Happy New Year

Here's hoping everyone's holiday was filled with love, laughter and light.

I'm looking forward to a new year that will include fresh beginnings, exciting adventures, and earlier bedtimes (well I can hope, can't I?).

Here are a few photos of the last month around our house:

Sadie and Amelia checking out the goods under the tree

Presents? For me?!!

Holy spit-up! it's Santa!!

Getting around to it

Yes, friends, I am still here!

And now she is too.

I am back from my blogcation and am delighted to announce the safe arrival of our little Amelia Munro. She was born on July 27th at 2:44 pm and weighed a wee 6 lbs 6oz. She was 5/10 when we left the hospital so you can imagine how ridiculously big her car seat seemed. She's packin' it on though, last week she weighed in at a whopping 7/3! :)

I checked into the hospital on Tuesday, July 26th, expecting my "scheduled" section at 2:30 that afternoon. I guess the term "scheduled C-section" is used loosely around here. I was bumped for a full 24 hours due to emergencies and what I suppose was a lack of available medical staff. Because I had to fast, I was S.T.A.R.V.I.N.G. But finally it was game time and I found myself in the O.R. getting prepped for the surgery. It was a much different experience this time around (when Sadie was born via C-section, I had already been in labour for about 6 hours, it was an emergency, and also 2 a.m. so it was all kind of a blur). But this time, it was just your typical Wednesday afternoon and I was completely coherent, and therefore taking in all the details of my strange surroundings.....overhead operation lights, a clock on the wall, heart monitors, surgical tools, an empty bassinet waiting for a baby, and at first 1.....2....then 3...4...5...6...7...8 masked people filing into the windowless room, prepping various stations. Just before I received the anesthetic, I had to focus on a spot on the wall in front of me to avoid panic setting in!

But I can't say enough good things about the team of people that were a part of Amelia's birth. I am so thankful to all of the doctors and nurses. Thank goodness there are people who choose this line of work and are excellent at what they do!

Scott videotaped the entire surgery and delivery. The first thing he said to me was "lots of dark hair!" Then I heard a tiny little cry and saw our second daughter being lifted out of my body. After she was checked over and brought over to me, the first thing I noticed about her was how perfect and fresh and new her skin was. And that newborn smell, OH that wonderful smell! She looks a little bit like her big sister, but also has some of her own unique features of course, like her "uni-dimple" ;)

And just TINY. Almost intimidatingly so. Has anyone seen the movie Babe Pig in the City? You know when the chimpanzees have those babies? That's kind of what she reminded me of....

Now she's 3 and a half weeks old and we're adjusting to life as a family of 4......more about that later. But I will say that it's joy and chaos all in the same moment!

p.s. Ellen is the winner of the K&P baby pool! you were very close, Elle!

Love is in the air

A few pretty pictures to put you in the mood...


Strawberry heart marshmallows by OhYum



Watermelon hearts seen on Pinterest


Pepperoni heart pizza seen on Pinterest


I also love these EmersonMade signature Ts! If I knew I was having another girl you can bet I'd be ordering all three for next year.

Mama size.......

Toddler size......

Infant size.......

cute, cuter, cutest!!

730 days

Happy Halloween.....

Stuffed monster by JUNKERJANE

Today we rode a ghost train and drank hot chocolate.....

Then we carved pumpkins and listened to The Monster Mash.....

Now I'm off to finish decorating for tomorrow and maybe watch a scary movie.....

Have a very haunted Halloween everyone!

Weekend Wedding

August is here.....


A show of hands: who can't believe it?
I feel like spear-heading a "Take Back Summer" campaign...


Even so, the month of July ended on a high note - one of my oldest and dearest friends was married.

Saturday morning consisted of primping & pampering, eating pastries and drinking champagne. Saturday afternoon we dressed in our finery, sealed it with a kiss and drank more champagne. Saturday night we toasted and danced and laughed til we cried.

Here are a few photos from the weekend celebration......

One more - Nikki and I back in the day (circa '97):

Mama in the City Giveaway

Little Sylvie and Bunny Baxter are up for grabs over at one of my favourite blogs, Mama in the City, which also happens to be celebrating its first anniversary this month!

The author of the blog, Andrea, is mama to baby Ben (well not so "baby" anymore....let's face it - our toddlers are growing up!) She is also a Labour/Delivery nurse and lives in the one and only Vancouver, British Columbia. Andrea is a great writer, her husband a talented photographer, and her son is one gorgeous little boy. That's right, all the ingredients of a must-read blog :-)
In fact, vancouvermom.com recently included Mama in the City in the top 30 Vancouver Mom blogs. And it's so fitting that we collaborate on a giveaway, because Andrea was the winner of the first ever Koo & Poppet giveaway last summer.

Oh - and she has coined a term that I LOVE: "Koo madness"

And all you have to do to enter the Koo & Poppet giveaway is leave a comment on her post here.
But make haste - the giveaway is only on for a few more days. But luckily Mama in the City is only a hop, skip and a click away......

good luck!

One Year of Koopoppeting!

Big news, big news! Koo & Poppet turns 1 this month.

[Insert Kooriotous poppet fanfare here]

To commemorate this event, I have decided to make a monumental Koo. One that is the King of Koos, nay, the KING KONG of Koos! It will be so large I will need to use 100 of the 250 bags of stuffing I now have stored in the crawlspace.

No. Seriously now. Let's do something much more practical, but celebratory all at the same time. Let's have a sale! Until June 1st a selection of items in the Koo & Poppet shop will be 50% off. And if you haven't been by the shop in a while, don't miss out - there are several new designs exclusive to 2010. How about Gary? Have you met Gary???

I would also like to thank everyone who has supported Koo & Poppet over the last year. I'm so grateful for the encouragement, the comments, the feedback, the spreading of the word.....and in some cases even the slave labour! *

xo

Sarah

[*Last year, just as I was about to drown in the tidal wave that was the Christmas rush, I called upon my friends and they rallied to help. My parents offered us their empty downstairs room and my dad organized some folding tables and made triangle sandwiches. One by one, male and female, more than a dozen of my closest peeps showed up to assist however they could; cutting patterns, tying ribbon, assembling hang tags. I paid them in licorice and argyle socks. I don't know how I would have filled every order in the month of December without their help (needless to say, I am already preparing for this year). Also needless to say, I have the world's greatest friends.]

I'm off

In four short hours I'm catching a flight from the west coast of Canada to the east.

We're spending Christmas in Prince Edward Island with Scott's family. I'm very excited to get there and slow down the pace a little bit.

This will likely be my last post of 2009, so, on this winter solstice (close enough), I just wanted to thank you all so much for your support during Koo & Poppet's first year. Thank you to those of you who've introduced yourselves on this blog or by any other means. Thank you for stopping by, thank you for reading.

I'm signing off with an assortment of images that remind me of the kind of Christmas I hope to have.

original photo sources found here (thanks to Kristin for introducing me to weheartit!)

Peace and happiness in TwentyTen.

Trim the trees, it's December!

This is me right now - wrapping packages of misfit toys and sending them far and wide.

Except I don't have a piping hot chocolate on my desk like this Elfcat does. 

That's okay though, I have already seriously overdone it on the eggnog lattés this year!

(B - am I right or am I right??)

Poppets Heading for the Southern Hemisphere

Hello Australia!

I have just shipped a large order of kOoKyNeSs to the beautiful Australian children's store, TINY PEOPLE. They should be arriving in early December.

Tiny People has two locations, one in Byron Bay and one in Kirra Beach. They also have an online store here. Their collection of children's picturebooks is especially impressive!

The Christmas rush is in full swing hear at KP HQ, and Cyber Monday, the online equivalent of Black Friday, is just around the corner.

To mark the occasion, both the bunny scarf I posted about last week and Polar Bear Baffin are on sale in my shop.

She has her cake and eats it too....

Sadie celebrated her first birthday on November 6th! 

(Don't worry, that's chocolate, not.......the other stuff)

The Pumpkin Monster

For Sadie's first Halloween, she decided to dress up as an old-fashioned skater:

kind of like this one:

This is me circa '93 back in the old days. Nothing says Rink Rat like ketchup chips and sequins!

I haven't changed much....except my bangs were better back then.

Oh how I miss those times....

Enchanté!

One of my dearest friends, Roxanne, is getting married in August. We celebrated with a Parisian-themed bridal shower on Father's Day, complete with small dogs (Barclay, Montana and Maddy who donned cable-knit), haute couture and french toast with a twist!

Seven years ago Rox and I were backpacking in Europe and eating banana-nutella crepes was part of our daily routine in France (actually, in every country - who am I kidding). Come to think of it, I believe we once stooped so low that we bought a jar of nutella from a grocery store. A jar of nutella and a spoon, that is. 

But that's besides the point. We are much classier now.

To pay homage to our favourite Parisian snack, while keeping it appropriate to serve at a bridal shower, I came up with a most delicious alternative. I made some french toast, cut it into small square pieces and topped them with a smear of nutella and a slice of banana. Then poked a toothpick through the trio and, voila! Bite-size bliss. You really have to try it.

(There's a photo halfway down the page...)

So cute.