Nothing to write

I wish I had more things going on in my life right now to talk about on the blog. Basically I'm working everyday and coming home to spend some time with Ayla. If you want me to blather on everyday about how cute she is and how many new things she's learning then I can certainly oblige. But even I know that can get quite annoying after awhile. I don't want to be like one of those people. So I'll just tell you about one cute little thing she did instead.

I was washing the dishes and turned around to see the missy walking from the bathroom with the toilet paper trailing over her shoulder. The pictures are kinda dark because I tried to run and grab my camera before she gave up her new discovery. Needless to say there was toilet paper all over the house among the other stuff that ends up strewn about in her wake.

Tonight Alex decided to make grilled jerk tofu and some roasted veggies. We didn't have much left in our crisper so he was doing a complete freestyle with the veggies. We got the jerk seasoning from the restaurant The Reef on our trip to Victoria last year. It was very tasty if a bit spicy. He's been watching previous seasons of Top Chef and was trying to get creative with the gravy. Bless his heart.

Hopefully I'll have something to say tomorrow but if not I'll be back on Wednesday with Ayla's birthday celebration pictures. And hopefully I'll be able to still make her birthday dress and some other stuff I have up my sleeve. I better get to work!

Thrifty me

So the other day we went to Once Upon a Child to sell some toys that we had gotten for Ayla from Alex's friend. We ended up getting 22 bucks for everything and I was very happy with that. As I was walking around the store waiting for them to assess our goods I found this wooden doll cradle and this wooden doll house for 7 and 10 bucks a piece.

Well if you don't already know, I'm obsessed with wooden toys and at those prices, even more so. I thought it was a very good trade for the stuff we were bringing in (read: big plastic eye sores). Ayla is not really that into toys so I'm saving them for when she is. I was going to get her a much more expensive doll house when she's older but I think this one is in good condition. It comes with all the pieces and little people. It's perfect. I threw away the bedding that came with the doll cradle because they looked a little ratty so I'll be making a new set for it one day. I'm thinking of sanding and painting it too or restaining it. I'm not sure I might also just leave it as is.

I finally finished that hoodie that I've been working on for ages. It called for a 20" zipper and you wouldn't believe the ordeal I went thru to get one. Actually I still didn't find one I had to buy a 22" zipper and tear off the prongs till it was the right size then whip stitch the top closed. I love the way it turned out but boy sewing that pocket on the front and getting everything to line up was a real nightmare! I've already started on my next sweater and I've made side pockets instead. But still, I accidentally cut the sleeves too short on that one so it's taking me a bit longer than I had hoped. Thank goodness for seam rippers!

One last thing, I have this peppermint foot lotion I got at the Body Shop awhile back and I was using it yesterday and thinking that I just had to mention it on the blog. It's such a great foot lotion and it makes your feet feel all refreshed. So if you're into that kinda thing you must go pick up a jar or a bottle.

Heat wave

We've been having quite the heat wave here in central Alberta so I've not really been in the mood to do much. I kept thinking I should update the blog but the computer's upstairs where it's about 5 degrees hotter than downstairs so I opt to stay downstairs in my sewing room. Lucky me that my sewing room is down there so I can while away my time without passing out from heat stroke! And speaking of the computer room. On Saturday we went to Ikea to buy some new desks to spruce things up a bit. We had bought really small ones when we got here two years ago with the intention of going bigger later on when we could afford it.

I have to say it makes such a huge difference in here, I love it. I wish I could show the whole thing in one shot but that's just not going to happen. I'm happy that I now have a place to showcase my many cookbooks. Yes I have quite the handful and Alex actually bought me another one the other day. Vegan Express by Nava Atlas. I have yet to read it and make something. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. We've been ordering these last few days because I'm avoiding the stove and not surprisingly so is Alex.

The other day I was reading Angry Chicken and she had posted a recipe for making your own lip balm. I, of course, am extremely interested in such things so I immediately went over to Mountain Rose Herbs where she bought her stuff and ordered the same things. It arrived a couple of days ago and I set to work. I felt like I was in my own little chem lab at my dining room table. Alex just thought I was nuts. But in the end it turned out wonderfully. I love it, the only thing is that with this extreme heat we're having (did I mention we're having a heat wave?) it melts very quickly in that metal container. I made two tins so it should last me quite some time. I'm thinking of getting another essential oil and making a different flavor when this batch runs out.

On a completely unrelated note, here's some pictures of Ayla feasting on her toes. I love it.

Oh and she decided to 'help' us out yesterday.

Swimsuit dilemma

I've had a very busy week lately and never seem to find the time to post about it. Actually I'm writing this while I should be in bed since I have a full day at work tomorrow. This weekend I decided that we would definitely be going back to the beach because it was going to be so hot that it was the only sensible thing to do. But unfortunately I wasn't loving any of the bathing suits that I owned. Which in the last few months have somehow mysteriously amounted to...dare I say it...four. But in my defense two of them were bought when I was pregnant so that shouldn't even count. Not that they were maternity bathing suits. Actually Alex is very cross with me because I never actually went swimming in them when I was pregnant and so it was basically a waste of money. And it really was because one of them cost a pretty penny. But I digress. All of those bathing suits are two pieces and so I wanted a one piece that wasn't too scanty but was still nice. I had seen the Alison pattern on Burda Style and decided to give it a try. I hopped over to Fabricville after work on Friday to get the fabric. Hoping that I'd have it done by Saturday morning. It's a bathing suit after all how much time will that take? A lot! Phew! I almost didn't even finish on time. Actually there are two safety pins fixing the top just how I wanted it because I didn't have time (or feel like it) to actually tact them in place properly before we had to go. I changed the design a little bit because really if I had to rate the instructions on making this bathing suit on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give it a -1 it was that horrible. I actually had to use instructions from someone who had made it and was kind enough to write down what she had done. Of course the link to her site is escaping me now but that's not important, unless you want to make it. If you do beware it is not for the faint at sewing heart!

A small note on these pictures. A couple of days ago I was fiddling with my camera settings and basically made it so that the colors and everything would turn out super sharp and very saturated. Well when I got to the beach I checked everything except that one little bit. So all of my beach photos don't look so hot. But hopefully you can get an idea of what my bathing suit looks like. I'll have to get Alex to take a proper picture of me in it so you can see the colors. Here are my ex-coworkers, who joined us at the beach. I'm so glad they could come! It was really nice hanging out with them. It's just too bad that we can't get together more often!

One last thing before I head to bed. On Friday while I was at work Alex called to tell me that Ayla took her first steps. I was so disappointed that I missed them! Sigh... But anyway, this evening she started practicing all over the place! She's really getting the hang of it. It's so amazing to see her try to get her balance and put one foot forward then steady herself and then the next foot. Really, if it were only for this one thing I would say it's so worth it to have my babe.

Summer photoshoot

Yesterday a friend who I met on Facebook's mommy group for Red Deer asked me if I would like to join her and her daughter in the park to take some photos. We both have new cameras that we don't really know how to use and so I thought it would be a great opportunity.

We ended up taking a lot more time that we anticipated but we had such a blast. I'm not so sure about Ayla and her daughter Faith though. They were about fed up at the end of the day and ready for a real long nap.

We've decided that since the pictures came out so well that we'd go out this fall when all the leaves are turning and take some more. I'm sure they'll turn out so lovely. Especially with the girls playing in the leaves!

A long weekend

A long weekend indeed, or maybe it was a too fast gone by weekend. Saturday was Alex's birthday and so I decided to make the triple layer chocolate cake by Dreena from Everyday Vegan. I topped it off with raspberries and it turned out amazingly! He loved it and has practically eaten half of it already! In the morning I made the Fronch toast recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. It was the first time I had made this recipe for vegan french toast and I must say, I can't imagine why anyone ever used eggs in french toast! Very good stuff. We even made it again on Sunday morning with veggie sausages, yum yum. For dinner we made a curry chickpea and potatoes from a new cookbook I had bought the day before at another one of our favorite stores in this town called Sunflower. They have a great selection of kitchen gadgets and books and many different things for around the house. But I digress. The chickpea curry was amazing! I told Alex that I was never going to make chickpea curry any other way again. The recipe called for a lot of spices in very large quantities but I edited as I saw fit. Two tablespoons of cayenne pepper is just way too much for my palette!

On Sunday we decided to head to Lake Louise to get some great pictures and see the glacier lake. It was beautiful as usual. We got some really great shots and Ayla was being super cute saying 'Bye, bye!' to everyone as we were leaving. I have so many Lake Louise pictures so please bear with me, I just didn't know which ones to weed out!

How do you like the chipmunk that decided to pose with Ayla in the background. He was in three of the shots we took of her like this.

Triple A's

I wish I had more to write about lately. The sewing room cleaning is coming along, albeit very slowly. I have so many ideas of things to make running around in my head that I find myself in that stage where my thoughts are overwhelming me and so I just end up going to bed early while listening to podcasts of other people getting things done. Or reading many of the great crafty blogs out there. I did order some fabric from Pink Chalk Studio, I ordered two more stack packs of the Amy Butler fabric to get started on my summer quilt. I really want to finish it before the summer is out because I'm thinking that I want to make one for autumn as well. This will be my first attempt at a large quilt, I'm thinking something big enough to use on our bed. I'm not sure what pattern to go with. Amy Butler has a free quilt pattern up using her Midwest modern fabrics which are the ones in my stack packs but I'm not sure that fat quarters are applicable to that quilt pattern. She has some other free patterns (Thea's puzzle quilt and Lotus brick path quilt) that I'm loving so much but again I don't think my fat quarters are gonna cut it so I'm keeping a lookout for something that will work with what I have.

The other thing high on my to do list is making a birthday dress for Ayla. I'm not sure whether we're going to throw a party. The house is too small for that and honestly I can't be bothered with the hassle of it. But I still want her to have a birthday dress. Again, I'm not sure what fabric to use for it. I want something fun and girly. I was thinking Anna Maria Horner but she has so many amazing fabrics I can't choose just one! But I better start ordering soon because I need time for shipping and time for sewing!