A Little Purple for Baby G

 I love babies!!!!  One of Siobhan's besty friends, Mandi, just had a baby girl Gabrielle... Isn't that sweet??

So of course I got the knitting needles and sewing machine revved up....
A baby beanie, baby mittys ....
Hooded towel .....
And of course my signature burp cloths .....

I always like to do a colour theme for my gifts...

And here she is .... Don't you just love her sweet lil smile :-)

Well off I go to do more baby stuff

My nephew and niece in law are expecting a wee baby boy in 3 weeks....

..ciao for now

S





A Visit to the Mouse House

Spent a absolutely fabulous morning and afternoon with Deb from Just Cats  and her retired guy.
They treated us to a great breakfast at Hard Stone's Grill in Manotick ( Ontario)
After lots of coffee and homemade everythings we headed to the Mouse House by way of
Bakker's General Store

WOW!!!  Lots of Dutchness ---- Need licorice? This is the place.  Did I get some? Nope --- my bad.
Deb has so many stories of walking to this sweet lil store while staying with her grandmother.
Deb and Gary have built and are going to build a house on the property her grandmother lived on.

She has many many memories..  They are fantastic to listen to.
Check her blog for updates.
Her critters seem pretty settled altho there is a fight for dominance between Annie and Sierra....

Audrey ----- she don't give a f*** !

And Kane  ---- he's just happy to have a comfy bed in the kitchen.

It is a lovely little place and Deb has it decorated very cheery.

Lots of sunshine flows in the windows.
With it being 600 sq feet it takes no time to clean it .... YAY!!
Gary has his big garage/workshop.

Here is the famous tractor.
All ready to get going .....

 

And the pump for the original well.

Deb tells me it still works!!

Isn't that awesome....

 

 

We will be visiting again soon.

Altho I miss our walks and gab fests I am so happy for Deb and Gary.

And look forward to seeing the progress.....

 

 

---ciao from
susan

Vanity and Spring Cleaning

Had an excellent last weekend ...even though it's still pretty chilly out. Sorry it took so long to post this, I'm busy jeeeeeze.

I hadn't started ANY spring cleaning at all so I took the opportunity to do some. Although my mother considers spring cleaning to be wiping down the walls and scrubbing the baseboard...we rent...and they treat us like crap...so I intend to leave a greasy fingerprint covered wall art for them when we leave.

I consider cleaning out my closets and drawers to be my spring cleaning. Out with the old in with the new, right? So I also bought some new clothes with the birthday money I got from my parents. I guess it's about time to accept that this ol' body of mine will never go back to it's pre-baby stretchmark-less glory days and get some clothes that fit!

Shelley loves cleaning days. All the cats do. Any chance to get into the bedroom, which is normally locked because a certain someone likes to take dumps in the closet 

*cough* MacG *cough*

Daphne also seemed to enjoy the hustle and bustle in the bedroom. The reason I started cleaning this weekend is because we decided to move our bedroom around a little. After three years the set up was getting a bit stale. Alllsoooo...I finally got my vanity!!! Will has wanted to buy me this vanity for 2 years but it's never worked out. He's always wanted to buy it for my birthday but birthday month is always car registration month. Which means $$$ to the gov't every March. But this year everything worked out!

Took him two days to built it...because......

The mirror came broken. UGH! After 3 calls that weekend to the incompetent idiots Rogers calls customer service reps I was in NO MOOD to call IKEA about this. Thankfully Will called them up and they said it was no problem. Took about 15 minutes at the store and they gave us a brand new mirror...frame included. Which is great cause I now have the spare frame to use somewhere else. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but stay tuned...eventually I will find a way to use it!

And there is it all finished! It fits perfectly in the bedroom. I am planning to go to the dollar store and get some containers/vases/pots/glasses to hold and organize my makeup. I also need to get a garbage can and a magnifying mirror. I'm quite excited about it and so is Will. He told me he is sick of watching me do my makeup on the floor har har...maybe I was in his way.

I would call that a successful weekend. I didn't even mention the beautiful diamond studs he also go me for my birthday. Exactly what I wanted. What a nice guy, eh. I think I'll keep him.

--Siobhan

Fast Meals

I have what the "parenting experts" call a velcro baby. Which means exactly what it sounds like. She is STUCK to me all damn day. She hates to be put down and will not nap unless I let her nap on me. She goes to bed sometime between 6(if we're lucky) and 8(those rough days) so dinner for Will and I are scheduled around her. For those days she doesn't go to sleep until 8 I have to have an arsenal of very fast meals I can whip together so we aren't eating after 10pm.

I'm a HUGE red onion fan so this is great if your the same. It's cucumber, chicken, red onion and feta. I keep a bottle of homemade dressing in the fridge so this salad takes only as long as your knife skills dictate.

I typically use a slow cooker for my stew. If I can get 10 minutes in the morning I put a roast beef, carrots, potato, turnip, and rutabaga in a slow cooker with 1 cup of beef broth and let her go for 8 hours. Once Lady D is in bed I sauteed mushrooms and make a gravy with corn starch and beef broth and add it to the slow cooker. Cut the roast into bite sized pieces and eat it.

Burgers are a fast go to. I taught my hubs how to make really good shoe string fries so once the lady is in bed I get him started making those while I do the burgers. For lamb burgers I usually add salt, pepper and curry powder. For turkey or chicken I add salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary. For beef burgers I add salt, pepper and salsa. The fries take 25 minutes in the oven which is enough time to mix and cook the meat and clean up some of the mess. 

TACOS!!! I LOVE TACOS! You literally just have to prep the veggies and cheese, cook the ground meat and add spices (salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, chilli powder, cayenne pepper) 

When I was pregnant there were days in a row we ate this exact thing for dinner every night. My little lady was breech and had her head jammed HARD into my ribs, so doing anything other than sitting reclined was hard. Spread hummus on pita, add cucumber, chicken, red pepper, and lettuce. 

After 12 hours of holding a screaming baby on 4 hours sleep these recipes save my life. Fast, easy, and healthy.

--Siobhan xo

my baby has FOMO!!!

My daughter was born with a pretty serious condition. It's incurable and seems to get worse with time.

You see, Daphne has FOMO (fear of missing out) and it's pretty serious.

She will fight sleep until her eyes are puffy and red but will insist she still wants to play.

It's getting worse the older she gets. Now that she can sit on her own and scoot around a little on her tush HEAVEN FORBID she misses out on a second.

The only naps she likes taking include a mom shaped bed and a maximum 30 minutes shut eye.

I'm looking forward to the snow melting. I'm thinking the best medicine for FOMO may be some fresh air and sunshine!

Mommy could use some of that as well.

-- Siobhan

Hola Part Tres

After saying good bye to Rick and Chris
Paul, Elsa, HB ,and I spent the next 2 days in a Radisson about half hour from the airport.
What a lovely spot to end the holiday.
There was a butterfly house

And lots more birding to be done.
I think by this stage I was ready to stop and enjoyed doing nothing.

Well we did spend a day at the Panama Canal

There was a 3D presentation about the history

I mean c'mon you can't go to Panama and not see it.

WOW!!!
It is  quite an amazing feat and still more construction making it even more efficient --- at least that is what "they " are all saying.
Of course no pictures will do this justice

Then it was time to head home after 15 days of sunshine and 32.

 

The last Margaritas at the airport  Margaritaville

 

 

We were excited to sleep in our own bed BUT not so much for the cold and -15........



...adios for now
susan