pinecone garland.

a neat-o blog I follow is Twig & Thistle. well they had this project tutorial to make pine cone garland that I swooned over ages ago and then filed away for a rainy day. (common theme which relates directly to my arts-n-crafts binge-ing)

well i finally got around to making it, with my friend Allison's help. all you need is those yummy smelling pine cones that come out this time of year, some ribbon or twine and a few screw hooks.

my mantle BEFORE garland:

my mantle AFTER garland:


next craft on deck, this short tree-stump trivet made out of felt that will make some slightly altered appearance in baby king's nursery. yay!

skype xmas.

it's always tough to make those decisions on where you'll spend the holidays and this year was no different. we couldn't visit everyone we wanted to in person, but that didn't stop us from using the next best thing to connect with as many folks as we could!!

SKYPE! Or as my brother calls it SKKYYYYYYPPPPEEEEEEEE.

you might remember when i posted about it back here when i went to Singapore. my other half and i use it almost every week to connect with my siblings. we call them - skype dates. sometimes we eat dinner together or just spend an hour vegging on the couch. depends on the mood :)

this christmas justine was stuck in florida working so she couldn't make the trek up north. sooooo we opened presents over Skype and it was a HOOT!


it doesn't beat the real, in-person thing but it far outweighs not getting to see each other at all. Yay for SKYPE!

closet fit for a king.

so baby king already has a TON of clothes. people just keep buying him gifts (mommy included) and dropping little, darling outfits every time they drop in.

my sweet sister brought him 2 track suits, 2 pair of shoes, a few cute onsies & sleepers and the most ADORABLE baby blanket a co-worker knit for her (more on that later!).






some other folks have dropped off adorable sleepers which baby king loves as he is super fond of DINOSAURS.


can you believe his closet already?!


thank you so much everyone for your kindness & generosity. baby king and i feel very, very BLESSED.

happy holidays.

wishing you and yours a BLESSED holiday season.

with love, the King's

birthday wishes.

thank you SOOOO much to everyone's outpouring of birthday wishes for me yesterday. i had quite a frustrating day/week with work coupled with/by malfunctioning pieces of technology i operate daily. (aka: blackberry, laptop AND home computer. sigh. all things easily taken for granted!!)

the well wishes and happy sentiments were much appreciated & enjoyed in my extremely hormonal, crazed state of mind. and special thanks to my hubby for sparing a few hours with me yesterday when our schedules actually aligned to keep me calm & sane.

here are just a few of the FUN eCards I received from thoughtful friends :)




29 is fun so far, but next up - the BIG dirty thirty. double sigh.

Face to Face Tour re-scheduled AGAIN.

ok, so like you never hear about concerts getting re-scheduled - right? if that's the case - what are the chances it'll get re-scheduled TWICE?!?! over thanksgiving i was informed that the Billy Joel/Elton John concert scheduled for Dec 4th was postponed AGAIN.

so guess when the new date is? MARCH 9TH. a whole NINE+ months after I bought the darn tickets. What else usually happens in NINE months?!?! oh I don't know, perhaps the growth of a small human! my new 'estimated' due date is the 14th which puts this concert 5 days before. i already attempted to get a refund but ticketsnow is so not cooperating, nor is their customer service being very friendly.

ugh. what do I do?!?

owls, owls everywhere.

just one of the few things i'm loving lately. OWLS. It started a few months ago when I had to order new checks.


then last month I ordered an owl maternity shirt from Jellybean apparel, she customized it to be a blue owl and I was able to get it in long sleeve. CUTE!


now i'm keen on anything OWL for baby king. these are a few of the things i put on our registry or have been drooling over.

owls are a HOOT!

happy thanksgiving

with many things to be thankful for this year, we wish you and your family a happy thanksgiving from our home to yours.

edensbouquet giveaway.

a few months ago sondra introduced me to the cutest of cute blogs/websites. it's a lady who makes vintage-y children's clothes that are absolutely adorable. she also happens to live in the most spectacular place called Windy Ridge with her 9 children. i've only been following her blog for a little while but sometimes i day-dream about being the 10th child over there at her estate. i'd love to romp around with edna, her goat, emily, her donkey & their guard dog simon.

if we were having a girl i'd probably squeal with delight every time i was on her site b/c of how many adorable options there are. her boy stuff is a bit more limited, but still adorable nonetheless. check out the clothing collections here but don't waste your time entering her give-away b/c I'm gonna win anyways!

happy birthday lucy.

one of the LOVES in my life has a big ole' birthday today. we'll be celebrating pretty low key this year. no hats or dressing up but we'll be sure to shower her with presents, Frosty Paws and even more love than she gets every other day of the year. these are just a handful of things we can do to celebrate our appreciation of her never-ending love & loyalty!

(click to enlarge & see the many faces of LUCY)
happy 6th birthday LUCY :)

happy poppy day.

happy Veteran's Day everyone!
Thanks to all those who are serving or who have served our country!

and to all my canadian friends and family...
happy remembrance day!

christmas countdown begins.

50 days until Christmas. Yikes!!!
Every year I try to begin early and get as much done as early as possible. This year - having SERIOUS trouble getting the momentum! Lots of distractions with house renovations, baby related excitement and work kicking into major high gear. Drats.

Last night I was reading an article on 'simplifying the holidays' and had to laugh aloud at the tip "try moving other projects to different parts of the year". don't see that in our future! there isn't the time, nor the energy, to be as creative and crafty as I usually like to be. that is probably the most overwhelming part.

Haven't set the holiday budget, made the lists yet, thought about Christmas cards, nothing. Better get cracking! I will take their suggestion to set small, attainable goals.

(i take that back, I actually have purchased some items and can cross one person off our list. consider progress made!)

it's a BOY!

yesterday we had our anatomical scan and got to watch Baby King live and in all his glory for about 25 mins. i started to feel his kicks last week and now a day doesn't go by where I'm not poked, prodded or kicked throughout the day. he (yes, i'll get to that part) was very active at the scan - alternating between sucking his thumb, giving the technician a few punches back when she wanted him to move her way, and when all was quiet looking at his heart and other internal organs - giving a few swift low-blow kicks to remind us he was there.
(i think he was waving at us in this one!)
him being a 'him' came into view quite clearly. and more than once! he definitely doesn't seem to be camera shy (who had any doubts?!) and he had a blast showing off his goods every time the camera came near his tush. quite the little acrobat already. she knew we wanted to know the gender but before she even had a chance to point it out it - i knew it was a boy!
it's quite fascinating all the measurements and photos (like 75!!) they take. they spent quite a bit of time on all the internal organs measuring all 4 chambers of the heart, the blood flow, size of the kidneys, lungs, spine measurements, stomach and brain scans. so far everything is looking good and the little one is measuring a week ahead of schedule.

everything is pretty easy to follow when you have a technician explaining everything but i'm afraid the recording may not have taken audio. i wouldn't know though b/c a) i forgot to ask and b) it's a VHS! i'll need to get that converted to a technology of this decade so we can watch it again.

until then - we're holding onto these memories of our already perfect baby boy!!

witch finger cookies.

now this recipe was tasty, festive & fun!

To take a break from attic renovations last weekend, we didn't go to Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe as planned b/c we had already made witchy finger cookie treats!!

Here's the recipe:
1-1/4 cups Sliced Almonds
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. almond extract
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups flour

HEAT oven to 325ºF.

RESERVE 60 almond slices for later use as finger nails; chop remaining almond slices.
Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar, extract and salt in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in flour. Stir in ground nuts.

ROLL dough into 40-60 (3-inch) "fingers," using 1 Tbsp. dough for each.
Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray.
Press 1 of the reserved almonds into dough @ end of each finger.

Shape for appropriate 'witchy-ness'. (Try using a sharp knife to make slits in top of each finger for the knuckles)

BAKE 15 to 20 min. or until lightly browned.

Cool a few mins; transfer to wire racks. Cool completely.

(here's my mother trying to imitate her exact finger) (i perfected the female witchy fingers)


they're like a dense almond shortbread cookie & are the perfect match to coffee or tea. (they perk up my decaf!)

objects in mirrors

are closer than they appear!

woof!

lucy's excited b/c we were headed for stroll @ the beach.

sugar mountain high.

uh oh.

a gourmet cupcake shoppe is opening within WALKING distance from my work. (0.08 miles, to be precise)

they have a rotating cupcake menu which appeals to me most EVERY day of the week. (with 35 flavors, it's not hard)

i'm sensing TROUBLE!!

i tried to have an emergency meeting there at 5:30 last night but they're not opened yet. my co-worker and i walked away sad.

a little birdie told me they may have free samples on their opening day, which is this Saturday for anyone local.

Mom - since you'll be local this w/e I think we'll need to break from attic renovations and have a mandatory 'naming baby king' brainstorm session at the shoppe...

Yay for cupcakes!!

(and, if anyone from sugar mountain bake shoppe is reading my blog - your signage could be improved tremendously. like put one up please! (those interested - it shares the building with La Tea Da) oh - and there's a spelling error on your website. it's spelled Rochester. since we're dealing with CAKE here - i won't hold any grudges)

ode to my singer.

dear ms. singer,

i thank you for your hard work & dedication the last few years. from the first moment I swept (read: stole) you from my mother (who demanded to have it returned but i managed to steal you back) you have given me all the attention, love and most of all PATIENCE a sewing novice could ask for. and i thank you for that.

you're about as old as me, but much, much wiser in sewing years. you've stood by me with all my rookie mistakes, and despite the lack of online help/tutorials for singers 3 decades old - we've made it through several rough patches together. you've allowed me to create clothes, aprons, placemats, pillows, and oodles of other FUN projects!

a month ago, when i thought you gave up on me, i was happy to part ways given our last hurrah together was this itty-bitty baby dress (free pattern courtesy of one of my favorite sewing blogs, madebyRae). i fully admit to shopping around, taking demo classes on newer machines with LOADS more features, and even flirting with the idea of spending nearly 2x our mortgage payment on a younger model. even worse, i day-dreamed about all the good projects to come...

i shamefully admit this to you b/c thanks to my mother - we're back in action again and i don't want any hard feelings. she's reminded me, once again, that most all my sewing hurdles are related to operator error. i don't want any hard feelings as we glide back into our normal pace again, ok? we've got quite the backlog of projects as well as new baby ones on the docket... so let's get to it!

yours truly,
miss sewing-novice nicky

ps - in the spirit of full disclosure, i refuse to take the Emerald 830 off my christmas list. there is room for two in my craft room :)

team pink or team blue.

t-minus 10 days until we find out if baby king
is a prince or a princess!!

i love lists.

most close to me know i'm a list person. lists, lists and more lists! I LOVE LISTS. usually my lists take shape on whatever extra recycled paper or notebooks i have handy. but not anymore!!!

i've been following this valedesign blog for awhile now. their style is clean and fun, not too modern and they have TONS of free, crafty downloads in the shape of FUN labels, tags, stickers, cards and to-do lists. (and even more!) i've used a bunch of them but for the record, haven't needed to pull out the happy husband kit yet!

i can't wait to use their new HONEY-DEW list. i'm hoping this fun, bright, cheery list increases the conversion rate of being able to cross things off it!! wish me luck :)



just skip on over to their site, download and ENJOY!

pregnancy announcement.

sharing the news with our family was one of the biggest excitements we've had since getting pregnant. we wanted to make the announcement extra special.

baby king picked out the CUTEST shirts on cafepress.com to gift to our immediate fam. they all have fun sayings like 'grandma to bee', 'great dads get promoted to grandpa', auntie', and (my personal favorite) 'say uncle'.


one of baby king's grandmas is quite the m&m lover. (there are ALWAYS m&m's on hand at her house and she rarely travels without them) we thought it'd be cute to gift personalized m&m's with the due date on them in blue, pink & white. some say 'girl?' same some 'boy?' grandma was pleased with this part of the surprise!!


finally - there was a photo of baby king. depending on whether the gift was hand delivered or mailed, some got a photo of the baby when it was the size of a lima bean @ 7 wks and others got a photo of our 12 wk ultrasound. either way - baby king looks pretty darn cute.

our families were thrilled with the news and hopefully their little gift packages too!!

happy bday hubby.

my hubby has a birthday today!! i wanted to make him a special bday dinner however he got roped into working a night shift. (boo) so we scooted out to a late lunch in between meetings @ the Gate House Cafe in Village Gate.


i've been there a few times for lunch. they have really YUMMY wood fired pizzas and gourmet burgers. it was no surprise (to me atleast) the birthday boy picked a burger with bacon and blue cheese. topped with pesto mayo... YUM. i got a pizza and will be enjoying the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. double YUM.



happy birthday mcallister!!