12.22.2009

My husband is so witty sometimes

An exerpt of an email he sent in regards to a birthday dinner we were invited to (he misspelled my name wrong on purpose):

"I just spoke with Elaine and she said that we will not be able to make
it to the dinner but we would be up for activities.  What do you guys 
have planned for the activities?  Are there going to be arm wrestling 
competitions, balancing acts or just straight hanging out?  Please let

us know so we can train accordingly.  Cause I would hate to think that

I over trained for the balancing acts and we wind up with the arm 
wrestling competition.....that would blow.  Any hoo you're probably 
very busy typing with your eyes closed or having explosive diarrhea to

read any more so I'll allow you to return to your business.

Cheers,

12.14.2009

Brrrr...or Why do I Live Here?

This is what my windows look like from the inside. Apparently it was
like -58C yesterday morning? It was recorded as the 2nd coldest spot
in the world at the time. Arg.

12.11.2009

Please Ignore the Mess in the Background

Sometime this week, at 22 months, Evie started singing. Out of the
blue. The most surprising song she's trying to sing? "C is for
Cookie". She's heard the song maybe 3 times.

11.27.2009

Would have been less confusing if they were called Butt Blisters.

Conversation with my mom today...

Mom: So there's a band at the party, they supposed to be pretty good. I think they are called Amroid.

Me: What?

Mom: Amroid.

Me: Hemorrhoid? You are going to see a band called Hemorrhoid?

Mom: No no. You know, Amroid.

Me: ???

Mom: Like the green.

Me: Oh, Emerald.

10.09.2009

New(ish) Crayons

Making crayon disks from broken crayons. Tired of buying crayons all
the time. We'll see how Evie likes them when they cool. :)

10.05.2009

Todays Prize

The last few times we've gone to the library Evie has found one item,
book or DVD, that she absolutely loved and knew she had to bring home.
This was todays prize. I let her wander in the kids section by
herself - me closely behind of course. She does her own exploring and
knows where the books are and where the DVDs are. I think pretty good
for a 20 month old.

9.30.2009

Guinea Pigs!

@ free admission day at Valley Zoo

9.28.2009

Homemade chicken stock

This is my first time making stock. I'm making it in the slow cooker
using the chicken parts/"garbage" I've froze when making other dishes.
I've been collecting parts for a while and now I have enough to make
stock. I used to buy stock - waited when it was on sale, but still $2/
L. This homemade stuff is essentially free. Well, less than $2/L
anyways.

9.15.2009

Testing email posting

Just testing posting from my iPhone. :)

9.11.2009

Meal Planning

We are starting to get settled at the new house. I'm able to work again (evieheartsmilo.etsy.com) without it being scatterbrained or chaotic. This also means that I can get to meal planning again.

I am a big advocate for this because I can budget exactly how much to spend as I know exactly what I need to buy for the week. Especially when I am no longer contributing as much as I used to money-wise, this sort of budgeting is important to us. What I do is go through flyers on Friday for 'Loss Leaders' - ie, the really good deals, and then base my menu on that.

This week, for those of you who are interested:
Monday - Rotisserie Chicken, oven fries
Tuesday - Chicken Ceasar Pitas (from leftover chicken Monday)
Wednesday - Pizza (handmade/scratch)
Thursday - Meatloaf, mashed potato
Friday - Hot dogs w/ fries

There is a little leeway - sometimes there are good deals at the store that aren't in the flyers, but this is my guideline for the week.

Now if I can stick to it this week, I know I'm well on my way. =)

9.05.2009

New house.

We've moved. Again. This would be the 4th house we've moved to in the 6 years we've been married. Hopefully that's it. I hate moving. Hopefully I can get a routine down where I will be updating more often. Stay tuned.

6.23.2009

Another Potato Creation


IMG_1119
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
Evie's potato head creation at 17 months. At least she's leaving the pieces in longer so I can take a picture.

6.19.2009

Not what you think.

It's been nuts around here - sell house, buy house, banking stuff, selling stuff, tshirt orders...and I'm moving back to my mom's for a month because the sellers of the new house haven't even started looking for a new place yet. We don't get in until end of August.

Anyways, I had a few minutes before Evie gets up so I thought I'd share this.

My relatives are having a garage sale today. A couple of days ago, my aunt asked her 16 year old son (my cousin) to go into the basement to see if he can find more stuff to put for sale. So he goes into the basement and comes across this box.

It was marked 'Adult Toys'.

And he opened it.

Inside was a chess set, some checkers, monopoly, scrabble, etc...

Yipes. That was close.

5.20.2009

Stuff I find on my camera.


IMG_0658
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
Or I should stop putting my camera anywhere Evie can reach it. There will be a series of these in the next little while. She apparently is more into taking pictures than I am.

5.14.2009

Someone got a hold of my camera.


IMG_0533
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
Now there's yogurt all over the lens.

5.13.2009

Rainbow Cupcakes....but you would never know.


IMG_0556
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
Made some rainbow cupcakes using this idea. It wasn't diet style. Just full fat goodness. For some friends we were visiting who just had a baby and didn't have time to celebrate his birthday. I guess I should have took a picture of the final product, but I forgot.

5.12.2009

Potato of the Day


IMG_0553
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
By Evie at 15 months on May 8/09. I try to take pictures of her creations if I can be fast enough. She likes to pull the appendages out as soon as she puts them in.

5.04.2009

Mailing List is Up.

I think I got it coded correctly. Hopefully.

Featured!

Our company (E&E Hobby and Gift) was featured in a local free newspaper today. Not sure if anyone will try to find our shop - which we don't have yet, but we have an online shop concept in development. I'm hoping to have it up in the next couple of months.

Originally I was waiting until we moved to the new house (which we haven't bought because we're still trying to sell our house), but I might just start it earlier now.

We'll be featuring collectible toys like DC Universe, Muggs, cool stuffies and other neat things.

I'm going to set up a mailing list for those who are interested to know when the shop will be opening.

Hopefully, I'll be posting a little more often from now on....

2.09.2009

12 months olds don't really colour


IMG_2368
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
They just like to hold the crayons and carry them around. Sometimes they line them up on the table, or they pretend to colour while holding the crayons wrong. But that's okay. She at least knows what they are now and when we go out to eat, she's excited to see the restaurant provide her some crayons and a colouring-in book.

2.06.2009

New Fabrics!


IMG_2366
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
Here is a pile of the new fabrics I've recently aquired for wet bags. The bottom 2 are my first bolts of fabric. It's starting to get a little ridiculous to buy fabric at retail, so I'm slowly building my fabric by the bolt stash. Now that I have the bolts, I don't have to limit what/how many items I can make.

2.02.2009

My Techie Baby


IMG_2320
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
Hmm..is she even a baby anymore? I know she's only 1, but I don't want to be one of those parents that call their kid baby when they are 10....

Anyway, Evie took this pic! I was teaching her how to push the button on the camera to capture the picture. She learns fast! I think now I'll have to get her one of those toddler proof cameras. She keeps poking the lens on mine. Probably not a good idea. Please ignore my foot. I was trying to hold Ninji up.

1.30.2009

To other businesses...


IMG_2273
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
Wow, 4 days posting in a row - must be a new record! =)

Besides my Etsy shops, we (my husband and I) attend comic/toy shows a few times a year. We sell action figures, dvds, games, that sort of thing. Mostly my husbands domain - stuff he likes. Recently, we started to expand our product line and offer stuffies. We just got in a huge order of Nintendo stuffies to sell at the next comic fair, which is in March.

We kept one of these Toad hats for a demo - obiviously not going to sell it once we've played/worn it. Thought it would be funny to have Evie wear it, but she wasn't going to have any of that.

1.29.2009

Evie turns 1 (or where did all the time go?)


IMG_2288
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
So, my daughter turned one last week. I've been just too busy to talk about it, but taking the time now. Lots has happened the last month, nothing better than a point list to try to cover it all:

:: She now has 4 teeth, finally! But all on the bottom. Where are those top teeth?
:: Her hair is long enough on top for a little pony tail. She looks like a girl! haha.
:: Big as ever. We got her weighed at the doctors, she is a whopping 29 lbs - WAY off the curve...
:: Walking! Yesterday she was determined to walk around the house without any help. I was of course there to help her when she needed it.
:: Gong Xi, Gong Xi! Taught her how to do the hand gesture - she can do it!
:: Says the following words: done, mom, daddy, daisey, milo, ninji, yah, wow...I might be missing some.
:: climbing up the stairs - still working on the climbing down
:: starting to get the concept of colouring. She likes to line up them crayons on her table though.
:: wearing size 2T and 3T.

So many things this month - I don't think I can remember it all. Oh and just a note: the dress she wore for her birthday - that's my dress! My mom kept it from oh so many years ago. Glad she can wear the dress I wore when I was 2, for her first birthday (big girl!).

1.28.2009

C is for Cookie


IMG_2284
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
I haven't had a chance to blog about my daughter first birthday yet, but I thought I would put up a little bit of a sample. She LOVES Cookie Monster. So nothing more appropriate than Cookie Monster cake (pic coming soon), and Cookie Monster cupcakes. The cupcake part was easy enough to make/decorate, but it took me a couple of hours to get the royal icing right to make the Cookie Monster 'candies' - not perfect, but I think not bad for my first time.

1.27.2009

Today's Photo - Waiting for Breakfast.


Untitled 4
Originally uploaded by Elaina B
I'm going go try to post a photo a day...or maybe every couple of days. Here's the first one. I know the photo isn't too clear. It's taken on my new pink netbook, complete with builtin webcam, so it's not high megapixel quality...

I'm Back!

Ignore that last post...I just imported from the old blog, and here is my new blog! Sit back and enjoy -- I hope to be posting a little more regularly, but I always way that.