Banana "Ice Cream"

Peanut Butter Banana, Strawberry Banana, Cocoa Banana

Peanut Butter Banana

2 ripe bananas (frozen)

1 tbsp  flax seed

2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter

Strawberry Banana

2 ripe bananas (frozen)

1 tbsp  flax seed

1/2 cup strawberries

Coco Banana

2 ripe bananas (frozen)

1 tbsp  flax seed

1 tsp cocoa powder

Peel and chop frozen bananas,

Grinds flax seeds,

Put everything in a food processor,

and process until smooth.

Pop it back in the freezer for about 30 min. before serving.

This is not my own idea. It came from here.

Unsure of why he's been given ice cream. 

The kids really didn't know the difference between this and ice cream,

and Liam was asking for more the next day. 

Jesse's conclusion:

"Hmm, its actually pretty good."

The cocoa version was definitely the biggest hit.

I hate bananas, so of course I didn't like it.

But I did get the satisfaction of making a wholesome treat for my family.

Daddy's not the only one that makes faces when he eats.

You really couldn't tell that it had flax seed in it. In fact next time I think I'll double it.

The peanut butter and cocoa versions were quite scoopable the next day. The strawberry version was a little hard the next day, but just fine after a couple minutes on the counter.

Granny Square Hooded Scarf

A Christmas gift for Gabrielle.

These squares came from the same blanket as the squares used for Angie's shoulder bag. 

It is quite a simple project. 

Scarf

11 x 6" squares 

Add a round of single crochet(Sc)

(3 or 5sc in each corner, whatever looks best)

to each square before joining.

Join together with slip stitch(ss).

Hood

Sc back and forth along the edge of the centre three squares for approx. 4",

 or whatever you need to make the hood fit.

Do not break yarn.

Fold the flat hood piece in half and join the two halves together with a ss.

Picot Edging

Round 1:

Join yarn in any stitch. 

Chain(ch) 1, Sc around,

Sc 3 or 5 in each outside corner, whatever looks best. 

Sc2together before and after each inside corner.(-2 stitches)

Join with ss to begining ch.

Round 2:

Ch 1, *sc2, 1 picot* repeat from *to* around,

As in round 1, sc2tog before and after each inside corner.(-2 stitches)

Join with ss to begining ch. 

1 picot = sc, ch3, ss into 1st of 3ch.

Here's a good video demonstration.

***On round 2 I did not add any stitches to the outside corners,

however if you look closely at the picture you can see that the outside corners curl a little bit.

Next time, I would +2 stitches to each, for a total of 3 stitches in each outside corner.

Busy Blanket

This is a Christmas gift for "Baby Jade" as Liam calls her.

It is simply a denim/flannel rag quilt with a plethora of random things on it that might catch a baby's attention for a minute. It's intended for that stage when they're curious about everything and wanting to explore, but they're not yet able to get around very well. The idea is that you'd plunk the baby right in the middle, and it would keep her busy for a while.





 A closer look.



The blue ruffly thing is the collar from a shirt that Jesse had when he was young.
The purple ribbon has a big button on it that can be tucked into the red plaid pocket.
The pink granny square is from the blanket mentioned in the "Granny Square Shoulder Bag" post. Made by Jade's Great Grandmother. It is sewn on only three sides so that it becomes a pocket.
There are three large buttons that can be pushed around inside the doily.
The brown floral patch also has buttons inside of it.
The purple embroidery beside it is a maze.

The apron strings are not fully attached, so they can be fiddled with. Also, the skirt of the apron is sewn in such a way that it cannot be smoothed out. An accident, but a fiddler none the less.

The orange ring slides back and forth on the ribbons.

The purple granny square type thing is only attached in the middle. The rest of the buttons can be undone.

The "picnic blanket" under the football is only attached at the edges of the football. And of course the football can be unzipped to reveal three buttons that are sewn down, one that is on a ribbon, and a little round "bag" of buttons.



The mouse is my favourite part of this blanket. I like it so much I might just make a whole blanket of them. The tail is a piece of t-shirt yarn, and is free to be fiddled with.

Last summer's flip flop got reused. The "sole" is corduroy.



Elias insisted on having his picture taken with the blanket.



A picture of Jade exploring her blanket. Stolen from Angie's blog.











The Granny Square Shoulder Bag

When Jesse was young his grandmother made a granny square blanket for each of the siblings in his family. Jesse's was damaged and had been sitting in our closet for a long time. I had been meaning to fix it for quite some time, but when I mentioned it to Jesse I found out that he wasn't actually very fond of the blanket. He felt like he should keep it because his grandma gave it to him, but he didn't actually like it much. So I decided to take it apart and reuse the squares. He liked this idea.

I tossed around a few ideas, and this is what I came up with.

 It is a Christmas gift for Angie. I think she'll appreciate the sentiment.



The other side.

   It could easily be lined, but it was nice this way too, so I left it. Angie's a great seamstress, so I know it won't be much trouble for her to line it if she wants to.

How Its Made.

As you can see from the pictures, you need 13 granny squares. One "+" (5squares) on each side, plus three squares that join the two sides. Connect the squares with single crochet(on the inside of the bag).

Border:

Round 1:

Attach yarn anywhere along the top of the bag.Ch(chain)1, Sc(single crochet) around, in the valleys skip the bottom space, at the peaks 2sc in the top space, join with slip stich.

Round 2:

Ch1, begin to sc around.

When coming up to a valley: Sc until there are two stiches before the bottom, crochet 2 together, twice, continue sc around.

When coming up to a peak: Sc until there is one stich before the top, 2sc in each of next 2 stiches, continue sc around.

Join.

Round 3:

Ch1, begin to sc around.

Valleys: same as round 2.

Peaks: Sc until there is one stich before the last increase(2 stiches before the top), 2sc in next stich, sc in each of next 2, 2sc in next stich, continue sc around.

Join.

Round 4:

Ch1, begin to sc around.

Valleys: same as round 2.

Peaks: Sc until there is one stich before the last increase(3 stiches before the top), 2sc in next stich, sc in each of next 4, 2sc in next stich, continue sc around.

Join and break yarn.

Handle(Make 2):

Ch5, sc in second ch from hook, sc in next 3, *ch1, turn, sc4 across, repeat from * until desired legth.

Sew the handles to the flat spots at the tops of the peaks.

Sc arround entire border and handles for two more rounds. (There will be 3 separate areas to crochet arround. The outside of the left handle, between the handles, and the outside of the right handle.)



The closure is simply two wooden buttons conected by an old hair elastic.
 Just pop it through the hole at the bottom of the V on both sides.



Christmas Morning

Checking out the stockings. Liam found the chocolate right away, Elias doesn't yet realize he has one too.

Still a little dopey, and not sure what to think about all of this. When we woke the boys up Liam was out of bed in a flash.  Elias on the other hand scowled at me, grabbed his blanket out of my hand, threw his head back on the pillow with the blanket pulled up to his chin and said "No!" quite sternly.

Dad bugging Liam with the "Grumpy Birds" from the stockings. Thanks to Angie, who made one of these for Suzie's Birthday, which is where I got the idea. The boys are loving these, but now I need to make some pigs to go with them.

I got the patterns here, but I used felt instead fleece.

We had to turn out the lights so we could check out the laser fingers. They are just little flashlights  with an elastic on them so that they can be strapped to your finger. Genius idea, and cheap too. I think I paid $2 for 10 of them.

Veggie Tales galore.

Dad likes Lego too ;)

As usual I didn't get many good pictures on Christmas Day. I am always disappointed about this after the fact, but I just miss too much if I'm focused on picture taking.

Elias loving his Bed Bugs Game. (Not sure what's up with the lighting....)

"Grumpy Birds" with Nana and Papa.

Tea Party

Jesse caught the boys having a tea party. Sadly the dryer is running.....

For some reason, my videos keep showing up much darker here than they do on my camera. If anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know. 

ChristmasTree

Elias' first year helping decorate the tree.

Desperately trying to hook it on the branch.

A little unfamiliar with the phrase "Put your arm around your brother".

Very familiar with a "Goofy Picture"

Angry Birds Ornaments

"Patterns" came from the same site as the Angry Bird toy.

Passports

In preparation for a trip to Virginia, we needed to get passports for the Jesse and the boys. I do not like the idea of mailing away our birth certificates, so the only other option is to take them in to Winnipeg. Jess was too busy to make a weekend trip out of it, so we decided that I'd take the boys in and make a one day trip.

To make a long story short: Passport applications were a logistical nightmare...........

...............but this was fun.

Black light mini-golf.

We were the only ones there for most of the time, 

so I was able to let the boys sort of just roam around.

Elias was more into dancing than golfing.

In the end, the one day trip took two, but the boys had a blast and the necessary paperwork was filed.

The website : http://www.u-puttz.ca/

Happy little accident.

Made for my nephew Robbie:

Free pattern here: http://bernat.com/pattern.php?PID=3999

This is one of my favourite patterns. Although I don't so much like connecting all the squares, it is well worth it for the end result.

I made this one for Elias while I was pregnant.

It is now a couple of years old, and has been well loved.

The blue one is made in the original pattern, with the suggested yarn. The orange/green one is made with Bernat Softee Baby, and just a different arrangement of the blocks. I liked the Softee Baby yarn better. It seemed a little sturdier and warmer, and less likely to stretch out of shape like the blue one has done. 

I actually didn't even notice that I'd arranged the blocks differently than the original pattern, until I started posting. I'm guessing that's why I ended up liking the orange/green one so much more than the blue one. A happy little accident. 

Knooking

I'm not exactly what you would call an "excitable" person, but this has done it folks......I'm excited.

Knooking is the latest craze in the yarn world and I'm dying to try it! I LOVE crochet, but my knitting skills are quite juvenile. Normally this is not a problem since pretty much anything that can be knit can also be crocheted. However, when it comes to socks and mittens crochet just doesn't cut it. Its nearly impossible to crochet socks or mittens that are not too stiff, and that's IF you can find a pattern. Of course you can go for a more lacy pattern, but then they won't be warm. SO, unfortunately for us crochet lovers, the only choice is to suck it up and knit them. This is problematic, since socks and mittens are some of the more difficult things you could choose to knit. So logically there are two options. 1. Start with easy projects and learn how to knit well. (Blech, not interested.) and 2. Attempt knitting socks, and just suffer through it until you figure it out. (I've tried and tried, and its just not going to happen.) And that's where I've been for quite some time now.

Well apparently I'm not the only one, and now there's a new option.

 Introducing the Knook:

http://www.leisurearts.com/how-to-knook

It is quite simply a crochet hook with a hole in the end that you thread a cord through. You then use the hook to knit. Yes, knit not crochet. You will use the hook to make actual knit and purl stitches, not look-alikes. This means that you can knook any pattern written for knitting. The link above has lots of instructional videos for all the different stitches.(They're also on youtube) So the only problem so far is that the only size of knooks currently available are the medium sizes, suitable for sport or worsted weight yarns. These size yarns can be used for socks, but I want to use a fingering weight wool for a warm, but light sock. Thankfully I'm not the first person with this problem either. 

Ronda at I'd Rather Be Knooking has solved this problem for me. 

http://knooking.blogspot.com/2011/03/sock-knooking-hook.html

I've called my local Michael's Store, and they have the Pony Bead Lacing in stock. So now I'm very impatiently waiting until my next scheduled trip to Brandon so I can get started. 

I also found a very helpful thread on Ravelry.

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/knooking/1106986/1-25#reply_form

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that with the knook, you can easily switch back and forth from knitting to crochet. My brain is running wild with ideas!

Update: Well, I made the knook with pony bead lacing, but I'm finding the lacing to be too "grippy". Its not a problem with the yarn, its just when you're working the row that the lacing seems to grip the hook. So it works, but not smoothly. I'm looking for another solution.

Christmas Shoe Boxes

Operation Christmas Child

                           

You can now pack a box online too.

For more information http://samaritanspurse.ca

We used plastic containers instead of the cardboard boxes this year. It costs a little extra, but then the kids get a reusable box too. This year we choose the oldest age group, 10 - 14 years. At this age, in these countries we figured that these kids would probably be taking care of their families. So we sent a lot of practical things. 

This year's boys' boxes.

Water bottle, notebooks, soap, pens, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener, dental floss, toothbrush, ruler, scissors, scrub brush, mini gloves, duct tape, nail clippers, hot wheels, tin, shake flashlight, underwear, socks, face cloths, combs.

 This year's girls' boxes.

Sewing kit, stickers, notebooks, hair elastics, tin, mini gloves, nail clippers, shake flashlight, ruler, can opener, bamboo wooden spoon, dental floss, toothbrush, measuring spoons, soap, water bottle, pens, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, underwear, socks, face cloths, combs. 

 The boxes weren't quite stuffed full yet, so I added a bunch of ziplock bags.

Don't forget the shipping ($7/box)

Packing the boxes was like a really challenging game of tetris. They ended up packed so tightly that I decided to include a packing list for the inspection centre, just in case they take one look at the box and don't want to unpack it. 

Box Costume

My Lego Boys

Just a box and some plastic containers.

I learned my lesson with Liam's box costume last year. We ended up having to walk on either side of Liam, each holding up one side of the box by the arm hole so that he could walk without stunted steps. This year we made Liam's shorter and Elias' longer from front to back, they were both able to walk though stairs were still difficult.

Elias was a trooper. He lasted much longer than Liam did at that age. When he was too tired to walk he rode in the stroller, slouched down in the box so far that you couldn't see his head, just arms and legs sticking out of the lego block. He would look out the arm hole and wave as we walked away from each house. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture.

Inspecting the loot.

Candy is a serious luxury in our house. They just kept stuffing it in as fast as they could,  knowing that eventually we'd put it away and that would be the end of it. Jess and I weren't much better. 

Yoink!

How its made:

Start with a box approximately the same width as the kids shoulders. Cut the bottom off, and cut holes for the head and arms. Use masking tape around the raw edges to soften them. Glue on some plastic containers. I left the lids on them and used some Alex Plus to glue the lid onto the box. Spray paint the whole thing. 

For the lego head buckets I used a spray paint for the yellow and a craft paint for the black. The spray paint scratched off even though it was a plastic paint. If I were to do it again, I'd probably use a craft paint for the yellow too. 

Alex Plus passed the test when Liam took a tumble and the containers stayed attatched. I was impressed.

Last Year's Costumes

Horiatiki Salad "Recipe"

Pronounced - haw-ree-AH-tee-kee.
This is a staple at our house. Its ridiculously good for you.(Ok, maybe not the bacon....)

Here it is:

Cucumber

Tomato

Black Olives

Feta Cheese and Parmesan Cheese

(I was out of Parmesan today so I used Cheddar.)

Leftover Bacon(or ham or chicken)

Just a drizzle of each:

Apple Cider Vinegar,

Grape seed Oil, and Flax seed Oil.

(Do your research before buying omega oils or apple cider vinegar.

 Its important to buy the right kind.)

Fresh Ground Himalayan Salt and Fresh Ground Peppercorns

&

Voila, Dinner for one.

If you must add salad dressing, just a dollop of ceasar will do nicely.