Orange con't

I'm not sure if I was subconsciously influenced by my Orange post, but today when I made the boys their snack, it was certainly orange themed.

Rice cakes with cream cheese and smoked salmon, which we made last night. The salmon that is, not the rice cakes. That would be gross! Cheese rice crackers, cantaloupe, and a nut mix, which did have apricots, but they seemed to scoop those up quickly!

Orange

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I would share some cute children finds I have come across on Etsy, from the Etsy Kids Team. Click on the link below the photos to view more items from these shops:

Pink Stripe

I love the t-shirt tie look, and this one is especially cool. Having three boys, it's always nice to find some great boy clothing.

For the Love of Zebra

Seriously! Doesn't this just make you smile! I find it so cute and happy looking.

Embroidery Emporium

This is great frilly fun.

Beloved Bows

Ghouls totally rock!

Maddie Bees

This set is so rad! And there are more cool Halloween-ie sets to find in this shop.

Etsy is a treasure chest of fun and original items for Halloween! So if you are looking for something out of the ordinary, I would suggest searching Etsy, and you can start with these wonderful shops:)

I have a few items in the works for halloween, and can't wait to share them with you!

Have a great day!

Thank You Jamie Oliver!!!

Rob and I, Love. This. Book! It has become our dinner bible. I feel like a really good cook when I use this book for our meals.

So far these are the meals we have made. We don't always make everything in the meal:

We had this on Sunday night. Now don't share this with too many people, but I am not a huge salmon fan. Being a Kwaguitl women, this is a major faux pas. Salmon was and still is a staple in my peoples diet, so I repeat, keep this little secret on the down low. Anyway, I really enjoyed this meal, and the kids did too! The dessert is simple, yet delicious. Now that I know lychees in a can are good, I will be buying more of these. When I went to Thailand, my favorite thing for breakfast was lychee yogurt. Mmmm!

This one is spicy, quick and easy to make.

We all loved this meal. Everything about it. The salad is addicting! 

Jerk chicken, with rice and beans, salad, and corn. Yum! The rice and beans were so simple yet so delicious. The kids still talk about the rice and beans, and ask to have it for lunch. And the chicken was spicy and so flavorful.

We all love this on and are having it for the third time tonight!

This meal we had last night. Minus the dessert. The broccoli was so good! Rob even liked it, and he likes to tell people that broccoli is his least favorite vegetable. The sausage, bean dish, is delish as well as filling.

What I love about this book, is that the recipes are all so fresh, and easy to make. It takes us longer than 30 minutes to make them, usually about an hour, because I just don't like being flustered in the kitchen. Some of the instructions are a bit confusing, but easy enough to figure out. I would definitely recommend reading through the instructions before starting a meal. Rob skipped a bunch of steps because he went in blind.

Also, Jude and I can't eat many grains, and I find it simple to make substitutes in the meals , so extra bonus points!

Thanks Jamie Oliver, for adding some life back in our kitchen, and for putting together such an amazing collection of meals. We were becoming so bored with the same old, same old! We now look forward to dinners :)

The First Hockey Game!

The fog was amazing this weekend on our drive up to Cowichan for Jai's first hockey game. We had to leave at 6:00 am! Ouch! But it did make for a magical and beautiful drive.

I tried to snap a couple of shots in the moving car, with no flash, and very little light. It didn't work, but it does look kind of cool.

We pulled over at a view point so I could get a couple of clear shots.

It almost looks like a soft blanket of snow.

The hockey player.

Jai and his cousin.

That is Jai next to the white jersey. 

and this was the final score. Sooke didn't win, but Jai still had a smile at the end of the game and said he had fun! We had fun watching him:)

Fresh From the Garden

Freshly picked from my garden today!

Tomatoes, pole beans, strawberries, patty pan

It's not much, but it's enough to make me happy:)

Rainbow Inspiration

I have been seeing rainbows everywhere lately, and so have been inspired to create using a rainbow of colors.

Here are some of the rainbows that have inspired me:

Jasper pointed out this rainbow to us while we were leaving the beach last week. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from. 

Home made rainbow.

and this is a photo in Alive magazine that inspired me to make this....

Rainbow twirl skirt, made from t-shirts.

I have a few more rainbow inspired clothing in my mind, that I hope to make in the near future.

Costume Inspiration

We have some ideas for Halloween costumes this year, though if you ask me right now I couldn't tell you what they are. It's always fun to search the internet for fun and creative ideas too.

Here are some ideas I have Pinned so far:

Source: sewastraightline.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Never Nude! Seriously! How awesome is this? I love it and want to convince Rob to be a Never Nude for Halloween.

Source: familyfun.go.com via Jamie on Pinterest

We just watched "Gnomeo and Juliet", and I think this would be adorable as a costume.

Source: thedailygreen.com via Jamie on Pinterest

This is a whole other kind of creepy. A lot of work, but if you were looking to freak people out, this will accomplish the task.

Source: thedailygreen.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Fun! There is so much you could do with this costume.

Source: thedailygreen.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Cute!

Source: thedailygreen.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Original.

Source: grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com via Jamie on Pinterest

and adorable! If any of you choose this costume for your little on, please share! I would so love to dress one of my guys up as a sock monkey, but I am sure they would not approve.

Taking it off auto

This past weekend, I decided it was time to make the move. I took my camera off auto and switched to manual mode. I was nervous and apprehensive, but I did it. I mean it IS digital, so what's the big deal?

I played with the aperture and, ISO a bit, but mostly the aperture. Adjusting the shutter speed to meet the light requirement for the aperture setting.

I like having the aperture open all the way for a blurry background, but with my camera, or maybe it's the lens, I have to be very close to the subject for the background to blur.

Here is a picture of Rob with the aperture fully open. The background is not blurred at all.

Same aperture, closer to Rob. The background is blurred.

Here is a photo I took months ago. Same aperture, but very close to the subject. The background is very blurred. So now I know how to get that look.

Here are some photos taken on the weekend that I just wanted to share because they are of my boys, so are of course more for the cute factor:

They love jumping off of things.

When I look at this picture, I can't imagine how he landed this.

King of the mountain.

Look at that beautiful face.

Having a little rest after all that jumping. 

Sewing for Boys

I was so excited when this book arrived on Monday! and have been flipping through it over and over!

There are patterns included with the book, which I am over the moon about! I know, I am over using my exclamation marks, but I am just so excited!!!!!! 

I have been making all my clothing without patterns. Measuring out each piece. every. single. time. I sew. It is such an amazing gift, to finally have some patterns to work with. I know there was always the option of buying patterns, but I was resistant for some reason, and I was just getting myself ready to start making patterns, when my book finally arrived. I'm sure I will still make a few patterns of my own, but for the most part I will proudly use the patterns in this book and give them all the credit they deserve:)

Unders Failure #1

I attempted to make these super cute boxer briefs last night and unfortunately failed hugely.

Source: sewastraightline.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Mine look like this:

I tried to stretch the left leg so it would fit the center piece,

and the back piece is much too short for the legs, so maybe I didn't follow the pattern, or maybe the back 

piece for the pattern is not long enough. Either way I am a bit disappointed, but now it's time to try again.

Chocolate Bowls

Yesterday we had a decadent snack before dinner. We have a craft book I found at the thrift store for the kids. One of the projects is making chocolate bowls. In the book they line bowls with tin foil and then paint melted chocolate onto the tin foil. Last week I found an easier way to make the bowls using a balloon. The balloon is dipped in the melted chocolate, left to harden on a tray, and then the balloons are popped, leaving a bowl behind.

Rob bought chocolate ice cream last week, and so we decided to try out the bowls for ourselves.

Only one bowl was thick enough not to have holes in it. It helps to oil the balloons first so they peel off easily, but not too much oil or the chocolate won't stick. Also, to wait until the chocolate has cooled a bit. The chocolate goes on thicker once it has cooled a bit. 

Delicious! We added strawberries from our garden, and some bananas, not from our garden :)

Next time we will make the bowls smaller. They were way too big and I couldn't eat even half of mine. I'm thinking we will go with the water balloons next time.