State Of The Thrift

I actually escaped the house for a couple hours on Saturday morning to hit the garage sales. And I'm tellin' ya, it was barely worth my while. Maybe it's too late into the summer; maybe it was because it was a long weekend; maybe I just had bad luck -- but has the thrift bubble seriously broken?

I'm pretty picky about my garage sailing -- I try to stay out of neighbourhoods where too many young families live since I don't want to buy the kind of stuff that people like me are trying to get rid of (dirty kids toys, plastic dishes; broken clock radios). It's not about the bargain, it's about finding stuff I can't buy anywhere else. So, I'm looking for estate sales, older people moving into condos, that kind of stuff. But it seems that people are either running out of cool old stuff to sell; they've already sold their good stuff to the antique stores; or they're wising up and trying to sell things for crazy prices. I'm sorry, I'm not paying $20 for a scratched up Pyrex casserole.

I did manage to pick up a few things: a cute apron, some beads, a bag of wooden clothespins, a set of retro drink tumblers. And keeping with the bar theme, the above tumbler/ice bucket set has a Westward Inn logo on it. This is cool only among Calgarians of a certain age -- the Westward was a hotel downtown, which was a famed drinking hole for decades. In the '80s and early '90s it even housed a legendary rock club, where I believe a pre-fame Nirvana once played. So yes, at $2 these were a find.

So, have you noticed a change in thrift shopping in your area? Obviously, with ebay and all it's getting harder and harder to get vintage stuff on the cheap, but I'm curious to see if things are drying up as rapidly in other parts of the world as they seem to be here.

Other People's Knits: Blanket For A Boy

I can't believe I haven't posted about this blanket yet -- it's so incredibly beautiful and I've had it for four months. This is Henry's blankie. After spending months on a blanket for my nephew last year I wasn't too anxious to knit a blanket for my own babe. Plus I knew that my lovely mother-in-law Leena wanted to knit something special for our little guy. Naturally she chose a beautiful yarn and a great pattern made of up of mitered squares.

I can't tell you anything about the pattern and the yarn -- sorry. And I know this picture doesn't say that much about the blanket -- but it's nice and big, about the size of a crib mattress. Really, this post is just a public thank you to Leena and an excuse to show off a picture of the baby. It's the weekend, I thought you could use a little shot of the cutest boy I know.

Mushy Mystery

Sorry about the ugly picture, but it's a necessary evil. I got some rhubarb in my last organic order and decided to make something a little more interesting than your average rhubarb/strawberry crisp. I decided to make a strawberry rhubarb coffee cake (recipe here), recruited Ruby to help me whip it up, and stuck it in the oven. I baked it for the specified time, stuck a toothpick in it and... mush. I put it back in the oven for 10 minutes. Still mush. I baked it for TWICE as long as the recipe called for and except for the outer edges, it's more of a pudding than a cake. A gross, inedible pudding at that.

So, what did I do wrong? Rhubarb too ripe? Possible typo in the recipe? I know my oven's temp is pretty much on, so that's not it. After a tough week (our house is full of antibiotics), I didn't really need a failed cake in my life. Boo.

Catching Up

Wow. I can't believe it's been two weeks since I've posted. There's been some crazy times in these parts -- Aaron was overseas for a week and a half on business, leaving me here with both kids for the first time (props to the single moms out there -- I have no idea how you do it). Then there's always that weird adjustment period that we always go through when he comes back from a trip. Then Ruby started getting sick. Yesterday I had to take her for a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia -- I haven't heard from the doctor, so I'm assuming the results are in and she's fine. Well, still sick, but not dangerously so. Then the baby started coughing this morning. Ugh -- nothing leaves a mother as breathless as the possibility of their kid being really really sick. It's nice to be reminded of just how intense my love is, but I really don't enjoy seeing pictures of my kid's insides.


So, not a lot of crafting time, but I am constantly feeling compelled to start new projects. What you see here are a couple pages from Bite This Book, a little softie book project from Kat Coyle's Boho Baby Knits. I can't believe this is my first project from this book -- I was so excited when it came out, but never really had the time. I figure I can whip up a little page for the book when I have the time and all six should be done by the time Henry is ready to flip the pages. Though that day may be coming sooner than I think -- by the looks of it, the little stinker is just about ready to cut his first tooth. He's three months old! This shouldn't happen for another six months! I just hope he's not a biter.

Family Photo Friday: Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Ruby in Edmonton.
Originally uploaded by elizaboothy

Today is my Grandma Ruby's 85th Birthday. This is a picture of her walking down the street in 1948, putting her at 25 years old (I think she'd already had three kids at this point!). I love how she looks so oblivious to the camera in this photo -- it looks like something out of a newspaper. It must have been taken by someone she knew (I'm guessing my grandfather), but it seems so detached.

Anyway, I love this photo and I love my Grandma. Happy Birthday!

Nature

I forgot, there was something else I wanted to say about Ruby's doll play (sorry, I'm having a tough week, my brain is mush). Ruby was playing with those Ty Girlz dolls that Leena got her (they're kind of a cross between Beanie Babies and Bratz) and this exchange took place.

Leena: Now that you have the dolls dressed you can pretend they're talking to each other. [picks up one doll] "I'm going to a party. Where are you going?]
Ruby: [Picks up the other doll] "I'm going to Shoppers' Drug Mart to buy make-up!"

Yow. Now, to Mamaloo, who suggested that the doll play is more nurture than nature because I'm a bit of a girly type myself, I do love make-up but I don't wear a lot of it and I think the only time I've even bought any with Ruby in tow was at Sephora. So there. And, to balance out Ruby's total priss girly-ness, we had the following conversation the next day.

Me: Roo, why did you just go into your room and close the door?
Ruby: I was hiding.
Me: Why were you hiding?
Ruby: I wanted to pick my nose and I didn't want you to tell me to stop.

Again, yow. But, I feel better knowing that her one Girlz doll is named Hilary. She came with the name, but when we told Ruby what she was called, Roo proudly yelled out "Like Hilary Clinton!" Word.

Guys And Dolls

Ruby likes dolls. She always has. I've been discussing nature vs. nurture a lot with other parents lately and despite all the women's studies and gender psychology classes I took in university, since becoming a parent I'm definitely leaning towards nature these days. Not that it's in all girls' natures to be doll people, but it certainly is for my little gal.

I've been seeing a bit of a resurrection of the Fisher Price My Friend dolls on a few crafty blogs and Ruby gets to play with her Auntie Daniella's old My Friend Mandy doll. I love this doll -- I remember playing with one when I was a kid, but I don't remember if it belonged to me or a friend. Either way, Daniella was not a doll kind of girl, so this Mandy is in great shape having almost never have been played with until Ruby came along. And she has a great wardrobe too. I love her. Leena recently picked up some of these for Ruby, which she also likes, but I remain partial to Mandy.


And I did some cutting of fabric today for what will be my first quilt. Of course, it's the Easy Lap Quilt from Bend The Rules Sewing. I really want to take a quilting class to learn how to do more complicated quilts, but for now I'm happy to do a strip quilt with some cheap-o vintage fabric. Hooray!

A Room Of His Own

I really loved having my own home office. I've never had one before -- we've always either lived in places without extra bedrooms, or when I was working full-time, any extra space was claimed by Aaron as studio space. But for the last year and a half, since we moved into this house, I had my own little space to work in and to store my stuff (though Aaron tended to use it as a dumping ground for stuff that he wanted out of sight). But, Henry needs his own space and he grew out of his cradle so quickly, so we moved him into his own room a couple of weeks ago.

Aaron painted this room this weird colour of dark army green in the early months of my pregnancy simply because we had the paint on hand (it was originally intended as an accent colour for the living room but we decided it wasn't right). We're lucky Hnery turned out to be a dude rather than a dudette, because I don't think I could have lived with this stuff in a little girl's room. But for Mr. H, it kind of works. What you see above is a painting that an illustrator from Aaron's work gave to Henry and an old vintage puzzle that I thrifted last year (I glued down the pieces, obviously).

The curtains are newly made (by me!), and while I have to shorten the loops a little bit to bring them up, I actually made them the right size. I wanted to find some curtain fabric at that sale I went to last month, but I didn't end up finding enough for this long skinny window, so I splurged and bought this Marimekko. I figured it was worth the hefty price since Henry (and Ruby, for that matter) is a full quarter Finnish and the fabric hence reflects his heritage. Sure. Actually, I wanted something that wasn't too busy but was suitable for a kid, but not too cutesy. I basically followed the cafe curtain instructions in Bend-The-Rules sewing, but with two panels and longer hanging loops. And I only had to make a single cut (cutting the fabric in half) since I used every square inch of the two yards I ordered. Easy.


And here are the swatch portraits, hung up over the diaper table. Henry loves looking at them -- he actually coos whenever I change him. He's a good boy.

Stitchin'

I've been feeling crafty lately. Not that I have the time or energy to actually do much about it, but I've been feeling the itch. And I'm taking baby steps to get back in the game. I cast on for another pair of baby socks. I made Henry some curtains (pictures to come -- the weather has been awful here and there hasn't been a nice sunny curtain-picture-taking day). I've been thinking about making a quilt. I've been sorting through fabric. And I've been stitching.

I keep a little embroidery bag stashed under my couch and do a little bit of stitching in the rare moments when both the kids are asleep/otherwise occupied and I'm not in desperate need of a nap myself. Since I've spruced up Henry's room, I figured Ruby deserved some new wall art too. I've loyally been buying the Wee Wonderful Stitchette embroidery patterns and I figured the summer girls would be perfect for Roo's room. I'll share more once I'm done.


And, I figured I post this just to be consistent, though you probably don't really need to see another picture of chocolate cookies. These are the Milk Chocolate cookies from the Martha Stewart book, baked for my friend Joe's birthday this weekend. I'm starting to feel a little duped -- I've made three chocolate cookie recipes from this book now and they've all yielded virtually identical cookies. Now, I know that there are plenty of non-chocolate recipes in there and I don't have to exclusively make the recipes that are almost the same. But I like chocolate. These cookies were good, but again, were chocolate sugar cookies. Nothing more, nothing less.

p.s. Thanks to those of you who inquired about my health after the last post. I'm totally fine, but my insides took a bit of a beating from birthing Henry. I don't know much, there may be problems if I go into labour again, but since I have no immediate plans to have another kid, it's not too big of a deal.

The Baby Socks That Time Almost Forgot

See these itty-bitty teeny-weenie baby socks? They took me (by my own foggy calculations) at least 14 weeks to knit. Fourteen weeks! I know, I have every right to have taken 14 weeks to knit a pair of baby socks: I had carpal tunnel in the weeks leading up to Henry's birth and was also in a hellish four-week pre-labour which I later found out all but left my uterus unusable (ladies, if it feels like something's wrong, press your doctor. Don't take "it's normal" for an answer if you really don't think it is). Then, of course, I've had a three-year-old to chase and a little bruiser of a baby who eats at hour-and-a-half intervals. But, look, socks!

This is from a very easy, almost intuitive baby sock recipe, found here. I used some leftover yarn from a pair of adult socks: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Envy, so Henry now has socks that match a pair I made his Nana for Christmas. The two baby socks took up almost exactly the remainder from one skein of sock yarn that had already yielded a single adult sock. So, two skeins of something like Shepherd Sock should give you a pair of grown-up socks and two pairs of baby socks (depending on how long the grown-up socks are, of course).

I'm planning to make a few more of these, if not for Henry, for all the other babies in my life (20 newborns in 2008!). It's a great way to get rid of all those little remainder balls that are lying around the house and they also provide a knitting project that I may actually finish one day.

Oh, and speaking of babies, my dinner out with my friends was great for me, but horrible for Henry and Aaron. Henry is normally a weirdly well-behaved baby (Ruby cries more in the course of a day than he does), but apparently he's also already a full-on mama's boy. He screamed the whole time I was gone, and was smiley and quiet the minute I came through the door. Ack.

Long Weekend Randoms

Happy May long weekend, Canadians! It's been a beautiful May long here -- so hard to believe that we had piles of snow just a few weeks ago and now we're slapping on the sunscreen and blowing up the kiddie pool. Here are some randoms:

*Spring reading: Okido came in the mail for Ruby the other day and I'm loving it (and so, thankfully, is she). I had never heard of this one before and then I read about it on someone's blog (don't recall which one) and I had to order it. It's a British magazine for kids 2 to 7 and it's really, really awesome -- not at all like the Owl and Chickadee mags that I used to subscribe to as a kid. This issue is all about digestion, which is timely considering our ongoing fight with constipation in our house (with Ruby, not the adults, thank you very much). Kind of costly, seeing as it comes from the U.K., but worth it. And for me, I finally got Amanda's book. Haven't had time to give it a good look yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.

*We finally saw the Bob Dylan movie I'm Not There. Now, I'm a bit of a Dylan obsessive, so I was skeptical, especially over the stunt casting of Cate Blanchett. Well, not only was she great, but the whole thing was great. And it had Heath Ledger in it. And David Cross!


*Boys clothes are not nearly as fun as girls, but check out the boy version of those girls socks that look like mary janes. Cowboy boots! From Trumpette.

*And I have plans to actually go out for dinner tonight. Without kids. In public. With adults. Most of whom don't have kids. Wish Aaron luck -- Henry's been grumpy today.

Mothers Day... Tardy Due To Mothering

Yikes, I meant to say happy Mothers Day on Sunday, but due to the activity of mothering, I've been really busy. Henry is coming along nicely (soooo close to rolling over, but for now I'll take his constant smiling and cooing) and Ruby is... well, very three. When I put her to bed on Sunday night we had the following exchange:

R: Mommy, when I wake up in the morning will it still be Mothers Day?
Me: No, sweetie. Mothers Day will be over in the morning.
R: Good. That means it'll go back to being Ruby Day.

That's what we get for using the "Today is Mothers' Day because every day is kids' day" argument. Yoinks.

Anyway, above is a picture of my own sweet mother playing on the farm where she grew up. Until next time, have a happy Ruby Day.

Bittersweet Domesticity

The weather has been dreadful here today and Ruby's classes were canceled this week, so we've been cooped up. I've been in the kitchen, trying to get some stuff done, which has been boring the kids to tears, but life goes on, right? Yesterday I made a batch of cookies, and for the first time I wasn't completely thrilled with a recipe from the Martha Stewart cookie book (not counting the time I botched the recipe). I made the Caramel Cashew cookies and they're just okay. There's a load of cashews in these cookies -- both chopped and processed into cashew butter and as much as I like a cashew, it's too much. They're kind of like peanut butter cookies, but really really cashewy. Okay, but not mind-blowing like the brownies or chocolate cookies that I've already tried.


A while back I picked up Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook. I know a lot of people have problems with this book, but desperate to get more veggies into Ruby (without going into detail, we're having big constipation problems, so she needs more veg in her diet) I decided to give it a try. It's been sitting in my cupboard for weeks now (maybe even months, I'm not sure) and I finally got around to making and freezing some purees so I can try some of the recipes. In addition to puree-ing I whipped up a pan (or a pie-plate, actually) of Jessica's brownies, with carrot and spinach puree. When Ruby and I were mixing it up the batter looked really gross and it smelled pretty bad going in the oven too. But, it turned out okay. Not delicious like Martha's brownies and a little too cakey for my tastes, but edible. Now we'll just have to see if the kid will eat them. Tomorrow, I'll mix some cauliflower in with her mac and cheese. Wish me luck.

And Your Bird Can Sing

So, I've heard that kids shift from scribbles to actual pictures in a magically quick way and for Ruby it's finally happening. She likes art, but she's way more into abstract paint smearing than drawing figures. I haven't been worried that's she's behind for her age per se, but I have been anxious for her to start drawing. What you see above is a bird. Specifically, Vlad from Horton Hears A Who (or as Ruby calls him "that silly bird" -- we convinced her that he was silly, not scary to prevent her from having a melt down during her very fist theatre experience). She then felt like she had to scribble around him (clouds, you see), but I'm glad the main figure is still in tact (though, with the orange on orange, kind of hard to see). I was so proud when she drew him, she may have well won a Pulitzer Prize. Sigh.


Another random: look at my new garden shoes! Aren't they the most stylish plastic utility shoes ever? And they were $6 at the grocery store. For you non-Canadians, there's a grocery chain here that carries a clothing line called Joe Fresh, which is awesome. Really cheap and really stylish -- kind of like if Ikea made clothes. Although, I overheard the following conversation the other day at the community centre where Ruby takes art class:

Woman #1: Hey, I like your shoes. (Oh, by the way, they weren't the plastic ones, but cute $10 fake leather ballet flats)
Woman #2: Thank you. They're by Joe Fresh. He's a new Canadian designer.

A new Canadian designer? Lady, you bought your shoes at the grocery store. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but when you buy your shoes at a place that also sells fresh produce, you gotta own it.

Family Photo Friday: The Apple And The Tree

Seven weeks. We're seven weeks into being a family of four. With Ruby, the first three months of her life felt like an eternity, but with Henry it feels like we just brought him home. He's growing like crazy (three inches taller now than when he was born) and he's sweet and hungry and grunty and smiley and cooing and beautiful. And he looks like his dad.

Above is a picture of Aaron with his mum (hope you don't mind Leena, but this photo is so beautiful that I had to post it) when he was seven weeks old. Now, here's a picture of Henry, also at seven weeks:


Now, these photos don't really do their likeness justice -- I could have found others that were dead ringers, but for now you get the point. Two beautiful boys. And I love them both.

Chocolate Cookies, Again

Chocolate cookie success! After the tragedy of the un-chocolatey cookies earlier this month, I made another attempt at choco-cookie glory. I've taken to just opening my Martha Stewart cookie book and making the first thing that a) looks good and doesn't require some kind of crazy press or mold and b) I have the ingredients on hand for. I was tempted to try Grammy's Chocolate Cookies again, but when I opened the book to Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies and realized that they're pretty much exactly the same (but bigger), I thought it was better to knock another cookie off my list (as part of my daydream to make every cookie in the book, which I know will never actually happen).

Now, the original recipe calls for GIANT cookies -- the whole batch is only supposed to yield eight cookies. That's insane. I ended up with about 14, so I had to kind of monkey with the cooking time, so some of these are chewier than others. And they're delicious. And chocolatey. I can say no more.

It's On

I knew the thrifting bug was hitting me last week when I made an unscheduled stop inside a Value Village (though I bought nothing because they were charging crazy prices -- like $7 for a scratched up Pyrex that could never fetch more than a few dollars on ebay). The thrifting season seemed to officially start this weekend with garage sales popping up everywhere, despite the snow. I had planned to go to this huge rummage sale that happens here bi-annually, but I was seduced by a fabric sale and never ended up making it.

Aaron's mum, Leena, is part of a group that knits and sews items (mainly bags and purses) and then sells them to raise money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation. On Saturday they held their first fabric sale, which feature piles and piles of vintage fabric. Piles, I'm telling you. I bumped up my stash as much as possible before my brain got overwhelmed and Henry (who was strapped to my chest in his carrier) got too heavy. What you see above is just a portion of my bounty. Needless to say, I was too pooped to make it to the rummage sale.

So, how to hit all the garage and tag sales with two kids this spring... I've got the bug, I just wished I had the energy and the time!

Hung Up

Last weekend we rounded up the family and went to a arts/clothing fair in town, mainly because a woman who makes pants that are very forgiving to the post-preg body was going to be there. Also, Aaron and I have always been interested in art, but we've never had the money to start collecting anything. We're certainly not rich these days either, but we figured we could drop a little bit of cash if we saw something we really liked and if we continue to do so a couple times every year, before long we should have some okay pieces in our house. We spotted a booth full of really cool pop-arty wood carvings and Aaron was really drawn to this one. It's by a local artist named Lisa Brawn and her subject is Tom Mix (also known as the Fancy Cowboy), a silent movie star from the early part of last century.

I love this guy. I wasn't too wild about buying a piece of cowboy art, since more traditional cowboy art really dominates the market here and, of course, I prefer to rage against the machine and all, but this picture is pretty awesome (and I will stress, Lisa isn't a traditional Western cowboy artist -- her recent pieces just happen to feature cowboy movie stars). I like that it's pop-arty but not ironic in any way. She did have some pieces with more famous iconic images, but I like that Tom Mix is so unfamous in my circles that he could just be any random guy. I am pleased.


Bringing Tom into our house has also inspired us to, at last, hang some other art that's been sitting around. I finally put the swatch portraits up in Henry's room (though my desk/computer is still where his crib will go once he's out of the cradle in our room). We also hung up a really intense black velvet desert landscape that we bought at a rummage sale last year. It's over our bed. Pictures really don't do this one justice and I'm still not totally sure of it, so instead I've included some of Ruby's recent art. I too, was concerned when she came out of art class yesterday with an all black painting (is she really that upset about having a baby in the house?), but I soon realized that black was the colour of paint sitting directly in front of her, so that's what she chose. Sometimes kids don't need to be psycho-analyzed, I guess.

Little Gifts, Little Effort

As you may know, I really love giving handmade baby gifts, probably more than any other kind of gift. By my count, I know about 20 babies who are due to appear in 2008, and with Henry and Ruby eating up about 22 hours of my day (the other two are for sleep/compulsive DVD watching), I am not logging in much craft time. Since there's no way I could make 20 Jess Hutch dolls or even 20 baby hats, I decided to steal a page from Angry Chicken and whip up these onesies.

Amy posted about these about a year ago and I've had them stuck in my mind ever since. So cute, so easy and I have all this kids' fabric from Reprodepot laying around, left over from Henry's swatch portraits. So, with Ruby at her Nana's yesterday I swung into the craft store, bought some iron transfer paper, picked up some onesies at the Superstore and got to work.


So easy. I got 10 of these done in about two hours and I figure a package of two (or one for a not-so-close friend) should make a nice babe gift. I have one cousin who gave birth two days before Henry came along and another who had a baby last week (I have a big family, but three great-grandchildren in a month is a record for my Grandma), so I'm going to send a few of these off a.s.a.p. That leaves me with a few in reserve, plus the motivation to easily make some more when more babies are born. Hooray for simplicity, I say.

Depending On The Knits Of Others

Well, I'm not going to pretend I've been making stuff (other than food). For the first time in Henry's life, I knit a few stitches the other day, finishing the toe of a baby sock. Not super exciting. So, I'm going to spend a couple of posts celebrating the knits of others that have come into our home.

The awesome Lucy and her sweet family came by the other day with handknits for both Henry and Ruby (and a skein of Socks That Rock for me... Hooray!). Here's Henry in a sweet little sweater that she made. It fits perfectly (better than my still pretty big BSJ pictured a while back). And I love the bright colours -- baby clothes are usually so drab in colour and they wash poor Henry's dark good looks out.


It's been impossible to capture Ruby on film lately, so I had to photograph her sweater without a kid in it. But, it does look really nice on her. I love the i-cord tie at the neck. Super cute and also fits like a glove. And, she actually is willing to wear it, unlike most of the stuff I make her.


Finally, in an attempt to feel useful as something other as a full-time milk bar, my obsession with the Martha Stewart cookie book continues. And today, I actually made a successful cookie -- the Chocolate Chunk Walnut Banana cookie (though I used pecans instead of walnuts). It's basically banana bread in cookie form. Delicious.