Photos :: Blanket Fort

Just two quick photos so that I can remember our first blanket fort.

These photos also make me think about the fact that Milo has been wearing his pyjamas a lot lately. He's been in a phase where he doesn't like to get dressed. For a long time now Milo has been particular about what he wears but for the past few months he gets extremely upset if the wrong thing is offered. Things are easing up a little and he's not having meltdowns if I offer the wrong shirt or pants but a lot of days he ends up only half dressed because he is just really into whatever pyjama shirt he wore the night before. As long as I'm in the right frame of mind about it instead of trying to force the issue things go pretty well. I'm relearning lessons on not always getting my way and not overreacting about little things. For me, being a parent is definitely the biggest learning experience and the biggest character builder. I am constantely evaluating how things went and figuring out what I could do differently next time to make the situation better. I think that's all we can do, really. Being a parent is really hard but I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything.

♥elycia

Photos :: Farm Sanctuary 2015

Two weekends ago we took a trip to Watkins Glen, NY with our friends (and Milo's bff) to visit Farm Sanctuary. Everyone there was so nice and seemed to really love being there and taking care of the animals. Petting cows, pigs and goats was pretty much the sweetest thing ever and I almost cried so many times. It was a special weekend because they were celebrating all of the animals' birthdays which meant cake, ice cream and a bouncy house...major bonus. Here are a few photos from our trip.

We had such a great day and I would be totally ok with living there myself if that's an option.

♥elycia

Photos :: Family Flashback

I just really wanted to document some photos of Milo with Ivan and I. I'm sure there will be more of these posts in the future as I come across more photos.

Can you tell that Milo loves to wear helmets?

♥elycia

Flashback :: Succulents

I accidentally learned that you could propagate succulents when I got mad at one of mine for growing too big and silly looking for my terrarium. I put it in a bowl in a dark cupboard for a few months and once in a while I would squeeze some water from a rag onto it if I was feeling bad about holding it prisoner in there. One day I noticed that little babies were sprouting from it all over the place. I had no idea this was a thing at the time and just decided to cut them off and plant them in some soil. I have since done some reading on propagating succulents and it's so neat! Here are just a few older photos of some of my plants, and some of those babies, that I wanted to post so that I can see how much they grow.

We don't get the best light at all times of the day so they are all pretty leggy already. I recently put some outside for the summer. I'll have to take some photos of them soon.

♥elycia

Flashback :: Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale 2015

I guess it was a couple months ago now that Hamilton participated in the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale. We met Milo's best friend, and of course her parents who are our friends, for some super delicious treats. Seriously, everything was amazing. I have very high cupcake standards and these ones blew me away. If I'm remembering correctly the lemon and the halva cupcakes were my favourite. Also, that raw cheesecake...yum. This was actually a really bad idea to share these photos because now I'm in the mood for all of these treats. 

After we got our goodies, Milo and his bff had a sticker party on the side of the street.

♥elycia

Gardening :: Actual first photos of the season 2015

I was looking through a few photos and I noticed that the ones I shared the other day were not actually the first photos of our garden this season. I really want to see how it grows this year so I'm going back in time a little to share these. It doesn't look very impressive but that's kind of the point. It is going to look so different as the year goes on. Can you tell that I am not even a little bit excited about our garden?

This is our future berry patch. This year though it is filled in with other things because the berries haven't spread yet. We have blueberries, strawberries, thyme, raspberries, beets, spinach, carrots, beans (which aren't actually sprouting still...might be a lost cause), peas, nasturtiums, sweet pea (to climb that music stand and a sunflower or two in the corners. Also, I used trimmed grape vines as row markers and some of them are growing grapes. I knew it was possible to start grapes that way but it's neat to see it happening.

This garden has green and yellow zucchini, myster squash that is either butternut or spaghetti (i started them from seeds I had saved but not labelled because obviously I would just remember), scarlet runner beans, radishes, jalapenos, cayenne pepper, romaine, arugula, leaf lettuce, two different beefsteak tomatoes, two different cherry tomatoes, either taxi, black krim or more cherry tomatoes (again with the seed saving and not labelling), basil, marigolds, broccoli, chard, so much kale, quinoa, kohlrabi, cucumber (which isn't sprouting), lemon cucumber, parsnips, peas and more spinach. Oh and marigolds and more nasturtiums. I think that's everything but I might be forgetting something.

Both of these photos are crooked and it's making me crazy but I wanted to remember how it looked.

Ruby red chard roots are so pretty!

The coolest kale!

We have done so much since these photos. The only thing I regret is not taking actual before photos. We have added gardens and flowers to so many parts of the yard but I don't have the ugly before photos for comparison. We have one area that still needs to be done so I'll try to remember to take a before of that. I am really bad at remembering to take before photos so I won't be too hard on myself if I forget again.

♥elycia

Projects :: Christmas Stockings

I have a few small projects I've made that I want to document here but the first one I want to share is the one I'm most excited about. I started these stockings just before Christmas last year hoping that would mean I had plenty of time to have them ready for Christmas this year. With two out of three finished I think I'm on track. Well, actually my mom wants one too so I need to make two more...no problem.

When I was a kid my Grama made us stockings using this same pattern but in regular Christmas colours. When she passed away my mom found all of her knitting patterns and I asked for a copy of this one so that I could make our family new stockings in fun colours.

These stockings are my first try at fair isle and intarsia knitting. It's not as hard as I thought it would be but even still, I haven't perfected my technique yet. I am really happy with the stockings though, they remind me of my Grama and that's awesome.

♥elycia

Gardening :: First Photos of the Season 2015

I've mentioned how excited I am about our backyard this year. There is still tons to be done, more than we can do in just one season, but I'm pretty pumped about the progress. We always do a vegetable garden but this year we are also trying to make the backyard look nice so that it's a relaxing place to hang out. You know, instead of sitting outside and looking around at all of the things you really should be fixing up instead of relaxing.

The photo below is a lemon cucumber sprout. Planting things from seed is pretty much the coolest thing ever, I think so anyways! It's so neat to see something grow from a little seed. 

Those are morning glory sprouts that I'm hoping will crawl up the wire shelf.

These are all plants I started from seed inside. Most of them are really leggy and I've learned a lot about starting from seed inside. I definitely need a grow light for next year. Pretty much everything is planted in the ground now and they all seem to be doing ok so far. See those things on the bottom right? Those are goji berries from seeds we saved!

I was so happy with how this wire shelf was shaping up...and then we got really bad weather and it fell over in the wind. Most of my pots broke so it's back to looking a little shabby until I get everything properly repotted and organized. 

We spend time in the garden everyday, sometimes all the way up until Milo naps, and I love it. I am more into gardening this year than every before but I still have so much to learn. If anyone has any great tips I would love to hear them!

♥elycia