Monkey Sees.....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

My son and I ventured out this afternoon to run a few errands, one of which included a stop at Sewing With Class.  The intent was to pick up their version of the Alberta Row by Row which unfortunately was "sew" popular they were sold out already!  I will have to wait for my kit...

Alas, the trip was not in vain.  My son was born in the Year of the Monkey and sometimes I really believe it!  He also has an affinity for monkey's so when we found toque kits for knitted monkey hats, he just had to have one:

The kit is super quick to knit up.  I cable cast on while dinner was in the oven and a few sitcoms later this evening it is done!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cross Stitch Stitch Along

Good Day Internet Friends!

Way back in January I decided to participate in the Cross Stitch Collection Stitch Along.  Should be easy enough right????

Well, unfortunately life keeps getting in the way of my making any progress with this project.  So for the month of June here is where I am at:

If you look closely you will notice that it does not look much different than last month and that is because there were only a few stitches added since last month!!!  ☺

Okay, now off to do some serious stitching.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy Birthday Cards!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

We are supposed to be away on Summer Vacation, but my son decided he wanted to attend a friend's Birthday Party.  Then my husband decided that if we were going to stay home for a few extra days he would do some "things" and now it looks like we will just end up staying home : (((

Today was the Birthday Party and my son wanted me to make a Birthday Card.  I really did not feel creative and I realized that every time a birthday party rolls around I am madly making a card only moments before the party.  So, today I made:

All expired Stampin' Up product (except for the googly eyes that we had to go to the Dollar Store for).  The monsters are embossed so either my son or the giftee child can color the monster as they see fit!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Block 18 ☺

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today was a "Do Nothing" kind of day around our house.  Not sure exactly why, but I really did not get much of anything accomplished.

Yesterday afternoon my son and I ventured out on a sort of Road Trip.  We went to Lori's Country Cottage because I decided that I needed to participate in the Alberta Row by Row Experience.  I picked up my kit there and then decided it was time to check out the Fort Saskatchewan Sheep:

As usual, they were so cute!!!  ☺

Then we headed on to the Woodland's Water Park because it was a super hot day:

My son had lots of fun running through the sprinklers then drying off playing in the park.  We stopped at the Local Quilt Shop in St. Albert as they are also participating in the Alberta Row by Row Experience.  As usual this place was disappointing again......

Last stop of the day was the library to register in the summer reading program and get a few books to read out at the farm and where ever our travels take us in the next few days.  The piano was out and so of course my son stopped to play for a bit:

As for today, I managed to sew Block 17 of my Churn Dash Challenge:

For dinner, I made a pizza with all the left over cheese, mushrooms and green peppers in the refrigerator:

I think I will do some knitting for the rest of this evening and think about what I can get into tomorrow☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Official Start of Summer Vacation

Good Morning Internet Friends!

My son got up early today, even though it is the first official day of Summer Vacation and started the day out with a bit of Phineas and Ferb.  Now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head all day!  Well, most days I have it stuck in my head...

Since yesterday was the last day of school we gave his teacher her farewell gift.  Of course that included a Thank You card:

Of course this card was made with all retired Stampin' Up product, but it looks pretty I think.

Here is a pic of the gift ensemble that we gave her.  I think it looks awesome and is a perfect teacher gift! ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Last Day of School

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Another school year is over!  Seriously, where does the time go???

Since today was the official start of my summer vacation I accompanied the class on their final field trip; Galaxyland!

I think they all had a blast:

Most of the rides were so fast I could not even catch a picture!

My son has been fortunate enough to have the same teacher for the past three grades.  Since today was his last day in this school as he has chosen to move to a different school for next year I wanted to give her a Thank You gift that would be unique and special.

"Sew" this is what I made for her:

A tote bag with teacher themed fabric (no, the bottom is not lopsided I just filled the bag with books to get the wrinkles out of the lining).

We also added a gift package from Rocky Mountain Soap.  Hope she likes it.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Pinwheel O'Rama

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Only one more day of work before Summer Vacation starts! 

Did some quilting this evening (after my son went to bed) and listened to the Beach Boys because it's ALMOST summer vacation!

I finally managed to assemble the 24 pinwheel blocks for Step 4 of my Prairie Quilt Militia Block of the month (yes I am two, soon to be three steps behind):

TAH DAH!

Now to get the trash out for tomorrow and a bit of sleep before tomorrow! ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Well.....because!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Since it is the camping time of year one needs to have marshmallows for making S'mores.  Most people will buy a bag of marshmallows at the store, but alas, I am not one of those people.  The recipe that I use for these comes from the Butter Baked Goods cookbook.  I bought this cook book last summer and am pretty close to having made everything in it.

Yesterday afternoon I set out to make marshmallows.  I even tried to be nice and use Agar as a gelatin substitute for my son's friends who have never had marshmallows due to gelatin.  Well, don't try it, it was a HORRENDOUS failure.  Since I had been defeated, I tried again, but this time used actual gelatin.  My son decided that we needed to have colored marshmallows so he added a bit of green food coloring to the mixing bowl:

Setting over night....

All cut up and rolled in icing sugar.  Ready for camping this weekend!  Tasty..

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It's Father's Day!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I know it is Father's Day but it didn't really feel like one.  Hubby is away at work, and we were unable to celebrate the festivities before he left as we only saw him for a few hours when he got home from work before he left to be with his mom and again a few hours when he flew home to collect his stuff to fly back to work!  Whew....

Today my son and I decided we would have a stay at home day.  My brother phoned this afternoon that he was back in the area to load up again and head back to the natural gas fields.  We took him to the mall to get some stuff for himself and then he took us for ice cream!

After dinner my son and I went to the park:

As far as crafting today, I did a little bit of a lot of nothing.  Seriously, I knit a few rows on several different projects, not enough to put any on the blog, and started a sewing project that hopefully I can get together this week....

Here are three cards though that would be appropriate for today.  I made these at Coffee Talk last month.  This is an event that my friend Karina hosts every month.  The instructions for these cards will be on her blog:

TAH DAH!  Seriously, that is about as creative as I got today, other than trying to help my son glue found parts of a Sand Dollar together for a presentation this week!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Guess What???? I'm Still Up....

Good Late Evening Internet Friends!

Yes, of course I am still up.  Today though at least I sort of have a reason.  Today I went to work, went to my son's school graduation, came home to give some stuff to a friends and then headed off to the Longest Day of Year Annual Clearance Sale at Lori's Country Cottage.

I arrived for the 10 pm time as I had to take my son with me and this is of course later than bedtime.  Got some awesome deals including 8 meters of bamboo batting, and 4 meters of interfacing for tote bags at 35% off ☺

Then I came home excited about my purchases and realized I could not start any of them as I have to get up for a haircut tomorrow.  

Thankfully, earlier this week my June Kit of Paper Pumpkin arrived.  It is a kit for two sets of cards.  Here is the first set of cards:

I am quite impressed with myself as this is the first time ever I have opened one of these packages and actually started on it when it arrived!  YAY me.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What's In Your Lunch?

Good Evening Internet Friends!

It seems like a really long time since I have baked.  I looked through my blog and realized; IT HAS BEEN.

So, this evening I decided that I should bake some banana muffins for lunches tomorrow.  It is Friday and I have not gone out for groceries in over a week!

\

Today at lunch I took a walk in the park close to the clinic.  It is a really pretty park.  I took this picture of the roses because they just looked pretty:

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

The Weekend is Over....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I hope you all had a restful and relaxing weekend. 

This weekend has just flown by and now I get to start another 5 day work week which seems rather ominous at this time.

I had to take a nap this afternoon as I think I might be coming down with a cold of some sort.

After dinner and after kiddo went to bed I finished sewing 96 of these little creatures for the Prairie Quilt Militia Block of the Month:

Now I just have to turn these into pinwheel blocks.  Maybe by next week????

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

The Weekend

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I had to get up early this morning to take the dog to the groomer for a hair cut.  Hubby was supposed to do it while he was home from work, but the appointment had to be moved to today due to the other stuff going on in our world.  

My son and I dropped off the dog, stopped for a quick breakfast and headed off to Canada's largest Canadian Tire store.  There were actually lots of deals, plus lots of fun things to do there so we spent almost two hours there.  We left with some very mundane things that were on sale, including some pretty neat items: Lego Technic and a skate board for my son, canning jars and a few KitchenAid finds for the camper trailer.

 The shopping cars being transported to the second floor.  

 The dog after hair cut and apparently fully charged! ☺ She even put a little bandana on him.

Then after all this activity I had a nap this afternoon.

This evening I took out the recycling and realized it is FREEZING outside.  Well, just really cold.  So I decided to finish my toque from the kit I picked up from Sylvia Olsen's Great Canadian Knitting Tour:

TAH DAH!!!

I LOVE this toque and it is super cozy on the head.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cards in a Bag...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Well, the veeeeerrrrrry long week is finally over.  Was still not feeling particularly creative this evening, but figured I should do something.

I decided that I would clean up some in my craft room.  Maybe two minutes into this project I found the Stampin' Up Simply Sent Good As Gold Card Kit.

Cleaning can wait til later ☺

So, this is what I made:

As I mentioned earlier, I was not creative tonight so I just mindlessly made these eight cards, took me almost an hour, but....TAH DAH!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Catch You on the Flip Side Winnie

Good Evening Internet Friends!

This has been a very long week, and not a good one.

On Sunday evening as I was leaving the farm I took this picture:

The pond looked so peaceful.  While talking with my husband in Halifax visiting his ill mother I asked him to give her a hug from me before it was too late and tell her I will "catch her on the flip side".  I cannot come to terms with saying good bye.

My son and I headed home and that is where this week started to fall apart.  We arrived home to find that a door lock to the house had seized up!  Nothing I could do would get the door open.  Husband away I called my brother to find out he was on some three day slow moving heavy equipment job.  Had to call a lock company and the cost of that was ATROCIOUS!!! 

Upon trying to pay for this service I found out that my bank card had been compromised which came with it's own set of problems.

Then I got the text message from my husband that his mother had passed away at 0251 hours.  

I have spent most of this week trying to figure out how exactly to process this news.  The distance of course makes it not only difficult to coordinate work and school testing schedules at this time of year, but also the cost.  

This morning she was laid to rest.  My only request for her since I am not family was that she take the quilt I made for her, with her.  My husband was considerate enough of this request to take it to the funeral home yesterday after the staff and his sister in laws had packaged it up with her stuff to be sorted out by family.  He called me after she had been planted today and for some reason it became real that I will never see her again, until I catch her on the flip side.

I know that this has not "sunk in" yet as I have not cried, but I keep listening to :

Will the Circle Be Unbroken

and 

Farther Along

because they give me a sense of peace.

On top of all of these events this week, yesterday was June 10th which is my official Pity Party Day.  It's the day that many, decades ago I was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes!  

I have not been crafty at all this week.  A bit of knitting here and there, but nothing accomplished.  This evening was the first time that I went my craft room.  I did assemble one Churn Dash Block for the Churn Dash Challenge:

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Sleep peacefully Winnie.

Kathy

Block 16!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I have really no idea where this week has gone, except that it has gone.  It may have had something to do with that although my husband came home for his two weeks off, he had to pack up almost immediately and depart to Halifax as his mom is ill {sad face}.

This morning my son and I packed up and headed out to the farm.  We stopped for ice cream and took a walk around a park while en route.  It was fun

Arriving at the farm I have weeded the garden and hilled the potatoes and corn and found a few fresh strawberries:

Super Yummy.

After the sun went down I did a bit of quilting and made Block 16 of my Churn Dash Challenge:

Tah Dah!!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

And Turn Yourself Around....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today is my "Turn Around Day" again.  I came off of night shift this morning and back on day shift tomorrow.  Of course these days are usually a "bust" as was today.

I took my son to school, then stopped at Superstore for a few things and somehow managed to wander the isles for close to an hour.  While there I found a Shuttlecork with a racket set for $9.  Seemed like a deal so I got it. 

After school my son and I stopped at the park and played with it:

We had fun! ☺

Bike rides after dinner, water the flowers and tomatoes and get ready for bed.

As for crafting I did manage to complete 96 of these little pieces for my Prairie Quilt Militia Block of the Month.  This is part of Step 4, I think everyone else is at Step 6, but they get to find the mistakes in the pattern and I get to coast through ☺

Later this week I hope to get a little further with these as they are destined to become pinwheels!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy