Monday, September 29, 2014

Shop Update: A New Product!!

I launched a new product in my shop last week.  Years ago I sewed us a bag to fit a score pad & pen, a deck of cards, and our dice.  It's been so handy to grab when we want to play something at home, and we throw it in whenever we go camping or on a road trip; nice to have it all together and ready to go.  One thing I love about it is having a long term record in the score pad notebook - I love looking back at who played what when, and who won!  I thought of making some for Christmas gifts last year, and did make and give one, but thought they would be great to make for the shop, too.  I've got two finished and listed, and plan to have a bunch more available soon.




The fabric I used for those bags was leftover from a big project I did for my friend Holly.  She is a teacher, and is using tables instead of desks in her classroom.  She asked if I would make her 30 seat sacks - pockets that fit over the backs of the chairs to hold the student's books.




So that's what September has looked like from my sewing machine's point of view!  I've also been trying to build up a good stash of stock - the more you have in your shop the better you fare in search results, and also I am doing a sale in a couple of months, and want a good selection of each product for my table there.

Friday, September 26, 2014

It's the weekend!!

Nolan dropped his nap this summer, and while I am mostly fine with that, there are a few things that I used to do in those wonderful hours that I can't find much time for these days...  Blogging is one of them. :(  But it's Friday night and I will stay up late so I can say hello and stay connected.

Tomorrow is Sean's birthday, and today he took the day off, to get a long weekend and much needed break. There is still much to be done at the shop, and he and Madeline are going in tomorrow morning to do a little painting, but progress is for sure being made.  Tomorrow Nolan has swimming lessons in the morning, Madeline has soccer evaluations in the afternoon, and then she's babysitting in the evening, so today was a great relaxing day to celebrate - we drove out to Moose Jaw for a soak at the spa and then went out for brunch.  When we got back to the city we did a little shopping and got most of our gear for sledding this winter; it was 28* out and we were trying on heavy winter coats and boots...  Then we went to a new restaurant for a birthday supper.  A good day.



Nolan started his second ever set of swimming lessons last week - Sea Turtle! - and had a great time.  Today at the spa  I asked him if he wanted to go under and he was all for it, and kept jumping in to me off the in-pool seats, going under the water and growing up before my eyes.  Wow.

One new thing I've picked up this fall is a babysitting job.  It's temporary and a favour to my friend as she waits for her parents house to sell - once they move here, Grandma will get the kiddos for the one day a week that my friend has gone back to work.  These are my three buddies: Nolan is between the two boys in age, and he has a fine time spending the day at their place every day three.


The other things that's a big deal with us right now is working out.  We've decided we needed to get back in shape, and can't just ease into that.  No, we have to go hard core and do P90X again.  Last time we did that was just before I got pregnant with Nolan... and I haven't done much since. Ha.  But since we did it in 2011, there have been new versions that have come out, and we are doing P90X3 this time around.  It's only 30 minutes.  So good.  Not 60 or 90 like the last one.  We've been at it 3 weeks and already see some results.  Working out like that helps motivate healthy eating, too - we've tried to get into some better habits.  Working out after Nolan falls asleep at 9, then showering and right to sleep doesn't leave much time for evening snacking, that's for sure!

Sunday, September 14, 2014

September Firsts

Featuring the lovely Miss M... First day of grade 10.



First school soccer game...  She had evaluations for city soccer yesterday, too - that should start up right after the school season ends. 


And just for fun, a shot from 10 years ago.


Happy Sunday, all.

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Hot and Cold in the Bedroom

Nope, nothing sexy in this post.  Just a few temperature stories...

Yesterday morning we woke up to a furnace malfunction - it was 29 degrees in the house.  Even Madeline in the basement woke up at 6 am in a sweat.  It's a new furnace and under warranty still, and they came and fixed it pretty quick, but it got up to 30 before we got the breaker turned off to kill the hot air flow.  Batteries weakening in the thermostat?  Causes some havoc.  Have to change up those babies every 6 months like the smoke detectors, I guess.

Nolan gave up his nap this summer, but was sleeping in till 9, so managed fine until bedtime.  This week he woke up at 7:30, then 7... and needed a nap to get through.  I thought maybe it was the temperature, and now that it's cooler in the mornings it was causing him to wake earlier.  But then the hot-house morning he woke early, too, so... not the correlation I thought.  It's evened out the last couple of days - he wakes up at 8 am and falls asleep at 8:30.  Those are some pretty good hours.  Especially that earlier bedtime, since Sean and I are doing P90X3 starting Monday!!

Lastly, in the spring we were looking for a lightweight bed cover to replace our winter duvet, and Sean had the bright idea to just use the duvet cover without the duvet - does anyone else do this?  It's brilliant!  The perfect weight for summer, and you don't have to change up all your colors.  Not that we would anyway...

Have a great perfect-temperature night!