little guy

My creation
Originally uploaded by lilyhoyer

we're gearing up for oscar's first birthday. I'm am so pround of him and amazed, again, by how fast they grow up. I've been in the kitchen making food for our little gathering tomorrow and my energy is just like a year ago, getting ready for labor.

freezer paper frenzy

I must be the last one on the block to catch the freezer paper bug, why WHYYYY haven't I done these sooner?!?! As usual I have booked myself solid for the next few weekends so I'm working feverishly for a little local etsy sale coming up. For those who han't tried the freezer paper stenciling here's a good tutorial. I had a lot of blank shirts around so I had a lot to experiment with. The shirt on the left is an image from Ferdinand book, the one when all the men came to look at the bulls, I've always love there hats.The TShirt on the right is a photo of felix in his cowboy hat, it's totally addicting, watch out.

cleaning up

Spring cleaning came early this year, or unplanned really. Felix went on a sleepover with his grandparents so we had the morning to move the rugs, dust, sweep.... well you know. So, I put my many projects on hold ( like a CHICKEN COOP!!!) and put the baby on my back and got the mop. Now, after a fun filled weekend, kids in, kids out, games, walks and lots & lots of pots of coffee we're finally quiet. Here's our brunch table, cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, chocolate cherry coffee cake and...coffee. Maybe next week will be more productive in the studio, but it's hard when there's so much action going on upstairs. Here's to hoping.

bird bulletin board

This was another quick project that came from the last craft night which I hosted. A friend brought extra supplies from this project and left it for anyone who wanted to try it. So after making my chicken cards I had just enough to make this bulletin board from an old frame, a dish towel, cork, heat & bond and some card board to back it. I'll try to make a tutorial this weekend when I get more supplies. And I can now officially say that I'm procrastinating some bigger projects. All right, I'll go and paint now.

cluck cluck

This was a quick & satisfying late night project. You know the one where your partner goes to bed early, the kids are down & it's just you, the TV, scrap fabric, heat & bond ( thanks beth ) and your iron. I have big projects on my list so these small ones are a perfect warm up to my day off.
I think my affection of chickens & eggs is heightened because I think we'll have to postpone getting a few hens for one more year. At least these cards don't require food.

back on the porch

It's really warming up here and that means we get to play on our front porch again. This space acts as a playroom for 3 seasons of the year for the boys. Full of intention the boys and I sorted, rearranged and vacuumed up the space this week with great results. In an ahhaa moment I put my favorite chair here too, so I don't have to sit in a kid chair for hours. The best part of the porch is that we can see them from our living room, a good spying spot.

on a roll

homemade granola bars : fig, chocolate chip, walnut, almond, wheat germ, honey, oats, quinoa, & dried cranberry. OUT OF SIGHT!!
Seeds for this year, bought from our local coop !! Yeah, no shipping
My orange bakelite dolphin pin from my husband. This was one of those " you better bring me back something ! " presents. Yippee

Ham, Borccolli, Sage & Carmelized Onion Quiche for the freezer.

I had coffee this morning with some mummy friends after dropping our kids off at nursary school and I declared that I " just got happy." And it's true, I've been in a funk and I was waiting for my husband and kids to cheer me, but this morning I did it myself. Here are a few of the things that made me happy today.

worm superhero

our mission: to save those worms in our worm farm.
our job: to split the rapidly declining farm into 2 bins and add as much newspaper as we could to get some airflow.
our heroes: mama, felix and oscar ( in his highchair)

we started a worm farm in early January in hopes of creating some worm castings for starting our seeds at the end of the month. It's one of those "great ideas" one has in the middle of winter for a project, and it's been great. But like a skeleton in your closet, this one can go bad FAST and smell to high heaven. BUT we saved it ! I borrowed an old worm bin from some friends and split the farm in 2. One we'll let go for another month in hopes we can use the castings and the second we can keep adding too. Happy March

Disaster averted.