Birthdays & Anniversaries

This past weekend we celebrated both Mike's birthday and our one-year anniversary of being in our home in Corso Italia.  One year already??

Friday night we headed out to the local sushi restaurant around the corner - Sushi California. The "New Open" sign in front of their window has been hanging there since we moved in and is looking a tad more weathered after a year.  It also leaves us wondering just how long that sign was up before we moved in!

As with the last time we were there the prices were great, the food was yummy, but the service was very slow. Adam slept through most of the dinner leaving us to enjoy a quiet meal out together and I'm sure we would have been able to make it home before he started to fuss had it not taken so long for everything, including paying the bill. And one very unattractive thing about the restaurant was that when they cleared tables in between patrons, they wiped the tables down with a citrus cleanser that smelled like Lysol. No one wants to be smelling cleaner while they eat their food. We felt like we were suddenly transported into a bathroom as we were enjoying our maki rolls.  Seriously, a definite turn-off.  Good place for pick-up, perhaps not for dine-in.

Saturday we had fun furniture shopping as it was time to spruce up the place.  There were a few things on the list: coffee table, side table, storage bench, desk...We ended up buying a walnut tripod coffee table from Shelter and a side table from EQ3 that matched surprisingly well.  There was also a nice storage bench from West Elm that we might go back for.  A pretty successful morning in all...now we just need a new desk for the office.

Enjoying birthday dessert on our new coffee table

Yesterday we got down to business.  I have a list of things that I've wanted to get done around the house for a while and I was eager to start picking them off one by one. The first was painting the washroom ceiling to cover up some plaster repair last year after installing the exhaust fan. While I was at it I decided to also paint the dividing wall separating our porch from the neighbour's (you can see in the photo below). What a difference a fresh coat of paint makes.  

Mike picked up a shelf so we could organize the closet under the stairs and then also cut the grass - the first time for 2013!  The front and back lawns survived the winter wonderfully and are nice and green. We will need to attack some of the weeds again but it won't be anything like the dandelion infestation and monster weeds we had to deal with when we moved in.   Anyway the warm weather was much appreciated this weekend...it finally feels like spring and of course, the bbq came out of storage. Can't wait for burgers!

Slow-Cooked Lamb Chops with White Beans

This past Sunday we hosted a dinner to celebrate my mom and brother's birthdays.  I have a favourite lamb shank recipe that I've made several times in the past.  This time I wanted to try a new one and followed (more or less) the "Braised Lamb Shanks with White Bean Puree" recipe from More Heart Smart Cooking with Bonnie Stern.  I borrowed the book from my mother-in-law last week since she's made this one before and it was a winner.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly (I seldom do) but the meal was delicious all the same.  Since my mother insisted on bringing an appetizer and side dish (...to her own birthday dinner! Ah Chinese mothers...) I thought individual lamb shanks would be too much for everyone.  Instead I used lamb loin chops and that way people could take more or less as they wished.

The lamb had been marinated overnight in a bowl of chopped onions, minced garlic, red wine, pepper, and rosemary.  The next day I browned the lamb chops in a big pan and set them aside.  Then I sauteed some sliced onions and garlic in the pan and added plum tomatoes and the marinade juices from the night before.

Once everything was heated I transferred the lamb and sauce to a slow cooker to cook for 4 hours.  The house smelled fantastic all day :)

Finally I made a side of cooked white beans, carrots, zucchini, celery, and onions.  The actual recipe calls for a white bean puree to act as a bed for the lamb shanks.  It was quite delicious when my mother-in-law made it previously so I'm not quite sure why I didn't just follow the recipe...I probably would have if I was completely in charge of the meal but I suppose I didn't think the puree would go with the food my mom was bringing.  Anyway it was yummy!  Here's a shot of the meal below.  We also served some olive bread from the local bakery which was good for soaking up the sauce.

I regret not taking a photo of the lovely strawberry mousse birthday cake that my sister-in-law brought over. It had taken her 2 hours to make and was delicious.  I've never been big on baking but I think that will start to change.  Earlier this year I decided that every week I should attempt something new in the kitchen, and perhaps some weeks it might be baked goods rather than dinner entrees.   The new recipe could be a simple one, like lemon poppy-seed muffins (next on the list...we usually make banana-walnut ones), as long as it was something new. It hasn't always worked out that I've found the time each week but so far I've tried the following new dishes:

Braised lamb chops

Pork roast with apple stuffing

Moroccan beef stew

Chili (my cousin's recipe)

Asian style chicken wings

Breaded shrimp on a bed of lentils

I've enjoyed the new cooking challenge and am excited to get through my post-it notes where I've jotted down interesting recipes I've come across so far.  Wish me luck!

Delightful Dinos #2: Monty

My parents came by to visit on Monday and that gave me just enough time to quickly sew together some legs for Monty the Bronte (pronounced "Bron-tee", heh heh).  I used the same fabric as the one for Spike's belly which is nice and colourful.  I had to hand-stitch the legs to the body again and opted not to use buttons for any detailing (choking hazards, as I mentioned in my earlier blog) but it really would have been nice to have pop-out eyes.  Since the polka dot fabric is so busy, the grey thread I used to embroider Monty's eyes just doesn't stand out enough.  Perhaps I should have gone darker, like black.  Oh well.  Grey eyes, just like Adam's.

I continued work on Monty in the evening after Adam went to bed and just as I was about to sew up the last seam on Monty's belly I remembered that I had initially planned to put a bell inside.  But where the heck was I going to find  a bell at 9:45pm?  Forget it, I was tired and my fingers were sore from hand-stitching and I was just sooo close to being finished. Well, with 10 extra stitches I was.  And I'm happy with it.

Whoops, wasn't careful and got the seams on crooked!

Delightful Dinos #1: Spike

Yay! After about a month of picking up and putting down this sewing project I finally finished the first of three Delightful Dino toys for Adam.  Meet Spike.  

I first saw the adorable sewing pattern on Etsy around Christmas time and purchased it online.  I know that the patterns for the three dinosaurs are straightforward and usually I hesitate to bother buying them for simple projects but I wanted to get to the sewing part as efficiently as possible, given the time constraints with a newborn.  Now I'm happy I did.  During one of Adam's naps a few weeks back I successfully cut out all of the fabrics and interfacing for all three dinosaurs (and finished the ironing - hooray!) so I'm optimistic I'll be posting about the other two dinos in no time.  Fingers crossed.

I purchased four cute fat quarters from Fabricland and used two different fabrics for each dinosaur. I like the colourful polka dots on the fabric for Spike's belly and foot pads.  Unfortunately I forgot to pick up wide ric rac to use along Spike's spine so instead I had to create my own triangular spikes using the same polka dot fabric. It was a bit more effort but turned out to be nice detailing.

I would have loved to use buttons for Spike's eyes and for attaching his legs to his body (as called out for in the pattern) but I'm a little paranoid about buttons being pulled off and becoming choking hazards so I put safety first.  Instead of buttons I just used blue thread to create circles for his eyes.  They don't stand out as much as I would have liked because of the busy fabric but they'll have to do.  

For the legs I tried to sew from the front right one straight through the body to the front left one (as instructed in the pattern) but my needles just aren't long enough to easily penetrate the body without a whole lotta squishing down. It was too tricky to control where the needle would emerge from on the other side...plus I kept running the risk of losing the needle altogether inside the body if it slipped out of my fingers.  In the end I settled for hand-stitching along the tops of each leg so that they flop around which is kind of fun.

Oh, and the best part? I took some of the wrapper paper from saltine crackers and stuffed it into Spike's body.  Now when you squeeze him he makes the crinkling sound that seems to be a common feature among many baby toys that we've received.  Perhaps I will add a bell to the next dino. Stay tuned!

Fun with Flannelette

Nope, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth but yes, it sure is tricky finding the time to sew with a new baby.  And when I do find the time to sew, everything I sew is for the baby. For example, here is a simple bib that I made for Adam using a cute flannelette I picked up at the new Len's Mill store on Orfus Road by Yorkdale (and by the Fabricland!)  It was really straight-forward as I just roughly traced out one of the bibs we got as a hand-me-down for him.  I don't like buttons located directly behind the neck though because I find them a hassle to do/undo when he's lying down (this goes for clothing as well as bibs).  So, as you can see I just shifted the opening for his neck so that it closes off to one side and used snap buttons for a quick finish.

The bib is reversible with the same flannelette on both sides. For a bit of added absorbency I took the extra fabric cut out from the centre of the bib (for the neck hole), cut it in half (to create semi-circles) and sewed it into the bib between the outer layers where his chin would normally lie.  That way I didn't waste the fabric and hopefully the bib acts as an even better drool catcher.

I was originally going to cheat with the binding and just pin it around the perimeter, then top-stitch the whole thing in place. However after seeing how narrow the binding was I figured it would be challenging (and messy) to get clean stitch lines that caught the binding on both sides of the bib.  Therefore I had to go with the more proper (but tedious) approach of sewing one side into the bib with the machine, then hand-stitching the opposite side. This takes a lot more time but is very clean because all the stitch lines are invisible.

Stitching the first side with the Singer

Binding is complete

Finally I hammered in the snap buttons to finish off the bib. I love using snap buttons because they don't involve making button holes which aren't the easiest to do on the old Singer.

And after finishing off two identical bibs I went ahead and completed some burp cloths and a receiving blanket with the extra fabric.  Now Adam has a cute, matching set :)

And just to show how tricky it can be to find the time for sewing, here are some photos of me making the most of my quiet time.  I'm taking in a pair of jeans that needed tailoring before I was even pregnant but I was too lazy to get around to it last year. Then Adam was on the way and I said bye-bye to denim for several months. Now that I'm back in jeans I might as well get them to fit the way I want them to, right? Right! 

How did this fella sleep through the clunkety-clunk of the Singer??

Baby Sun Shade

I decided to make my own sun shade for Adam's car seat since the mesh one that suction-cups to the window just wasn't cutting it. One of the four suction cups kept popping off the glass...plus the sun could still peer around parts of the window that the shade couldn't reach.  On top of that he had no protection from the sun when it was pouring down on him from the back windshield so I sewed up a very simple shade using leftover fabric from other projects.

I wanted to keep the shade light in colour so that it wouldn't absorb heat from the sun. I had some white embroidered cotton fabric left over from a shirt I previously made but thought it was a bit too thin, plus the tiny holes in the design could let streams of sun in and annoy a sleeping baby. Since the fabric was so pretty I used it anyway but added a second layer of cotton on the underside.

Next I added an elastic to one end of the shade so that it could easily hang around the back headrest.    Between the two points where the elastic attaches to the fabric I attached a wooden stick to keep the cloth from drooping in the middle.

On the other side of the shade I attached a thicker and stronger elastic encased in the last scraps remaining from Adam's citrus nursery curtains and chenille blanket.  I wanted this elastic sling to be more durable since it is going to be pulled on and off the car seat repeatedly. It ended up fitting really well around the top of the baby car seat and keeps the shade nice and taut.  When not in use this thicker sling can easily be hung over the back seat headrest as well, folding the shade in half and keeping it nicely out of the way.

Here's the final result.  As you can see it did a good job of keeping the sun away from Adam so that he could catch some zzzZZZ's!

Simple Curtains

Wow, it's been over a month since my last post. I'm falling behind! But then again there isn't a whole lot to update about, at least not in the area of sewing anyway.  I've been too absorbed with Adam (as I should be) who is thriving and smiling more each day.

I did finally finish a very simple curtain for the nursery which I mostly completed over the Christmas holidays. The only thing that had been missing was the gathering tape and hooks which we forgot to pick up originally.  Then Adam came early and everything was on hold including simple 10-minute tasks such as sewing two straight lines to attach gathering tape to a curtain!

Anyway the curtain finally went up two weeks ago and here is a photo of what it looks like with the sun shining through.  It goes well with the "Retro-Fit" nursing chair as well!  The nursery still isn't fully decorated yet but Mike is in the process of putting up bookshelves and I am getting some photos framed.  Clearly we are taking our time :)

And yes, it's the same cheery and playful fabric I used for Adam's chenille blanket which makes a great backdrop for all of Adam's funny martial arts poses!

Not a Raven's Fan...Prefer Dragons Instead?

I can't believe that Adam just turned a month old. Where did January go??  It happened to coincide with Superbowl XLVII weekend and I thought it was fitting to get a photo of him in his adorable matching hat and diaper cover set that Brigitte made a while back. Adam wasn't too pleased to pose for a photo though. Or maybe he's just more of a 49ers fan than I had thought :P

Also on the weekend was Adam's Full Moon Dinner celebration where we spent the evening with lots of family and LOTS of babies.  I can't believe how many babies were born in the past twelve months...though I'm sure none of us actually timed it to coincide with the year of the Dragon despite what the Globe and Mail had to write (Year of Dragon Brings Baby Boom in China).

With Brigitte and her dragon baby

The dragon babies did make for a cute photo. Here we are at the restaurant with my cousins and my brother Eric and all of their little ones.  These kids are going to have so much fun growing up together just as their parents did.

Pumpkin Head

"I tip my hat to you Ruslana!"

Thanks Ruslana for dropping by yesterday and bringing us yummy chocolates :) Also Adam loves his little pumpkin hat (and so do I!)  The bright colours are fantastic and it's stretchy enough that he should be able to wear it for a good chunk of time.  

I might just have to take up knitting/crochet myself so that I can make cute projects like this for him.  I haven't sat at my sewing machine since he was born (well, sitting comfortably at all has been only a recent accomplishment) but perhaps knitting could be more accessible...easier to pick up and put down between feeds?  

"Pumpkins make me so sleepy."

The Shirt Says It All

The wonderful life of a newborn infant...

Welcome Adam!

Little Adam arrived two weeks early weighing in at a very healthy 7lbs 2oz and has been the love of our lives for the past seven days. 

"Mommy has no idea I'm sticking my tongue out at her!"

I'm not going to go into the gory details of the labour or the first week of recovery - and yes, I'm standing to write this post - but let me at least bring attention to a few "facts" (myths?) you might learn about in your prenatal class:

1.  First-time pregnancies usually go past the 40-week due date.

2.  Chances are, your water won't break before contractions begin.  If it does, it will be more of a slow trickle than a gush like the movies.

3.  For your first baby it will be a long labour so the doctor doesn't need to check up on you as often.

4.  Epidurals are an effective way to alleviate pain.

Okay fine, so these things *are* probably true for the majority of women. I guess it just turns out that I'm not like the majority of women!  Fortunately none of that matters now when my husband and I can hold our baby and know he is the sweetest thing in the world.

"Who stole all my clothes?"

It *Does* Snow in Toronto!

Here are some photos from last week that I never got around to posting.  We may not have had much snow for Christmas day but I was really happy about having snow on the ground for Boxing Day.  Close enough, right?  It probably worked out better that way...fewer traffic issues with everyone trying to get to and from their turkey dinners.

Clearing the sidewalk

I took a few shots of Mike shoveling the snow.  Neither of us have had to do any shoveling in years since we've been spoiled with living in a condo but this year we were prepared with shovels since November. When I was still living at home with my parents our neighbour would always be out with a broom sweeping away the last traces of snowflakes on the driveway. I always thought it was a bit obsessive-compulsive...but sure enough now that we have our own house and I'm ready to pop out a baby on a moment's notice I wanted the porch steps and walkway to be spotlessly dry.  It made a huge difference using the broom and I have to say, our steps and portion of the sidewalk were the cleanest of any house around us.  

We saw many of the neighbours out shoveling that day which was kind of nice since people have been holed up inside their houses ever since it got dark and cold outside.  The older woman across the road opened her front door to wave over at me and yell something out in Italian.  I had no idea what she said but smiled and waved back.  Mike thinks she was just trying to tell "the pregnant lady" to drop the broom and go back inside.  I'm not so sure.

Finally here's a nice photo that Mike took with his tripod as the snow was coming down at night. It doesn't actually look like snow is falling in this picture but it definitely was, and the street was absolutely silent. It was magical - the snow was completely undisturbed all around us except for our own footsteps.  Happy 2013 everyone!  The holidays have been excellent!

Citrus Chenille Blanket

Remember the blue butterfly chenille blanket I made for Grace back in the fall?  Well here is one that I just finished for baby.  I always intended to make one after Grace's blanket turned out so well but because we've received several adorable baby blankets recently (including the quilt from Kelly and a crocheted blanky from Gran Joan) I was a bit reluctant.  Then this week I figured, what the heck?  Can you really have too many cute blankets?

I bought this fabric from Ikea for $5.99 per meter which was a good deal because it is a very heavy cotton. And yes, that means I abandoned the pretty Peekaboo Partridge cotton fabric that I blogged about at the end of October.  It turned out that the seller on Etsy had run out of the Happy Scrolls fabric from the set and the replacement fabric was a bit too busy when paired with the other two.  That's ok, I still intend on using those fabrics for other upcoming sewing projects - perhaps some bibs or burp cloths?

This time around I decided to use chalk to pencil in the diagonal lines before sewing. It was quite tedious but it made the sewing process go much more smoothly because I wasn't constantly stopping and trying to judge by eye whether the lines were still parallel.  In the above photo these lines are spaced twice the intended distance apart (1.5 inches).  I later went back and sewed additional lines half-way between these ones and that was easy enough to do just by eye once these guide lines were in place.

Alternating beige and gold thread (beige looks blue here because of chalk)

Also this time around instead of just doing parallel diagonal lines throughout the entire blanket I created an 'X' pattern made up of parallel chevrons that met in the centre.  It made the cutting job a bit more complicated but not by much.

Progress after about half an hour of cutting with scissors + chenille cutter

Once the cutting was complete I sewed on the yellow binding along the edge and then tossed the whole thing into the wash. This time I wasn't as nervous seeing it disappear into the washing machine!

Chenille side after coming out of the dryer

And voila - another chenille blanket completed!  I think I like the vibrant colours of the blue butterfly blanket more but this one is interesting because of the chevrons.  Plus the citrus-y colour combination should go well with the reupholstered glider chair in the nursery.  I hope baby likes green!