a hippie with a minivan

My first shirts!

ok… this was my test shirt just to practice putting things together etc (no pattern)… the fabric is a bit stiff (it was cheap and I bought it to practice with) and it makes me look a bit pregnant from the side… so I don’t know if I am going to try to fix it a bit so I can wear it or what…
anyway… here it is…

And then I had enough confidence to make this one… which I am pretty happy with… I was about to make it about the same style but didn’t have anymore of the same elastic… So… I got out the elastic thread and shirred it… I didn’t know how to shirr but it worked…

Now I am thinking about shirring the bodice part of the first shirt to see if that looks better…

Spring…

Spring has come late this year but I think it is finally here… Fresh air is flowing through the house and cleaning is easier…

Something about having the windows open makes it easier to get into the cleaning mood and makes the house Feel cleaner at the same time…

I am getting back into the decluttering mood and at a community sale for baby/kid items we sold some things at yesterdayÂ that we got when I was pregnant with Xavier and used a few times but have proved to be completely useless or cumbersome and I would never use for another baby… a playpen and portable swing being two of the useless (and quite a bit sad baby containment devices) and a 3 in 1 high chair that just took up too much space and we didn’t even use much for Colin… a few other things also made it out the door never to return…

Decluttering feels so good and it makes it so much easier to clean up also…

As for the boys at the moment…

Xavier doesn’t like going out side too much… so he often sits at the kitchen table with construction toys… making Star Wars figures, spaceships and robots and then playing out stories with them…If we do convince him to go play outside though, he stays out for long and then wants to stay out…
Colin however loves playing outside and has been spending hours playing in little corners of the yard… It surprises me at times about how imaginative he is and he makes up tons of complex stories with cars and misc toys and of course his “Woody” and “Buzz”… the Toy Story toys… At two and a half his vocabulary is pretty much equal to Xaviers… the ideas are not always as complex but his language is there…

Another thing that has come with spring is the return of yardwork… I need to get my garden ready and as the snow and ice melted in the pool this year holes formed and the liner is beyond repair… since it was installed by the old owners and was not installed well… we are not going to make the same mistake… so new liner and installation will be one of the big ticket items this year… the other is the new fence of which the cost will be split between the neighbor and us…

Anyway… Spring is here…Â and it feels great!

Carrot Cake

this is an amazingly moist Carrot cake… I have make it both with or without cream cheese frosting and each way is perfect!

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 3/4cups sucanat (or brown sugar)
1 cup applesauce
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 can crushed pineapple, drained

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.
3. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; make a well in the centre and add sugar, applesauce, eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix with wooden spoon until smooth.
5. Stir in carrots, coconut, walnuts and pineapple.
6. Pour into 9×13 inch pan and bake for about 45 minutes.

A few more pics…

I tried to sell this rocking horse last year at a community sale and it didn’t sell and I was about to try again tomorrow but we put KhÃ©na in it for a few minutes and he loved it… so he hung out in it a few times today… maybe next year!

So here is the Proud rider…