My son is 7!

Caleb is seven today. We celebrated with family, enjoyed an afternoon of bowling and eating cake and ice cream till it hurt. It's hard to believe how big both my children are getting.



He was two months early when he was born. After our car accident, my water broke and I needed to have an emergency C-section. It was not the midwife assisted birth I had been planning. He weighed 4 lbs, 4 1/2 ounces and for the longest time I was scared he wouldn't make it. Failure to thrive they call it. I was careful to pump breast milk every two hours and would bring it right over to the NICU down the hall. I could not have my baby in the room with me. He needed a breathing machine, and he was monitored 24/7. That and all the injuries sustained by my husband, myself and our then 3 yr old daughter was enough to make the whole situation horrible. At the time I could never had envisioned the spry, bouncy, fun loving boy he has become.



He has simply bloomed in to the sweetest boy you could imagine. He cuddles with me every morning in bed after my husband leaves to get ready for work. He gives me random hugs all day long. For all of his health concerns and doctors visits throughout his life he has taken it all in stride, with a smile and go-with-the-flow attitude. He's rambunctious for sure, a force to be reckoned with on the soccer field, or any sports field. He's intense with nearly everything he does. He tries his best at every step and I know that no matter what the future holds for him he will achieve great things.

Knitted Lamb

I finally finished the lamb for my nephew. I am still learning. I think this pattern was much better than the one I had for the bunny.

You can find the pattern here.

More Cakes

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a fairly creative person. I try my hand at everything. I often look at things in stores and say to myself "I can make that!" and away I go. Cakes are one of those things in which I decided long ago that I would not buy.

Both my kiddos are born in March and each year they give me a theme and I challenge myself to come up with something new.

My son wanted a pirate cake so I made this deserted island. The cake is actually a bunt cake pan with an small glass dish inverted in the centre and covered in icing. Simple yet intriguing.



My daughter was taking some friends to see Alice in Wonderland at the movie theater so she wanted an Alice cake. We made the traditional "Barbie" cake (for our family celebration) and added 6 jumbo cupcakes to hand out after the movie.



You can check out some of my other creations in a post I did previously.

Knitted Bunny

I have been keeping my hands busy lately completing this white, knitted bunny for my niece for Easter. It really shows how much of an inexperienced knitter I am. I used left over yarn my grandmother had given me. She crochets large blankets for nearly everyone in the family and is often left with half a ball of odd colours. Knitted stuffies are a great way to use up bits and pieces so nothing goes to waste.



While stitching the finished body parts together my kids suddenly showed an interest in what I was doing. My daughter has asked for her own version, which I will get to, hopefully before Easter next week.

I am going to attempt to make a lamb for my nephew for Easter. Hopefully I can get it done before their visit this weekend.

Another Book... Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

I recently finished this book. It didn't take long considering I sat down with it at breakfast, lunch, dinner and every spare moment in between. You'd think I have nothing to do all day but sit and read. Far from the truth, however I will credit much of my progress these passed few months to the inclement weather, three feet of snow outside, which has all but melted. My rampant reading may take a back seat until fall.

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter

This book is yet another homesteading book. To be honest I am getting a little tired of these books which keep getting published lately. Some are great, others... not so much. As much as I despise the publishing industry capitalizing on a growing trend (no pun intended) this is a book I was glad I read.

I have a soft spot for books written autobiographically, however I am very much aware of the genre's disappointments in the past (ahem... A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, now categorized as "semi-fictional memoir") but I digress.

I still know a good read when I read one and this is a good read.

The book is about a young couple recently arrived in Oakland, not just any part of Oakland, Martin Luther King Way Oakland, which prior to this book would have been just another address, now I see it as one of those places I can cross off my 'to visit' list. I have no desire to loose my bicycle or my life at the hands of my neighbours. However it intrigues me to no end how this couple managed to propagate a substantial garden (in a vacant lot), raise chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, rabbits and (yes they get bigger) two pigs without any city officials noticing. I mean really!

I am a true believer in self-sufficiency. I believe everyone should do away with grass and plant an edible landscape. I have a soft spot for anyone on the 100 foot diet but don't you need permits for this kind of operation?

Disbelief aside, Novella is witty, zany and kind of spacey. Completely harmless. I particularly like her admonition that she "is NOT a hippie!". I gave a soft chuckle every time she refused to call herself what she very clearly is. I don't blame her though. I too, was a closet hippie but now I like to call myself a free range hippie. It has a nice ring to it.

I make no excuses for my nutting, crunchy granola beliefs but then again it took me many years to get to this point. Perhaps Novella is at this point too, only after chronicling her adventures.

I found this book entertaining but far from educational. To become an urban farmer one must follow the by-laws, obtain the right permits and represent the urban homesteading movement in a slightly more nieghbour-friendly way. But what the heck do I know, I have a 130 square foot garden and no livestock to add to my curriculum vitae. I'm just a gardener to some, far from an urban homesteader.

Spinning with Confidence

I have been spinning for over a year now and I am becoming quite confident in my new skill. I have done some experimenting with dyeing. I spin whenever I can. Time always flies by when I am at my spinning wheel.



My wheel is rickety. It was second hand when I bought is and it has been giving me trouble lately. I need some new bobbins and I am even wondering if my flyer needs to be replaced. The previous owner spun "in the grease", that is, she spun with oily, unwashed wool and I wonder if that had an effect on the wood of my wheel. She also refinished the natural wood by herself and that concerns me now as well. When I first bought this wheel I was giddy with excitement but now that excitement has been tempered with the realization that it is not a very good wheel.



I want to sell my wool soon. I have been eying Etsy, collecting data, checking out other shops, seeing what others are selling. I would very much like to give it a try but can not work up my nerve. I have four skeins of spun wool ready to go but I would like to do a few more to bank up my store. I haven't the faintest clue how this will all work. Spinning can take hours in preparation, sitting at the wheel and setting the twist. I plan to eventually add dyed wool to my shop and that increases the invested time. Could I charge an adequate amount to compensate for my time and talent? Art is a tricky thing to sell, especially when Big Box Stores dominate the landscape.

If I do decide to sell my wool, you can be sure I will link my blog to my shop.

My Daughter is 10!

My daughter turns 10 today. I can't get over it. It seems the time has passed so quickly. We allowed her to open one gift this morning (a Tinkerbell fairy doll) before my husband left for work and now she and my son are busy playing away. We are taking the day off school.






She's a ham! Always has been and we wouldn't want her any other way. She is sharp as a tack and very quick to quip with her father and the pair of them often have the rest of us rolling around in hysterical laughter.

She is very creative, and is a very good story teller. Her short stories have such a unique voice for someone who is only in Grade 4. She is a ferocious reader, often staying up for hours after bedtime reading by lamplight. She's a talker too, and is very much aware of how she can dominate a conversation, "Am I talking too much?" she asks regularly. Reminds me of Anne Shirley.

She loves to knit and wants to learn to crochet. She hand sews many outfits for her Barbies and enjoys making 'fashion' for them. She wants to be a scientist and an artist. She is very patient with her brother and made a new year's resolution to stop bickering with him (it's a work in progress).



Turning 10 is bittersweet for me. With ten years under my belt as a mother I am more confident and excited about the future for my children. But with less than 10 years to go before maturity I am very much aware that one day she will be flying the nest and breaking out on her own. In that respect her childhood is half over and it saddens me that life is proceeding at such lightning speed. Many days I find myself wishing we could stay this way forever. All I can do is enjoy the days while they last and live in the moment.

Spinning Wool and Carding

A fellow blogger at River Rim posted this video and I have been really inspired by it. The video shows wool carding techniques and Navajo spinning, which is a different technique from the drop spindle I use.

The Blue Castle and Simplicity

Yesterday I finished reading The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I love Montgomery's work and this one is by far my absolute favourite. I read this book for the first time three years ago when I first began my simplicity journey. I didn't realize it then but the reason why I love this book so much is because it's a representation of the life I would like to live.



Looking over the lake at a large mansion Barney and Valancy have this conversation...

"Would you like a large house like that, Moonlight?" Barney asked once, waving his hand at it. He had taken to calling Valancy Moonlight and she loved it.
"No," said Valacny, who had once dreamed of a mountain castle ten times the size of the rich man's cottage and now pitied the poor inhabitants of palaces. "No, it's too elegant. I would have to carry it with m everywhere I went. On my back like a snail. It would own me, possess me, body and soul. I like a house I can love and cuddle and boss. Just like ours here. I don't envy Hamilton Gossard 'the finest summer residence in Canada.' It is magnificent but it isn't my Blue Castle.

And so Valancy is right. The burdens of a big house and a big life to match are plentiful. A grand house requires money, time and energy. A life oozing possessions is a life of servitude to clean and care for them. A minimalist life is one of freedom to pursue your passions.

If you know a bit about L.M. Montgomery you know that she loved her Prince Edward Island above any other place in the entire world. After she married and left the Island she never did return. While living in Ontario she discovered Muskoka, around here known as Cottage Country where people come up from Southern Ontario and Toronto to spend the summer. She found this section of the world strikingly beautiful as well. So enamored was she that she ventured to set one book outside of PEI and that book was the Blue Castle. Obviously she held the region in very high regard.

This book is a venture in homesteading and self sufficiency. Montgomery's character Valancy retreats from the town and her oppressive clan to find a life of peace and tranquility in the forest she loved. While living "Up Back" Valancy found her Blue Castle living amongst nature; the water, the trees, the rocks and wildlife. She ventured into town when need arose but for the most part she stayed at home with her books, her companion, her cats and the life purposely and deliberately chosen.

I wonder if L.M. Montgomery ever dreamed of such a life. My guess is she probably did, and it is from her own desires to turn her back on modern society (and the burdens she bore from it) that the story "The Blue Castle" was born.