By the way....

PLEASE leave comments! I LOVE comments! I feel SO excited when I get a comment. Somewhere out there someone knows that I exist! :)

NAKED!!!!!!!!

This is how I am feeling right now....I forgot my camera at a friend's house today. I never realize how addicted I am to clicking away until I can't get it. I fret about the shots that I've missed and the cutest or most amazing facial expression lost forever. Moments so fleeting, gone and forgotten. Okay, a bit too dramatic, but I do feel weird without it. I had planned to download a few pictures of our last couple of days and of the backpacks that I quickly made for the kids (I was annoyed with the lack of un-commercialized and icon-blazened backpacks for little ones...so I made some). I've also been working on a couple of felting projects for Easter and Spring!....Well, I will have to add them at a later date...Tomorrow? Jeff comes home tomorrow for the weekend! Yahoo!

Sunshine!!!!!

Oh, what an amazingly fabulous day it was today!! The sun was out all day. The kids played outside for the majority of the daylight hours. I managed to complete AND post the newest crown. I sold a windchime! We made ginger snaps with our homemade butter.

We did foot print paintings and removed all the hearts from our tree and started with our new seasonal theme.

We have decided that decorating our window tree with the birds that we have seen throughout the Winter at the feeder and the newly arriving birds would be appropriate for this 'in-between' season. I wasn't sure how to show root babies, etc. with the tree so we've gone with a more avian theme. So far, we have the red-winged blackbird, the fox sparrow, house finch, rufous-sided towhee, red-breasted robin and the common flicker. Tomorrow, we'll add the dark-eyed junco and the black-capped chickadee. I think the swans, Canadian geese and the ducks may be too big fo our little tree....also, I have never, ever seen any of the larger birds in a tree...the thought of it makes me giggle, in fact...kind of like a monkey wearing glasses or a fish on a bicycle....Okay, maybe it's just lack of sleep.....

I had to include this photo of Briar pretending to breastfeed the cat. My sweet, sweet little boy.

Gnorman and Gnaomi the gnomes

Olivia and I made these little folk the other day. I'll be adding them and a few of their friends to the shop in the next day or two.

I, also, have a crown in the works.!

Okay. I'm sitting here with a snoring baby in my lap worrying that my last post was too....bitter at the end. I think I'm just frusterated that I am not going to be able to have the shower OR finish the crown tonight. Snoring babies in laps do not like to get wet in showers. They also don't like the hammering drone of a sewing machine near their little ears. I'm tempted to try laying him down again; but he seems to know when I am not holding him despite my desperate attempts to simulate the position and texture of my pajamaed arms with pillows and various articles of clothing discarded by a five year old earlier in the evening. How does he know!? I think he must be a baby genius. Maybe he is only pretending to be asleep. He has a very believable snore, though. :)

fog....

I am working on a few little crafty things lately, but I seem to be unable to remember to take photos of them when the light is right (daytime).

I found some beautiful blue satin at the thrift store today! After it's washed, it'll be going to work on the newest crown. I'm going to see if I can get it finished up tonight....we'll see as I need to have a shower, tidy up a bit and get ready for our playdate tomorrow....Does anyone ever NOT feel overwhelmed and too busy after having kids?

I found a FABULOUS kids book today about the human body!!!! Liv and I spent an hour tonight reading it. It's so interactive and there are so many things to check out! There is even a 'baby' in a womb that floats around in water. REAL water. So cool.

It has been so beautiful here. Foggy. I LOVE fog. Love it. Love it. Love it. It is bone-chilling cold in the fog but I love the mystery and stillness. When I used to live in the fishing village where Jeff and I met, I would pray for foggy days....and windy days. The wind would blow the fishing boats in and it would mean that he'd come to town. I especially loved it when the power in town would go out and we'd have to start the generator at the pub where I worked. A large proportion of the town's population would head down to the pub and have a good time. Music. Sometimes scrabble. Lots of friends. A few drunken annoyances. But it was always weather with an "!". The fog was like that too. You couldn't see acroos the harbour...In fact, you could barely see ten metres in front of you. Cold but cozy. I miss that.

I would move back in a nanosecond if it hadn't become some gorby (tourist, actually 'Geeks On Rental Boards') attraction. Everything is so different there now. It's no longer a small fishing village; it's a tourist mecca. It's odd to see the people that you used to see walk through town sporting a tobacco stained beard, gum boots and a leashless dog now wearing khakis, short hair and selling some time-share to a beach front property with the name of some local flora or fauna. Do I sound bitter??? Anyhow, it's only a couple hours away. I can visit the weather.

Our beautiful children....

There are times that I look at our sweet, funny, kind and loving, little ones and worry that I've taken this short time that we have together as parents and small children for granted. It makes me want to kiss, giggle, play, explore, dance, sing, run, spin, paint, daydream with them and hold them and not let go...even as they grow out of my lap.
I am truly, truly blessed to have such amazing children to love. Please know that I love you with all my being, little ones, and will protect you all of my days...and nights (even those frequent waking nights). I am trying my best....and somedays it doesn't seem as if that is enough.
You are the joys of my life....

books, books, books

There are SO many books that I want to read right now. I plan to read them. I can promise to read them....but I most likely won't follow through. I don't know how I used to DEVOUR books continuously. Oh! How I miss that! I am especially having difficulty with non-fiction. I get three pages in and forget about it on the night-stand buried beneath the stacks of soft covered early reader library books, board books and half-read magazines. I have 8 books on hold at the library at the moment. I am SO excited to pick them up....but who am I kidding. I'm not going to read them.

Oh September, don't you cry for me....

It's hard to imagine that the desolate mud pit of our back yard was the haven of butterflies and sunflowers only five months ago.Oh! The wonderful smell of sheets dried on the line.

And even though the Morning Glory or bindweed is a 'weed', it is SO beautiful. I miss the warm days that are perfect for naps in the grass with your favourite feline.
And imagining that the leaves of the sunflowers are floating from the sky.
Oh, September, I am trying to savour the quiet sleep of Winter....but I want to be outside in the fresh clean air!

I did it!!!!

I finally managed to list everything on Etsy! I stayed up until 1 am changing phto sizes and listing each item. It took much longer than I had anticipated, but I am SO pleased that I'm done for a bit.

I've used my mom's account and have listed my things with her sweaters. I'll have to do some tinkering to make it geared towards both of us. Thanks Mom!
I am a bit insecure about listing my 'things'...I'm not sure why that is. Fear of failure? Fear of people's opinions? I don't know. I wish that those feelings of inadequacy would go away as I got older! I guess it's one of those things that I need to work on...
I LOVE this sweater that my Mom just knit. It has this soft ethereal feel to it. Krista totally helped me out by taking the photos for me for the sweaters! I was having a heck of a time doing very well it myself. I think the photo quality for Mom's sweaters went way up with Krista's shots. She takes such amazing photos!

peanut butta!

Liv and I made chocolate nut butter a few days ago. It started as peanut butter, but we ran out of peanuts! So we started adding hazelnuts. Then I had the 'fabulous' idea of adding cocao as they do in Nutella....Then we had to add sugar. It turns out that they use A LOT of sugar to Nutella. We never did get the proper oil/nut/sugar ratio. I thought it was gross. Olivia thought it was passable. I do notice that she hasn't eaten any since we made it. Oh well! The activity itself was fun.

crafty sister

My beloved sister made this doll for her little guys....I love it! It made me giggle.....okay, laugh histerically. I don't know what it is - the sweet little face? the baby's bum made out of the heel of a sock? the belly button? the nostrils? the thoughtful, creative and caring nature of my sister making sweet toys out of socks? Whatever it is, I love it!

A Walk in the Park

One of the many fabulous things about having my sister in town now is the walks we can do together! We took our brood of a five year old and three 20 month olds plus one of the dogs out to the park for a wintery walk. It was a beautiful day! Matty and Gabe really enjoyed having a canine friend along to walk themselves. Freckles was on his best behaviour and let each little one have a turn holding his leash as he walked slowly. He isn't my wonderful companion, Eli, but I have to admit that he is a very good dog.
Briar, Matty and Freckles loved walking ahead together. They seemed like two little old men out for a walk with their dog. They chatted and strolled along.

Amazing Discovery!!!!!!

You may know this already......BUT in a fit of exasperation over a burnt, crusted on mess of lasagna, I used the baking soda and salt that I keep in a shaker by my sink (to clean the sink). I made a paste with it and scrubbed the bottom of the pan. Voila!!!! It was so simple and easy, it was close to ridiculous! Thinking that I had made an amazing discovery, I told my sister. Evidently, some people already know this little secret. If you didn't already, you do now!