All things Halloween

I saw this little pumpkin tutorial on Pinterest and new I had to make some of my own. They (California) have all sorts of pumpkins that I have never seen before.  I painted them while drinking a Heineken and watching Cabin in the woods with Andrew. I let Jackson paint his own little pumopkin. It seems like Painting pumpkins here is the way to go. The carved ones lasted about two days before they started to liquify on the front porch. Its just to warm for them, not that im complaining about all the sun.

I have been struggling with this sock for a long time. I bought the wool in April sometime and have been trying to make them ever since. It is my first time making anything on double pointed needles and it took me a while to get the hang of it. I have started this sock about twenty times and then rip it all out.  I am trying to knit the heel flap but I just am having the hardest time. I want to throw the whole thing out on a regular basis but I want to just finish it!

We used some stencils to make some fun pumpkins this year. I feel like the character choices are very telling. 

I volunteered to bring the fruit plate for the preschool Halloween party. It makes me feel really grown up when I sign up for things like this. I still haven't gotten over that feeling that im just playing grown up.

The preschool class went on a little trick or treating parade around the neighbourhood. It was so warm on Halloween I had to put Jack in shorts in a T-shirt so he wouldn't roast in his costume. Thats definitely a step up from snowsuit halloween we were are used to in Calgary.

I was at the library with Jack reading Real Simple Magazine while jack played. They had some Halloween book recommendations and I thought sure I will read a scary book. The magazine recommended this novel Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates it was disturbing and kind of yucky. It was about a serial killer, not zombies as one would think. Andrew says it sounds a lot like Jeffrey Dahmer. It was yucky and just creeped me out. 

I loved having Halloween here, Berkeley is winning my heart over more and more every day.

Mini Birthday bunting

I was recently perusing my bloglovin feed and saw this adorable post on a cuppa and a catch up about tiny bunting as a card and small present. My dear friend has a Birthday coming up and I wanted to send a little something to her. I added some trader joe PB&J chocolate and some other little goodies. She is someone who loves candy even more than I do. 

It probably wont make it in time for her birthday but I hope she has a lovely day and knows that I am thinking about her on her Birthday!

Homemade Reusable Snack Bags

My Aunt recently contacted me to make her some reusable snack bags. I luckily had some PUL on hand for the lining. It seems to me that there is a lot of debate about what fabric is best to use and is food safe.   I bought my fabric from Wazoodle in Canada and the website and manufactures website said that it is food safe. Thats good enough for me, I probably wouldn't put it in the microwave or anything but I think that it will be ok. I cant imagine its any worse that the other plastic containers people use for their food.

I used this tutorial it was super  easy and came together really quickly. I used velcro for the closure and that worked great. I tried one with a zipper closer and it was just really wonky and crazy. PUL can be rather finicky to sew with, I wish that I had a teflon  foot for my sewing machine. The top piece of fabric kept bunching as I was sewing and it was really hard to get things to line up nicely. They say that the teflon can help with the sticking that happens with the fabric.

I think I might need to make some for myself, I hope she likes them.

Paper Piecing - Kitchen Aid Mixer

I have been wanting to try a paper pieced pattern for a while. I always see them and think they look so amazing and hard. This pattern and tutorial from Why Not Sew?  are so easy to follow. I would never be able to come up with a pattern on my own but it is definitely not as intimidating as I originally thought. It did take a bit of work trying to get my printer to take the freezer paper but in the end it worked. I love the end result, I am not sure what I am going to do with this. I have seen some people make a cover for a Kitchen Aid mixer but I don't want to cover my mixer I love its shiny Red colour in my kitchen. I will save this for a while until I can find something to do with it.

If you are looking to try paper piecing this is a good pattern to start with, there aren't too many little bits and it comes together so quickly.

Little Things to Sew - Cozy Winter Hood Yoda Hat

I saw these versions of the Yoda hat on Girl Like the Sea and Homemade by Jill and knew that I needed to make one for my Star Wars obsessed little guy. The pattern from Little things to Sew calls for a thicker warmer fabric, I wanted it to be a bit lightweight for playing so I just used some flannel I had on hand. I just skipped the ear part of the instructions and it came together really quickly. I drew my own template for the ears and put a bit of quilt batting in the ear to help give them a bit of structure. I attached them to the sides. I also just used some of the flannel instead of ribbon for the ties. It is a really easy pattern to follow and it came together in less then and hour.  I think he loves it

Meal Planning Week 4

Saturday, June 22
Salmon Patties and Rice

Sunday, June 23 
MacRae Sweet & Sour Chicken with Rice and Steamed Broccoli

Monday, June 24
Chicken Diablo with Rice and Corn

Tuesday, June 25
Spaghetti with Meatballs
The spaghetti noodles were left over from a batch Andrew made last month and we just froze them. The meatballs were just something I made and didn't use a recipe for.

Wedensday, June 26
Almond Stir Fry 
We made this again because everyone liked it so much

Thursday, June 27
Veggie Sloppy Joes with veggies
Turns out what I thought was sloppy joe sauce was some veggie chili. I really need to label things in the freezer. I made some homemade buns because I thought we were having sloppy joes. It worked out we ate everything anyway.

Friday, June 28
Homemade Shake and Bake Chicken and Rice with some corn
I just through some spices and salt and pepper in with some bread crumbs. I wished I was paying attention because it was so good.

Saturday, June 29
 lasagana with homemade noodles.
Andrew is the pasta maker in this house. He made the noodles with Jack and he used the lasagna recipe from Pioneer Woman. It was so good and made enough for basically two smaller lasagnas. So We froze half for lunches or a night we don't want to cook. The noodle recipe is just from the kitchen aid book that came with pasta attachment.


So this month we went a bit over budget by about $15 dollars but I blame that on being sick and buying some extra stuff but I also did quite a bit of baking this month that I didn't take into account when making the plan. I hope that I can keep it under budget in July.

Brown Sugar Raisin Bread.

I am pretty sure there are healthier recipes, but I had all the ingredients on hand for this one. It was one of the few rain days here in Berkeley and we were trying to find indoor activities. We made a 

 fort and built a cardboard house for his lego guys. I brought out the ironing board for some much needed height and those black binder clips and some string are amazing for building forts. All things I wish I knew about when I was a little kid. I used to make forts all the time. One summer my mom let me take over the dining room and I made a giant cardboard house that I kept up for practically the whole summer. I also forgot that one summer as a teenager she let me set up my tent in the back yard and I ran an extension chord to it and had a lamp and a stereo and I even pulled my mattress out side. We had the best sleepovers out there. 

This bread usually one lasts about a day in our house. It makes some delicious toast, warm out of oven is the best.