Callaloo Soup

Sprucing Up The Backyard

This past weekend we got a bunch of stuff done in the backyard. First we went to a plant nursery that our neighbours told us about and stocked up

That's a peony plant on the left there! I also got my other dream plant: an aloe vera. I'm pretty excited about those!

Meanwhile Kieran was picking and offering us clovers

The next day we found a great deal on terracotta pots. After going to two discount stores and finding nothing, we went to get groceries and the supermarket had a bunch at reduced prices. It just goes to show ya! So we got busy planting and repotting.

 

That's our avocado plant that we grew from a seed about four years ago. I think he is much happier now.

I'll share more photos of the entire space soon!

P.S. It's my birthday today and to celebrate you can take 21% off in both my Callaloo Soup Designs and Callaloo Soup Vintage shops on Etsy. Just use code HAPPYBIRTHDAY21 until midnight tonight!

 

Cute Things Kieran Says

Between being a toddler and bilingual Kieran sometimes comes out with the cutest words or phrases that make us laugh. Here are a few things in Kieranese

1. In French he refers to his knee as kneenou, which is a combination of the English "knee" and the French genou (prounounced juh-noo)

2. Shoulders are "lowlders" - you should hear him sing "head, shoulders, knees and toes"!

3. After handing him something he says "Merce-you" (merci plus thank you)

4 "Mummy water too?" - Mummy are you having some water too? This is the formula for anything we are eating or drinking

5. Ma-ique - his shortened form of Mozaique, the cat. This has progressed from Mo-Mo

6. Aww-mi-ack - his attempt to pronounce grandmère

7. His uncle's nickname is Manouche, and in French fly is mouche, so during a brief period he called flies Manouche. We haven't told his uncle this.

I really need to try to record these, as well as write them down when he says them, because I am sure there are more that I have forgotten.

What cute things do your kids say?

 

 

My Green Smoothie Experiment

I have wanted to try green smoothies for months. Seriously. Since January when I wrote down being healthier as one of my goals for this year. But the truth is that I have never liked the green stuff. Let me rephrase that. I hate vegetables with a passion. I'm talking about your traditional steamed, tasteless "but they are good for you" vegetables. Just ask my mother (Hi Mummy!) Luckily as I matured (ahem), I have learned to appreciate veggies, especially when well seasoned and prepared.

But honestly? Drinking spinach or kale? Um, no thank you. But our neighbours gave us some spinach on the weekend, and since I wasn't going to cook it (although I loved it in the salad they made), I figured it was now or never. So I hopped onto Pinterest - because of course I have been pinning smoothie ideas all along. I decided to go with this guide by Sweat and The city  which broke it down very simply (the site seems to be defunct now though).

I used green tea as my base, then added spinach, frozen strawberries and bananas, flax seeds and agave as my sweetener.

It's more pink than green, but I'm ok with that!

Big glass for Mummy (me that is, not my Mummy. Was that confusing?), little glass for Kieran.

Yummmmmy! He didn't drink all of it, but he did have several sips. I quite liked it, although I think next time I will also add yoghurt for the consistency. I don't know if it was the energy boost from the smoothie, or the fact that it was warm and sunny all day yesterday, but we had a great day running and playing, and I didn't feel like collapsing on the couch and groaning until at least 6 p.m.

I guess I will be looking for spinach and kale at the market from now on!

Do you like green smoothies? Can your share your recipes and tips?

 

 

 

 

Toddler Time | Drawing and Stamping on the Floor

Usually when Kieran and I do art projects we will sit at the big dining table that was made by his great grandfather. Earlier this week, I felt like changing things up a bit, and giving him a bigger canvas to work with. With Kieran's "help", I taped two large pieces of our drawing paper onto the plastic tablecloth we use for protecting surfaces, and spread it out on the floor.

We got out the markers, crayons and his new set of stamps and went to town.

I drew some streets so he could add his car stickers.

Being able to work on top the canvas is so freeing!

We also did outlines of our feet. You can see him colouring one in above.

He really enjoyed this art session. It's definitely one we will do again!

How do you enjoy art with your children? Tell us in the comments below!

Toddler Time is an occasional series where I feature activities that Kieran and I do together.

Sunday Afternoon in Chambéry

On the spur of the moment last Sunday we decided to go into Chambéry for their annual Foire. We hit the road before lunchtime.

My main motivation for going was the flea market.

(I found a few treasures for my French vintage shop on Etsy, which will be listed by the end of the week!)

There were lots of other things to see too.

There was cheese tasting:

and a bit of cheese buying:

We stopped for lunch at a cute place called Happy Juice. Yummy wraps and fruit smoothies!

Someone got to take a carousel ride

Then it was time to head on back home, tired but happy.

Sometimes the spur of the moment events are the best ones!

 

Sister Sketch | Just Like Papa

This month's Sister Sketch is long overdue! Between my lack of scrapbooking mojo, and the repeat sickies we had, I kept postponing on my poor sister. But I managed to get a layout done at last!

This month we used this sketch by Jeana on the Silhouette blog.

Here is my take.

Kieran got these wooden vegetables that are stuck with velcro, and can be "cut" apart with a wooden knife. He loved this so much that it was pretty much all he played with for a few days. He was so happy to be able to cut up food just like his papa.

I stuck pretty close to the sketch, the main changes were switching the title and journaling, and doing the photo corner instead of the embellishments to the right side of the photo.

Here are some close up shots

He's so serious about his cutting.

Now you can hop over to see what Vernell did!

Kieran's Super Simple Birthday Party

Kieran turned three last week! Since we've all been sick at one point or another in the last month (Kieran with the flu and then again with a nasty virus), his birthday celebrations were quite low-key this year, and not the usual hoopla. Lucas got sick too, and I have been down for the count since last Wednesday, but we rallied on Saturday and pulled off a quiet party with family and a couple close friends on Sunday afternoon.

We had cake, and cookies shaped like puzzle pieces, and mini cheesecakes, and marshmallows and party popcorn. Oh yeah, and a couple of savoury nibbles as well. Lucas and I made everything between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

It's at times like these that I am really grateful for sites like Pinterest, Craftgawker and Craft Gossip. And also my stash of crafting supplies as I didn't have to purchase a single thing. I'd been gathering ideas for a big party for a while, and on Saturday I looked through them to see which ones I could pull off with minimal effort and zero euros. The big birthday bunting letters were printed off thanks to this post. The red 3 is a vinyl sticker from a set of wall stickers I'd stashed away a while back. The smaller buntings for the cake I quickly made with scrapbooking paper and stickers. The straw flags were made thanks to this free customisable PDF. I used glass vases and white dishes for holding the goodies, and I figured that green tablecloth would be the perfect backdrop for it all.

Kieran had a great time and was happy to spend time with his grandmother, uncle and godfather.

After all the fun was over and most of the guests had left, we finished the day off with a mega train track, adding the new set he just got onto the previous tracks.

Yes, all in all it was a good day.

 

Recently, in photos

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Being a Good Citizen

First Spring Afternoon at the Playground

Crafting

Weekend Fun

And how have you been?

Toddler Time | Life Sized Me

Kieran and I did a fun activity over the last week: a life sized cut out of himself! I got the idea a couple places: it was one of the activities they did at playschool, but they told me that he didn't want to do it when they asked. Then a few days later I saw it mentioned in this big list of toddler activites and thought I'd try it out with him.

Just like at playschool he didn't want to lie on the paper so I could draw around him. Then I had the brilliant idea to try it out with one of his teddies. At which point he wanted to do it himself! (This is a recent trend, he wants his stuffed toys to do everything he does and vice versa)

 

 

Once I cut the shapes out it was time to decorate! We got out the markers, crayons and stickers and he went to town.

 

 

 

 

 

He finished the teddie that day.

 

 

A few days later we finished up the life-sized Kieran

 

 

Then it was time to put him in the gallery with teddie.

 

 

The finished products.

 

 

This wall is at the top of the stairs and I am planning to turn it into Kieran's art gallery, similar to this one.

And funnily enough, later that day when I dropped him off at playschool, I asked if he'd every done the silhouettem and indeed he had! So I brought another one home. I think we will put that one in the kitchen somewhere.

In the end he really enjoyed this activity, and now he points at the cut out and says "Kieran" every time he sees it.

Toddler Time is an occasional series where I feature activities that Kieran and I do together.

 

 

I Love This Song

Lucas came across this music video on Facebook yesterday and we all loved it. Kieran especially was transfixed and watched the entire thing. I love the music, but mostly I love the message. This is first single from Esperanza Spalding's forthcoming album "Radio Music Society". It'll be out March 12th and is definitely on my wish list.

Have you discovered any new music lately?

 

P.S. And oh her hair! I want her hair!