Crafty Projects

Some projects I've been working on over the past several months..

A milo vest, after I ran out of limited edition yarn for the first milo I started..

A mustard yellow hat for the bird, and a new hat for the husband..

Sewing with knits (this is the flashback skinny tee by made by rae), which I need to do more of. I have some great fabrics ready.

Some projects for friends and family including the above and below..

And a few things for around the house too.

And currently there's a coiled crochet basket and a shawl in progress..

The baby bird has started a few projects of his own too..

We have started the fridge gallery of baby art. Love it! I think we are all caught up now!

A Round Shelf

Have you seen these amazing shelves by Ferm Living?

(photo from ferm living)

I absolutely love the look. I love this shelf by Bride & Wolf even more as it has an open back.

photo from bride & wolf

As much as I don't mind paying for good design and quality, and as much as I like supporting smaller businesses and do whenever I can, we are strapped for cash and there was no way to justify paying over $200 for a shelf at the moment. I had the ferm living shelf on my wishlist for months, with an exact idea of where I would put it..in the playroom with some of our smaller Ostheimer figures that Josh is not ready for yet.. but it was just not going to happen, so I started to think about how I could make my circle shelf dreams come true. I saw a few tutorials around pinterest using all types of materials, including cheese boxes, but none were as clean as I was hoping for. Finally, I came across a tutorial using embroidery hoops. Perfect!

I changed the design a bit to include three shelves, and eventually threw out the hot glue idea and used tiny finishing nails instead (pre-drilling holes so they wouldn't crack the wood). My embroidery hoops were also 20 inches in diameter instead of 14. I couldn't find embroidery hoops without wood blocks at the bottom holding them together, but I don't think they're that big of an eye sore. Of course I had to show you my wallpaper seams in the photo below. In person, they really aren't that visible.

The shelves are made with craft wood (which is flimsy, so if you want to put anything even slightly heavy on it you'll need to get thicker wood). I had planned on hot gluing the hoops together before adding the shelves, but there were only two hoops available at my local craft store and they were not even. Once the shelves were nailed in they did sit flush against each other. 

You can see the nails from the sides, but from the front they aren't visible. Basically, up close this project isn't nearly as lovely and clean as the originals, but I have a circle shelf and I love the way it looks in the space (except I may drill in that hanging loop instead of having it tied on)!

With the discount I used and the nails I had on hand, this project still ended up being about $30. Those hoops aren't cheap! Still, $30 is much more affordable for us right now.

Hello, 2015

It has been such a long while since I've shared here. Blogging seems to come in spurts for me, even though I always want to post more regularly. I don't want to say I will stick to that this year, but it is on my list of goals. 2014 had some wonderful times, but it was a difficult year for our family, with a lot of challenges, sadness, and illness, so I am very ready to say goodbye. I'd like 2015 to be better, healthier, and I'd like to work hard toward changing what we can. So far that has involved a lot of work on ourselves and career goals, more getting out of the house (I've been following hike it baby on instagram, which has been inspiring me to get out and explore like we used to each weekend), working harder at creating a wider variety of healthy meals (I tend to get stuck in a pattern with the same old staples), making wiser retail choices, and focusing on family and relationships.



Since I last posted, my baby bird has grown into a 17 month old toddler. He amazes me every day with the things he does, discovers, and learns. I am so lucky to be the mama of this amazing boy. The holidays were so much more fun this year (even though we were sick through most of it) because he was more aware of what was going on, and we were able to go to a couple fun events together. I'm still waiting for that snow since we were sick through the one good snowfall, because I cannot wait to take him out to play in his sled.





After the holidays I noticed that the bird really wasn't playing well. He was mostly pulling toys out and spreading them around the room. There was just too much. We've always tried to really think about the things we give him to play with, but we've still ended up with more than he can handle. Two thirds of the toys and about half the books were put away, to be cycled out every once in a while. When the Christmas tree was taken down, we pulled his playstands back out and instead of having a toy basket, there was a place for everything. Since there is so much less, it is not a difficult job to put it all back after play, and it has made such a huge difference in the way he plays. This has taught me an important lesson. It is not just about the materials we give them, but how we present them. I knew this from my ECE days, but forgot the true importance of it somewhere along the way. Now he easily takes a toy from the shelf and explore and play, and even better, he sometimes puts them back on his own. It is so exciting to watch him grow!



There are many projects, crafting, thrifting, and collecting adventures I'd like to share. Hopefully I will actually end up taking time to do that!

The October Garden

Mostly, I've been cleaning up, putting beds to rest, and planting fall bulbs. Tulips, daffodils, crocus, hyacinth, and allium. Hopefully those pesky squirrels will leave some in the ground. Several bags of woodchips went around the raspberry canes, with plans to plant more canes in the Spring since they are thinning out. There have been a few small harvests, which I'm loving. The last of the tomatoes, lots of carrots, the second round of radishes I planted, and broccoli, although they are not the huge heads I had been expecting. Instead, they are teeny broccolini. While cleaning up the raspberries I had a nice surprise. The blackberry bushes I thought had been pushed out were hiding underneath, and there were some ripe berries ready for picking and lots more left to ripen.

There have been the Fall flowers too. Lots of black eyed susans that have already been pulled out. They went to seed last year and overtook our garden because of it, which is funny because just a few years ago we had been talking about planting more because we had one lonely plant. Funny how that works! The marigolds (I think I need to plant half the amount next year) and autumn joy sedum have been keeping colour around, and the Fall crocuses have just finished.

I have learned so much this gardening season as I've tried several new to me plants and made a lot of mistakes along the way. There are so many things I'd like to try next year, and so many dreams I have for the future - one day there will be apple trees, an asparagus patch, I'd like to try growing squash (acorn, butternut, pumpkins), and one day those peppers will work!

I really enjoy this time of year, and the Fall garden is no exception. I am looking forward to next year's growing season, but am glad to let it take its time getting here.

A New Room

There's a room in our home that has been many things over the years - a guest room, a playroom, a den, a bedroom, a home office, and most recently, a catch-all for all the things you accumulate when you try to squish two families into one place. It was such a wasted space, and I finally had to do something about it. There was a huge purge of things and furniture that had nowhere else to go, and then the fun started!

It was dark and kind of awful. The above photo was taken once the furniture was removed. A fresh coat of paint, some wall paper, ripped up carpets, and re-finished floors made a huge difference. It is so much brighter, which is wonderful for this north facing room.

There are still some things to be done, like taking apart and putting back together the shelving unit I made a few mistakes on yesterday! There is a wee little desk that is waiting to be picked up, a chair that needs moving in, and I have no ideas on the rug/window treatments yet. 

This sideboard/hutch was an unexpected addition (see what I mean about being a catch-all?). I picked it up at a thrift shop on Friday and it fit perfectly in the space between the windows & chinchilla cage. It adds a lot more storage, especially hidden storage, than the shelf I had over here previously (also a thrift shop find).

I cannot wait to show the finished version of this room. Well, if rooms are ever really finished.

The August Garden

When the raspberries slow, and the black eyed susans bloom, I know Summer is winding down. It has been a cooler one this year (which I am so grateful for because I do not enjoy the heat), so the tomatoes weren't as bountiful and the cucumbers didn't last long, but we had some lovely harvests and some new to us produce. Zucchinis actually grew this year! We had several and they are still coming. Our very first garden cauliflower was delicious, and another is growing as I type. There are several bags of raspberries in the freezer, hundreds of peas were shelled, and we are still picking green beans by the bowlful. The lettuce had died down, but is back again with the cooler weather, and although my green peppers never grew, the radishes and carrots did. Just yesterday I planted more radishes and beets (the first batch didn't grow), hoping they will have time before the first frost. I am also trying to re-grow a bunch of celery from a stump. Pinterest tells me it will work!

We're not sure where we will be next Spring, but I've been keeping notes (things like starting the tomato seeds earlier and in larger pots, which plants prefer the cooler weather and can be started earlier, which are not worth growing because they are so cheap to buy - carrots, I'm looking at you - and what varieties I'd like to try instead - I was not too impressed with the climbing green beans I chose) and making plans (if we're here next year, I want to turn the green bean patch into a play space for Josh with tree stumps and a trellis for the beans over head. Also, expanding the tomato space to include more plants). Next up for the garden - getting ready to put the beds to sleep once they're finished, and planting those Spring bulbs.

Now We Are One

We did it! We survived the first year! If you had told me even two years ago that I would be celebrating my son's first birthday, I don't think I would have believed it. It was a long journey, but here we are! This amazing little guy is a year old.

I never had a baby shower, and while we planned to have a little 'welcome to the world baby bird!' gathering after he was born, we were a little preoccupied with feeding issues, and just being new parents, so for this one we went all out. We invited friends and family, we had a lovely music circle for the little ones, there was a baby pool turned into a ball pit, there was a theme (twinkle twinkle little star) and matching decor, and lots and lots of handmades. Of course the birthday boy probably would have been fine with a small family gathering (next year!), but he did enjoy himself (although it doesn't look it in the photo..he's not big on food and an entire cake sitting in front of him was a bit much. He didn't so much smash as poke it a bit and then push it away), and it was a fun day.

There were gold stars everywhere, a handmade birthday banner, star shaped food, and twinkle twinkle little star books for the kids to take home with them. I pulled out all my favourite turquoise and white (and even star themed) Pyrex, as well as some milk glass dishes and vases, and there were matching star paper straws, gold star napkins and gold star party hats. I had so much fun putting it together (and I did know it was mostly for me), but when it came down to it, none of that really mattered. Being there in the moment was what was important. I had charged up my camera intending to get shots of everything so later on we could look back on how much fun we had that day, but I was much too busy actually having fun with my boy that we only ended up with a few pictures, and most were taken by other people. We have a few for the family album, and the rest I can remember myself.

And this one year old? My one year old? Is just amazing. He is so interested in everything and amazes me with the things he can do. He challenges and teaches me every day. I'm not going to say that every day we struggled with infertility was worth it because it led to him, because I do not wish that struggle on anyone. I will say I cannot imagine life without him and am so glad we are here. So long year one, I cannot wait to see what year two has in store!