Thursday, September 29, 2011

small style #17

sorry we're a little late today!  some bloggy technical difficulties,
but yay!
my sister did send me some pictures from the wedding.

so here is Isla small stylin' at the wedding as promised

(as well as some extra pics of the wedding thrown in)

Hi!
my cousin Tim and his beautiful bride Lauren
with my Grandad
with auntie Danielle
Isla making herself at home!
just a "small" portion of chicken fingers
how cute is this dress?

dress: Joe, consigned-also, this dress is almost like a little raincoat, all the spills slide right off!
shirt: osh kosh, consigned
tights: no label, consigned
shoes: Mexx, consigned

and of course we are linking up with Morgan here:





ps. I just wanted to clarify that we did not feed Isla all those chicken fingers.
we broke off the batter and gave her bits of the real chicken inside.
(just in case you thought we force fed her a mountain of chicken batter)

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Ramona Quimby age......

twenty-one!?!?!

my littlest sister Roslyn has long been called Ramona. 
in her younger days she was pretty close to a spitting image of the original book cover, 
and the name just stuck around.

but the little baby Ramona is gone!  
Roslyn has turned 21 today. 
she is all grown up and legal even in the states.

Roslyn is a very caring and loyal kind of lady.
she speaks very fondly and lovingly of her friends and her family.
she is fiercely determined and independent.

Roslyn lives in BC right now, the farthest away of anyone in my immediate family,
so we don't get to see her that often.

but we did get a nice visit in Montreal for Danielle's wedding.



we love you Roslyn!! 
have a great day!!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Giveaway winner!

wow!
i was quite surprised at the amount of people i know in real life who have been reading the blog!

Thanks everyone :)

it was great to read your comments and i felt the love.

and as promised, the winner of the giveaway using random.org to generate a random number between 1 and 11.
it chose #5.

It was the elusive Ninnygoat who said 
"Hi kates! It's nin. Love you. Xo"

well Ninny, you know I love you too!!

send me your new address to: 
katiegeranium(at)gmail(dot)com
and I will send this off to you pronto!!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Happy Blogiversary to Katie Geranium!

7 years old!

i am really starting to get into the swing of blogging. 
i am even starting to think in blog format throughout my day :)

i have some goals for the coming blog year.

goal #1:
stop being a blog creeper and start commenting!! 
i read a lot of blogs throughout my day, but i am definitely guilty of coming and going without making a single comment. this is not very supportive of my fellow bloggers, especially the ones i have been reading for a few years!

goals #2:
publish 2-3 posts a week.
i have started being better at that over the summer, but as i am gearing up to go back to work i want to stay in the swing of things! it may mean writing multiple posts at a time, but i want to be consistent! especially for those of you who are reading my blog regularly.  Hi!

goal #3:
figure out how to take better pictures for the blog!
whether that means taking a course, reading some books or saving for a new camera, i want to be able to upload pictures and not cringe at the quality.
any suggestions?

goals are well and good, but even better?
a giveaway!

to mark the 7 year blogiversary of Katie G, i am giving away a little vintage tea pot (it holds about 2 cups) and a handmade by me tea cozy!



i'll be throwing in a few surprise goodies as well.

to enter leave me a comment saying hello and where you are reading from :)

and if you've never commented before, now is your chance!

good luck!

oh, and the contest will be open until monday at midnight, standard eastern time.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

small style #16

this week has been fairly low key, this weekend we did a lot of driving to Hamilton and Toronto for a wedding.
my cousin Tim married his beautiful bride Lauren.
it was a lovely and beautiful day and wee Isla was awarded the best baby award.

well, not really.  
but she did stay quiet through the ceremony despite the fact that it was outdoors on a windy bluff overlooking lake Ontario and it was FREEEEEZING!!

and then during the reception she had some dinner and promptly fell asleep in her stroller for the rest of the night.

we had a lovely visit with my sister Danielle and her husband Alex,
and my dad and his girlfriend Susan.

I didn't get many great shots of Isla so I'll try to get some from my sister for next week.

here is Isla making some use of an empty suitcase.
pretty fun to come around the corner and find her in it :)



messy toy mess-the norm around here



shirt: Carters-consigned
jeans: Joe
shoes: you can't really see them but they are some cute navy moccasins that my aunt brought back from up North.

and we're linking up with Morgan here:



oh! and don't forget to come back to the giveaway tomorrow!!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

blogiversary

the week at Young House Love, they are celebrating a 4 year blogiversary.  
suddenly I thought to myself, hey wait, how long have I had this ol' blog, and when is my exact blogiversary?

turns out it's this Friday!!

And it will have been seven years...
huh? wait? what?

that's right folks. SEVEN YEARS!


a lot of people I knew were blogging, but it seemed that most people didn't make it past the first year.
in fact I recently had someone from that blogging bandwagon say to me: "wow, people still blog?"
um....
yes.

blogging for me started as a way to keep in touch with my saskatoon peeps.
now it is a fun therapeutic kind of thing.
where will blogging lead? we will have to wait and see.

so.

since this little ol' blog is turning seven, I thought that I would have a little giveaway.

so come back on Friday to enter a little contest for the big day!!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

small style #15

Isla loves loves loves her dad right now.
She is so happy when he gets home from work, and a little insulted when he leaves in the morning.
Isla loves to play fun games with daddy. He makes all her stuffed toys have funny voices.

Daddies and Babies.... need I say more?




shirt: Pekkle - thrifted
leggings: Gap - thrifted
hat: from Isla's Great Gramma's church bazaar
sock monkey: made by hand by Isla's auntie Ashleigh!


as always, we're linking up here with Morgan:

Monday, September 12, 2011

Isla eats.

One of my favourite things to do is to watch Isla eat.
Ever since she has been able to pick up her own food, I love seeing her figure out how to get it in her mouth,

Isla loves to feed herself-which is not always helpful for a quick meal time-
but she will pick something up in her hand and pass it back and forth and examine it before putting it in her mouth.

some of her favourites include:
-shredded chicken
-sweet potato
-steamed beans
-puffed kamuts
-whole soft pears*
-whole peaches*
-plums
-blueberries
-raspberries
-cucumber
watermelon

rice rusk

raspberries & blackberries & pear

bun with gramma kiki

nectarine

really getting into that nectarine
what's left of a whole pear

lunch with Isaac

bread & cheese
Isla also loves yogurt, oat cereal, ham & carrots.
So far, we haven't really found anything that she doesn't like. She seemed really adverse to bananas at first, but now enjoys them as much as anything else.
Also, a trick I learned for those slippery foods like banana or fruit pieces is to coat them in wheat germ. 
gives them grip.


what kind of foods do your kids love? anything they really don't like?


*Just a little warning: 
giving her whole fruit is certainly messy, but it does give a good amount of kitchen cleaning time!

Thursday, September 08, 2011

small style #14

Here we are again!

this was last week, i think that we were going to go out and get groceries, but then after Isla's nap she woke up with a leaky diaper.

so she was changed and i didn't get any more pics of this cute little outfit.

but here are 2:


sigh, those moccasins.

shirt: collection by Coccodrillo - consigned for $1!
shorts: H&M - thrifted
shoes: Gap - consigned


and we are linking up here with Morgan of Mama Loves Papa :)

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

cloth diapering part two: a disappointing start

i told you about my reasons for cloth diapering here.

here is the story of the start of cloth diapering for our family.

while Isla was in the hospital we used disposables, mostly just for easiness, 
but we had all the diapers prepped and ready to go.

so home we came, and i was so excited to put some cloth on that little booty.

i put on the prefold and i can' believe.....

how RIDICULOUS it looks!!!

poor Isla-who was not a tiny baby by the way, 8lbs 9oz thank you very much-seemed waaaay too small for these prefolds. 
i continue to describe it as what it would have been like if i wore a bath towel as underwear. 
not pleasant.

i was so so sad. my heart was a little broken indeed.

i felt silly that i had been talking this up for months, spent all this money, 
at that point, even my ideas of being able to do all my laundry in our building's washing machines seemed like a silly dream.


my lovely friend Maryann-worried for my heart and reputation-said:
"oh, don't tell anyone!"

i pretty much just packed up all the pre-folds and covers and just jumped on board the disposable diaper train.

i put all my reasons for cloth diapering to the back of my mind so i wouldn't feel so sad and defeated.

the first use of the diapers came a month or so later when i busted out the covers to put over disposables when i was flying with Isla to keep poop blowouts from ruining our flight.

but that was it.

until just after Isla turned 7 months. 
something changed. 
i actually can't even remember what it was, but i decided to give those cloth diapers another try.

and success!! they fit!
first small style in cloth :)
i was elated! my wet-dry bags kept the stink in, the diapers were working, and even washing them was working out!

so now we have been using cloth for 3 months and i have to say that I LOVE IT!!
i am completely in love with cloth diapering, if any one asks me anything about cloth, i can go on and on and on because i love to tell people my story, the things that worked for us (and the things that didn't!), how i deal with doing laundry when i don't have my own washer or dryer.

seriously, i am a little addicted.


living in an apartment definitely poses some laundry challenges, 
which i'll address in cloth diapering part three: these things stink!

Friday, September 02, 2011

Date Night!

Thom and I decided that it was high time for a date night, we've been on two since Isla was born, one was an impromptu one when my mom was visiting, one was for our anniversary and Ben and Mary watched Isla.



We wanted to see the last Harry Potter before it left theaters, and we discovered that this was the last week it for it! Close call.

Beth and Pat watched Isla for us.

On our way to the theatre we tried to remember what was the last movie we saw in the theatre together...
we think it was Despicable Me, but we're not sure.
It seems funny that we saw a kids movie as our last movie date night.


And let me tell you, Harry Potter did not disappoint-well, besides the fact that it was the last one :( 
We always rate where it fell in the Harry Potter favourites.

I still think that part 1 of the Deathly Hallows is my fave, I love all the travelling around, it was also my favourite part in the books.
Thom always likes all the goings on at the school, and he thinks maybe this is his favourite.

He even picked up the first HP book to read once we got home.
I re-read the series last summer while waiting for miss Isla.

Going to a movie was a nice date, partly because it was nice to just have the 2 of us for such a long period of time, and also it was a good distraction so that we really didn't think about Isla.

When we got back, Beth reported that Isla was hilarious, and that she and Pat had a great time with her :)

It was a great night and ended with a nice chat with Beth.

That Isla is a trooper, since Saturday night she has been out 4 nights and put to bed late... however she has been sleeping until 7, so we kind of like the to bed late business.

also, did you know that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was the first movie that Isla saw in the theatre?
she was 3 weeks old and Beth and I went and she pretty much slept through the whole movie
-Isla did, not Beth ;)

Thursday, September 01, 2011

small style #13

Hello!

miss Isla has learned a new trick!! 


that's right!  Isla girl is now climbing. 
so far the balcony door is the only thing I've seen her climb,
but I have found her in her stroller and standing on her little white chair that her montly photos are taken in.
girl can move!


 she is getting so big!  

I was just watching a video from May when she learned how to inch.
How is it that she is almost walking now?

unbelieveable.
truly.

shirt, pants, shoes: all Joe!


and as always,
I am linking up with Morgan over at Mama Loves Papa!!


sigh, what a darling.