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.

What I Love Wednesday : Wading Pools and Splash Pads

It is hot hot hot here in Toronto and we don't have air conditioning. Our apartment stays pretty cool but when we step outside we are often met with a wave of heat and humidity, thus we are always looking for a way to cool down while enjoying the sunshine. In the Toronto area many neighbourhoods are lucky enough to have a splash pad or wading pool in one of their local parks, we have one of each close to us. Access to all of these locations is completely free which means that if we want we can go every day of the week. While Buzz is not great in a large pool (we took him swimming last night, he was not as enthused as I was), he loves playing in the knee high water of the wading pool.

Wading pools in Toronto.

Splash pads in Toronto.

There have been some recent changes to the amount of time a wading pool can be open before it needs to be drained and re-filled. The new regulations mean that a pool has to be drained and refilled after 4 hours of use, keep this in mind when you go to visit  your local wading pool. This recent change in regulations is a little annoying, for most of the wading pools this means that they close one hour earlier which is frustrating for a lot of residents. If you have an issue with the new rules I would urge you not to get angry at the supervisors of the pool, they are just following the rules, instead call the city of Toronto and complain to them.


The Toronto Zoo has their own splash area which is a great break in the day and a wonderful way to cool down. Plan on stopping by the splash area if you're going to the zoo on a hot day, even for just a few minutes of playing it is well worth the hassle of getting into swimsuits.

Some tips for going to the splash pad or wading pool;

-Wading pools are checked and filled every day but splash pads are not, water shoes are usually a good idea. We don't worry about water shoes in the wading pools as much, but Buzz is always wearing footwear at the splash pad, even if he is just wearing his garden clogs.

- Be sure to wear waterproof sunscreen and cover up! When Buzz goes to the wading pool or splash pad he usually wears swim shorts, a sun shirt (unless its very cloudy like in the picture), and even a hat.

- Keep in mind that if there are older kids around they tend to rule the splash pad (the wading pools are often occupied by younger kids), don't be afraid to speak up if they are being too rough and are knocking down little ones in their wake.Also, if you go to a splash pad there is a good chance that your little one will get splashed in the face, if you don't want to take that chance, then go to the wading pool instead.

-Take snacks, you can stay at the wading pool all day if you want, so be sure to bring snacks and drinks so that you don't have to go home prematurely.

-Get involved, walk around the wading pool, and step in the water at the splash pad, even staying near to the splash pad can keep you coo, it feels great!

Have fun keeping cool!

We have beans! We lifted some of the leaves from our rather prolific bush bean plants and discovered a wonderful surprise - ready to pick green beans! We brought home this batch yesterday in the hopes that there will be more beans ready to be picked on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I'm planning to make a big batch of dilly beans this week and so I will probably pick up some beans from a farmer's market as well. Last year we canned 2 batches of dilly beans and they were all gone by Christmas, this year we want to fill our cupboard so they will last us much longer.

The recipe that we used last year was this one from Canadian Living, the beans were spicy, crispy, and amazing.

The summer is in full swing around here and we're getting the most out of it that we possibly can. The winter this year was long and cold and so Buzz and I are going to soak up every bit of sun and warmth that we possibly can. Over on Ohdeedoh they featured someone who has a summer to do list and I love the idea so I'm working on creating one of our own. We don't have a large chalkboard on which to put our to-do list (creating a chalkboard is on our list), but I do have a checklist in a notebook. We are about a week into July and we have already knocked a number of items off the list, this past Thursday we tackled a big one : jam making!

We started out our Thursday by meeting up with my sister (I have two sisters, this one lives in Toronto as well), and heading up to Brook's Farms. Brook's farm has been around for over a century and we are lucky enough to know a couple of the Brook's family members.

While on the farm we met Georgie, a rather unconventional farm dog. Buzz took a picture. This is it.

By buying from the farm directly you get a chance to see exactly where your food is coming from, you can ask questions, and even pick it yourself. We decided to pick raspberries and strawberries.

Buzz, not surprisingly, chose to run and wander, he seemed to enjoy that everything was in tidy rows. He did manage to pick some raspberries, although he was less impressed with the strawberries. The strawberries were abundant and bright red, the whole field smelled incredibly sweet. I ended upheading home with a full container of strawberries, some raspberries, and some pecan butter tarts. We ended up eating all of the raspberries by the next morning, the butter tarts didn't make it home.

I had looked up jam recipes the night before and so I had a good idea of the amount of strawberries that I needed. I would definitely suggest that you look at recipes before you go berry picking, even take the time to write down amounts so that you don't come home with too few berries.

I picked up some rhubarb from the garden (everyone has too much and so they are eager to give it away) and made myself some strawberry rhubarb jam. I used a recipe from Canadian Living, they have a great assortment canning recipes and I defer to their website often for ideas.

The strawberry rhubarb jam turned out wonderfully, the colour is beautiful and the taste is pretty awesome as well. There is something incredibly satisfying about making your own jam, we ended up with 10 jars, most of which we will probably give away. If you haven't tried to make jam before you should definitely try it out this summer, check your local farms for pick your own berries, or hit up your local farmer's market. All 10 jars of jam cost about $17, that includes the jars that we picked up at the Goodwill store, for $1.70 a jar we have some amazing jam and the satisfaction that we made it ourselves.

neighbours and friends

There are times that I lament about not having a garden in our own backyard, or rather not having a backyard in which to put a garden. It would be lovely to have a space right outside our door to call our own, in which Buzz could run and play while I garden. In the midst of my lamenting though I then remember the wonderful people that I've met while gardening at my community garden plot and I realize how thankful I am to have met them. 

This evening at the garden we had a potluck dinner, people brought dishes of food that were delicious. Wonderful desserts lined the tables and there was pink lemonade for all. As the evening wore on the food and people kept coming, we sat and ate, then ate and sat, wandered the gardens with Buzz, and spoke to met new friends. 

I made cupcakes.

 

Buzz ran with new friends and was covered with dirt from head to toe.

I am so thankful for the people that we have met while tending to our garden, they dote on Buzz and are some of the most welcoming people we've met. The term community garden is so apt because the people there have created their own community within the large city that we live in. We may not live next door to one another, but we are neighbours, ones who garden together, share advice, and trade produce.

We've been gardening for two months now and I can't believe the difference in our garden. When you see the garden day by day you don't always notice the difference, but then there are those other days. Once in a while we show up and I would swear that overnight the peas have grown another foot, or that there are way more carrots then there were the day before. This weekend we had one of those types of visits. This week it was the peas. Peas! Tons of them! All of the sudden they appeared and boy are they wonderful, two types are ready to eat, our sugar snap peas and the snow peas. The sugar snap peas are incredibly sweet and crisp, not at all like the waxy tough snap peas you get from the grocery store.

Once again Buzz could not be convinced that he should try them, but he was enthusiastic about harvesting them. He didn't quite understand the process as he ripped off a fist sized chunk of a pea plant, but its all good, he's learning and growing in the garden and isn't that what its all about?

 

I love to watch Buzz become more comfortable in the garden, he runs between the plots and seems to know the lay of the land, even though most of the fences are above his head. As much as we are constantly improving our garden with supports to help our plants grow, we are adding toys to the garden and improving the area for Buzz as well. He is always excited to go to the garden and once he is out of his car seat he quickly runs to our plot and our neighbours to gather the bulldozers so that he can start working as well. An area without plants quickly becomes a teeny construction site, complete with teeny boulders and plenty of mud. We also added a xylophone/piano this to the garden fence this week, Buzz was quite excited to see Ed attaching it and he loved playing it. This toy was really very annoying and loud in our apartment, but it sounds great when its outside and the notes are floating in the wind.

We stopped by the garden tonight and I am so glad that we did. I hadn't noticed before but it seems that we have peas! Snow peas and snap peas are everywhere, sadly I didn't bring my camera with me and I have no pictures. I will be sure to take some photos tomorrow as they look lovely, they taste great as well!

While we were there one of my neighbours offered me some dill. She has so much in her garden that she can't use it all, so I was able to bring some home with us. We have planted dill but it hasn't grown very much yet so this was a welcome gift, we gave her a couple heads of lettuce in return. This a wonderful and rather common theme at the garden.

As I wasn't  planning on cooking anything tonight with the dill, especially this much dill, I decided to freeze it. The whole process is very easy and will come in handy when I don't have fresh herbs in the kitchen. 

Wash and dry the dill, I shook it as dry as I could, then cut the roots off and separate the leaves from the main large stem. From what I've read you can use both, but I figured it would be best to freeze them separately as I will use the stems in soup and the leaves with potatoes or in sauces.

 Chop up the dill.

Put the dill in ice cube trays and top them up with water before popping them in the freezer. Once they are frozen pop them out of the ice cube trays and into a freezer bag or a container and they are good to go the next time you want dill in whatever you're cooking.

Yum.

With all of this yarn to crochet with, I've been making doilies. I have dreams of making a tablecloth out of them but we'll see what happens. Here's a peek at a golden doily that I finished up this morning. At some point I have to starch and iron them but for now they are tucked away in my new storage system. I'll take some pics tomorrow of my storage solution for my crocheting and crafting materials (a small portion of my crafting things anyway).

We're back from our trip to my hometown. If you don't already know both Ed and myself are transplants to the big city, we grew up in different but similarly sized places and we are frequently on the road traveling back to our hometowns to see family and friends. 

This weekend we were visiting my parents and partaking in some small town charm, we attended a parade made up of tractors, horses, classic cars, and shriners in tiny cars. Buzz was able to hang out with some cousins and watch the entire parade with great enthusiasm. He spent the entire time pointing to everything that went by.

The rest of the weekend was spent around the city and at my parents house. As usual we went shopping at the thrift stores (more on my finds later) and came back to Toronto with way more stuff then we took on our trip. What took up the most room in the car on the way back was a rather large bag of yarn. My mom picked up this great find at a thrift store for less than $10, an amazing find. After going through it all it was very obviously one persons entire collection, or at least a huge part of it. Many of them are actually vintage yarns and there are enough of some of the colours for larger projects, they are all in next to new condition. I am beyond excited about the variety of colours as I simply can't find these shades in my local store, and the price was quite obviously right. The picture below is probably less than a quarter of all that was in the bag, I can't wait to get started on some crochet projects!

Buzz's room is on Ohdeedoh!

Buzz's room is on Ohdeedoh! We were on the road today (more on that later) and as I am not exceedingly tech savvy (no cell phone for me) I didn't get the news until just a couple of hours ago. I love ohdeedoh and so this is super exciting for me. If you have never seen ohdeedoh then head on over and check it out, see how awesome designing for kids can be.

What I Love Wednesday : The Zoo

Living in Toronto has some great benefits, and for us one of the biggest is the ability to go to the zoo often. We have memberships at the zoo and we try to go at least once a month, the best time to go is definitely in the spring or fall when the place is practically deserted. Once the cooler weather hits the school groups go into hiding and the wide open spaces that are left are a wonderful retreat from the busy city.

Since we go to the zoo often we are able to take our time viewing our favourite animals, riding the zoomobile, and playing at the splash pad. We never feel the need to rush around the zoo and see everything which is quite the luxury at a zoo this large.

The zoo often has events going on at the zoo and we take part whenever possible. We've participated in raising money for the polar bears, and Buzz has even trick or treated at Halloween, we can't wait to take in more events this year.

This week we've been to the zoo twice and we experience what is by far my most favourite zoo moment, Buzz finally came nose to nose with one of the polar bears. We always see the polar bears when we go to the zoo but we hadn't had a good underwater viewing experience until Monday. It seems that the conditions were perfect, the water was clear and two of the bears were rough housing near the glass. At one point one of the bears swung his head down under the water and looked at Buzz. Buzz was thrilled and so was I!

The idea that for less than $200 a year we can go to the zoo as much as we like is wonderful, if we go only once a month the cost per trip breaks down to about $16. I think its great value, and its always a magical and educational trip for all of us. For as long as we live near the zoo we will most definitely have memberships.

It takes Buzz about 3 minutes to get dirty head to toe when we go to the garden. When we get there our pristine little boy climbs out of the stroller and in no time at all he turns into a very happy little dirt monster. 

Luckily the garden is equipped with water taps where Buzz is quite happy to get cleaned up before we go home. After a quick wash he is ready to hop back in the stroller and go home.  

Buzz is absolutely in love with the garden although he still has yet to eat anything from our garden. Every time I offer him a fresh strawberry or some lettuce he laughs as if the idea of eating anything fresh from the garden is some sort of hilarious joke. I'm sure at some point he'll eat something that we've grown, but until then at least he finds it all fun and humourous.

Something Found: Breadbox

I've decided that I might as well make a somewhat regular post called 'Something Found'. I often shop at thrift stores and have recently started going to yard sales and  I find some wonderful things on my travels. While I'm not going to show every item that I find, there are a number of items that are so cool they need to be shared. I'm not sure how often I'll write these posts but as I have quite the collection of great secondhand items you'll likely see these posts often.

Something Found: Breadbox

Another Saturday, another morning of yard sales. I once again scoured kijiji for upcoming yard sales and found two groupings of sales. In Toronto where parking can be scarce these neighbourhood yard sales are usually your best bet as it reduces the amount of driving. Since Buzz is in a toddler seat in the car the neighbourhood sales also reduced the amount of times we had to get him in and out of the car.

At the first group of sales we found mostly kids things, a lunchbox, a couple of toys for Buzz, nothing terribly exciting and so we quickly moved onto the next group hoping to find something wonderful.

Our trek across town was totally worth the trip, these places were home to older and more established families who had garages full of old stuff that they were ready to part with. Right away we were finding things, and after picking up a little bag of matchbox cars for Buzz he was quite happy to run up the street to the next sale. This neighbourhood was organized and had maps printed up with a list of all sales, these were printed up and on a table at every sale for people to pick up and take with them, this made it easy for us to find our way to the next sale.

About half way through the list of sales we came upon the largest of all the sales, these people were getting rid of everything in their garage and had lined the driveway. Under a few random items I came upon a beautiful sight : a pink and chrome Breadette breadbox. I had already picked up a flour sifter at this sale and I was able to buy the two items for $5 which was a great deal.

The breadbox had been sitting in a garage for a while so when we got it

 home I cleaned it really well, even taking off the piece of wood inside the front of the box. A whole lot of grime came off of this piece and while its not in perfect condition, its pretty good, and the pink colour is beautiful. Its easy to come across vintage items that are grey, green, or beige, but colour can be harder to find so I was beyond happy with pink.

As cool as any vintage item is, if I bring home something this size, it better have a purpose. I didn't really want to use this as a breadbox because our bread has a home on top of our fridge, but it is the perfect size for diaper storage. At some point I would like to work a little harder to get some of the rust off of the inside with steel wool and aluminum foil, but for now i know that it is clean and that is good enough. Everything we need for a diaper change is now stored in a very stylish pink and chrome breadbox.

Now that our garden is full of vast amounts of growing veggies we have turned our attention to adding decorative touches to make the garden our own. Last week I came across a stepping stone kit while cleaning out a closet and decided that we should make it up for the garden. I have a huge stash of magnetic letters (a great find from goodwill) and so I found as many as I could that had lost their magnets and then filled in the rest of the letters for the word 'welcome' with still usable magnetic letters. After pressing Buzz's foot into the centre of the cement mixture I surrounded the footprint with leftover broken letters and numbers, buttons, beads, glass pebbles, and an acorn cap.

The stepping stone is a great addition to our garden, Buzz loves looking at it and its perfect for playing  'I spy' with him. To make your own look for a kit at your local craft store, be sure that it is made using cement or concrete so that it will hold up over time in your own garden.

As much as I love my son, every once in a while a mama needs a little time off so that she remembers how to act in public without a two year old attached to you (or running away from you as the case may be). My friend Alexis (yes, Alexis, we practically have the same name) came over for dinner and a trip to the garden.

A little info on Alexis: 

We grew up in the same hometown and went to the same high school, we now live in the same gigantic city and live surprisingly close to one another. Alexis has red hair and when we are out with Buzz she is easily mistaken for being his mother. Alexis is an artist and is the creator of the farm animal prints in Buzz's room. When she isn't working crazy hours at Starbucks, we see Alexis about once a week.

Back to this evening, dinner, garden, and then Ed left the garden to walk home with Buzz while Alexis and I took off in the car and went shopping at Winners. I found new pajamas, they're super comfortable and pretty and I love them. Its so nice to have an opportunity to try on clothes without standing with one hip against the door so that my rather rambunctious child doesn't open it and run away. No amount of cookies or juice (treats that I reserve for occasions when Buzz needs some enticing to sit patiently) will keep Buzz happy in a dressing room, it just doesn't happen.

Its not even a good time when Ed comes along, Buzz wants us to be in the same place at the same time and dressing rooms don't really allow for that. This causes Buzz to run back and forth between the dressing room and the area just outside the dressing room thus ensuring that neither of us is leaving or falling into an apparent dressing room black hole. Thus the hour that I had at Winners tonight without my wonderful child was blissful, the pajamas and coffee afterward were just an added bonus.

After dropping Alexis off at her apartment I returned home to find a fed, freshly bathed, and happy child waiting for me. Being away from him is not something I do often, our lifestyle doesn't always allow for it and that's alright, I love being with him. I love when the three of us are spending time together in the evening. As great as my time away from him was, coming home to hugs from Buzz because he was so happy to see me was the best part of my evening. That and the pajamas, I mean, they're pretty freakin awesome.

commenting

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What I Love Wednesday : The Woodlot

I've decided to start a weekly blog post about something that I love. Anything goes for this weekly post, it may be about an object, an experience, a place,  or whatever else might strike my fancy that week. I will attempt to write a 'what I love Wednesday' post every Wednesday but I'm sometimes quite forgetful, I have pined a note to my bulletin board so that I have a reminder. Why Wednesday? No reason really, 'what I love Wednesday' sounds way better then 'what I love Tuesday' and also it happens to be Wednesday and I just came up with this idea. Please enjoy these posts and feel free to share with me something that you love.

The Woodlot

I am a little in love with this company. I heard about them through an Etsy team that I'm a part of and met them at the One of a Kind spring show in Toronto this year, in fact I won tickets to the show through a contest on their Facebook page, but this is not how they won my love. Their products are why I fell in love with them. They own a 25 acre wooded lot and from it they make some of the most beautiful toys, jewellry, and home accessories, among other things.

Not only are their products beautiful, but their toys in particular are wonderful as they are finished with beeswax polish or tung oil making them foodsafe. Buzz has two of their cars and they have stood up very well to everything that he puts them through. These toys are definitely something to keep forever and every item is different, making them extra special. What is beautiful about these toys is that they aren't simply made out of wood, they are made with the wood, creating gorgeous products that showcase the individual piece of wood.

If you want to learn more about The Woodlot and their products then visit their website and their Etsy shop.  Definitely take a look at the rest of their product line, they make some beautiful jewelry and items for the home, you can even buy buttons for your own craft projects.

This past Saturday I did something that I haven't done in a very long time. I went to a yard sale. I love yard sales, growing up in a small city I often went to yard sales as a kid. I have some great memories of my finds as a child, in fact, I still have some of my childhood yard sale finds, a panda bear tea set for two, a brothers Grimm book of stories, a mug in the shape of the bear to name a few. While I have been avidly going to thrift stores these past few years since moving to the big city, yard sales have eluded me. I think that the lack of yard sales in my life has a lot to do with living in apartment buildings. People don't have yards or driveways on which to set up their junk and so they donate the things they want to be rid of, or they sell them online, its almost impossible to simply drive around and hope to spot a yard sale near my neighbourhood.

After hearing about some yard sale adventures of a friend of mine I decided to hunt a couple down online, I found them quickly and easily on kijiji and I ventured out Sunday morning in search of treasure. I was well rewarded for my efforts and came home with a rather old, swivel diner stool. Its rusty, and there is some gum under the rim of the seat, but I love it, and for $10 I felt I got a good price on it. I have two vintage dining sets and so this fits in perfectly with them, plus its an extra seat that doesn't take up much space. I think that if I wanted I have some options in fixing it up, I watch American Restoration, I know what would need to happen to make it look original again. Someday I could get it sandblasted and re-chromed, cleaned up and re-painted, but for now I might simply clean it up, and possibly re-cover the seat. I like that it looks old, because truly, it is old. I will definitely be going out again to see what else I can find at a yard sale.

While at the garden today I ate the first strawberry of the season, it was awesome, everything a fresh from the garden strawberry should be. Luckily this won't be the last, there is another almost ready and hopefully it will be just as tasty. Also the peonies in the other gardens are in bloom and everywhere you look there is a burst of colour and beautiful bloom, its wonderful. The best thing about having a plot at a community garden is that I get to enjoy all the other gardens that are there as well. Some gardens are for vegetables only, others have berries and some have flowers. I love seeing what people use to make fences, from chicken wire and lumber to collected branches and scrap pieces of plastic construction netting, the ingenuity of my fellow gardeners is impressive. When I joined the community garden there were very few rules, I could plant what I wanted, however I wanted. The variety of the garden plots around me is really lovely and interesting.

There is nothing better then having friends over for the day, so today that is exactly what we did. Today J and his mama M came over and we had a great time. The boys did some serious playing, we walked to the garden, and then came back to our place for some pizza and hello dollies. Buzz had a great time, and despite looking incredibly tired after J and M left, he wouldn't fall asleep for a nap. These no-nap days can be difficult to handle, he is only 2 and its a little early for him to not be sleeping in the afternoon. By the time 3pm rolls around we are both ready for a break. To keep him busy while slowing him down a little I opted to break out some craft supplies today. Sparkly glue was a huge hit with Buzz, I'm definitely going to have to get some more.

 Luckily all of this crafting really wore Buzz out and he is currently napping in his room. We'll have to cut this nap short so that we can go and weed the garden tonight, but any nap is a good nap.