Made by me Mondays -Over the Shoulder Tote for Ducky

My niece got this fabric and pattern from her grandmother last year for Christmas.  She had come over and was planning on having me show her how to make it and help her make it.  Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to do it together and she asked me to hang onto it and to sew it for her.  I had it for a few months leading up to Christmas past but I just didn't have a minute to sew it. 

 I was off between Christmas and New Years and we were headed over there boxing day to spend some time together.  So that morning I decided to see if I could pull it off before it was go time.  It took me only about 3 hours max to sew this tote with the pattern that she had.  Coconuts is modeling it for me.  I think I may try to make her one as well.  Isn't it a darling bag

 This button is an old one I ripped off some clothing I was disposing of.  Does any one else keep old buttons from things before they throw them away?  I love doing that.

Here is a better side shot of the tote.  The fabric choice that her grand mother picked really is adorable.  Next time Ducky we'll do some more sewing together.

Papier Thursday - Valentines Day Treats

Happy Valentines Day! 

I hope you all get to spend the day with the people you love.

I've wanted to make these valentines for the kids to take to school for a while.  For Coconuts I needed only about 5 shots and I had one I could use.  But Buddy Boys is my little prankster and so he kept making silly faces and this is the best of the twenty or so pictures I took of him.  He's going to start school next year, I hope his teacher loves a little wise crack cause he's on his way.

I sure do love my kids a whole bunch, aren't they sweet! 

Being a working mother I sometimes feel like my kids miss out on all the fun things that stay at home mothers get to do, so I try when I can to do these little extras for them.  I put this all together in the fridge the night before and I set it out for my family before I was out the door this morning at seven am.  They called me to let me know they loved it. 

Happy Valentines Y'all!

Gratitude Sunday - Garden Fresh

One of my most favourite things to do is to drive down to the Valley in NS when the leaves are changing all sorts of reds, yellows and orange and go apple picking.    We are blessed here to have this beautiful valley with all sorts of locally grown produce. 

We have a favourite orchard that we go and do our picking at each year.  It's become a family tradition and the kids really love going.  This year it had been raining that morning so when the kids picked the apples off the tree they would get a little rain water shake off the tree on them.  They loved it.

I love this tree it's got to be over a hundred years old.  Coconuts looks so little under it.

I sure wish we had some smell-o-blogging button that you could push here while I transferred the smell of this bakery onto you.  We purchased some fresh rolls and a to die for pumpkin pie.  This is the real reason I love it all.  We travel over one and a half hours just for this little gem of a bakery.

Of course they have a little farmers market as well where you can take home all the perfect ingredients for a good old Turkey Dinner.  We took this trip on Canadian Thanksgiving Day and it was perfect.  So today I am grateful that I have the capacity to drive and get my family fresh, wholesome food to eat, and for this glorious place that I live. 

Your turn, leave me a comment and tell me what your grateful for.

Gratitude Sunday - Cousins

When I was a little girl, I grew up in Montreal.  My mother came from a family of six children.  So one would naturally assume that I grew up with a ton of cousins around.  The reality is other than my mother having three children.  One of her brothers had one.  As a child I always wondered what it would be like to grow up with all kinds of cousins around.  Heck more than one anyway.

I love that I know get to live it through the eyes of my children and their cousins.  It really  is a beautiful thing to watch.  Our family is really close and I love this sweet boy as much as I love my own children.  As you can see Coconuts feels the same about him as I do. 

So today I an grateful for these two.  They are cousins but they love and look out for each other like siblings.  They want to spend time together and look forward to the times they get to hang out again next.  I love you both very much. 

Alright, your turn, now you leave me a note and tell me what your thankful for today!

Ruffle Layered Skirt

I had eyeballed these ruffled skirts a while ago.  Then a good friend of mine Jackie O had made them for her grand children.  They were so adorable.  Since I don't have a surger I asked if we could have a play date when her life slowed down a but.  Of course she obliged!  Thanks Jackie I had a great time and these skirts are adorable.

Here is Coconuts and her sweet friend Charlie, she lives next door and they play all the time.  They have the sweetest friendship, when we moved into the neighbourhood three years ago Charlie and her sister came over to say hello.  They might have known a hand full of English at the time, and Coconuts new not a lick of french.  But these girls have grown a little friendship that they had to really work hard at in the beginning to understand each other (I played translator for a while).  Charlie now speaks wonderful english.

Anyhow Jackie and I made the blue one together but didn't have time to get the yellow one started that night.  It was late and I went home.  Sweet, sweet Jackie did up the yellow one for me that night and brought it to church to me the very next morning.  I left her house around 9:30 pm.  She must have stayed up late to get it done for me.  Thanks Jackie for being so sweet to me.

The best part of having a little girl is that they love to play dress up and take photo's.  Here are my sweet models who loved having a back to school photo shoot and model the ruffle skirts.

If you are wondering where I got the tutorial from it's a Dana made it tutorial.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Wedding Grub

The heart of any good party is the food. 



 If you have great food, and it's set out in such a way that it's really appealing to the eye than you will have a fantastic event.  This wedding was no exception.

At any function you will usually find me in the kitchen helping out in some way or another.  It's really problematic at times, I'm like a moth to the flame.  

Some of my friends like to think I'm a control freak, I like to think I have an eye for the details

However being the wedding photographer this put me in a pickle, I knew I needed to call in the troops on this one.

The party was going to need to go on without my controlling ways attention to detail.

I've learned early on who my peeps in the kitchen are so I new I had to call in the big guns, and as you can see above they delivered.

Thanks Monica and Jeana for all your hard work in the kitchen.  Really I couldn't have done it without you.

These girls are the best and they always come through for me  in so many ways!  Well folks that's it for the wedding posts.  Thanks for stopping in and reading my blog.

Wedding Photograpy

OK so I love photography but really I'm about as amature as they come, however the heaviest task that was mine at this wedding was just that.  I really loved this responsibility the most.  Here are my faves.

Any wonder why this one is one of my favourites?  You got it, it's my handsome little monkey.

I really love the candid shots the most that tell the story of their special day.  I love them way better than the posed shots.  I love that I caught this picture of her father and mother.

Seriously this may be my absolute favourite of them all.

See this little boy, he really had a great time at the wedding.  Notice he started the afternoon off at the cupcake table, he was eyeing those things from the start.

He and I had some really funny conversations over the weekend. 

Auntie Nana: "I love you little buddy"

Tato:  in the sweetest voice ever "I love you too"

Auntie Nana:  seconds later "Your such a handsome boy"

Tato: "Thanks Nana"

Auntie Nana: seconds later again, I know I should leave the poor boy alone "Your so handsome I love you little buddy"

Tato:  "Please stop"

Auntie Nana:  got it

See I told you he was a sweet boy, man I love that kid.

Please note Tato's sporting a cupcake, yup you got it this boy was on a mission to take those out one frosted cupcake at a time.  (Oh and he may have won too!)

As we were leaving the lake and it was just me and the bride and groom taking pictures, the kids are up ahead.  Buddy boys starts freaking out.  He took one to the forehead from his cousin.  Need I explain he clearly didn't like it.

Oh I really loved this camera and the fun things it could do.

I loved how they just had fun on their wedding day!

The kids loved this part of it!  All dressed up yet having a blast.

My brother and I, seriously my hair is not red what's up with this.

I love this one!

Tato hanging out on the front step with papa's phone.

Papa's Shoes and Tato's "Papa Shoes"

Sue and her brothers just having fun, oh and John creeping in the back!

Really fun, and maybe sometime soon I'll get me a fancy camera too!  I really liked playing with this one way too much.

Sign's and the Cake

I knew signs were being made for the wedding but when these showed up I was really impressed.  These are really adorable and added a sweet touch to the outdoor wedding.  

Sue's brother Chris and his girlfriend Nicole made these signs.  I really loved they they did a great job on them.

Her family also took care of making the wedding cake and cupcakes, her mother, her aunt Susan and Nicole.  If you have ever pipped  flowers you know what a cramp you can get.  I loved that there was a legend on the table to let you know what kind of cupcake you were getting based on the floral pattern on the top of each cupcake.  Really sweet touch.

Oh and doesn't that really look like John on the top of the cake?  I thought so too.  Actually I loved that they didn't take themselves too seriously it really was a super fun wedding.