Since starting this blog well over a year ago, I have barely written. It's hard writing and having a family but mostly I just forget! With that, I clearly have no followers! Who follows a blog that doesn't post? Nobody! So my goal for the next little while is to post once a month. I can do that right?! Well here it goes! I'll start with a bit of a re-introduction.

Hello!

My name is Nicole but don't call me that... I've been known as Nikki since birth. My parents don't even call me Nicole. In fact, I think I've heard my mom say Nicole once in my life.

I am a mother of two great boys that keep me on my toes and wife to my handsome hardworking husband, Evan. 

In December 2013, I gave birth to my first. A boy named Cooper. The following year, I started sewing bibs and teethers and with that Cooped Up Creationz was born! I love seeins and crafting but heading back to work, I didn't have a lot of time to work on it. In figured once the second was born in 2016, that I would have a lot of time to work on it but 2 kids takes up a lot of my time!

I've recently closed up shop for the summer. I made the big decision to give up my craft room to make space for a second student. So this summer our goal is to convert the playroom to a combined craft and playroom, giving the big craft room to our first student, Kitty.

Cooper starts kindergarten in the fall, so hopefully, I'll have time for note things!

Well, I'm off to start another project! Here it goes!

The Power of the Mom Group

In May 2013, I found out I was pregnant! What an exciting time but I also didn't know too many moms pregnant and in the same stages as myself. I was on a few forums but most of the moms were from the USA, and while you wouldn't think it would be THAT different because they're our neighbours, my oh my were they different. Half the conversations were about money. How will they afford the birth or even prenatal visits to the doctor or if they've figured out childcare yet... Some women hadn't even peed on a stick yet and they were already trying to sort out child care??!  I am blessed to be Canadian and not have to worry about those things especially in the first few weeks of pregnancy! 

So I continued my search and landed upon baby center. It was here that I found a group of Canadian moms all due with January 2014 babies!

Baby center isn't the easiest way to communicate, so someone created a secret Facebook group. It was here that I've created some of the best friendships I've ever had.

In the early stages of this group, we talked about all things pregnancy related. From cravings to the stress of spontaneous bleeding to doctors appointments and finding out genders. We got to know each other fairly well and even went out for dinner with some local ladies while all pregnant. 

After babies were born it was nice to have play dates as well as have someone to talk to in the middle of the night with a baby on your boob.

It wasn't always happy times, we had our group drama when a woman was trying to scam people out of money as well, sleep deprived moms can say things they don't mean. We shared about all kinds of issues including illnesses and partners splitting up as well as the exciting things like weddings and new siblings!

Having "known" these women for almost 5 years, they were one of the first places I talked to about a terminal illness in my extended family. I was met with prayers and love which meant the world. These women truly cared.

Then a few weeks after this news one of the moms from the group (whom I actually went to highschool with but didn't really know) asked if she could stop by. Her and another mom came by with a gorgeous bouquet of purple tulips and a basket full of meals from a local farm. What a thoughtful gift to say they were thinking of me and my family. But it wasn't just from them, it was from my birth group. These women (some I've never even met) had reached out. They all put together some money so that I could have a special day at the spa with my family member.

How blessed am I to have found such amazing people? I still tear up thinking about it. I'm so glad I stumbled upon the baby center page. I never would have thought that a group of online strangers would become like family and be my biggest support when I needed it the most.

Wild One!

As I lay on the floor of my now 20 month old kiddos room because he isn't sleeping, I thought I should write his first birthday post! Holy Moly. Birthday post. It's been over 6 months! Clearly I have not been focused on writing.

We've been busy with so much but I'll get into that in another post! Onto Parker's first birthday!

Having a kiddo born so close to Christmas, you miss out on all the fun outdoor activities. Not that it gets THAT cold here in Abbotsford but it's rainy. So, I was very excited to have a summer baby! We've been pretty lucky the last few years in June with the weather. This year was no exception. The sun was shining. And it went perfectly with the theme! We did a "Wild One" theme. It was filled with everything outdoor! The kids got to play outside the whole time, which made the cleanup easy! Maybe one of my favourite parts of the party!

The first thing I made for the party was his own wild one shirt. Simple because who knows how long he'll wear it or how dirty he'll get it.  I made a lot of little decorations, like a banner for the cake but most of it we already had or i bought on bidding wars. I picked up these adorable lanterns for a few dollars. They don't work but for decorations, who cares. Plus we were able to re-use our cake stands from our wedding that Evan made. 

Sweet Koru Confections made the cake. To say she is talented is an understatement. This woman is amazing when it comes to baking! This is just something she does for fun! She needs a storefront pronto! Pop the cake on top of the cake stand and you'd think it was artwork.

I made the cupcakes and cookies with the ideas from Pinterest. It was only my second batch of cookies with flood icing and I think they turned out pretty good. They definitely tasted better than they looked though.

One of my favourite parts of the day was the Smores Bar. You have to have smores when you go camping. It's tradition! I needed something safe around kids, while still getting the melted chocolate.... So Fondue pot to the rescue! They were so good, plus there were extras to eat after everyone left! 

All in all it was a great day and a fun party! And maybe for his second birthday, I won't be so behind in posting about it!

And one more photo just because...... 

We got a Kitty!

We have been up to so much in the last little while. Including our newest addition! No, I didn't have a baby but we did get a Kitty! She is a 16 year old girl from Beijing, China. She gave herself the name Kitty for in Canada. How cool is that to pick your own name! She has only been staying with us for roughly a week but so far it has been great.

Such a change from two loud toddlers. She is quiet and keeps mostly to herself or is often out with friends or her family. She was quite lucky to have had her parents and younger brother come with her to drop her off. Plus Vancouver is such a great vacation spot.

Most of the clutter gone!

I did enjoy getting her room set up. My boys don't exactly notice or care about their rooms. Maybe when they're older but at 4 and 1, it really doesn't phase them. First thing we needed to build a wall. Our original plan was that I would move my craft room into the play room. It is L shaped and we had it curtained off to hold all of our storage (okay, it was mostly junk!). Things when we moved in 2.5 years ago, that haven't been touched since. Pretty sure we're good to get rid of it! Anyways, we decided it would be more practical to keep my craft room the way it is and build a room for Kitty. So once Evan built the wall and put in the door, I was able to paint.

Clutter is gone!

The wall is built!

I picked up a wicked deal on paint at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I love this store. If you've never been, check to see if there is one in your area. It is a home and building supply store that accepts and resells new and used building materials. So it's essentially a thrift store for building supplies! I like that it helps fund local Habitat for Humanity home building projects. Plus it's environmentally friendly because it saves these items from ending up in a landfill. The big container (five gallon) cost me only $50 plus tax for brand name paint! There was nothing wrong with it, it was just a mis-tint (which looks almost the same as the paint in the playroom!). So someones mistake saved me a LOT of money. Not that I needed 5 gallons but I can now paint the laundry room and probably Cooper's bedroom. I quickly touched up the trim and ceiling with the leftover paints from when we did the main bathroom and the room was done!

Now for the fun part! I was able to pick up a bed frame with drawers from a friend (free) and slapped on some DIY chalk paint (eveything I already had). Evan added new slides to the drawers but that was fairly inexpensive. I had the hardware for the drawers but I just wasn't feeling it, so while I was walking through Bibles for Missions Thrift store, I found a baggie of hardware! Only $2. It matched perfectly with the hardware on the dresser.

The dresser I found on bid wars. $10 bucks! What a steal. I'm guessing by the hardware that it was from the 80's but it did the job! The hardware was tarnished and I debated spray painting it but decided to clean it up. I googled how to clean brass and I think I tried them all. Finally I used melamagic from Melaleuca. This stuff is one of my favourite products. It is honestly magic. It polished them up so nicely. I decided to do a second clean, to see if I could get them even shinier and forgot about them over night. So the water lifted the paint that was on them. Whoops. But I actually liked them this way! So I "stripped" the rest, leaving one set with the white paint on them. I gave the dresser a quick coat of my DIY chalk paint. And then used my silhouette to make a stencil and I stenciled on little triangles onto the drawers. So cute!

Not long before we decided to get an international student. I planned to sell the desk I had bought for $5 a few years earlier. It's technically a kids desk but I didn't know that when I got it. It has these cute hairpin legs and knowing that they're super trendy right now, I thought I could totally sell this desk. Nobody bid on it. Not a single person. WHY?! Hot pink hairpin legs! I was shocked. So I thought maybe it's the colour. I spray painted them flat black and before I finished painting them, we decided on a student! This is perfect, I had a desk and it is the cutest little desk!

My parents were helpful by lending us a wardrobe and nightstand from their empty loft. Plus I found a cute brass picture frame at HomeSense to help tie in the whole "theme" as well as a great little mirror that was on clearance for only $14. A desk chair from Ikea and a simple rug from Walmart and we have a room! I tried calculating it all out, with the cost of the wall and a new mattress, we paid under $800 to build and furnish an entire room. These are bargains that I like!

Hopefully she likes it as much as I do. What do you think?

MIA and Camping!

I haven't written since May? That cannot be right! Well, I guess the time stamps don't lie. It's easy to forget writing. If only my thoughts automatically typed out then things would get done a lot faster. Anyways, enough excuses from me. What have we been up to? SO MUCH!

This has been a fun Summer. Filled with camping, swimming, sprinklers and avoiding the heat laying in our air conditioned house! Plus the usual chores, renovations and yard work. Parker turned ONE! Holy moly time flies. I'll make a separate post just for his birthday later (hopefully soon.... not in 4 months).

So this summer we went camping with one of my closest friends and her family. Her daughter and Cooper are best friends. He will even tell you that Lily* is "my girl". And before you start getting wedding bells in your head.... They're "cousins". While it was a great camping trip, there are definitely things I would change. Camping with toddlers is hard! I've camped in snow, torrential down pours, in the bush and yet it has nothing on camping with toddlers. 

I will say that I was a little under prepared for the weather. It was slated to be hot all week. Not while we're camping! I froze my little (big?) tooshie off. Plus the air mattress that we brought for Cooper had no cap, thus no air. So he slept on a water floatie..... that clearly had a hole in it! That morning Evan and I went into town to grab some warmer clothing and something for Coop to sleep on. 

So the unfortunate part of camping in the Summer in BC is that there are campfire bans. My cousins had just gone canning and had taken a propane fire pit. Genius! So we packed up the fireplace and it worked perfectly. 

Our campsite was great. We had an empty area behind us that the two big kids could run around in. The only downfall was that because we had two tents on the site, it made for very little space for the kiddos to ride their bikes. Plus when the youngest cries for hours during the middle of the night, your camping mates can hear your awful rendition of "Hush little baby".

Overall, it was a great experience and we definitely know for next time to be more prepared! 

Three-Oh

I have something to confess.

Recently, I turned thirty!

To most people this wouldn't be a big deal but to me, this has been a huge deal. The worst part is that I don't actually know why I hate the thought of being thirty. I know it's just a number and we all age but for some reason this birthday has been a big issue for me. To prepare for it, I decided to reverse age a couple years ago to give me a couple more years in my twenties BUT I was called out. My wonderful Hubby decided to plan a 30th birthday bonanza!

I was excited when he brought up the idea. Not having to do anything for a party was a fabulous idea! Even though I know he's not a planner and I'd end up doing part of it myself. In my mother's words, I'm a bit of a control freak. So Evan planned out the food with my mother while I was able to put my Silhouette Cameo 3 to good use and do the decor.

I started with making toppers for a cake and cupcakes. For the cupcakes I used a gold cardstock and glued the numbers onto a toothpick. These sat perfectly upon my favourite Red Velvet Cupcakes. The cake topper I did the same but reversed the image to back it and give the script a little more strength. If I were to redo the cake topper, I would get some thicker cardstock. It was a little flimsy and bent quite easily. It placed perfectly up top the gluten free mocha cake that my husband got from The Polly Fox Bakery. This cake was so good plus nobody would guess that it was gluten free. Every last bite of it was enjoyed. Mostly at the party and the rest I ate before the kids woke up in the morning. 

My next crafty item is probably my favourite. A month and a half later it is still on the front door. This was my first attempt at a rolled rose. My brain is still a bit mush after 2 kids, so, it took me many attempts before I finally figured it out. Hot glue was the answer! I can't wait to make some big flowers for my craft room. Such an easy and cute look, once you know what you're doing.

As I'm writing this I've already changed my mind on favourite item for the party. It has to be the pinata! My brother in law's partner, Alejandro, is from Mexico, so for Coopers first birthday he brought an authentic pinata! It didn't get used for that party, so it has since sat in my parents garage, our garage and finally our basement. Evan was set on party games. He wanted something like pin the tail on the donkey but as I was cleaning up the basement, I saw it. The perfect party game for a 30 year old. It just needed a little refresh to match my colours. After a can of spray paint and some more flowers we had the coolest pinata ever. We don't really have a ceiling to do it inside, so outside we went to play. We sure got some stares from the neighbours... It also could have been because I was in a tutu.

As you know, I have two beautiful boys. I don't get to have frilly outfits for their birthdays, so I insisted that I have one fore my own! Off to fabricland I went to purchase some tulle and the cheapest knit fabric I could find. I had researched on pinterest different ways to make them, so, I figured it couldn't be too hard. Tulle is hard! It's

so fluffy and slippery. That is the hardest thing I have ever sewn. It is definitely not perfect as I finally said good enough but it was still cute. I paired it with a t-shirt I made that truly represents my age. 29-ish.

It was such a great day and I'm so thankful to have been able to spend it with my friends and family. I better keep the shirt in good shape as I'll be needing it again next year.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I love to bake although I don't usually have much time. Baking for fun and baking with a toddler is a whole new ball game. Anytime I have a special event coming up, I make these cupcakes. They're always a hit and I rarely have leftovers. The hint of lemon in the frosting adds the perfect tartness to these moist chocolate delights! 

Photo by Lea Caveberry Photography.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

1⅓ cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

¾ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ cup unsalted butter

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs

½ cup buttermilk

1 tbsp liquid red food coloring

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp vinegar

Frosting:

8 oz package softened cream cheese
1 tsp lemon juice
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1½ cup icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

To make cupcakes:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, with mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy and creamy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time.
4. In a glass measure, combine buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar.
5. With mixer on low, beat in flour mixture, alternating with milk mixture, until blended. Beat for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally, until batter is smooth. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. I use an ice cream scoop. It seems to make the perfect amount every time.
6. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until a pick inserted into cupcakes comes out clean. Let cool in pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack. Cupcakes should be cool before frosting.

To make frosting:

1. With mixer on medium, beat cream cheese, lemon juice and butter until well blended.
2. Add icing sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth and fluffy. I like to firm up my frosting a little bit by popping it into the fridge for 10 minutes.
3. Once frosted, I’d recommend placing the cupcakes back into the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving.