favorite things

I think my singular favourite thing about the holidays is tradition.  It is the repetition of acts, from year to year, generation to generation, that I hold the most dear.  And nothing makes me happier than when my children see the value in those things as well.  This year, as we scanned our very over scheduled calendar to try and find a few hours on a weekend when we were ALL free to go to the country to the usual tree farm to get our fresh tree, there was no time to be found.  When I suggested we instead just pick up a tree in the city, the kids protested.  Together, they decided to make some sacrifices, skip some activities- ringette, hockey, dance classes- and MAKE the time to maintain our family tradition.  And so we did.  Sure, it was literally -40 degrees on the day we chose, but we bundled up and still merrily chose our tree, went on a sleigh ride, and drank hot chocolate as we do every year.  

It was magical.

I also love digging out the Christmas decorations every year.  Ornaments the kids have made, pictures with Santa, and some of my favourite Crafts of Christmas' Past.  

Like the Best Tree Ever hoop and Merry hoop.

My quilted tree wall hanging made by my friend Cherie.

My hand quilted star table topper.

My Retro Christmas Quilt!

 (to name a few).

Whatever the holiday season means to you, I hope it is filled with love and joy.  I recently asked LBNL if she knew the "true" meaning of Christmas.  She replied, "Of course!  It's about baby Jesus, friends and family!"  May your holiday be filled with all of those…and maybe throw in a few fabric presents ;)

See you in 2014!

shine a light for peace

Today I thought I would share a video clip from my children's recent school Christmas concert.  As usual, hundreds of proud parents, grandparents and relatives stuffed the school gymnasium to beam and cheer as their wee loved ones performed.  This year, Last But Not Least was chosen to do a solo for the final song, where all of the students came together to sing.  The song is called "Shine a Light for Peace," and given the events in Connecticut this weekend, and that it is sung by children that same age, it is all the more poignant to me.  Plus, I am an extremely proud, gushing mama :)  Hope you enjoy it!

Wishing you all Peace.

Christmas quilt

It is that hectic time of year, where we crafters play elf and try to make things for all the people we love.

I am in that group, of course, but this year, I took a little time to make something just for me and my family.  It's been awhile coming!  Two years ago, I bought a kit for this quilt from Amy at Diary of a Quilter.  she recently made another herself, which you can see here.  Last year I started piecing it, and this year, I finally finished it.  And it was worth the wait.

A simple pattern, but so cheery.  It makes me smile.

I quilted it with swirls, my first time venturing out into this kind of FMQ, and after a wee issue (well, a third of the back was a mangled mess and had to be ripped out), I got my groove and I love the result.  Perfect match for this quilt, me thinks!

I look forward to pulling this one out for many Christmases to come for my family to enjoy.

And one last fun shot- my reflection in my house window as I was walking through the yard, "wearing" the quilt after finishing photographing in the snow :)

And this quilt is my Friday Felicity!  Have a great weekend, friends! And take time to give someone you love a hug...especially your kids, after the terrible tragedy this morning in Connecticut.  May our kids never experience such horrible violence.

you gotta love the minds of kids :)

Driving to school, I told my kids that I saw a deer on my morning run. This created quite a lively debate between the three of them:

"Maybe it was a REINDEER!"
"Maybe Santa is checking up on kids to make sure they are good!"
"Did you see a red light?  Maybe it was Rudolf!"
"No, Rudolf does, like, ALL the heavy pulling on Christmas Eve, he is probably at the North Pole resting up."
"Maybe it was Dasher!"
"Or Dancer!"
"Or Prancer!

Then The Middle Child piped up, "Or maybe it was just a regular old deer named Brad."

merry and bright

We got our tree this weekend!  We went to the usual tree farm and took in all the annual traditions.  The sleigh ride:

Hot chocolate and hot dogs and snuggling by the fire:

And scoring a tree, of course :)

We finished decorating it Monday night.  The Hubs and I laughed about how, for so many years, we had clumps of ornaments, 10 or so per branch, all along the bottom and a naked tree top.  Now, it is all about the ladder for the kids.  They want to go up HIGH.  They even started scaling the walls to deck the halls :)

Crazy kids! And of course there was some rocking out to Harry Connick Jr. Christmas tunes (in pajamas apparently 3 sizes too small)....

....and other horsing around, too.

But the final result was, once again, the best tree ever :)

twinkle :)

Finished up my circle of stars mini quilt/ table topper!

I decided to do some hand quilting...I think it finished off the project perfectly.  I practiced using a couple different kinds of stitches...french knots, crosses and so on.  I just let it evolve and had fun. 

While I was stitching away, I was in my glory watching this movie.  Do you know it?  Classic stuff.  One of my favorites from the 90s....toe pick!

The plan is to use this as a table topper, but in case I change my mind down the road, I added these triangles on the back for a dowel so I can use it as a wall hanging as well.

And now it has a place of honour on the table for the holiday season!

 

I am so pleased with how this came together.   Sharing over at Quilt Story.

Awesome swaps, take 2

In addition to some fantastic pillows, I also received a second fun swap package last week, from Cherie of Sew and So Quilts.  Cherie and I met at Sewing Summit last year, and have been friends ever since.  She found some adorable slippers on Pinterest and wondered if I could make her a pair.  I did a test knit, making some for myself to figure out the process first, then made some for Cherie.  I sent them off along with some assorted goodies, many the same as in Svetlana's package (and never thought to take a photo first, oops!).   In exchange, she agreed to make me this wonderful holiday mini:

(I was too excited to iron this first, haha!)

I just love it!  I have had this pattern (from Purl Bee) on my to-do list for ages!  I love that it was instead made by a friend, so that I can smile and think of her each Christmas when I hang it on my wall :)

She did a fantastic job, I  adore all of the fabrics she chose, the quilting, the binding and backing...the whole shebang!  Now I just have to pick up a dowel so I can hang it on my wall this holiday season, and for many more to come.  Thanks so much for a great swap, Cherie!

Summer 2012

Summer days are the best of days, aren't they? Time moves without being watched so closely, laughter comes more easily and there is a general air of laziness that is not well tolerated during other seasons. As a person who spends 95% of my time doing what needs to be done, when it needs doing, I especially relish the three weeks holidays we set aside each summer to be completely, utterly unscheduled. Dinners slow cooked by barbecue while sipping wine, waking without and alarm, reading trashy novels while digging my toes in the sand, cut off from the world. No jewelry but my wedding ring and a hair elastic around my wrist. No makeup but the bronze on loan to me from the sun. That is what summer means to me.

There was time for crafting, too! Items were knit; quilts were made. But I will share that in a later post. This post is about memories made. Warning: prepare for family vacation photo overload. I am hopeless at keeping a journal, so this is it!

Maybe summer is so cherished because it is so fleeting. In Canada it only lasts about 2 months, give or take. Kids finish school on the last day of June and summer is promptly heralded in with fireworks and parades on Canada Day, July 1. As always we spend the July long weekend in the cottage community of Lac du Bonnet, where my husband was raised, with his family.

The first week of July we welcomed visitors from Japan, and spent 7 days being hometown tourists, taking in all the sights through foreign eyes to gain a new appreciation of how good we have it. This was a friendship forged 20 years ago, when Wakako and I met during a Rotary exchange trip, and we have kept in touch over the years. It was amazing to bring our families together, and my most precious memories of this visit involve watching our children bond without the luxury of language, to see them find common ground and share the universal language of laughter.

Next up- vacate to the lake! With our cottage still out of commission, we decided to rent one for a couple weeks in Whiteshell Provincial Park.

It was heavenly. Long days on the beach in the sunshine, making sand castles, out on our boat tubing and fishing, roasting marshmallows on the campfire, and leaping off of docks and waterfalls!



Some of our favourite memories: We packed a picnic lunch and canoed to an island on the lake, pulled up and swam and ate and explored. There were some animal bones on a rock, a bird or some such thing, but it was so cute to listen to our kids talk of their "dinosaur bone" discovery!

The kids made a new game, "sink the tube," where they purposely did just that, ending with the tube popping into the air and sending them all flying, followed by gales of laughter.

And I don't think I have ever seen Big G smile as wide as when he caught his fish!
It's not a trip to the beach unless someone gets buried in the sand...too inviting have a pile of fresh stuff conveniently dumped right there!

And I am sure I will never forget when the kids heard the "Sexy and I Know It" song come on the radio....and instantly stripped down to their gitch and put their hands on their heads and did this mildly horrifying pelvic thrust wiggle dance! Where do they learn this stuff?? Luckily inside the cabin....oy vay! Will skip that photo.....

And here is where I was attacked in a wrestling match by "The Underwear Boxers" gang. Yes, I am under that pile of hooligans. I am sure you can see where the name originated!

After our cabin time was done, we had more fun in store. We hooked up the trailer and headed west to Riding Mountain National Park to Clear Lake.

We hadn't been there since before we had kids, and it was a blast. The lake is located on the beach town of Wasagaming, and it is full of cute shops, wonderful bakeries (best cinnamon buns EVER!), an adorable 75 year old log cabin movie theatre, and restaurants and such.

You know a place has everything when they have lollipops with insects in them (eew).

Everything at Clear Lake is accessible by bike, so we had a blast peddling from beach to town for ice creams, and taking in a festival with a parade and bouncers and the like.

Another bonus? Government operated kid camps! Every day they had camps that ran for an hour or two with arts and crafts, or where they would learn about fish or birds or insects and the like. The kids participated in a few of the camps during our week there...and we adults would then operate a "Cocktail Camp," enjoying sangria and appetizers at on of the local patio restaurants. Good times!

Speaking of cocktails, in one store the hubs came across this and nearly hyperventilated with joy-

You see, he mistakenly read this as "BEER bell". A bell to ring when it is time to replenish my beer??? What in life could be better than that? I felt a little bad when his first grade daughter corrected his error, he looked so crestfallen. But this was also and excellent segue into the importance of literacy...stay in school kids!

Speaking of school, that is just around the corner. A couple more weeks to enjoy the summer sun (though hockey camps have already begun. sigh). Hope you all had an amazing time with your families! I will be back again soon to share my crafty conquests :)