Till' The Cows Came Home...

When we had our first child,  Rob's Dad gifted her with her very own calf.  Now, to a non farming family that may sound odd, but to this farming family it was an honour.  When our second daughter was born she too was given a calf.  This was an extra special gift since Dad passed away suddenly a few months after his second grandaughter was born.  The girls have been able to raise their calves into full grown mamas and been able to see them start their own herd.  Often we will ship the girls' calves in the fall and we tuck the money away into a special account for the girls.  This year, we reserved one of their calves to give to our son so he can start his own herd.  We know Opa would've done this if he had been here.  These are his farm grandkids, continuing his legacy.  Up until this year our cows have always lived over at the main farm, but this year we have brought them home!  We are so excited to have our own herd here at our acreage.  Rob spent some time getting all the fencing up and strong as I do NOT enjoy chasing cows all over the neighbourhood!  So our cows are here and happy.  They are growing nice and fat on the fresh green grass and any compost scraps I throw their way!  The best part is seeing the kids run to the fields and call...'Come on, Come on, Come on!' and see their cows run up to greet them.  Opa would be proud.  

A big shout out to 'Zomar'..our favourite cattle moving man!

Here come the Herefords!

Home at Last!

Getting there...

I'm sure ya'll are getting tired of me posting swoon blocks, but hey, I luv em'!  Remember THIS pile of scraps and squares...well I finally transformed them into these.  I still have a bunch more to go and I'm not sure how I'm going to lay them all out and quilt them, but I'll figure it out when I get there.  I'm not nearly done with these swoon blocks...I'm gonna keep trying till I get the perfect quilt!

Custom Order...

Although I've somehow wandered away from the 'primitive' type colours of quilting,  (there's just too much fun new fabric out there!) I still get an order here and there for creations in the traditional colours.  This was a custom order I completed awhile back but it never made it to my blog.  This is a pattern by our local quilting sweetheart, Cheryl Wall.  I've made this pattern a few times now...although if I recall correctly, one time (years ago) I made a set of these for a relative and they all fell apart in the wash!!!  I never did figure out what the heck happened, but I think we narrowed it down to faulty thread that time.  Anyway...I'm happy to say that these came together, and stayed together, just fine!  These are pieced and embroidered one stitch at a time!  The embroidery states: 'Love makes a house a home'.  How true.


One of Cheryl's amazing books:

One piece at a time....

Mother's Day 2012

We had a special time celebrating Mom this Mother's Day.  My mom is truly worth celebrating.  We didn't do anything fancy, just a supper here at our place.  My bro brought Mom a beautiful HUGE bouquet of flowers, and we gave her a huge moss hanging basket!  She went home with a lot of flowers!  My Mom  is continually committed to her family.  She prays for us, keeps in close touch with us, defends us, loves us, and always puts us before herself.  She loves her children equally and finds joy in her relationship with all of us.  She is truly a wonderful example to raise my family by.  My Mom is one of my dearest friends.  We laugh together, shop together, cook together, holiday together, coffee together, and the list goes on.  My Mom is a phenomenal Grandmother.  My kids love my Mom (and Dad too..but hey, this is a Mother's Day post!)  The kids know that Grandma is always on their side.  My mom makes a deliberate effort to make time us and for our kids and it shows in the way our children love her.   So Mom, know that you are so loved, and that we treasure every moment with you! You are a beautiful woman.  Really, Truly, Beautiful.

We did a BBQ style meal.  I made yummy ribs..they're a 'little' bit of work but SO worth it!  We topped it all off with strawberry shortcake!

An Evening to Remember...

A few weeks ago we had the privilege of taking some amazing people out for a night on the town.  A year ago hubby had a terrible injury on the farm and nearly lost a few fingers.  Through surgery, extensive physiotherapy, and much, much prayer, he not only kept all his fingers, but has regained a lot of use in them!  When this injury happened we were at a very crucial time frame at the farm.  We had barns that needed to be prepped and birds that needed to be moved.  That time in our lives was traumatic and devastating, but we were so blessed by those people in our lives who truly love us and supported us in our time of need.  We had more help than we knew what to do with both on and off the farm!  You can read a little more about that HERE.  
Well, it's hard to believe that over a year has passed, but we wanted to make sure these special people realized just how blessed we were/are by their love and sacrifice.  It took us a long time to find a date that worked for everyone, but we did it!  So, we booked a restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean and spent a wonderful evening with these folks.  The sky was the limit for this dinner.  The food was amazing, and the fellowship made for a memorable evening.  Once we were done dinner we strolled along the boardwalk and pier.  We are so blessed to call these people our friends.  So, friends, if you're reading this, know that we will never forget your kindness.  We will never forget who was really there for us when it came down to it.  We will cherish our friendships with you.  I thoroughly enjoyed my meal on this wonderful evening...after all, I worked my butt off both on and off the farm during that crazy time too!
Here's a few snapshots of the evening...oh, and my must mention note:  NO, I am NOT 7 months preggers in these pictures..this was obviously just a wardrobe malfunction!  Sheesh..I really loved that blouse when I bought it, but I'm having second thoughts....

Another Birdie Sling...

Lately life has been crazy.  Like-Uber-Crazy.  I'm not quite ready to put crazy into words yet, but it's an all consuming-wish-I-could-get-away-from-it-for-awhile crazy.  I've neglected the blog a little, but 'family first' is the name of the game.
It's been nice to continue on with sewing.  Sewing and baking and my Bible are what are keeping me sane at the end of each day!  
I have always loved Amy Butler's Birdie Sling pattern.  It's a great pattern and a wonderful bag.  
So...here's my latest Birdie.  I love the bright, summer-ish feel to it.  Turquoise and Red are such great colours together.  Pair this bag with some great flip flops and a pair of sunglasses and I'm ready to call it summer...now if only for a beach and a slushy drink...

More Blogger's Blocks...

I recently posted here about a fun little bloggers block of the month I was following.  It's a great project for using up scraps.  I've completed a few more blocks since then and am anxiously awaiting the next block next week!  Here's the latest...

Spring Break 2012

Spring Break here got off to a baaaaad start!  The weather was horrible!  It poured for the first week and a half!  We had planned a camping trip with some friends of ours and we were getting mighty nervous about camping in the weather, BUT, we ended up getting the BEST weather possible!  The nights were chilly but the days were gorgeous!  It reached a balmy 18* celcius for us.  The kids even had a bit of a sunburn!  We thoroughly enjoyed a break from the rain and the routine of life!  We camped close to home in the beautiful Ft. Langley. We were only a quick drive from home, a Starbucks and a movie theatre (for a surprise we took all the kids to see The Lorax). We had a wonderful time relaxing, walking to town and visiting. Our trailer's an oldie, but we sure love it!  We have made some wonderful memories with it!

Easter 2012

We had a busy, but great, Easter Weekend.   I worked like a mad dog on the Thursday before Good Friday to get my 2 days worth of work into one.  Easter seems to be just as busy a season as Christmas is at the church!  Thursday evening a bunch of the hubsters headed out to the auto show in Vancouver to drool over look at their dream vehicles.  The girls came over and we baked Paska together.  Friday morning both of our brothers came out to join us for our traditional Good Friday breakfast and service at church.  The guys always put on an amazing breakfast spread for our church and this year didn't disappoint!  We enjoyed the service, and Rob and I had our first experience serving communion.  It was a special time and we were humbled to serve and pray with our dear church family.  Friday evening we headed to my parents place for a wonderful dinner made by Mom.  The kids had a great time searching for eggs in the yard and their Grandparents and Uncle 'Pid' spoiled them rotten.  We had such a special time as a family.

Saturday I made another batch of Paska and we spent the day getting a few things done around the house.   We enjoyed dinner at the home of our friends 'The Rachs' and had a great time catching up on life while watching our home boys, the Canucks, win the President's cup! (GO NUCKS GO!)

Sunday I packed up the paska and headed to church for a lovely continental breakfast.  We enjoyed a great church service.  Monday was a gorgeous sunny day here and a few of my peeps planned a last minute get together.  Just a few hours, a little window shopping and a lovely glass of wine on the sunny patio was enough to complete a busy but wonderful weekend!  

What's with the Tim Horton's cups?  Well, every time Timmy's has their 'roll up the rim' contest, my Dad (who just happens to love Timmy's) saves his cups for the kids until he's got a huge stack.  Once he's ready, or the kids have bugged him enough, he lines them all up and lets the kids take turns rolling up rims!  None of us can understand how he can save them.  We all have to roll ours up right away!  Dad's always been a patient and kind man...this is no exception.  The kids had a hoot...

Going Retro...

There's something about these retro/reproduction 1930's fabrics that just draws me in every time I see them.  I've been 'drooling' over them for over a year now and picked up the odd one, but I found this beautiful set of fabric over at Bay Window Quilts Shop and couldn't resist!  These fabrics take me back to a simpler time, watching my Grandma bake pies in her kitchen and laying down under a quilt on her spare bed.  I have no idea what I'm going to create with these goodies, but I'll keep ya posted!  (Not the best picture, I know, but I snapped it with my phone:)

Obsession...

My little guy has been obsessed with tape lately.  I should've bought shares in 3M apparently!  Little Man is having a blast wrapping up everything in the house.  He has used up most of my wrapping paper and when he ran out of that he started wrapping things up in blankets.  yup.  I consider it cheap entertainment for a 3 year old!

Tuesday Time Out

Ahh..Spring Break is here and snow is in the air.  Yup, snow.  Ugh.  Luckily the kiddos aren't too housebound yet.  Kim and I decided that we weren't going to let a thing like kids being home stop us from getting our Tuesday Time Out on!  Her kiddos had a craft day of their own at home and mine managed to keep themselves busy for a few hours.  Kim and I had chatted last night and decided to tackle the 'Bloggers Block of the Month' tutorial.  There's a gazillion out there and some of them cost $$ but we found this one and had fun making a few blocks today.   I'm working with the leftover scraps from American Jane's 'Punctuation' line that I used in my pinwheel quilt..which, by the way, is still waiting for me to finish it.  It's on my not-so-distant-finish-up list...honest!  Anyway..here's a few pics of the blocks.  Super easy, just time consuming.  Fun project for a rainy/snowy/sunny/crazy, but typical weather day here on the west coast.  

Love is Always worth celebrating...

While I am not a believer in all the marketing hype that surrounds our yearly celebrations, I am a believer in taking every opportunity to celebrate life!  Valentines is always a wonderful reason for us to show extra special love to those around us.  In keeping with tradition we made oodles of sugar cookies and delivered them all over, Daddy spoiled his kiddos with balloons and treats, and I was the lucky recipient of some gorgeous roses and a lovely, heartfelt card.  For the first time in a loooong time, we went on a Valentine's date and had a really wonderful evening together.  Love is always worth celebrating...Valentine's Day or not.

Just For Fun...

Last Saturday I decided to throw caution to the wind and have a sewing day!  I know, I live on the edge, baby.  Hubby had to work and I just didn't feel like doing the ever growing list of housework.  I called my partner in crime ( aka Kim) and she enabled me.  We sipped coffees and sewed the morning away!  I pulled out a purse pattern from Keyka Lou that I've been wanting to make.  I'd picked up the fabric at Joanne's a few weeks back and was itching to try them out.  They were super easy to make and I got them both DONE in the SAME day.  (Applause please.  This NEVER happens)  I'm very happy with how they turned out!

Blissful Swoon...

I have yet to grow tired of this lovely pattern, Swoon.  I've seen some beautiful fabric combinations for this block.  Here's my latest swoon done with some Bliss fabric that I had in my ever depleting stash.  I have 3 more blocks all cut and ready to go.  Now I just need the time...

I made a few swoon blocks last fall...you can see them here, here and here!

Thanks for popping by today...have a great day!

Popular Placemats...

I have made enough placemats in the past few months to set a table for the masses!  I have enjoyed creating different colour combos in these and recently completed a custom order for these black, grey and white placemats with a matching runner.  I think they have a fun, contemporary look to them. This order was for a set of six.  If you're looking for the name and source of these patterns go HERE to read about it in a previous post!