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.

complete!

Yay! It is nice to post pictures of projects that are finally completed! The quilt has been done of a while now, I just had to put on the binding, which I did today! The purse is on its way to Florida.. I hope you like it Liz.