What fun! What fun! E is one!

This year flew by.  I mean at Mach 3 speed.  I can't believe E's First Birthday has come and gone.  I'm a little ashamed to admit it but I started planning his party as early as December!  (I have issues, I know!)

The party was Dr. Seuss themed.  I ordered decorations from Birthday Express - they sell great Dr. Seuss party sets, with plates, cups, cutlery and table clothes.  They also sell adorable window decals and wall cut outs. 

E's Dr. Seuss collection is quite respectable and made for easy décor.  I placed several of his books around the living room.

I couldn't find a banner that I liked, so I used the basic Paint application on the computer and created a banner saying Happy Birthday, spelled out on Cat in the Hat hats, sewn together with bias tape.  I made a similar banner for E's highchair saying "I am 1".

Food-wise, I kept it simple.  I made:
fruit salad - called "Beezle Nut Fruit Salad";

• potato salad - lamely called "Tangy Pangy Potato Salad";
• green eggs;
• ham (and turkey) sandwiches;
• "cat"prese skewers;
• doughnuts - because "D is for doughnuts";
• cheese trees; and
• Birthday Cake with Jerry Jordan's Jelly!

For the cake, I tried to style it like the birthday cake from "Happy Birthday to You"!  The cake itself was a plain white cake, with raspberry jam filling and lemon frosting:

Lemon Frosting

1 box lemon pudding
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 tub thawed cool whip

Mix pudding, icing sugar and milk with electric mixer for 2 minutes at medium or high speed.  Allow mixture to sit for 1 minute.  Fold in cool whip until frosting is consistently mixed. 

I also ordered custom "green egg" cookies from a local baker.  They were AMAZING!!!  Cake Expectations totally exceeded my expectations.

All-in-all, it was a good day!

Two posts in a month...what?!?!?

I might as well try to stick with the blogging again for a little while, especially since I have so much on the go right now.  With E's First Birthday approaching, I went through the mounds of onesies and sleepers he has grown out of over the course of a year.  It is mindboggling (a) how quickly he has grown and (b) just how much stuff a baby can have.

Both my husband and I are a little sentimental about some of the onesies.  Rather than donate them or hand them down, I selected between 50 and 60 of our favourites and made a quilt.  Admittedly, not my finest quilt job (there is definitely a reason I prefer the "rustic" nature of rag quilts to traditional quilts), but it means a lot to us and it is something that we can hang on to for years to come, without starting down the dangerous path towards hoarding.

Baby sewing projects - Soft Blocks

I'm a binge seamstress.  I won't sew for long periods, sometimes years, and then once I start I binge big time.  I had not sewed anything since Christmas when I decided that I would be able to sew a couple things while also managing lil' E.  As previously posted, suddenly that meant making headbands, a car seat cover and I also made soft blocks that E will be able to play with over time.

I was inspired by this website (Smile and Wave).  Her's are gorgeous and I loved the material.  For E, I went with simple black and white checker board and two different colours of baseball patterns in basic cottons.

When E gets bigger he will be able to grab them and throw them without causing any damage.  For now, he stares at the checker board pattern during Tummy Time.

Grandparents Day - Who Knew

I didn't know there was such a thing.  Apparently, Grandparents Day became an official day in Canada in 1995 (and has been a national day in the US since 1978).

Seeing as our parents are now grandparents, I decided that I am a masochist and invited them over for brunch today.  I spent last night and this morning balancing my time between cooking and feeding E.  I haven't hosted a brunch in ages but I had a blast figuring out what to make and actually making it, of course.  Here is the menu:
(Pardon the pictures, the lighting in our house is brutal and I used my blackberry.)

Baked Vanilla Bean Donuts

Chilled Fruit Salad

Buttered Toast (if you need a recipe for this, we should start with how to boil water)

Peameal Bacon (with Mustard)

Baked French Toast

Breakfast Casserole

Cheesecake in a Jar (I followed this recipe for the cheesecake but used canned cherry and blueberry toppings)

I also set up a drink station with OJ and cranberry juice and a selection of Tassimo cups (coffee and tea).

For decorations, I did simple tissue paper pom poms.  I also broke up a bouquet of white daisies and used a few of my blooper reel painted vases from last fall (which actually looked pretty good like this).

Finally, the table cloth, napkins, plates and cutlery are all from Target - because with a newborn, I am not doing more dishes than necessary.

Over the next week or so, I will try to post some of the recipes I used or modified (if there is a link above, I did not modify the recipe in any way except as noted).

I think everything turned out really well - even my Dad was complimentary and that's high praise. It was a good day.  Unfortunately, I failed to take any pictures while everyone was here so you will have to take my word for it.

Baby sewing projects - Car Seat Cover

 
Hubby is very protective of anyone trying to touch Little E, even more so than I am.  Whenever we have gone out, we tend to keep a muslin blanket draped over the car seat.  However, it was light and whenever there was a breeze, it would be havoc.  We started using office clips to hold it on, but it was a sorry solution.

(Said office clip)

I kept seeing car seat cover instructions every time I looked for sewing projects and initially I didn't think they were necessary.  Now I know better.  One of the best sites for instructions is here - I particularly like her reference to the cover being a "greeter deterrent".  Exactly what I was going for.

I bought a couple meters of broadcloth and printed cotton and strips of velcro.  I followed the instructions linked above.  The trickiest part is getting the straps placed onto the cover.  You can either mark your material or attach the straps to the car seat handle where you want them and then pin them, loosely, to the cover.  I did the latter.

I did not iron the material before making the cover, but obviously that's a good idea (the cover has a pretty well defined crease in it, but that can be fixed).

I'm happy with the results and the Hubby was happy to have a greeter deterrent.  All in all, it was pretty quick to make, especially since Little E actually cooperated and decided to nap (you will note that he is not swaddled, since he has decided that swaddling is for sissies this week).

Baby sewing projects - Headbands

We are starting to get into a bit of a routine that works for us as Little E is 7 weeks old.  As a result, I have been able to work in some time to sew some simple projects.  Over the next few days I will post the results of a few recent projects, including in process photos where I remembered to take them.  Where applicable, I will also post links to great websites where I got the instructions from.

If you have seen other entries on the blog, it is clear that my baby is a boy.  However, my best friend was also pregnant this year and had a beautiful little girl.  On Pinterest I saw a link to instructions for very simple jersey headbands for babies.  Included in the instructions is a chart providing the approximate lengths of material that work for different ages, up to and including adult - and yes, I made a couple basic headbands for myself.

I bought a few pieces of solid t-shirt jersey material in light blue, navy blue and purple.  One of the benefits of using jersey is that you don't have to be perfect, since the material naturally rolls up so you don't have to hem the edges.

I followed the instructions in the link above, so I won't bore you by repeating them and there are really good pictures included.  Below are a few in process pictures. I did not however glue the rosettes on to the headband, rather I sewed them on.

The one on the right has a felt rosette.

A monthly celebration

Thanks to some ideas on Pinterest, I've decided to take monthly pictures of Little E for each month of his first year.

Each month I am making a large card that indicates which month it is and taking both a solo shot and a picture of our family.  I'm just using some of the card stock that I keep on hand and writing in the date as well.

Here is the first solo from one month.

I will post updates as the months fly by (sadly its true how fast time goes by with a lil' one).

S'mores Brownies

I expected to have to learn to multitask to epic proportions when our son was born and that I wouldn't have time for much else in the early days but didn't truly realize what that meant until he was here.  Yesterday, he was six weeks old yesterday and it was the first time I baked since before his birth. 

Speaking of baby...I can't help myself but I have to post this picture.  Out for a walk and the breeze caught the muslin sheet covering his stroller and this is the result.  I'm totally biased but I think it is too cute for words.

Now, back to the baking.  Little E and his dad went to Grandpa and Grandma's while I attended a baby shower for my BFF (whose baby girl was born early at 31 weeks and is going to come home this weekend!!!). So I wanted to make some sweets to take over for my in-laws.  I decided to make s'mores brownies because it felt very "summery" and around here that's a nice change as this is becoming known as the summer that wasn't. (That said, the cool weather was very much appreciated when I was still pregnant.)

Recipe

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt (If you use salted butter, do not add salt)

Brownie mix or your favourite brownie recipe

2 cups small marshmallows

1 square semi-sweet chocolate
1 tsp unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Mix graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar and salt.  Press into bottom of greased 8x8" or 9x9" pan.  Bake for 15 minutes at 325F.

2. Make brownies according to box or recipe, as applicable.  Pour over crumb base and bake brownies according to directions on box or recipe.

3. As soon as brownies are done (a toothpick comes out clean), cover with small marshmallows.  Change oven settings to broil.  Insert pan and broil for 1-2 minutes until marshmallows are puffy and golden brown.  Watch carefully as the marshmallows burn easily (think of campfire marshmallows!). 

4. Melt chocolate and butter together in microwave for 45 seconds and stir until smooth.  Top marshmallows with chocolate.

5. Cut while still warm.  Enjoy!