new quilt

A new project that I have been working on. I just need to add and inner border (not shown) and put on the outer borders. I was a really fun quilt to make.

The "boyfriend hat"

On a very rare occasion, Darren happened to be with me, as I was salivating through a yarn shop. I was really looking for a new project but didn't know what to make. He asked me if I would make him a toque? Well of course!!!! He picked out a yarn and colour that he liked except we didn't have a pattern. When we got home, I immediately searched on ravelry for just the right hat pattern for the yarn that I bought...when I came across the link for this free pattern.

http://stephanieknits.blogspot.com/2007/03/keeping-boyfriends-ears-warm-since-2006.html

Yarn....Check
Pattern....Check
The next two days off of work... Check
.... I am good to go!

An Omen?

This is Stuart

This is our couch

This is what Stuart has done to our couch

This is the new couch

This is the name of the new couch... Does anyone else find this funny?

I have been soooo embarrassed with the state of our old couch, but given what Stuart (aka "Mr. wreakin' stuff") has done to it, we have been hesitant to replace it.

As I was touring Costo this evening, I came across this great couch which was the perfect colour, the perfect shape, and the perfect price! My Dad came down and helped me bring it home. It wasn't until we had it packed in the van, that I saw the name on it. My initial thought was, "ha ha that's funny"... then as the irony of it sunk in, I thought..."OMG! What have I done?"

Asian-style bag

I love, love, love this new project! The Bag pattern is from the book "Free-Style Handmade Bags & Skirts."

The dark fabrics are what I am going to use for the exterior of the bag. I plan making my own patchwork fabric, and then cutting out the pattern afterwards. The green will be the lining. and I am going to use green buttons like in the photo, and hopefully I can find a similar handle in black.

Ryan's quilt

It is my Great Nephew's first Birthday in April, and I am pretty pleased with myself to have started on his gift already! We had this great fabric in the store that came with a panel of aphabet letters for applique. I thought that I could kill two birds with one stone and make this quilt for little Ryan, and then lend it to my sister so that she can use it as a sample in her store. I love to piece quilts, however I usually stop when it comes time to do the machine quilting. I have to start somewhere so I figured that I would give it a try on this quilt.

White Christmas!

How beautiful is that! What a wonderful Christmas gift to wake up to. So calm, and quiet, and so nice to look at through our livingroom window as we were opening gifts, in the morning. We had even MORE snow after that photo was taken.

An anniversary of sorts

Today Darren and I start our 18th year together. I was 17 when I met him, so I have officially been with him longer than I haven't been with him.... If that makes any sense.

Decorate.....and Destroy!

Just one of our silly holiday traditions. We call it "Decorate... and Destroy" As the name describes we decorate the the annual gingerbread house, take a token picture for the scrapbook..... then start digging in. What can I say...."I live with boys"

Cheese and Crackers

I finally finished this quilt top. It is a triple irish chain pattern, but with a great pieced border that I absolutely love. I really should have written down the amount of time that I spent working on it. At 83" x 83" ..... it was ALOT of time.

She can knit in the round!

I took a two part class this past week to learn knitting in the round and here is the result! A very simple design, but I like how the variegation in the yarn gives it stripes. Now all I want to do is knit hats! This one will be a Christmas gift for me mom.

Rememberance Day

The eleventh hour of the eleveth day of the eleventh month. This marks the signing of the armastice on November 11, 1918, to signal the end of World War One. It is at this time of the year that we wear a red poppy in memory of those who sacrificed thier lives for us during times of war

Lest We Forget

Drum roll Please.....

Well here it is.. a weeks worth of de-cluttering, sorting, and organizing. I have over 80 older scrapbook magazines that I am giving away to a second hand store, and I have some "editing" to do with my magazine stash, as I still have way to many.

Not everything is in the room. I have a laundry basket full of sewing/quilting projects that I need to get into clear boxes as well as a laundry basket of yarn earmarked for certain projects. Once I find some more of the great clear shoe boxes that I like. I will stack them in the left over space in the closet.

I still have to go to Ikea to get a table to replace the blue/gray desk that my scrapbook stuff is on, with the same kind of table that my sewing machine is on. The current scrapbook desk is too dark and it takes up too much space in the room. Of course some pictures on the bare walls smight be nice.

A place for everything.....

....and everything in it's place (Sort of) I am very lucky to have a room in my home that I can completely dedicate to the many things that I love to do. Unfortunately I haven't quite been on top of my organizational skills, and the "stuff" in that room, has become unruly. It was time to take charge, and this great bookcase from Ikea was the perfect solution. I still have a bit to do before I have the room completely set up the way that I would like (notice that you don't see pictures of the rest of the room). I am really happy, however, with the progress so far.

Lights, Camera,....Action!

Kind of an exciting day today. I showed up to work, and the front of the store was covered with a movie crew. We knew that they were going to be filming on the street today, but we had no idea the majority of thier "stuff" was going to be laid out in front of the store. Late this evening they were doing some scenes in front of the store, so they totally decked it out in Christmas decorations. Since the store was in the scenes this evening we got to hang out in the background. and because it was late there really wasn't any other on lookers. They even let us sit in the director chairs for a couple of pictures. All in all a pretty cool experience, considering it doesn't happen everyday. I was really excited for the kids, because they thought that this was pretty cool. Jordan loves acting, and wants to be in the film industry both in front, and behind the camera, so he was REALLY excited to see how it all happens. I believe it is a TV movie called The Mrs. Claus (??) starring Lea Thompson. She is the actress that played Marty McFly's mom in Back To the Future! After they were finished filming the scenes she was very kind and stopped to take a picture with us.

We Hiked!

British Columbia is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts..... and although I wouldn't consider myself an all out enthusiast... I have always liked the idea of hiking. I was given a great suggestion by a coworker, of a good place to try.... and that brought me to Lindeman Lake today!

In all it was about a 3 hour round trip for a total of about 3.4 km. It started out deceptively easy... and then got progressively more rocky and a pretty good climb for most of it.

Unfortunately Darren has really bad knee problems so a hike like this is pretty much not possible for him... and Jordan... well he is a teenager.. and really doesn't want to do much of anything that we would like to do... even if he might actually like it. So Jason was may hiking buddy, and we had a great time. There were some really tough spots and he kept on going with a great attitude.

Now I am on the hunt for our next weekend adventure..... I am sure that it will take at least a week for my butt and leg muscles to recover from todays trek.

3 magainzes, 2 books and 1 class

I MUST have books..... to touch.... to read.... to look at... I LOVE them! So every couple of weeks on my way home from work I make a stop at Chapters which is big ass book store. Part of my routine is to pick up something great to sip on from Starbucks as I spend the next couple of hours flipping through MANY books. It is rare for me to walk out of there without at least one book or magazine.

Tonight was an especially good night, as you can see from the picture. I am really excited about the sock knitting book, because I desperately want to knit my own socks.

For the first time in a long time, I also picked up a scrapbook magazine. For reasons to numerous to mention, scrapbooking has been on the back burner for me for a LONG time. After picking up the new Scrapbooks Ect. I decided to go visit a scrapbook store, that I haven't been into for a while. They had a great table set up of their classes, and they were beautiful! So nice in fact that I asked about one of them. Since I used to teach scrapbooking classes myself, I have never taken one before. Since I have been out the loop for so long I need a little kick start. I was pleased that the date of the class worked out with my full time work schedule.... so I signed up! A picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than describe it I will post pictures of the mini album after I take the class.

The fruits of my labour

I have a green thumb!! Well sort of, as long as I can grow it within the confines of the garden space in my front yard. (which is the sunniest spot) Although I have done tomatoes before, this is my first year trying green peppers and herbs. I wasn't sure that the green peppers were doing very well because the plant itself isn't big, so I was shocked when I saw the above green pepper growing.

Darren and I are also really enjoying using fresh herbs in our cooking.. and it tastes soooo much better. A couple of things that we didn't plant this year that we are sure to plant for next year is mint (for Mojitos yum!) and catnip for the kitties.

There is something really cool about growing your own food. I just don't like weeding.

Progress!

We are alot closer to getting it done! Just a little bit more to finish the drywall then we can mud and tape it. I think after that is is done, it should start looking like something. I don't know if I ever posted a picture of our bathroom vanity.. but this is it. It is probably a good Idea to get a picture of it before it gets installed, since the bathroom is long and narrow, I can get a better picture of it now. We had this custom made for us.. and it has been sitting in our living room for over 3.5 years! I still LOVE it and I can't wait to see everything together.

1 beach, 4 deer, 2 bears and a snake!

We had a great time on Sunday during our day trip to Skaha Lake. It is a bit of a drive to get there, but that is part of the fun for us. On the way there we had two deer cross in front of us. I did have my camera handy, but they were running pretty fast!

Of course we had a great time at the beach even though it was crazy hot at almost 37ºC!! which is over 100ºF. The sand was way to hot to walk on without flip flops. As usual this little redhead stayed under the umbrella knitting and reading.

The drive home was alot of fun. We have had satellite radio for a few years now... and it is well worth its weight in gold during long trips. We listened to a couple of the comedy stations and had some great laughs.

We came across a few more deer, and then to our surprise we saw a bear on the side of the road foraging in the grass. This was the first bear that any of us had ever seen that wasn't in a zoo. A little frightening and although I would have loved a picture...it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to stop and get my camera out of the trunk, and we wisely chose not to do so. Then a few minutes later we saw another bear!

I am sorry to say that during our ride home several mosquitos lost thier lives on the front of our car... I am also grossed out to say that a snake did not make his way over the road as he crossed our path while we were going at about 100km/h (60mph) there was no time to stop and Darren drove right over it. Thankfully I was reading a magazine so I didn't see it, but apparently it was about 4 or 5 feet long. I sat with my feet up on the seat for the next half hour just in case it wasn't truly dead and wrapped around our axle and wanted to get revenge by coming up under the seats to "get us" ..... the thought of it still makes me shiver.

Procrastination project #1

I almost didn't get this bag done this week. It wasn't until this weekend that I remembered about wanting to tackle my procrastination list.

Jason has great teachers this year, and I wanted to do something nice for each of them. I decided that I would make them each a bag. I picked out the fabric this weekend, and I had a hard time picking out fabrics that would fit their individual style. After bringing home my choices, I asked Jason which fabric should go to which teacher.. and I was pleased that he matched the fabric to teacher as I had planned.

I only have the one finished, however I have the other two cut, and ready to go. The pattern is an Amy Butler "swing" bag, and it is really easy to put together. What I like most about the bag, is that it is reversible. You might not be able to see it, but the fabric on the inside of this bag is little green lady bugs. (thanks for helping me pick that one Rachel)

In addition to the 3 that I am making for Jason's teachers. I also have plans to make 5 or 6 more for Christmas... actually there are a lot of handmade items that are on my gift list this year.

I was also pleased to finally get the binding on the quilt pictured in the post below. The quilt has been ready for more than 6 months...just waiting for that final touch, so I am happy to get that done.

On my "To Do" list for this week.... The other two bags.