A Family Complete

Welcome to the world, Isabel Silver.

Born December 29th at 1:52am, weighing in at 8lbs 3oz.

We'll be nesting for a while yet so don't look for a lot of posts in the next little while.

Happy 2012! From our family of four

Merry Christmas

Festive greetings, if anyone is still checking back here these days.

We've been having a very quiet holiday season around here this year. We are also still awaiting the arrival of our guest of honour. There is still no baby girl present and accounted for at our holiday table.

But that's perfectly okay with us. With all the complications we were having in this pregnancy and the warning that we shouldn't be surprised to see her by 37 weeks (which would have been the first week of December), we count ourselves lucky that she is technically overdue as of right now.

With her due date being today, she is still firmly ensconced in her cozy space and comfy as can be. And that's all good since at this stage of the game, she's busy growing a brain. Every day extra she's in there, the smarter she's getting. Hard to complain about that. (Hard but not impossible because I really am quite tired of being pregnant. lol)

Anyway, once she's here and the holidays are behind us, regular posting will hopefully return to this space.

In the meantime, I hope you and yours are having an amazing festive season, in whatever way you like to celebrate!

Michele

Halloween Themed Things

Since bedrest is the order of the day, I do seem to have some crafting time. And with Halloween just passed, I thought I would show what I was working on in October.

First, some skull potholders for my brother's new bachelor pad kitchen, out of the Debbie Stoller Happy Hooker book.


Then we had some Yoda ears needed for a small boy.


And for the newest member of our circle of friends, a newborn hat with monkey ears so baby Cullen had something to wear on the big day.


Hope you all had a lovely Halloween! Michele

New Skills

Callum and I have been learning some lately.

David made us two tapestry looms, one Mama-sized and one Callum-sized.

Here's what we did with Callum's on the weekend.


It's a remarkably restful and relaxing thing to do with one's hands - and the baby girl and her midwife say I have to be doing restful and relaxing things for the rest of this trimester.

So, hopefully we'll see more weaving and maybe some more crochet and knitting on here in the next little while.

Hope you're having a lovely October, Michele

Eek! September Is Gone!

Well, I guess my goal of getting more posts up didn't happen in September. Maybe in October, but I'm not making anymore promises of this nature until after this baby is born. Energy levels being what they are, I have no idea if such commitments are even reasonable.

But rest assured that I am crafting. Christmas crafting even. Given that Baby Girl is due on Christmas Eve, I thought it best if I get on top of the holiday cheer early, just to make sure the holidays actually happen around here. Not too much, but enough to make it feel festive.

As soon as I get organized enough to take some photos and get them uploaded to the new laptop, we should have something for you to look at.

Until then, Happy Autumn, Michele

Plans Of A Different Kind

One of the non-crafty things I like to do is read. I have lots of reading that I do just for pleasure, (even guilty pleasures) that's for sure. But since my university days have ended, I also like to give myself reading challenges.

Reading challenges? Yes. Reading challenges. I don't mean "This year I will read more literary classics." They are more specific than that. For example, a couple of years ago, I decided I would read all the winners of the Giller Prize. I'm not in a hurry or anything, but I am working my way through them.

In fact, I only have two books left as of this past weekend. I've ordered these two from the library and will be picking them up later this week. (Fortunately, both are available on cd so I can carry on with my Christmas crafting while I indulge!)

It feels great to be nearly through them all. This is especially great since some of them were really difficult books to read. Difficult style, difficult subject matter, difficult emotionally. I'm not sure they were all worth it but the difficult ones do stay with me, that's for certain.

Now that I'm nearly finished this particular challenge, my next big reading list is going to be the Canada Reads winners. There is definitely some overlap and it's a smaller list, which makes it a bit less daunting, and I am so okay with that.

Another blogger I discovered recently is trying to read the Canada Reads Top 40 books. It's comforting to know I'm not the only reader out there who gives herself these kinds of challenges. Very comforting. ;)

So my question for you today: what do you like to read? What kinds of books call to you?

Happy reading, Michele

Homesteading 101

Some of the fruits of my labours this summer:

A great batch of soap for the coming year.



And some home-made pickles. My first success with these babies.


I was hoping for a lot more produce from my garden this year but the weather in June was astonishingly bad and drowned my crops - twice. The fact that I got six jars of dills is a testament to my want to pickle things - I had to buy the cucumbers at the farmer's market!

Still . . . we got more this year than last. And I'm still stoked about next year with big plans for improvements, seed starting and weather precautions.

In the meantime, I'll take what I can get from our little urban farmhouse. It makes me happy, no matter how small.

Happy Tuesday, Michele