Christmas Came and Went

Christmas 2012 is history and as soon as our guests left after dinner I got sick! That dreaded head cold and cough came back with a vengeance and I spent the next 2 weeks in a head cold and sleepless haze. Not much quality sleep and no energy to accomplish much. Thank goodness we had lots of turkey leftovers, the house was tidy and we had lots recorded on the pvr! I am grateful for small things - no one else got it! I guess that is a big thing as I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to get it. I did rally for a lovely lobster dinner on New Year's Eve - lobster will do that!

It seems to be odd writing about Christmas now but I really wanted to just highlight these 6 ornaments that my Mother-in-Law made for us from 1969-1974. We always wished she had kept going but she didn't like the stress of having to pick 2 events from our year to commemorate.

1969 was the year we got married, November 15 and 9 days later we left for a year to teach in Sydney, Australia.

We spent 1970 in Australia and flew back to Nova Scotia on January 1, 1971. We left Sydney on a beautiful hot sunny day, landed in Fiji an it was 110 degrees and pouring rain. Arrived home (on time!) the day after a huge blizzard, beautiful sun and what seemed like 4 feet of snow!

1971, we bought a little red Fiat car (loved that car!) and our son Andrew was born in July.

In 1972 we bought our first house on Tower Rd in Halifax and  Andrew started to walk.

1973 our daughter Kate was born, she just loved the Jolly Jumper and we painted our much loved house a deep red.

In 1974 we traded in our much loved Fiat for a secondhand station wagon and Kate just had to climb everything!

I think next year it will be time to pass on the ornaments to the kids, hopefully they will treasure them as much as we do. I think they will.

Visitors are Coming

It is that time of the year when family comes to visit. We are so excited to be welcoming home our son Andrew, DiL Christy, 6 year old Molly and 8 month old Marcus. It is birthday time for our two kids born, 2 years and 4 days apart. So we get to celebrate 2 birthdays in 1 but with 2 cakes!

A shared birthday in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, where we lived for a year in '77-'78 while Peter was on sabbatical. Andrew turned 7 and Kate turned 5. The jacket and tie did not stay on long!

A few years later, back in lobster land - 2 happy kids and a happy Dad!

Andrew tries to come every year for his annual lobster feed, I don't have to ask what he wants for his birthday supper, lobster and chocolate. I can't wait for the birthday picture this year.

It has been 2 years since they have been home. We will have a busy week which I know will go by all too fast. I am looking forward to taking Molly to Woozles (the very best children's bookstore in the world and where I worked for 12 years!), doing some "crafts" with her and having her put some stitches in her pink quilt. We'll be trying to keep up with Marcus who has discovered he can really get where he wants to go, not quite crawling but a funny little pull and drag motion.

Molly loves "Hello Kitty" so I made her this bag from some leftover fabric that I had used for a pillowcase for her. I found the tutorial here. A quick and easy project which I changed a bit adding the polka fabric in the middle and some rick rack. Now to find some treasures to put in the bag!

Penguins, Quilts and Little People

We are back by the sea after a couple of weeks breathing the mountain air in the wild west, otherwise known as Calgary, home of our grandchildren! It was a busy 2 weeks getting to know our 4 month old grandson Marcus (who is just a delight!),

Marcus and his new quilt Cars and Trucks and Things That RoarWe celebrated granddaughter Molly's 6th birthday.

Six big candles!

We visited the new penguin enclosure at the Calgary Zoo (well worth the hour and a half wait) and visited the new Telus Spark Centre. We also managed 2 visits to the wonderful Calgary Farmers Market and 4 of the Calgary quilt stores, one of which I went to twice!

I had a lovely lunch and visit with Calgary quilter Cheryl Arkison who gave me a copy of her wonderful new book Sunday Morning Quilts. I was fortunate to be asked by Cheryl to test one of her patterns which I really enjoyed doing. 

T Quilt, machine pieced and machine quilted by Cheryl.

Dream Big, machine piieced and machine quilted by Cheryl

A big highlight of the trip was going to the Saddledome for an NHL game, the Calgary Flames vs the Winnipeg Jets. This was the first time these 2 teams had played each other as they play in different divisions.

Andrew and Molly singing O Canada with 20,000 other fans!

The atmosphere was electric as the arena filled with almost as many Jets fans as Flames fans. Molly is a keen hockey fan and was dressed appropriately in her team jersey with purple pants and accessorized with pink cowboy boots (with fringe!). The highlight for her was 2 hugs from the team mascot "Harvey the Hound" and getting on the Jumbotron!

Molly waves her Flames flag on the jumbotron. Oh, Calgary won 5-3!

I could write a whole post on the Calgary quilt stores. As always Traditional Pastimes was as welcoming and enticing as ever. They had just received a huge shipment of fabrics and there were bolts everywhere. The staff is always so interesting to talk to and always very helpful. I can't believe I forgot my camera, I had every intention of going back but the 2 weeks just flew by too fast.

But I think the highlight for me this time was Out of Hand, Deirdre, the owner, always welcomes us with open arms and has remembered us each time we have been there. What impressed me so much this time was their stock and display of ribbons!

Love the black and white floor!


Beautiful silk ribbons!

It was fantastic! I was so overwhelmed by the choices, colours, patterns and designs. Ribbons were stacked and displayed in every nook and cranny! I declared that Out of Hand wins the award for the best use of space of any quilt store I have ever been in. Be sure and check out all my pictures on my Flickr page (link to the left) and see if you agree. And if you are ever in Calgary, visit Out of Hand, you won't be disappointed and say hello to Deirdre for me!