Is this normal?

Abner has taken to "reading" a few books before bed each night. What constitutes a "few" books? Well, what you're looking at is just ONE night's worth...no, I am not kidding...I'd ballpark it at about 50+ books on that table.

 

Until a few weeks ago, Abner was fantastic at going to bed/sleep. We'd do the bedtime routine and have her quietly in bed at about 7:15 and asleep well before 8:00 each night. She wouldn't always sleep through the night, but she would never, EVER get out of her bed. Perfection if you ask me.

She rather suddenly switched things up on us shortly before Christmas by refusing to go to sleep and escaping her bed multiple times a night (I lost count at about 25 escapes one night). We tried everything we could think of (and some tricks I'd be ashamed to publish on the blog, so believe me when I say we tried everything and let's leave it at that) to try to get her to go back to her old habits, but she would have none of it.

Hoping to at least get some quiet time after about a week or so of the tantrums, I gave her a book to read in bed. It started out as just one or two books at a time and we're now up in the neighbourhood of 10-12 at a time. As she gets to the end of one stack, she calls out asking for another. This repeats until about 9 or 10 pm. By morning, the result is the piles of books you see stacked upon our coffee table.

We recently moved all of her books onto a shelf in her bedroom, so we'll have to see how she manages fending for herself so The Dear Sweet Husband and I can have our evenings back. But please, tell me, is this normal? Do other kids suddenly refuse to go to sleep at 2.5? Is there any hope for her to start falling asleep at a reasonable hour again?

Also, if you have any spare kids books kicking around, please send them over.

It's a Christmas picture post!

Christmas with a toddler is a magical time...like when we went to the mall first thing in the morning to see Santa, Abner kept repeating, "My Santa, my Santa, my Santa is coming! There's my Santa!" as she saw him walking down the hall to the photo set. Whenever she sees other Santas now, she informs us, "They're not my Santa."

Here is just a small selection of the slew of photos we've taken this Christmas...Happy holidays!

A carousel ride at Burnaby Heritage Village...this is going to be a tradition for sure!

Making a cornucopia to fill with treats and hang on the tree.

Visiting Father Christmas...but not wanting to get too close (wasn't her Santa, after all).

Petting the reindeer at the Burnaby Heritage Village. Love that place.

Abner made gingersnaps with TDSH and put them out with milk and carrots for Santa on Christmas Eve...Santa is one lucky guy...the extras I ate were fantastic!

Despite years to the contrary growing up, we are definitely a gifts before breakfast kind of family!

Calling Santa to thank him for the gifts. She decided to do that all on her own! How adorable is that?!?!?

And for mommy, a thread organizer, shears and a new bathroom reader (it's tradition, don't ask).

We also managed to get in a short walk on the dyke before dinner at my aunt's place.

The whole family came out to celebrate, play games and, more importantly, eat together.

My brother brought along a game he made recently that was a total blast.

The obligatory cousins-in-matching-pajamas shots.

And finally, the adorable cousins-in-matching-hats shot. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

Merry Christmas from Milkybeer

Mini oven mitts for a mini chef

These sweet little oven mitts were made for my friend Andrea's little girl to enjoy. Even mundane items like oven mitts are cuter when they're small, don't you think?

No pattern necessary for these, I just traced Abner's hand and cut out the fabric and batting accordingly. The fabric should look a bit familiar as it was left over from the blouse I recently made for Abner.

Shameless plug alert: If you're looking for a last-minute Christmas gift idea, may I suggest Andrea's new book, Sugar Snaps and Strawberries. Available at bookstores near you!

What I did with the Christmas fabric

Santa sacks! As much as I love gift wrapping, I really struggle with the notion of wrapping something up just for the sake of having something to unwrap. When I saw the delightful bags my new friend Lou made for her family, I knew I'd struck upon a solution to my dilemma.

I used the Christmas fabric I posted about before to create these monogrammed bags; one for each member of the family.

An "A" for Abner,

"K" for me,

 and  "S" for The Dear Sweet Husband (What? You thought I'd give him a "T"?)

For my first attempt at applique, I'm really, really, really happy with the result. Fusible web is my new favourite sewing item (I may even like it more than my magnetic seam guide, I like it that much!)

Each bag is trimmed in a coordinating grosgrain ribbon and closes with a simple little drawstring to keep prying eyes out until Christmas morning (yeah, like a drawstring is going to keep me from snooping!)

I boxed the bottom so that each bag could hold a lot of stuff. Seriously, I think you could pretty much fit a small bike into one of these bags! I have a lot of the pretty Christmas fabric left over, so I'm going to work on a matching tree skirt for next year. For now, I just have to get through the rest of my sewing projects for this Christmas!

In the (lunch) bag

Had the pleasure of whipping up these little lunch bags for a friend recently. One of them is destined for a spot under the Christmas tree, but I think my friend will be holding on to the other for herself!

The design is based on the ubiquitous Lululemon bags you see on every lunch table around these days. I added two inside pockets, perfect for cutlery and the other accoutrements of lunch.

The fabric is a lovely organic cotton from Plum Project Studio which was a dream to sew with.

Now, back to the sewing machine. The holiday sewing extravaganza continues!

A patchwork must-have

On a recent trip to the fabric store, they got me with an unplanned purchase right at the till.* There, on the shelf, sitting next to the hideous batik charm packs (it's a fabric term...look it up) was Elizabeth Hartman's new book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork. I've been following Elizabeth's blog for months now and always drool over her projects online, and now I can do it in print too!

As much as I love quilting, I still have so much to learn. This book is fantastic no matter what your skill level. The projects are categorized based on level of difficulty, but the instructions are so straightforward, I think I could even manage the most difficult ones right off the bat. Here are a few of the quilts I'm going to take a stab at...as soon as Christmas is over. Good grief, I have a lot of sewing to get done before the holiday officially kicks off!

*Actually, I make unplanned purchases at the fabric store quite often. When I went to pick up tea towel fabric for the advent bags, I walked out with 12 m of quilting cotton. 12 m people! I am weak. But behold the additions to my stash!

One-word Wednesday: Parade

Deck the freezer?

We got into some serious holiday spirit over the weekend. Ornaments from years gone by were brought out of storage, reminiscing took place, stories were told, carols were song, and the tree was put up in the traditional location...atop the deep freezer. Yup, that's me and Abner decorating our new Christmas tree perched atop the deep freezer we keep in our living room. Space is at a premium in at chateau Milkybeer.

As odd as it sounds, the freezer location is actually genius: it makes our tree look really tall, Abner can't really reach the ornaments very easily, and it doesn't take up any floorspace! I'm just glad we were smart enough to take out all the food we might need for the weeks ahead before putting it up.

One of our advent activities was to make paper snowflakes, so Abner and I cracked out the scissors and printer paper and created quite a few beauties together the other night. They are now dressing up our front door. We've never decorated our front door before, but both of our neighbours did it this year, so it felt like we had to. Glad we did.

We also dug out the family stockings but had to be creative to find a space to hang them that keeps them out of Abner's reach. I'd be so upset if anything happened to these stocking! Each was handmade by my mom. With the stockings out now, it really does feel a lot like Christmas around here.

Christmas fabric preview

Heaven help me...I bought Christmas fabric. Ugh. I can't believe I actually bought Christmas fabric. Have faith though, I have great plans for these. Stay tuned!

One-word Wednesday: Yum

2 + 2 = cute

This darling little blouse used to be a bed sheet. Can you believe it? You may remember, I picked up the fabric ages ago at Value Village and it has been sitting patiently waiting to be made into something adorable ever since.

The pattern is the 2 + 2 blouse by Oliver + S. It's the first one I've done by them, and I love it. Nice and easy to follow and beautifully drawn. I'm bummed that I didn't buy the larger size though, this really won't last Abner very long.

My plan is to make this one of Abner's handmade Christmas gifts for this year. I hope she gets a few wears out of it, before we pass it on to someone else...hey, Allie, think this would look cute on Lexi?

Advent bags forever!

I made a rather last-minute decision on Monday to make my own advent calendar this year. I remembered the lame-o chocolate calendars of my own youth (do they still make those things? Worst chocolate in the world if memory serves) and knew that I could come up with something better. The key was to make something would last year after year, look nice as a decoration and, of course, didn't cost an arm and a leg.

One quick trip out to Fabricana on my lunch break on Monday, a jaunt over to Michael's on Tuesday afternoon, late-night trip to Staples on Tuesday, and by Wednesday morning, I had these all ready for Abner to enjoy. She's been having a BLAST finding the right number each morning. Actually, I think she likes that part even more than she likes seeing what's in the bag!

I used my favorite tea towel fabric once again and had all the bags sewn up in less than two hours! Because I want them to last forever, I took the time to zig zag the edges as well to prevent fraying. I even heated the ends of the red ribbon to keep those from fraying away over the years. Those little bags are tough...really, really tough I tell you!

We've opted to present them in a bowl this year so that we can move them up out of Abner's reach as needed, but I also inserted a tiny piece of green ribbon to allow them to be strung up if you wanted to.

Advent is a great opportunity to teach Abner that the holidays are not just about getting treats. So, we've given her a mix of items and activities this year. There are a few chocolates ('cause it's not advent without chocolate!), some stickers (like she needed more), a Kinder egg, and a variety of Christmasy activities including:

• make paper snowflakes
• decorate the front door
• choose three toys to donate to the Salvation Army
• put money in the Christmas kettle at the mall
• wish all your friends merry Christmas
• record a Christmas video
• visit the Christmas heritage village
• take food to the food bank

...you get the idea.

I had an extra large tea towel bag kicking around so it will be very handy to store the advent bags once their day has passed.

I'd be happy to make a set for anyone who wants one for next Christmas. Just drop me a note at heymilkybeer {at} gmail {dot} com.