We took Buzz to Dutch Dreams earlier this week. Dutch Dreams is a magical place where ice cream is pretty much the only item on the menu. I've only ever been once before when I came to Toronto to visit my sister and she took me to Dutch Dreams for dinner. Ice cream for dinner.... I thought it was amazing. I've been wanting to go all summer and the opportunity opened up for all three of us to go on a rainy Monday. 

We ordered three scoops with marshmallow topping, it came with whipped topping, fruit, and peanuts. It was good.... very very good. Buzz's eyes got very big when they put it on the table in front of him.

Buzz was tired from a long day out, but he stayed awake long enough to eat a little ice cream and taste the icing sugar sprinkled on the edge of the plate. 

I don't have any pictures of the outside of the building but its covered in cows and bright colours, the inside is crammed full of dutch treats and has cows hanging from pretty much everywhere. Before we left they gave Buzz a balloon, he fell asleep almost as soon as we got on the bus.

More Sewing

If you thought the lightning bolts from yesterday's post were adorable then you will definitely want to check out these delightful new additions to the Mrs.Sewbot family - rainclouds with faces!

Sewing

I'm getting ready this week for a craft show that I'm participating in this weekend, part of the Cabbagetown festival, and so I have been coming up with a few new items that will hopefully delight! There will definitely be more to come but here is a little look at my latest project - lightning bolts! They'll go wonderfully with the clouds that I'm sewing today.

If you are in Toronto then I would highly recommend heading on down to Cabbagetown to check out the festival this weekend. The whole neighbourhood is filled with crafts, yard sales, and tons of people. Last year we all had a great time, Ed took Buzz to the pancake breakfast, they explored playgrounds, I sold crafts and shopped at yard sales, all while soaking in the early autumn weather.

What I Love Wednesday

Hey...its Wednesday. What do I love? Hmm....... I've got it! I love when Ed tosses Buzz in the air (and catches him of course). Buzz giggles, Ed smiles, and for a moment a tiny piece of the world becomes a better place.

Places to Go :a visit to rose beach with wings

We're down to the last days of August and so we hit the beach this weekend to enjoy the slightly cooler weather and the wonderful sunshine. I love when the cooler weather hits but the sky is still full of sunshine. Buzz has a true red head complexion and cooler weather means that he can spend more time in long sleeves and pants, reducing the need for copious amounts of sunscreen.

We were down to Chatham this past weekend for a visit to see my parents and on Sunday we went out for a drive so that we could all dip our feet in the water of Lake Erie. Buzz was a little nervous at first, but he got the hang of the waves and was soon throwing stones into the water and retrieving them once the water retreated. 

I had picked up a pair of blue butterfly wings for him at Wal-Mart earlier in the weekend and he seemed to enjoy wearing them wherever we went. Most people were very receptive to my little boy wearing his blue wings, I think we only heard one comment about how he's going to not like us later in life for putting him in them. The truth of it though is that there really isn't any way we could force him to wear anything. He's old enough now that if he doesn't want to wear something, he takes it off, and that is perfectly fine with us. 

With Halloween coming up (eee!!! I love Halloween) it is a great time to stock up on dress up clothes. If you're trying to build a dress up collection on a budget look for accessories; wings, wands, and hats, as opposed to entire outfits.

I hope that you're enjoying the last few days of summer. Luckily our summers tend to extend well into September. Without the deadline of back to school we are free to enjoy the empty playgrounds and cool breezes.

Food and Animals

I've been crocheting quite a bit this week, I made some baby hats and sold the very first one that I listed on Etsy. I'm hoping to list some more as soon as I can get them made. If you're interested in placing an order for a hat send me a quick message through my Etsy shop.I think my favourite is the fox hat, I find it delightful.

 

Near the end of the week Buzz and I took a trip on a bus and went over to the Eglinton - Yonge neighbourhood to spend some time with friends. We went to the apple tree farmers' market with  my friend D and her beautiful baby. This is a great farmers' market, lots of fresh fruit and veggies, some honey, the chocolate guy, and ready to eat food. Buzz and I had lunch, bought some Kale, and then said goodbye to D and baby boy beautiful. We then walked up the street and met up with Alexis, we did a little more shopping and then went over to her apartment where I made some Kale chips. The Kale chips were simple, rip the leaves into chip sized pieces, toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and bake in the oven at 350 or so for about 10 to 15 minutes. These were a delicious snack, I must find more Kale and snack again.

Yesterday we went to yet another birthday party (our 5th since Buzz's own in April). At this point in the year Buzz has the whole birthday party routine down pat and is quick to chat about cake when we tell him where we're going. Buzz loved the party and was exhausted afterward. As usual he was also a huge fan of the birthday cake.

Today we kept it low key with just a little trip over to drop off our baby swing for Little K to use. It was set up in a hurry and he seemed to like it. We also brought lunch and cherries - a treat for everyone!

On our way home we saw a coyote just off the side of the 401. We were slowed down enough that I was able to get a picture. He blends in pretty well but look close, he's right in the middle. 

I'm excited to see what this week brings, hopefully a few more meetups with friends and a trip or two to a farmer's market. August is almost over and while I'm looking forward to cooler weather, I'm definitely feeling the need to squeeze the last little bit of warmth and fun from the summer.

Places to Go : The David Dunlap Observatory

In an attempt to catch sight of the meteor shower this past weekend we drove up to our local observatory to see what we could see. Unfortunately they had cancelled the event (the meteor shower was still happening I'm sure, we simply didn't have the clear skies or telescopes with which to see it) but they were more than welcoming and invited us onto their creepily dark grounds to get a little tour of the place. The telescope was huge, their building was majestic in the light of the full moon, and it was dark enough to take some pretty awesome flashlight pictures. 

I set the exposure time for 15 or so seconds and Ed wrote my name with a flashlight. I had to flip the image so that my name wasn't backwards, the end result is pretty cool. I want to do another with sparklers.

 

We're hoping to head on up to the observatory again later this summer to catch sight of some stars and dance in the dark.

With the autumn fast approaching I've been busy crocheting some warm hats to sell in my Etsy shop. I've put two lamb hats up already, and although one has sold, there is still one available and I'll be making more just as quickly as I can. Take a peek at my shop and don't forget to check back often!

Rain Day

We have a whole lot of rain in the neighbourhood today and Buzz is loving it. We spent part of the morning watching mighty machines and playing before going for a little walk. Buzz kept mostly dry by wearing his blue raincoat and pink rain boots, I used an umbrella and gave up on the idea of dry feet by opting to wear garden clogs, Buzz's baby Ernie doll didn't even bother with the pretense of clothing.We all went out in the rain and Buzz found just about every puddle out there, at one point he was ankle deep in muddy water, Buzz loves puddles.

At the end of our walk in the rain Buzz was soaking wet from his head to his toes (literally, his socks were soaking wet) and very happy.

Puddle jumping is a sweet part of childhood that can easily be lost, its much easier to stay home on a rainy day, to keep everyone warm and dry in the house, to rush past the puddles while on your way to the bus stop. I think that puddle jumping is too dear an experience to lose to practicality. If its raining where you are then consider putting a hold on your indoor activities, put on some rainboots (or go barefoot in your own driveway), and head outside. Stash a couple of towels by the door so that you can dry off when you get back inside, and go jump in some puddles.

Nature in the City : A Trip to Evergreen Brickworks

If you live in Toronto (or even just nearish) and you haven't been to Evergreen Brickworks I would suggest you thow away all your plans for tomorrow and get there quick. We've been visiting the Brickworks every once in a while for the past year or so and I'm amazed at everything that has changed. When we started going down for their farmer's markets there were more unfinished areas then finished areas and while it was all good and lovely, it has definitely become better.

Today when we went down to the Brickworks we had a few goals; eat some food, pick up some onions, capture at least one decent family picture. Done, done, and done. We had wonderful french fries tossed in herbs and salt, as well as some tasty corn tortillas which were pressed and cooked up right in front of us. Everything we ate was incredibly tasty.

After buying our onions, some peaches and garlic Ed took our produce back to the car, picked up our tripod and we did some exploring and picture taking.

  Evergreen Brickworks is a wonderful example of nature in the city,  you can get to the Brickworks by bus, car, or bike (if you go by car be prepared to pay for parking, if you go by transit you can catch a free shuttle from Broadview Station, and if you go by bike you should stop by the bike works for a tune up). Once you are at the Brickworks you can check out the ponds, see a blue heron or snapping turtle (we saw both and a whole bunch of fish), and hike up to the ridge and take in a view of the city. I can't say enough good things about the Brickworks, they've even added a cafe and an area for the kids where they can learn about nature, water some plants, and play play play.

There are often events at the Brickworks, and of course the farmer's market on Saturday mornings, just check out their website for more information.

a wonderfully fine weekend

I hope that you all are enjoying this wonderfully fine weekend. Up here in Canada we are lucky enough to have a long weekend which means that Ed gets to hang out with us for 3 days instead of the usual 2 - hurrah! What makes this weekend even better is that our only plan is to go to a birthday party and then eat some barbequed deliciousness.

Today we popped over to my sister's house to bring by some vegetables from the garden and take pictures of their new baby. Thats right people - there is a new baby in the family, Little K arrived last week and was the reason we were so busy. I was lucky enough to be in the room when Little K was born and he was super cute from his very first breath. The week that followed Little K's birth was filled with us running around town and visiting Little K at the hospital while visiting the rest of my family that had come in to town to see him too. My sister and my niece flew into the city and in between visits we took a trip through Kensington Market to pick up some delicious food.

Buzz doesn't have much interest in Little K  yet, although he was thrilled that he could see pictures of him on the camera. 

On our way home we stopped at Starbucks to enjoy a nice cool drink, Buzz amused himself by making faces in the mirror. 

Tonight we're looking forward to going over to the garden and ripping out the last of our peas from their plot, we're going to attempt to grow some late carrots as our others have turned out so nicely already. In other garden news we now have a couple fully open sunflowers. These sunflowers are really pretty, a rusty reddish orange colour and standing about shoulder height.

Alright, time to get back to enjoying our leisurely weekend. Ed is snoozing on the couch and Buzz has climbed on top of him and is smooshing Ed's face, I think I must save him.

What I love Wednesday : Hot Evenings and Cool Arenas

A quick 'What I love Wednesday' before I go to sleep. I love love love sitting in a cool hockey arena watching Ed play hockey when it is crazy hot outside. The past couple of weeks Buzz and I have made the trek to the arena with Ed despite the fact that his games were well past Buzz's bedtime. The evenings have been totally worth it, last week the heat was intolerable and Buzz slept for the entire game leaving me to chat with Alexis (she tagged along so that she too could partake in the air conditioning) while crocheting - the evening was blissful!

No photos this time around, the house is silent and Ed and Buzz are sound asleep, I would love to stay up to crochet but alas I too am tired.

Goodnight!

This week has been busy busy busy for us (more on the big reason it was so busy later) and a crazy weekend wouldn't be complete without a visit to the farm. 

Ed's parents run a dairy farm outside of Peterborough and we visit often enough that Buzz is finally becoming familiar with the place. During this trip up he climbed towers of hay bales, showed no fear of cows, and went down a very tall slide, his courage was amazing. (In the picture Ed is attempting to get Buzz down from the bales, he got up with the help of a cousin).

 

I am pretty in love with some of the cows, they can be surprisingly lovely animals if you take the time to scratch behind their ears, this time I fell head over heals for a little jersey cow in the stall at the end of the row. She was smaller then the holstein cows and her face was incredibly sweet. While she was milked I pet her ears and she seemed to like that, sadly she is on loan and so we may never hang out again, but it was nice while it lasted. 

If you live in the city then take a weekend to get out to the country, while not everyone has a farm in the family, most people can take their family to the farm. If you're not sure where to look for a farm near you, start asking around especially at farmer's markets, someone there is bound to have a farm that you can visit. If you are in the Toronto area check out Brook's Farms, you can pick berries, feed some chickens, take a ride on a zipline, and play with all the toys on their giant lawn, they're located outside Newmarket. 

Buzz is having a nap today and while he was sleeping I made a holder for his cars and small toys. I would love to provide a full tutorial, but I didn't take quite enough photos, no worries though, I'm hoping to give you enough of a run down that you can make your own.

I used a sturdy red fabric for the back piece of the holder, this was a scrap piece that I happened to have and was already just over 10" wide. I cut it so that it was 40" in length and then folded it in half so that it measured 10"x 20" . This piece could be any size depending on the size of the holder that you want to make and the amount of fabric that you have available.

I cut three pieces of grosgrain ribbon (with polka dots). I trimmed the ends so that they wouldn't frey, folded them over and sandwiched these three pieces between the ends of the top of the large red piece. These pieces are going to become the ties on the top of the holder,  you may want to use more ties if the holder you are making is very wide. I sewed the edges of the red piece being careful to leave a space open to turn the piece right side out.

I cut three pieces of rainbow fabric measuring about 8"x14". I folded them lengthwise and then sewed the long edge and one short edge. I then turned these three pieces right side out and top-stitched a long side on each of them. I attached these pieces to the large red piece by cutting pinning  and then sewing the short ends to the red piece, be sure to get them even, measure them if you have trouble eyeballing them. These pieces are going to look too large but they are supposed to be that way. Find the middle of the rainbow piece and sew it down along the centre line of the red piece. I created the pockets by folding the excess over on either end to create pleats and then sewing across the bottom of the pockets.

Once I sewed the all of these pieces together I attached pieces of elastic in between. I used wide elastic to better hold the cars, be sure to use a long enough piece of elastic, probably 13 or 14 inches, so that there is plenty of room for the cars. If your elastic is super stretchy then use a little less in length, if the elastic is not terribly stretchy, use a little more.

I hung up this car holder in our living room on a rail that we purchased from Ikea. We have a couple containers hanging on the rail as well and Buzz's toy box sits underneath. This car pouch would also work well on the back of a seat in a car.

I surprised myself with the ease in which I finished everything. I usually mess something up along the way, but the hanging car holder turned out wonderfully. I will definitely be taking this on future road trips, I love that I can simply untie it while its full of toys and tie it to the back of a seat in the car.

oh. joy.

It is 3:30 in the a.m. as I am sitting here at my computer writing this. I haven't seen 3:30 a.m. in quite a while, or at least not while most mostly coherent.So why am I up?

Is it Buzz?

No. He fell asleep while sitting up on the couch tonight and while he isn't sleeping all that well due to heat (what I wouldn't give for a/c tonight, or at the very least a sleeping porch), he is currently sprawled out and sound asleep in our bed.

The reason we are up (yes Ed is wide awake and standing by the door as I type this) is due to the copious amounts of water coming through our ceiling. Yes, you read that correctly, WATER COMING THROUGH MY CEILING. Most of it is coming through the vent however there is a small contingent of drops clinging to the ceiling which has now become damp to the touch.

The superintendent has come over and looked at it, he was as confused by it as we were. He had to go and knock on the door of the people upstairs with the really big dog. I've yet to hear their dog bark however apparently they have an inch of water on their bathroom floor with no idea where it came from. 

Maybe their dog is on vacation, its a very big dog with a very deep bark, maybe the dog heard the knocking and thought '3 a.m..... I'm sleepy, no way am I barking when I should be sound asleep. Damn humans.'  I'm sure that's what their dog thought, its pretty much what I'm thinking.

Well, 45 minutes after our not so welcome wake up and the water has slowed to an almost stop, we are heading back to bed. Ed must get up for work in 3 hours, I will hopefully be sleeping longer than that. There is no solution to the mysterious appearance of water, the water upstairs has been mopped away and hasn't again appeared. I suspect that when it gets light out there will be some sort of resolution to the issue of the water. Maybe the building is trying to tell us that it is simply too hot, I agree, too hot. Too hot for this.

I kinda wish I was on vacation with that dog.

Summertime Weekend

The temperatures have reached new heights here in Toronto and we are doing our best to stay cool. Today that meant chilling out in our apartment and then heading to Chapters once the sun hit our windows. Buzz had fun playing at the Thomas table, Ed and I browsed some books, and we all enjoyed some cool Starbucks drinks. Buzz's drink of choice is a kids sized milk with whipped cream on top, he is delighted by the whipped cream, it makes his drink extra special!

 

Yesterday we attended a grand summer tradition - the backyard bbq/birthday party. The afternoon was hosted by my friend N and her partner M and was complete with mini sliders, a pool for the kids, tons of friendly people, and of course - cake! Buzz is a little behind with his vocabulary so every word for us is a celebration, yesterday was no exception when he proclaimed "more cake!" and then "please!" he was justly rewarded with more cake. It was delicious cake, whipped topping, lemon filling, yum yum yum. 

The best part about yesterday was seeing friends, lots of them, all with children Buzz's age. Despite the sun beating down on us we all had a great time, and at the end of the day Buzz fell asleep in the car and continued to sleep through the night - a sure sign of a good day. 

The party was great, N and M kept it simple with a couple of salads, mini sliders, freezies for the kids, and lots and lots to drink. If you're looking to host a party on a hot day be sure to have plenty to keep the kids and adults cool. Also check out this awesome way to decorate - balloons pinned to the clothesline - super adorable, super easy.