Monday, June 25, 2012

Monday Morning Link Love






- These baby boy ties are adorable. They look super easy to make too.
- Loving this hair do!
- The bugs are out - here's a great homemade bug repellent
- I love these shooting stars nails!
- This picnic table makeover is pretty awesome.
- Stunning image!
- Love this image!
- I love nature's window!
- I love this lego travel box.
- Loving this adorable skirt!
- And this super cute bracelet!
- Neon nails are HOT for summer! (mine are hot pink this week!)
- Totally want an iPhone storage case!
- This drink looks delicious & cute at the same time.
- Once the baby bottles are gone from my kitchen counter (almost there)! I'd love to do this to store our soaps!
- Love the anklet & the shoes.
- Some neat budgeting tips.
- Bakerella has done it again, these Muppet cake pops are awesome.
- Loving this tote bag tutorial.
- How to get nail polish out of just about anything!
- This is a smart cleaning product storage idea.
- I love summer!
- Slimmer thighs in 7 days?
- Fabulous storage!
- I might still be watching what goes in my mouth, but this Banana Pudding Pie looks to die for!
- On a healthier note, these Fruit Salad Ice Cream Cones are adorable!
- Love it!
- A lovely hair do.
- Love this chore idea!
- 100 ideas for kids to avoid watching TV.
- Loving this outfit.
- I'm not a nursing mother, but this is an interesting idea for those who are.
- With Canada Day this upcoming weekend, here is a great round up!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

My Little Graduate

grad8 grad6 grad7

I finally got Sean’s graduation photos back from the photographer last week. They are beyond adorable. I love them all. I was able to buy them all on CD, which I did, with a small package of 1 of the prints. They’re all so nice though, it was so hard to choose. I can’t believe my first born is going of to Kindergarten in the fall. Time sure does fly by. Especially when you’re having fun.

grad3 grad4 grad2

Monday, June 18, 2012

First Day

daycare

Quentin started daycare today. He went for just a few hours in the morning, and stayed for lunch. His teachers weren’t ready for him at nap time yet, so I picked him up just before the others went down for their nap. He took off running into the class when I dropped him off. Wanted nothing to do with me. THANKS QUENTIN!!! My baby starts daycare, and he’s totally independent. Actually, I think that made it SO much easier on me. Tomorrow he’ll go for just a little bit in the morning, as we have one of our last music classes in the late morning, which I don’t want him to miss. I’m hoping we can work up so that by the end of the week he’s napping at daycare too. I need him to be there all day by the end of the week, so that I don’t have to chase him around while I’m in Mackenzie’s classroom for his year end concert. (I can’t wait to see Mackenzie perform, it’s all he talks about!)

I forgot what bliss it is to run errands without a child in tow. I was able to take care of a few things this morning while Quentin was in daycare. Normally, I work from home, but I managed to finish up all today’s work last night while Jamie was at baseball, so I had time this morning to check off a few other items on my to do list.

Hopefully tomorrow goes as smoothly as today went. I’m also loving (for now, until Sean starts Kindergarten) this one stop drop off.

Monday Morning Link Love






- Totally need to make some of these zucchini chips. Soon we should have tons of zucchini in the garden.
- Did you hear about the daredevil who tightrope walked across Niagara Falls (on Friday)? CRAZY!
- My boys would flip for these box cars!
- These Not So Classic Chocolate Filled Strawberries look awesome.
- Love this cute beaded bracelet.
- This crockpot applesauce recipe look yummy!
- Love this pumpkin lollypop holder. (Is it wrong if I'm thinking about Halloween in June?)
- I love the way this playroom is organized - fantastic idea!
- Love this girls hair color (and the hearts too!)
- Love this bath apron idea!
- I hate balloons (when they pop) but like the idea of ice marbles!
- Love this cute scrapbook idea.
- This cookie pie looks DELICIOUS!
- This door idea is pretty genius!
- I think I need to make some grapesicles!
- Love this baseball room!
- This chair is hysterical!
- Love these hug tokens. (They have lots of other tokens too!)
- Love this wood watch.
- Love this picture frame idea.
- These shorts are super cute.
- I think I need to suction Q's sippy cup to his booster seat - neat idea.
- Love this guestbook idea.
- Beautiful hair.
- I really need to make one of these for our house.
- LOVE this summer dress.
- Potty training in 3 days? Yes please!
- Oh, what a sexy dress!
- These smart wallets are awesome.
- Love these mugs.
- What an awesome cake idea!
- LOVE this ring!
- When I'm ready to cut my hair again, I love this angled bob.
- This car seat pillow is great.
- What a great Tunisian crochet tutorial.
- LOVE this tattoo.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Birthday weekend

31

Mackenzie and I celebrated our birthdays this weekend. On Saturday, I turned 31 and today, Mackenzie turned 4. The weekend was filled with soccer (for Mack), baseball (for Sean), a bridal shower (I attended), the boys all slept out last night (Sean & Mack at a friends house, and Quentin slept at my parents house), and Jamie took me out for dinner. This morning we picked up the boys, had lunch at my in-laws house, spent the afternoon in my parents pool & had dinner at my parents house tonight. A non-stop fun filled weekend. We both had a fantastic birthday. I can’t believe my Mackenzie is 4! I feel like he was just born yesterday, breaking my water on my 27th birthday. Hope you had a fantastic birthday Mackenzie, we love you!
meandmack

ps - Happy Father's Day to all the daddies out there!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Twin Set

setofknitted

Recently my friend Maureen in the US messaged me to let me know that the baby gifts I mailed her arrived! I can finally blog about the items I knit for her twins.

 finishedshirt

For Victoria, her baby girl, I knit up a newborn sized Girl Cap. I just love this pattern. It used up only 0.42 of a skein of Cascade 220 Quattro, in a lovely shade of purple on US 7 - 4.5 mm needles. I once again used Woodchick’s modifications for newborn size. This is the 2nd one I've knit this year, the first one for another friend who had a baby girl in May. I think I'll knit more of these, they're fun to whip up.

babyshelldone

For her twin son Dominic, I made him a Baby Shell. It's the 2nd time I have knit this pattern, I made one for Quentin before he was born. I used almost an entire skein of Red Heart Eco-Ways with 
US 7 - 4.5 mm needles. I had some trouble at the beginning with lining up the top, but after realizing that it was because I had put the wrong stitches on a stitch holder, I got everything sorted out, and it was a breeze to knit up. (It had been too long since knitting up the last one, so I didn't remember exactly the way it was done). I would probably knit this pattern again, it's also a great quick baby knit and I love the space it creates for getting a baby's head through the top.

I can't wait to see pictures of the twins wearing them!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Soccer Star

soccerdude

Mack started soccer this past weekend. He's on the Candy Canes team. He has one friend in his daycare class on his team, which made him feel more at ease while being there. He even scored the first goal this season for his team! All this from a kid who came to me Saturday morning and said to me, "Mommy,  I think I want to stay in your bed and watch TV all morning. I'm too tired to play soccer today." He sure had a great time on the field. Glad we didn't stay in bed and watch TV. Here's to a lot more goals this summer!

soccerfreezie

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

12 on 12

Here's my 12 on 12 post for today.

8am

8 am.
My cutie.

9am

9 am.
Never ending dishes.

10am

10 am.
Enjoying outside.

11am

11 am.
Music in the park.

12pm

12 pm.
Lunch.

1pm

1 pm.
Never ending laundry.

2pm

2 pm.
Tackling the to do list.

3pm

3 pm.
Taking a moment to myself.

4pm

4 pm.
Getting my brothers from daycare.

5pm

5 pm.
The rain won’t stop.

6pm

6 pm.
Making tacos.

7pm

7 pm.
All clean after a bath.

And that was my day! How was yours?

Birthday Mail

barbgift

I received a lovely gift in the mail today from my friend Barb, for my birthday (which is this Saturday). She knit me up this lovely scarf in some Handmaiden Rumple. Oh, it’s so soft! It’s 100% silk! Thank you so much Barb, I love it.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Winner :: Wearwithall

The winner of the Wearwithall knitting book is:

 
  Kerry said...

Looks like a great book!

CONGRATS KERRY! This book will be shipped out to you shortly! Thanks to everyone who participated in this contest, and look out for some more contests/giveaways coming soon on my blog! If you missed the contest and want to follow me on FACEBOOK, you can join my Facebook Group here and keep up to date by LIKING my page here. If you would like to purchase Wearwithall, you can do so here.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

10 on 10

9am
9 am.
10am
10 am.
11am
11 am.
12pm
12 pm.
1pm
1 pm.
2pm
2 pm.
3pm
3 pm.
4pm
4 pm.
5pm
5 pm.
6pm
6 pm.
---------------------------------------

It’s been a busy day outside, enjoying the beautiful weather. Stay tuned tomorrow for the winner of the knitting book! I will also be doing an afternoon or evening edition of Link Love this week, as life got too busy recently and I haven't had time to finish the post - stay tuned!

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Sean’s Graduation

Seangrad

Yesterday, Sean graduated from daycare!

Seangraduation

He was such a cute & handsome graduate!
We are so proud of him.

His class did a little concert before the diplomas were handed out:

They sang some songs.

They were just so cute. Sean was in the front row!

Boy can Sean dance. These kids were hysterical. One girl wouldn’t dance at all, and just stood there in the middle until one of the teachers moved her out to the side. Five year olds are awesome. I’m so glad that I caught this on video (my mom also recorded the entire event).

I cannot believe that Sean is going to kindergarten in just about 2 months. I am so not ready for my first born to enter into elementary school. I think I’ll be one of those moms who follows the school bus on the first day of school.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Skinny

IMG_3619

This was me (on the left hand side) in January 2009, 7 months after I had Mackenzie. I wasn’t happy with myself, and had gained a lot of weight with my pregnancy. (I actually gained a lot of weight all 3 pregnancies). Then on the right hand side, that’s me, after losing 35+ lbs and reaching my goal of 155. I was just over 190 lbs in January 2009.

155lbsIMG_5326

In July 2009, I was at my lowest I’d been in years (149.0), and felt great. I was wearing a medium, which I hadn’t done in years either. Almost all throughout high school I wore a size Large. I used to dance (ballet, tap & jazz) but once I had hit puberty, I got curvy and my thighs filled out. I had lost 25 lbs to bring me to 155 lbs for my wedding in 2005. 155 was a decent weight for my height (just under 5’5). When I was 155 for my wedding, and when I hit 155 in 2009, I liked my figure.

Then in the fall of 2009, just after I lost all the weight and was looking good, I got pregnant, and had a miscarriage. It took 6 months after that to conceive Quentin, and I ate my way through winter. Then I got pregnant with Quentin and by the end of the pregnancy, I was at my heaviest ever pregnant, and after delivering and losing the initial baby weight, I was at my heaviest ever as well, still. I was not happy with myself.

afterqborn

Just after delivering Quentin at the hospital, “first” family photo.

chanukah5

After getting home from the hospital, during Chanukah 2010.

In 2011, I started out at 204.4 in an XL shirt and a size 14 or 16 pant, depending on the company. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t happy. I worked hard and in 2011, my lowest towards the fall was 172. I gained back a few pounds over the Christmas holiday and in 2011, I started the year off at 181.8. I got strict with myself in March, cutting out all sugar, and watching my portions. For 1 month I even cut out all diet soda (I don’t drink regular anyhow). I eat only whole wheat products and have not been even eating starch after 5 pm (it sits on you overnight!).

skinnyme

(This picture above was taken recently, in May of 2012, since then I’ve actually lost a few more pounds). And now, I am at my lowest that I’ve been in YEARS! I hit 146.6 this morning. I’d love to lose a few more pounds so that I have leeway for treating myself on the weekend and then taking it off during the week if necessary. I want to stay under 150 lbs. I feel FANTASTIC. And I even have been fitting into a few size small items, I love it! Size small?! If you would have asked me at the beginning of this year if I would ever wear a small again, I would have laughed at you. But it goes to show, that when you are DETERMINED and have DEDICATION, you can do it! Trust me, I did! And this was all without exercise, but with eating properly. It’s totally possible!

The problem is, I still see myself as huge. I tug at my clothes to try and cover the belly, I wear long shirts, that come over my pants. And when I was larger, I never saw myself as big as I was. It’s a vicious cycle, no? The mind works in funny ways. I am still trying to get used to my skinnier self. Luckily I have an entire medium wardrobe from when I lost the weight in 2009. Though, I have 2 wedding and an engagement party coming up after the summer, and don’t have anything to wear. That requires new dressed and shoes too, right?

I’m totally treating myself to a HUGE slice of Strawberry Cheesecake on my birthday next week. Yup!

What have you done to lose weight? What are you secrets to losing weight? What has or has not worked for you? Are you at your happy weight? Let’s talk! Don’t be shy or if you are, message me privately. I am open, or I would have not written all my numbers above! I’ve done so many “diets” over the years, but I finally combined all that I learned from all of them, put them together, (the things that worked) and managed to lose the weight. I still have a little belly bump (I guess that is normal after having 3 kids), but I get in those daily crunches (that’s all I’m doing for exercise lately – with 3 kids, and I’m still home with Quentin for a bit longer, I have NO time to exercise, and evenings I’m so tired I have no energy to do so). The belly bump hangs a bit where my 2 Csection scars are, but I’m hoping with doing some stomach toning that I will be able to get rid of it, eventually.

Don't forget to enter the contest for the knitting book! Contest ends this Saturday night 06/09/12!

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Busy Week

It’s been a busy week here at Knit & Purl Mama.
DentistM

We visited the dentist on Monday.
dentistS

No cavities all around.

DentistMe

For me as well, no cavities.
The rest of the week is quite busy as well, (a certain little mister is graduating from daycare at the end of the week – stay tuned for pictures!) I’ll come back & post soon, but I’ll leave you with this:
noface

Quentin’s face that he makes when you tell him “NO!”. It’s soooo cute, I have to bite my tongue not to laugh/giggle at his cuteness. He was in the middle of trying to drain out his baby bottle onto his leg by squeezing the nipple. I caught him, and this is the face I got! We’re in the middle of trying to wean him off the baby bottle and to have his milk (we also just switched him onto 3.25% milk), but he wants nothing to do with the milk in the sippy, right now he’s taking the milk, but in a bottle only.

Don't forget to enter the contest for the knitting book! Contest ends this Saturday night 06/09/12.