a perfect day....

I was lucky enough to get all three days of the long weekend off. Juicy watermelon bought and all the supplies for a great few days of barbecue. The weather was wonderfully warm, but, there is a but, I came down with some sort of bug that just took all the wind out of my sails. It started on Thursday night and just zapped me, so out of my three days off, two were spent in the house on the couch watching movies.

Sunday night I was getting a bit more energy and was feeling a bit lousy about not getting any sewing done. I have a baby shower to go to in June and I have a ton of scrap fabric left from a baby quilt I made about a year ago, so I decided to try and whip something together. James new that I was feeling bad about spending such a gorgeous weekend cooped up in the house so on Monday morning he moved my sewing room outside to the backyard. So there I sat under our 90 year old maple tree listening to music and the birds, and sewing away. It was the most perfect peaceful day I have had in a long time. Good for ones soul, this will definitely happen again!


Now, I didn't know he was doing this but James snapped a couple of pics of me while I was out enjoying my day in the backyard. So here I am enjoying the great day of sewing. I was only disturbed a couple of times, by ants peeking at me from the top of my sewing machine, and one other time that was a little more traumatic! I wont share it was terrible. The baby quilt is almost done, I will post pics when it is all finished...I had a very productive day!

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekends as well!

cant sleep....

Well this seems to be happening more regularly than I would like. I come home from work, cook dinner, and then it's like someone has pulled my plug, I have to spark left do to anything. Then around 11:30pm I start to get some juice back and then I am restless until about 2:30am. AAAGGGGHHH. So I surf the net, tidy now and again, very rarely tidy, or read. Tonight is one of the tidy with a hole lot of computer. Here is a lovely pic that I found surfing the net...I forgot to grab the picture info before I closed the window, so sorry to whomever this picture belongs to, it really is lovely.

I am going to try something new, a song of the week. This weeks song is very hauntingly beautiful, with lyrics that are sad and loving all at once. Sometimes how life is I guess.

Some back story on how this song came into my life. James and I, on a whim went to New York in January to see the Swell Season at Radio City Music Hall, what a treat, we had a time that will never be forgotten or repeated in quite the same way. The Swell Season put on an amazing show, they are wonderful in concert...the best concert I have EVER been to! Their opening act was this guy named Josh Ritter, this is his song it's called "The Curse" from his new album "so runs the world away". I will play it until I cant stand to listen to it anymore...and then I will stop playing it for awhile....

I was trying to figure out how to plunk the song in the post but alas, I am not sure there is a way to do that soooo, I added the "blogy song play list thingy", I am sure that is the technical term, at the bottom. Right now it only has one song, but I will try to have a song of the week every week. That may be to much commitment but I will try. Please scroll down and leave a comment or recommendation if you like.

windy, chilly, gloomy....oh my.

Wow, today is a bit of a shock to the system, it's so chilly and windy. Mom, Zoe and I went to Humber Nurseries to celebrate mothers day early, I have to work tomorrow. Picked up some really great hostas for the garden...love them, hopefully they will survive the dog, and squirrels! They also have a big selection of pond plants and koi fish, I love when they come up to the surface of the tank looking for food. Forgot my camera but took some snaps with my camera phone, now I just have to figure out how to get them out of the phone!


I finally asked James (IT support) probably would not have figured it out on my own without much screaming at the various electronic devices, here is a pic of the little tiny koi, they cost about $15 bucks each! For a fish, there cute, but a pretty pricey meal for our neighbourhood racoons!

I love a gloomy day, warm cups of tea and a good book, although the one I am reading right now is a little to weird even for me. Something has my hackles up, and I don't know what...hopefully today will end the last month and a half of unexpected drama which will make life seem a bit more sane. One can only hope. I am also without a sewing project and feel a bit lost. I did splurge a bit this week and bought a couple of new inspiration magazines, and the big Martha Stewart Craft book. I love the pictures and ideas in the "Marie Claire" magazine but it's in french, but I couldn't walk away from it. My french is okay but not that okay, hopefully this will help make it a bit better...ha, I doubt it!

The big debate right now is do I want to spend the money to enter my first craft show in our neighborhood park?! Hmmm, I don't know, nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose. Oh and I found something that made James and I just cry we laughed so much. Sometimes after you laugh so hard you don't really know why you found it so funny but it's still great to laugh, so here it is...hopefully you see what we saw.

Snuggie for your dogs!! Here is the front of the box....


Here is the back, which got even more laughs! Since I didn't have my camera this day either, we were just doing some mundane household shopping. I had to use the camera phone again as well so the pics are a little fuzzy but look closely. Yes, that is a dog sitting with the remote, and another pair playing a game of backgammon!


Enjoy the blustery day, and the angry clouds, just cuddle up with something furry on the couch and watch a good movie, and don't forget to laugh...really laugh!

it's been so long....

I have been away from my blog for so long, time really is so fleeting. It was partially because I was in such a funk...so bad that even a good walk with James and Fergus, and a cuddle with Ollie didn't help. There is something in the air that's for sure. However, there were a lot of good things in the past month that I would like to share as well.

There are two things that really jump out. Firstly, my sisters 16th birthday! Oh my, I cant believe that she is that old already we always joked that someday she would be 16 and I would be 32! I am not quite 32 yet but it will happen this year! Mind you I still feel like a 16 year old myself. A 16 year old with a mortgage and bills, but a kid none the less.

But I digress, I received a giant order of Echino fabric in the mail from Superbuzzy, thanks to our dollar being so good I got dinged for the duty and it sat in a customs warehouse for a few days longer than expected. It arrived very behind schedule giving me only 2 weeks to get her quilt done!


So a stack of echino fabrics, bright kona solids, and a quilt plan = happy and only 12 days left! The plan, simple big blocks, 11" squared to really show off the great colourful prints and minimize how much fabric is wasted. Then to add interest, window blocks scattered randomly throughout the quilt. I needed a total of 22 window blocks and thanks to James the math for the wonky and centered ones was very easy...law of smidges be gone, haha! I also made one of Zoe's pictures into an embroidery, her signature image, a robot, I totally love those iron on pencil thingies, to cool, and so smart.


So a few days later the window blocks were done and it was time to lay it out on the quilt wall. The layout went very fast and so did sewing the rows together. Then it was back to "The Workroom" for the back material and batting. With help from my special consultant, James :), we decided on Anna Maria Horners flannels. So soft and cozy, two different prints were picked out, just too many options! Then it was home to vacuum, mop and lay it out. T-minus 5 days and counting! I got it all basted and quilted, just a simple in the ditch straight line down all the rows and around all 22 window frames, both lines. That took about a day and a bit leaving me with only a day and a half to bind it. My Mum was kind enough to help with the finishing up of the hand sewing of the bias tape, I really hate that part so it worked out well. So here it is...she loved it!


So there it is, all done and sadly I did have to part with it, that is always the hardest part for me, selfish I guess! I have some scraps left and I will make my own echino quilt for sure, maybe the same or at least slightly different.

So as not to make this a marathon post, probably already to late....I will simply try to post again tomorrow, with my other highlight's of April. Right now the sweet smell of rain is calling me to go sit out on the porch in the dark with a cup of tea, or maybe even some mint chocolate chip ice cream...or heavenly hash, I cant decide...maybe a scoop of each!

Goodnight, sleep soundly and love the people around you...