Just d'Andy

Welcome Winter...

2012-01-18T08:34:00.000-08:00

We got our snow day yesterday! We had some friends' kids staying with us and we had some more friends come on over and had one big snow day over here. The kids had a blast playing out in the snow. Olivia is my biggest snow girl. She loves to spend hours outside building snow forts and such. She reminds me of me at that age! Today there is an arctic outflow warning. There's whiteout conditions and temps are -24 with the windchill, but there's no more snow in the forecast. I am happy to look at the beauty of it all from my warm house while I'm in my warm pj's! The kids are off to school and Isaac and I have a few chores to cross off our list this morning.

Snow...

2012-01-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

I wanted to title my post as 'Snow Day', but technically it isn't! There's close to a foot of snow here now but the public schools are open! The kids are off to school and Isaac and I are enjoying the beauty out each window. We had a little snow on the weekend, and we're in for a bunch more this week by the sounds of it. There'll be many more snow pictures, but here's a few for now.

A Beautiful Way to Start Our Day...

2012-01-11T08:01:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Timeout

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Kim and I decided to have our regular Tuesday Timeout yesterday because today I'm fieldtrippin' with my Grade 1 girl! So I guess yesterday was more of a Make-it-Monday! I hummed and hawed about what to make yesterday. I have an order I still need to finish, but I rarely use Tuesday Timeouts for orders...they're more of a fun day! I dug out a bag full of cuts I had ordered online from the 'Bliss' line. I got the bag of fabric for uber-cheap but didn't know what to do with it. They're not the exact cuts I would've chosen from the line, but hey, beggars can't be choosers! I decided in the end to cut the fabric for more 'Swoon' blocks. I've seen lots of beautiful swoon quilts made and although I liked the 4 blocks I previously made here, I didn't think the fabric was the best for the project. So, I started cutting this bundle today and hope for different results this time! The cutting for these blocks is insane, but I got it done! Next week I hope to start sewing!

Here's a few pics....not much to look at...YET!

Cutting for 8 completed blocks, here's cut number 1:

And...cut number 2: (poor photo quality..didn't realize it at the time!

Annual Skate

2012-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

No Christmas Season is complete without our annual Church Christmas skate! Isaac, in particular, had anticipated this event for months already. He was determined that HE was going to skate this year. I, on the other hand, had decided I might take a 'year off' from skating. You know, sit on the sidelines, drink Starbucks, visit with my fellow ladies in waiting....So, off we went with our plate of goodies and our winter wear. We got there, fought the crowds for skate rentals. Side rant --> No, we don't have our own skates. Yes, we live in Canada. Truth is, it hardly ever gets cold enough in our parts for our pond to freeze over long enough for skating so skates would be a wasted investment...especially for the kiddos who's feet grow every time I'm not looking! <--end of rant. Ok, where were we? Oh yes, in line to get our skate rentals and Isaac is adamant that he will NOT be skating. This was, of course, after we'd already paid. Sheesh, 3 year olds. Anyway, long story longer, I got skates simply based on my frugal nature. If they're paid for then SOMEBODY'S gonna wear them! What do you think happened? I was out there, doing my ~~jumps and twirls~~ best to stay upright and Rob skates up to me and says, 'Isaac wants to skate'. Of course he does. So....back for another skate rental purchase and alas the Hildebrandts were all skating. Fun night with peeps. I am thoroughly enjoying our church community. Seeing the kids grow up together, seeing the new generation of 'young marrieds' make connections as they start their little families, and feeling at peace with the gift of friendship of so many. We ended the evening with caroling and goodies, then off to home to put some very tired kiddos to bed. Ahhh...another memory made!

It Was a Memorable Tree!

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

Well, our 2011 live Christmas tree will sure go down in history as one of our more memorable trees!

I'll sum it up in point form:

- It was a beautiful, full tree with a wonderful aroma

- We purchased it from our friends Mark & Sarah, in honour of their brand new baby daughter, Megan.

- The funds for the tree went straight to Mark & Sarah's work at the Music for Life School in Ughanda.

(Where the African Children's Choir children are educated)

- It was a huge tree! So huge we had to cut the trunk way down to fit in the iron tree stand!

- It fell over. A lot. I finally got mad enough that I tied it to the wall in 2 places.

- It was infested with spiders. A lot. I find about 6 each day crawling on the ceilings all over the house. And, I walk through cobwebs all over my house. blech.

- It was a beautiful, full tree with a wonderful aroma. (I had to end on a good note, didn't I?)

A parting shot of our kids with the beautiful William's kids!
(I think they were wondering why Daddy was letting us cut a tree down in their yard!)

Sarah was the ever-gracious hostess who made us hot chocolate.
We all had a nice little snuggle with one week old Megan!

Um, Hon? Do you need a hand? HON?

Like I said, memorable. We had a lovely, quiet evening here where Uncle Ken untangled lights and the kids and Rob decorated. The carols were on and I was snapping pictures. I love Christmas, and the tree is a part of that!

The Family that 'tubes' together...

2012-01-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

Ah, I'm back! Did you miss me? It's been ages since I've blogged but it's been for a few reasons. Reason number one: I love blogging but family and friends come first and they've been all consuming (in a great way) through this past month. Reasons two: I really, really wanted to update the look of my blog and start the new year off right.

Oh, speaking of which, Happy New Year! I had to write '2012' on a form for the first time today and it felt weird. Even though my brain knew it was 2012, my hand hesitated!

We had a busy and fun Christmas Season. There's lots I'm going to have to catch you up on but I'll start with our most recent adventure. Monday was the last day of break before the kids headed back to school so we decided to head on up to Hemlock Mountain for a fun day of tubing in the snow. The Tam family joined us and we had the most excellent day! We packed up the snow gear, lunches, and the camera and headed on up the mountain. We are so fortunate to live in a place where we can drive one way to the ocean and the other way to the mountains! The kids enjoyed the trip up, but didn't believe us that there would, indeed, be enough snow to tube on once we got there. The last 15 km of the drive were steep switchbacks on a gravel/mud road. Great fun!

We made some awesome memories and enjoyed watching the kids have so much fun. We ended the day with hot chocolate at the Tam house followed by a take out dinner with our wonderful bro Ken. Fabulous, fabulous day! We'll definitely do it again!

A glimpse of vintage...

2011-12-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

For those of you who didn't have a chance to make it out to the vintage market you missed a great day! It was cooooold, but fun. Kim and I were bundled up and crowding the portable heaters! A Starbucks egg nog latte was the perfect treat on a cold day! We had a successful day and enjoyed seeing what all the other vendors had on display. Lots of friendly, familiar faces to visit with made the day extra special. Here's a glimpse of what the day held....click here

Looking forward to today...

2011-12-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

Today Kim and I will be at our last vendor event for the season! It is a local vintage market that has gained a remarkable following, for good reason! I can't wait to go...even though the forecasted high is 5*celcius! It should be a great day. I'm looking forward to setting up, pre-event shopping, lots of coffee/hot chocolate, and visiting with friends and strangers alike! Wish me luck!

This and That...

2011-11-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a ~~busy~~ CRAZY couple of weeks. Good ~~busy~~ CRAZY. Surprisingly I'm still sane. Well, as sane as I'll ever be! First off let me thank all my sweet peeps who came by and encouraged and supported me during our Christmas Open House! I have a true wealth of dear friends. This year's Open House was amazing and so fun and successful. (pics to follow soon once I get up and running computer wise) I lost count of how many people came through my doors, but I loved every minute of it. What I didn't love: My computer crashing in the middle of it all, and getting some weird flu/migraine bug for the past week that I can't seem to shake. I have one more market to go and then it will be time to focus on our Christmas here. I have a good chunk of decorations up already, but I need to put some personal touches on now that open house is done! I MUST bake...I am in withdrawl!
During our busiest day of Open House a good friend of mine popped in and took Abby out for a special date with her kiddos. Abby was much in need of some quality time and was thrilled to spend the afternoon having fun. Here's a few pics of her day...

Cozying up with Mrs. Claus (aka Miss Marilyn)

Cozying up to Mr.Claus....(no relation to Mrs. Claus!)

Sugaring up with buddies J&L....

A true Abby smile...

Mini Tree Skirt...

2011-11-16T09:15:00.000-08:00

I found a tutorial for this mini tree skirt a loooong time ago, and for the life of me I can't remember who did it. But, to whomever did, my thanks and acknowledgement goes out to you sista, and I will try to dig through the archives and find you to give you proper thanks!
I had fun making this little tree skirt. Many people have smaller trees these days and it can be hard to find a tree skirt for those little guys! This pattern was fairly easy and fun to do. I love how it joins with ribbon at the opening. Well, Kim's on her way over to do set up for the open house so I'd better get out of my jammies and into work mode!

Runner Up...

2011-11-15T08:41:00.000-08:00

Lovin' the Brights...

2011-11-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

My habit is to quilt in subtle, softer tones, but I'm really learning to love the bright fabrics. This cute strippy runner is one of a few I'll have at the open house. Now, off the computer to finish the binding by hand on this one!
P.S...so apparently I took the picture upside down...oops! Can I use crazy, busy as my excuse? thanks...

Next Up...

2011-11-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well, this week certainly hasn't gone how I was expecting it to! Thursday was computer problems (hence the lack of post) and then yesterday we were without power for 11 hours (hence the lack of post). Murphy's law says if you tell your readers you're going to post every day, something will happen to prevent you from doing so! So, I'll keep this short and sweet since I have lots to do to catch up. Here's a (really bad) picture of some of the prep work for Advent calendars This is my weekend project. I am only making 4 this year. They are a lot of work, but they seem popular. This picture was taken yesterday when I was sitting on the floor and using the bay window as a cutting area because the power was out and it was the only place that had sufficient light (and heat) for me to be working! Here's a link to some calendars I did a few years back. These ones will be very similar!

Here Birdie, Birdie...

2011-11-09T08:22:00.000-08:00

Up today is the ever loved Birdie Sling by Amy Butler! I have made a few of these in the past, but there's always a new fabric combination that screams 'Make me into a Birdie Sling'! These bags are a little time consuming to make, but the end result is always worth it. These suckers are so durable that they'll last a lifetime!

I'm Hooked...

2011-11-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

Hooked on a book. When we were down in Washington on holidays this year I stopped in at a quilt shop in Marysville that I had visited a couple of years earlier. It's a cute little shop with a variety of beautiful fabrics. I stumbled upon a book called Sweetwater's Simple Home and fell in love! I bought the book as a birthday prezzie to myself and have thoroughly enjoyed reading through it multiple times. There are beautiful project patterns for every room in the house and I am determined to make at least one of everything out of the book! One of my new favourite patterns in the book is for placemats. I'm always on the look out for a great placemat pattern. One that's functional but still contemporary. These ones are perfect! They will make perfect presents! I'm having fun switching the pattern up a little and strip piecing some of the tops. They're super easy, and not too time consuming. Now, I realize that this should have been photographed with a lovely table setting showing off the beauty of the placemat, but at this point in time I can barely leave the sewing room to even do a blog post...so this is it for now!

T Minus 2 weeks and counting...

2011-11-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

Yikes, Open House is creeping up fast, as it always does! Check out my sidebar to the right for details.
I'm going to give a sneak peek each day leading up to the Open House to let you see what I've been working on.
Today, it's these chenille quilt tops that I recently pieced. Now, I realize that the colours are a little 'old school' but there's something irresistable about a soft, snuggly blanket like this one for a newborn.
I still have to quilt them and bind them but here's the gist...

Surprise, Surprise...

2011-11-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Here I was, sitting at my computer when I should've been sewing. BUT, if I had been sitting in my sewing room, sewing away, I wouldn't have heard the knock on the door that brought a pleasant surprise to my day! My friend, Rhonda, drove all the way out from Chilliwack to drop off a giftie for ME! Why? I have no idea...the card says 'Thanks for being You'....well, Rhonda, I say thanks for being YOU! You brought a smile to face and a bright spot in my day. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I appreciate it! You have always been a generous person. I love, LOVE the gifties. A beautiful fall wall hanging that will inspire me to stitch waaaay more neater, and a book that's been on my "I 'need'" list for awhile now! (After all, I am a Farmer's Wife.....) Well, now that I'm inspired, I'd better go sew...

Final Swoon Block...(for now;)

2011-10-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

I definitely want to do this project again, but with a line of fabric that is more conducive to this pattern. I plan to finish each of these 4 swoon blocks individually as table mats. They'll be available at our annual Christmas Open House...check out the 'deets' on my sidebar to the right!

Order Up...

2011-10-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

I was so happy to complete this custom order quilt last week! It's the first quilt I've made using the black/white and green colour combo. I'm really happy with how it turned out and I trust that the darling baby girl who it's going to will enjoy it also! I used a nice sage print for the small pinwheels, 3 different black and white patterned prints to create the large pinwheels, and a sweet black and white pin dot pattern for all the background piecing. Sending a shout out to Kim for adding a little stippling to the quilt for a nice, finished look! For the first time ever I did a pieced backing on the quilt to create something fun on the reverse side. Now that this project is crossed off my 'to-do' list, I'll be moving on to preparing for the upcoming open house...details to come soon!

Swoon #3...

2011-10-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

I'm loving the look of these blocks. Not loving my choices of fabrics, but loving the actual blocks. Can't wait to try it in a different line of fabric, or maybe just scrappy? Either way, one more block to go in this set!

Swoon #2...

2011-10-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

Here's Swoon Block #2...

My Bestie's Famous...

2011-10-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

Well, famous in the quilting world. But HEY, it's a BIG deal! Congrats Kim on your first ever Moda Bakeshop post! I'm sure, with your talent, it won't be your last post for Moda!
Check her out HERE people....

Tuesday Time Out...

2011-10-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday Rhonda joined us for our regular Tuesday Time Out! Kim found a wonderful pattern called Swoon. Now, while this pattern is beautiful when completed, IT IS A MONSTER to complete! From the cutting to all of the piecing, this project requires some serious concentration. Concentration = not one of my best skills. Well, I got pieces cut to complete 4 blocks in total, but in reality, I only got one sewn! What I love about this pattern is that it can be done with any fabric combo and look like a completely new block each time. Thank you ladies for a fun day! Rhonda brought Starbucks, Kim made muffins, the rain poured down and it was the perfect way to spend a day!
Oh, and fyi....EACH block contains 83 pieces of fabric. 83!!!

First Up...Picking the Fabric (you'd think this would be the easy part. Not so, my friends)

Cutting and organizing...

The Room was a hummin'...

Rhonda's Block (LOVE her fabric line!):

Kim's Block (LOVE her colour choices and contrast!):

I still smell like garlic...

2011-10-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I posted about this last year, but here we are again! I reminded/nagged Christa earlier in the summer, that I definitely wanted to make salsa with her again this year. This weekend we put Saturday aside and made salsa. All. Day. Phew, it was a long day, but we have lots to show for it! We each made 35(ish) jars of salsa to show for it! Christa was on veggie/spice duty, and I was on tomato duty. It was a 'fruitful' day in many ways.

I almost cried when my hubby brought me 2 huge buckets of plums home yesterday. Guess I know what I"ll be doing this weekend...

The peelings....

Gone Fishin'...

2011-09-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

The kids have been bugging Rob 'forever' to take them fishing. Rob enjoys fishing, but it was an activity he only did with his Dad, and since his Dad passed away he just hasn't had the heart to do it again.
A couple of weeks ago it was a Monday evening and Uncle Ken was over. The kids were bugging him to fish in the pond and he said, 'ok, let's do it'. So, the boys grabbed the fishing gear out of the storage room and went out to the pond. They were all shocked when they actually caught a trout! He was just a little guy, and we put him back in, but the kids were thrilled. It was fun to sit up on the patio and watch and listen to them having fun together.

Give her wings and she'll fly...

2011-09-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

For Abby's birthday (back in March) her Uncle Ken gave her a gift certificate for a flight with him. Olivia's been up a couple of times but this was Abby's first time! Abby was SO excited! She didn't let Uncle Ken forget. Every Monday Abby would tell him...'don't forget my flight, Uncle Ken'. Well, Uncle Ken is pretty cool, and he came through with his promise a few weeks ago. We took advantage of a beautiful summer day and they took to the skies. It's always a weird feeling when the kids go up in the plane...I always have this fleeting thought that this is dangerous and risky. The reality is, Ken is an amazing pilot and we trust him completely. My fear is purely a 'mommy' thing.
They had a great flight and we took the time to walk aroundt the airport and enjoy the evening. There are some beautiful old buildings there and I love taking pictures of them. Here's a few snapshots of the evening:

Fall Market...

2011-09-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I am LONG overdue for a blog post! The last month really has been a blur of busy-ness around here. Kids getting back into school routine, me getting back into routine, and me spending hours on end in my sewing room preparing for the Campbell Valley Farmers Market. I had every hour of every day time budgeted so that I could get everything done! Because I work 2 days a week, the other days of the week are a balancing act between time with the kids, housework, programs and 'me' time. The last few weeks have been full of late nights and early mornings.
I was really happy with the amount of projects I was able to bring to market. On their own, they wouldn't be enough to fill a booth, but combined with Kim's talents it works just perfect for me.
Campbell Valley Market is a great venue! There's lots for the kids to do, and it's really a great community event. We were entertained with a variety of performers, there were games and kite making for the kids, lots of fresh bread, plant and fruit/veggie vendors, all your favourite fair food, (which I somehow managed to abstain from) and the weather cooperated! It was a great weekend, and I was able to take home a tidy sum of money for my efforts.
Thank you to all our family and friends for coming out and showing support...it really means a lot! And, thank you to all of you who purchased our wares. We put a lot of time and effort into our projects and we hope they find a special place in your homes!
Keep watching here for updates on our upcoming Christmas Open Houses!

A few of my projects all ready to go to market...

We were very happy with the way our booth space turned out...although the wind really did try to give us a run for our money!

Happy Birthday Beans...

2011-08-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

That's what we call her! Olivia's nickname has always been 'bean'. It started out as Livi-Bean, sometimes it's Beanie, and sometimes just plain 'Beans'. We love this darlin'. She's a sweetie by nature. Gentle like her Daddy, quick to love, slow to anger. She's creative and generous, has a love for magic tricks and crafts. She's entering that pre-teen phase already. I see her maturing in so many ways. She's getting just a 'little' more stubborn;)
Today we celebrate her 11th Birthday. We're still on holidays, but she's still being celebrated. Beansie..you're the best! We luv ya!

Sitting Duck...

2011-08-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've never really thought about the term 'sitting duck'...until I saw it in action the other day! It was a gorgeous sunny morning. I was in the kitchen and could hear the ducks in the pond quacking away. After a few minutes I realized they were realllllly bothered about something. I took a peek out of the sliding door just in time to see a huge bird swoop down and try and grab a 'sitting duck' out of the pond. I couldn't believe it! I went out on the deck, camera in hand and watched for awhile. I first I thought it was an eagle. But..once I put my pics on the computer I realized it was a hawk. At least I think it is. Anyway..this bird sat on the fence waiting and waiting, watching and waiting. In the not so far distance I could hear it's baby crying away in a nest somewhere. This hawk was so patient. After what seemed like forever, he/she rocketed off the fence and took another dive at the ducks. No catch. I got up to try and get some action shots but I scared it away. I noticed later in the day it was back...but the ducks hadn't learned..they were still, well, sitting ducks.

Sweet Sixteen...

2011-08-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today Rob and I are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary! I still remember getting our little farmhouse ready to move into in time for our wedding. Rob remembers renting the biggest John Deere he could get his hands on and shining it up to perfection for wedding pictures. Yes, it's true. One of these days I'll show you the photographic evidence... The years have flown by! I can't even begin to express how much this man has meant to me in my life. His heart is so pure, his love is so genuine, his spirit is so gentle, his faith is so strong. His patience is enduring, his love is so pure. He continually sets an example of someone I want to be more like. He's had some really tough years, full of challenge, and he has a huge year of change ahead of him, but I will be there for him. I will try to ease his burdens, support his decisions, make him laugh, listen to him, let him know just how much I love him, and always will.

Munch Bars...

2011-08-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ok..this recipe makes my top ten for sure! I was going on and on about this recipe to friends over the weekend so now here it is for all to see/try! I came across these yummy homeade granola bars when a fellow baseball player brought them to a game to share. When I was looking for kid friendly recipes to try I remembered this one and emailed her for the recipe. Thanks Sharon Z! I've had a few winner recipes from this friend come to think of it....
Anyway, these bars come from the former head cook up at Camp Squeah.

3 cups oatmeal

2 cups rice krispies

2 cups coconut

2 cups sunflower seeds

1/2 cup mararine

12 cups marshmallows (mini)

1 cup chocolate chips (mini)

Mix oatmeal, rice krispies, coconut and sunflower seeds together. (BIG bowl)

In microwave, in large bowl, melt marg on medium heat.

Add marshmallows, coat with melted butter, and microwave on high until

nice and gooey! Stir down and add to dry mix.

Mix well, press into greased 9x13 pan

(I used my large stoneware bar pan, but if I was using a 9x13 I'd probably split the recipe into 2 pans...it makes a lot!..oh, and buttering your hands is VERY helpful when pressing this sticky goodness)

Once pressed I sprinkled the mini chocolate chips over the entire pan and pressed them in on top of the bars.

I chilled mine in the fridge to set them.

Tip: score or cut the bars before they harden all the way...

Try em out...let me know what YOU think!

They have become our new summer favourite! Perfect for the beach, a hike, camping or the park!

TBB...

2011-08-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

TBB stands for To-Be-Bound! This messy, 'little' pile of fabric represents hours and hours of work over the past month!
I could write a whole weeks worth of blog posts based on the insane business of the past month, but frankly I don't want to re-live it! Nothing bad...just a blur, really. I have been running off my feet, working dawn to dusk, and accomplishing much! To wrap it up in a sentence; keeping the kids busy/happy, hosting a Japanese student, strawberry jam, potty training, chiropractor, kid to the dentist for an emergency tooth pulling, (all ended well) baking for 3 weeks solid to make a little extra $$ for holidays, socializing every weekend (love that part), working 2 days per week, spending at least 3 hours each day in my sewing room...well, almost every day, laundry, cleaning, gardening, packing the trailer. All this while hubby worked his backside off till 10:30 every night so he could get all his work done in time to take a holiday. It has been a challenging summer, but we've managed to keep our heads above water. Now that Rob is finished up with physio his schedule is much easier.
Anyway...we're ready for a break. We have a wonderful couple of weeks planned. My brother has been kind enough to agree to housesit for us and keep our dogs company! We're crossing our fingers that the farm can hold it's own while we take a break. We've got help lined up to do the basics everyday, and we have fellow farmers on call should there be any problems.
It dawned on me yesterday that I really haven't sat down and done nothing in longer than I can remember, haven't even been near the computer much. What am I going to do when we're on holidays and I don't have anything to do??? The kids have some plans to read together, play lots of games and have some great walks together. I can't wait for those times with them, but this 'TBB' pile will be what keeps my hands busy when it's time to 'relax'. Once these quilts are all bound they can be washed and tagged ready to go to market!
I promise I'll show the finished products when I'm back....gee..I sure hope I don't fall asleep once I do finally sit down...

Drama Queen...

2011-08-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Our lively little Abby was thrilled to be old enough to go to Drama Camp this year! Her sister has been for a couple of years in the past and Abby's been 'waiting in the wings' for her turn to shine! Abby is, by nature, a drama queen so it didn't surprise us at all that she would feel right at home at drama camp. Our local theatre company, Gallery7, offers amazing drama camps every summer for kids of all ages. Abby was in the 'Creative Explosions' class this year. Her teacher was, the ever so sweet and smiling, Joyce Cheung. Each morning when Abby woke up she had a smile on her face and a plan for her wardrobe! She always needed to be dressed for her character (squirrel/teacher), and had ants in her pants all the way to the camp! Each day when I picked her up her smile was still in place and she had a sense of self-worth and confidence that every parent loves to see. Friday was 'production' day and Rob and I, Livi and Grandpa (Gramma had to work), all came out to the show. Abby did great and we're so proud of her! When I asked her if she wanted to go back next year her answer was 'YES!!!'. Well...she comes by it naturally, her Uncle Ken is the founder and artistic director of Gallery7. When I asked Abby what her favourite part of drama camp was, I got a different answer each day, but each day when I sent her off she would whisper in my ear...'I hope I see Uncle Ken!'. How blessed we are to be able to combine Abby's passion for drama, community, and family all in one week! Thank you Gallery7 for making my Abby shine all week!

Waiting in the wings...

Teacher Joyce...

Baby Takes a Bow...

Abby & Uncle Ken...

Summer Starts...

2011-08-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Finally! Finally we've had some summer weather around here. It's the end of July and temps are starting to head into the 20's! This is so unusual. Usually by now we've had a few heat waves, temps have hit the 30's and we're complaining about how hot it is. Instead, the kids have hardly swam in the pool, there's no issues with having the oven on to make dinners, and patio dining is nearly non-existent! This last week things brightened up and we took full advantage of it! We took an evening and headed out to the coast to watch a flight demonstration by our beloved Snowbirds flying team, followed by a movie under the stars on the beach. The weather was great, but for some reason the Snowbirds started their show almost a 1/2 hour early (while we were still looking for parking) and by the time we actually sat down to enjoy the show....it was over! We were SO disappointed! I managed to get a few parting shots before they flew away, but, man, were we disappointed!

Luckily, we were with friends and we made the evening fun despite things. We had our picnic supper on the beach, played some cards, walked, and hung out to watch the movie 'Rio'. It was a late night, but a fun way to spend a much deserved summer evening.

Raspberry-Rhubarb Platz

2011-07-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mmmm..this is one of our favourite ones around this house! Traditionally this recipe is made with just one fruit, and usually plum or rhubarb, but I love the mix of raspberries and rhubarb so I adjusted this recipe a little to suit. It is also excellent with strawberries and rhubarb! This recipe originates from one of my favourite blogs, Mennonite Girls Can Cook. So if you're a non-menno gal like me who married a very menno guy, this blog is a wifesaver!

Preheat oven to 350*

Grease a 9x13" pan

(I use my stoneware bar pan and double this recipe)

Combine:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp baking powder

Cut in: 1/4 cup butter/marg

Once this resembles coarse crumbs add in a mixture of:

1/2 cup milk

1 fresh egg

1 tsp vanilla

Mix well. Mixture will be lumpy

Spread in greased pan

Top with finely diced fresh or frozen fruit of your choice. I used approx 2 cups of chopped rhubarb and 1 1/2 cups raspberries (or strawberries.)

Crumb Topping:

(tip: If you're doing a double recipe up to this point, you don't need to double this part..there's plenty!)

Combine: 1 1/2 cups flour and 1 1/2 cups white sugar

Melt 1/2 cup butter/marg

Drizzle butter over mixture and quickly combine to make small crumbs.

Sprinkle over fruit and bake in the top 1/3 of your oven for approx 30 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Blueberry-Orange Muffins

2011-07-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is a quick and easy recipe. We like them because they're the perfect mix...not too tart, not too sweet!

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup orange juice

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (raspberries are great too)

Topping:

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

In large bowl, combine oats and orange juice and let stand for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, beat in the egg, oil and sugar until well blended.

In seperate bowl: combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Stir this dry mixture into the wet oatmeal mixture until just moistened. Fold in blueberries.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full.

Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over batter.

Bake at 400* for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack.

Oatmeal Craisin-Chip Cookies

2011-07-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

These are yummy cookies that seem to keep the kids happy!

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sqaures) room temp. marg or butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup craisins (or raisins if you prefer)

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup shredded coconut - optional

Preheat oven to 350*

In a medium bowl, whisk together: flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside

With mixer: combine butter and sugars until well beat and fluffy.

Beat in eggs and vanilla scraping bowl as needed.

Add craisins, choco chips and coconut. Beat until just combined.

Place drops of dough on cookie sheets.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Tips:

- I use parchment paper on my cookie sheets to make clean up a breeze.

- I love, love, love my cookie dough scoop. Keeps the hands clean and the cookies 'uniform'.

- This recipe also works great for freezing your pre-formed dough. Just scoop your dough onto your cookie sheet as you normally would, then throw in the freezer.

- Once frozen, remove from cookie sheet and place in ziploc bags. Ready to bake!

- To bake from frozen: Bake 20-25 minutes.

Banana Bread...

2011-07-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've been baking up a storm these past couple of weeks. I am providing snacks for a local summer camp for kids. It's been a fun challenge. The weather here has been anything but summer'ish' so spending time indoors baking hasn't been as hard as I thought it might be! I thought I'd share the recipes that I'm doing this week so you can try them out if you like. They're nothing fancy, but it's always fun to try other peoples recipes. Monday's Snack was Banana Bread. This is the same recipe I've made for years. As an alternative to nuts, I've been using mini chocolate chips.

1/2 cup butter or marg, softened

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 cup (approx 3 medium) ripe, mashed bananas

2 cups flour

1 tsp Baking soda

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup of chopped walnuts

(or mini choco chips if avoiding nut allergy issues)

Cream together: Butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating until smooth.

Blend in mashed bananas

In second bowl, mix together remaining ingredients. Once mixed, add to banana mixture. Stir enough to moisten. Transfer to greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350* for approx 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

This is a favourite in our house. We make it almost weekly. My 'big' secret for successful banana bread is to use my stoneware loaf pan. I only have a few stoneware pieces but this one was worth every penny! My bread always comes out perfect! I suggest letting your bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack.

Let the Beach Bummin' Begin...

2011-07-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we sure started summer off with a bang! Last weekend it was officially summer here. The temps began to soar and the bbq's began to smoke. Kids were up late every night, and baths and showers were mandatory before bed! We finished school on the Thursday, had our Canada Day celebrations on the Friday, went to White Rock Beach on Saturday, and then out to Harrison Beach on Sunday. I felt like I packed enough lunches and suppers to feed an army, and did the laundry when the army was all done. Oh well...it was a great way to kick it off. We enjoyed having 2 boys from Japan stay with us for the weekend. I loved these boys and was sad to say goodbye. I wish they could've stayed with us for a few weeks! I'm glad they got to experience full days of fun while they were here!

Goodbye Daiki & Masa...we will miss you!

Harrison....

Beach Burn-out...

God Keep Our Land Glorious and Free...

2011-07-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the birthday of our great nation again last weekend! Canada Day is always a day we look forward to. It usually brings good weather, good entertainment and great times with friends. We started off the day by sleeping in (yeah) and then it was off to the parade! This year Rob was able to sit and watch the parade with us since he wasn't pulling Gallery7's float this year. Ken also joined us for the parade. I grabbed a quick Starbucks for a treat and we met up with friends and proceeded to take up most of the sidewalk for a block!!! This year was a great parade, lots of floats, lots of good music, and lots of candy for the kids! Rob went to work after the parade and then we picked up 2 Japanese students in the afternoon. We met up with some other friends who were hosting students and we had a great bbq followed by a night at the fireworks. It was a busy and full day, but very fun!

The gals, the guys..and the 'crew'!

I have a 'thing' for bagpipes. I love them! I think it could have something to do with the fact that my maiden name is McIntosh??? Maybe. Either way, I love em'.

I used to have an ongoing joke with my Father-in-law about bagpipes. He hated them, I loved them. Whenever we heard them we'd look at each other and I'd smile and he'd grimace! I even bought him a tape (yes, it was that long ago) of all bagpipe playing one year for Christmas! Seems so funny now that it was something we bonded over...

No country parade is complete without a little tractor representation! Although we prefer the green & yellow, we tolerate those who don't know any better;)

Perfect way to end the day....

Sweet & Sour Farmer Sausage

2011-07-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

I promised my sweet friend Carolyn that I would post this recipe for her. I found this recipe 15 years ago in a mennonite cook book that I was given at one of my bridal showers. It has become a favourite in our house. We usually have it once a month on a Monday night when Uncle Ken comes for supper. Uncle Ken LOVES this meal! This is a really easy recipe! We buy our farmer sausage from a local butcher. I usually peel the outer layer of 'skin' off the sausage first.
Recipe:
Pre-Bake Sauasge for 1 hour @ 350* in a 9x13" pan.
(Once it's baked for an hour I cut it into 2-3" chunks for serving size)

In large bowl combine:
2 cans tomato soup
2 cans pineapple tidbits (leave juice in)
6 tbsp. brown sugar
4 tbsp. vinegar
1 green pepper ( I use a red and a green)
1 onion chopped up in larger pieces

Mix well and pour over pre-baked sausage and bake covered with foil for another hour @ 350*.
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving over rice.
This recipe makes a lot of sauce so if you're using smaller farmer sausage you may want to cut the recipe in half.

Recital...

2011-07-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Another year has wrapped up for Piano lessons. This was our last year with 'Miss Charity'. Charity has been a wonderful teacher. Very patient, kind and nurturing towards Olivia. We appreciated the life skills she built into Olivia along with the musical knowledge. Olivia's recital theme was 'Beach Party'. It was a fun evening with good music, good food and fun visiting with fellow piano families. Olivia played the piano piece titled 'Chimes'. She did a great job! We are proud of you Livi! Keep up the hard work! Music is a wonderful part of life!

Father's Day...

2011-07-05T07:00:00.001-07:00

We enjoyed taking some time out once again this year to honour the Dads in our family! We started off the day with a strawberry waffle feast topped with ice cream for Rob! Abby was up and eager to help with the preparations, while Olivia yelled something at us about 'get out, I'm still sleeping!'. Hmm...I feel a teenager coming on. Anyway, Abby, Isaac and I did the work, and Abby woke up Daddy to his Fathers Day feast! We went to church for our worship service and then home again. Rob had to work, but he got his chores done quickly and got to squeeze in a nap before supper. We headed over to my parents place for a steak bbq with all the fixin's! The guys were honoured with gifts and cards and Mom and I did the bbq'ing. We even included Uncle Dave in the gift giving. He may not be a father yet, but he'll make a great one when he finds the right gal!
We spent some time reflecting on Rob's dad and how much we miss him still after these 5 years. We had hoped to head out to the graveside to leave some flowers but the day got away on us faster than we thought.

All in all, a great day. Both Rob and my Dad deserve a lot of credit for the Fathers that they are. Both are upstanding, honest, and lead by example. Both are involved in their children's lives, and are respected by their families and those around them. Keep up the good work boys...you're leaving an everlasting heritage for your loved ones!

Me & My Daddy...

Birthday Boy's Party...

2011-07-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

I meant to post these awhile ago but the whole month was such a busy time that I'm just getting around to it now. Little man had a great birthday! He's been asking for his birthday cake for months already! He wanted a Blues Clues birthday cake. It was a fun time and so wonderful to see him so full of joy. He was spoiled rotten, to put it mildly! Here's a few pics from the party...

We are looking for Blues Clues, we are looking for Blues Clues...

Isaac's been asking for a guitar and a wheelbarrow for months now...

Auntie Kim surprised all the kids with handmade signs for their rooms! Thanks Auntie Kim, they're beautiful!

Isaac also got a 'scooper'! (aka scooter) He loves his new 'scooper'...

And of course there's the 'some assembly required'....

A few of our party guests....

We are thankful for this little man who lights up our lives. His sense of humour brings us all so much joy! It is truly a blessing to be parents to Isaac. Happy Birthday Little Man...we love you!

Still Proud to be a Canuck...

2011-06-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ack, this is a hard post to write. I had planned to write up a post on our infamous Canucks and all the joy and fun they've brought to us hockey fans lately. The orginal post would've been all about how 'we' won the Stanley cup after 40 years of trying, blah, blah, blah.
Plan B was to write about how 'that's ok, we still made it this far and we're so proud, blah, blah, blah'.
Plan C...here it goes...
Well, we didn't with the Cup (duh). But, we did end up with a trashed out city and a lot of negative news coverage. Fair enough. But, BUT...we are still proud to be Canadian and still proud of our 'Boys in Blue'! We are NOT proud of the post-game idiocy displayed. We are disgusted with some of our fellow Vancouverites. We want them held accountable for their actions. We want them to pay for the clean up. We want them to serve jail time. We want them fined. We want them to know how they've embarassed our country and our hockey team. We want them to know they are not representatives of our Canucks at all. They are not fans, they are troublemakers. As to the 'man' who was pictured lighting a rag stuffed into the gas tank of a police car who is now sobbing and seeking forgiveness for his apalling display of rebellion, I have no respect for you. How ironic that since you've been caught on tape and your identity has been revealed to be that of a potential Olympic contender in water polo, you see the error of your ways. Guess what buddy? I say the best punishment for you is to be denied the right to represent your fellow Canadians at any upcoming Olympics. Ever. Forgiveness: Yes. Consequences: Absolutely!
Kudos to the real fans who went in masses to clean up the city. You are true Canadians and true Canucks!
Ok, all that being said, we still enjoyed our run for the Cup! It was such a great time of community and family. We enjoyed the juggle of calendar life to accomodate the hockey games and all the crazy puck drop times. I enjoyed making a ton of meals to pack up and go to whomever was nice enough to host us in front of their big screen tv's! We enjoyed flying the flag on our car. We enjoyed wearing blue and green as much as possible! We enjoyed the parade's on South Fraser Way following each victory! Some say hockey is all consuming, I say it is an opportunity to embrace a fun, patriotic event! We created some great memories through these last few months. We spent wonderful time with friends and family. Sure we're a little sad that we didn't win the cup, but we're also decent enough to admit that Boston is a great team and, in my opinion, was the better hockey team this time around! We even gave their goalie a standing 'O' when they recieved the cup! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Canucks boys, but fair is fair.
So...so long playoffs. It's been fun...we'll do it all again next year! (only we'll win;)

Some GOOD memories from the playoff season...
What would playoffs be without playoff beards? Huge tradition here in Vancouver...grow your beard until your team is done...wow, this year the beards got bushy. I kept telling my brother that with the last name McIntosh, and a bushy red beard, he looked like a Scottish clansmen during playoff season! Way to go Dave...but, for the record, I love you just the way you are!

Even our local coffee chain gets in on the action...there was window art and the famous 'Canucks' donuts!

Everybody has their favourite Canucks logo...mine is the old school 'Halloween' logo that's black, orange and yellow, and Rob likes the Orca logo...

The kids were all in canucks mode...from T-shirts, to hockey sticks (that I tripped over on a daily basis around the house) to face paint and home made signs....

Going over to guests homes was always fun...even home decor was Canucks style!

The purchase of the Canucks flag for the car was an investment in family fun! Isaac spent many quiet moments in his car seat watching that flag fly! Mind you, he also screamed in his car seat all the way home when he rolled down the window and bumped the flag off in the middle of an intersection in town! Uncle Ken rescued the day by showing up with a brand-spankin' new flag for the kids and smiles were restored once again!

Thanks to the 'Boys in Blue' for another memorable hockey season! Next year: Same Time, First Place!

GO CANUCKS GO!!!

Fieldtrippin'

2011-06-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

It seems as though this is the season for fieldtrips. It's hard to believe the school year is wrapping up. It snuck up on us so fast that I was really ill prepared! It seems like EVERY stinking event is on either a Thurs or a Fri and I just happen to work those days! It's been a constant juggling act for hubby and I to get everyone to where they need to be and on time yet! This week Abby had the annual Kindergarten fieldtrip to the pepper farm. We have a great family in our school who own a huge pepper operation. They invite the 3 kindergarten classes out and do a tour of their pepper farm, a feature on a race car they run, and then feed the kids all a hot dog lunch! The kids made a craft and had the opportunity to tire themselves out playing! Isaac came along and did good...a few meltdowns here and there, but mainly on the car ride home! Here's a few pics...

Ladybug Craft...

Playing 'Punchanella' while we wait for our next station....sheesh my kid is tall...

Everybody wants to be a racecar driver....

These ladybugs are imported all the way from Norway and eliminate the need for pesticides on the pepper plants!

This was my second time doing this fieldtrip and something tells me it won't be my last...

Love Is...

2011-06-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

A few months back a friend emailed me a link for this 'Love Is' quilt pattern. I was fortunate to snatch it up while the creator was still offering it for free! Oh how I love a good deal;) I've had the pattern sitting in my 'to do file' for awhile now waiting for just the right moment to pull it out. When I heard that our missions team was going to do a silent auction fundraiser for their next trip down to Grace Children's Home I knew this would be the perfect 'excuse' to make it.
It's a very straight forward pattern. Of course I only started it a week before the event, adding just a 'little' pressure on myself! In the midst of that week my back went out and I was laid up for a few days. Talk about frustrating! In the end it all worked out well. I had nothin' but time to stitch since I wasn't able to go anywhere or do anything active. Kim was kind enough to come over one night and stiple quilt it for me so I didn't have to bend over my sewing machine. Bending, you see, is not an option these days!
So here it is. I'm happy to say it fetched a nice price at the auction and I recieved an order for another one to boot! It was a very therapeutic project in many ways. I was forced to just settle and stitch, and reflect on the the words of this verse. They are challenging words to live up to....

First the cutting...lots of cutting!

Next, sewing the sides on and then lots of pressing....

Next, laying out the blocks...easier said than done....

Then the tracing of the words and flowers...and FINALLY, the stitching....

Last step: Adding the borders, the backing and finally, the quilting and binding!

Birthday Boy

2011-06-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

Here's our man...growing up so fast! Yesterday was Isaac's 3rd Birthday. Party pics to follow...

Makes me Smile...

2011-05-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is a giftie that Kim made for me a couple of years ago, and it continues to be one of my most favourite all time gifts! It's hanging over my antique stove on a wall that I pass by all day long. It always makes me smile....

Marinade for Chicken Souvlaki

2011-05-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is just a basic marinade for Chicken Souvlaki that I use. It doesn't need to be followed to the exact, but the flavours are great together. This is basically the recipe I followed for the Passover meal.

2 tsp minced garlic (I do 2 cloves)

2 tsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp olive oil (I use extra virgin)

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 lb chicken breast (About 3- 4 boneless breasts) You can choose whether you want to cut the chicken into pieces for skewers, or leave them whole.

Mix first 6 ingredients in a ziploc bag. Add chicken. Let marinade for desired amount of time (at least one hour, if not 3-4). I flip bag over a couple of times to mix the marinade up.

If using skewers, pre soak skewers in water, then thread meat and veggies on, or leave chicken breasts whole (that's what we do) and throw on the BBQ and enjoy!

Easy Greek Salad

2011-05-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

Really, the key to any good greek salad is the dressing, right? That's where I cheat. I run to the local Greek Restaurant down the street and pick up a bottle of their specialty dressing. I know I'm not the only one girls!!! Here's the recipe we used for Greek salad at the Passover meal. We did all the veggie prep the night before. I have NEVER cut up that many veggies in my entire life!!! My whole house and car reeked like red onion for days...and oh did we all cry when we were prepping them. Didn't we Rich? Again, this is another recipe from allrecipes.com

Recipe for 4 servings:

3/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped

3/4 cup chopped green bell pepper

1 cup cucumber - chopped (option: peeled & seeded )

1 tomato, chopped

1/2 cup diced red onion

4 large black olives, quartered

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Throw it together and douse it with your favourite dressing!

Greek Potatoes

2011-05-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've tried a few different recipes for Greek style potatoes. I alternate between this one (from Menno Girls Can Cook) and this new one that my good friend Shelley gave me. The recipe below is the one we served at the Passover meal and it is our new favourite! It comes from the allrecipes.com site.

1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups water
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (I crush in my garlic crusher)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 cubes chicken bouillon
ground black pepper to taste
6 potatoes, peeled and quartered

Preheat oven to 350*
Mix all ingredients, except for potatoes, in a medium bowl.
Arrange potatoes in bottom of a 9x13" pan
Pour mixture over potatoes
Cover and bake for 1.5 - 2 hours. Turn occasionally.

Lemon Dill Rice

2011-05-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is the recipe I use at home when I cook Greek Food. It differs a little from the one we used for the Passover meal. It is also a nice rice to cook if you're serving fish.

1 tbsp Olive oil
1 cup long grain rice
1 cup finely diced celery
1 med sized onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced (I use 2)
1 3/4 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp butter
Scant 1 tbsp dried dill weed (fresh is great too)
2 tsp sugar
pinch salt
4 lemon slices

Combine olive oil and rice in a saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir often, cooking until rice is a nice golden brown. (4-5 min). Add celery, onions & garlic. Stir until softened. Add stock, lemon juice, butter, dill, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil. Float lemon slices on top. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until tender and liquid has absorbed. Once cooked, allow to stand for 10 minutes. Garnish with dill. Serves 6

Going Greek...

2011-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it all started with the Pastor asking me if I would be willing to head up the meal for our Passover Celebration. I asked how many people...he said, "oh, well, I don't know. We've never done something like this before. I don't think it would be more than 50, maybe 100 people interested". Hmmm, I thought. Well, I've cooked for Alpha before and that was for 60ish people. I could probably do this. We talked about menu. He was open to anything, but after discussing the theme of the celebration and the meaning of it we thought it may be fun to do a Mediterranean flavoured meal. I love, love, love Greek food and I've been cooking it more confidently in the past few months. I figured, if I could cook it for our family then I could expand it for 50ish people. Guess what? I didn't cook for 50ish people. I cooked for 250ish people. Yeah...I reacted the same way. Here's the part where I need to define 'I cooked'. I didn't really cook for that many people. I organized the cooking for that many people.

Here's how 'I' did it:
First, I phoned all the 'pros' in our church that I could find and asked them how the heck you cook for that many people. I took notes. Lots of notes.
Second, I planned the menu. Lots of research, lots of math. Two things I least enjoy.
Thirdly, I took the advice of those pro's and delegated each aspect of the meal to different people. Those people were responsible for finding all the people they needed. I provided them with their recipes, and offered to do their shopping for them if they didn't want to do that part.
Fourthly, I panicked. A lot. What if this? What if that? What if I failed hugely?
Fifth, I gave it to God. If you're taking notes, I would suggest placing this first, third, fifth and so on....I prayed that God would provide me with the knowledge, the peace, the ability, the help and the opportunity to honour Him.
Rob had his hand injury in the middle of all of this and the Pastor graciously offered me an out on all of this. He was so great about it. He said it would be fine to order KFC. Um, no, it's not fine. I'll still do it! Then I went back to step number 5, again and again.

God provided above and beyond. He gave us peace in a crazy, overwhelming time, He gave us helpers with great attitudes and abilities, and He used it for His glory.
I am a person who thrives on challenges and tends to take them on to deal with stress. Backwards, I know, but it makes me who I am.

We served:
BBQ'd souvlaki chicken - we bbq'd 270 pieces and had 6 leftover!
Greek Potatoes - everyone got one portion, and about 10 lucky people got seconds!
Lemon/Dill Rice - lots of rice, and one pan leftover
Greek Salad - oh was it good! Just enough left over for a few lunches for the help!
Unleavened bread (in keeping with Passover tradition) with tzaziki dip
Dessert - this was not my dept but it was good! I think there was a chocolate or orange type cake of some sort...I didn't have much time to enjoy;)
The teams had to be scheduled around the space and equipment available in the kitchen.
Everything had to be labelled with instructions for the prep team and table setting crew.
I was on my feet for 13 hours solid and my notes looked like shredded paper by the time I was done, but we did it!

Some of the many challenges presented:
Addition of people right up to the event! Seriously people, buy your tickets on time!
Shopping for that many ingredients and fitting them all in my car!
Not having access to the kitchen until 11pm the night before the event (there was a wedding in the day before the event)
Preparing all the food in a foodsafe manner and having the right people on hand to help with that!
Clean up for that many dishes! (surprisingly it only took 3 hours to clean over 1000 dishes!)
Coming in on budget when the meal was only $5 per person ( I think I came in UNDER budget!!!)
Naysayers in the ranks...
I have to share how disappointed I was to hear of a couple of people who talked negatively about this event before it even happened! There was one particular 'party' who verbalized to a few people their displeasure at the choice of menu. Really? REALLY? I get it if you don't like Greek, not everyone does. The ironic reality is that it's chicken, potatoes, rice and veggies people...but instead of soaking them in sweet and sour, we're using savoury spices. I chose not to be discouraged for long. Some people will ALWAYS find something to complain about!
Our Pastors wife was so encouraging. We talked about how this celebration was about SO MUCH MORE than Greek food. This celebration was about the importance and meaning of Jesus' last supper with His disciples. This celebration was about the significance of His death on the cross. This supper was about our heritage. This supper was about gathering with friends and families and teaching our children more about their heavenly Father. This celebration was meant to honour God. It was a wonderful evening. I didn't get to partake in the readings and such, but I did grab a quick plate of food and visit with friends. I am forever in debt to our dear friends Rich and Shell for their joy and willingness in helping us with so much prep work. We are definitely treating you to dinner one of these days...and it won't be Greek food!
I'll post a few of the recipes I chose for this meal in the next week and you can give them a try if you like.

Everything was made from scratch with the exception of the tzaziki dip (mine never tastes as good as the store stuff) and the greek salad dressing (which is so perfectly made by our local Greek restaurant) Kudos to the bbq team, the rice team, the potato peeling & prep crew, the chicken prep crew, the dessert prep team, the Greek salad gurus and the set up and clean up crews. Your help and experience was a huge asset! I have heard wonderfully positive things about the whole experience and that's all the thanks I need. Would I do it again....NO! Well, maybe. Ask me later. Most likely.

Oh...and did I mention that I'm a details person? I am. To add some colour to the tables I went to one of our local daffodil farmers and bought bulk. I love our Bradner farmers, they're so helpful and generous. We got a steal of a deal on a large amount of flowers and he mixed several varieties up in the order just for kicks! I love community.

Easter...

2011-05-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Easter Season was a busy one around here! I think, perhaps, more busy than Christmas was...and that's sayin' something! It was a very fun and meaningful Easter.
The week prior to Easter was a crazy one. Our schedule was packed, work was crazy, and we heard of 6 people who had passed away. It was a hard week, but we were blessed despite of it. Our Pastor put a lot of planning and prayer into how to make the Easter season a memorable and meaningful one. I think it was particularly a special Easter for the kids. I think they are really starting to grasp the meaning of their Heavenly Father and how His death (and resurrection!)was so necessary for mankind.
We started off the celebrations on Passover Sunday with a traditional Passover meal at our church. Pastor Tim did a full Passover ceremony with a traditional Seder plate and readings followed by a meal. It was a unique evening and I was honoured to be a part of the meal prep team. (I'll do a post on that one soon;)
Then, Good Friday, our church hosted it's annual breakfast and 'Art Walk' where an intimate and meaningful atmosphere is created to help us all interpret what the cross means to us. The Art Walk was beautiful, with so many expressions of love for Christ. The men prepared the breakfast and it was wonderful! Both of our brothers came out to join in the festivities. There was a short service after the Art Walk and then communion. On Friday evening we headed over to hubby's Moms house for a family get together. The kids had a great time hanging out with their cousins.
On Easter Weekend Saturday, it was warm and gorgeous here so we did yard work all day! My brother came over and lent a much needed hand and we got huge amounts of work done! Saturday evening Rob and I took the kids to my parents and headed out on a double date with some friends.
Sunday morning we headed over to a neighboring church to see our nephew be baptised. It was so special to see him make this decision to publicly declare his love and obedience to God. It was especially meaningful to me as I was baptised on an Easter Sunday when I was younger. Sunday afternoon we headed over to my parents for an Easter celebration! We were originally going to be joined by several family members, but in the end it was just our family. Mom prepared a lovely meal, we pigged out on strawberry shortcake and paska, the kids did their Easter egg hunt, and, AND....we watched the hockey game! It's play off season here folks and hockey is the name of the game!
Easter Monday the kids were off, but Rob had to work, we just had a relaxed day here and, as per usual, Uncle Ken joined us for supper.
'Oooohhhh....the good ol' hockey game...'

Paska, sans icing & sprinkles....good thing I only make this stuff once a year! I have such a weakness for paska....

Baking for Teacher Appreciation...

2011-05-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

Like many schools, our school picks one week each Spring to honour our teachers and the amazing jobs they do! I am so grateful for teachers! As a 'class mom' it is my job to make sure that these teachers feel special this week! I ask parents to sign up for one day during the week where they will commit to doing something for the teacher...maybe a hot coffee/tea, flowers, a treat, or even a card or time in the classroom. In the past 4 years I've always made a full, hot meal for Olivia's teacher so that they get one night off when they don't have to cook! This year I was too 'chicken' to do a meal for Olivia's teacher because he's a vegan! I respect it, but can't relate to it hunnny! So...this year it was fresh, hot from the oven, pans of blueberry cinnamon buns for Livi and Abby's teachers. Hope they enjoyed them! It's a pretty easy recipe, and if you have a large mixer then it'll do the work for you!
Here's my recipe:
-- Mix 2 tsp granulated sugar into 1 cup of warm water. Sprinkle scant 2 tbsp of dry yeast on top and let sit for 10 minutes. (I do this in my kitchen aid bowl so it's ready to have ingredients added)
-- Once proofed (poofed) stir yeast mixture to mix. Add:
2 large eggs
1/3 cup cooking oil
1/2 sugar
1 cup warm milk 2 cups all purpose flour
Beat together well.

Now work in 4 - 4.5 cups of flour (I switch to the dough hook for this one)
Work it in until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. You can let it knead in your machine for a good 5 minutes once it's all blended, or, turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. Should be smooth and elastic. I love working with the dough so I always opt for a few less minutes in the mixer and do some kneading by hand...work out those frustrations girls!

Place dough in greased bowl, turn once to grease top. Cover with tea towel and place in oven with light on and door closed. Let rise for approx 1 hour until doubled in size.
Filling:
1/2 cup butter softened
3/4 cup brown sugar mixed with 2.5 tsp ground cinnamon
4 cups blueberries. (I use frozen)

Now, divide dough into 3 equal parts. Roll each into 9x12" rectangles. ( I do one at a time)
Spread 1/3 of butter on each piece
Sprinkle 1/3 sugar/cinnamon mixture on each
Scatter 1/3 berries on each piece

Starting on the long side of the rectangle, tightly roll up each piece into a log. Cut each log into 9 even pieces and place in greased 8x8 pans. (I always use pie plates)
Cover with tea towels and let stand in oven with light on and door closed for another hour.

Bake at 375* for 20 minutes...watch, they burn easy.

Glaze:
Blend 1.5 cups icing sugar with:
1/2 cup softened butter, 2-3 tbsp milk or water
1/2 tsp vanilla
Drizzle over buns once they've cooled a little.

Blissfully Unaware

2011-04-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

This post title seemed appropriate when I looked back on the date of my last post. March 29th. On March 29th I had no idea that the next day would be spent in the ER with hubby, wondering if he would still have all his fingers when he left. On March 30th Rob had an accident on the farm. He caught his hand in a piece of machinery in the barn. One of my greatest fears with a husband who's a farmer is injury. Rob works alone and is around equipment all the time. Often I stop in to say hi or bring him a treat...I think we both know that I'm checking in on him and making sure he's ok. Haying season is the worst:) There's always a small part of me that panics when he phones from work...usually it's just a call say 'hi poopsie!' and 'I'm thinking of you'...or more likely, 'I'm going to be a *few* minutes late'. But on this particular day it was a call to say 'I hurt myself pretty good and I'm thinking I should head to the clinic.'

I could tell something was off...he didn't sound too hurt, but there was something in his voice. It took me just a few minutes too long to realize he was in shock. I picked him up at the farm and off we went to ER. The staff were great, he was in within 10 minutes and was receiving treatment shortly thereafter. The big concern was infection. Barns aren't exactly the most hygienic places for an accident!
From this point on it really just seems like a blur. I feel as though I've been living in my car for the past month driving here there and everywhere. Life had to become very organized and scheduled and the days didn't have enough hours in them to get everything accomplished. The timing of the accident was interesting. On one hand, we had just shipped our big flock out so the day to day farm responsibilities were less than usual. On the other hand, we had 13,000 birds that HAD to be moved into the layer barns before they reached a certain age and in order for that to happen all the barns had to be cleaned and prepped for the move itself.
This is where God took over...He saw our anxiety, felt our helplessness, and took over. Rob and I can't even begin to put into words the overwhelming peace we have felt. It's as though nothing happened. Life was put into perspective very quickly. Things that normally feel so bothersome and mundane became things to appreciate and acknowledge.
Before Rob was even out of surgery we had more help than we knew what to do with. People we don't even know were offering their assistance. Fellow farmers came to the rescue, machinery was fixed, barns were cleaned, and flocks were moved! Kids were babysat so I could be available to work on the farm, meals were delivered, and cards were flowing into the mailbox. We even recieved a card from a family in Colorado who knows us through their daughter. They were letting us know that they, and their church, were praying for us! Our church family rose above and beyond the duty of a family and did everything they could to support us. Our friends, family and church prayed us through every step of the trauma. Men took time off their own jobs to come and work on our farm. All of those who volunteered their time didn't even ask if they could help...they just showed up and helped and organized more people on their own. We prayed for safety for these men, many of whom had not worked on a farm before. To feel this kind of love, to experience Christ's love through these friends is more than we can ever express in words. I can't imagine how we would have done all this without our church family. I have always been a strong advocate of church involvement, and this experience causes me to stress just one more time to all of you how important it is to invest your time and love into your church community. It's not a matter of having the resources of friends to help in a crisis, although this is a huge benefit, it's the way you experience Christ's love through these people.
Well, this blog post could go on for days, but to sum things up; we are so thankful that the surgeon was able to re-construct Rob's fingers. We are thankful that he will slowly regain use of them, if not entirely, then we'll settle for partially! We are thankful that the cost of therapy and all medical expenses will be covered. We are thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who protected us and embraced us. We are thankful for friends and family who carried us through this trauma. Thankful for those of you who followed us through every step of the way with phone calls, texts and emails. We are so thankful for our marriage and the unity we were able to feel despite the crisis.
Rob is thankful to be back at work...the crazy man won't stay away from his beloved farm! He has months of therapy ahead, and will need to take it easy, but that's a small price to pay for a farm accident! So, if you are one of the many friends that helped us through this, then we sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
I didn't get too many pictures...too busy! But here's a few I snapped with my phone along the way...
Here's hubby 'supervising' a few days after the accident:

Here's my bro who came to the rescue and put in some good time doing mundane chores with me on the farm:

Here's a few fierce warriors to braved the flock change...from left to right:

Josh, who's experience on a layer farm was such an asset,

Wayne, who said...and I quote "I'd deal with complaining customers all day before I'd ever chicken farm!"

And Stef, who kept us entertained all day! Stef's quote: "I was really careful with the chickens...well, the first few anyway...."

Thanks guys...you're the BEST!

And last, but certainly not least.... 'Dr. D' and fellow farmer and friend Dan who also played a big part in getting the job done! Way to go guys!

Tuesday Time-Out...

2011-03-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

So far it's been a productive week around here. The kids are back to school and we're slowly getting back into routine since Spring Break. Yesterday I spent the whole day cleaning and doing laundry. There's so much more cleaning and sorting to be done, but there will always be another Monday! Today Kim and I changed up our Tuesday Time-Out routine a little. Kim's girls are on their second week of Spring Break so Isaac and I headed over there this morning. I made a quick trip across the border to pick up a parcel, then a quick stop at Timmy's for coffees, then off to Kim's. I didn't have much time to sew as I needed to do Kindergarten pick up, but hey, a few stitches were accomplished, coffees were consumed, and conversation coincided! On my way to pick up Abby from school my cell phone was ringing away. Isaac had it in the back seat with him and to my surprise he not only managed to answer it, but put it on speaker phone as well! Kim was calling to tell me that I'd left my purse at her house....oh bother. With the price of gas being through the roof, I was a little less than thrilled at my forgetfulness! So, back we went, picked up the purse and headed home. In the couple of hours I had before the next school pick up, I was able to lay out my now completed pinwheel blocks and try to get a layout picked so I can complete my quilt. Here's a look at where I'm at with it....hope your Tuesday's going well!

Addicted to Dresden's...

2011-03-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

I've always had a soft spot for traditional dresden quilts. There's just something so 'grandmotherly' about them. A while back I had come across a tutorial for making these beautiful dresden plates and decided to give it a go myself. And now, I'm addicted! They are a great way to use up scraps, but more importantly, they make such a cute little accent to home decor. I have big plans for my dresden's. Here's a little mini tutorial of how I make them. Really, the trick is all in the ruler. Invest in one of these babies for $5 and you'll never look back! I've got several on the go! I'm hoping to get my Etsy shop up and running this week and they will be a feature there. I've noticed there aren't very many on etsy so I'm hoping mine will sell well!

First you need to find the fabric you want to use. You can go scrappy, or stay with a line of fabric that all coordinates. Next you need to determine what size of 'plates' you're going to make. 5" seems to be the standard, but feel free to go bigger or smaller. No matter what size of dresden you make, there are always 20 'blades' in a dresden plate. I recommend using a 'charm' pack. It's a stack of about 40 5x5" squares of pre-cut fabric from a coordinating line. Once you've figured out these details then it's time to start cutting. I find it easiest to cut while I'm standing for this particular project. You need to be able to cut from both sides of the ruler.
For this demo I'll be referring to a 5" dresden. Place your ruler on a 5" square so that the bottom of your ruler and the 5" mark of your ruler are each on an edge of the fabric. Have your ruler placed as close to the edge of the fabric as you can so that you can get 2 'blades' from each charm square. (Why didn't I have any pictures of this part?) It's up to you whether you'd like to do 20 different patterns of fabric, or do only 10 with 2 of each pattern in the dresden.

Once all of your pieces are cut, place them in the shape of a circle to determine the order of your pattern. This only takes a few minutes, but is very important. Once they're all laid out the way you like them, pick one and start stacking them in a pile according to the order you placed them in. It doesn't matter which one you start with. Once stacked I usually clothespin mine together in case my two year old decides to pop into my sewing room for a visit! Now it's time to start sewing!

Taking the wider end (the top) of the 'blade' of fabric, fold with right sides together between your fingers and sew across the top using a 1/4" seam allowance. I suggest a few reverse stitches at the beginning and the end of each. Now, chain stitch the rest of the blades in exactly the same way. (Chain stitching simply means that you don't cut your threads between each piece when you sew. This allows you to keep all your dresden blades in order as you sew, and saves lots of time and thread!)

Once you've got all the tops sewn together, carefully snip off the corner of each 'blade' above the seam allowance that you sewed on the folded side of the blade. This is best explained by the top left hand picture above. (click to enlarge) Be careful not to snip through your seam! Cutting this seam allowance off will allow for less bulk when you turn your blade right side out.

Now, keeping your blades in a chain, cut the end one off the chain, turn right side out, and use something sharp to push out that tip for a nice, neat point. I have used my seam ripper or even a sharp pencil for this part.

Once you've got the point nicely out, lay the blade on your ironing board with the good side down, and press the point by centering the seam. Just eyeball this point..don't get too fussy, trust me, it's not worth it! Now cut off the next blade from the chain and repeat this until you're done. This might be the part where you drag your ironing board in front of the tv and plug in a good movie!

Once all your blades are ironed, it's time to start sewing the plate together. Keeping the blades in order, start by sewing the first two together with right sides together along the straight edged sides of the the blades. (see bottom left picture) A little tip I learned to make this easier: Start from the tops of your blades, and sew the to the centre of where your circle will be. I recommend starting your seam 1/4" from the top and then reverse stitching back up to the top and then all the way down. This eliminates any bunching of fabric at the top. Again, the pictures are probably more explanatory!

Continue sewing all your blades in order.

Once you get the last one sewn on, simply sew it to the first blade to seal the circle! That part was easy..right?

Now give the whole thing a really good, but gentle, press with the iron. Start on the back and press all the seams in the same direction. Once the back is pressed, flip it over and carefully press the front.

Ok, now on to finishing. My ruler came with a template for the centre circle of the dresden, but if yours didn't, simply find a circular object in your home that you can trace for the middle of your plate. I recommend tracing the circle onto a piece of cardboard first, cutting it out, and then tracing around the cardboard onto your fabric...this will make sense in a minute. Trace this circle on the wrong side of your centre piece of fabric. Then...this part is important my friends, cut 1/4" larger around the circle! Did you get that...don't cut on your line, cut 1/4" larger than the line! Once cut, get out your trusty needle and thread out, tie a decent knot in the end and do a running stitch, or basting stitch on your machine, around the entire circle. Once you've done the stitch all the way around, place the cardboard circle back on the wrong side of the fabric, and gently pull your running stitch so that it gathers all around the cardboard. Once it's nice and snug, take it back to your ironing board and leaving the cardboard side down on your board, iron the circle so it's nice and pressed. Once pressed you can gently remove the cardboard and re-press. (Sorry, no pics of this step) Now, here's the part where you decide how to place your dresden. I have been backing mine on felt to make little 'tablemats' for home decorating, or plate chargers, but you may want to place yours on fabric for a quilt, or runner. For the purposes of my demo I"ll refer to felt backgrounds. Place your dresden plate (without the centre) on the desired background. Pin down every blade so it stays put! Now, place your centre circle in the middle and pin it down as well. Using invisible thread, slip-stitch the centre in place. For a more sturdy centre, stitch right through to backing (felt), but if you're going to applique the dresden onto fabric then I would recommend stitching only to the plate itself and not the backing. Now, give it a good press with the iron, but careful to avoid the felt with the iron. Now it's time to secure around the perimeter of your plate. You can either slip stitch it down as you did in the centre, or, if you're like me, I like my stitching to show a little with colorful thread so I machine stitch around the entire plate with a narrow seam. This required a lot of pivoting with your machine, but it goes fairly fast. If you are appliqueing on to a larger project then you should use your favourite applique method.

Now, to finish the background as I did in the pictures take a ruler and using a white pencil crayon, mark a dot 1/2" out from each 'valley & peak' of the plate. Once the dots are all marked I cut out the surrounding zig zag using scissors in a 'connect the dot' fashion!

I hope to high heaven that some of this made sense! If you need more of a visual, go to this tutorial online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcy_p4pryE4

Here is my stack of 'to-be-created' dresdens!

More Pinwheels...

2011-03-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised with a bonus sewing evening last night. Rob had to ship out birds last night which usually translates into him being gone for about 12 hours from afternoon to early morning. I wanted to get the kids into bed at a decent time, even though it's Spring Break. Too many late nights makes for unpleasant days! So, kids were in their jammies by 7pm and I was still trying to decide what I was going to do with a quiet evening all to myself. Kim phoned around 7 and we were chatting about our weekends, even though we'd spent a few hours on Saturday sewing together...we never seem to run out of topics for conversation! Kim and I are really enjoying working on our pinwheel samplers and when we realized over the phone that we both had a free evening we thought, 'why not?'...as in, why not get together and sew? So, Kim grabbed her stuff, kindly picked up coffees and came over. The house was so quiet it was unbelievable! The kids were great, gave me no bedtime problems and Kim and I sewed uninterrupted for...are you ready...5.5 hours! It was so great...I got a good chunk of work done on my pinwheels and thoroughly enjoyed myself to boot!

This collage shows the process of putting 'hst' (half square triangles) together. This quilt is made up almost entirely of 3 7/8" squares. Each of the neutral squares gets a line drawn diagonally down the centre, then it gets paired with a patterned square (right sides together) and I sew a 1/4" on either side of the line. Once sewn, the square gets cut down the middle along the line, then you iron open the two new squares. The pinwheels are all pieced from these squares. The work isn't hard, just a little redundant and seam picky! The pinwheel shown at the top of this post is the one of the ones I was working on here...

These blocks are some of my favourites..they are nice and 'scrappy' looking...

P.S...I'm not showing you the rest of the blocks now until they're all finished and ready to be sewn together...but, that's not far from now..only 4 more blocks to go!

You know it's Spring when...

2011-03-18T16:41:00.000-07:00

Yep, you know it's Spring when the baby calves start to arrive! We love our farming lifestyle and calving season is no exception! In fact, it's one of our most favourite times of the year here at the farm. The combination of it being Spring Break for the kids and then calves starting to be born has created some serious excitement over here! The first calf was born this past Wednesday, then 3 yesterday, and another 3 today!
Although chicken/egg farming is our main focus, the cows have a special place in our family. 10 years ago when Olivia was born her Opa gave her a calf in honour of her birth. He did the same for Abby when she was born. Olivia's cow became her pet and grew to give her many other baby calves until we had to have her put down last year. So, we re-named her last calf Livi and the cycle continues! Abby's cow has had three calves now, first Arlie, then Arlyss and now yesterday, baby Ariel arrived! The names are not always random...the rule is that they must be named beginning with the first letter of their mama's name. This is how we keep track of who's who in the herd! We've had many a laugh naming calves over the years. Once one of the girls' cows has a bull, then we'll get Isaac his cow! The cows are so beautiful right now with their curly soft winter coats. Here's a few pics to share what's going on at the farm...(you can click to enlarge)

Here's 'Livie' who has both her mom and her owner's namesake!

Here's Bella and her mom Bell. Bella was born at 2pm this afternoon and was up and on her feet by 2:30! Her momma accidently stepped on her and hurt her so we're keeping a close eye on her for the next couple of hours.

Here's Baby Aron who was also born today...

Here's Papa Bull. You don't want to mess with him. He is the father of..well, all of them!

These next pictures are of Abby's baby calf. Her calf was born yesterday and is very healthy and strong!

Did I mention that I love this time of year? Cuz I do.

My Tuesday Timeout....

2011-03-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Have I ever officially told ya'll about my 'Tuesday Time Outs'? I have taken so many pictures to post about my Tuesdays, but rarely do I get the time to organize them into a blog post. More realistically, I rarely get my project(s) finished in time to post a satisfactory amount...well, that, and Kim always beats me to the punch and hers always ARE finished!!! What can I say.... I get a 'little' less done with some of the kiddos still being at home! Kim is always so gracious about packing up all her stuff and coming over here so that I can do the exact opposite! Me packing up Isaac, stuff to keep Isaac busy, food for Isaac, and remember all my sewing stuff, plus arrange to pick up Abby part way through the day just wouldn't make for a very productive day!
So, with those basics in place, each Tuesday, Kim and I get together to work on a project. We've been doing this for over a year now and it's a great little tradition we have going. Sometimes we choose a project to start together, other times we pull out our own projects. Sometimes it's machine stitching, other times it's all hand stitching. We ask each other for colour/fabric advice, and we ask each other for life advice! We share many a laugh, a few songs, a few heartaches, plenty of conversation, and a few more laughs. Coffee is always present and needles are always flying!
Today we started a pinwheel sampler. This is a project both of us have wanted to tackle for awhile now. Pinwheels look quite simple, but the amount of pieces that go into each one require pretty exact measurements. Matching up seams can be tricky business, but we convince each other that 'no one's gonna notice that!'
So there's a brief sum up of Tuesday Timeouts. Today's timeout was a little hectic around here. The kids are home for spring break and they didn't seem to understand that every now and then (specifically Tuesdays) Mommy drops everything to sew! Oh well...here's hoping next week goes better...did I mention that Kim is always really gracious about things....?

I'm working with a layer cake that I got awhile back called 'Punctuation' by American Jane. It felt good to delve into this stash and create something with it! The colours are fun and borderline on reproduction style prints.

In total there will be 2 sets of 8 pinwheels in the quilt, although each has it's own unique colour pattern.

I'm liking the look of this one and excited to keep working on it in my Tuesday Timeouts!

Re-Living the Olympics...

2011-03-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Grade 5 has been a big year for Olivia! The workload has increased, and the projects are more intense. Add in sports, music and clubs and it's one heavy load for a 10 year old! We are especially proud of Olivia this year. She has shown consistent effort in everything she's done. Olivia has to work really hard to get her good grades. She has made the honour roll and continues to bring home great marks! I know that many of us have kids that bring home great grades, but our girl really has to work hard for hers and it is her effort that matters most to us!
This year the students had to do a history fair project. This is similar to a science fair project. The project was ongoing for months. Olivia's teacher has been great and has prepared the students for every stage of the report with clear expectations and tools to get there. The kids were allowed to choose whatever topic they wanted. Olivia chose the Canadian Winter Olympics. As the Olympics were held here in Vancouver last year, it was still fresh in our minds and still an interest worth researching. Olivia knew a few people who had been involved in the Olympics so this proved valuable for the part of the project that required an interview! (Thank you Mr.Collins for your generous donation of time and souvenirs!) Olivia worked really hard on her project. With the exception of some construction to hold up her Olympic rings on her display board (thank you daddy) she did the majority of the work all herself. She was greatly rewarded when she found out that she'd qualified for regional judging. 12 kids out of 60 were chosen to set up their projects in a separate room for judging on history fair day. Although she didn't make it to regionals, we still consider it an honour that she was considered. As parents this experience has been a great tool to teach our child about striving for the best even if though she didn't make it regionals as she'd hoped to. Way to go Livi..this has been just one of many milestones for you this year. Keep up the good work!

For Olivia's 'creative element' to her project, she chose to wear her Olympic hoodie, a pair of 'authentic' moose antlers that were used in the opening ceremonies in 2010, and her creative table display included an Olympic coin collection, tickets from Olympic events, a mascot for the upcoming 2014 Olympics, a family guide to planning your time at the Olympics, a volunteer manual from the 2010 Olympics, a ski to sea highway pass for cars to travel to the Olympic athletes village, and several pictures of athletes in action!

Sweet Six...

2011-03-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

phew, glad I didn't have to type sixteen instead of six! It hardly seems possible that our little Abby is 6 years old already! Abby celebrated her Birthday this past week and we started off with a family party. Abby was in her glory. Dress on, face washed, hair done, and re-done, and ready to party. One of the beautiful things about Abby is her ability to be so transparent. Whatever Abby is feeling is right at the surface of her being. Abby was so full of joy on this particular evening. She had requested a barbie cake, and a barbie cake she got. She enjoyed time with her cousins, opening gifts, and showing her gratitude to each of her party guests by thanking them with a hug after opening each present. It was so fun to see our little girl so happy and excited to celebrate. So, Abby, on your 6th Birthday we wish you a wonderful year ahead, filled with the things you love!

A little about our sweet six year old girl:
She's wild and crazy and always up for an adventure!
She's dramatic and wears her heart on her sleeve.
She thrives on affirmation and affection, and gives it back just as quickly
She's an outdoor girl and loves nature and animals
She's always singing....always, always singing
She comes up with the best one liners. Ever.
She has an imagination like no other
She loves her brother and sister
She's a cook at heart and loves to help in the kitchen
She's quick to help and usually cheerful in spirit
She seems like she's never paying attention, but she hears everything!
She has a wise old soul and says and understands things far beyond her years
She loves her heavenly Father and seems to understand His love for her
She's a tomboy, who wears dresses. And ruins them. All the time.
She's already boy crazy and has a crush on her gym teacher. Heaven help us.
She's a precious gift that we are so thankful for

Here's Abby giving Uncle Ken a huge hug to thank him for the gift certificate entitling her to her first ever flight with Uncle Ken.

Happy Birthday Abby, you are so loved.

Snow Day...

2011-03-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

We had a typcial snow day this past weekend. Around here that means a few inches of snow that you'd better hustle outside to enjoy because it'll be gone by the next morning. Such was the case here. It snowed about 6 inches here and the kids were so excited to head outside and play. True to form, it was completely gone the next day. The grass is green again, the pond doesn't have any ice on it and you'd never know it snowed. Here's a few pics of their snow day.

Update on the 'Village'...

2011-02-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

So far, so good. If you'll remember from previous posts, I've been plugging away at my Village Sampler Quilt. It's one of the big 'to do' projects on my list. I'm down to the nitty gritty details. Lots of hand applique and lots of 'picky' work. Sewing tiny pieces of fabric, burning my fingertips while ironing those tiny pieces of fabric, and then manipulating those pieces into where they need to be on the quilt. As you can see here I've managed to get the store 'fronts' on, and the sign on the Inn, and now I'm hand appliqueing the one of the trees. This particular tree is a LOT of work. Each branch is an individual piece of fabric that is hand stitched on. Once the branches are on, I'll need to fuse on the apples and the leaves and then sew them down. Lots of work, but it'll be a cute tree when it's all done. This is perfect hand sewing work for these winter nights. My favourite farmer builds me a roaring fire and we sit and watch a movie before bed each night. My toes stay warm by the fire and my hands stay busy stichin'.

'Post' Post Edit: Realizing that it looks as though everything needs a trim of threads and a good iron, but hey it IS a work in progress people!

Big Boy Bed...

2011-02-22T14:11:00.000-08:00

How can he be ready for a big bed already? It's impossible! Our little man is growing up so quickly. He's been able to crawl out of his crib for a long time already but he rarely did. Until a month ago. We could not get him to stay in his crib at all! I was worried he was going to fall and hurt himself so we decided to do the big transfer. I was prepared for a few weeks of tough transistion from crib to bed, and possibly back to crib. Guess what? He hasn't looked back! He LOVES his 'big boy bed'! We had a spare bed in his room already so it was just a matter of getting it ready (well, really, a matter of me figuring out where I would move my clean laundry dumping grounds to).
I got out the toolbox and removed the 'somewhat' feminine brass headboard. Isaac picked up his tools and lent a hand in the project. Since the only single bedding available in the closet was flannel princess sheets a trip to the store for 'manly' bedding was necessary. I have much grander plans for a cute bedroom for him, but this will have to do for now! The crib is still there, I'm not ready to take it down yet. He might be, but not me. (sniff) So, first night in his big bed, and every night since he's doing just fine. Each night he says...'goo-night mom, I sleep in my BIG BOY BED!' Now that the novelty has worn off a little he's pushing his luck a little getting up a few times right after we put him to bed, but really he's doing great all in all! So proud of our little man.

My funny Valentines...

2011-02-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

Valentines Day is always a reason to celebrate around here! What could be better than another 'excuse' to shower love on the ones we love? Our day started out pretty normal here. Hubby dropped the girls off at school and then snuck back home to leave gifts for them on their beds. He kept with tradition and brought each of the kids a fun helium balloon with some sort of treat attached to the bottom. The girls' balloons had smarties on them and Isaac's had a small bag of timbits! I love that he thinks of each child as an individual when picking out their balloon and the treat to go with it! I was the lucky recipient of a beautiful single red rose and a box of chocolates accompanied by a meaningful card. The kids were shown more love with special cards from their grandpa and grandma and some treats to go with it. Dad and Mom gave me the adorable little primrose along with my favourite chocolates. The kids had their celebrations at school and we ended the day with a strawberry waffle feast for supper! It warms my heart to see our children so thrilled with a simple balloon...sure, the balloon is fun, but the look in their eyes when they thank their Daddy for the gift is all I need on Valentines Day!

Cards...

2011-02-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've been making a few cards here and there. I've also recieved a few beautiful handmade cards lately...
This is one I recieved from Sarah...'sew' cute!

Here's one that I made for my boss. He and his lovely wife were Hawaii bound for a much deserved vacation...

Missing magnets..

2011-02-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

I miss having magnets. I miss being able load up my fridge with pictures of all our friends and family. Every year the photocards come at Christmas and I love them. I display them proudly on clotheslines throughout the house.

So, in lieu of having a magnetic fridge, I trim them all down and crop them as much as I can and then load up my photo stand with a huge collage of all our peeps. I love passing this collage multiple times each day and being reminded of times with friends and laughter we've shared, and also remembering a friend to pray for during the week. So here's this year's collage...

Ps..don't panic, if you're picture isn't front and center, you will be rotated half way through the year!

Fun with Felt...

2011-02-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

Bet you thought I was going to post something that Isaac had destroyed with a felt pen right? Well, I could, trust me. This is a post about a different kind of felt...thank goodness! I've been meaning to post this one for awhile and am just getting around to it now. These cute creations were made especially for Isaac this Christmas.
If you know my little man at all you know one of his first words was 'onut'....aka 'donut'. This little man loves his Tim Horton's timbits and donuts...thank you Grampa. Auntie Kim picked up on the idea and created these adorable felt donuts. She even went in to Timmy's and requested an empty box to finish the project off. (Just between you and me, I heard they gave her a really funny look when she asked for an empty box) Isaac loves his felt donuts....a little too much.

These next creations are adorable. Olivia and Emily & Julianna made these critters for Isaac back in the summer. It was the perfect project for a trio of friends to do on a summer day. Julianna made the bird, Em made the butterfly and the beautiful bag, and Olivia made the bear.

All made with love for little man. He loves his animals and carries them around daily. Isaac has all the women in his life wrapped around his little finger...and, if we're going to be honest, all the men too!

Good Morning Sunrise...

2011-02-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a busy day. Errands to run, some time with friends, piano lessons, company for dinner...the list goes on. I was up early, before the sun, and while I was thinking about how to go about my day and what needed to be done first, I walked to one of the back windows and saw the most beautiful sunrise. It was a great way to start the day. A great way to remember that this new day only began because God granted it. A great way to remember that despite my busy schedule God gave me opportunity to remember His glorious creation. The kids slowly crawled out of bed and we all enjoyed the beauty of the morning. The day was still crazy, had its ups and downs, but was still beautiful.

Picking up where I left off...

2011-01-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

About one year ago Kim and I started our Village Sampler Quilts by local quilter and designer Cheryl Wall. I kept doing posts about my progress on each block. And then....well, what can I say? I got sidetracked. First the Olympics came to town, then it was Spring and the yardwork started, then I started other sewing projects, then...well, you get the idea. Anyway, I've been crossing UFO's (unfinished objects) off my quilting list like crazy these days and this one is next on my list. So, here's the latest installment of my quilt! I'm so excited to finish this one! It's been an unbelievable amount of work, especially for someone like me who doesn't have ANY patience! If you look closely you'll notice that not only did I finish the last block on the bottom right, but I swapped out a few fabrics here and there. It's so hard to judge what will look good in a big quilt when you're doing one block at a time.

The original quilt where I left off last February:

My new and improved, and much closer to completion quilt:

Things I switched: I swapped out the dark sky under the courthouse for a more subtle patterned fabric, but still in the same tones. I swapped out one of the houses that just looked to pinkish to me for a chocolatey brown house instead. Then, I swapped out the middle friendship star in the row of 3 blocks. That one was screaming out 'look, I'm the same colour as puke' too loudly!

So, those swaps in themselves took a lot of time and patience, but I'm back on track baby! Now, with the last block all pieced (top picture) I need to start the detail work.
I need to add a few more pieces of applique, such as the leaves on the trees, and stars here and there, handstitch around all the applique, and then sew it all together, and add the borders and binding! Stay tuned for the final installments of this project!

In a state of Bliss...

2011-01-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

I have been (figuratively) drooling over the Bliss Line by Bonnie & Camille for Moda. I have seen it in stores, all over peoples blogs and on all the shopping sites, but I didn't have a project in mind for it and it wasn't a necessity. Notice I wrote 'wasn't' instead of 'isn't'? Well, that all changed when I saw a link for this BOTM (Block of the Month) project on Little Miss Shabby's blog. I've always wanted to do a BOTM, but haven't ever tackled one. Kim suggested that a few of us get together each month and visit while we stitch these blocks.
This particular BOTM is titled 'Birdie Stiches' and it's adorable. (You'll see the link button on the right of my blog too) As soon as I saw the style of design she was using I knew that the Bliss line would be perfect for this project! I did my homework and found a fabulous deal on a 'jelly roll' of Bliss online. I paid about 1/2 of what the usual cost is up here in Canada! Yeah for bargains! It came in to my U.S. post box the other day and I finally got a chance to pick it up yesterday! Once the housework was done I opened this baby up and started cutting up the squares that I will need for this project. In total I cut 240 - 2.5" square blocks. There will be 12 stitched blocks, surrounded by 20 of these little squares and then they'll all have sashing and borders when they're done.

I can't wait to stitch my first block! Here's the progress I've made so far, but now I have to wait for our stitching party before I can do anymore!

I'll keep you 'posted'!

a REAL Snow Day!

2011-01-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

We often get false alarm snow days here in the Fraser Valley. They'll close all the schools down for 1" of snow, and it melts before the day's over, but today it's a REAL snow day! We recieved the school board automated call this morning (well, 3 calls actually - they need to fine tune the system apparently) telling us that schools are closed! The kids were thrilled! I ran out and snapped a few pictures as it's already switching over to freezing rain. It won't last for long, it never does. Up at our place we have a good 10". The kids are getting ready to bundle up and head out and the dogs have been playing out there all morning!

Black & White...

2011-01-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

My mom gave me a great cookbook for Christmas. It's a Good Housekeeping cookbook that has cookie recipes only. Mmmm, cookies! While flipping through the book I noticed a recipe for Black & White cookies. This immediately sparked a memory from a Seinfeld episode where Jerry & Elaine are stuck in line at a New York Bakery for hours waiting for some kind of special bread that ends up being sold out, of course. But, in the duration of their wait they have a debate about the black and white cookie and which side is better to eat. When I saw this recipe I KNEW I had to make them for myself so I could see what all the hubbub was about! They were super easy to make, and just a little time consuming. But they were something different to try and really, quite good. I took them to my post-Christmas work party and they seemed to be popular! Here's the recipe:

Cookie batter (very soft):
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
10 tbsp butter/marg softened (this is equal to 1 1/4 sticks of marg)
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup Buttermilk (easy to make by adding 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup of regular milk - let stand for 5 minutes to bind)

Icings: (keep in mind these ingredients are for BOTH icings)
1 3/4 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp corn syrup
8-10 tsp warm water
1/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)

Preheat oven to 350*
In small bowl stir flour, baking soda and salt together.
In large bowl (I used my mixer) beat butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed and add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Drop batter by 1/4 cup spoonfuls onto cookie sheet leaving 3" gaps between cookies (I did 6 per sheet just to be safe)
Bake until edges begin to brown and tops spring back when lightly touched. 15-17 minutes. Once baked transfer to cooling rack to cool completely before icing.

Prepare Glazes:
Start with white glaze: mix 1 1/4 cup icing sugar, 1 tbsp of corn syrup, and 5-6 tsp water, 1 tsp at a time. Mix to good consistency, not runny, but still thin. Once cookies are cooled, using metal icing spatula, ice the BOTTOMS of each cookie with white icing on half the cookie bottom. Allow to set for 15-20 minutes.
Chocolate glaze: mix remaining 1/2 cup icing sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, remaining tbsp corn syrup, and 3-4 tsp water, 1 tsp at a time. Ice other half of cookies.

Once completely iced, let them set for a good hour.
These cookies get very soft if stored in plastic. It's best to eat em' all, or freeze right away. The above recipe makes only 12 cookies (or so) so I doubled everything and made a double batch.

Just my Style...

2011-01-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Wanted to show ya'll a giftie I got over Christmas. My friend, Kim, made this beautiful wreath for me! It fits in with my house just fine! Thanks Kim...I loves it.

Lower Rainland...

2011-01-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

This beautiful part of British Columbia that we live in is often called the Lower 'Rainland' instead of the Lower Mainland. This is what I saw when I looked out my windows yesterday. The weatherman called for 2-3 inches of snow, but we ended up with a mixture of snow, rain and freezing rain instead. Really, I can't complain. We've had great winter weather so far with very little rain. On days like this it's easy to stay inside and focus on comfortable things. Yesterday I threw supper in the crockpot and enjoyed using the rest of the day to finish taking down Christmas decorations and do the regular household chores. Here's the recipe if you're interested. It's super easy, and tastes great!

Shredded Pork:

Place your boneless pork shoulder roast in the crockpot (3-4 lbs)

Mix together:
1 1/4 cups ketchup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chopped celery 1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp worcesterschire sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Pour mixture over pork roast in slow cooker. Cover and cook over medium-high heat for 4-6 hours or until meat is tender and pulls apart easily. Once it's done cooking, use two forks to shred meat. Serve over rice or buns.

Easy Peasy.

Ta-Da....

2011-01-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

My secret project, well, 1 of a few, can now be revealed! I started this quilt over a year ago for my mom. It truly was a labour of love. This was a crazy/rag quilt. Most of the fabrics in it are flannel, and there is a subtle Christmas theme to the fabrics. This was a challenging project for me. It starts out with creating 5 stacks of fabric, with 10 squares in each pile for a total of 50 squares. Once you have the 5 piles, you randomly cut one vertical and one horizontal cut through each pile. Once the stacks are cut, you 'shuffle' the stacks according to the pattern directions. Then, the crazy part...sewing them all back together. Anyway, here's a few shots of the process and the outcome. My mom loved it and that's all that matters to me! Love you Mom!

The Prep Work:

The placing of blocks (harder than you'd think):

Putting the binding on (one of my favourite parts):

And, Ta-Da, the finished project:

You know you had fun when...

2011-01-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

...you completely forgot to take pictures during the event! Yup, that was me. I love New Year's Eve. It's a great reason to get together with friends and eat yummy food and laugh, laugh, laugh. We did all of those things this year, but I completely forgot to take pictures. Memories of this New Years Eve will include letting the kids (minus Isaac) stay up for the first time, discovering a new treat Janelle makes that is FABULOUS, the game Apples to Apples, hiccups, coconuts and SFU. Thanks friends for a wonderful evening!
I took pre-party pictures, and after everyone left, I got Olivia to snap a post party picture. So here's all I got...Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year! May 2011 be a year of personal and spiritual growth, contentment in life, and meaningful relationships with those you love.

The Kids & Christmas...

2011-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

I hand-made a lot of my Christmas gifts this year. I managed to get everything done ahead of schedule, no all nighters were involved. I'll post a little more on those projects soon, but my point is, I didn't have a whole lot of time before Christmas to post about all the going ons that we attended. Here's a quick catch up of things the kids were involved in over Christmas. I already posted about the school Christmas sing a long, but here's a few more.

The children's Christmas program at church was as cute as ever. The uncles came out to see the event. (Rob had to haul Isaac off the stage part way through...for obvious 'parent of a 2 year old' reasons):

Olivia had her Piano Christmas Concert. She played jingle bells and it sounded great!

And the kids helped us out with a few songs on Christmas Eve. They rang the bells for us while we sang 'Come on Ring those Bells' and they helped us out on kazoos for the

oh so memorable rendition of 'Mary's Boy Child'.

All in all a wonderful Christmas Season with a some wonderful memories made!

Christmas Morning...

2011-01-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

One of our favourite traditions is staying overnight at my parents' house on Christmas eve and then spending Christmas day together. (We spend Boxing Day with Rob's family) The sleeping over part started years ago when Rob and I were first married and he had to go out on Christmas Eve to plow snow for half the night. I didn't want to be alone, so my parents invited me to their place to stay the night. It was one of those traditions that started in the most unintentional way and has become very fun and special. We went to our church Christmas Eve program first, then over to Rob's aunts for a lovely meal, then off to my parents place. Once the kids were in bed we loaded up the tree with gifts, stuffed the stockings and settled in for the the night. My brother joined us in the morning and away we went. My brother has been handed the Santa wand the past few years and he's the designated present hander over. I was so excited to see my family open my gifts this year. I felt like I put a lot of time and effort into the bought and made gifts and I was excited to see their reactions. Here's a few pics from the day.

Stockings first!
My brother had me in the draw and he did a great job!

This was the year that Isaac seemed to figure out how it all works!

It was so nice to have my Grandma Harding spend the day with us. We missed having Nana Smith with us this year, it was our first Christmas without her.

Out with the Old, In with the New...

2011-01-01T12:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I wasn't exactly referring to the New Year specifically, but while we're on the topic, Happy New Year!!! 2010 was a year full of changes, some good, some not so good, but what year isn't like that? I am looking forward to a fresh new year. I'm not a big goal setter for the New Year. I love goal setting, just not the whole hoopla of goal setting on a particular date. Anyway, a few of my (ongoing) goals: continuing to become more secure in who I am and who I want to be. Focusing time and energy on friendships that are worthwhile, friendships that give and take, not just take. Letting the 'little stuff' roll off my back. Becoming more accepting of others, less judgemental. Walking closer to my Heavenly Father who will make all these goals worthwhile and fruitful if I seek Him first in all of them.

So, what WAS I referring to in terms of out with the old, in with the new? Are you ready? Drumroll please...POTS & PANS!!! Yes, I know, it's so exciting!!! For me.

The truth is that it was time. My faithful pots and pans that we used wedding money to buy, over 15 years ago, needed to be laid to rest. It's been bugging me in the back of my mind for a couple of years now. I took an informal cooking seminar thingy a few years back and our lovely instructor, Mrs. Marilyn, taught me a few things about my kitchen. I'm such a keener when it comes to domestic stuff..I LOVE it! Anyway, one of the first things she said in her class was this: "please tell me none of you are using T-Fal, or nonstick, cookware! Right??? NONE of you...because if you are you're slowly poisoning your family!" My keener, nerdy smile quickly disappeared and I was thinking everyone must be cringing inside because we ALL use it right? RIGHT? crap, nope, we don't all use it, just me. In my defense, I follow the instructions (as any good keener shoud) and only ever turned my pots up to medium heat, never max, and I always hand wash them. But the reality is, my finishes were starting to come off, and I couldn't fool myself into thinking that the finish was only coming off when I was washing them. Anyway, long story longer, I took Marilyn's advice and decided to slowly start replacing my cookware with something good quality and safe. Marilyn recommended Paderno cookware. It's a high end cookware, but it goes on sale every now and then. I watched for the sales and over the past 2 years had slowly started buying one piece at a time. Ouch, hate spending that kind of money on pots and pans. I had 3 pieces of this beautiful cookware, and I was too scared to use it. I only pulled it out when I ran out of pots while I was cooking a large meal. Pathetic, I know. But, BUT, I'm happy to announce that thanks to my parents' generosity this Christmas I am the new owner of a beautiful set of Paderno cookware! (Applause here, ok, nevermind, I'll do it for both of us) My parents are incredibly generous people, and I was totally fooled when I opened this heavy wrapped box. Even after I tore the paper off I still thought it was something else in the box because I was thinking my mom had taken my advice and bought herself a great set of pots and pans earlier this year. Sneaky woman, she is. Anyway, when the lightbulb finally came on, I realized that I was the lucky owner of this stellar cookware. I took it home, put it on the floor and just stared at it for the first few days. What would the implications be of opening these up and putting them in my drawer? Well, caution to the wind, I did it. I DID IT! I carefully took my old faithful, pathetic, poisoning pots and pans out of the drawer, cleaned the drawer (new pots and pans deserve a clean drawer) and replaced with my new ones. I had a moment with the old ones, thanked them for our years together. Kidding, I didn't, that would be lame. The only thought I gave the to the old ones was, 'what do I do with these, can they be recylced?...ah, I'll let hubby decide'. So yes, my friends, not only are those pots and pans sitting pretty in my drawer, but I've used them. Multiple times. And, I LOVE them.
Ok, insanely long post for a new set of pots and pans, but I pride myself in the fact that the little things in life still excite me. Thanks Dad and Mom, for the pots and pans, and for my love of exciting 'little' things.
So, goodbye to these guys:

And Hello to these babies...

Editor's Note: I thought it would humorous to add that I met Mrs.Marilyn for lunch yesterday, after I'd already pre-scheduled this blog post, and she handed me a Christmas present. It was heavy, and shiny. Guess what it was? A kick butt frying pan. Marilyn says she can still recall the look on my face when she gave her talk about using non stick cookware. And as fate would have it, she gave me the one size pan that I didn't have. Yeah...my life is complete. That is, the pots and pans portion of my life. Thanks Mrs. Marilyn. You rock.

Baking with Grandma...

2010-12-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

My mom did some baking with the girls just before Christmas. The girls were so excited to do this with Grandma, and I appreciate that my Mom took time to do this with the girls!

So Purdy...

2010-12-29T11:55:00.000-08:00

Not much snow, just a whisper, but oh so pretty...

A Favourite Appy..

2010-12-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, it looks awful. Trust me sisters, it ain't. This is one of my favourite appetizers to make, and to eat! It's always a hit no matter where it is! I believe it originates from one of my hubby's cousins, but don't quote me on that.
It's called Hot Ham & Cheese Dip. Here's the recipe:

8 oz. Cream Cheese (1 block) - room temp works best
1.5 cups of sour cream (doesn't work as well with light sour cream)
2 cups grated cheddar
1 cup cubed, cooked ham
1/4 cup onion ( I think I use more like 1/2 cup)
2 tsp red pepper diced (I use a whole, small red pepper cuz that's just how I roll)
1 tsp Worcheister Sauce

Here's the easy part: throw all of the above into a corningware dish, blend it with your electric hand held mixer, cover and throw in the oven for 1 hour @ 350*.

Hollow out a sourdough loaf, save the 'guts' and cube them up. I also usually buy a loaf of french bread and cube the whole thing up as well to serve with the dip.

After the dip has cooked for an hour, pull it out, let it sit for approx 10 minutes, and pour into sourdough loaf. Note: it will be runny right after it comes out of the oven, but it will thicken up fast!

It definitely ain't fat free, but it smells and tastes heavenly! Perfect appy for New Year's Eve!

A Favourite Tradition...

2010-12-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Our Annual Church Skate is one of our favourite family traditions. This year was no exception! My brother, Dave, came along and we gave it our all. My only regret is somehow not getting any pictures of Olivia! She's already forgiven me. Here's a few shots of the event...

The Ladies Who Brunched...

2010-12-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Formally known as the Ladies who Lunch. Our group of gals got together for our annual Christmas Brunch. It was a lovely day. This year the brunch was at my place. There was so much laughter and fun and the time flew by faster than any of us thought!
The food was so delicious and plentiful, the cards were special, and the gifts were beautiful! Here's a taste of our time together:

Prezzie Time: Rhonda recieved some beautiful hand knit gloves from Cindy as well as a few other goodies. Jill recieved some lovely place mats hand-sewn by Sarah, and Sarah recieved a gorgeous quilt that Rhonda made her! I had Cindy in the draw this year and I made her a table topper specifically for her bright and cheery kitchen. I'm so glad she liked it!

And now for my present...this deserves a post all on it's own, but I won't hold you in suspense! Jill had me in the draw this year and I am still overwhelmed by the beauty of the gift she made me. This is an advent/family tradition calendar of sorts. It is a flip style book that has a page for every day of December. Jill decorated each page individually and it's all ready for me to add pictures of our family traditions. I have never seen this before and I instantly fell in love with it! I love anything paper crafted and this gift is so special to me! I think I will have to make a few of these for future gifts. Jill put so much love and effort into this gift, and that in itself is such a special part of the gift. So, thank you Jill. This is one of the most beautiful, and meaningful, gifts I have ever recieved.

Thanks Ladies...for one of our best memories yet made!

Christmas at King...

2010-12-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

The girls' school has a traditional sing-a-long every year at Christmas. The sing along was on the last day of school for the year and I was working so this year Rob took the afternoon off so he could go with the kids. Abby's Kindergarten class was being featured so out came the camera! The pictures turned out a little blurry, but I appreciate Rob taking a few while he juggled Isaac! Abby's class performed a few numbers and Abby had no trouble belting it out and grooving through it all! Shane & Angela Wiebe were kind enough to lead the sing-a-long portion. We will miss them so much when they move out East! There's nothing like a kids Christmas presentation to get you in the Christmas spirit!

A Christmas Project...TBC

2010-12-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

TBC = To be completed. A friend of mine recently asked me to teach her a quilting/sewing project. We had fun browsing at the local quilt shop and choosing one of my favorite lines of fabric by Moda called 'Fruitcake'. We've spent a few evenings over the past months getting together and assembling this cute table topper. I've done this particular one many times, but usually with the fall theme. In all the hustle and bustle of the season, we've had to put this project on hold for now. It's so close to completion, but there are other projects that HAVE to be finished by Christmas for gifts, and these ones will have to wait! Speaking of gifts, I did, indeed, complete this exact topper as a Christmas gift for a friend recently. You'll see the finished product in an upcoming post.

Cranberry Bliss...

2010-12-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

Baking is one of my favourite hobbies, period. But, Christmas baking is even MORE fun! I already posted about our big bake-fest, but I decided to do a few other recipes just for fun. This one was a first for me. I googled 'Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars' and came up with a whole realm of suggestions, but this is the one I singled out. I have to give bragger rights to top secret chef Todd Wilbur for his version of this creation.

Cake:
1 cup butter at room temp.
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups diced, dried cranberries ( I chopped mine up fine in my mini food processor)
6 ounces (squares) of while chocolate, cut up

Frosting:
4 ounces (1/2 block) cream cheese softened
3 cups icing sugar
4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup diced, dried cranberries

Drizzled Icing:
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
2 tsp vegetable shortening

Preheat oven to 350*F
To make cake: Beat butter and sugar together until smooth.
Add eggs, vanilla, ginger and salt, beat well.
Gradually mix in flour until smooth.
Mix 3/4 cup cranberries and chopped chocolate into batter by hand
Pour batter into greased 9x13" pan. Spread evenly across pan
Bake 35-40 minutes or until cake is light brown on edges
Let cool

Frosting: combine cream cheese, 3 cups powdered sugar, lemon juice and vanilla with electric mixer until smooth. Once cake is cooled, spread over top of cake.
Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup cranberries over the frosting.

Drizzle: whisk together 1/2 cup icing sugar, milk and shortening. Drizzle over the cranberries in sweeping motion. ( I used piping bag with small round tip)

Once the cake has set/cooled for several hours, slice once, lengthwise down the centre, then 3 more times width-wise. This makes 8 large squares. Then, I cut each of these squares into 3 finger length slices. You could also slice them the 'starbucks' way and cut each square diagonally creating 16 triangular slices.

A Spot of Cider...

2010-12-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

So I'll admit it. I actually don't really care for apple cider. I don't detest it, I just don't love it. Same with apple juice...hmmm, I see a pattern here. But, this time of year it is so nice to have a pot of cider on to welcome guests in from the cold. It seems kind of ironic that I buy supplies regularly this time of year to make it, but maybe partake in only 1 or 2 cups during the whole season. I've had a few requests lately for my 'recipe' for cider, so here's my 'secret'. For the past 5 years or so I've use the Epicure Cider Mulling Spices, but I didn't have any at the start of this season so I went hunting. I discovered a local tea shop in our mall. The store sells loose leaf teas in hundreds of blends. When I asked about a mulling spice they showed me their 'Yoga' Blend. Hmmm...not sure where the yoga inspiration came from, but it was just what I was looking for.
It's a blend of: cinnamon, cardanon, ginger, cloves and black pepper.
In your crockpot: I do 2 parts apple juice to 1 part cranberry/cranberry blend juice
Add approx 1 tsp of mulling spices for every litre of liquid. If you like, you can float a few orange slices and cinnamon sticks on top. I set my crockpot on low and let it simmer for 4-6 hours before I need it. The house smells wonderful! Don't forget to have a strainer handy for when it's time to serve!

Oli Does Volley...

2010-12-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Olivia joined the volleyball team this year. It's so great to see her getting out there and enjoying herself. She gets a little nervous come game time, but she loves the teamwork and hanging out with friends. Today was their tournament with a bunch of the local teams. Abby, Isaac and I rotated our chairs all over the gym to watch her play her games. It was a fun day...but I have to admit, I don't miss the smell of an elementary school gym filled with hundreds of sweaty little bodies...nope, don't miss it at all.

Sold out....

2010-12-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Sold the last of my advent calendars! I love these advent calendars, and I trust the families they've gone to will too! I sold one last year, gifted one last year, and have sold 3 more this past month. That's it, I'm out! The good news: I've found all the supplies on sale in the past couple of weeks and have stocked up to make more for next year.
(Go here and click on the calendar link if you're looking for the original post with the directions I used to make these)