Craft Fairs

The thing I like most as Christmas approaches is the Craft Fairs that start popping up everywhere. I have plenty of crafty friends and family members but with Brea, it's hard to find time for me to be creative. So I like to live vicariously through others and see the amazing talent that's out there. I was SO lucky this past weekend to be able to stop at a fair at a nearby high school and had the chance to discover Stacey Firth, creator of Zoolets. Her website isn't quite up yet but she has an Etsy page in the meanwhile. She makes the cutest door plaques, growth charts and prints! I've been searching for something like this for a while now to adorn Brea's room and she was so great to accomodate the creation of a personalized sign for Brea. As many of you know, Brea LOVES dogs or as she calls them "woofs". I talked to Stacey and she designed this super cute plaque just for Brea!


I can't wait to get it and hang it on her door! Brea was excited too, she let out quite a few appreciative "woofs!" when I showed her the preview :o) It's always so great to be able to support local artists.

Hallowe'en!

I had big plans this Hallowe'en. We were going to visit my school, maybe make it out to the Pumpkin Patch, hopefully meet Malaya and Kaitlyn at StrongStart but unfortunately, Brea's cold came back. We went to the doctor's office on Friday instead of the festivities. Luckily, her cough is just from all the snot running down her throat at night and nothing worse. I was worried because it's been keeping her (and us) awake at night.

So, my fab hubby had great plans for my birthday - we were going to have some friends over but due to sick baby and very tired Mommy (who was up every 1.5 hours with sick baby during the night) - we had to postpone the celebration. I had a very restful day instead, vegging and such. Then I pigged out on pizza... my fave!

In the end, Brea was well enough on Saturday so we joined Reg, Jin and Kaitlyn to go Trick or Treating at the mall. It was super busy but it was really nice that Brea got to see her friend. Brea was thrilled to be a Dalmatian puppy this year as "woof" is one of her favourite sounds to make :o) We thought she was super cute wagging her tail as she waddled through the mall. Craig had even planned a surprise for me. When Brea and I stopped at Jin's store - Kings Jewellers, I got some special TREAT! The "candy" that thumped into Brea's bag was a jewelery box with a gorgeous white gold heart locket! I was so surprised, I think my exact words were: "I got a box!?" I'm going to have to find the perfect pictures to go into it :o)

Woof!

Wagging a tail

Cowgirl Reg, Ladybug K and Busy Bee Jin

A tuckered puppy

Making friends

A Smiley Jack

Apple Fest 2009

We were lucky to be able to make the Apple Festival this year at UBC's Botanical Gardens. It was a bit of a long drive since we live so far out now but Brea took it really well... she must have been excited 'cause I was! There were lots of people there and the place was busy despite being a little bit drippy. We sampled the apple cider and apple pie before I got cracking on the apple buying. I didn't take the apple tasting challenge this year since Brea is still new to the chewing of crunchy apples and 60 varieties would have been too much for her but next year will be different :o) I walked away with a few scrumptious bags of Shamrock (tart and sweet), Rubinette (delicious desert apples), and Yoko (crunchy and sweet). Yum!

Getting ready to trek to the apple site.

Brea eyeing the caramel apples.

Brea Appleseed

Wordless Wednesday - Clean Up!

Taking a cue from her cousin... nothing like starting them off early!

Cold, cold, go away!

My oh my, it's been such a lovely weekend for Thanksgiving but alas, mommy and baby have nasty, yucky colds! I had my fingers crossed that the cold Craig had been harbouring would pass us by but no such luck. Brea's had the brunt of it and has been drippy and coughing for the last few days. I managed to hold off a bit longer but it was inevitable. I think the cold has sapped my brain as well. I went to the drug store today to get a vaporizer. We do have a cool mist humidifier (Crane's Frog Cool Mist) but I thought the steam might help a stuffy nose and cough better.

I settled on the Vicks Steam Guard Vaporizer. There are so many to choose from but this hearkened back to my childhood days and I figured, if it made me feel better then, I'm sure it will work for Brea now. As an added bonus, both the humidifier and vaporizer have plastic that is BPA-free!

But as I said, the cold leached my brain and when I got the box home I couldn't get it to work. I actually took it back and exchanged it for a second one that I ALSO couldn't get to work! Finally, Craig took a look... he's been pretty busy the last two days with his new toy, the iphone, but he managed to drag himself away when my cries of frustration got too loud to be ignored.

Apparently, I can't read instructions! The vaporizer works differently if you have soft vs hard water. In our case, with soft water, salt needs to be added to get it to work. I neglected to read that part even though it was not only in the instruction booklet but also on the box tabs when you open them - very obvious, just not for me. Sigh...

Wordless Wednesday - Playing with the camera

A meeting of the birthday club

Just a little over a year ago, a very special birthday club started. At my work, we welcomed seven babies into the world... it was a bountiful year. So, in view that many of the babes have just turned or are nearly one year old, we had a small gathering of a few members to celebrate. It was a beautiful fall day - the sun shone down and the children played. Brea who is the only one in the group who is fully up and about on her feet LOVED the park. She especially loved exploring all the different textured things like wood bits, dirt bits, grass bits and the water in the waterpark. I didn't quite get as many pictures as I had hoped as I spent the majority of the time chasing my intrepid explorer, so I'm hoping some of the other mommies might send some of the group pics my way :o) I'm sorry that I missed a picture of Max and his mommy who brought such scrumptious lemon cupcakes.

Oooh, nothing like wood chips and dirt!

A happy swinging girl

Susanna - enjoying her berry yogurt treat

Matteo discovering that with the walker he could really strut his stuff

Natasha basking in the sunshine