Someone Special Born on Valentines Day

From the City...

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl!  

We just love you to bits.

xoxoxo

Momo, Mimi & baby T

5:30 This Morning...

From the City...

(-photo credit: mama in law)

We found that if we give him enough toys, it gives us another 20 minutes of sleep time.  Mind you, the sleep time involves hair pulling, fingers in our nose and eyes and getting hit in the head with various plastic objects.  Its kindda like, extreme (parent) sleeping.   

-ab

A Friday Ritual

From the City... 

Borrowed from Soulmama; 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Wordless Wednesday

From the City...

Owls, they're so hot right now.

From the City...

I found this owl embroidery project at value village and I'm not gonna lie, I'm totally addicted. I can't wait to finish this one so I can start the next. I've been embroidering for three days straight and I'm starting to get a little rough patch of skin at the tip of my index finger of my right hand, oh my grandma would be proud.

Has anyone else noticed that owls are everywhere right now? fabric, crafts, nurseries...rightfully so, they're adorable. I'm thinking Theo's next bedroom will be a homage to the little hooting suckers.

All this from a bag of $2 bag of scraps at value village.

ab

Life's a Beach

From the City...

Scarborough bluffs. A mere 30 minutes from our house. White sand beach. Hot summer sun. Sand in little baby rolls. Reading books. Pasta salad. Ice cold water.

best. day. ever.

Friday Post: something new I'm trying

From the City...

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

*** this is stolen from a really great blog that I follow. You can check her out here.

The Prettiest Little Girl with a Flower in Her Hair

From the City...

Here's some pics of our pretty little Millie wearing a flower headband that I bought from an uber talented mama-preneur on facebook. Here's a link to her Sweet Pie business page so you can support her by buying some of her adorable creations. I've got my eye on her handmade owl hat for Theo for next winter. Uh-oh, I foresee an expensive hobby in the works.

Aside from that, is this not the prettiest little girl you've ever seen? I just love her to bits.

For the Birthday Girl

From the City...

This is the closest to a smile that you're gonna get from this guy!

Hope your birthday is full of millie kisses, cuddles from little boys and a birthday feast from the chef of the house!

Love love love.

xoxoxoxox S, A and baby Theo.

41 weeks and 2 days.

From the City...

I visited my midwife today and she gave me a recipe for a very delicious concotion that should, hopefully, kick start this labor. The goal is to not be induced this weekend so Simon and I are trying pretty much anything, including this castor oil, almond butter, apricot juice smoothie. I can just feel your envy right now.

Here's a shot of my belly, hopefully it'll be the last one. It's huge right? Simon is for sure that it's a boy, I'm just sure that it needs to vacate, asap.

amelia

40 weeks + 4 days but who's counting?

From the City...

Well baby's due date has come and passed and we're all still waiting (Simon, Ruby and I). Simon's on march break this week so together we've been doing lots of walking, movie watching and reading. Luckily the weather has been quite nice in Toronto so we're taking the opportunity to enjoy the sun. Tonight at the Art Gallery of Ontario it's free from 6:30-8:00 so we're also thinking about swinging by for a little tour around.

Anyway, here's a really good recipe for banana bread that I made yesterday in anticipation that midwives would be coming over to birth baby but instead it's just me eating it.

It's from the Joy of Cooking, so you know it's good.

*Note: it will not induce labor, doesn't matter how much of it you eat, trust me.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Beat in a large bowl at medium speed until creamy:

1/3 cup sugar

6 tbsp. (3/4 stick) butter

Beat in:

1 to 2 large eggs, beaten

4 ripe bananas

Add the dry ingredients in about 3 parts, beating until smooth after each addition. Fold in, if desired:

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/4 dried apricots

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Scrape the batter into a greased pan. Bake the bread about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool slightly then unmold. Cool completely before slicing.

Sewing for Baby

From the City...

Last week was my first week home on maternity leave and I would have much rather had a baby to cuddle and get to know all week but s/he decided to stay put and cook for a while longer. So therefore I have had to find other things to do to occupy my time. Last week in Toronto was rainy and cold so much of the week was spent nesting and crafting.

I knew I wanted to craft some sort of doll because I have been consumed with thoughts of baby girls lately. If a boy decides to appear though, we'll just have to consider this new doll a gift from one baby cousin to another (here's looking at you Millie Girl).

So here was my inspiration:


This woman's dolls are incredible. They are also super reasonably priced, so if you don't feel like spending the entire day swearing at your sewing machine (the route which I decided to take) support her and buy one.

She's over on etsy, here's her link: Her pics are also much better than mine so if you do decide to make your own, check 'em out.

What you'll need:

• Fun Fabric
• Sewing Machine
• Paper/Marker (for template)
• Cotton Batting
• Sewing Notions

Here are my steps:

1. First I cut out templates in paper.

2. I then cut out the fabric.

3. I then stitched and stuffed the arms and legs.

4. Then I hand stitched the face and then sewed the face to the head and sewed the ears to the back of the head. I initially sewed lips but then decided I didn't like them so I took them off and just hand stitched super simple eyes and a v-shaped mouth.

5. From the left corner, sew the body attaching the arm and then the head and then other arm.

6. Stuff the body.

7. Sew the bottom of the dolls body attaching his or her legs along the way.


I'm pretty happy with how she turned out. Her heads a wee wonky but that's the good thing about hand made stuff. I might even attempt to make another, more gender neutral, doll this week. I also made a really simple rose to put in her hair which was just two different colored four leaf flowers cut out with circles in the middle. This is entirely optional.

Note: the incredible owl stuffed animal that my sister in law Rosey made for me. Isn't he the cutest???

Countdown to baby...

From the country....

So Christmas was a bit of a bust this year. Mark and I came down with the flu to end all flu's on Christmas eve and were dead to the world until after boxing day. The beautiful turkey, fresh out of the brine was eaten on boxing day(my goodness was it tasty!), the fresh seafood was frozen for another day (when we could stomach it), and X mas was pretty much cancelled.

Shortly after X mas we celebrated Nate's birthday with kids, cake, music and games. We had 9 boys here in attendance and one girl. She sat on the couch while the boys wrestled on the floor. It was a fine day. My oldest gaffer is 6 years old and boy does he make a Momma proud. His ability to love everyone in the room makes my eyes water.

So now we are in baby countdown. I have been pretty hush hush on the arrival of our 3rd farm hand but now I feel the whole nesting urge bearing down. I am folding gently used baby clothes and gingerly putting them in clean drawers, buying last minute supplies, spending time sourcing a used car seat, baby swing, and other baby amenities. I am in my 35 week of pregnancy and had both boys at 37 weeks. It won't be too long now before another beautiful being will grace us with it's presence.

Now I have a minute to really focus my thoughts on having a newborn in the house again. I started having cramping and have been told to take it easy so that I don't go into preterm labour. I haven't even been to the barn in what feels like weeks. Mark has been doing the chores while I leaf through seed catalogues, tea in hand and start planning the next years harvest. He also has started me on doing a proper budget for all my farm plans (which could quite possibly be the most frustrating thing about farming- but a proper budget is a must!)

I have begun to wrap my head around going through labour for the 3rd time and hope that this birth happens in the comfort of my living room here on the farm.

I like this shot!

From the country...

I found this photo taken of Mark and I the summer of 2007. It seems like forever ago! That is little Lucas in the baby pouch.. just to think, we have another wee one on the way...yeesh!