Happy Birthday James!!

My little man turned 5 today. It's very emotional for me and also lots of fun. I've been reminiscing about the whole Birth experience today, not the physical birth, but more just the emotions and how excited I was to welcome my first child into my life and then meeting the little wrinkly boy and getting to hold him against me and marvel at his beauty. It was incredibly surreal.

Of course my little buddy was very excited and got his presents this morning before school and had a little party at school and then we went out for dinner and then he got to come home to play with his new stuff and eat his mom's cake. I was very busy today and everyone seemed surprised that I actually got a chance to bake a cake. My husband actually whispered in my ear at a stage, "Did you remember to buy a cake?" Seriously buy a cake, no way!! Since he wasn't having a party at home, I opted for taste instead of a lavishly decorated cake. I came across a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cake in one of the Kraft "What's Cooking?" magazines. Super Simple and the icing on the cake (literally and figuratively) is no icing/frosting just choc chips...lots of them. The recipe is mixed in the baking pan and since there's no extra frosting, the cleanup is minimal. I also didn't have to wait for cake to cool to frost and it tastes devine. My son's reaction: "oooh super chocolaty mom." So it gets a thumbs up!!

For my Cafe World Challenge readers: Sorry I didn't post last week, the males in my family were all sick and had no appetite, so I didn't get a chance to make anything.

For my Sewing readers: I've been busy. Nothing to post, as most of my work has been tedious prep work. I cut out the wool crepe for my Vogue jacket and am still busy thread tracing and making tailors tacks for the marking step. I've prepped fabric for some other projects and have done a bunch of mending - hemming, broken seams, patched boy's pants knees and replaced missing buttons. Once I've finished up the marking step, I've got the grey silk charmeuse waiting to make up the lining and then do a quick muslin of the wool skirt pattern to check fit.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all my readers and happy holidays. I wish you all wonderful times with your family and here's to hoping Santa got it right for you!!

My little ones have their version of a Christmas classic for you, if you don't understand little boy speak...it's supposed to be Jingle Bells:

Jammies for James

My little guy James has sprouted these long legs this summer and I thought I'd treat him with some new pajamas. I'd previously made him pajamas 2 years ago and they will now get passed on to little brother Willem. James always has such a loving and wonderful response to my sewing that I just had to sew something for him again. He's always telling me, "Mommy that's so pretty," etc, etc. He's my little budding fashion maven. He actually had quite an opinion on Sunday night with the Emmy dresses, but I will get to that at the end.

I opted to make cotton knit pajamas this time, last time it was cotton flannelette. I used a pattern from the Burda magazine, Nov 2009 #143. It was the first full pattern from Burda magazine that I've made. I've previously just used components like sleeves to alter other patterns. The pattern was extremely simple, I actually just read through the instructions once and proceeded on my own. They have raglan sleeves and neckline, cuffs and waistbands are finished with tubular ribbing and top stitched with a twin needle. My problem with the pajamas was actually the fabric. I used a grey soft cotton jersey, but found that it was totally off-grain. So I had to get creative with the cutting layout to try to cut out on grain. Then the red ribbing I used just seemed to stretch like crazy and didn't shrink in with steam. So it didn't turn out as I hoped, but I've just looked at the pattern photo again and it seems that the ribbing on that was also very wide. I've learnt my lesson and will check stretch before I buy.

James loves it though, and I quote, "Ooooh mommy it's so soft and red's my favourite colour." These have been made a little big and will last a few years, I hope.




I'll also show you the previous Pj's, just because I can't believe how much my baby has grown.





Now on to my James' Emmy fashion critique:

His favourite: Lea Michele in Navy Oscar de la Renta



And he was no fan of January Jones' electric blue outfit, "That's crazy looking."



As for myself:

I wasn't a fan of January Jones' bed head hairstyle and well I wouldn't wear that dress.
I thought both Jane Lynch and Claire Danes get my vote for best dressed, because they both seemed comfortable, happy and positively radiant. Actually I liked most dresses, this was a good year with some stylish looks and very few people trying to make over the top fashion statements.

Kids sweaters by Gill (my mom)

I've mentioned before that my mom is a great knitter. She has knitted up a storm since we last saw her and she has a bunch of sweaters for the boys when we visit later this month. I've fished out photos of the sweaters she's previously made and have photos of the new ones too. I think they're adorable. Thanks mom, you're a great grandma. My boys are very lucky.

She made this cute elephant sweater for James, my eldest, when he was a wee little baby. It has a matching hat and has since been passed down to Willem (now 18 months). It's getting a little tight now, so I think it is retirement time. This was one outfit I'll definitely keep for sentimental reasons.



My mom also made this blue hoodie which James still wears. He's wearing it to school today.




And a green vest, which has just been passed to Willem.



These are the new ones which we'll see very soon.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Couldn't resist...they were too cute!!