THE CHRISTMAS QUILTS

Well the quilts are on the beds and the boys are psyched! This is their first night under them and snug as bugs they are!!

THE QUILTS ARE ALMOST DONE! AND SO AM I!!

Well, I've been a busy girl. Last Christmas I posted a picture of the fabrics I got for Christmas. Dwain bought me fabric to make the boys Christmas quilts. I wanted to do something bright and cheery! Today I got them back from the long arm quilting lady. She did an awesome job! All I have to do is put the binding on them and they're done. These are my first professionally quilted blankets and I made them for the boys to use only for the month of December each year. They will be ready for their bunkbeds December 1st. I look ahead and someday see them on my own grandchildren's beds. It was fun because the boys are actually really excited about them. They have seen them transform from a bunch of fabric, to strips, to blocks, to rows and then a top of a blanket. They each picked their own flannel for the back. Lovella was kind enough to let me use her wonderful sewing machine she got for Christmas last year to monogram a special message on the bottom corner block of each quilt. "Handmade with Love for Ryan/Jacob From Mom, December 1st, 2007." Thanks Auntie! I actually have the 3rd quilt already cut out and ready to put together as I got enough fabric to make 3 quilts.
Go figure that one! Someone knew the family was going to grow!



Today marks my 4 week 5 days to go! The countdown is on. Lastweek I became a proud auntie for the second time. Check out Sweet Abundance in my favourite blogs to see my nephew Liam! He really is a little pumpkin!!

BREAKFAST FOR DINNER

Poor Dwain, he's wishing I was sitting in the living room watching Criminal Minds with him but since he got me set up in this great sewing room with a TV well, this is my hideout. I"ll have to find a nice chair for him so that he can watch TV while I sew and cut out appliques. Here's one I did today.

I got out of the house for 2 hours of me time this afternoon to run some errands before I picked up my girls. It was a nice breath of fresh air. The girls had a great day today! Dwain made breakfast for dinner tonite. That's his specialty. The girls thought it was kind of weird but cool. They had never had a pancake before. They were surprised that it was soft. I don't know what they really expected!

Tomorrow Ryan has pajama day at school. He loves that. He's quite excited to wear his blue sleeper with feet. I wish I had PJ's with feet and a quick flap for nighttime bathroom breaks! I think I should sew myself a pair of those. I wonder if I can find a pattern for adult PJ's with feet.

Well I better checkout! I'm still getting used to being a sudden mom of 4 and I haven't got into a good routine yet. Have a great day!

A NEW ROOM AND A VISIT FROM CHINA

Surprise it's a new post!!! Wow we've had a busy month but it's been fun. Dwain and I have been getting our guestroom ready for our girls that were coming from China. The guestroom had turned into my sewing room and so I had alot of things on the go in there and no where to put them. Dwain said he would make the office into sewing room for me and he did just that. I am so psyched to actually use it but I can't seem to find the time to work on any of my projects. I have posted a few pics of my new pad! It's not too shabby if I do say so myself. Note the really cool bookshelf for all my Fat Quarters of fabric.

So this past week Dwain and I had a little getaway in Vancouver. We had such a great time. Gramma and Grandpa took the boys for us and we were off. 2 days away and it seemed like a week! In a good way! What an awesome break. We did a little shoppin. We both got a new pair of runners. Here's a pic of those! Dwain got 3 shirts and a pair of jeans at Old Navy for $25. That's crazy! So we came home Wednesday and finished getting ready for the girls to arrive. Thursday they came. I am so pleased with them. They are very fun girls. They are both 10 years old. Their names are Sunny and Bonnie. I took them to the dollar store in Mission lastnight and they had soo much fun. They came home with a whack of craft stuff. They have literally been busy all day painting, beading and one is trying to crosstitch. I showed them my quilts and now they want to make one. They are very enthusiastic. I think the next several months hold alot of fun for all of us. Here's a pic. Sunny is in the orange and Bonnie in the pink. Welcome to Canada Sunny and Bonnie!!

IT'S BEEN AWHILE

Hello once again to all my faithful readers! Do I have any of those! I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment sometime. Keeps me inspired to keep on bloggin. Call me crazy but it's quite exciting when I see that someone has left me a comment.
So what to blog about today! Well, we are finished our first week in 2007 and I was thinking about how old I was and it hit me. This year will mark the year that I have officially been out of school as long as I was in. I feel like I just graduated. I mean I totally feel that way! (But then, I look at some old photos and I am quickly brought back to reality!
Well, it looks like another crazy storm is coming in to greet us. We are expected to get 15cm of snow tonite. The boys are excited so I hope it's still here when we wake up in morning.
This morning the boys went for one of their immunization shots. Ryan chose Jacob to go first. Smart for 5 years old hey!! Well, I expected a little more drama from Jacob but he didn't even move. The nurse said it's just gonna be a little poke Ok Jacob?! He says OK! and it was done. Ryan on the other hand wasn't as calm. I am convinced all the crying out was all drama because when the needle went in he didn't even flinch and when we told him it was done he just stopped and looked like he felt a little silly. He didn't even know he had already gotten the poke. All in all they were brave. How bad is it when your kinda glad you yourself didn't have to get one!!

So we had a nice afternoon this week and Dwain's brother came by to burn his Christmas tree and a few things and decided to stick around for awhile and play with Ryan. Ryan got some sidewalk chalk for Christmas and was eager to try it out. So was Uncle Ken. They drew a race track on the pavement to ride bikes on and Uncle Ken continued to add a few artistic touches while Ryan rode around. Here is a picture

Well if you've read my previous blog entries you will remember that I started a quilting club as well as started teaching on the side. Well so far I have had 2 students and really look forward to getting more. My first student was my friend Fiona. I haven't been able to show her masterpiece because it was a Christmas present and I had to let her post it on her blog first so as not to spoil the surprise. I really enjoyed this project as it was my first time working with photos in a quilt. It turned out amazing. Well done Fi! You did the old "Friday night" quilters proud!! Here's a picture of the proud new owners and one of the creator! Fiona made this a rag quilt on one side as seen to the left and like a regular scrappy quilt on the right. Here's a close up of what the ragged side looks like.

My next student was a friend of my sister Tammy. Karen also made a beautiful rag quilt. She went with a woven cotton so it feels soft like flannel. Very beautiful! I'd like to have this one for my own! Karen got a new sewing machine for Christmas so I hope I'll get to make another one with her sometime. Well done Karen!!

This week we had a new addition to my extended family. Little Eligh Benjamin was born on January 7th in Texas. Congratulations to the proud new parents Ben and Romay! You have just received one of God's greatest gifts! May God bless you as parents as you raise this little man!

So that's what kind of week it's been. I hope you all had a fun New Years and pray that it will bring you all good health and happiness. My New Years challenge for myself this year is to remember to make more time and a solid effort to nurture the friendships I have with my loved ones and to try to create as many new ones as I can. I think I've got my work cut out for me!!

I love you all! TTYL!

CLEANIN,CRAFTIN & PIGGYBACK RACIN!!!

Wow, what a busy week. There hasn't been much time to write. I have been very busy working on getting our house ready to decorate for Christmas. Ready to decorate you might ask!?! Well, yes, I seemed to have developed this querk about me that makes me feel that I need to have all those fall cleaning chores done. Such as cleaning out the storage room, reorganizing the bookshelves, major dusting and soo on! The dusting always really gets me. Living on a chicken farm it never looks like I even dust. It's almost pointless to even bother! Hey, maybe I'm onto something there!
Well the weather was pretty crazy around here this week. The power was out in many places all around us. Our generator was raring to go but we didn't need it. We've had so many bad experiences with power failure this past year and a half that we think the Lord spared us. It seems that whenever we get the extreme weather, hot,cold or windy, we always seem to be a day or so before shipping when the power decides to fail. We were thankful that we didn't have to worry about it this time.
This week I met with my Essential Six. This is a quilting club that I started with some of my relatives on the Peters' side. Everyone is off to a great start. I think next time I am going to take some pictures to post so you can see what everyone's project is looking like. The quilts are all going to be fab! I look forward to this time with my family! Here's a pic of how mine is developing.

Tonight I made farmer sausage and perogies for dinner. That's one of Dwain's favorites. We were going to go into town this evening but we decided to put up the small Christmas tree in our family room instead. I know, I know, I know, It's only November 17th!!! I say who cares, I love this season and it gets me into a festive mood.

This is the kids tree. They decorate it with what they like and they can sort of play with it and re-decorate it over and over (and they do!). I am curious to see what other things get put on the tree this year. Last year, I would regularly notice new things on the tree. Ryan would find something that he thought was a treasure and it would immediately go on or in the tree. We also made foamy snowflake ornaments tonight with sequins and foamy stickers. I think Dwain and I had the most fun. When we were finished, the boys very enthusiastically put the snowflakes on the tree. Then we had a few piggyback races around the familyroom (probably not enough to burn off the sausage and perogies though) and then we watched Frosty the Snowman. All in all I'd say it was a pretty great day for all of us!

Well, once again I am typing and you're all sleeping (and I don't mean because you've just read my blog.) It's 1am so I think I'll try and catch some of those zzzz's myself! Ya'll come back now ya hear :)