Nesting blocks

I thought I'd share some of the crafting creations I have made lately. My big project was a set of nesting blocks that I made for Anouk's birthday. I started well in advance, not sure how long this would take me... But it was so much fun, that I was actually very motivated to work through all the blocks very quickly to see the final product together.

The pattern was posted from Oh Fransson, posted on Sew Mama Sew. I used up some scraps I had from clothes I made for Anouk, so the blocks will always remind me of this summer when I discovered the beauty of fabrics and the joy of sewing clothes.

It's a whole new world out there for me and I am having so much fun with it!! It's so relaxing to be sewing in the evening. I can think about my day, my daytime projects, my worries etc. and at the same time I am creating something beautiful.

I have learned to read patterns and to follow patterns. I have learned to trust whoever made the pattern and follow their instructions - it somehow comes together at the end. :)

So, to start off my crafting parade, here are the blocks. I'll post some more projects over the next few weeks as I have time to photograph them.

91 candles

This is not a birthday blog, but there are a lot of summer birthdays to write about - and in the middle of July it's time to celebrate Hazel's birthday. Hazel is Liam and Anouk's great-grandmother and yesterday she turned 91 years old!

...and boy, does she know how to celebrate 91 years in style:

with a motocycle ride around town

and 91 candles on her cake:

Luckily she had a bunch of eager great-grandchildren around her to help her blow out the candles.

I couldn't help but think that it's a wonderful 91 years when you can celebrate with your family around you: children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Happy birthday, Hazel!! To a wonderful woman!

I can't wait to see what 100 candles will look like on your cake!

Liam is 4!

Happy birthday Liam! It's hard to believe that Liam turned 4 on Friday! Time flies by so quickly. I know it's such a cliche' - but it does seem like yesterday that he was born...

When we came to daycare on Friday morning Dorota summed it up so nicely (and brought tears to my eyes...)

"Happy birthday, Liam! Four years ago you were born and the world became a better place!"

Here are some pictures from his birthday:

Breakfast with cake and presents in the morning:

Anouk enjoying Liam's cake:

Liam in his Raven King costume for his birthday party. He had drawn a picture for me with the exact directions about this costume. The cloak was to be yellow with a purple rim and the crown was to be in this specific shape with 60,000 feathers (OK, I cheated, I didn't use 60,000) and of course there were to be jewels on his crown!

... and here he is only 4 years ago, just an hour or so old:

Salmonberries

Today we started off the berry season. The salmonberries are ripe! We were in Pacific Spirit Park and went for a long walk and collected lots of salmonberries. These were then used to coax Liam into walking some more. They are true energy berries. He would run ahead and then sit on a log and wait for another berry. It was great. Anouk really liked the berries, too. She didn't need to run for them though, she was just fed sitting in her stroller, a big smile on her face the reward for putting a berry into her mouth.

When we cam home Liam took our container of collected berries into the yard and shared them with his friend Maddy. Now we'll have to go again soon to pick some more :)

Oh my God - I am THAT parent!

Do you ever have that feeling you are that parent? You know, that parent - the one on the playground or in daycare. The one from your childhood, your friend's parent. The parent you always admired, the parent you thought was crazy, overprotective, slightly negligent, not attentive enough, talking too much about their children, not mentioning them enough, you know, that parent.

Well, I am now that parent. I am that parent who sends their 4-year old to violin lessons. This summer. Every week. With a 1/10 violin. In my defense: it was his choice. We were in the music store and I told him he could choose whichever instrument he wanted to get lessons for this summer. He chose the violin. 

And I was secretly proud of him and happy to be that parent. 

word cloud 2

...OK, I'm having way too much fun with this! This is the word cloud from all of the entries of this blog. 

If you compare it to the other word cloud from just the more recent entries, you can see a definite shift - towards chocolate....

:)

word cloud