Category Archives: other crafts

The wedding quilt revealed!

Ok right now we’re dining in Toronto for the non-rehearsal dinner for my BFF’s wedding.  So I should be giving her this gift any moment and therefore I can finally show you all!!!

Here’s is the wonderful and eclectic snuggle quilt I have created for my lovely BFF and her soon to be hubby.  It took a while to track down and collect all these fabrics that mean something special to them and it makes for one colourful quilt!  The backing is just plain brown in case tehy want to flip it over and actually have it in their living room without it accidentally hypnotizing people.

Years and years ago I sat down and created a quilt for myself, which I never actually quilted.  This was my first time stitching through the layers of the quilt and it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.  I did stick to the easy route and just stitched around the boarder, the outside row of squares and a box inside to hold the batting in place.  I’m really happy with the result and I’m sure it will provide years of snuggily warmth to my dear friends.

The fun of last weekend.

Well now that I’ve been back into my jobs as Mommy and teacher I have time to write about my weekend away from all that!  We drove down south of the border to spend a fun filled day at Darien Lake, eat at Olive Garden and shop before driving back home.  I was a bit surprised at Darien Lake, I thought it’d be bigger.  The only amusement park I’ve ever been to is Canada’s Wonderland and I guess because I’ve been going since I was about 7 it seems old to me.  But now I think it’s pretty darn awesome and those of us lucky enough to live near it shouldn’t complain!

I absolutely love rides and before I carry on about my weekend I have to blab about the Behemoth at Wonderland.  Go here, check out the size of it, click the video part and ride the one as if you’re on the coaster.  The first drop is a 75 degree drop, we were in the front car, as you go over the top you can’t see the track below it’s that steep, it’s crazy!

Anyhow back to the weekend. So we rode most of the rides at Darien lake, some were closed. The Twister was crazy fun!It doesn’t look like much but it spins like crazy and all random,  you don’t know what’s coming at all, it’s great.  I didn’t have reception on my iphone once we crossed the border so I left it in the hotel room not thinking we might have wanted the camera and video taking abilities.  A video of us on this would have been great.

The Motorcoaster was also a blast! Again, it looks tiny and innocent compared to sprawling coasters but it was great.  You also get to sit on little motorcycle thinigies and after you get on it pulls around the corner to sit at a red light and wait for the green go and then it shoots you flying around the ride, it’s amazing!

Ok so onto my shopping!  Of course I hit Jo-Ann’s and grabbed some fun fabric.

Got more of this zoo print because I love it.  I bought 3 yards with no real plan in mind.  I’ll use it to revamp Nate’s room once we move the toddler bed in and ditch the crib.  The flannel on the right is for a rag quilt for his bed.

Every time I make a rag quilt Wesley asks where his is so I got some Cars flannel to start making him his own rag quilt.

Found this nice corduroy print, it’s a nice rich chocolate brown colour.  There was only a bit left on the bolt so I grabbed it all, just under 2 yards.  I’m sure a bag of some sort will come of it.

Ok now that it’s getting late I shall wander down to my machine and get to work until I’m too sleepy.

Had a great weekend AND won a giveaway!

Go me!! Good thing I decided to lug my lappy across the border on our little adventure (post to follow), not only did it give us all a way to check our email and waste time online, I won something!

Thanks to Sew Spoiled for pointing me in the direction of her sponsor’s giveaways I won a personalized vinyl monogram over at Baby Bunkins. It’ll look like this (but with my initials :))

You can buy your own in her etsy shop.

Friday Find – mmmmmm cupcakes!

My bestest friend ever is getting married in a month (minus a day) and they’re having cupcakes instead of cake!! How cool is that?

So, even though it was really, really tough we let her bring over 4 different cupcakes for us to sample and give our opinions on which ones deserved the privilege of being eaten at her wedding.  They’re from a cute little shop in Toronto called The Cupcake Shoppe. Each cupcake has it’s own fun little name and they taste absolutely incredible! Their site says they offers a total of 17 nut-free flavours, with nine available in-store everyday. They have some awesome sounding flavours, I think I NEED to go to taste the Creamsicle one and the After Ate, I’m a sucker for minty things.

They also asked us to take some artsy photos of their rings stuck in the cupcakes just for fun. I handed that job over to my hubby since he knows the camera better than I do. They turned out great and I think they’d make great thank you cards!

The Great Kitchen makeover, in progress since February 2008.

Wow, I know things have been going on for a while here, but I didn’t realize that long of a while!  We bought our house in June 2007.  The day we moved in my hubby smashed out the ‘breakfast bar’ that was quite hideous and only had ugly poles that were drilled into the floor (through the ceiling in the basement).  It took up an insane amount of space in our kitchen and had these high bar stool thingies that just didn’t fit what we wanted or leave room for our nice big table.

I had photos of our home inspection which would show a complete before but I guess I deleted them after I scrapbooked them, silly me.  So instead I have these shots that just happen to be in the kitchen, hence the kid, cat, hubby . . . travel around and behold the beauty!

2008 – First one we purchased ourselves a nice big new fridge and a lovely dishwasher, delivery day was Valentine’s day, how sweet. Then on March break I got inspired and set to work painting the walls. I even added some panelling and a chair rail, yeah, I got fancy. Then, I believe it was a lovely May 24 weekend, I recruited my two friends to come sand and refinish the cupboards. I was early with child and easily pooped out so I needed a crew. Instead of hanging out while the ladies worked my hubby bought a shed (I think I made him sorta) and the men set to work assembling it. We were done the removal, sanding, priming and painting of the kitchen cabinets and cupboard doors around the same time 5 men finished assembling a shed. Then the kitchen sat for a while. There was plywood over the dishwasher when we moved in so we had added some IKEA cutting boards to fill the gap, which they did but it wasn’t ideal. My handy uncle was visiting that summer from BC and even though on vacation from his job of building houses took time out to replace our icky metal tan door with a beautiful bright white one.
Christmas 2009 and my mom announces our gift is a new kitchen counter!
May 2010 we actually get around to having it installed! I also got us a nice little pantry for beside the fridge and got rid of that cluttered garbage can corner. So happy with it all, thanks Mommy :)

Creativity in the genes?

Came into the kitchen the other day and discovered this,

Don’t know what exactly it was that Wesley was ‘creating’ but it was pretty funny.  I’m hoping to get some creating of my own done today.

Happy long weekend everyone!

A fun package brightens my day!

Today was a really, really rough day at work. I know I only work every other day, and this week was my 2 day week but today was worth about a month of full day every day work! But I need not burden you with tales from my classroom, instead I’ll share the fun package that was waiting for me in my mailbox when I get home.

This fun stuff, my fabric and ribbon.

I purchased it from here, silly etsy and the ease of clicking to make purchases.

Plus, gotta love all the little free fabric squares that were with my order, freebies are fun.

First feature and giveaway!

This time I’m over here at The Monster and Me. Check out their fun blog and enter my giveaway! Up for grabs this time is a medium Kool Aid Jammer tote.

Go check them out and enter the giveaway!

I’m famous . . . . ish.

Here’s what happened this morning, I logged into my SewTara email and oh what’s this a new message. Oh from the publisher of Handmade Beginnings, oh you found my blog and saw my post and WANT TO SEND ME A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK!!?!?!?!

Click ‘reply’.  ‘Why yes that would be lovely!’  (Note: not what I said at all I was way more excited and goofy)

So how cool is that?!?!! I can’t wait to get it and start a project . . . or two!

Also, I’ve gotten my first sponsor spot over at Wild Olive. I’m also being featured this month . . . . Wow, life’s getting eventful.

My show yesterday and not my show yesterday.

Well I had a blast at the Mom 2 Mom sale yesterday! Met a lot of great people, sold some things and had a great morning.  It was slow for me for the first little bit, I think people were running like mad to the used goods tables hoping to beat the crowds to the amazing finds. As the morning went on I had some sales and then there was a big rush on my table at one point, it was great!

Made a great connection with a fellow teacher (Hi Allison!) who loved my Kool Aid Jammer totes. She just finished a unit on recycling and thought her class would think they were pretty awesome. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought about this before, but we got talking and got to her saving them in her classroom and sending them to me! She said she sees tons go in the garbage in her class. I should put the word out to more of my fellow teacher friends.

I meant to take a picture of my table as I was so impressed with my price signs and colourful product but I just didn’t get a chance. I do however have pictures from my last sale, courtesy of my friend Joanna.