Our Little Man

What can I say about Our Little Man.....he is a bundle of energy, who NEVER listens!!!  He is 3 next week, where has the time gone too?  Just love this little guy.........

His little sister Miss J. didn't come to the play date as she is not walking yet.  She was 15 months at the end of August and is such a petite little girl compared to the others.  Very vocal; but she has to be with having two very vocal siblings and eats like a horse.  I don't have a photo of her to share, so will have to ask for one.  I haven't seen her in a couple of months.

Say hello to Jeina......

Jeina (pronounced Janea) was born May 30th at 11:24 am.  Weighing 6 lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long.  So Our Little Princess and Our Little Man now have a younger sister.

Mother and Baby doing well.  Can't wait to meet her.

Stinking cute or what?

I really enjoy a magazine called Pretty Patches and in the March edition there was a pattern for Archie The Alien.

I decided to make one for our new granddaughter who is due in June, in some of the fabric scraps from her room.  I will share with you in another post everything from the nursery.

 She is so stinking cute isn't she?

Now we don't know the sex of the other baby due later this month, but in case it's a boy (mother thinks it will be, I don't) I made another Alien from the scraps of fabric from one of the two quilts I made for that grandchild.

Now if the baby is a girl, I will give this one to Our Little Man, as it is very boyish.

Don't they make a cute couple......

Our Little Man........

Our Little Man, turned 19 months in April and he finally had his first hair cut.  He had to wear it in a "man bun," which although fashionable, made him look like a girl.  He now looks like a true boy, thank goodness.  I don't have a recent photo of him, but will post one next week when I see them.

He is the shy, quiet type of boy and although not talking much gets his point over.  Mind you with his sister, who is affectionately called, Miss Chatterbox," he probably can't get a word in anyway!!

I have been sewing up a storm and have made Our Little Man a couple of things which I am hoping he'll love.  He loves to empty the dishwasher, so made him a Minion apron using this pattern.

I bought the bias binding for this one.  This is the third one I have made; will share photos of the other two over the next few days.

He has a lot of those little cars and so I thought I would make him something to store them in.

I used this tutorial as a guideline and added my own touches to it. 

I made it the width of the coat hanger.  I bought .85 of a metre of a cotton twill fabric as it had a bit more substance to it.  DO NOT use a lighter weight fabric.  For the pockets I used a cotton fabric.  I wanted to have a car fabric, but made the mistake of using a cheaper cotton; suffice to say it looks like I couldn't cut the fabric straight. It was a miserable fabric to work with.

I cut four inch panels of the car fabric and turned under a 1/2 inch hem top and bottom.  The pockets are around 2 1/2 inches wide each, but in future I will make them some of them a bit bigger to hold larger cars.  Adapt the pattern to suit your needs.

If adding embellishment's to the top, add them before you sew it all up!!!  I didn't and suffered for it.  I have enough of the blue fabric left to make a narrower version of this, using a bra hanger...........however I will adapt this as I want to make something for a teenage girl.

I have to say I am very pleased with how his projects turned out.  I have another thing planned for him, but not sure when I will get it finished.  I find there are lots of things to make for little girls, not as many for boys.  What do you think?

All ready for the big day........

Got all the gnomes done for Our Little Man's birthday party.  Here they are all lined up ready to go:

I then made a gnome and baby hat set for a couple who are expecting in January and are going to the party.

I used a different yarn for the set and as they are not going to find out the sex of the baby, I thought the colour was appropriate for both a boy or girl.  I would love to make this is a variegated grey yarn.

So far I have five babies and a wedding in the first four months of 2016.  So more baby gift sets and a baby quilt to make.  Better make a start on them!

A bit of this and a bit of that........

Just seen a hot air balloon go past the house.  Looks kind of fun, if you don't mind heights.......

The morning's are so nice and cool at the moment, just love that.

Dh's hand is on the mend, still wearing the brace at work.

Talking about his work, the factory where he is contracted out to had to call the police in, as someone was growing marijuana plants in the grounds???  No one was arrested!

Dh was up at 2:30 am this morning to go to work........hopefully he'll be home by lunch time......

Our Little Munchkin went on a Thomas the Tank Engine train ride last weekend and had a great time:

This week she also said Nana without someone prompting her to say it!

Got all 9 gnomes done, just making another three now as "spares."

Our Little Man was running a temperature this week, but is fine now.  He'll be one on September 12th.

Our Little Princess has a new name now; "Little Miss Chatterbox," as she never shuts up and is always asking why.......sound familiar!

Going to get the yearly sticker/licence for my car today, as it goes up $10 in September......AGAIN!

Right; better get in the shower as just just after 7:30 am.  Have a great day!

Lots and lots of body parts.......

I am busy knitting gnomes as take home gifts for Our Little Man's first birthday in September.  I have a bag full of body parts all ready to sew together.  I like to knit a few and then sew them up all at once.

 Here are five that are completely finished.  

 I have also knit a couple of baby hats.  The one on the left is for a little girl it is pale blue, lilac and cream, and the other on is a blue/lilac shade for one of two babies that are due in the New Year.  I am hoping one of them will be a boy!!

I haven't had much time to do any reading.  Although I did get this book read this past week:

Ariadne Evans swore her sleuthing days were over after her very own knitting shop became a crime scene a few months back. But she hadn't anticipated that the Freeport Wool and Yarn Festival would become the site of another murder -- with hers truly as a prime suspect. Since Ari was the one to find the body of Felicia Barr -- the much detested and influential owner of Knit It Up magazine -- with a knitting needle stuck in her back, the cops are needling Ari for answers. In a stitch, Ari dons her hand-knit detective cap and helps her on-and-off boyfriend, Detective Josh Pierce, untangle the day's events and solve a very woolly crime -- before the killer strikes again....

It was an okay book; guessed part of the murder/mystery, but not all of it; it was an easy read.  You can read more about it here on Amazon.  Does have a couple of knitting patterns in the back of the book for A Padded Coat Hanger, which is super simple and a "No Hair Day" Chemo Cap, again a very easy pattern to follow and uses Lion Brand Fun Fur.

For more Yarn Along with Ginny posts please click on this link.

It's zucchini/courgette time of year again.

One of my favourite meals that involve zucchini is Sausage Risotto:

Here is the recipe.  What you see in the dish above is what was leftover after our supper.  I will put this in a freezer bag and freeze it for another meal and bulk it up with more veggies if need be.

I did a post back in 2008 for 50 + 1 recipes for zucchini here.  I can't guarantee all the links will work now, but I know some of them do.

I finished off another person for Christmas yesterday by ordering a couple of things online.  That will make four people totally done.  Very happy about that. 

I gave away a couple more of my gnomes yesterday also, they will be heading to Grand Cayman next week.  Three went to California this week.  I wasn't planning on giving the gnomes away yesterday; took them out of the pile I am knitting for Our Little Man's birthday.  So back to the knitting needles to get more knit.

Have you started Christmas shopping yet?

Back again................

Not sure where the last week or so went too, but it has gone by fast.  I have been busy knitting of course; I am making (at least) nine gnomes for Our Little Man's birthday in September as part of the take home gifts.  Mind you if you read The Knitting Basket's blog post this week, here, it turns out knitting is good for your health?  Who knew?

The weather of course has been stinking hot and humid.  I am so over summer now, I mean SO OVER IT!!!  Roll on the nice cool Fall weather. And as usual the month of August is just flying by.

(credit)

Meanwhile here we are with another week's worth of homes for sale.

This week's "Home of the Week," is on the market for $2 million.  I of course don't like the price, but I do like the house itself.  I love the entrance up to the house.  It's an older home but very bright and airy inside with nice landscaping.

The "Condo of the Week," is on the market for $550,000.  Again it is nice and airy.  It says in the blurb that a couple with two children  live there, but when looking at the photos I get the feeling that they have probably moved out.  As trying to keep a place that tidy with two young children is nigh on impossible.  I just don't see any clutter at all?

Once again the, "Cottage of the Week," is a mansion and is on the market for $2.7 million.  I wouldn't change a thing, but who can afford that price?  Mind you it would be a year round home for us. It is pretty light and airy again despite all that wood.  I would love to be able to sit on that dock and watch the world go by..........though in this case it will probably just be ducks as it's a private lake!!

Now back to reality here is "Gill's Cottage of the Week," is on the market for $459,900 and for that price you not only get a 2 bedroom log home, but 2 guest cabins and 16 acres.  I love it, wouldn't change much and would move there tomorrow!!! Very oldie, worldy, reminds me of Little House in the Big Woods, don't you think?

Finally a bit of a funny story.  You know how I am always complaining about the gardeners and what a poor job they do weeding the gardens?  I transplanted a rhubarb plant from a tub into the garden.  Every time a couple of leaves pop through the soil, the gardeners think they are weeds and chop them off with their hoes.  I have had to put bamboo poles and string around the area, in the hopes they leave it alone.........can't win can I!

Out in the garden

Someone's Nana remembered to bring stickers and something to stick them onto, making two little girls happy.

 Having a snack of watermelon and grapes.

 Our Little Man deciding he wanted to also do stickers!!!

Always a pleasure seeing all three together.  Next time will be at Our Little Man's birthday in September.  The girls get on together well and know how to share, which is super important; and luckily Our Little Man, knows to keep out of the way of the women and do his own thing!!!  Clever boy.

A little cuteness for Yarn Along....

I made a couple more Gnomes this week for Our Little Princess and Our Little Man.

I used this pattern and Paton's Canadiana Yarn and US #4 needles.  They are the child size so I think around 8 inches high.  As I used smaller needles it's a tighter knit so you can't see the stuffing.  I am going to a baby shower at the end of August so would like to make one more to add to the gift.

I have read a couple of books this week, and have posted reviews on my book review blog here.

Still hot and humid here and finally we had a break and it rained.
The sky was very busy before it rained.

For more Yarn Along posts, please click on this link.

Photos from Saturday......

Our grands arrived on Saturday for a visit.  They were all as good as gold and are growing like weeds.  Our Little Man, is such a good boy we never hear a peep from him, mind you he can't get a word in edge ways for his sister!!!

 I was given a tomato plant, a green pepper plant and a container that contained a rhubarb, strawberry and blueberry bush by our kids.  The Princess and little man's parents gave me two gift cards, for Tim Hortons and Chapters, and a Risotto kit!

 We kept the two girls busy for a little while watering the plants.......

 As you can see the deck got watered as well!!

 The girls are ten months apart, but Our Little Munchkin is practically the same height of Our Little Princess now.  

 They both go to school at the same time, as Our Little Princess is a January baby, while Our Little Munchkin is a November baby.

 Our Little Princess chatter's away none stop.  She was helping her Granddad weed the garden and the questions were coming out of her mouth a mile a minute.  With a lot of WHY'S in there!!

 Our Little Munchkin was quite happy to let Our Little Princess do the talking!

We got lots of hugs and kisses from them all, which is a perfect way to spend the day!

Night and Day.....

On Saturday we had to turn the a/c on as it hit the mid 30's (oC).  On Tuesday the temperature just dropped and it went down to single digits with a gale force wind.

I noticed something different on one of our trees today.  I will apologize in advance for the quality of the photos, as it was so windy.  The top of the tree has purple tips on it.

Never seen that before.

Our Little Man turned 8 months old yesterday.  His sister turned 28 months old also on the same day.  Looking forward to seeing them both this weekend.

99% sure it's not allergies.............

Still not well.  Still feel as though someone have just run over me with a bus.  I am sleeping a lot and got a tickly cough that won't go away.

I did read people's blog posts yesterday but didn't comment.  I was supposed to go with dh up to son's yesterday and don't feel well enough to go to our daughter's today.  Mind you I also don't want to give Our Little Munchkin this, as touch wood she has been well recently.

She moves up to the toddler room tomorrow, so a big day for her.  It will do her good, as she is getting bored in the baby room.  Here she is watering the "garden!"

Good to see how green the grass is looking.

Here is Our little man he was 7 months old last week:

Not sure who he looks like, but I do think he will be tall,  He's a smashing little boy.

Here he is with his sister who is 27 months going on 20 years of age!!!

She said to me the other day:

"Nana I pooped in the toilet."

I said, "Well done, Nana also pooped in the toilet today!"

We "talk" to all three grands most days via Face Time.  Mind you both girls have the attention span of a gnat!!!    How great is modern technology?

Yummy birthday present..

Called in to see Our Little Princess and Our Little Man the other day.  They have just come back from India and were away for my birthday.  Now as I am super picky when it comes to food.  Plus I have more scarves that I know what to do with, and I have a couple of handbags that I use all the time, "R" was struggling to find me something in India for me.

She came up with the perfect gift; something I have never had before.  Mango Cornflakes:

They are really good.  The other flavours you can get in India, are Mango, Banana, Strawberry, Honey and plain ones.  Where you live do get different flavoured cornflakes?

 I also got this lovely silk change purse; so pretty and so useful.

Thursday is going to be called this from now on:

"Our Little Munchkin's Quilt Day."  Well at least for the foreseeable future.  If you have been following my blog for the past couple of years, you will know I have a grandchild who was born in November 2013.  Every month on her month old birthday dd took a photo of her.  You can see some here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. 

You can see there was a different fabric used as a background each month.  So dd asked me to make a quilt (twin/single size) for when Our Little Munchkin goes into a big girls bed.

Knowing how fast I sew I figured I had better make a start on it soon.  So my first job was to wash all the fabric.

I knew those stair railings would come in useful for something!!  I then had to iron all that material.

So for the next few Thursday's I am putting everything else aside and sew all these fabrics into a quilt top.  I had got a pattern in mind of what I am going to do, I just need to get it all done!!!  Wish me luck.

Our Little Princess and Our Little Man will be back from India in a week's time, so looking forward to seeing them again.  I bet they have grown.

Here is Our Little Man's 6 month old photo:

Here they are both together: