Sew What????

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I have been so busy doing nothing really the last few days that somehow I have been too busy to craft.  Part of that is due to getting home late Monday evening (after driving through a snow storm and very icy roads in Southern Alberta) I decided that the house needed to be cleaned before I could un-pack.  Seriously!  Every bed, sofa, bookshelf dresser, buffet, you name it has been moved and dusted and EVERYTHING (seriously) is in it's place.....with the exception of my craft room.  That place is a disaster.  

Every time I open the door to go in, the mess overwhelms me, "sew" right now I am focusing on one project at a time to complete and forcing myself to not start another.....even though the December box of  Yarn Crush arrived today!  It's "sew" pretty....

As far as projects that I am trying to complete, here is an almost finished Block of the Month from about 5 years ago (seriously)...

This is Plum Pudding from probably my MOST favorite quilt shop; The Quilt Patch.  I love all of their quilts (many of them are staring at me in the craft room....waiting to be completed).  

In addition to avoiding the craft room because it stresses me out right now my son and I attended a Christmas party and Farewell party last evening.  This was a very formal affair and my son thought it great fun as he was the only child in attendance (no child care of course for me).  

Today we spent most of the afternoon running errands including renewing our membership at Telus World of Science.  We did a quick tour through since we were there but plan to go back tomorrow:

 Moon Landing always has to be done.

 Climbing the wall....literally.

Building a Marble racing ramp on the wall.  

So, today was just a quick run through, what fun can be had tomorrow???

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Boxing Day

Good Late Evening Internet Friends!

Today was a DO NOTHING kinda day for us.

We slept late, went outside and sat in the snow for a bit (literally, the snow if powdery soft and not really too conducive to pulling in the sled).

After lunch we ventured in to Canmore to see what was gong on.

I met up with Hasmi from Raventwist as I was hoping to get more yarn to finish off my Yarn Crush October Mittens.  These mittens are fingerless mittens and of course I live in Western Canada where winter is actually COLD!

She was out of the red dye lot that I have but I was able to get more of the Aurora yarn of which I will knit a full pair of mittens from and a color called Chili Pepper:

We wandered the streets of town for a bit and found a sale at Rocky Mountain Soap Factory so I stocked up on a few things:

Then we headed back to the resort for dinner and an evening of watching television movies!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Merry Christmas

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I hope that each of you had a wonderful Christmas Day.  For kiddo and I it was a good day, although did not feel like Christmas.  This is the first time in 18 years that my husband has not been present for Christmas.  Over the years with his work I am used to celebrating birthdays (mine, kiddo and his), anniversaries etc on my own, but not Christmas so this seemed weird.  We did decorate the tree in a box and put some decorations on it.  Kiddo opened some of his presents that I brought for him, but the rest are at home to open at home when daddy gets home.  

After breakfast we went for a walk.  The scenery was beautiful this morning:

After lunch we went in to Banff.  Walked around a bit in the cold and then went to the Banff Springs for Hot Chocolate.

Then we decided to go to the Banff Hot Springs.  The outdoor temp was super cold, but the water was 39 degrees Celsius and super cozy.  So did not want to leave.

After dinner we came back to the resort and I finished the scarf that I have been working on for my son`s teacher:

I will block it when I get home and I think I will sew her a gift bag to go with this.  The yarn is my August subscription to Sock Yarn Club.  I used the Cash Silk Fern Scarf for this pattern.  I think by now I have this pattern memorized ☺

Tomorrow is probably going to be a hang out at the resort day and see what I can get accomplished.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve Internet Friends!   

Today was another fun filled day of nothing in particular!

After breakfast we went swimming.  Had lunch and then decided to climb Pigeon Mountain and see what we could sled:

One of my brighter moments of course because climbing a mountain, in the snow for an asthmatic is always an experience.  I made it anyways and kiddo had BIG fun.  The mountains were not very visible as it was lightly snowing for most of the day:

.

 To celebrate Christmas Eve we went in to Banff and had dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  Yummy.  With the snow falling and the wind it was too cold to go for a moonlight skate under all the decorated trees so we just came back to the resort and watched television with the fireplace on.

My craft for today is some of my Christmas Cards.  I brought my Christmas cards that were to be mailed with me on vacation just so that I could mail them from Banff ☺

These are two that I remembered to take a picture of before mailing!  These cards were part of a kit from Stampin` Up this fall.  Lots of glitter and bling, but they were fun to make!

Wishing all of you a Very Merry Christmas tomorrow and all the best for 2016.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Vacation

Good Late Evening Internet Friends.  As my son has been singing for the past few days and it is now stuck in my head; "I'm so glad it's Christmas Vacation".  Last night we actually watched National Lampoon's Vacation.

Stopping by Canmore today we saw these just at the edge of town:

Then it was on to Norquay for a day of skiing:

From afar this slope looks deceivingly gentle....NOT!!!

Four hours later and my knees and legs seriously in pain we headed back.  It was fun though and I think we will go another day before heading home☺

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Elevation Place.  It was super fun!!!  

As far as crafting I do a bit each night, but to be honest by the time I get through the recreational pursuits of each day kiddo and myself are EXHAUSTED!!!!

Tomorrow I plan to meet up with a lady about some yarn.....sounds like me.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Knitting A Mitten

Good Evening Internet Friends,

Today was a very quiet, relaxing and uneventful day.  We slept late and did some sledding and that was about it.

After dinner and a Christmas movie I did a bit of knitting.  This is one of the fingerless mittens that I got in a Yarn Crush mailing a few months ago.  I love these mittens and I think that I just might have to knit a full pair of these mittens someday:

I know I should finish this mitten and the other, but I also have another skein of wonderful yarn that is calling my name.....maybe I will cast it on tomorrow....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Vacation Crafting

Good Evening Internet Friends!

My son and I and the Go Go Go Toyota arrived in Canmore just before midnight last night.  It was a long drive and the roads were not great until near Innisfail.  In Red Deer we stopped and picked up a Holiday Donut Pack which not only kept me going last night, but was breakfast this morning!  ☺

We slept late this morning, no alarm clock set as we are on vacation!  Here is the view I awoke to today:

This afternoon we decided we were hungry and should head in to town and get some groceries.  

We checked out the pond and hopefully it will be ready to skate with Santa later this week.  Stopped at The Sugar Pine Quilt Store of course.  

After dinner this evening I finished my Reverb Shawl.  This has been a feat to complete simply because a few weeks ago PUPPY found it.  Not only did he chew the cable in half but he also unraveled and chewed some of the yarn.  All stitches were put on the new cable, then accounted for, re-knit and threaded and now even bound off!!!!

I am thinking that I will gift this to my Grammy as she is always cold and a shawl like this should help keep her a little warmer ☺

After dinner we pulled the Christmas tree out of the box and assembled it.  I thought the decorations had been put into the box after it was dis-assembled last year, but apparently not.  So, as of right now we have Christmas Tree from a Box:

Now off to do some more knitting.  Plan right now is to try and get some of my knitting projects caught up on this vacation!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Friday Crafting.......

Good Morning Internet Friends!

Yes, I am fully aware of the time.... but this is how I roll.

Just finished these 31 treat bags for my son's class today....

Now off to get a couple of winks of sleep before my very long day tomorrow! ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Speed Crafting!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Seriously, that is my mode right now...fast, faster, FASTEST!

Today was Secret Santa Gift Exchange day at work.

For my Secret Santa I made a Fisherman's Wife Cowl in Poinsettia Thick & Quick:

I added a box of Strawberry Bath Gel and Lotion from The Body Shop and packaged up in the Batik fabric Gift Bag I sewed:

Finally, all wrapped up:

Hoping she likes it!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Another Knitting Finish....

Good Late Evening Internet Friends.

I always mean to be better prepared for Christmas every year.  Yet, this year thanks to all the stuff that has gone on in my world this fall, I am very far behind.  I am still trying to get a scarf knitted for my son's teacher and this should be done at latest tomorrow so that I have time to block it for wrapping on Friday.....might not make it.

As you know I attended a class last spring on Cowichan Knitting as part of Sylvia Olsen's Great Canadian Knitting Tour.  The original toque I knit I gave to hubby to wear under his hard hat the oil fields camp.  Then I made one for myself in a red.  My brother then saw this and wanted one of his own, so I got knitting again.  By mid summer I realized that these would make most awesome Christmas Gifts for almost everyone.  

As of this evening here is my latest Cowachin Toque freshly blocked and dried and ready to be wrapped up:

TAH DAH!!!!

Now off to finish a few last touches on my Secret Santa Gift for tomorrow. ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Gift Bags

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Well this is the official start to the last week of preparations before Christmas vacation starts!!!

This weekend I road tripped with my friend Sharon to a couple of quilt shops.  We picked up way toooooo much stuff but had a lot of fun and made some good memories, so it was a win win situation.

Sunday was try to get ready for the week and some power knitting of which I am glad to say a scarf and toque are currently being blocked!!!

This evening I took a few minutes break from the remaining knitting project that MUST be done for Friday and started to make some fabric gift bags.

I had purchased some Batik Christmas prints on Black Friday and thought that they would be perfect for these bags:

Now off to knit a bit more before sleepy time.  I will had the draw string tomorrow and hopefully the gift will be ready for insertion as well!

Hope this inspires your won creativity...

Kathy

A Couple of Snow Angels

Good Evening Internet Friends.

I woke this morning to snow falling.  It fell until mid day when kiddo got from school.  

I feel privileged to live in a newer home in an old neighborhood because I have the best of both worlds.  A house that does not need a lot of maintenance (yet) and I have a huge yard, of course I also live on a corner lot which makes it bigger than the other yards.  When it snows I get to clean both the front and side sidewalks of my yard.  It is a lot of snow!!!  While kiddo has been small I have been very fortunate that one of my older neighbors realizes that I am home alone with kiddo frequently and he will take out his quadrunner with plow and clear the entire sidewalk for the neighborhood.  ☺

This evening my son and I decided that we could be the Snow Angels  for our block and as such we cleaned both sides of the street for our neighbors.  Unfortunately, several of them came out to thank us and make small talk which involved; hearing about their opinions about another neighbor [who coincidentally had opinion about them as well]; their latest trip to the ER; their new medication; and did I think that "this" should be assessed by a doctor?????  Apparently they all know my occupation.   Note to self, shovel the walk after senior's lights out (1930 hours???).   

My craft for today is a card that I made for my friend Sharon who quilted the cats on the quilt for my Grammy.  She did not want payment so instead I got her a Groupon to my Hairstylist and enclosed it in a card for her:

Hope she likes it.

Now to get ready for bed as tomorrow should be a Quilting Road Trip with Sharon through Central Alberta because we just "need" more fabric.  ROFL.......☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What's For Christmas?????

A Toque!!!

Good Late Evening Internet Friends.

As I posted much earlier this spring I attended Sylvia Olsen's Great Canadian Knitting Tour in which I learned Cowichan Knitting.  Since then I made the two toque kit that I bought however the list of family and friends wanting these just keeps growing.

So, almost everyone is getting a color version of some sort this year for Christmas.  Here is the one I started this evening while keeping an ear on my son's homework:

Tomorrow is planned as a ME day since I ran all my errands (I think/hope) today.  We will see how that goes...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Almost there...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

It's late Wednesday of week 4 of my rotation which means tomorrow starts my official 4 day weekend!  Okay, that may sound exciting but I am so exhausted right now I really would like to spend tomorrow in bed however, alas, that will not happen.

I have spent the last three nights burning the midnight oil (literally) to get the quilt finished to send to my Grammy.  I can now say it is done, and as of noon today was being express posted to her so that by Friday she will have it!!!

The entire quilt stretched out with binding on.

One of the Big Fat Cats.  

Close up of the edge quilting with Cat Face.

Now off to do a few rows on those various knitting projects I have on the go with deadlines approaching next week!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

I lost the weekend......

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Seriously, I think I lost the weekend.  I cannot seem to find it anywhere and tomorrow is MONDAY!!!

I made strawberry pancakes for breakfast (forgot to take a picture).  Did laundry, vacuumed and cleaned a bit, then took my son to skiing:

Here he is preparing for a jump, I think this is the first time he has done this particular jump as he was really bracing going in to it ☺

He did nail it though, but of course I missed that snap on my camera.

Then we went out for a walk on the trails.  I have to admit that the city looked almost pretty late this afternoon:

I did bake some shortbread cookies this evening:

YUMMY!

Now off to get finalize getting ready to get out the door on time tomorrow morning as it's back to work.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Knitting Along...

Good Evening Internet Friends.

It has been a very long day and I think I will head off to bed soon.

Earlier this week my Grammy was fortunate enough to be placed in the long term care facility in her own home town, with residents she knows, and staff that are colleagues.  I am SO happy for her.

That means of course that she needs some clothing as she only came back home with the clothes that she was admitted to hospital with at the time of her stroke.  This morning my son and I were up and out the door bright and early to hit up the sales at Sears, 50% off clothing today.  All the old lady best brands were on sale so I stocked up for her on pants, sweaters, cardigans, layer shirts, nighties and blouses.  She will be the best dressed resident I think!

Then we headed off to The Bay  (my favorite store) but a lack of the old lady brand name clothes.  Part of the reason for being at the mall early was that I needed to go to the Clinique counter for moisturizer and the Clinique Gift Pack.  I LOVE this pack.  It is becoming a holiday tradition for me to pick one of these up, and to make the deal even better today I got 10% off my purchases!!!

A quick stop for a cookie at Cookies By George and we were off to skating!

My son is doing well with his skating and today it was hard to get a picture that was not blurry as he was really motoring along:

After dinner it was time to take puppy for a long walk in the river valley.

As for my crafting I rationalized that I did not have quite enough projects on the go tonight so I cast on another Fisherman's Wife Cowl.  I am using Poinsettia Thick & Quick that I picked up in Kalispell last spring.  I love this particular yarn because of the metallic threads that run through it, however, photographs of the project are hard to get because of the reflection from the metallic threads:

In just under two hours I am well over half way done.  I plan to gift this to my Secret Santa recipient at work! ☺

Now off to bed as tomorrow is another action packed day.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It's Finally Friday......

Good Evening Internet Friends!!!

I know it has been a while since I blogged, but this week has been ridiculously long!!!  It has been several weeks since I actually worked FIVE days in a row!  Oy.

This evening I took a bit of time to myself in my craft room.  I have a bazillion Christmas projects on the go right now, but did not have the mental energy to commit to any one of these projects.

So, I decided to make a few more Christmas Cards.  I will need about a hundred for work (everyone there now expects a Christmas Card from me).  As of tonight I now have thirty....

Here are the six I made this evening:

TAH DAH!!!!

Okay, now off to bed for a few hours of sleep as tomorrow is run errands and get kiddo to activities day!  ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Crazy Cat Lady Quilt????

Good Evening Internet Friends!

As you likely know my Grandmother suffered a stroke in September of this year.  She has battled acute kidney failure and aspiration pneumonia and is still with us and getting better every day.  When faced with making decisions about her care I could only make medical decisions as those are what I know best.  TREAT at all cost until you know there is no hope.  That is what we did with her and slowly but surely her kidney function improved as did the pneumonia and today she renal function is that of an 89 year old women with a stroke. ☺

Now she faces the the reality of being placed in a long term care facility as she has not regained strength or function to the left side of her body which is very sad is she is a southpaw (sad face).  She is in true Grammy fashion facing this head on and is learning to eat with her right hand and even tells new staff that she is regaining strength in that hand and shows them that she is trying to eat.  Of course someone always falls for this and she laughs about it.

With her going to long term care I wanted her to have her own quilt.  She left the other one I made for her in Alberta and as such does not have it with her.  "Sew" I made her a new one.

I had a jelly roll that I had been hoarding for a long time and with some help of my friend and neighbor Sharon of Four Paws Quilting who let me raid her stash I was able to make what I am going to call the Crazy Cat Lady Quilt.  My Grammy was kind of this person as if there was a stray or lonely cat within 100 miles she was feeding it and caring for it.  Even ones that came to her house to sleep for the afternoon and then returned home in the evening!

After getting the quilt pieced my friend and neighbor Sharon agreed to run this quilt through her wonderful long arm machine and she quilted cats all over this quilt.  This evening after getting my son to bed after his Geocaching expedition with Boy Scouts that tired him out, I trimmed the edges of the quilt in preparation for binding:

 The entire quilt top spread out on the family room floor.

Detail of the Kitty Face.

Detail of the big fat Kitty.

Backing for the quilt as the cat always gets the canary!!!! ☺

Tomorrow evening I will cut the binding strips for this and then get working on that so that I can send this in the care package later this week that I will be posting her.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

The Five Year.......

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Some people have plans, goals, and accomplishments for Five Year.

I however, might just about be finished a quilt that I started about five years ago (not really exaggerating).  Almost a year ago I got the pieces cut out and adhered to the fabric backing but did not get very far on the applique.  Recently I placed a large order to Connecting Threads as they had a 35% off sale and Free Shipping to Canada.  With the Canadian Dollar being low right now this sale off set some of that spending pinch.  One of the items I ordered was the Country Garden thread set.  When the package arrived I knew that I had some applique to do! All of the colors in the set were perfect for my Five Year Quilt Project.

As of a few minutes ago here is what I have accomplished this weekend:

TAH DAH!!!!

I am not feeling particularly crafty this evening due to an impending asthma attack so this was the perfect occupation of my time after my son went to bed this evening.

Earlier in the day I took my son to a different ski venue than he usually skis at simply because they do three week lessons which will no conflict with Christmas Vacation.  Sadly, this place needs some serious help.  I knit for about a half hour inside the building that smelled worse than your grandmother's old damp basement and there was likely some kind of mold in there as well.  The furniture and carpet were original from when the building opened at the same time as the explores arrived (I don't think I am exaggerating here either) and in general the place just looks SAD.  Eventually I went outside for a walk but it was cold.  A sign on the building told me that the parking lot was an idle free zone so after freezing in my car I went and parked on the street and warmed up myself and the car.

My son seemed to enjoy it because although he was in a group lesson there were no other kids that could ski the same as him so he got his own instructor! ☺

 They worked on some of his techniques so by the time we get to the mountains at Christmas he will have his ski legs back☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

My Grandma Sadie used this expression about her life all the time.  The older I get though I am not truly sure she understood the concept of it in the manner that I do.

This morning my son and I started the day off by getting up and getting to Santa's Breakfast for 0900 hours.  We made it, although we had to eat at the preschoolers table by the time we got our food!  My son thought it was hilarious that his mom could fit at the preschoolers table ☺

Then we waited in line to meet Santa.  Santa was awesome.  My son has not got a list this year as to what he wants for Christmas so when asked by Santa what he wants he replied "stuff".  Santa was awesome and let him know that Santa has "stuff".  ☺

After that we headed off to try and get my son a hair cut.  Thankfully we were out and about early enough in the morning that his favorite hair stylist was able to squeeze him in.

Afterwards we stopped at Bulk Barn and picked up some random goodies which included these sprinkles that I put on our hot chocolate this evening after walking the dog:

Then it was back to Millennium Place for skating lessons:

After skating  headed off to his Christmas piano recital of which he played his own composition of Deck the Halls.  He was very proud of himself for accomplishing this as was I.

Then it was finally time for lunch.  We used a Groupon for poutine at My Fries.  Yummy as always.

Next up we stopped by Sweet Convenience to buy candy with (you guessed it) another Groupon I had!!!

Lastly we stopped by River City Yarns and picked up some wonderful woolly goodies.

Coming home I decided that maybe I should do something with all of the craft chaos that I have going on right now.  "Sew" here is what I accomplished:

I sewed the buttons onto my Fingerless Mittens (still a silly concept I think) that was one set of mittens from my October box of Yarn Crush.  I did have to make these mittens a little smaller than the pattern not because my hands are small but because although I knit to gauge there was not enough yarn to complete both of them as long as they were supposed to be.  Now I have 4 left over buttons for another project I guess.

Now it's off to bed as skiing starts tomorrow, and there is laundry and baking for lunches this week and groceries and house cleaning and ......................................

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Still Going....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today is one of those days that is just not seeming to end.

I awoke this morning to get myself and kiddo ready for the day and discovered 8" of snow outside.  Since the school bus was running 20+ minutes late I decided that we could use that time and shovel the walk (we live on a corner lot).  By 0825 we had the entire walk shoveled, kiddo on the bus and me en route to work:

YAY Us!

Most of my patient's arrived late for their appointments today so that kept me working through lunch and I ended up leaving clinic late too.

A quick stop to pick up kiddo and then off to battle the highway to get to swimming lessons.

After a warm bowl of soup for dinner it was time to get the garbage out since tomorrow is trash day and then I decided that the patio really should be cleaned off from the snow so I did that too!

Kiddo showered and off to bed after stories.  Household tasks completed I opened up my November package of Paper Pumpkin and made one set of the cards:

 TAH DAH!!!'

Love these cards.  

Some months I wonder about the kits, but this month I love both sets of cards!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

And Snowmageddon Arrives!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Not sure where the time has gone, but somehow I have not blogged recently and even over the weekend.  It was not that I didn't do anything...I just had too many things on the go.

Thursday was music lessons, Friday was Thank Goodness I am Fun (my son's slogan) night with my son.  We went for dinner to Soda Jerks (not sure if I will go there again anytime soon).  

Saturday was Home Depot Kids Workshop, skating lessons, recycling day, pick up new Boy Scouts shirt and then we went to see the Peanuts movie.

This is the Snowman Napkin holder that my son built at the Home Depot Kids Class:

Sunday was stay home in pajamas day except for taking the puppy for a walk, and dropping off my a quilt top, batting and backing for my friend Sharon to quilt for me.  I call this quilt the Crazy Cat Lady Quilt because there is cat fabric on it, and later this week I will be posting it to the hospital back home for my Grammy as I have to send her a care package as she is out of essentials and has no clothes other than what she was wearing the day she went to hospital via ambulance!

I did bake cookies for lunches yesterday:

 Earlier in the week I found these swirl chocolate chips at Superstore and so yesterday was the day to try them out.  

Packaged a dozen up for my friend when we dropped off the quilt to her.

A few weeks ago now I posted about getting snow here in Edmonton we had snow.  Well, that snow was very short lived because by morning it had disappeared and since then we have had temperatures in the +4 C (39 Fahrenheit) range since then.  Today however I believe our luck has run out:

This is my street this evening!!!!  On my way back from Sherwood Park this evening I was actually plowing snow in the Go Go Go Toyota!!!

Well, off to bed now as I will likely have to shovel the walk way tomorrow morning...☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy