Knitting the Journeyman Hat, Easter Basket for Baby, and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have had a busy week with Evan and getting ready for Easter dinners this weekend. We will be hosting my family on Sunday, so I am getting things ready. Today I tested out a recipe for Easter in my new crock pot. I am making chicken for Easter and found a lemon chicken slow cooker recipe by Slow Cooker Gourmet called Slow Cooker Chicken thighs with creamy lemon sauce. It turned out great and Evan ate a lot of it which I always am so happy about. 

I have been knitting the Journeyman hat by Alyssa Grieve on Ravelry. I love knitting this hat it has been so relaxing and it also fits comfortably so far. 

I love my weekend mornings they still feel different than during the week. Last weekend I liked knitting with Millie snoozing beside me it is the perfect moment that I just take a minute to appreciate. I had my coffee, knitting, Evan on the monitor, Millie beside me, and watching a YouTube video.

I put together Evan's Easter basket today to see what I have and happy to be done picking out gifts for him. It is fun putting together these baskets. I collected items from different shopping trips when I could go out which is sometimes hard to come by with a baby lol. I also have some gifts for my nephew as well and we'll have an Easter egg hunt.

I also got Millie these cute yarn ball catnip toys from Winners. She always gets a present for holidays as well. 

Evan has been enjoying reading and flipping the pages books before bed. He is now 15 months almost 16 months old next week. He is starting to babble a lot more and can say some words like "up". We keep working on Mama and Dada. He is getting close to saying them. It will be special when he finally does. He is walking around now on his own and eating mostly on his own except I pre-load a spoon for him. I am so proud of him and he is such a fun, goofy, sweet little guy we love him so much.

I am still reading The Whole-Brain Child by Dan Siegel and Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I have been enjoying these books reading before bed. 

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope that you are having a good week so far. Have a good weekend if you are celebrating Easter as well.

Have a great day!

Easter Weekend, Knitting, and Updates

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well and had a good week! I was going to post on Monday after a busy Easter weekend with family, but the week went by so fast and didn't get to posting. I am posting today though on Friday, and it is a happy and sunny Friday. I always am so excited on Fridays now because I look forward to spending time together as a family and Liam isn't working and I get more me time haha. I get my time during the week during naps and when I can find it. My Mother in law helps me once a week too and she comes to watch Evan and I go get groceries, go to an appointment, catch up on tasks like laundry etc. It really helps to get that time as well. Easter was great we went over to Liam's mom's place, my MIL who helps with Evan. We had a lovely turkey dinner and it was nice to see people again and them to see Evan. Then on Sunday, my family came over so my mom and dad, my sister and her husband and my nephew Luca. It was busy here with two babies and a cat lol. I really enjoy having them here to all be together to share a meal and make memories. I put on a little Easter egg hunt for Luca and it was cute to see him going around looking for the eggs. Evan mostly napped and spent time in someone's arms taking it all in. I made baked chicken and roasted carrots and mashed potatoes. We also had some cauliflower casserole from my parents and had appetizers before and a lovely Easter cake I forgot to take a photo of. 

I also put together an Easter basket for Evan for his first Easter. I got Luca the same wicker bunny basket that had bubbles and some bunny glasses inside. He used it for his Easter egg hunt too. I got Evan a book called You are my Sunshine by Caroline Jayne Church. I used to sing this song to him while I was pregnant so it is a special song for us. He likes it as I sing and flip through the pages. I got him a Sassy ball that has different parts that stick out to explore. I also got a Skip Hop dog that has different colors and fun things to explore. 

The arches baby blanket is coming along. I have been knitting a couple of rows a day during naptimes. It is so peaceful and calming to knit while he is sleeping and a nice quiet activity that won't wake him up. I am almost at the halfway point in the blanket. I can't wait to be able to use it on our stroller walks this Spring. I better hurry because the weather has been more like Summer lately at 26 degrees Celsius today.

I am still getting a lot of cuddles from Evan and he is 4.5 months old now. He is growing so fast and really doing so many fun things now like talking a lot and smiling. He is reaching for toys and he is rolling over from tummy to back. I am really trying to slow down and enjoy him while he is so small and look forward to seeing all the things he learns and can do as he grows. 

Millie has been doing well too. She keeps an eye on us while doing mat time and she likes to perch at the back of the glider in the nursery. She also does this when I am nursing and she keeps us company. I try to also give Millie lots of attention too she likes being brushed and she is always asking us for more attention and to get her toy crinkle balls from under the couch.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog this week! I love to come on here and to reflect on the week and to share things that go on and progress on my knitting. It really holds me accountable and I love to look back on past posts through the years. 

Have a great weekend and I will be back to share on Sunday!

Easter Weekend Decor

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend was a nice weekend celebrating Easter with family. We went to visit Liam's family on Saturday for dinner, then on Sunday we had my family over for Easter dinner. I decorated our place for the day.

I bought the items below from Michaels the day before. They were all on sale which was also nice to save. The straw bunny with welcome sign, the treat container, and the basket with the stuffed animal bunny as a gift for my nephew. I was happy they still had a good selection.

My parents brought over this adorable cake from a local bakery. It was a delicious vanilla cake with custard in the middle. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope that you also had a good weekend and have a great week ahead!

Easter Weekend, Knitting, and Reading

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. It was so nice having a long weekend this weekend for Good Friday. It has felt like such a long time off work and it was much needed.  We were gifted these pretty white tulips from Liam's mom and they have been so cheerful and pretty to look at this weekend after they bloomed. I wasn't able to see my family this weekend because of the Covid-19 lockdown, so the flowers lifted my spirits.

I am also happy with how my African violet is blooming. There is now a flower, and as you can see there is a second one waiting to bloom. It is so nice to see it thriving with the light from the arrival of Spring.

 I knitted a lot of the baby blanket this weekend too.  I am now aiming to have it complete to gift to my sister next weekend. She is expecting her baby later in April, so it will be done just in time. The pattern that I used is Simple Lines Baby Blanket by Heather Tucker on Ravelry. 

The weather today was perfect for Easter Sunday and perfect to sit out on our terrace and enjoy the sunshine. I read more of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig while I was soaking up the sun.

I went out for a walk this afternoon and really enjoyed the warm weather. It was 13 degrees Celsius at the time and the sun made it feel even warmer.  I love this blue sky and seeing the buds on the trees and brings me hope for the Summer to come and make things better for us. There were a lot of other people walking today and they were all probably feeling the same way as me.

Thank you for stopping by and Happy Easter if you celebrate. I hope you had a long weekend if you also had Good Friday off. It is nice when these weekends come along for some much needed rest. I am back to work tomorrow and now I am feeling refreshed and ready to start the week.

Have a great day!

Knitted Easter Eggs

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well and staying safe. Easter is right around the corner and it feels a lot different this year. I still wanted to celebrate in some way and knit some cute Easter eggs as decor. I used the pattern found on Raverly by Emily Kintigh called 'Easter eggs'.  I am happy with how they turned out. I knitted three eggs in different colors using pastels purple and pink and white DK yarn. The purple and pink yarn I have had for quite awhile and got them from my stash and the white yarn was Loops & Threads Joy DK yarn in white colorway.

These were so fun to knit up and so quick too! There is still time to knit some of these little eggs up in time for Easter.

Today I stayed in and I video chatted with my family and I worked a bit of overtime. I also baked some delicious chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is the ultimate chocolate chip cookies from Betty Crocker. These are so good, but warning there is a lot of sugar and butter, so it's no wonder they are so delicious. Baking them was a fun distraction from all that is going on in the world I want to keep baking more treats and trying new recipes. We really enjoyed these ones. I was craving some sweets last week and these will satisfy my sweet tooth this week. I will try to limit how much I eat.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope that you and your family are safe during this uncertain and stressful time.  What were you making or baking this weekend?

Joining along with Ginny for Yarn Along and with Nicole at Crafting On.

Have a great day!

Happy Easter! and Some Updates

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I had a wonderful weekend going to lunch on Saturday with Liam's family and going to my parent's place for dinner last night. I gave his mom the knitted bunny topper and she loved it which made me so happy. I also gave my parents the bunny topper yesterday and they liked it. I really love Easter with all the bunnies and pastel colors and this can make really cute projects for knitting. I have been looking on Instagram the past couple weeks at all of the adorable knitted bunnies and eggs and was just thinking how much I love holiday knitted pieces, they are usually the cutest and make me feel so happy because of the holiday memories we associate with seeing bunnies at this time of year or knitted pumpkins at Halloween.

I got this felt board  pictured above about a month ago when I was shopping with my friend at Marshall's. I love creating messages on it and the last quote I made was "work hard be kind stay humble". I think it will come in handy for creating messages for Instagram and here and also for my bridal shower and wedding next year.

I am still reading Quiet by Susan Cain and Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult. They are both such interesting reads. I think Quiet is such a good book there is research stories of famous introverts such as Warren Buffet and examples from the author's own experiences. I am trying to pick up my pace in reading these as I am enjoying them but haven't been reading a lot lately due to prioritizing other things to be done.

In knitting, I would really love to find a shawl pattern soon to begin a shawl and will be looking on Ravelry for some fun patterns.

Wedding plans are coming along. We have the venue and are now contacting venders to set up appointments. As my sister says, it is busy at the one year mark in planning the wedding, then once you have all of the vendors and venue then there is a long period of time you don't have to do much in the way of planning. So I am hoping to get all my ducks in a row with the vendors soon, so I can relax for awhile. I am getting excited for the big day!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today and if you are also celebrating Easter I hope you have been enjoying your weekend celebrating with family and friends.