recent projects...

I recently made a much needed trip to the fabric store in order to make Gabriel's cape, seen in the previous birthday post. I also picked up some patterns and some fabric and notions to work on some other projects. here are the two I finished so far.



I'd been wanting to make Gwen some jammies and finally got around to it. I had some trial and error with the pattern but it was good because I learned several new things and now next time I'll be prepared! I've learned that in sewing you can't get discouraged if you have to pick out your stitches and start over.

The button holes were completely new to me and rather fun to make! And just so you know, when I told her I was going to take her picture she promptly went and got the stool to stand on and then posed as you see here in the photos. such a difference between boys and girls! :)

I look forward to using the pattern again though as it has a lot of options and variations of P.J. ensembles.

My next project was to use the vintage fabric my mom gave me for Christmas. I've been wanting to make a cute apron for awhile now and thought this fabric would be perfect. plus there's enough of it to make something else as well! :)


I used trimmings I already had which was fun, and it has lovely deep pockets which I love! bonus...I got to try my hand at button holes again and they turned out even better on this than Gwen's night gown. For those of you who might be wondering, my sewing machine is old and doesn't do button holes.

Gabrie's birthday part 1

Yesterday was my little man's 4th birthday. He was pretty excited to open all his gifts from the grandparents but had to wait till daddy came home so we started him off in the morning with our gift, a superman cape!



And of course he had to run about and give it a testing. I chose not to put and S on it so that if in the future he'd like to pretend it's something else he can. and at this point the sheer fact that it's red seems to be enough for him. :)




Then once daddy came home we had dinner and birthday brownies! Gabriel loves being sang to, I think it's possibly his favorite part. He gets so excited, it's darling :)

And then he got to wish and blow, it took a few tries but he got it eventually.

Another favorite is licking the candles...

All this time Gwen had been favorably eying the brownies in hopes of a taste of the sugary confection.

Which she did get to have...

Then the gift opening commenced.

All in all it was a pleasant birthday. short and sweet.

However if you happened to notice, this post is labeled part 1. The reason is that his friend Ellie had her birthday today and we are all getting together on Sat for a joint celebration. So, stay tuned...

...He is faithful

I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 89:1


I don't have a lot to say today, only because my mind is full and I haven't been able to think on it all long enough for it to come out yet.
However, I am overwhelmed by the peace Christ gives us in all situations, so long as we ask for it. I'm just feeling thankful today for God's love and faithfulness to those he loves. For all that he has blessed my life with through family and friends.
And right now especially, for my dear beloved husband.

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:1-3

What's the big deal?

So, I'm a stay at home mom. Like many stay at home mothers, and women in general, I get a little tired of the monotony of cleaning. However for the most part I don't mind doing things. for instance, Laundry doesn't take much effort and folding it allows me to sit down for a couple minutes. or I do it for the end result...who doesn't love it when their bathroom is sparkly clean? I might fall into the weird category for how much I enjoy sweeping though. haha!
anyway, this post is about dishes! Truth be told I don't like anything about doing dishes, I don't like scrubbing them, loading them into the machine or pulling them out and putting them away! even the site of my cupboards full of clean dishes isn't enough for me to do it without complaint. Oh, and no matter how many soaps I try I don't like the smell of dishwasher detergent, not sure why.
I've tried several things to keep me motivated enough to regularly keep my sink empty and shining as pictured above. I run the machine at night and unload in the morning and strive to put the dishes straight into the machine but....
somewhere along the line I don't follow through. Most likely just pure laziness and my loathing of this chore are behind it but whatever the reason I don't like doing my dishes! I even put up a little poem about doing dishes right in my line of sight at the sink to encourage me to be thankful, and willing with this chore of chores:

"Thank God for dirty dishes
they have a tale to tell.
for while other folks go hungry
we're eating very well.
with a wealth of happiness
it's very hard to fuss.
by this stack of evidence
God's very good to us."

It only works some of the time... :D
And so, I will continue to strive after a clean and empty sink but I don't know that I'll ever come to enjoy it. However, two days ago I was cooking a pizza in the oven, the sink was full and the machine needed to be unloaded. I glanced at the timer and it showed I had 7minutes and 36 seconds till the food was ready. And so I started to unload, and then I reloaded, and then I scrubbed down the sink. Not to mention that I had to get Gwennie out of the cupboards several times and I also stopped and parented Gabriel. So it wasn't even like I was rushing! Do you know that I finished the entire process in LESS than those 7 minutes and 36 seconds! and thus the purpose of this post, I began to wonder to myself, what's the big deal about doing the dishes? The answer? I may never truly know.

What I do when....

my beloved had to leave unexpectedly for a week to work filling in for someone, so, I'm home alone and this is the kind of thing I do when I'm home alone... hehe :D

I'm sure you recognize the first as my new profile picture...

I finally got up the nerve to trim my bangs on my own. I'm usually too scared and just wait till my sister can do it. :P

I was also playing around with big hair looks after watching "the Duchess", it turned out more 60s but was still lots of fun! I have this new hairspray that allows you to brush out your hair quite easily. It was fun to play around :)

I love being a girl!!!

promised follow up...

Well I promised to take pictures and post on the lovely embroidery my mom did so here you go! :)
first off is Gabriel's buck...


And then the back portion with his beloved bunny...


Here is Gwendolyn's little pink squirrel which matches her girly bedding perfectly!
and isn't the tea party scene just enchanting?!


I also thought I'd throw in these pictures of one of my gifts from Christmas.
My mom found this vintage fabric for me along with the old needle book.

Isn't the inside so colorful and cheery!

just some of the lovely things I got.... :)

woodsy realm...

I have been slowly working towards making the kids' room looking cute. their bedding matches, and they have curtains which is nice but there is still a lot of white wall to look at and i'd like to add more color.
anyway, I had put up the strip of cork board from the start but just never found the right thing to decorate it with. So in October I made these...



little owl collages on some of the cork squares. It was really fun to do, cutting them out of cute printed paper and figuring it all out etc...



My thought now is how to incorporate more of the woodsy feel into the rest of the room to round out the theme. I have a couple ideas milling about in the think tank so we'll see what develops!



I only just put these up the other day because we've been so busy that I had almost forgotten I made them (oops). So it was fun to see the children enjoy them once I did hang them up. they both like looking at them and Gwennie always wants to touch them.



one thing that will add to the look are some new pillow cases they got for Christmas from my dear mother. She embroidered four, one for each of her grand babies.
Gabriel's has a buck with large antlers and on the back side a little bunny with his name and such... and Gwen's has a darling squirrel and on the back a little mouse tea party. I promise to post pictures of them soon, but it's late and so I'm not doing it now. :P



I'm on the look out for some new bedding for Gabriel that will still compliment Gwen's but be a little more boyish and woodsy...any helpful links would be appreciated! :) his 4th is coming up at the end of the month so I was thinking it'd be a nice gift.
Anyway, that's one thing I made in the past months and had yet to share. more still to come though! :D

So, long time no blogging for me...
but that's ok, life got busy and it's more important than this online stuff anyway right? :)
We had a wonderful Christmas holiday, getting to spend it with family on both sides. these pictures were taken at my parents home up in Hume Lake. we were taking a chilly winter walk. Gwen got to be pulled around in this darling old sled which my mom used to pull me around in. :)

I think she enjoyed it a lot, but poor thing I never did find little mittens to fit her so we had to use socks and the didn't really do well, her little hands were icy cold by the time we made it back. Thankfully children don't seem to react to temperature the same way as we adults do.

And here is Gabriel walking with his beloved papa, (my dad) He's so in love with him that just today as he was playing with his pretend cell phone and I overheard him talking to papa about going sledding. :) so cute!

well, I'm husbandless this week so I promise to catch up on some blogging! till then...