This week in Pedro land...

It's been a busy week in the Pedro household. Or I should say, outside of the household.
The week started off with soccer. The kid does run. a lot. the whole game. doesn't matter what position, he runs after it. he even runs after the ball that goes out of bounds after the whistle blows. crazy. He's #13 orange in front of the net.


We went to the butterfly conservatory. This is my favorite picture. it packed a good punch since Rafael learned about the butterfly life cycle this year. He was explaining it all to some kids that were gathered round.


A trip to Niagra falls and the Maid of the Mist boat. It was wet, it was windy, it was refreshing. I hid behind my 3 year old to get out of the spray. This is the before picture. the after is not so nice.


Even the flat family made an appearance.


And the week ended with the usual Friday night Race at the sailing club. My husband races every Friday. Last week, we got to go on the motor boat that went to the race marks. I used to be on that crew over 7 years ago, before kids. It was nice to get out on the water again. This week, we went tot he beach to watch. It was painful. Very little wind.


So now we have 3 days of nothing planned and a pass to the textile museum, family bikes in the garage, farmer's markets to explore... hmmm, maybe we will be busy.
Have a great one.

Amanda

this moment

{This moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. Amanda Blake Soule



Have a good one....
Amanda

Troop of monkeys

Yep, I just had to..


I think I had beginner's luck. Not so happy with the 2nd one. It is bigger, on purpose, but the pipe cleaners seems a little flimsy for the length.


But I love his attitude with the hat.


looks like these guys are gonna be trouble....


thanks for looking,
Amanda

needle felted sock monkey

look what I made...

No, not that, this...


I made his limbs with pipe cleaners so they're bendy.



so much fun to make. i think I'll make a few more for my gift cupboard. this one has already been loved and claimed!

have a great day!!
Amanda

roving butterflies

I got this idea for these butterflies after looking at this tutorial for roving birds
here on Mothering with Rhythm and Rhyme



Mostly got the idea b/c I called them butterflies. When I went to make them, noticed they were indeed birds. The kids didn't want birds, they wanted butterflies. So they made suggestions on how to turn a bird into a butterfly, add some wings and antenna. so that we did.

I needle felted the stripe and the shape of the wings.

They move so nicely in the wind.


Fun to cheer,


And to kiss.


thanks for looking,
Amanda

handkerchief clothes... oh, and a winner!

First up, the winner of my gnome playset is......
I did it the old fashioned way and asked Rafael to pick a number between 1-30. He chose 16.
Maureen from Twig and Toadstool! Congrats Maureen. I hope it will be welcomed by all the lovely friends that you make. You must go visit her and Shanti's website. Awesome stuff. drool Oh, she has a giveaway at present too! (but don't enter, I wanna win!)

I had a great chunk of time sewing last night and I was on a roll....


handkerchief shorts. or bandana shorts. here's a great tutorial from
Blue Yonder

I was choosing regular bandanas and he spied the camoflauge in the pile. Cool beans. I like them, so does he. And he's finally gotten something homemade from mama. I'm definitely going to make PJs this fall. it is sooooo easy.



Next up was a pair for my godson who will be turning 1 next month. I may have made the waist too small to get over a diaper, but luck would have it, I have another kerchief to make a bigger one. Love the tag.


At the last minute, I decided to whip up this skirt.dress.shirt thing for Missy Moo. It really is too thin. She wants it as a dress, so straps will be added and a pair of shorts from jersey knit will be made. I use my serger on the inside. Love it! Thanks DH for the great christmas present.


Not much of a model these days, here she is running from me whilst trying to take a picture.


Thanks for looking!
Congrats Maureen. (Yes M, the leaf is my design) If you didn't win, don't worry, I have another opportunity or 2 to own something from By Hook & Thread this week.

cheers,
Amanda

Glue pictures---help!!

I had this pile of canvas circles given to me. They came from the Tilley factory. You know, Tilley Endurables?
ANyhow, I wanted to make something special with them. A bunting, but what kind? I decided on the glue batik look. Can't remember where I saw it. it was a few places. Big plans of having the kids draw the pictures in glue. Then I imagined having to wait another day before painting. No thanks, SO I did them up myself when they were in bed. Smart mama.

Aren't they purdy?

Today, we got out the paints, found brushes and got to work.


Here's Neve's work. She was so focused on it with a tiny brush. Then she wanted to do the grass and sky like mine. So cute.
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Here's mine. But can you see the problem? The glue is not coming off. What is the problem? What kind of glue do you use?

I used cheap dollar store stuff that I had on hand. Should I have used a more expensive glue? Would it have stayed in a string instead of sinking in to the canvas? We painted 4 canvases and spent too much time trying to peel the glue off with tweezers. So I'm going to call it a fail and use the back side to try it again. After I hear from you on what glue to use. Glue gun?

Here's my favorite magazine of late... check it out.


one more day to enter my giveaway pass it on...

thanks for looking,
Amanda

frozen orange juice

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to make theseFrozen Orange cups from Childhood Magic. I added a little cranberry juice to the juice before pouring.

Let me tell you, they were delish! As we were scraping them with our forks, oh so good, I was thinking I should take a picture, but it was too good to put down. Refreshing. And the best part, as I was putting the dish of orange bowls into the freezer, some of the juice spilled. So there was more icy goodness to scrape.

Go get some oranges and try it. It's yummy.

don't forget to comment on my giveaway here

thanks for looking,
Amanda

Gnome giveaway!

Giveaway is now over! Thanks for all the comments. Winner is Maureen from
Twig and Toadstool

here's my giveaway...


A little gnome, his leaf playmat/sleepingbag and a toadstool.


Made just for you.


All you do is leave a comment. Once a day until... Sunday Night July 25. that's it. I'll send internationally.


I know, the colours are a bit inconsistent. I played with some settings in iphoto. forgive, but it's still green and red.

It was hard to find some green grass to take a picture on. It's dry here. They've been calling for rain and thundershowers a few times now and we didn't get them. Toronto is a weather repellant.
The city is pruning our trees right now. Hoping to save a chunk of a maple branch to make some blocks out of. they wanted to cut the whole tree down (you've seen pictures in my blog posts with it in the centre of the yard) but we've convinced them to prune it and check back in a few years. Can't imagine how it would be with that big shady tree gone. It will have to come down, eventually. The trunk would leave a huge hole and the hill it created....

enough of that.. leave a comment for the giveaway and pass it on...
thanks for looking,
Amanda

giveaway to come...

I'm feeling a little giveaway-y. Stay tuned. Just have to make one more part and take some pics....

Pink and orange dress

My model is not feeling so model-y this morning! So this is what you get...

A cute little number with shirring at the top and in the middle. My top shirring elastic on a regular thread spool (in the thread section) was not as tight as the middle elastic from a different section. I had to cut the top and still have to shape it a bit.

I'm just glad that DH was able to fix my bobbin problems a month ago. saved me $90. I was to scared to try shirring when I was under the "get it all sewn for the fun fair" time crunch. But now, if I bust a bobbin, I have the time to get it fixed. And it didn't bust.

Here's a picture for nanny. Rafael has his first loose tooth! We get several reports daily and he now only eats apples if you cut them up for him. We found his tooth fairy bag that he sewed last year. Much excitement.


One more thing, i got a blog award the other day from Two Little Seeds. Thanks for the award! I'm going to play along later. Have to wait for DH to help me figure out a few things in transferring buttons from another blog. Go check it out.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

Marble travel a la Serving Pink Lemonade

Loved this idea when I saw it on Serving Pink Lemonade
So many great ideas there.. go take a look..



Make sure you sew the lines big enough for a marble to go through. And make sure you don't sew the marble into a corner. Ask me how I know?!!
I came up with a few of my own runs for the marble. It's kind of addictive, thinking them up and sewing them up.


And some letters for the kids names. Can you imagine doing a whole pile of them in letters to spell the birthday kid's name?!! How much more personal can you get?


i crudely machine sewed the slit on the side. too lazy to hand sew.

Next round that I make, I will put the turning right side out slit where the ribbon is and attach and sew seam all together with the machine. Just makes a little more sense there.


I brought one next door to the neighbour's daughter with her initial. She wasn't home, but her mother couldn't stop playing with it and exclaimed how addictive it was.

Try it for yourself and have a good look at Serving Pink Lemonade

thanks for looking,
Amanda

water ballons

We bought a pack of these a few days ago and finally got a chance to play at home. The heat has broken. Or should I say, the wind blew today, so we could use the yard later in the afternoon.


We enjoyed them so much, we went back to the dollar store to buy another pack. That means there were 2 pumps, making sharing that much easier!


They managed to make 3 at a time, then blasted it at the tree.

If it bounced, they stomped on it. They haven't figured out that the most fun is throwing them at each other. And I'm not about to tell them.


Let them figure that out themselves..


Thanks for looking,
Amanda

flat family

OMGawd! I've been in a black hole! No home phone (so who cares, less calls from telemarketers) and NO INTERNET!!!! that is the worst of it all. Well, actually, the worst of it is that we have no service b/c of an alley fire at the end of our street. It is suspected arson. There were evacuations at 4am. Last night, the fire truck came barreling down our street, then came back and parked outside our door. Freaky, I sniffed, yep, I smelled smoke and went outside. The firefighters were walking around, trying to find the source. Smelled like a little chimnea in a back yard kind of fire. But guess people were spooked by the night before.
All that to say that the phone lines and wires were all melted/disconnected. They say it will be fixed by Friday night. I'll be checking! lol

Yesterday, the kids spent a focused amount of time making a flat family. You know, like Flat Stanley? Neve drew my face and hers, Rafael looked after daddy. I'll have to take pics of them all. We're going to get them laminated so they'll be more durable.

Here's a few pics of Neve at our park adventure:



That's it for now folks, gotta shove off. My tea is cold and I think they are closing the coffee shop with the free wi-fi. Man, I went to the library twice to use their wi-fi, but they weren't open. I've been travelling with my computer in the car in case I happened upon a place. desperate I tell ya! giggle.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

more felt block

As promised, here are the 3 remaining sides to my block..

The owl with personality. He needs a name... hmmmm


My rainbow. Yeah, I know, the colours are not in the right order...


And the little fishy with da bubbles.


As you can see, I've started to put the pieces together to make a block. I'll put in a bell (one that is in a cat toy, then the bell is protected and won't be stilled by the wool) and stuff it with my freshly carded wool.

Will we have another day at a park soon? I think so. We went to the Ontario Science Centre today. I love this age of the kids. good day all around, only, they still have energy and I'm ready to drop. Someone ask me to lie down with them to go to sleep , please...

thanks for looking,
Amanda