norelle & co.

This has hands down been the hardest day of my life.  I left for school this morning, had Norelle and Daryl on my mind throughout the day; yet I stayed busy with school work.  But as soon as I left class, the tears came-a-streamin'!  I think it was the thought of going back to my empty hotel room. Classes are insanely intense, and keeping me busy, but thank goodness for Skype.  Seriously.  I would either have insanely expensive long distance phone bills, would drive back and forth and exhaust myself, or die; literally die.  Kudos to parents who have to travel for work. I don't know how you do it.  This is only 2 weeks for me (with them coming for a visit on Wednesday, and me going home after class on Friday). But seriously, Skype, I love you more than you'll ever know.


I love you so much baby girl (even though I have been acting more like the baby today!). Let's just hope my eyes will return to their usual shade of white, and my Rudolph nose will go down in time tomorrow!


-A

This has been a very interesting and busy week for my family and I.  We were lucky enough to be able to head up North again, and Norelle had a great time swimming in the lake and pool.  This trip wasn't about wanting to get away, but needing it.  This upcoming Monday, I will be starting the first of two "mini sessions" for my Masters of Education.  I am going to be gone Monday-Friday, which means no family (and little blogging)!  I know that it will be a huge adjustment being away from Norelle, but I suppose I will survive.  After all, this is something that I really want to do, and cannot wait for.


Wish me luck, as I'm sure I'll need it being away from my baby girl. Sunday night's bedtime routine with Norelle sure going to be a weepy one!


-A

I've always been a (sort of) stay at home mom.  After Norelle was born, I took a year off school to stay home with her, and the September following her first birthday, I started to go back to school part time two evenings a week.  It was definitely a huge adjustment; a lot harder than I anticipated.  My mind was always on her, and as she got older and actually asked for my time herself, it was even more difficult!!  But, I made it, and graduated this past Spring.  I have always felt so extremely lucky to have been able to stay home with her, and it is something that I would never have changed.  I toyed with the idea of putting off furthering my education even more, by putting off teachers college; but I thought, what the heck, I'll apply and see what happens.  What happened is, I got in.


I am so excited to become an (official) educator {I say official since aren't all us mom's and dad's educators!?}.  Teaching is something I've known I wanted to be since I was little (which sounds cliched), but I remember sitting in my first actual history class in grade 6 and knowing this is it; this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.  I am even luckier to be going to a school that the majority of the "in-class" in only two days a week!  But for 2 week at the end of the summer, I will have to attend 8:30-5pm Monday-Friday.  Since I will have to travel to the US, it involved a bit of a drive (not too bad though), but I've heard it includes a lot of group projects, etc.  I had originally planned to just drive home every night, and maybe stay over the Wednesday night if I was starting to feel burnt out.  A friend, who has gone to the same school, informed me that I would be crazy to commute, since I'll have so much stuff to do.  So I made the decision that it's best for me to stay the week.  The only thing that is getting me by.... is that my husband, who is also a teacher, is still off on summer holidays then, so he will be able to come visit me with our daughter!


Have any of you moms (or dads) out there ever have to spend a lengthy amount of time away from your child? How did you cope and get by?  I'll be thanking my lucky stars for my long distance minutes and Skype, that's for sure ;)


-A

We all love Etsy; it's no secret.  Not only is Etsy great for finding homemade, vintage, and fun pieces, they offer a blog, How-To Tuesdays, and a online community.  While looking through Etsy's blog, I stumbled across this article in their parenting section.

Here in Hamilton, there are many of us who love the old beauty of the downtown core.  For years it lacked funding and interest, but thankfully, attention is finally being paid to an area that well deserves it.  James Street North in Hamilton is full of vintage shops, media stores, pubs, cafes, restaurants, and art galleries.  Every second Friday evening, they hold "Art Crawls" where the local businesses stay open until 11pm or later, and galleries feature different artists.  My sister-in-law and her best friend own the sweetest little shop, White Elephant, which features the most amazing and creative window displays at each art crawl.  Also, don't forget to check out and follow their blog, Love It A Lot.

It's no secret; I LOVE Fall.  It is hands down my favorite season.  One of my most favorite things about Fall; sweater weather.  I love warm Fall day, when you can still get away with shorts, and the cooler pants and a t-shirt days.  Here are some cheap fashion inspirations for this upcoming Fall season.

Can you believe summer is almost half way over?!  Now, my Miss. Norelle isn't quite school aged yet (she'll start junior kindergarten next September), but I can't help but think of all the supplies she'll need.  I always remember my mom labeling everything of mine; we even had a special fabric marker handy in one of our kitchen cupboards in case she needed to label something of mine quickly.


Labeling is a smart way to keeps kids stuff organized, and to insure they come home with the right stuff!  As much as my mom's marker trick worked for me as a kid, many kids clothes now a days have ironed on labels, and the marker would bleed right through ruining the clothes; boo!


If thinking of labeling is stressing you out... have I found the site for you!? Mabel's Labels is a increditible online store FULL of iron-on labels, waterproof labels, shoe labels, clothing labels, baby labels, ALLERGY labels, household labels, stationary products... you name it, they have it!  Their designs are so cute, and colourful; trust me, your kids won't be embarassed of these labels!

Who doesn't love a late night snack?  We all have those nights when we are craving something munchy while relaxing.  I generally don't like turning to chips, pretzels, etc. (but I do have a weekend for popcorn from my Whirley Pop).  Maybe it's the Italian in me, but I love dips for bread.  These simple dip recipes are a staple in our house, and make for great late night snacks with some fresh bread (and maybe even a glass of wine!).

Last weekend was one of my best friend's birthdays, but she pushed back her celebrations since we were away last weekend (talk about feeling special!).  I've been trying to think of the perfect cupcake to make for her birthday.  I considered doing some fondant, but figured I would run out of time.  She loves Harry Potter, Twilight and anything to do with anatomy!  Since I figured human organs would make for some weird cupcakes, and our male counterparts would never let us live down making them eat Twilight cupcakes, I figured Harry Potter cupcakes were the best bet.


I have never read the Harry Potter books, nor have I seen any of the movie's past the first, so I had to do a little bit of research.  Apparently the drink, "Butterbeer" is quite popular in the books, and has even been created to sell at the Harry Potter theme park.  I found a neat and easy recipe on amybites for her Butterbeer cupcakes.  Here's how they turned out!

I'm recently new to pinterest.  I've heard of it a while ago, but recently, it has become an addiction. Pinterest is a place to post pictures of DIY's, clothes, food, drinks, inspirational images, things you love, etc. which you can place in a titled grouping of your own images relating to one another.  Others can 'repin' your images on their page, and the best part; not only are the images usually amazing and inspiring, there is a link to the how-to or original image. You can find the pinterest's etiquette here.


Here are just some of the stuff you can find:

We had an incredibly busy and amazing weekend.  Our friends wedding went so perfect; the bride looked so beautiful, and groom handsome, and Norelle did absolutely amazing for her first time being a flower girl! 

Today we are leaving for 2 of our very good friends wedding.  My husband is a groomsmen, and my daughter is taking her stab at being a flower girl!  I'm secretly really nervous that she'll chicken out and not want to walk down the isle.  I've been trying to amp her up about it by showing her YouTube videos of little flowers girls, but her first response was, "I'm too little to do that"!  Uh oh, we'll see how it goes!  I have faith in her and I'm sure she'll do great!


The wedding is going to be held at the magical Taboo Golf Resort in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada.

As many crafters know, as much as there may be the desire to craft, it's sometimes hard to think of inspiration.  We often turn to blogs and magazines for inspiration, and sometimes you can find that ideal DIY, but then you think to yourself, 'WHERE the heck to I get the supplies for this?!".  Since my daughter was born, I've been a big fan of Baby Steals, Kid Steals, and Baby Half Off.  Luckily, I found the crafters solution to these sites, Pick Your Plum.

I never expected that my life would be as busy as it is (all welcomed of course).  But for only 3 of us in our family, and my daughter only being 3, it's surprising how quickly our days fill up!  My husband and I are both organized, but he lacks one thing that I have; a great memory. He's pretty good at remembering most things, but just in case, we have a monthly calendar that we write everything down on, just to keep track.


I have the Blackberry Bold 9780, and he has the new google phone the Nexus S, so they come with great calendars built within them, but I am still a sucker for writing my stuff down. I love little daily planners that I can carry around in my purse, I can have handy to get out with everything in it.

On Tuesday, I went out shopping with my mom and N.  We ended up in Home Outfitters, browsing around, where my mom found something  that she had been telling me that she saw in The Shopping Channel, and almost bought for me. It was the Cupcake Carousel.


Everyone knows that I heart making cupcakes. Finding a good, sturdy, travel container for them is hard to find, especially one that won't wreck the icing and decorations.  So as an early anniversary gift, she bought me the Cupcake Carousel.

After months of sitting in our garage, calling my name, she's finally done.  This was my first ever make-over, and I am pretty happy with how this $50 dresser turned out.  

Norelle has been in her "big girl" bed and room for almost a year now I think.  I was so excited to transform her room into a room that was somewhat little girlish, but had potential to grow with her as her style changes.  I knew that I wanted to paint her room a light green, and was so pleased to find Behr's "Key Lime".