Category: Uncategorized

Our cool co-ordinating outfits.

Telling Taylor to get on the swing next to her.

All pictures by Taylor Laramie

It was so beautiful and sunny today, I really wanted to go out and do something. I walked around so much on Friday and Saturday though that my body was like LOL NO, so I figured we should stick close to home. Before lunch we took Gwen out on her lil scooter to the playground. My hope was that she’d want to scoot around on the large paved area to get some more practice, but as soon as she saw the swings it was GAME OVER, MAN. She does love scooting though; on the way there I helped her (it’s slightly uphill to the corner) but coming home she had no interest in my help and would push my hands away. She fell once but after some brief yelling she got right back up and scooted home.

This month Taylor made the screensaver on our Apple TV an album of pictures from our two trips to Maui. I’m assuming he did this in honour of our wedding anniversary, which is coming up in a few weeks. Seeing all these pictures (which are five and six years old now) has been making me so nostalgic all week! Also, I reallyyyyyyyyyyyy want to go on vacation now. We’re taking a trip up to Kelowna in May to Taylor’s moms’ place, and in August we’re going to my mom’s on the Island, but it’s not the same as going somewhere on a plane, or somewhere we have to cross a border to get to, or even somewhere we’ve never been. Maybe someday we’ll be able to afford to go on a real vacation again? Anyway here’s a little #tbt (throwback Thursday for those of you unfamiliar with hashtags) of Hawaii 2009/10.

Last weekend Taylor & I took advantage of our Friday off (well, he has it off, I work a split shift totally three hours) and took Gwen to Science World. We hadn’t been since Sym was 5 or 6 and Gwen had never been. It was a little busy- there were quite a few school groups there (including a crowd of marauding pre-teen boys that I kicked out of the little kid area, sorry not sorry but “ages 6 and under” means SIX AND UNDER) but we still had a good time. Gwen had a blast for sure. The feature exhibit was about animation and she had a ton of fun pushing all the buttons on every display.

Checking out some implants, haha.

Storyboarding.

Doing a little stop motion animation with dad.

The infinite abyss, Gwen wasn’t impressed.

We stayed for a few hours and then I had the BRILLIANT idea of walking home. It’s not technically that far but we’d already been walking around Science world for so long I think it was too much. My legs were basically toast afterwards. I’ve been trying to do a lot more walking but next time I’ll just take the train home like a normal person.

Sym’s new dresser-slassh-bookcase.

Download the full-size March calendar from my tumblr here.

I FINALLY did a lot of things this weekend. I FINALLY put the second new door on the dvd cabinet. I FINALLY finished making all the drawers for Sym’s new dresser. I FINALLY got the bulk of the sewing done on a couple pairs of boots I’ve been working on and I FINALLY started spring cleaning. Sort of. Like, I cleaned off my bulletin board and half of the living room windowsill. IT’S A START OKAY. Honestly though sometimes it feels like while I’m cleaning my whole family is trailing after me, throwing literally trash all over the apartment. It’s an uphill struggle getting this place clean, that’s for sure.

On Saturday I took Sym shopping to buy clothes for Spirit Week at school. She needed shoes for Formal Day, a black, white and green outfit for [School Name] Day and a red shirt for House Day. Pretty much the only day she didn’t need anything for is Pajama Day! Anyway we were able to find everything for pretty cheap and with only two small fights. The first fight was because I wouldn’t let her get some ill-fitting shorts that she inexplicably really liked (they were like… four sizes too big) and the second was because I made her get flat shoes for Formal Day. I would have gotten her heels or wedges but the only pair we found that went with the dress (which she already has) were $700. NOPE.

With the annoying week I’ve had I wanted something sweet & simple to make so I put together this little print for Gwen’s room. The quote is obviously from “Guess How Much I Love you,” but the combination of rabbits, the moon and love always makes me think of Sailor Moon, haha.

This is a totally easy-peasy project, just download the image from here, print on cardstock or heavy weight paper, cut to size and frame! The image is 8×8″ but if you can’t find a square frame you like (I got mine at Michael’s but I don’t LOVE it) you can use an 8×10″ frame. And there you have it, a cute piece of art for your baby’s nursery (or anyone else you might love to the moon & back).

Printable for personal use only; not for resale.

I love this little red dress so much I ordered it in burgundy as well :X

Great blue heron nests down by Stanley Park.

After all the sunny days last week it’s turned very grey here.

Baby loves coffee cake. I used this recipe but subbed pecans for walnuts (yuck), used smoked chocolate chips and added a swirl of rye whiskey caramel sauce to the batter.

I kind of can’t believe February is almost over. I know this month has been dragging for a lot of people (especially those who’ve been snowed or iced in) but here it’s just blown by.

After my small freak-the-freak-out on Monday I’ve been trying to be more chill this week. Obviously I can’t do everything in my life in one day, and I also really need to take the time to relax. Thankfully after being swamped with orders earlier this month I’m mostly caught up on banner making. Having dozens & dozens of open orders when I make everything myself by hand can be SO STRESSFUL. I really work my ass off not to ship anything late, although last week I stupidly forgot to buy envelopes and had to send out a couple banners two days later than scheduled. OH THE HUMANITY.

Of course, as soon as I decide I’m going to try not to bug out about things I had to deal with the biggest load of BS nonsense all day yesterday. Stressing about garbage online, stressing about garbage irl, kind of made me want to delete my blog, close my etsy, quit my job and go live under a rock with no wi-fi. Thankfully almost everything seems to have been resolved but UGH. Here’s hoping the rest of the week is less annoying.

I need more hours in the day.

Really, I probably just need to start managing my time more wisely (and spending less of it on the internet cough*like right now*cough). There are just so many things I want to do and when I combine those things with the stuff I need to do… it’s just too much. It certainly doesn’t help that I have too many hobbies, and too many of those hobbies have turned into businesses, on top of my day job-business, on top of parenting & homemaking… YEESH.

Take these blocks.

I bought this set of small, 3/4″ square blocks from Michael’s about fifty million years ago. I had always planned to paint them but never got around to it, and over the years a few of them were used for other purposes (namely propped up other things I was actually painting) and were wrecked or lost, so I out of the original 24 or 25 had 21 left. The other week I finally got around to doing it; I figured I could do them in different pastel colours and they’d make a cute addition to Gwen’s Easter basket (I’m planning ahead, and yes, I know these are quite small for a child Gwen’s age but she’s not really on of those kids that puts everything in their mouth so I’m not worried). I ended up painting six colours on each block, in different combinations of green, yellow, blue, pink, peach, purple, turquoise and gold. I’m really happy with how they turned out (except I think the purple is too dark? I might go back and paint a lighter shade over it), and now I want to paint MORE blocks. I keep thinking up different colour schemes & combinations, patterns and designs I want to do. But what would I do with all these blocks? OH I KNOW, SELL THEM OF COURSE. Because I’m not already busy enough with making & selling banners and boots.

And it’s not just painting the blocks- it’s hard to find beeswax polish in Canada so what am I gonna do to finish these blocks? MAKE MY OWN OF COURSE. Go buy a big block of beeswax and grate it up and melt it with some jojoba oil. Then I’m like… if I had a miter saw I could buy lengths of wood and cut my own blocks! I should get a saw! And I have plans for some new boot designs for Gwen- a pair with bunny faces for Easter (I’ve already bought a bunch of round black studs for eyes and spray painted some triangular studs pink for the noses) and some with fringe that I might make out of this really cool dark brown suede with copper stars, so I need to make new patterns. I want to start embroidering patches again, like the ones I made Taylor for our anniversary last year. I have all the pieces for a felt woodland garland made and just need to sew them to the ribbon. The gold leather crown I made for Gwen is peeling apart (I used no-sew Heat Bond to make it and that stuff is the worrrrrrst) so I need to fix it and come up with a better technique for making them. I want to paint a large canvas to hang on the wall above the dressers in our bedroom. I want to repaint my desk (so sick of the yellow) and our whole office.

Here’s what’s on my to-do list for today:

– make, pack & ship two banners
– do the dishes & laundry
– bake a coffee cake
– order Taylor’s anniversary gift
– clean the bathroom
– sweep all the dead leaves of the stairs
– finish putting together the last three drawers for Sym’s new dresser
– start taking apart Sym’s old bookcase & Gwen’s old dresser
– pack & ship one pair of boots
– punch holes & set snaps in two pairs of boots and sew at least one vamp
– paint pictures with Gwen, it’s her new favourite thing

– go outside
– clean everything
– do everything
– make everything

I am really trying to come up with a “time budget” so I’m able to fit everything in between school drop offs & pick up and nap time and trips to the park. I already don’t work on banners on the weekends (unless it’s a dire situation) and I try to do the bulk of my banner-making on Tuesdays, when I don’t have to go to the school. I usually sew just in the evenings while I watch tv. I’ve really been trying to meal plan & grocery shop more efficiently, rather than 5:30 rolling around every day and being like “oh cool there’s no food in the house.” I definitely need to do better with fitting in housework, I would rather do almost anything else so it tends to fall by the wayside most days (where it belongs imo). idk idk, how do you fit everything into the day?

On Wednesday I had made plans to meet up with a local etsy customer to deliver her banners. I was very anxious to get it done because she actually placed the order in early December and the banners had been finished for moths, it was just hard to coordinate our schedules. We planned to meet at 11:30 on Granville Street near the comic book store, which is perfect because on Wednesdays Taylor goes to the comic book store after work. To make the outing a bit more interesting for the lil ones I decided to leave early, at 9:30, and walk the Seawall around Yaletown before meeting Taylor in Gastown and heading up to Granville.

It was a totally gogeous day so the walk was amazing, but I forgot to bring any snacks (like, I packed snacks, I just didn’t put the snack bag in the stroller) so Gwen started to get a little grumpy as we headed off the Seawall. Other than that it was fine, until I we got to the corner of Robson & Granville, half a block from the meeting place, when I realized I FORGOT TO BRING THE BANNERS. Like, the ENTIRE REASON I’d even gone out was to deliver them! It was 11:10, so I had twenty minutes to basically run home, pick up the banners and get back down to Granville. Sym was home (she’d just gotten her braces adjusted) so I called and asked her to grab the banners and come meet me, but in spite of my telling her which street to go down she went down a parallel street and I ended up going all the way to our house before I called her again to be like “WHERE ARE YOU????”

Anyway, I was able to make it back in time and get them to the customer, but geez. What a classic move on my part.

Today Taylor and I took Gwen around the Stanley Park section of the Seawall (I remembered snacks this time). Before we left the house I thought it was going to be another nice day but when we got down the hill it was super cloudy and grey. I was a little worried it was going to rain but I decided to go ahead anyway, and once we came around the cliff below Prospect Point it was all blue skies and sun the rest of the way.

Sometimes I think I have a weird gift of being able to pick the absolute worst day on any given weekend/holiday for an activity. You don’t even know how many times I’ve suggested a family walk down on the Seawall only to find our way blocked by a parade or a race or a crowd of some sort. Like the time two years ago I suggested a walk on the beach on New Years Day during the Polar Bear Swim, or the trip to the playground at Second Beach that took us right into the path of the Terry Fox Run. I’ve had my plans stymied by the Sun Run, some bicycle racde, the Pride Parade, you name it. The pitfall of living downtown in the center of the routes for basically all these things I guess.

Anyway. Sunday morning was a weird combo of dim and foggy to the east & south and bright and sunny to the west & north so I had the idea to walk down to Sunset Beach and along the seawall to English Bay. It was really cool- we walked from where it was clear into the fog, and then as we headed west it burned off and you could see all the freighters out in the bay slowly emerging. Of course, that part of the Seawall is part of the route for the half-marathon that was happening that day because OF COURSE IT WAS. Luckily it was near the end of the route and we were down there early enough that it didn’t start to get crowded with runners until the end of our walk, but still. STILL. I’m going to have to start keeping track of all the runs and races and things so this STOPS HAPPENING.

Valentine’s Day was lovely. I love picking out presents for everyone, although for some reason I’m always stumped on what to get Taylor for Valentine’s, so after spending several hours shopping on Friday afternoon I went back to the same well as last year and got him scotch. Why mess with the classics, right? Maybe it can be the thing, I get him a new, different scotch to try every year. Symphony got a Funko POP Dancing Groot and some Tony Moly cosmetics (THEY’RE SO CUTE), and Gwen got a heart-print mini hamper with a cute Valentine’s dress and stuffed pig inside. For me Taylor made a super cute Lego fox. He designed it himself, went out to the Lego store for bulk bricks and put it together in secret. It’s so sweet! He definitely put more thought into my gift than I did to his so I need to STEP UP my game for our wedding anniversary next month.

Sometimes I feel like I’m constantly redecorating Gwen’s room. Some changes have been out of necessity, like when she and her lil friend tore her bookshelves clean out of the wall. Some have been due to Gwen’s changing needs, like when we stopped using the changing table attachment on the cabinet. Others have been because an item in her room just wasn’t useful in that space, like the chair I thought we’d use for night feedings- we literally never did so it lives in my office now. I think mostly right now I’m just frustrated because I have to have a second crib in there. The room is really small so the second crib takes up a lot of the floor space and blocks the closet doors, so when it’s not in use I fold it up and put it away. At the same time though I have to leave a space for it so there’s a whole corner of her room that is empty half the time, which makes the room look unbalanced and strange.

Anyway. Her dresser was completely falling apart so last weekend we got her a replacement. I put the dresser behind the door (which is placed oddly in the middle of one wall, exacerbating all my problems with this room) and hung a shelf-with-clothes-rail over it. Now I can use her closet purely for storage (mostly Taylor’s off-season coats, too-big hand-me-downs for Gwen, and boxes and boxes of books) and with these clothes out in the open hopefully she’ll get more wear out of them. She was very excited to choose her outfit from it this morning!

All of Gwen’s handmade boots from Little Mountain.

Sorry for the lackluster image quality, Gwen’s room is not well lit.

I made the shelf using brackets and a board from Ikea (I had the shelf cut down to the length I needed by the handyman for my block) and the clothes rail is just a dowel from the craft store (I cut it to length myself). I drilled holes in the dowel & brackets, screwed everything together and painted it (1 coat of primer + 2 coats of gloss white). I already had the paint on hand so this cost less than $20. If I had to do this again I’d move the dowel forward by 1/4″ so the hangers had a little more space, prime & paint the pieces BEFORE screwing them together, and do a better job of sanding it between coats. I def half-assed some parts of this project, but it gets the job done and I think it looks pretty alright (could just be the bad lighting tho).