Day in the yard

What a beautiful day in the yard today! The weather was so beautiful not a cloud in the sky. We sat in the shade of our plum tree and played. Liam and Mark even got out the bocce balls and played with those while Anouk and I watched them.

Flowers on the porch: 

A new addition to our yard, it grew from a seed that landed right in the middle of our raspberry patch: 

Wrestling or cuddling with Liam: 

Liam telling stories to Anouk:

Happy family. Happy day.

Hope you had a beautiful, sunny day, too.

My new sewing creations

I have been busy with my new sewing machine! It is so much fun creating things in the evening - especially beautiful things with these gorgeous fabrics!

I made a couple of shirts for Anouk and then a pair of PJs for Liam. The PJs were with my first "real" pattern. Serious business, cutting the pieces of fabric, following directions and putting it all together - it worked!!!

Here are some pictures: 

Anouk with her new blouse in the yard:

Liam in his new PJs: 

Nostalgia, creature comforts and Felce Azzurra

It's funny, I've been thinking about this post since yesterday afternoon and now, as I am listening to the CBC, they have a programme on nostalgia...

We all have these things, that remind of people, places, moments and even of who we are. When I feel really stressed and grumpy, Mark knows that the best remedy is some Cote d'Or chocolate. Besides the fact that it's just simply very good chocolate, it reminds me of carefree summer days in Weidingen. My dad would come back from a short trip to Luxembourg (to get cheaper gas) with several bars of yummy chocolate for us. Sitting in the cool house and then the sweet chocolate in our mouths. mmmh. And yes, thirty odd years later the chocolate will pull me out of my stress and out of my adult life and I just feel comfortable and good.

A lot of my friends here are recent immigrants to Canada - just like me. And we all have things that attach us to where we came from. And we want our children to know about these things and to grow up with them. A friend always has German chocolate for her son's birthday. She also stocks her pantry with typical products. Another friend drives to the other side of town to the Italian supermarket to get what she is looking for. I go to a small store where I find many little comforts: Italian fruit juice in small glass bottles, German butter cookies, creme de marrons (yes, I think of you, Marie!)...

Yesterday I was at a friend's house and we did some sewing and she had a special bottle of ironing spray: Felce Azzurra from Italy. I asked whether she bought this in the Italian supermarket, but she said she brought it from Italy. This very common household item all of a sudden turned into a valuable prized possession: the little liquid left in the bottle a reminder of how long ago last summer's trip to Italy was... The smell, a smell from home. Maybe her mom's house? Maybe her first studio as a university student? 

What are your creature comforts? Your bottle of Felce Azzurra?

Clearly, those guys at IKEA read my blog!

Remember the Fruehstuecksbrettchen? Well, yesterday I was at IKEA, and what do you know- they now sell Fruehstuecksbrettchen! They're called sandwich trays. ...and: they're "also great for serving sushi"!

I had no idea how popular my blog was...

Liam's world rocks

Liam has been fascinated with rocks pretty much all his life. From: "No, that doesn't go into your mouth!" during our first visits to the beach with him as a baby to starting to find rocks in his jacket pockets at the tender age of 15 months. A sign of his love on walks is Liam giving you a rock. Sometimes it's just gravel from a driveway and sometimes they're the beautiful rocks on the beach. I have little piles of rocks everywhere: on the windowsills, bookshelves and on my office desk at work. Rocks make me think of Liam.

Here are some rock moments:

This is from when it was still so cold early this spring, that even the rocks needed a felt coat:

We had a lot of fun felting these smooth river or beach rocks his grandpa had given him. Nothing like warm soapy water and beautiful wool.

Then spring finally came and we collected rocks on the beach and daisies in the park:

His grandpa surprised Liam with his very own rock polisher, which has been going non-stop in the garage for weeks now. I had no idea what a long process rock polishing is!

So, here they are:

Most of the rocks are ones that we found on the beach - including that huge chunk of green jade! Then there were a couple of semi-precious stones that came with the rock polisher. I have to say that the fascination with our own rocks was much greater. 

Update

OK, I've been very absent from my blog for a while... It's been a busy time! My sister came to visit, which was absolutely fantastic and I had to finish the next three chapters of my book so that I could submit them in time for the deadline. Now, a more normalized rhythm can resume (well, sort of...). I'm going to try to write every other day or maybe even every day, just little glimpses into our life. 

I've been meaning to write so many posts over the last month: one about my adventures with my new friend: Silke's sewing machine. And the new words I've been learning since starting to navigate the web for patterns: bobbins, sewing machine foot (I know know that there is a special foot for sewing in zippers - that would have made life a lot easier!! - when I don't cut the zipper in half before starting while cutting through fabric...), and my favourite new word: pinafore! Since learning this wonderful word, I have made three pinafores, it is so much fun and they look so cute:

And I've made "recession pants". There are lots of free patterns out there for baby pants and I have lots of old pants in my closet with little holes, broken zippers or two sizes too small and out of style. They can be used to make baby pants! My first pair was too small for Anouk (I think I didn't think about the seam allowance - another one of those new words!). But, the second pair went really well; all done in about an hour and really nice!! And they fit!

Then I've been wanting to write about the rainbow on our street. Our street is a bike path and someone must have ridden their bike with open bottles of paint in the back and made a nice streak of paints in all the colours of the rainbow. Sorry, no pictures yet. But I will take some.

I'm really sad that my sister had to leave again after her visit. I really miss her and the rest of my family in Germany a lot. I loved seeing her interact with her nephew and niece. I would very much like her and everyone else to be more a part of my children's lives - and my life!

Luckily there is skype and email and phone, but it's just not the same... 

Which brings me back to this blog: yes, I will start a blogging challenge: can I update my blog a couple of times a week? We will see!

Wish me luck!