Happy Easter

Easter preparations are in full swing at our house. Since my mom is here, she is going all out with traditional dishes. We are certainly spoiled this time around, and it feels fantastic!

While my mom is busy with these preparations, I have had some time to ponder what sort of crafty surprise I can make for the kids. My criteria is simple, it has to be fast, cute and inexpensive. 

Now that there are 4 kids in the family, my sister and I have worked hard to create traditions and lasting memories for them. We are having an Easter egg hunt (indoors because it's still cold out), they will be decorating easter eggs, but I wanted something new as well. And then it hit me!

Why not dye quail eggs for them? They are certainly healthier than their chicken counterpart, and just their size. Plus the fact that they are spotted, makes for a cute pattern when you are done. 

Here are some before and after shots. What do you think?

And that lovely candle you see in the background? Remember how I was talking about my uncle with the bee-hives? Well he makes these candles as well, and this one has an adorable bunny theme.

Advent Countdown

It's that time of the year again! The holidays have snuck up on us, the first snowfall has already happened, and the countdown to Christmas begins. 

Now that I have made an Advent Calendar for 3 years in a row, the expectation has been set, and my son started asking days ago when this years' will be ready.

I just finished setting it up yesterday, and I find that it makes the house look festive. We're slowly setting up our Christmas decorations and we have a few cookie baking days set aside, these also having been requested by my son. I have to say, I am pleased to see that the little traditions I started a few years ago seem to already be ingrained and looked forward to. To me it means that he will have happy memories as an adult and that is exactly what I was hoping for.

On a more practical note, I am starting to run out of ideas as to what to fill the calendar with! I started with a puzzle, went on to a Playmobil one, last year's was filled with activities, and this year, every day he will get to unveil a Lego piece. 
What about next year?

Ideas? Suggestions? I realize I have another year to come up with something....still....help!

Tell me about your Christmas traditions. Anything that makes the countdown special? Something the kids can't get enough of? I am open to ideas, so go ahead, share!

And A Happy Advent-time to everyone.

Happy Easter

Everyone is a little Irish today

A little late in the day, I agree, but I did acknowledge St. Patrick's day today, by finishing the third piece of my Inversion Cardigan. This has been a work in progress since October!

So, for St. Patty's ... little green from me. Hope your celebrations were fun!

'Twas the night before Christmas

I am quickly checking in tonight, to wish everyone a "Merry Christmas", a most joyous of holidays alongside your loved ones.

The past few weeks have been a blur of planning, shopping and cooking.

We did manage to make our yearly visit to the Montreal Christmas Market, and I snapped a few photographs. It was a typical Montreal winter day. Freezing cold with a crystal clear, blue sky. We warmed up by huddling together on the train ride for little ones, with a glass of spiced wine (recipe here), and around the fire-pits that were strewn around the market.

Santa made his appearance and for the first time ever, Aidan was fearless, sat in his lap, and spoke to him.
We enjoyed lunch at a little french cafe around the corner, and headed back home. One of my favorite winter traditions we've started.

Perhaps, if I find some time during the holidays I will post about my knitted Christmas gifts. Now, I will go enjoy Santa's cookies and milk, but to be honest, I am thinking Santa deserves a glass of wine. Perhaps, this is a tradition that I will start next year!

Craft Fair - a weekend captured on Instagram

Ever since I visited the POP Puces market last year, I have been toying with the idea of signing up for a craft fair. But it seemed like such an intimidating endeavor, to open oneself up for criticism, to allow people to see my passion and "judge" it.

But I had to try. In the end, I decided   POP was perhaps too big a bite for me for a first try, so when my son's daycare organized a fair this past weekend, to raise funds for the kid's activities and shows, I was game.

I had 2 months to prepare. This may sound like plenty of time, but considering that I work full-time, and that my husband often travels for work, this only results in a couple of hours of knitting time per night. Still, I threw myself headfirst into the project and did manage to whip up quite a few knits. I focused on simple hats, neck warmers and scarves in kid's sizes, some cup-cozies, Christmas ornaments and felted bowls.

I was immensely proud of my stash. I scoured Pinterest for display and packaging ideas, and exchanged ideas with knitter extraordinaire Rebecca from the blog nook. Friday night I tested my set-up, put together an endless list of things to remember, and went to sleep, anxiously awaiting the next morning.

 

How can I describe the experience? It was wonderful to meet talented and like-minded people, that I can exchange ideas and stories with. I am always amazed at the wealth of ideas out there, and at how warm, welcoming and helpful the crafting community is.

The event itself, was unfortunately not a roaring success. Not even a mild one to be honest. I was disappointed to see, that despite everyone's efforts, almost none of the 140 families that bring their kids to this daycare showed up. I do not mean to sound whiny, but as a mother, I find it hard to understand that some parents do not take an interest in what goes on at their child's daycare, or what problems the daycare faces. These funds would have been invested in extra activities, as well as outfitting the center with more books and supplies. Who would not want that? Either way, I learned quite a bit, and I am grateful for that.

Regardless of the outcome, I am really happy that I participated and that I had this experience. I will certainly sign up for other fairs, I think I am ready!

I leave you with a few Instagram snapshots of the event.



Compassion

A few weeks ago, something my son did, gave me pause. His cousin had hurt herself, and was crying, but he was completely unimpressed, concerned with continuing the game he was playing.

It made me wonder. Is compassion something you are born with? Is it something that can be taught? To be honest I was bothered by the fact that he did not go up to her to check if she was all right, to try and comfort her.  

In speaking to my friends that also have kids the same age, I was given examples of children reacting the same way, but also of children that are very concerned with the well-being of others. I probably over-analyzed the situation, but I could not let it go.

So my husband and I spoke about this subject at length, and decided that even tough some people may be more sensitive to the needs of others, this sort of attitude is certainly something that can be taught. But how to approach this subject with a 5-year old child?

The perfect opportunity presented itself to us, when my husband was approached by a work-colleague who is a spokesperson for "Samaritan's Purse". It is a wonderful organization with multiple initiatives. One of which focuses on providing kids all around the world with some joy around the holidays.

We chose to fill 2 boxes  one for a boy, and another for a girl. We explained to Aidan that not all kids are as fortunate as he is, that oftentimes parents are unable to give their children everything they need, no matter how hard they try.

Then, this weekend we went shopping and involved him in the choices, and I was glad to see that he was into it, asking questions and maybe even pondering this newly learned information.
I have always talked about how important family traditions are to me, and I think we have found a new one. We plan on packing these boxes each year, to make Aidan a part of the process and make sure that he learns to be loving, considerate and compassionate.

How about you? Any such traditions in your family? Have you ever had your child react in a way that has made you wonder about values and how to teach them? I would be curious to know!

Mother's Day

I have attempted writing this post several times, and I have to admit I have found it hard. I was planning on writing about my own relationship with my mom, which is certainly not picture-perfect and about my own experience of motherhood, but it turned into more of a rant, a string of thoughts that is more appropriate for my journal then for my blog. So I decided to take a different approach.

Mother's day is about me! I hope that all you mommies out there are treated like royalty and spoiled by the men in your lives! I know you deserve it!

To celebrate, I treated myself to some scrumptious yarn. Now, it has not yet arrived, it is in transit, so I can only show you a picture of the listing, but look at it, is it not the most amazing color palette?

I really hope it will arrive on time for me to take on vacation, because I have some grand plans for it. To me, it looks like the perfect yarn to knit with on the beach.

Before I go off and enjoy the mother's day festivities I thought I'd share my son's theory on how he ended up in this world. He told me recently that he believes his dad and I went to a cave with babies and simply chose him. He keeps asking us why we picked him, and not a girl, why we liked him and not some other child. Maybe it's me, but I think it's adorable.

Another adorable thing is this bouquet of wildflowers he picked for me today. I really could not have picked better in that cave....

Our Easter

We celebrated Easter this past weekend. The advantage of celebrating it a week later then most people, is that I've been able to scour Pinterest for cute decorating and crafty ideas. The amount of talent and inventiveness out there is crazy!

I had it all planned out. The menu, the activities and the decorations, and I was pretty pleased with the results.

Holidays and family gatherings, such as these, can be tough. Our family is always reminded that we are spread all over the globe, and only get to meet face-to-face rarely. At the same time this fact makes us appreciate the family members that are close by, and nurture these relationships as we know they are precious.Generally I would say that we are too dependent on technology, but to be honest I cannot remember what it was like before we discovered Skype. To be able to "see" your family, to have cousins that have never met interact, recognize and speak to each other has helped me tremendously in accepting that we are living our lives separated. But I am getting too sentimental here.

I started this post by telling you how nicely I had planned out the festivities. As always, plans are one thing, and reality turns into something completely different. The kids squabbled all day, over chocolate, over coloring the Easter eggs, over who was doing a better job with their activity book. I bought the wrong dough for my dessert, and then forgot to defrost the blueberries I needed for it as well (thank God my sister had brought a "just in case" cake), and then I realized I had forgotten to buy lemons, a major ingredient in one of the dishes we were preparing. Finally the laptop shut down in the middle of our Skype conversation because it was not connected to the power-supply.

So our Easter celebrations ended up being the usual mayhem that our family celebrations are.

I will be leaving you with some photos that portray a completely different picture, make you believe it was all a very "zen" get-together. But I am not complaining, after all, how boring would that be?

L♥ve is in the air

A. and I have been working on his Valentine's cards for a few weekends now. They are safely tucked into his back-pack, and I know he's bursting with excitement and can hardly wait to give them away today. 

And this has made me think.... Valentine's Day was never a huge thing for me, but it is always nice to be told you are loved, right? Sometimes little gestures are all it takes.

Like the one my hubby made. He is halfway around the world all week, but before leaving, he got me this delicious tea, called "Read My Lips". This is how it's described :" It's a totally decadent combination of China black tea, vanilla, peppermint, chocolate bits and spicy red peppercorns. Plus it contains little red candy lips for a kiss of sweetness. In other words, it's a completely satisfying spring experience with no guilt or strings attached".

It smells divine, like most of the David's Tea choices, and yes, there really are little red lips in the tea. 

To make the experience complete, I baked some brownies, after all, mint and chocolate are a perfect pair, just like the two of us!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Deck the Halls

I finally mananged to take a few photos of our own Christmas decorations to share with you guys. Aidan has really enjoyed helping me.

We started with his room. I especially like these little wooden ornaments.

Every year we've added a few special pieces like this star.

The Christmas Pyramid and Advent Calendar belonged to my grandmother and I count them among my most treasured possessions.

I had quite a number of crafts I wanted to make, but only managed these snow globes. Aidan loves it. It's a really fun and easy thing to make. For anyone interested, I kind of followed this tutorial.

And last, but not least, our own Christmas tree.

The only thing missing now, are the gifts, and I really hope I will finish all of my hand-knits in time.

Montreal Christmas market

In keeping with my newly established Christmas traditions, we ventured to a Christmas-market this weekend. Last year’s was a great experience and even though we were not fortunate enough to have much snow this time around, it was still great.

With Michael Bublé’s new Christmas CD playing, we headed to the Marche de Noël de L'Assomption. At the market, we were greeted by a wonderful smell of vanilla and cinnamon roasted almonds. We strolled by the different vendors and admired the offerings, even ran into a familiar name. 

People were milling about buying Christmas trees and warming up by the fire pits that were strewn about the market. A little train was blasting carols and taking excited kids on a ride around the neighbourhood to admire the Christmas decorations. The kids enjoyed watching people eating maple taffy, and posed dutifully with a giant nutcracker. 

Until….a familiar sound caught their attention. Surely it could not be? Did someone really say “HO, HO, HO”?

To everyone’s delight Santa made an appearance at the market. Of course, we also had to greet him and tell him about our own wish list, which by the way includes a garbage truck (don’t ask).

It was a wonderful outing and I can say that this is definitely a tradition I will hold on to.

This weekend I will go around the house and photograph some of our decorations to share with my readers.

Advent Calendar

There is something magical about the time before Christmas. In my family the season was always kicked off by December first, the advent time, the count-down to Christmas morning.

I've been working hard at starting my own family traditions, and it is a continually evolving list, but so far we have hot chocolate to welcome the first snowfall, a visit to the Christmas market, weekly cookie baking and this year, I am adding crafting to the list.

It's so easy to feel inspired by the multitude of ideas out there, and I am always amazed at the talent and incredible ideas my fellow crafters display. Last year, I made A. an advent calendar (see details here), and he really liked it, so of course I had to make one for this year. He's a big Lego and Playmobil fan, and they have great ready made Advent calendars.

That was my starting point, but the presentation I wanted to personalize. So, using this tutorial I made 24 boxes (took forever),wrapped them, made tags, and finished at 11:30 on the 30th November.I can't begin to describe how his face lit up in the morning at the sight of it. It made the papercuts all worth it. Next, we're making our own snow-globes, and on the weekend we're checking out this Christmas market. And soon I'll be updating you on my Christmas knitting as well.

Happy Advent everyone!

Happy Mother's Day

Today, a quote on motherhood that I really like:

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."   --Elizabeth Stone

Hope you are all being spoiled and made to feel special......I am!

Easter Recap

I hope your Easter celebration was merry, filled with happy moments and good food.

I thought for today’s post I would share how I prepared for my family’s Easter. I find that with each passing year I am more and more inclined to include hand-made gifts and decorations in our holiday celebrations. There are so many inspiring ideas out there, so many great tutorials that I have to at least try.

I wanted to do something special for everyone coming over. Last year I had baked sugar cookies and gave everyone their own tin, so this year, when I saw this idea, I knew it was the perfect thing. I mean a pie baked in a jar? How perfectly cute is that? As I am a collector at heart I had enough jars gathered to bake a pie for everyone. The pies were super-easy to prepare and if I do say so myself delicious! I think everyone who sampled it agrees.

For the wrapping I followed a tutorial found on Creature Comforts (a great resource), that shows you how to make your own greeting cards with wasi tape, but I made tags instead of cards. I loved how they came out, and it’s such a great idea that I think I may just make my own Christmas cards too (it’s all about planning ahead, right?).

As for the Easter eggs, I had promised myself I was going to use natural dyes, first because I am trying to make our household as “green” as possible, and second it was Earth day after all. I followed this tutorial and the results were great.

I am constantly wishing for more time, and if next year I have it, I want to try the egg-o-gram, it’s adorable!

That’s it for me, on to more knitting!

Easter Traditions

I have very fond memories of Easter. I remember my family’s preparations, starting with the big spring cleaning, the decorating, the cooking. My grandma always filled the house with flowers from the garden, forsythia, daffodils and tulips. I loved the colors, and to this day these flowers bring a smile to my face.

For us kids, Easter was always exciting because we were allowed to stay up late and go to midnight mass. I remember dressing up, walking to church, joined by hundreds of people. Because the crowds were so large, mass was oftentimes held on the church steps so that everyone would see and hear. The sense of peace and community, it was almost palpable.

At the end of mass, the priest “gives light”, meaning he lights someone’s candle (everyone brings one), and this person lights someone else’s and so forth, until everyone’s candle is burning. You take the candle home, as it is supposed to light your way for the coming year. You have to imagine a sea of people with burning candles slowly and silently making their way home. It’s a magical sight.

And on Sunday you feast.

Of course the other important Easter tradition was the painting of the Easter eggs. I loved it, what kid does not? When I moved to Canada one of my most cherished mementos I took with me was this hand-painted Easter egg. There are very talented artisans in Romania that specialize in this type of “painting”.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

 I am preparing for A.’s first Easter-egg coloring experience. I’ve done my research on using natural dyes, and I promised him he can use Spider-man stickers to decorate….not exactly traditional but hey, it makes him happy. As I am not much of a painter, I knitted my own Easter eggs (you may have seen them in my Etsy shop). I think they will make a beautiful centerpiece, and when A. is older, we can even use them for an Easter egg hunt.

Happy Valentine's Day

I had this idea of knitting adorable little hearts in preparation for Valentine’s Day. I even thought it would be cute for A. to take them to daycare for his little girlfriends (yes, plural, not girlfriend, but girlfriends). But after about an hour of trying to knit 6 stitches with 4 needles and dropping them, retrying, twisting the whole thing, retrying, dropping the needles again, having a glass of wine, starting from scratch only to lose a needle again, I decided that baking is the way to go!

Maybe next year I will give it another try knitting hearts. I ended up finding some patterns that look promising. After all, it is important to know when to quit, right?

Since I am a food network addict, and a compulsive list-maker, I have a collection of recipes I am planning to try. It was not at all hard to narrow it down to a red-velvet cupcake recipe by Chuck Hughes, star of the show “Chuck’s Day off”.

Armed with new confidence and with the support of my 3-year old assistant baker I got to work.

The recipe is very simple, and it took us no time to make the batter. We watched with anticipation as the cupcakes began to rise.  Because I had naively ignored the instruction of only filling the cupcake mold half-way, my first batch, I must confess, looks more like a muffin than a cupcake, but thank heavens the taste did not suffer. I ended up redeeming myself with the second batch.

One cupcake had to cool off immediately in front of the open window so that my impatient son could sample it right away, and the verdict was in…..delicious!!!!

With some high-calorie frosting and red-colored sugar, here is the end-result.

In the end I think that A.’s girlfriends will probably prefer these Valentine’s Day gifts anyway.

Happy New Year

Getting ready for the countdown... Hope all of you have a happy, healthy, adventurous and inspired 2011.

Christmas Eve

It was Christmas Eve. A. was in bed, milk and cookies were set out for Santa, the tree was lit, the gifts wrapped and set out, the table was set for the next morning, and as I sat down with a glass of wine to relax and take it all in, I thought, why not knit a little Christmas ornament? I found a pattern in Debbie Bliss’ “A knitter’s year”, and in about an hour had knitted this:

Merry Christmas

To everyone out there, to all my faithful (and occasional) readers, Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. Hope your holidays are filled with joy, peace of mind and happiness.