Category: Journal

The stuff of life.

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DIY: Make a cloth diaper!

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Yesterday in the burp cloth tutorial, you may have noticed someone cute in the background wearing a prototype sewn earlier this week. Who was this dashing gentleman? No, not our child. He hasn’t arrived just yet. He’s our tester monkey! This time he was testing…   If you’re someone who tries to be as green as they can, and you haven’t read about how much waste one child produces in terms of wipes and diapers, here are a few interesting stats. Of course, there are environmental… Continue reading

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Ice shoves no longer — caves being destroyed some time this week

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An iconic and beautifully rare scene on the shore of Crystal Beach is about to be destroyed. People flooded the area this past weekend to view the ice shoves at Crystal Beach on Lake Erie. Of course, as in any large crowd, not all went according to plan and common sense was not at its peak. A senior citizen broke a hip after slipping on the ice, emergency vehicle access was blocked by the many illegally parked cars, and by Family Day, the caves themselves… Continue reading

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Ice shoves on Lake Erie at Crystal Beach — just wow.

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One of the coolest things to happen in this region in a long time has cost us absolutely nothing. It’s a totally natural wonder, one I’d never seen until this past weekend. If you live here, you should definitely go see it while you can. UPDATE 1: See the bottom of this post for directions on how to get there, and a map! UPDATE 2: Ice caves were evacuated February 17, 2014 due to possible ice fractures. Please see this Erie Media write-up for more… Continue reading

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Denim whale’s big brother has arrived!

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I made a more robust version of the DIY denim whale from last week! I like his tail details. Now that I’m becoming a little more familiar with my sewing machine, it was easier to do the cute little top-stitches. See the original post here (includes link to denim whale tutorial by a lovely Finnish lady). How do you like my whale?   Related articles DIY denim whale – great baby room or toddler gift project! DIY: Turn your regular jeans into skinny jeans… right… Continue reading

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DIY denim whale — great baby room or toddler gift project!

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One of the sucky parts about having a bunch of jeans I no longer like is that I very rarely find projects that involve denim that I think don’t look cheesy or cheap. Something about denim that only looks good on the legs, and occasionally, if you’re feeling adventurous and young, a jacket. We’re getting the baby boy’s room ready lately. My youngest niece came a lot earlier than expected (in fact she was born on our wedding day), so we figured — just in… Continue reading

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DIY rustic end table for less than $10!

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After we brought the Christmas tree out a couple weeks ago, we needed to rearrange (and remove) some of the furniture. Wouldn’t have to, really, but Junior’s tendency to eat everything in sight means we still need to crate train him a while longer. We have two of these simple LACK tables from Ikea. When the tree came back, we had to put one of them away, and replace our loveseat with an armchair we put away when Junior’s crate came along. Needless to say, it… Continue reading

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Best Soup for Winter: Lasagna Soup

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Holy mother of Abel, is this soup good! I happened to find this recipe on my Pinterest feed the other day (if you haven’t already, you can follow me here). I expected good things, but I did not know just how good. I am lasagna obsessed — another of my favourites came from Pinterest a few months ago… I have my own take on it which maybe I’ll write up one day — so I had to try this. Unfortunately when I was going to try… Continue reading

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DIY: Upcycle regular jeans into skinny jeans!

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Upcycle old jeans into skinny jeans

If you have access to a sewing machine, you can turn some spent old jeans into skinnies. I mean, it’ll probably turn out better if you have some sewing experience, but given that I did this as one of my second or third sewing experiments ever, I’m proof positive that it can be done. Background: I don’t mind jeans with a wider leg, but in the dead of winter, I love to wear my boots. Wider jeans + boots just don’t work together very well.… Continue reading

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Flashback to March 2013 — Junior & Casey

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Our little brown dog is now taller than Casey. I can’t believe how much Junior’s grown since we got him this past February. He’s not even a year old. Love this guy, when I don’t want to wrestle him for being bad.   Looking through their blog today and feeling the pregnant feels.  (Yep, every member of our family has some kind of web presence. Except two of the cats. They’re too busy hiding or stealing pens to blog.)   Share the post “Flashback to March… Continue reading

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Sew Interesting

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Yep, I’m hoping to move right along into the year 1818 and grab me up a sewing machine next weekend. Why? Have you heard of maternity clothes? They’re hundreds of dollars if I want to wear more than a couple of outfits for the next 6 months. Have you heard of my closet? It’s full of jeans and tanks I don’t wear anymore due to maternity fatness and general lack of interest. Yes, I figure with a little effort, I can put together some good… Continue reading

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