turned three, Happy Birthday to my "Big Boy" (he hates it when I call him my baby). 

First things first.  I used Picnik to create the image that I wanted to use to make his shirt.  There are so many options that you could spend the day making some cute designs.  I saved the image onto my computer and then opened a Word document and re sized the image to fit both shirts and simply printed them on white paper.

Because there are some overlapping images I simply traced the different layers of images onto the freezer paper.

I used a little crafter's exacto knife to cut out the image from the freezer paper.  Make sure to put a self healing mat underneath your design or your hubby may get really angry when he sees what you've done to the table top.

Simply iron the freezer paper onto the shirt where you want the image to appear.

Apply the fabric paint using a paint brush and always brush towards the centre of each cut out so you don't push the paint under the freezer paper.  That would cause the image to not come out as you want it to.

Once the first layer of paint is dry, (my paint's instruction said four hours, but I used my hair dryer to dry it up and it was dry enough in a few minutes) iron on the next layer of words onto the shirt where you want them to appear.  Apply the desired paint colours to your stencil.

Once you pull away the freezer paper you can really see your image coming to life.

The last step was to cut the rock out of felt.  I found this grey felt at Michael's Craft Store and it had a rock design already on it.  It really made the shirt pop and come to life.  I sewed it on with yellow thread to accent the rock. 

Don't you think Boy's Rock!  I sure do.



Boy's Shirt Contest at I am Momma

I'm really excited about participating in the Boy's Shirt Contest at I am Mama Hear Me Roar.  I have my shirt done and ready to go.  I will be loading it up on March 25th, so I'll show you then.  It's really cute and I can't wait to share it with you.

Bob the Builder Party Favors

Buddy Boy's is having his third birthday soon and this will be his first party with little friends. We've been talking about having a Bob the Builder party for quite some time with him and he keeps asking if today is his birthday. I guess I should have waited a while to tell him about it since he really doesn't get the concept of time frames yet. Either way he thought these crayons were really cute when I made them and is getting really excited for his party.


I simply cut the card stock to fit the cellophane bags I had purchased. I then created and printed directly onto the yellow card stock the wording I wanted to use. I think his party favors are super cute. I'm going to make some kind of note pad to go along with it, cause doesn't every good carpenter need a note pad too!!

Comfy Cushions

Houston, we have progress in the toy room! I'm not sure if it's the full time job, the million other projects I have on the go, Christmas time just behind us, but some times progress is just slow and I'm feeling that with this toy room revamp. However I'm happy to report that the kids now have a spot for their little bums. I made these cushions which my children call Comfy Cushions from the Rollie Pollie pattern I purchased over at Made. Initially I found the pattern kinda tricky but once I conceptualized it in my mind it was actually quite simple.
I had actually finished Coconut's cushion earlier in the summer and the kids have had several spats over who actually gets to sit on it. Technically it is hers but during the day when she is in school that is where Buddy Boys has his afternoon nap. (Yes they are just that comfortable!)

There is going to be many a movie watched from the comfort of these two cushions...I can feel it already.

Repurposed Crayons

Buddy boys is having a birthday coming up in March. I have plans for his party but where I work full time if I don't get at it early I just can't seem to pull it off. He's turning three and this will be his first Big Boy party with friends so I want to make it fun for him. I'm doing a Bob the Builder theme. This crayons are going to be part of the party favors once I get it all together.


The first thing I did was ask the Librarian at Church to raid the kids crayons that she no longer was using or in need of. She gave me a big bucket full of them so this made this project really inexpensive to do. I really love that about do it yourself projects. You will need to bunch like colors together and remove the paper from them.

I saved a can from the Christmas baking I did. You can use any shape and size can you can get your hands on. If you wanted to you could get multiple cans going at the same time. So break up your crayons and put them in the tin can. Place the can in a pot of boiling water. You need about 2 inches of water in it. You don't want the can to float.

Let the wax crayons melt into a liquid and use a toothpick to stir it around and make sure there are no unmelted clumps in there. This will also help the colour be uniform if you are using different shades of the same colour.
You will need a mold. I bought a chocolate mold off eBay for about five dollars total including shipping. That was the only expense I had with this fun project. Place your mold on parchment paper on a baking sheet. If you happen to spill wax there will be no clean up required.

Pour the wax in the mold and let it sit until it hardens. You can speed the process up by placing the mold in the fridge or freezer.

Keep repeating the process until you get all the desired colours you need. This took me about 3 hours to do them all. If you live in Halifax and want to give this a try I have extra crayons you can have.

Storage Shelves

Do you remember this?

I'm sooo trying to ignore, forget, deny, evade.

It's the project I seem to always put at the bottom of my to do list. It's one of those "it's going to take so much work and the kids are always doing a number on it" kinds rooms that I find other projects that take it's place. These shelves have been in my garage for most of the summer and now I really needed to get at them. I had my hubby and his BFFC (best friend from childhood) make these for me. (Do guys refer to each other that way?) Who knows. They are a project that I got off Ana White. I love her creativity. They cost me a little bit more than the price she quotes there. Probably the difference from US to Canadian funds. So they are primed twice and have one coat of white melamine paint on them. I'm going for durability since Buddy Boys tends to be on the war path with everything he touches.
I'm well on my way to getting a handle on this toy room. I have yet to find cute baskets to put on them. That will be my next project.

Thanksgiving

I love the harvest time of year here in Nova Scotia. The leaves are changing, the air has a chill in it and the summer is coming to a close. I love that Canadian Thanksgiving is always at harvest time of year. I'm grateful for my family, great friends, and this great country that affords me peace.
I'm grateful to have the freedom to follow my passions and dreams in life. I'm grateful to have a home to host a beautiful dinner in with Family. I'm grateful for this little boy who was sent out to catch us our Thanksgiving Turkey.....thank goodness the freezer had a back up cause well....he came back empty handed.
We finished off the evening with more family around a bonfire roasting wieners. I don't think life gets much better than this. Let me know what you did for thanksgiving or what your thankful for this wonderful time of year!

Toy Room Revamp

I feel like I'm airing my dirty laundry here but know you know my kids play room is a DISASTER! I think that the word disaster doesn't even come close to really letting you know how I feel about this space. I'm still not sure if the English language has the appropriate word to describe this space. I dread coming home from work to see what kind of work the kids have done to this room. Well Coconuts is in school so really it's Buddy Boys that does the real damage. Can you blame him though. There's no seating to watch movies, there are two large toy bins that everything gets dumped into so I guess in order to find what he's looking for there has to be a large extrication of the toys hence.....DISASTER.

I have big plans for this space. Much of which is already underway. I have seating plans from Dana Made, storage plans from anna white, plans for wall art to make it more inviting. Keep checking back as I turn this room around and make it an inviting place for my kids to play.

Peach Cobbler

It's totally Harvest time here in the Valley of Nova Scotia. I wish that I could say I actually went out to pick these peaches myself. This would mean that we got out of the city, went on a road trip and spent time in the lovely orchards of NS (which I love to do) with my kiddies in tow. But no I got these at the grocery store, don't they still look delicious anyways.

So after peeling, pitting and whipping ingredients together here's the final product. Can you believe I have never made a Peach Cobbler before. It really is a tasty treat. I think this recipe is going to be added to my recipe box of stuff I love. Here I put whip cream on top of it. We also had some french vanilla ice cream and I think I liked that better on it. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it yourself. If you do come back and let me know what you though of it. We'll definitely be making it again.

Peach Cobbler

BASE
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon almond extract
4 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter

Topping
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1 egg slightly beaten
1/4 milk

Whip topping or ice cream ( optional )

For the base, in a saucepan combine brown sugar, cornstarch and water. Cook and stir until it thickens and bubbles. Add the almond extract. Stir in the lemon juice, butter and peaches. Keep these warm while you get the topping ready.

For the topping, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the 1/4 cup butter until it resembles crumbs. In a separate bowl combine egg and milk and whisk it. Add to the flour mixture until it is just moisten do not over mix.

Pour the peaches into a 9x13 baking pan then spoon on the topping in 6 mounds over the peaches. Bake at 400 F for about 20 min. Makes 6 servings.

Oh and "Buddy Boy" wanted to help with the whipped topping so I put him to work. No no this isn't child labour he got paid double for his work. He got to lick both beaters when he was done. Isn't that the best part of any recipe!!