Sewing...

I had a night to myself tonight. I went to a new store called, A Spool of Thread, for a sewing class. We made a tote bag and it was a lot of fun.





In the beginning, I thought I was in over my head as they seem to speak a different language and they were going faster than I could keep up with, and my needle was dull, and my spool of thread wouldn't load correctly...but once we got this all sorted out, it was really fun and nice to focus so intensely on something new and creative. I ventured down to Dressew a few weekends ago to choose my fabric, couldn't decide on one so I bought two (story of my life!), and then almost forgot about the class tonight. The store is a big open warehouse type space, bright, new everything, awesome fabrics, cool patterns, and really nice staff. I was so smitten with it all that I signed up for another class next week (making fabric banners), and will go and make another tote bag (or two, I might make two little ones for Zack & Maggie) so I don't forget how to sew it. My Grandma Young gave me her sewing machine, it is waiting for me in Highgate. I wanted to learn how to use a machine, how to make simple items, and just be a little more handy in that department. I've wanted to take a sewing class for years and am so happy that A Spool of Thread just opened up (grand opening was June 5). Watch for photos from next week's sewing adventure. Now I just have to figure out how to combine the iBakery treats with sewing...hmmmmm :-)

Dr.Seuss, Halo Wars, and little farm animals...

I love baking in general, but these new little iced sugar cookies are starting to become my favourite item to make. They perhaps allow new creativity to flow, even though on many I am using a printable image, or maybe it is just due to the fact that it is a new thing to try...anyway, I love the cookies I have made lately, and hope you do too.

Halo Wars, which I now know is an X-Box game (I am SO old!), were for a 10 year old's birthday party. He was in charge of choosing 3 images to send to me, choosing the font of his party tag, as well as choosing the background colour to the tag and the ribbon colour. I think Chris did a fantastic job as the end result was cool, masculine, and original. He told me, via FB, that the cookies looked good and tasted good too, so I am happy that it was a success!



The Dr.Seuss cookies were for our friends Claire & Georgia. Their last day of school is tomorrow and they wanted to bring something special to the party. I baked, flooded, imaged and bordered 3/4 of the cookies and then left a bunch for them to do when they came over. I wish I had photographed these little (well, not little, they are 10!) girls icing the cookies. They took their job very seriously and did a fantastic job. I sure hope their class enjoys the work they put into these :-)


The little animal cookies were for our Music Together teacher, Anna. This woman is incredible, totally born to bring music into children's lives. I feel so lucky that we came across her music program and that she has been in our life for almost 2 years. Her son's teacher was leaving the school to go back and do her Masters. They had a party for her on the last day of school to celebrate how wonderful she is and what a great year they had. I made a cake for this occasion and had heard that the class had a wonderful excursion to Maplewood Farm, so I thought I would make some little cookies to tag along. I didn't get a chance to bag these up with ribbon, but at music class yesterday, Anna told me that she went to the dollar store and got some baggies and wrapped them all up for each kid. What a hoot!

Zoe turns two

I run a home daycare as well as the iBakery. Since January, I have had two little girls join us Monday - Friday, two wonderful, friendly, happy little girls. Sadly, one of them (Zoe) got into UBC daycare starting June 1. Her parents both work up at UBC, and they had been on the wait list for almost two years, so it made sense that they took the spot. I was so sad they day they told me, as our little 'gang' really got along well and we all had a lot of fun together. My other little girl is with us for two more weeks, and then she gets to spend the summer with her Mommy & Daddy full time, as her mom is a teacher and has the summer off. My little gang will be down to two.

Zoe turned two on the weekend and her mom asked if I could help out with the party treats. Of course I said yes!! 30 vanilla cupcakes with cookie toppers were ordered, turtles and butterflies to match with Zoe's birthday invitation. I also had her mom email me the exact turtle and butterfly image so that I could make a few toppers to tie it all together.

I tried a new flooding technique with these cookies, and I think the outcome was fantastic. The flooding was not as 'clean' on the back of the cookie as I would have liked, but it was the first attempt so I'm trying not to be too hard on myself ;-) This new technique gave the base of the cookie a smooth look, and then I did the pattern of the animal on top of this. Looked great and tasted really great (2 layers of icing...how can that be bad!?!)

We were invited to Zoe's Birthday party as well. It was so nice to see her (our little "Zub Zub" as Zack & Maggie would say) and to enjoy the beautiful sunshine in their backyard (a rarity in Vancouver). The party was from 10:30-noon and Zoe's mom made the most delicious french toast with fruit as one of the dishes to enjoy...I have to get this recipe. The party ended with the Birthday song and cupcakes, and the promise of at least one summer picnic together. Happy Birthday, Zoe!

Nighttime PJ Adventure

Night time PJ Adventures started this week. It is light out longer and Zack & Maggie are really excited about feeding the ducks and bunnies. Since I can’t make it down to Jericho during the day with 4 kids, and Mike is not around at that time to enjoy it as well, we decided we would head out after bath. They each had a small bag of carrots and weren’t too nervous to go right up to the bunnies to feed them. There was one crazy bunny who hopped right up to Maggie and startled her, but other than that it was a very positive experience. ((This crazy bunny had a bulging eye and was WAY too friendly, it kinda freaked me out too)) We traveled all the way around the raspberry bushes at Jericho to feed the bunnies, quite a hike for little legs. We weren’t the only ones with this idea, but definitely the cutest ;-) We were lucky enough to see ducklings, baby bunnies AND a beaver! There is always evidence of a beaver at Jericho, but we've never seen him before. It was so quiet out that we could hear him munching his food. The 'cool' factor of the beaver didn't matter to Maggie, she had grand plans for feeding those bunnies and got bored quite quickly by the beaver.
Cheers to many more nighttime PJ adventures this summer!