Baby mittens

Autumn is my absolute favourite season. This year in particular because I get to enjoy it with Lily. I think it's safe to say that Lily is in love with the outdoors. She craves the fresh air, the buzz of traffic, the kids running around the park. We would go on 2, 3, 4 walks a day sometimes -- even during this past sauna of a summer. Thank goodness for the crisp weather change.

Along with this cooler weather is a need for some warmer gear. I haven't been able to sew much for Lily; mostly because there hasn't been the need since we got so many great hand-me-downs from friends and family. But with our numerous walks a day, rain or shine, Lily was in need of some mittens. Her cute little fingers were icicles by the end of our walks.


I pulled out some flannel from my stash, grabbed some ribbing material that never turned into a cardigan for myself, and after two attempts (with some guidance from this tutorial), Lily hands now stay warm in a cute little pair of infant mittens! I made sure to make the ribbed cuff extra long so they stay on better.

Raise your hand if you love them.

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Double date with Richard and Oscar

My awesome friend Jenn invited me out to a magical evening listening to the music of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, all performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

These days when it's so hard to tear myself away from my life with Lily, Dustin insisted that I accept Jenn's invitation and enjoy the night out. Although I didn't manage to "get dressed up" as originally planned, I did manage to wear a clean shirt and put on earrings.

The performance was so wonderful. I had chills. I was in near tears. Both Jenn and I had commented that our mothers would have thoroughly loved to the show.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra was accompanied by soloists and a choir; they performed selections from Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and of course, The Sound of Music. I think I may have enjoyed the selections from Oklahoma the best, and I thoroughly enjoyed singing along to Edelweiss when they asked the audience to join in, but I was completely floored by their finale piece from The Sound of Music. I had just leaned over to Jenn and whispered a snotty "I think Climb Ev'ry Mountain is probably one of my least favourites from this musical" and then was blown away by the arrangement that they sang. All three soloists (the soprano, tenor, and baritone), along with the bellowing choir, came together to sing this beautifully grand finale.

This concert was part of the "POP" series. I guess compared to the performances of the baroque and renaissance era, this was an evening of "popular music". I wonder, what they will call it in a decade or so when I take Lily out for a magical night at the orchestra?

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Deleeecious quiches!

I'm going through a quiche phase. It may have started when my friend Magda made me a delicious chantrelle mushroom quiche for my birthday. It was my first chantrelle mushroom experience: delish.

Shortly after, I visited my friend Jess and her new baby girl Danika. I threw together a quick pie crust and made a quiche filling with whatever I had in my fridge. I think I used onions and mushrooms (maybe some cheese? I don't even remember.) Quiches are just so versatile.

This past Friday, I had a playdate at Magda's again and we had a gourmet lunch with two types of quiche, a green salad, a sweet potato salad, strawberry banana smoothies and apple butter cookies for dessert. That's what you get when 5 women come together for lunch!


Both quiches at the playdate were so delicious: spinach-mushroom-goat cheese and ham-red pepper-onion. I don't think I've had a quiche I didn't like. So much so that I decided to make a quiche with the can of smoked salmon pate that my mom gave me last year.

I honestly have no problems making a pie crust from scratch. It seems like it would be a hassle but I feel like it's less of a hassle than having a pie crust take up space in my freezer. I never have one on hand and whenever I take the time to make one, I find it was so easy I would do it again.

I decided to reward such domestic thinking with a new French rolling pin from Crate and Barrel. I paired it with a new deep pie dish with pretty ruffles. (Thanks to my brother and sister for the Yorkdale gift card for my birthday!) For some reason, an actual quiche dish (the one with the removable bottom) is very shallow. If I had to eat a shallow quiche for dinner I think I'd eat the whole darn thing. I like my quiches nice and deep: a higher filling-to-crust ratio and, let's be honest, more quiche fits on a plate... This ruffled pie dish was perfect.


These days I use Michael Smith's recipe for pie crusts but using the food processor. I think the last time I blogged about a quiche (wow, that was a long time ago) I used Ina's recipe which calls for both butter and shortening. Michael Smith's recipe has been just as flaky and tasty and lately I try to keep things simple.

Also, I think I've changed my mind on the idea of blind baking the pie crust first. Again, out of laziness and the need to get the quiche done before Lily wakes up from her nap, I've just poured the quiche filling straight into the unbaked pie crust (I always chill the crust while I'm assembling the filling), then straight into the oven. I think it turns out pretty great!

For this deeper dish, I used 6 eggs and 1.5 cups of milk, whisked in the smoked salmon pate, added some chopped green onions, and blanched broccoli.

I love eating quiches with an arugula salad. I find the peppery leaf cuts the richness of the quiche really well, but any leafy salad with a nice tangy dressing would go great.


While the quiche was baking in the oven, my dear friend Rebecca called me from Ireland. "Write more blog posts!" she begged. So instead of watching another episode of Top Chef Masters, here you have another blog post in less than a week!

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Pickled peppers, train trips, nursing strikes and more!

Inspired by Barney's one-minute recap of his relationship with Robin, I have decided to do a speed recap to update you all on the goings on in the Dunwell house!

Ready? *big breath*

We went raspberry picking with Emily and Lucas. Also got some hot peppers. Used Michael Symon's method/recipe to pickle them. mmmm. Highly recommended.

We rented a cottage in the 1000 islands and went on our first vacation with Lily. Lily played on the dock. She didn't fall in the gross green water, but Mackenzie did -- 4 times.



Lily is getting bigger, loving her solid foods, has two bottom teeth and a couple more cutting through on the top. She still doesn't like being on her tummy. It is unlikely she will learn to crawl.




She took her first train trip to Ottawa where she caught her first cold. *sniff* (Literally.)

A week ago, Lily went on a nursing strike. I cried a lot. She cried a lot. We forced her to drink milk from a sippy cup. The strike finally ended yesterday. Phew. 6-day strike. Not fun. Probably one of the hardest things I've ever gone through.

Dustin started his first job last week. 12 years of university. Big milestone. Next on the list: new car. Our poor '95 Corolla deserves a retirement.

Dustin is on a purge. He tried to donate my rollerblades to Goodwill. I fought to keep them. I won. He tried to donate my wedding dress. I fought to keep it. He won. Hopefully it helps raise some money for cancer research.

My goals for the next month: sew some fall/winter gear for Lily, finish a quilt, go to the theatre to watch Pitch Perfect, celebrate our 5 year anniversary (I know! 5 years! crazy!), bake a pie, eat a pie, and maybe I should really get started on finding Lily a daycare...

*exhale*

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Wee Urban sleep sacks

Great customer service is just so hard to find these days.

All I want is for someone to pick up the phone. Someone to return an email. Someone who knows their product and stands behind it.

I find it so frustrating that a certain giant baby-toy store (that I won't be so unprofessional as to name) has such terrible service, product, and return policy. My friend actually had to argue about returning a baby mirror for the car after realizing that it makes you look like you're at the county fair where you pay $1 to look like you have a fat nose and one eye bigger than the other. They told her it had been opened and used. The fact that the product was terrible and that it was going to cost *unnamed giant baby store* pennies to make the customer happy was irrelevant. The teenage girl working the boring Wednesday afternoon shift didn't care and just wanted to get on with her day.

Enter Diaper Eez: a cute little baby shop in Bloor West Village where Dustin and I chose to get our cloth diapers for Lily. We tried to do our cloth diaper research online but it was actually mind blowing how confusing everything was. We stopped by Diaper Eez and got the low down from an incredibly knowledgeable sales lady. They always answer their phone. They answered my emails when I complicated our baby registry. Best of all, they stock their shop with products that they love and recommend.

Lily has always been a feisty baby, even in the womb. She quickly learned how to wriggle her way out of swaddles and kick off any blankets. I was in need of a sleep sack. With leftover gift cards at *unnamed ridiculous baby store* I figured I'd look there first. The selection was dismal: polyester polar fleece, made in China, no special features, overpriced. And I was scared to open it and try it out since they would likely never accept a return or exchange.

At Diaper Eez they had not one, but two Toronto-designed, Canadian-made sleep sacks to choose from. I was debating between a multi-layered cotton sleep sack with front zip and extra breathability, and the Wee Urban sleep sack made with extra soft sweatshirt material. I decided to opt for the Wee Urban because of the shoulder snaps and side zipper that made getting our super-wriggly Lily into and out of the sack much easier.

We loved it. The giraffes were an extra bonus.


Then disaster struck.

After using it for about 2 months, the snap on the left shoulder ripped. Is this common? If I buy another one will it just happen again? The other 2 snaps looked to be in great shape... Dare I try and ask for them to repair it?

I went to the Wee Urban website and wrote them a quick email. Hours later (not days -- hours) I received the kindest email from Wee Urban apologizing for the defect and offering to send me a new one as soon as possible. You see, they wanted to ensure that Lily's sleep was disrupted as little as possible.

I was beyond shocked. What kindness. What fantastic service. What confidence in their product. All they asked in return was for me to send the defective sleep sack back to them so they could see what went wrong.

I wish more businesses were like this. I can't tell you how many times Dustin and I have called companies looking to give them business: window repair, driveway snow removal, physiotherapy, and they just don't call us back, let alone offer customer satisfaction in guaranteeing their product.

Good customer service is so important to me. Since discovering Diaper Eez, three of our friends have gone there to purchase their cloth diapering systems. I'm pretty sure the next few baby gifts I give will be the Wee Urban sleep sack. The next time you think about going to buy a baby-something from the store that rhymes with Shmoys R Us, try visiting a local baby shop. You will be pleasantly surprised!

Here is Lily modelling her GroVia pink peacock diapers from Diaper Eez.

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Rollin' with the homies

Lily turned 6 months old on Thursday and she has hit some major milestones!

As with most things in life, her wonderful achievements have not come without hardships.

1. She has learned to roll over! Lily has never been much of a "lie down and play" baby, but now that she can roll, she seems to enjoy it more. She will roll and roll until she reaches the end of the quilt, then we pick her up and start her back at the beginning. You see, much like Derek Zoolander, she is not an ambiturner: she can only roll in one direction. So the one downside to all this rolling excitement is that she has been getting stuck in her crib, unable to unwedge herself from the edge. We are hoping this is a short phase and she will quickly learn to rectify this problem. The sobs are unbearable.

2. She has started solids! She is loving it (she has the Fong gene in her!) and could not get enough of it in the early days! She has since gotten over the initial excitement but is still a relatively good eater. The downside is that she has always been a finger sucker, eye rubber, and ear puller. Solid food is a messy art and by the end of our meal she will have baby cereal in all nooks and crannies of her face.

Along with these two major milestones, she is very close to sitting up on her own and we also think that she may be getting some teeth. She is chewing on anything and everything she can get her hands on -- including her own feet.

It is really incredible how much Lily is maturing. It wasn't long ago that I would spend all day sitting on the couch trying to stop her from crying. Now she's eating solids, pooping like a Dunwell, singing along to my silly songs, and rollin' with the homies!

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Oh bring back my bonnet to me

I lost it. The brand new bonnet that I sewed for Lily. Yes, the one I just posted about.

In a chaotic kerfuffle at the park, the bonnet was misplaced. We returned to the park a couple hours later, scoured the area, even checked if it was not atop another cute child's head, but alas, we have declared it officially gone.

I don't know if I was more heartbroken or more relieved that I had made the bonnet. All that hard work, gone, but at least I can sew her another.

To mourn the loss of the truck-bonnet, I did a one-eighty and sewed her new bonnet out of the leftover elephant fabric from her houndstooth quilt. A pink bonnet with lace ties. Sorry Dustin, pretty much as girly as it gets.

Lily was nice enough to model the new bonnet on my birthday picnic!

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