Carrots from the Garden

Despite being covered, our raised beds suffered significant damage during the first frost of the season. The eggplants and tomatoes were the hardest hit, while the carrots, broccoli and kale didn't seem to mind the cooler temperatures one bit. With the carrots being surrounded by a withered mess we decided a do-over was necessary. So, out came the carrots (perhaps prematurely) along with the damaged plants giving us the space to resow the bed this weekend.




They were small in size, but certainly tasty none the less. Perhaps we'll have better luck with round number two!

Pop's Birthday

We spent our Saturday helping Pop celebrate his birthday. The day included a boat ride (in which we saw porpoises, quite exciting I tell you), having pizza for lunch, watching football, then eating homemade cheesecake for dessert. Oh what fun we had!






Happy birthday Dad - we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did!

Holiday Handmades

Grace and I did quite a bit of merry making this year. It's always a bit challenging to share what we're up to prior to the holiday since the recipients would see their gifts prematurely. So here, before it gets too much further into this new year of ours, is some of what we made for those we love.......


Grace's Piano Concert DVD (in which she's playing twelve holiday songs) packaged in a pouch that we made from the results of our first ever tie dye project


A bottle of "customized" wine for Dean from Sophie


A pouch for Meme to safely store her protein bars


A knitted blanket for Sophie


And lastly, cookie boxes filled with sweet treats for family members

There you have it, our holiday handmades!

New Year's Day

To welcome this new year, we headed to Bayfront Park for a leisurely morning walk. I often find that I take our surroundings for granted, forgetting what a beautiful city we live in. One of my goals for this year is to enjoy and embrace where we are now, still hoping that one day (perhaps in the very distant future) we'll have our little farm that I frequently dream about.

Our morning at the park was perfect - the sky was a vibrant shade of blue and the air was crisp. Grace had a great time romping around the life-sized art sculptures, while Sophie sniffed every blade of grass in sight. While there, we made great attempts at taking a decent family photograph, but the one below was the best we could get.




So here's to embracing where we are in life - from where we live, to our careers and every nook and cranny between. Happy 2012, may this be a wonderful year!

December 2011

Since a month has pasted since my past post, I thought I'd share a photo mosaic displaying some of things we've done during December. Enjoy.......


1. Swinging on a vine during our search for a yule log 2. Family holiday breakfast 3. Letter from Santa 4. A visit to the Chapel where Dean and I married 5. The girls on Christmas morning (note that Grace is wearing summer pj's, as it was too warm for her Christmas nightgown) 6. Our tree on Christmas Eve 7. With Grandpa at breakfast 8. Henry, our "Elf on the Shelf" 9. Letter and cookies to Santa 10. Dressed as an elf, ready to deliver holiday gifts 11. Making gingerbread cookies 12. This years advent calendar - Playmobil dinosaurs 13. Our favorite cookie - "cinnamon bun pinwheels" from King Arthur Flour 14. Frozen forest at Lowery Park Zoo 15. Mama-made elf slippers 16. A reindeer sans antlers at the zoo 17. Piano concert 18. Sophie searching for lizards 19. The yule log cake we made for Winter Solstice 20. A button tree made by Grace 21. Sidewalk art 22. Washing the car - the number one thing Grace wanted to do on her vacation 23. Santa Grace 24. Painting gift bags 25. Mad Lib fun during family Christmas dinner 26. Part of the gingerbread scene we made 27. Lost tooth and Santa dollar 28. Grace's holiday story for school 29. Table at our Christmas dinner 30. Piano playing at Meme and Pop's 31. Tie Dye project 32. Christmas dessert 33. Playing her golden harp for family (this was the number one item on Grace's Christmas list) 34. Pouring wine for Pop 35. Christmas stockings 36. Christmas breakfast

Week 47 - Thanksgiving

Just dropping in to share some pictures of things Grace has been working on (both from school and home) to celebrate the holiday. She's had quite the crafting bug, I tell you.



Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Week 45 - Halloween 2011

For Halloween, Grace (after much indecisiveness) decided to be a Flamenco dancer. As in previous years, I found myself making her costume from a sketch that she created, amending the pattern as needed to make the finished dress come as close to her drawing as possible.

Needless to say, she was smitten with the results - spending the night twirling and whirling about, clicking her castanets all the while.





It was a "totally fun" night, spent under the light of a dragon's eye moon!