he's scooting!

Video! Leo scooting around the kitchen a video by lealoulemonade on Flickr.

I think it's time to start baby-proofing :)

stella & dot garden party - what I actually did (and didn't do)

So sometimes you have grand ideas about parties and then when it comes time to putting them altogether, they don't turn out exactly the way you envisioned. For example, I didn't put all my food out because as I was putting things out, I quickly ran out of space. Then today, I found the cute fabric tape I wanted to use on my marshmallow sticks... I had just totally forgotten about it.

Nonetheless, my Stella & Dot Garden Party was fun and really it's all about the people who come anyway!

Here are a few shots of the table -- and although I forgot to take pictures of Lisa's fabulous table, she has had some professional shots taken by Nataal Colalillo Photography that I added here, which are way better than anything I would be able to take anyway.

These are some delish chocolate treats from Sweet Olenka's (I say delish like I actually ate them yesterday [refer to this post for an explanation] but I have had them before and would likely live soley off of the brownies if it were nutritionally possible).


My carob and skor dipped marshmallows (without the fabric tape flags grr! I guess they wouldn't have worked anyway because I put them right side up)


The healthy stuff - veggies and hummus and my cocktail tomato, basil and bocconcinis


And the drinks!


Here are some fabulous shots of Lisa's Stella & Dot summer table (again all photos by Nataal Colalillo Photography)






Fun stuff! Thanks to Lisa for coming out and putting on a great show!

Happy Sunday!

sometimes ya just need a muffin

Ever since I had this boy, I've had to change my eating habits. It seems that even though I was raised on raw milk on a dairy farm and have no allergies whatsoever, my son has taken to breaking out every time I eat anything wheat-based, dairy-based and recently I realized corn-based (no popcorn for me?? WAAA!). (I should clarify that this is because I breastfeed and eventually I won't have to eat this way anymore)

Do you know how hard it is to go out in public and not be able to eat anything? No muffins, no cookies, no regular lattes, no scones, no pasta, no sandwiches, no pizza(!), no nuthin. On a recent trip home I ate my fair share of chicken salads. That's all that's available to folks like me.

Anyway I needed to bake something - anything! I found quinoa flour at Bulk Barn and went to town making these quinoa muffins this morning. I had blueberries, so I threw those in. I didn't have eggs so I used a trick I found for a ground flax seed substitute (I've used this before and it works wonders!). Also, I used goat milk and butter instead of the cow versions -- for some reason Leo can tolerate those!


And you know what? They're not half bad! They're cakey and do the trick. I even went a bit fancy and made my own parchment liners so I could pretend I bought them somewhere.

I think I'll make a habit of keeping a good stock of these so when I leave the house I'll bring them with me. So what if I look like the geek that brought her own muffin!?