A shirt

More sewing for Henry this week. This is Kai's shirt from Weekend Sewing (my favourite sewing book). I followed the pattern exactly except I was making it from an old shirt so I got to reuse the buttons and buttonholes and placket. I did the 1 year size but I think it turned out a little big. Makes him look like a big fat guy.

I also sewed up some shorts from a thrift store pattern. These turned out much too big though so they will be put away till next summer.

A Hoodie

Another sewing project done. I made this hoodie out of an old hooded sweatshirt of mine. It was mostly an experiment and I am surprised that it turned out so well. I used the same Ottobre pattern that I used here as a base for size and whatnot. I reused a lot of elements of the original sweatshirt: the zipper, the finished front of the hood, the front pocket, the ribbing on the hems. So it sewed up in no time. And I think it turned out really really nicely.

A pair of pants

Kids Clothes Week Challenge was last week in blogland but now that it's over and blog land is full of inspiring pictures of handmade kids clothes I am finally inspired and getting a lot done this week already, more to photograph later. These are just super simple pants made from sleeves of an old long sleeved T. I had to make a new pattern as he is bigger than last time I made some, just did something similar to here.


I made them quickly this morning while Henry was running around underneath me, they are that simple. We have been into putting him in sweatpants recently (especially into the not having to bother changing him into PJs part of it) so I thought he could use another pair. Here they are in action.

And here they are dripping wet.


And on an unrelated note, look what he did this morning. He did not want to sit in his high chair and eat breakfast so I just left a plate of banana on his little desk. And all on his own he climbed into his chair and sat there eating his breakfast. And then he pulled out a book to browse while he ate. What a big boy!!!

Almond Cheese

I made this Almond Cheese Spread last week and want to share it here because it turned out so good. I thought I was completely turned off vegan cheese substitutes after some disgusting recipes I'd tried but this one had such good reviews I had to try it. And I had just made crackers and had nothing to put on them. It took a bit of time to make it but it really was good. And I just used dried herbs for the oil and it turned out great. One thing I will change is to put a lot less lemon juice in, had too much lemon juice flavour for sure. And I will make a double batch.

Henry didn't like the cheese but he did like the crackers. Here he is stuffing a whole one into his mouth.

Cloth Diapers

I know when I was trying to get our cloth diaper stash ready before Henry was born I read and read and read all over the internet to try and figure out what was the best way to do it. So now I thought I'd write just a little about what I've learned.

We took a little hiatus from cloth diapers at the end of the winter but I'm glad to say we are back to using cloth almost all the time now. We use disposables when we are out visiting and we use one overnight diposable each night to keep Henry's bum nice and dry while he sleeps. But other than that we are back to cloth.


In the past week I made 10 new cloth diapers in an effort to get Kevin and I jazzed about cloth diapering again. I made these a little different than most of the ones I had made previously because now I know better what I like.

I still used the free Rita's Rump Pocket pattern but this time I sewed the absorbant stuff in instead of leaving it open for stuffing. Leaving it open did really make it size adjustable - they really did fit him when he was just a few weeks old and still fit him now. But having to stuff them before you use them is annoying and taking the stuffing out when the diaper is soiled is annoying and gross. Also, even with the stuffing out, the diapers take quite a while to dry in the dryer because of the elasticated leg openings so I would hang them to dry anyway.

I also picked light coloured fabrics for making the diapers. I've learned they make it easier to peek and see if the diaper is dirty while Henry is wearing it.

Here is Henry in the wool diaper cover shorts that I knit him last May. I use wool covers occasionally but much prefer the storebought plastic covers. And we've been happy with the cheap Kushies brand covers.


So we are using mostly the stuffed pocket diapers with pins and plastic covers. We have some cheap all in ones that I use because they're easy but he almost always ends up getting damp pants when wearing those. And now that he's having big boy poos I like our diaper sprayer attached to the toilet for getting rid of that poop before putting to be washed. But even with the sprayer that bit is pretty gross.

In other news Henry is eating quite well these days after going through a couple months during which he refused almost all food and only wanted to nurse. He will usually eat some of what we are eating. Some of his new favourite foods are plain chickpeas, pasta, and strawberries. I think his favourite is still banana though and he says " 'nana" whenever he sees one.

Dinner From the Garden

It was a really hot day today, hot and humid. Henry and I hung out in the backyard all day.

While we were out there we noticed how tall the asparagus had gotten and I thought it was time to eat some. So for dinner we had pasta with asparagus from the garden, sun-dried tomatoes from last year's garden, and walnuts, mushrooms, garlic. Along with it we had a salad from the garden: dandelion leaves and lots of chives and a little bit of arugula and mache left over from last year. And carrots not from the garden. The whole meal turned out really tasty. Whenever I had read before about eating dandelion leaves I'd always had a little taste and thought yuck too bitter. But in the salad with the sweet balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing the dandelion tasted just fine.We spent all day outside but right at dinner time it started to rain so we are stuck inside this evening. Apart from a little expedition out in the downpour to let Henry experience the rain of course.

A Spring Sweater

I finished this sweater for Henry a few weeks ago but then it sat waiting for the neck hole to be made a bit smaller for those weeks. It's this pattern that I've made before but this time with size 7 needles. It turned out well except for the crazy wide sleeves (can't believe I didn't notice how huge they were as I was knitting). It's a cotton yarn so he should be able to wear it in the months coming up.

Mother's Day 2011

I had a wonderful mother's day this year. I spent it with my mother and my son and husband and sister. The 5 of us drove to Limehouse to do a hike along the Bruce Trail there. It is a very interesting area with caves/big splits in the rocks. We walked for a couple hours and enjoyed a picnic lunch.

On our way home we stopped at Andrews' Scenic Acres, a farm that we used to go to as kids and the adjoining Scotch Block Winery. We had no idea about this winery but when we got there we found out they specialized in fruit wines, just like a lot of the fruit wines Kevin and I have been experimenting with in the past year. So we were very excited to have lots of samples of their interesting wines and to buy a couple bottles to bring home. Henry got to taste some raspberry juice which he loved and play at the playground there.

When we got back to my mum's we were able to lounge in the backyard enjoying the nice weather and I even got a surprise birthday cake and presents.

Asparagus

2 years after planting it looks like we will get some asparagus this year. I know I have to be careful not to cut too much off while it is still getting established but I know we will be eating some fresh garden asparagus. Very exciting!

And one more picture from our recent time at Nana's.

Happy Henry

I think today might have been the best day of Henry's life. He got to do all sorts of fun stuff. In the morning we went to Busy Bees indoor playground in Kitchener. We hadn't been since the fall when Henry was still a bit young for it. Now it is perfect for him. He loved it so much. I was surprised that I actually felt like it was worth the $7 to get in. We were there for 1 1/2 hours and Henry had a blast. The ball pit was his favourite.


Then in the afternoon we managed to fit in some playtime in the backyard and at the park and even a walk up our street.

And after dinner Daddy went and picked up a big new toy for him: this climb and slide bus. Henry loved playing with Nana's wooden indoor slide while we were at her house the past two weeks so we really wanted to get one for our house when we got home. And we managed to find this one used. And he loves it. He just figured out how to turn himself around to go down steps and slides this past week so now he can play on it on his own.
How could a day be any better than that for a 14 month old?

Visiting

We've been visiting with family for the past two weeks. Henry's Auntie Emma has been over from England and so we've been spending lots of time with her.

The weather's been a bit horrible - cold and rainy so a lot of our outings have involved hanging round the shops. Henry doesn't mind, he's happy to walk around anywhere new.


And we've managed to get out and about outdoors on the few nice days.

Auntie Emma leaves today and we'll miss her.