it's me again....

Just dropping in for my bimonthly update?? Is this what is has come to?

Well, to be fair, these past couple months have been more "interesting" than most.

It started with receiving results from a recent food intolerance test for Last But Not Least.  She has always had a sensitive stomach, but recently this has escalated, with frequent stomach aches and diarrhea, and it was time to investigate.  We expected a food allergy but were a bit gobsmacked by this:

Intolerant. To. Everything.  Let me tell you, trying to cook for a kid who can't have dairy, egg, gluten, rice, potato, sunflower, most nuts and more is a bit of a game changer.  No more fast food or processed foods, almost everything from scratch.  It has required a lot of research and time spent scouting out unusual ingredients like yucca root, arrowroot four, coconut butter and more.  But we have made it work. It looks like she is getting some relief from her symptoms, and we are having her tested for Celiac's disease as a precaution.  It is pretty time consuming but we are starting to find some alternatives that work for her.  Good times.

Next, it was off to a much needed holiday- Dominican Republic! Yay!  We enjoyed some of this...

...and a bunch of this...

...for about 2 days.  And then came this:

I am not kidding. I took a tumble over the tiniest ever step, fell hard on a marble floor, knocking myself out in the process even.  But wait, the story does not end there.  We came home, had it all re-examined, and it was actually this:

Which made me want to spend all my time drowning my sorrows like this....

...with the help of my kids, because who knew but it is really freaking hard to open a bottle of beer with 2 broken arms.  Among many, many other other things.  Please trust me on this and do not research for yourself.

So, that has occupied much of my time of late, to say the least. Two broken arms is not exactly compatible with my work as a dentist, so I have been off for the past 7 weeks as I have been recovering and, more recently, starting physiotherapy to regain mobility and strength in my arms.  Back to work later this week though!  Both happy to get back to "normal" and a bit nervous at the same time.

And in the midst of all of this "fun", life continues of course.  Luckily, I have the best friends and family ever who have been incredibly helpful with practical issues like driving my kids to and fro, making meals, or even helping me get dressed or comb my hair!  I am hoping I did not scar my 11 year old son for life by having the first bra he removed on a woman to be his mother's.  

Ah well.  Save that for the therapist.  And of course there was the emotional support, the laughs through the frustrations, sweet gifts from friends.  I am truly thankful for all of it.

While all this was going on, we have also been in the midst of a full blown renovation at the cottage.  Back in September, a leaky fridge hose resulted in all of the flooring needing to be replaced, along with some drywall, lighting and the kitchen counters.  So why stop there? We decided to to a full on gutting.  I came up with the brilliant idea to repaint all of our sturdy but dated oak kitchen and built ins with chalk paint.....which then became the job of the Hubs when I was rendered armless!  Ha! The show must go on! We went out for a few days over Spring Break to put it all together and this is what is happening so far:

Still a ways to go but it is coming together nicely!!  I will be sure to do a full before and after post once things are finished :)

Anyways, that pretty much brings you up to speed.  Crafting was more or less shut down until recently, when I started some short bouts of knitting and hand sewing as a part of my physiotherapy-  I actually had them write it on my instructions as proof to the Hubs that this was "work" for me.  It has been a wonderful thing.  I have a small finished quilt to show you in another post.  

In the meantime, I want let you know that a blog hop is underway for Make It, Take It! Each of the contributors is having a turn discussing their projects, and are giving away digital copies of the book. I will be back with my turn and giveaway on Sunday!  If you wold like to follow along, here is the schedule:

Blog Tour Schedule 

Friday, April 3 Blog hop kick-off at Poppyprint!
Monday, April 6: Berene at Happy Sew Lucky and Amy at During Quiet Time
Tuesday, April 7: Leanne at She Can Quilt and Felicity at Felicity Quilts
Wednesday, April 8: Martingale Inc. at Stitch this! (check out their Rainbow Round the Cabin staff party!)
Thursday, April 9: Krista at Spotted Stones and Krista at Krista Withers Quilting
Friday, April 10: Lynne at Lilys Quilts and Cindy at Live a Colorful Life
Saturday, April 11: Ayumi at Pink Penguin and Krista at Poppyprint
Sunday, April 12: Kristie at OCD: Obsessive Crafting Disorder and Christina at Sometimes Crafter

NYC, baby!

So, I made the decision years ago that my 40th birthDAY would, in fact, be celebrated for a YEAR.  Why?  Because I am actually really excited to be 40.  I mean, why not?  I have my family and friends, a great home, a career and hobbies I love, so much to be happy about at this point in life.  My 30s were so much about building my family and career, that I feel like my 40s will be the time to reap the rewards of that hard work.  I became a mom about a week before my 30th birthday, which was celebrated by a quick dinner at a restaurant, where I basically couldn't sit comfortably and I milked through my shirt and dashed home in embarrassment, so...yah, I thought I was owed some fun for the Big 4-0 ;)

I am also extremely lucky to still be close with many of the girlfriends of my youth.  Five of us, who have been friends since Kindergarten, decided to take a trip to NYC to celebrate our birthdays in style, and to toast our lifelong friendships.

I had TECHNICALLY been to NYC before.  What does that mean, you ask?  Well, 8 years ago, I went with another friend to celebrate her 40th. She had recently moved to North Carolina, so I flew there to see her and her family, and she arranged a bus tour to NYC for us.  Did you know that North Carolina is really FAR from NYC?  Well, as Canadians, we really are not all that sharp about US geography so, um, we did not.  So our trip started with a REALLY LONG bus ride, made even longer when the bus broke down on the side of the road for 6 hours.  This was especially painful as I happened to be 8 weeks pregnant with LBNL, so was nauseous and had a bladder the size of a pea.  In addition, the bus tour was through a church group of extremely exuberant African American Southern senior citizens, who were the sweetest people ever, but who piped their homemade cheesy soap operas through the tvs and tended to shout "Hallelulia" and "Amen" approximately 47 times per hour.  It was quite the experience!

And the fun didn't end there- we arrived in NYC to catch the tail end of Hurricane Ernesto, which caused rain to pummel us sideways, preventing any kind of walking outdoors (which is how you DO NYC!), nor could we see through the windows of our city tour bus so....yah.  Not fun.

I digress.  But you can see how my life is a bit of a sitcom?

Anyways, this time?  I WENT to NYC!  And we sure did it right.

We shared some laughs with Rob Schneider at his standup show:

We saw amazing musicals:

 We had many cocktails:

We shopped:

We danced until the wee hours of the night, and then we did karaoke (check out my pit stains, dudes):

We even went here.....

...and did this:

So many awesome things happened.  And one of my favourites?  Visiting Purl Soho!!

So many pretty things....

And I brought some home with me :)

The stuff in my Purl Soho bag was WAY more expensive than what I had in that little blue box above, lol!  But I just LOVED being in there, surrounded by succulent yarns, soft and gorgeous Liberty of London fabric, the friendly staff, and all the inspiration! Heaven :)

So all in all, I would say this trip was FABULOUS and we are already busy planning our Big 5-0 return!!

Hi, I'm Kristie, I used to blog here???

It's been a while, peeps! How are you all doing?  Time flies when....you are busy as a bee, I guess ;)  Just thought I would pop in and say hello, and reassure you all that, yes, I am still living and breathing and even crafting!!  I am about to make the rounds on some of your blogs, too, and catch up a wee bit!

Summer went by in a flash of awesome and before I knew it, it was back to school.  The kids are at those perfect ages where they are quite independent and capable of doing so many fun activities,  but yet still enjoy hanging out with old mom and dad.  We definitely tried to make the most of that and have fun.  Look how big they're getting!

We did do a couple fun crafty projects at the lake while we were there.  One was a fireplace makeover by The Hubs.  Painted over the icky brass accents with a matt black fire-safe paint and voila!  Instant pretty fireplace!  The built in cabinets on either side of it are getting a makeover next :)

Our other project, and my favourite, was taking some paddles and painting them.  We added hooks and transformed them into a fun place to store life jackets and soggy towels in the screen room.  Wish I had better "final" pictures, because I seriously kicked some ass at this, I ain't gonna lie.  They are all cute and distressed and such.  But anyways, you'll get the idea:

Yah, it was a great summer :)

So much more to tell you about, including an awesome 40th birthday trip to NYC with girlfriends where I went to The Promised Land (aka Purl Soho), lots of finished projects, and then the EPIC trip to Nashville to attend Craft South with none other than Anna Maria Horner AND Heather Ross (I am still reeling).  I promise to be back to tell you about it soon, I do!!

xoxo Kristie

a pile of finished quilts for the cottage

Of course getting a new cottage last summer meant that I "needed" new quilts for every bed (and any other possible surface).  And it just so happens my girls have a pair of bunk beds in the "girls' room".  Four twin quilts were in order!

I decided to do coordinating but not matching quilts.  They will all be in one room so I wanted a bit of a colour theme but not looking too....orderly ;)  Keeping it carefree! So, I planned two quilts using Briar Rose for The Middle Child's bunks, and then two quilts in a variety of yellows, oranges, pinks and greys for the bunk beds for Last But Not Least.  I got 3 of the 4 pieced by last November's Loon Lake retreat....but then they sat...and sat...

Well,  while enjoying a lot of this over the past few weeks...

....I have managed to baste, quilt and finish these three!

Only one of the Briar Rose ones done, but here it is:

Did a bit of a lattice, and quilted it with an all over daisy and loop pattern.  Bound it in some Flea Market Fancy green seed print and made a simple but cute cottage label, just using a Sharpie.

Then it was on to LBNL's quilts.  I kind of favour these, I admit.  First, a granny square quilt with some stippled quilting:

Loved how the orange binding on this quilt matched the front and AMH back so perfectly.  Again with a label.

And finally, a fun equilateral triangle quilt!  Straight line quilting along either side of the seams for this one.

A happy yellow Kate & Birdie binding and one of my favourite backings...love those big pink flowers! And another label!  Go, Me! ;)

And here are the two coordinating ones together.  Love how they compliment each other.

Phew!  Now it's time to sit back and drink some wine and have a rest, wouldn't you say??  Back to the lake I go!

Happy Canada Day!

The weather didn't exactly cooperate this weekend, but we didn't let that stop us from heading to the lake and enjoying Canada Day festivities.  The fireworks were cancelled due to rain and wind but we still managed to take in the parade, fair, and even a quilt show!  And lots of visiting with family and friends.

Hope all of my fellow Canadian friends enjoyed some fantastic celebrations as well.  We are pretty lucky, eh?

mother's day make

I hope all you moms out there had a fabulous day Sunday!  I started the day sleeping in at a hotel in Toronto after a fabulous weekend away and ended it being welcomed home at the airport by 3 sweet kids (and their Daddy) waving signs and giving me lots of hugs and kisses.  It was perfect.

I made a wee something for my own mom, who recently got a Kindle.  Just a slip case with a button enclosure to keep it protected in her purse.  I was pretty psyched about my Victoria and Albert books fabric choice ;)

And some green text inside.

Big hugs to all the moms out there, who have the hardest and best job there is!

Seven.

My sweet Last But Not Least, my baby, is seven today!

Can I tell you the many ways that I love this little girl?  No one is more sweet, more considerate.  It really is a gift at this young age to be so in tune with the feelings of others, I think.

And a cuddler.  I crave her cuddles every day!  She gives the best hugs, hands down.  She crawls into bed with me for extra cuddles at some point almost every night- she loves physical closeness.  We tried to break her of the habit initially, then decided to just enjoy it while it lasts, time is going by at the speed of light and too soon I will be missing this.

She says I love you.  All the time, every day.  She will go into a long argument about how she loves me more that I love her because, although I am bigger and therefore my heart is technically larger, she is younger and her heart is more energetic, so it has the energy to love me more.  Perfectly logical to her.  I disagree, I love this little girl so deeply, but I gladly soak up the love she gives me :)

She has always spoken like a little adult. And she says the darndest things!  Man, this kid cracks me up, every day.  I love the way she sees the world- she is incredibly insightful.  And she tells it like it is.  Totally MY kid!

Everyone loves her and wants to be her friend.  She has that magnetic personality. She is sassy and crazy and a little wild, but never bad, just funny.  A very good heart.

Her fashion sense.  The brighter the better!  Add more flair!  I need a scarf with these boots and this fur vest!

Good at all things.  A great team player on her ringette team, and the life of the party at dance class.  On her first day of dance she introduced herself as "Applesauce" and they have called her that for 2 years!  Always out for a laugh.

Smart and responsible. Never to be left behind by her older siblings.  She is the one begging ME to do homework with her, not the other way around (poor neglected third child!).

Sweetheart, you are simply a treasure.  I love you so much and am honoured to be your Mom.  Have a great day! Can't wait to see what this year brings.

sewn: wet bags!

We have a few people in our lives who have had some babies recently or are expecting them soon.  I wanted some simple handmade gifts that would be practical, useful and not too labour-intensive for me to make!  I decided on wet bags- pretty zipped pouches lined with waterproof fabrics, perfect for toting those wet cloth diapers, soiled clothes, or even wet bathing suits.

We took the supplies out to the lake with us, and I was so excited to sew on my new/old table, a banged up antique drop leaf table I scored for $10.  Beautiful and sturdy ;)

The Middle Child wanted to be involved and so she helped choose coordinating fabrics and zippers.  She was so enthusiastic about helping with the sewing and pressing.  In her excitement, about 3 minutes in, she forgot that irons are hot and left it face down on the table......

Grr.  Good thing it was already "rustic."  Took a bit of scraping and four letter words to get the varnish off the iron, but soon enough we were back at it, and made a bounty of bags for the day.  I even pulled out some of my favourite and hoarded Heather Ross fabrics for the occasion! It felt good to USE them.

So here we have it!  I did some larger and some smaller sized bags.

For the girls:

Just love how the "just stay little" made it perfectly onto the handle :)

And for the boys:

The inner waterproof fabric:

Looking forward to gifting these and hope that they will be put to good use!