NorthernNorthAmerican Bears

quilt mojo returns

2012-01-29T13:57:00.000-05:00

so you all know by now that I havent done much quilting in the last 4-5 months since getting pregnant.

I had a friend who had her baby 6 weeks early back in December.
I finished a top for the quilt and it sat on my table for a looong time. (we did go to Canada for 3 weeks in there)

I saw him this past Sunday and he was 8 weeks old or so and I realized I better get going on the quilt for him!! so I quilted it Sunday afternoon. I finished it up by Thursday to take to my quilt guild for show and tell.

I then took it home and machine did the binding (after hand stitching.)

I had a couple issues with this quilt with the binding that I havent done in so long!! I guess I was away from quilting too long and forgot it! Mostly it was the fact I didnt use a 1/4 inch on sewing it down.

I machine put the binding down to make sure it would survive the many washes :)

Signed and you can see I used a fancier stitch on the binding

I only used my walking foot for the quilting.

I didnt want to to though the panel so I stitched in the ditch there.

I never measured it to see how big it was! oh well

The backing was perfect for such an early and loved little one

Here is Loren and Alex and baby Asher with their present at church today.

zeke picture updates

2012-01-21T11:50:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures of Zeke from the last few days.

Zeke and his buddy were playing "naps" and were giggling so hard!

he was trying to make a frowny / grumpy face- but kept breaking up

then he did "cheese"

at a hotel- Zeke sat in there and pulled Baileys food in with him so he could watch Bailey eat.

on his first train ride

on a carousel

riding the second time with daddy

watching planes take off

we have a lot of douplo...so I got one big tote for it

first night in his Big Boy Bed

And was still in it 12 hours later :)

new fabric

2012-01-18T21:09:00.001-05:00

When we were in Canada I was able to get to one quilt shop- it was a very cute one in Fonthill, ON.

Dave picked out some Dr. Seuss fabric.

some fat quarters (of meters)

I knew we were having a girl so I picked out some more girly fabric without going pink. (Im not huge on pink). The orange on the right has a nice pattern in it - so I got a whole meter of the "solids" and a 1/2 of the 2 prints.

Some lovely winter fabric- even if we didnt see much snow while there.

1/2 meter of them.

Christmas 2011 pictures part 2

2012-01-11T21:49:00.001-05:00

This is part 2 of the 3 week vacation we took to Canada.

again- these are mostly to have them somewhere

enjoy

Christmas 2011 part 1 pictures

2012-01-09T21:14:00.000-05:00

We left NC on Sat the 17th to go visit our family in Canada on a 3 week vacation.

the following pictures were taken up to Dec. 26th (ok so there was a couple extra xmas party ones thrown in)

I know there are a lot of them and this is mostly for my family.

There are some cute ones of Zeke in there too :)

enjoy!

Quilts in review 2011

2012-01-08T22:04:00.000-05:00

January/ Feb--

I started of the year with a facebook challenge.

"Pay it Forward 2011:

I promise to send something handmade to the first 4 people who leave a comment here. In turn, those first 4 people must repost this and send something handmade to the first 5 people who comment on their status.

(The only rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 4 people sometime in 2011....)"

March--

I then tried my hand at free motion quilting but have not done it since

April--

I made a quilt for a friend for her baby shower

I made some mug rugs for my mom and her RV

May--

we got back from a road trip and did work in the garden over the long weekend.

June--

I sent off a baby quilt to some friends of ours in canada

I did a jelly roll quilt top

I was very excited to get my critter quilt done!

July--

We had a new google wife added to our midst who was also 8 months pregnant so we had a baby shower for her!

I finished my black and white jelly roll quilt (all hand quilted)

I also managed to get a quilt done in a day!

I made a pillow mattress following a friends lead and ended up having to fix it too! (this has been one of my most popular posts on my blog.)

August--

I made a quilt on the request of a friend and named it Frog Frenzy

September--

I made some his and hers quilts for a friends daughters for her wedding.

And that was just about the last of it since I announced being pregnant.

October-

I finished a wall hanging that I just realized I never gave away this Christmas.

I did manage to give the finished quilt to Daves mom. That one had given me a lot of trouble.

here it is on her bed with the matching pillows she made for it.

I also managed to refold my yardage onto comic book boards but that is as far as I have gotten with cleaning up the quilting.

So that is all I have done this year. The year had a good amount of quilts but I wish I could have done more.

I feel kinda lost without quilting at times but I have no umph to go and start a quilt. maybe that will change!

I have to move all my quilting stuff to the basement to make room in the guest room for Zeke to move into as we will be needing the nursery for the next one.

Its a .....

2011-12-26T21:54:00.001-05:00

squid!

no- not really :)
but that is our "code name" this time around (some of you may remember that Zeke was "cletus the fetus" when he was of unknown gender in utero.)

A couple weeks ago we had an ultrasound planned where we would get to find out the gender if we choose. We didnt decided to find out until about a week before the ultrasound.

Once we did decide that we were going to tell people the gender the next thing we decided was to not tell names and we would tell our parents at Christmas (about 2 weeks later)

I then had to decide how we were going to tell the parents. We actually managed to not even have them know if we knew or not. That was a bit tricky- especially when they came right out and asked us "so did you find out the gender?"

I went to the baby section in my local walmart and found some cute bibs and booties to wrap to give the parents as the last Christmas presents of the day.

Here are their reactions:

First my mom and sister

then Daves mom and sister

This picture was followed by some giddy schoolgirl feet stomping with a gleeful "ohhh! now I can buy pink yarn!"

So if you havent guessed- we are having a GIRL!

I cant wait to get home and start pulling girly fabrics for a quilt!!
only one problem of having to move all my quilting stuff to the basement- I guess it will be my first project there! (motivation- right?)

we have some winners!!

2011-12-16T13:38:00.000-05:00

Well I did the drawing and here are the winners!!

Here are your random numbers:

1
8
10

Timestamp: 2011-12-16 18:35:26 UTC

Debra said...1

Ilike to thrift shop then go out to dinner!

December 14, 2011 12:20 AM

Stray Stitches (Linda G) said...8

I love to have dinner delivered to my house where I can have a nice quiet celebration with my hubby. Thanks for the opportunity to enter your great giveaway!

December 14, 2011 8:03 PM

Christina said...9

Happy Birthday Debbie!

Dave, I love your answer!

For my birthday, I love more than anything to have dinner with my brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, and my parents in San Antonio, TX. But now that I live away in North Carolina, I love to chat with them over the phone throughout the day and dinner with my hubby.

I hope I win. I'd love to start on a new hobby/ project ;)

December 15, 2011 12:30 AM

I will be contacting you to find out which charm pack you want :)

Christmas lights and Birthday giveaway!

2011-12-13T20:42:00.001-05:00

Good morning everyone!!

I wanted to show my Ikea lights in action:

Today (ok- so I posted this early- my birthday is Wendesday) is my birthday...but even better than that - its my 30th birthday.

So I want to do a little giveaway. I have 3 charm packs that you can win.
I will use the Random number thing to pick 3 winners! First winner gets first choice, second winner gets to choose next... etc.

The Bella Solids are 2 tones

Contest is closed:
We have our winners :)

to Enter: Please leave a comment telling me what you like to do to celebrate your own birthday.

Drawing will take place on Friday morning - giving you only a couple days to enter.
I think with these I can ship internationally.

good luck!

A Big Help!

2011-12-11T20:06:00.001-05:00

Zeke has been a big help today.

first he brought his rolling back pack to church and brought in his own diaper and drink etc.

Our car was showing a low tire when we were heading home so Zeke helped daddy "fix it"

We then went up the mountain to Blowing Rock where they had some snow on the ground

We came home and after Zekes nap he helped daddy sort out the laundry.

By the way- my hubby is awesome to start laundry without me even knowing it took it downstairs!!

And this picture just makes me laugh out loud!

Zeke kept opening his mouth like he was going to bite you. I just looked in at his teeth but Dave got a tad "nervous" and so Zeke kept doing it and getting closer and closer.

We told him no biting so instead he decided licking was the way to go.....

Google Christmas Party 2011

2011-12-10T21:36:00.001-05:00

So my husbands work has an annual Christmas Party.

Each year it has been in a different location and I think this was the best one by far.

We went to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville NC where we had dinner followed by a dueling piano bar, a stay overnight and a wonderful breakfast.

The Grove Park Inn hosts a gingerbread competition every year. Some of the requirements are that there must be gingerbread and everything must be editable. There was tons of gingerbread sculptures! even the youth ones were pretty amazing :) I dont think we got to see them all.

After breakfast we headed into Asheville and took a trolley tour and grabbed a couple geocaches (ask dave who found them!)

This was the very first time BOTH Dave and I have been away overnight away from Zeke. We had a good friend come and stay over with him and they had a blast together. Although I hear he was a little put off by us not coming to get him in the morning :)
Thank You very much Courtney!! We wouldnt have been able to go without you!

I hope you enjoy these photos our our mini vacation.

photos of new...

2011-12-06T21:04:00.001-05:00

well this was not a typical day at all.

but I did get some great photos!

I also got a wisdom tooth removed right after these pictures were taken.

so that gives you a bit of what my day was like- both ups and downs :)

19 weeks

Thanksgiving Road trip

2011-11-29T20:36:00.001-05:00

Well we got back yesterday from a 5 day road trip to the coast of North Carolina.
We went geocaching along the way with an average of 4-5 hours driving each day. Now- 4-5 hours is the driving part. Most of the time we were in the car at least 7-8 hours as we stopped to play and food and of course geocaching.

here is Daves recap of each day

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

On Sunday night we made sure we were at a hotel near the Charlotte airport so Dave could fly off for a work trip leaving me to pack up child and dog and go to Ikea. (not sure if I mentioned my love of Ikea here- ha!)

We arrived home around 3pm on Monday and I still havent done any groceries Tuesday night (we have enough left from our trip)

Here are my pictures:

and a video of Zeke counting while we were driving:

and a couple more where he was very excited to go geocaching:

quilting- whats that?

2011-11-26T22:05:00.001-05:00

wow- I have been in a dry spell since Aug. (minus the wedding his and hers quilts and finishing a small wall hanging )

Since getting pregnant I have not made hardly anything!
I am feeling it after this long.

looking a head I cannot see time to quilt until the new year- this is making me sad. I will have to try to squeeze in some time somewhere.

I have a table quilt that I am hand quilting to keep me a bit more sane.

But I am now 18 weeks and starting to feel the tickles in the tummy :D

at 16 weeks

I absolutely love that feeling!

dont mind the non smile- I was taking this while Dave was getting Zeke ready for bed on a self timer. 10 seconds can be very long.

hopefully I can get my but in gear.

Next up:
- Cleaning up the basement office/craft room/man cave
- move quilting stuff to basement
- redecorate guest room to make it my sons bed room

then we can start moving zeke into his room (out of the nursery) to make room for #2 and the whole toddler bed thing.
We hope we can have both a toddler bed and the queen guest bed in the same room until I am comfortable with Zeke sleeping in the big bed.

Zeke in the kitchen and elsewhere

2011-11-19T21:56:00.000-05:00

one of the fave things to do in the car

cheese

Trying to show my his hat

giveaway

2011-11-16T22:30:00.001-05:00

Shannon is giving away the traveling stash on Wednesday.

only 23 comments so far- go try your luck

http://nunusquiltworld.blogspot.com/2011/11/time-for-traveling-stash-give-away.html

Google reader

2011-11-05T21:35:00.001-04:00

Reading your blog posts though Google Reader is great except you cannot see the actual blog layouts.

here is a tip I got from Scary Mommy

Finally, a tip for design loving blog readers: If you read blogs through Google Reader, but miss actually seeingthe blogs, this is the answer you’ve been waiting for: Logged into your Google account, go here and click on the Goodies tab. Once you “Put Reader in a Bookmark,” you will be able to read the posts from your reader, intheir actual blogs. You get to see the blog post in the pretty design, and the blogger gets the page-view. Win, win for everyone.

EXCEPT it hasnt been working for me since they changed the Reader Layout!

I will update this when it works again.

EDIT: it works again!! yay!

I have blogged this so I have the info handy for when i need to do it again.

Halloween candy division

2011-10-31T22:29:00.002-04:00

So- How do/ did you deal with Halloween candy?

did your kids get to keep it all?

did you divide it between everyone?

did you sneak candy from your kids?

Here is what my parents did with us growing up.

There were 4 of us kids bringing in candy for a few years.
After we got home mom and dad would dump all the candy in the middle of the table.
It would all be sorted out by type of candy- gum in a bowl, chocolate in another, chips in another etc etc.

We would then be allowed to take some - I think 10?) pieces each.

The rest of the candy would be put up on a shelf and every day mom would let us pick out 2-3 pieces to add to our lunch boxes. Sometimes we would get some after school, a special treat etc.

This was a fair way to deal with it, especially once me and my brother stopped trick or treating. The haul would often last well past the first week- usually lasting the whole month of November.

My parents also got some of the treats. I'm sure they ate their favourites first! (as we all do)

As you can see in that picture above, I have already sorted out the candy into groups and they are now in a couple bowls.

I think I may continue what we did with mom and dad- but we will see.

so- what do you do?

Renaissance Fair!

2011-10-31T21:38:00.000-04:00

Wow- it has been a long time since I posted!

Daves parents and Mine have both been up for Zekes birthday.

I will blog their visits later.

For now I will blog about the Renaissance Fair that we went to in Huntersville NC.

Dave did a great post on it over Here (you should really check it out- its good)

It was the first time any of us have gone to a Renaissance Fair, ever.

We had a blast!!

There were soo many stages to see shows on. you could spend the whole day there and not see everything~!

The bonus of us going this past Saturday is that it was the Halloween day.
They encouraged kids to dress up and go trick or treating at all the booths!

I did most of it for Zeke- BUT after lunch I let Zeke out of the stroller and let him run into the booths to say Trick or Treat. he would often only get out "TREAT".

He would say "TREAT" to anyone in the booth to get the candy. We did have a little problem of him wanting to open the candy right away- but we told him he had to sit in the stroller to eat his candy- it was much more fun to run to all the booths!

Here is some pictures from the day- Enjoy.

Leo's visit here= the end

2011-10-17T21:39:00.001-04:00

Leo has been with us for almost a month.

We have enjoyed his company. He is a laugh and a half even though he can get into trouble!

Here are a few links from his time with us:

Leo arrived

then we went to Myrtle beach

and he celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with us

I have a few more pictures from his time with us. They are a bit mixed up but bear with me :)

First we have Leo at Zekes birthday party

Eating a piece of cake

trying to get re-gifted?

Leo attacking the birthday boy with kisses

Leo then went with Zeke to the pumpkin patch

choosing a pumpkin

on the wagon ride

At Zekes preschool for Zekes preschool birthday party

one evening we went to the local walking park

tagging along on the stroller

Zeke wanted to hang out with Leo

Zeke giving Leo a ride

Ps- if you want to read about Leos previous adventures you can find them here or you can join in the fun here

Dave's moms quilt is done.

2011-10-17T20:39:00.000-04:00

Finally! Its done!

When they came to visit this weekend I was able to give it to her even washed and dried (although it was still drying when they arrived)

Here are some links to it previously:
This quilt gave me lots of trouble
I got the top done
and it got quilted.

now it is finished!!

With a navy blue binding

Daves mom

Zekes 2nd Birthday!

2011-10-16T21:43:00.000-04:00

Saturday was Zeke's 2nd Birthday!!

the spread

The cake- Thomas of course!

blowing out the candle

eating the cake

more kids eating cake

where we decorated bags for a craft

some presents

T-shirt from nana and poppa

the fam :)

more pictures here:

finally- some sewing!!!

2011-10-14T21:57:00.003-04:00

Since I found out I was pregnant a few weeks ago I havent done much sewing at all!

I finally did some this week!

It felt so good :)

Its just a wall hanging but nice to do.

the back

Zeke loves any sized quilt I make

Thanksgiving with Leo

2011-10-09T21:55:00.001-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It is Canadian thanksgiving this weekend and Leo had to get in on the action.

As Canadians living in the states I couldnt find a turkey yet so we had a chicken.

All the food was ready to go- just had to wait on 5pm to start cooking for dinner

back pot for stuffing, carrots, cream corn, squash, potatoes, gravy.

Helping mash the squash

Pastor Rob, Ginger were slightly distracted by Leo

it was a great dinner with great people!

Leo's vacation to Myrtle Beach

2011-10-06T21:16:00.000-04:00

When Leo arrived at our door he was a bit tired from all the traveling he was doing.

He sounded very happy that we were going to take a vacation to Myrtle Beach.

Our bags were packed and look who wanted to come along for the ride!

AS soon as we got there the little monkey choose the top bunk!

Yay!!! we are at the beach!

Got to go eat at the all you can eat sea food buffets!

hanging out on the beach

luckily he doesnt burn!

nice and close to the water (but not too close!)

there- that feels safer!!

Dave and I then headed out for the night and thought it would be nice if Leo came along to Broadway at the Beach.

First thing he does is run off and get himself in trouble!!

we promised the dinosaur some sweets if he let go of Leo. Thankfully he agreed!

The bag of sugar was NOT for Leo!!

we saw this bird :)

and some Celebrities!

not sure were Alvin was though.

We fed the fish! someone tossed in a bag of pink popcorn.

taking a break

I go off the bathroom and come back to find leo munching on my pretzel!

our view from the 6th floor

The morning we left it dawned nice and clear

one of our stops included the Largest Flowering Dogwood in NC

Taking a rest stop while Daddy was geocaching

Thanks for coming along on the ride!!

Ps- if you want to read about Leos previous adventures you can find them here or you can join in the fun here

Google +

2011-09-29T16:28:00.001-04:00

Come and find me on Google +

https://plus.google.com/113541434763428605874/posts?hl=en

If you are on Google plus please make sure you have things listed under the "about me" section. I use that information to add you to my proper circles.

usually "quilting" :D

See you over there!

PS- I have been on G+ for a couple months so if you have a question about it - ask me. I may not have the answer but I might :)

Leo Arrived!

2011-09-22T13:46:00.001-04:00

Guess who was on my door step nice and fresh from his trip from NY with Patty?

Its LEO!!

If you want to read more about Leo's trips so far go check out Deb's blog at McCormik Maddness

I was pleased to see Leo came with an air freshener (being in a box can make you a bit stinky!)

He also came with a supply of candy that he didnt eat on the way here.
I may have to snag one or two for me my son.

We are looking forward to our adventures with Leo over the next couple weeks.

He may even get to celebrate Zeke's second birthday if he ~~behaves~~ decides to stick around a bit longer.

Traveling Stash

2011-09-20T21:23:00.001-04:00

The Traveling Stash continues.

go visit: http://thanxsandy.blogspot.com/2011/09/traveling-stash.html#comments

right now she only has 3 comments on it and is drawing on Sat the 24th.

i think your chances are pretty good- enjoy!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

2011-09-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

aarr me maties

Here is some tips to be talkin like a Pirate

and this is a little song by the arrogant worms:

also- Happy Birthday to my hubby
Argh, happy birthday, matey!!

Guess what?

2011-09-08T20:45:00.000-04:00

Dave's post: here

His and Hers quilts

2011-09-06T15:07:00.000-04:00

I was invited to a friends daughters wedding.

I dont really know the daughter but I love her mom!!

I had no idea what I was going to give them as a wedding present thinking I would just buy something. Then about 2 weeks before the wedding I wanted to quilt!

I asked Judy to come over and approve the fabrics for the quilt.

Rebecca's favourite colour is orange followed by navy and grey.

humm.... I was thinking of doing a two tone quilt when I came across a pattern in one of my books!
I of course altered the pattern to make it into a lap quilt

BUT (and thats a big but)

I cut out twice as many blocks as I would need.

Oh what to do, what to do. I only wanted to make her a lap quilt.

I decided to do up two lap quilts and leave one as a flimsy to quilt up at another time.

Then I had time- so I did two quilts :)

I made one with a grey border and one with an orange border and called them His and Hers.

The size of the quilt was determined by the polka dot backing. I had 2 yards of it. So both quilts are apx. 42x60?? I never did measure them.

apparently she also love polka dots- so yay for me!

I love the polka dot binding

The polka dots is a light flannel because she is always cold and is moving to North Dakota from North Carolina. HUGE change in winter temperatures!

I went to the wedding this past weekend.

Congratulations to Rebecca and Stephen!

Zeke's First Day of Preschool

2011-09-01T13:43:00.000-04:00

It has come, and mommy is happy~
Zeke has started preschool!

I took this on the way to orientation day:

Just earlier (before I got the camera out) he was all excited and repeating things.

All dressed up and not wanting to take pictures

is it in there?

mommy- I need your fingers!!

Dont leave me!!! (2 seconds later Zeke was reading books with her and having fun)

This is a preschool at the church we go to. He knows many of the teachers and the rooms he is in. He just doesnt like new situations and he could tell this was different.

Special Treat~

Zeke and some of my projects

2011-08-26T22:01:00.001-04:00

I cant post about the quilts I have been working on until next Saturday.

So in the meantime- here is some pictures of my son and projects

Zeke keeping himself busy with me sewing

he brought this into the bed room where daddy was taking a nap. he didnt stay down for long!

new favourite toy

he made the circle himself and was jumping in it
video here

waking up from a nap
He loves to play "peek" with any quilt

all wrapped up

watching tv

Corn on the Cob

2011-08-24T21:35:00.000-04:00

Zekes first time eating corn on the cob. (other times he didnt know how to deal with it)

want some?

mmm

New fabric place

2011-08-20T13:10:00.000-04:00

Here's what I am working on. Next step- basting

I hadnt thought of this pattern for HST but I like it.

So on Thursday I went to a quilt guild meeting. It was the first time I have ever been to a meeting. Everyone was 40+ there making me the youngest by at least 10 years.
It was ok- I like the show and tell part. I will keep going and see how it goes.

But while I was there- someone shared a new place carrying fabric, Sew Help Me. It is a place downtown that does mostly repairs etc. They are starting to stock some fabric and not just any fabric- they are carrying name brands like Moda and Bella.

Right now their selection is quite limited but they are keeping prices LOW!

look at this:

I go BOTH charm packs for under $13!! they were less than $6 each! how awesome is that!

I will definitely be heading there more often now I know what they are carrying!

such cute patterns

Making of Frog Frenzy

2011-08-18T12:03:00.001-04:00

This is the making of Frog Frenzy.

A friend asked me to make this for her and bought me all the fabric.

I wont do a tutorial for this as I dont remember what sizes I cut things.

Previous post about Frog Frenzy here

First: Cut your pieces

Next- do some sewing

then pressing... lots of pressing

and more sewing

put your blocks together

trim them to all the same size

so pretty

then try to decide on a layout. This one is a bit boring.

a bit better....

that looks good

nah.

sew the blocks in rows and then the rows together.

Get a baby to ~~model~~ play on it.

have a little fun with the pictures

quilt it 1/4 inch from the outside of the black sashing.

sign it and wash it.

take a few pictures and hand it to your friend.

Now I have a question for you all.

I am not allowed to make money here (due to being a dependent on a VISA) but I am just curious.

How much would your time be worth??

if someone gave you fabric so it was only your time that was being paid for?

I know that crafters never make enough to cover their time.

But its a question I was wondering about.

For example in this quilt I kept track of the time I spend for fun and it was about 17 hours start to finish (minus time for planning)

I loved doing it just as another project (that I dont have room for to keep in my house).

Let me know:

How much is your time worth?

Frog Frenzy

2011-08-18T11:44:00.001-04:00

I got 20+ names for this quilt!!

Thank you to everyone. I did choose Frog Frenzy because it fit on the block better :)

You can find the making of the quilt here

I asked Zeke if he wanted to be in the pictures and this is where he stood!

Back from the quilters

2011-08-13T14:47:00.000-04:00

I got Daves moms quilt back from the quilters :)

When I went to pick it up it was hanging there so I got a good look at it!

She did a pattern called "flutterby" on it- it turned out really well- almost a 2 sided quilt now!

Now to do the binding. Since its so big I think I will just do the binding all by machine.

name the quilt

2011-08-11T23:23:00.001-04:00

A friend has asked me to make a quilt for her. She bought the material and let me see what I could make with the yardage she gave me.

This is what I came up with.

Finished pictures coming soon

full of frogs!

So- She wants it with a full signature and everything. She wants it very clear that I made it.

So I am making a signature bloc out of the green squares but I think it needs a name.

Can you think of a name for this quilt?

some of the suggested ones are:

Hoppin' windows

Frog Frenzy

Jungle Ecstasy

Frog Fever

DO you have one? please leave it in the comments.

(to be honest right now I'm leaning to the Frog Frenzy but am not sold on it)

mini ice cream cone

2011-08-10T21:24:00.000-04:00

I saw these at the grocery store (or walmart) and thought they would be perfect size for Zeke!

i didnt know they were so small! they really are mini!

Zeke liked the look of them from the start...

He gave it a try... and loved it

We had a picnic in the kitchen another day because it was so hot outside that Zeke wouldnt have gotten any ice cream

make your own spaghetti sauce from scratch in the oven

2011-08-09T21:22:00.001-04:00

So I had a bunch of tomatoes that needed to be used so I asked friends on facebook for ideas.

I got this idea that I wanted to try:

Spread a bit of olive oil on bottom of cookie sheet. Cut tomatoes in half & place skin side up on tray. Add any veggies you like around them, mushrooms, onions, peppers, carrots etc. Bake in oven about 10 minutes or till skins come off tomatoes easily. Put through blender & freeze till needed.

so there are a lot of things that are not included in this but I thought I would give it a try.

First I got the veggies out. and chopped them up- green pepper and tomatoes from my garden and a friends, onion red pepper, mushrooms, and carrots.

I layered them in the pan with the tomatoes face down.

I added a bunch of spices like pepper, salt, oregano, paprika, thyme, garlic etc

and someone suggested brown sugar to cut the acidity.

I needed more than what I put on. If I would do this again I would put spices and brown sugar on the bottom with the olive oil as well as putting it on top.

I think I would use 2 tbs brown sugar as well.

I put it in the oven at 350F and it was in there for about 20 min and it was cooking- just not as well as it should have been- so I upped it to 400 and it was in there for another 10 minutes. That seemed to do the trick!

When it was all done I peeled the skin off the tomatoes and scooped the big bits up with a slotted lifter.

It smelled so good!

I put it in the blender and tasted it- blech- too tomato-y. I added a bunch more spices and more brown sugar.

That made it taste better- still not as good as the store bought stuff. It was about the same constancy though

I got 5 cups of sauce out of it.

I usually make my sauce go a lot further by adding a small can of sauce to go with the regular jar so I will be using this instead of the can

do I need an intervention?

2011-08-03T22:55:00.001-04:00

here's the situation:

Im looking on facebook at some photos that someone posted. I barely know her. She is the groomer for our dog in a chain store in town. We see her a few times a year (or dog doesnt get groomed its just her nail trims) but I have her on facebook.

Well she posted pictures of her nursery. My first thought was I have THE PERFECT fabric for that room!!!
(I used it for this quilt and this one)

She even had a few owls in the nursery!!

I wanted to get up off the couch (at 11pm) to start making her a quilt.
I dont know her.
but I want to do a quilt.
I have been inspired.
I have 2 other quilts on the go (almost done) and many more in the works.

help.

my banana speaks to me

2011-08-02T20:41:00.000-04:00

do yours speak to you?

recent fabric purchases

2011-07-29T23:10:00.000-04:00

this will be a photo dump of fabric I have gotten over the last little bit.

Lets start with a trip the walmart 40 min from here that has fabric.

Yummy

Did you know that walmart has free patterns? I got these fabrics to go with the below pattern.

next up is a trip to Ikea! If you havent figured out- I kinda like that place :)

just look at these cute veggies!

In the "As Is" section I found this duvet cover and pillow case. I think this is a full. maybe.

and a close up. I love this pattern- look at that!

And now the mega load!!

two friends and I went on a day tip to go fabric shopping. I had a babysitter for the day- We just had to be back by 2:30 for someone dentist appointment.

We went first to a large store- Mary Jos in Gastonia. This is over an hour away and we wanted to be there for 9am meaning we had to leave home at 8! luckily my ride was able to bring my sitter over with her :) Thanks MC!

This was followed by a quick stop at Hobby Lobby (bought nothing there), lunch at OCharleys and then half way home to the previously mentioned Walmart for more my priced fabric!

Look at this haul!

Reminients on sale! and most were full yards and a bit!

These I got from Mary Jos

Panel from Mary Jos- Panels can be a life saver!

I think this matches the nursery well. Maybe Zeke will get another quilt!

I found the panel that I used for Ryan and Christine baby gift with matching fabric.

Some Thomas fabric for Zeke who is getting into trains.

I got 9! yards of fabric for the back of Daves moms quilt. The pinwheels and ivory piece are part of the quilt that I made too much of!

I have decided that I like stripes for binding.

So there you go!

I put this away and decided that I have too much fabric unorganized on my shelf. so after getting the current quilt off to the quilters and the backing done for daves mom and off to the quilters I am going to pull it all off the shelves and reorganize it. now to find a way to get it sorted out!
Maybe I will even show you a picture!

traveling stash continues

2011-07-28T22:43:00.002-04:00

the traveling stash is going to be drawn FRIDAY! as in tomorrow.

you have a good chance at it since there is only 12 comments!

http://butterflyquilting.blogspot.com/2011/07/travelling-stash.html

Mistake fixed. Pillow Mattress finished and Tutorial

2011-07-26T15:34:00.001-04:00

My friend Kendra made a Pillow Mattress that was featured on Ucreate yesterday.

I had just bought pillows from Ikea to make it.

I gave it a shot Yesterday and it was horrible!! ok- maybe it wasnt that bad but I didnt lay it out - I was just doing it from my mind. at night.

Here is how I made my pillow mattress Round 2

Step 1 : Do NOT do what I did on yesterdays post!

Step 2: Cut your mistake up

Step 3: Lay out your fabric in the order you want them and realize they are folding in half the wrong way

Step 4: Make fabric strips 60 x 29 (width of pillow plus a little)

Step 5: Sew strips together. Make sure pillows will work out.

Step 6: hem all edges

Here I added a strip to make mine up to 60 inches. With all my mistakes yesterday I didnt have the correct amount of fabric.

My layout with the longer side being the fold over.

Step 7: place pocket back to back and fold the main piece face to face and sew up the edges

you can see Kendras blog in the back giving me the helping hand!

you can see its face to face with the pocket piece back to back.

Step 8: fold right side out. See the pocket is inside the envelope .

Step 9: Sew down each section. I used a zig zag for stability and decoration.

Step 10: Lay it out and Stuff it!

TaDa!!!

I cant wait for Zeke to give this a try!

Pillow Mattress

2011-07-25T23:07:00.002-04:00

EDIT: My properly done tutorial is located here unless you like this really long pillow mattress please go check out that post instead. or read on about my mistakes :)

My friend Kendra at Southern Disposition made a Pillow Mattress from 4 ikea pillows and a twin duvet cover.

I thought I would do the same so when I was at Ikea yesterday I got the 4 pillows but I didnt know what size duvet she had so I thought I could do it with the fabric I had at home.

One width of fabric didnt work folded over so I needed to come up with a different plan.

I needed 28 inches (by a pure guess) x 42. I didnt have that so I grabbed 4 yards and cut them to 28 inches.

see- guessing :)

So- I sewed them all together AND this is where I made my mistake! (noticed after I hemmed it all up!)

SO- If you want to make one with these like this then you need to sew the short sides together - not the long sides!

I followed Kendra's instructions on how to make the pocket and sewed up each pocket with a zig zag stitch.

This made it VERY long.

You could use this along a day bed type thing.

Because the backs are long the pocket doesnt work well - I will need to get some velcro or something to make it stay shut.

squee- Daves Feature

2011-07-22T22:09:00.001-04:00

You all have been introduced to my hubby right?

everyone- this is Dave:

Dave- everyone...

ok - now everyone is introduced let me tell you why I'm so excited!

Dave (Only Googlebot Reads this Blog) is going to have an 8 week feature over at Cache Crazy.
They will be featuring Dave's account from our 3 week road trip.

Cache Crazy is a Geocaching website.

Go check out his introduction and then all the other posts each weekend!
http://www.cachecrazy.com/2011/07/exciting-news-at-cachecrazycom.html

Dave's moms quilt top finished

2011-07-22T16:30:00.000-04:00

Remember THAT quilt that I was having issues with? well i finally got the top done.

I need to look for material for the backing and how to fit it together (length-ways or not).

My mother in law asked for a pattern (that we picked out) just on the top and plain sides. the top needed to be 62x81.

As you can see my ikea bed is not quite that big!

I had to go put it on my own bed (please ignore the cluttered night tables

of course some blocks are better than others and some points are much sharper... but Im happy it looks this good considering the trouble it was giving me earlier.

Now who has a good sham pillow cover tutorial?

Traveling Stash giveaway

2011-07-21T22:06:00.000-04:00

Flo at Butterfly Quilting has the Traveling stash- go take a look and comment on the blog

http://butterflyquilting.blogspot.com/2011/07/travelling-stash.html

so creative Zeke

2011-07-21T21:35:00.000-04:00

My friend Kendra at Southern Disposition does so many crafty projects I can't even begin to list them all.

She and her 4 year old daughter do so many that she has recently been mistaken as a SAHM.

Here is here post talking about her work both in and out of the home and the projects she does with Sadie.

She has inspired me to do something more than just giving Zeke crayons to try.

I decided to go with the easiest thing (since he is only 21 months old) I could think of.... watercolour!

First I took the canvas boards and painted them with water.

Then I showed Zeke some tricks.

I watched him on the first canvas- getting him to rinse his brush out etc.

He is really good at painting.

The paint "bled" because I had water on the page already.

this is his first painting done.

Painting #2 I let him just go at it after the first bit. I put colours on both sides of the sponge brush to give it neat look.

Painting 2 is a bit more muddled.

Sorry I couln't get it rotated...

but thats his first one. I will be keeping that one and will repaint over the other one.

Dont you just love the paint brush bristles? I used another paint brush that didnt come with the kit and Zeke was a bit rough with it.

Mommy did this one :)

and a video of him painting:

do you recognize the background music?

Moose macaroni

2011-07-19T20:59:00.000-04:00

My friend MC brought me this package for Dave.

Dave has a thing for Moose. They are awesome and you dont mess with a moose.

I know it says Elk- but doesnt matter, they look like moose to me:

Quilt in a day

2011-07-17T13:19:00.002-04:00

actually I think it took 4 hours to make. split between a nap and bed time.

A coworker of Dave's wife had a baby about 7 weeks early 3 weeks ago. They have been traveling back and forth to the hospital every day. I dont think they have a huge support system here as their parents are out of state like ours.

So I decided I would bring them a meal and arranged to bring it this Sunday. Well Saturday I realized I didnt have a quilt ready for them.

I had a top done and ready to be quilted but I didnt have batting to fit it. I could have pieced together batting but Im not sure what all the heights I have hanging around.

I did have one piece that would fit this panel

The panel had a bit of room on the sides so I added a border to it. There wasnt that much measuring going on- just enough so I had even sides etc. I was going by the width of the batting. I didnt have very much wasted at the end either!

With so much pinks in it I needed to have a boy border.

I made the top and bottom border smaller because I didnt want it to be so long.

Isn't this a cute panel? Its animal ABCs

I used a lot of pins to hold this together for quilting. I didnt want to waste time basting with thread like I usually do.
It was very prickly quilting this one.

I had all these pins it and could have used more but thats all I had available.

My hubby holding up the finished product.

Great model
The back is IKEA fabric again, perfect for a little boy.

And this is what it looked liked after a wash.

signed and delivered today with spaghetti dinner for them before they head off to the hospital again.

pictures of Zeke and videos

2011-07-14T21:46:00.000-04:00

I have posted some pictures and videos of Zeke so far this summer.
you can check them out here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/debbie.debaeremaeker/Jul2011

Jul, 2011

mystery giveaway

2011-07-12T21:57:00.000-04:00

over at Inch Worm Fabrics Jeanette is giving away a mystery box.

go check it out and when she gets to 200 comments she is going to draw!

Another finish!!

2011-07-11T20:52:00.001-04:00

Yay!

I have another quilt done.

I think this is the first one that doesnt have a home in mind when I made it.

Its my black and white one that I talked about its piecing here and its "birthing" here

For quilting it I decided that I would do a mixed job. I tied the center and hand quilted the outside.

I quilted the straight lines while I was on our road trip. Somewhere along the way I picked up a blue fabric marker so I could draw in the pattern on the border.

you can see the red stitches on the blue line.

and here is how it looks all done!

I washed it with a towel too- so it got a bit fuzzy.

I asked Zeke if he liked and he right away went to sit on it and then...

tied in red about 3 inches.

But I saw some came undone after washing- does anyone have a specific technique that works for them??

So nice that we could lay down and put our feet up!

now to decide what to do with it :)

our July long weekend!

2011-07-05T22:44:00.000-04:00

wow did we have a busy great weekend!

July 1st is Canada Day and July 4th is Independence Day. Dave got both days off!!

this is exciting as we had a chance for a long weekend.

Dave had learned of Geowoodstock taking place about 10 hours from our home. This also placed it about 3 hours from our parents.

We decided that we all would go camping. My parents arrived early on Wednesday staying until the next wednesday.
Dave, Zeke and I left at 4 am (blech) on Friday arriving at the campground at 3pm. (staying til monday am)
We stayed in a KOA Kabin backing onto mom and dads site. it was perfect set up!
My sister showed up early saturday morning and stayed until Tuesday.
Daves parents came for the day on Sunday.

so here is our weekend:

Friday morning we wake up dark and early at 4 am, leaving at 4:30 am.

Zeke traveled pretty well but didnt nap as much as we would have wished but not too bad.

We arrived about 3:30pm. We did a 10 hour drive in 11 hours including long stops for lunch and breakfast.

Zeke got a lot of snacks in the car including his leftover breakfast.

We got a Kabin.

This was a great way to go! mom and dad had all the pots and pans and kitchen bonus' and we got 4 walls.

See my critter quilt? that was its first time use.

We did have a double bed and 2 bunks but Dave and I dont sleep well together in a double bed! So I made up the bottom bunk as a back up.

Saturday morning we left Zeke with mom and dad and Amanda and took off to Geowoodstock!

Read Daves blog about this event.

It was a blast! I love these type of things (booths and venders etc) and Dave got to enjoy meeting some of the cachers that he had talked to online.

I even met someone from my hometown! Its a small town and very odd that I would meet someone randomly from there. I didnt know her because she left 20+ years ago.

There was a Tim Hortons in a nearby town!!

We went on the way to AND from the caching event and on the way home to NC.

Mom and Amanda and Zeke.

On Sunday Daves parents came up for the day. They brought up with them some Swiss Chalet Chicken!

Both sets of grandparents spoiled Zeke with treats and toys- just as any great grand parents should do.

We did some swimming and a lot of time spent around the camp fire.

For supper we did hotdogs and the pie iron. Cherry pie filling with some marshmallow is yummy!!

He may have had a few too many skittles.

We did some geo caching on the way home.

look what Zeke found.

We ended up taking 2 days to go home. This made the pace so much nicer.

Dave also posted that on his blog.

On the way home I heard a story on NPR (yes we like to listen to NPR- thats just how we roll) about Geocaching.
If you want to read a very short outsiders view of geocaching Check it out

Entertainment on the way home!

animal crackers in the toes.

Check out all my pictures below (there are some videos thrown in there as well)

You can click on them to be brought to my Picassa album where you can comment on the specific pictures if you like.

Rebecca's baby shower

2011-07-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

Rebecca's husband and my husband work together.

Her husband was in California at Google's head office in Mountainview.

They were moving.

To North Carolina

when Rebecca was 8 months pregnant.

They drove.

Which brings us to this baby shower. We (other Google wives) decided that she needed a baby shower for this baby. Rebecca and her son met some of us and our kids at a play date we had.

We planned to have a shower in just over a week and a half. Deborah was a bit concerned that I wouldnt be able to get my planned gift done in time.

I already had this fabric cut from when I cut out this quilt.

It only took 2 days of working on it to get it done.

I just used my presser foot to quilt this so its a bit wonky .

The back is a muslin sheet I found at Good Will. It's tag was still pretty new.

Here she is opening the present.

Now on to her shower.

The lovely cake by Meredith.

Cant have a shower without awesome food!

I was in charge of games and we did many one of which was "pin the soother on the baby"

opening presents

Here is the rest of the pictures:

Giveaway at Blueberry Patches

2011-06-30T08:12:00.000-04:00

there is a giveaway at Blueberry Patches.

She is celebrating that she is on holidays!

What do she have? 2 fabrics. Half metre cuts of each!!!! Strawberry Fields in Robin's Egg and Henna Gardens in leaf both from Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet 2.

Drawing on Tuesday

We have a Winner!

2011-06-29T23:45:00.000-04:00

I just got back from a Baby shower for a friend and thought I better do the drawing.

I was hoping it wouldnt pick my husbands comment and it didnt so we are good there.

over at Random.org I got the number 12.

For some reason I can not get it copied over here. I did it once before and now I cant get it to work!
Oh well! I guess you will have to trust me.

who won you ask??

Flo @ Butterfly Quilting said...12

What a fun box!! Great idea!
I am from Saskatchewan, Canada!

June 27, 2011 2:59 PM

I will be emailing your shortly to get your address and send it up to you.

As a Canadian living in the states I am happy to pass it on to you (especially as the strike is over)

ENJOY!

The Quilting Widow(er) Appreciation Day on Saturday, September 24th!

2011-06-28T23:13:00.000-04:00

The Plaid Scottie has a GREAT idea for our husband or significant others.

here is what she wrote:

Our spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends, partners, etc. put up with so much of our quilting crap. They might grumble occasionally, but for the most part they let us get away with crazed fabric sprees, giant stashes & sewing spaces that take up entire rooms, and marathon sewing sessions that take us away from our families for hours at a time. Why? Because they love us, and know that we love quilting. And while I thank my husband for his support of my crazy hobby all the time, I rarely use my skills to make anything for him. I think a lot of us are like that - we're so busy making things for everyone else, that we forget to make things for ourselves or our families.

SO. Here's my idea. Let's have an official Quilting Widow(er) Appreciation Day! I'm calling it that, because it's kinda true...lol! Our significant others are sometimes quilting widows/widowers because we guy & gal quilters spend a lot of time away from them for the "sake of our art"...hehe! Seriously! I'll be leaving poor Ray in the dust for 4 days while I jet off to Salt Lake City for the Sewing Summit in October. And God love his little heart, he's outside mowing the yard right now to kill time, because he knows I'll be holed up in my sewing room blogging for a while longer! :(

Here's what we're gonna do. I picked a random date a few months off so that we all have time to prepare and create, and we're going to make presents for our Quilting Widows/Widowers as a big fat thank you for their loving support! (Plus it's kind of a win-win, because not only do we get to do something special for them, but it will help perpetuate our hobby because they'll be less inclined to grumble if we make them uber cool things with the thousands of dollars we've sunken into supplies, LOL!) I kid. 99% of the reason we're doing this is to say thank you, and only 1% is for our selfish ulterior motives ;)

The Quilting Widow(er) Appreciation Day will officially take place on Saturday, September 24th! I picked a random, insignificant day so your loved one will be surprised! And I even made a button and added it to the sidebar for those of you that want to join me :)

Go to her blog and let he know if you are joining her. Also grab her button if you wish.

traveling stash box 2

2011-06-28T22:40:00.000-04:00

I currently have box 1 up for a giveaway. Im drawing tomorrow night (wednesday)

I also found box 2.
Its over at Lisa T's Blog- go check it out. She is drawing on Thursday at 9pm

enjoy!

Twice as lucky!

2011-06-24T22:06:00.004-04:00

EDITED: We have a winner

contest is closed.

Remember way back in February when I won the Traveling Stash

I then sent it on again

I followed it for a little while but lost track of it when it split in two.

Well it was a nice surprise when I came across it again. I decided I would comment on it not expecting to win it!

Well I did, I won Box 1.

I emailed the blogger to let her know that I had won it before and that I wouldn't be upset if she did the draw again.

She replied that she didnt see a problem with it and thought my readers would like another try!

so guess what? It arrived yesterday and today I went though it.

It was really neat to see that so much that was in there at the beginning (I was the second to win) that isnt there now. A lot was moved when she split it. This is the 11th hands it has been in.

all that is left that I sent off was the santa, the burgundy place-mats and the pompoms and peachy bias binding. oh- and maybe some of the patterns.

This is what is going back into the box that was in there when I received it.

(Note my husbands hand in the upper left.)

I am amazed how much was fit into this box!

When I tried to pack all the stuff back in the box that is in that ^picture, it was hard AND I still had to add my stuff.

this is going back in

Soo what am I adding?

Well you may know about my "slight" ikea fabric addiction - If not- go read about it.

Since I like you guys so much I have added FOUR half yards of my Ikea fabric to the Stash.

I only have 2 of the fabrics shown here. I also added some 2 inch cut strips, a green and white and yellow muslin sheet, some fishing fabric and some scraps.

Here is what I am keeping:

I couldnt get the block back in the box so I will keep it for a baby shower. I also have some flower fabric that is of the same line.

I love the Psalm quotes and am excited to work them into a quilt somehow.

I also grabbed the quilting pattern. I think it will be a great pattern to follow with my hand quilting.

oh and the blue fat quarters.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok- and now the rules:

You must be willing to continue the travelling stash giveaway. Once you receive the package, you must fill it up again with fabric from your stash and any fabric that you don't want that I've included. Then, you will have a giveaway on your blog, continuing the travelling stash.

I will do just a one comment per person - let me know where you are. I am curious to see who is reading this blog.

Drawing will take place using Random.org on Wednesday, June 29th.

a critter UFO done!

2011-06-23T20:46:00.001-04:00

I finished another quilt!!

well to be fair I finished last week.

This is the quilt top:

and the back

I started on back when I was pregnant with Zeke. I started to take lessons when I was about 4 weeks pregnant and continued lessons until the week before Zeke was due.

While I was getting lessons I was working on this quilt on my own. I had a friend give me a lot of scraps when she heard that I was starting quilting. A lot of them had bugs or other critters on them. I figured out a way to use the most of the fabric as I could but pairing them with solid blue and yellow.

I have no idea if this is an actual pattern. I just made it up from the top of my head. Do you know if it has a name?

I have been calling this my Critter Quilt.

I sent this away to be quilted by someone with a long arm quilter.

we chose a green thread to show up on both the blue and yellow. (we were debating yellow or blue thread first)

And its finished and on my guest bed. I was thinking if we have a child #2 that Zeke might end up in this room.

I just kept making blocks for this quilt until one day I laid them out and had a lot! I sashed in red and bordered in a bug print and bound in green.

I remember having all the blocks done and at a friends house for our craft group and laying them out on the floor. I was at least 7 months pregnant crawling around the floor. trying to lay them out without a blue and a yellow beside each other as well as not having the same critters near each other.
I had to enlist my friends help to see if there was anything near each other and with final placement.
I then numbered them to keep them in order.

My favourite block!! the cat is split between two pieces and is purrfectly lined up.

after a wash I love the little crinkling.

the back

signed.

You can see that I put the binding on backwards. I first attached it to the front and then machine attached it to the back. It was better than the first one I machine bound (blog post to come)

the front - you can see the machine attaching on the front.

all folded up

Happy Fathers Day!

2011-06-19T21:40:00.002-04:00

Today is Fathers day.

I asked Zeke to go bring his daddy his present but he shook his head no- he was too busy playing with trains.

So I had to give it to him myself
~~I got him~~ Zeke got him a Geocaching shirt.
It says: "I use multi-million dollar satellite equipment to find Tupperware in the woods!"

He figured out that we got him a shirt but thought we got him a #1 dad shirt or something like that.

We have had trouble finding shirts that were "big and tall" and had geocaching things on them.

I found a site (http://www.zazzle.com/) that had big shirts! and with Geocaching slogans!! They were not tall shirts so I had to get Dave a size larger than normal.

When he put it on it was decently long.

He put it on right away and we headed off to church.

After church we headed off to go geocaching.

Here is his recap of his special day.

And some more of my pictures:

my (slight) Ikea obsession

2011-06-18T17:41:00.001-04:00

I brought a friend to the airport and stopped at Ikea on the way home.

They have a great children's department.

They have a lot of different bedding options and matching accessories. They also have fabric bolts in the kids department to match so you can make other things that they do not have.

I love the characters and patterns they have. (well most of them)

I always look to see what they have new.

Look what cute guys they had this time!

look how cute these guys are!!

Here is my Ikea fabric collection

just over 3 yards!

You may recognize some of the fabrics from other quilts.

Although I haven't opened 1/2 of them!

Zekes Chair

2011-06-17T22:36:00.000-04:00

I wanted a foam chair for Zeke for quite a while.

I didnt want one that had branding all over it (ie: Cars or princesses) so that took out the ones at Wal-mart.

One day when Dave's parents were here, his mom and I went to a local consignment shop- Once Upon A Child.

We both looked and she took off to another store with Zeke in tow. I had a few purchases and thought I would ask the cashier. I had missed it!! AND it was red AND batman.
I dont know if you know- but Dave thinks hes the best superhero. (requesting a Batman Quilt)

so here are some pictures of him and his chair over the last month and a half.

I dont know what Nora was thinking about

ahhhh, a bit of TV before bed

relaxed?

snack and drink

got the remote

a jelly roll quilt

2011-06-14T13:56:00.000-04:00

Do you remember this jelly roll?

I bought it on our road trip

now its a big pile:

Do you know what I'm making?

Its a The Jelly Roll 1,600 Quilt!

So- I made the quilt like this but I didnt like the big blue patch in the middle so I just took the last line I sewed out and sewed the other sides together.

Its very interesting to see how the colours bunched together. (sorry about the dark picture)

it is now folded up in my "I'll get to it later" pile :)

Happy 4th!

2011-06-09T14:36:00.002-04:00

For this post I am going to have mostly pictures. These pictures are from my camera that day.

I took some, my sister took others and someone else took some more.

I hope you enjoy these few snapshots from our wedding.

(Oh - there are no pictures of the ceremony on my camera but I have a picture of me giving Dave a "look" because he had just turned to me and said "sucker" after we signed the papers. )

We have had many laughs since!

My best friend and Photographer

My tiara

the footwear

We got married at Westfield Heritage Village.

It is an old village made from old buildings from all over. Parts of "Anne of Green Gables" was also filmed here.

me and my mom before

We brought my dads old car up in the trailer and I used that space to get ready in. This is me playing my DS while waiting. (didnt actually play much- soo excited)

all ready! coming out of the trailer

My side of the family

my siblings (see my shoe?)

Daves sister and family (I cant find the one with his whole side from my camera)

My dads 1928 Durant and the church we were wed in.

(no cars newer than 1960 were allowed into the village)

the best man with the maid of honours bouquet that he had to run and go get!

Me and the Maid of Honour

not the best view of the cake- but very cute and yummy

yes- I put a napkin on as a bib!

For the kissing game- we had people build us things from lego that we put out on the tables.

They had to come up and tell everyone what it was and then we would kiss.

this was one of the favourites- a "Bear Trap" (since our name has bear in it)

The bears were part of the favours.

People have told me that it was one of the most relaxed weddings they have been too!

Happy Anniversary Honey! I expect many more laughs in the years to follow!!

101 things to do with a preschooler

2011-06-08T20:32:00.000-04:00

My friend Kendra over at Southern Disposition has had trouble finding things to do online that meet her requirements for things to do with her preschooler.

Here is her Amazingly Awesome Things to Do with a Preschooler

Sometimes my mommy brain needs a little creative prodding (does yours?). I want to do fun things with Sadie, but when I'm dry on ideas, we pop in a DVD. Don't judge me...you do it too. I recently went looking for a list of good activities that met some or all of the following criteria:

- rainy day activities

- sunny day activities

- activities that teach a life skill

- activities that teach basic kindergarten readiness

- activities that are free (or nearly free)

- activities that require interaction

- activities that spark curiosity

I found a few good ideas, but mostly, I saw a lot of "go outside and play" or "stay inside and play" type suggestions. While those are indeed excellent suggestions, I decided to make my own list so that other mommies who are potentially struggling with the "what should I do with my kid today" rut will have a few fresh ideas!

Here's Kendra's handy-dandy list of 101 Amazingly Awesome Things to do with Your Preschooler. (ok, some of them aren'tamazingly awesome, but "awesome" is my favorite word and "amazingly" is an under-appreciated adverb.)

1. Pick dandelions and sort them by blossom size - they get "flowers" and you get free weeding! Put them in a little glass of water on the dining room table.

2. Cook spaghetti together. Let your child pour in the sauce, pour water (from a pitcher) into the pot, and break the noodles.

3. Paint on a canvas.

4. Open a blank document and let them type words that you spell for them (or their name) on your computer.

5. Lie outside on a blanket and point out shapes in the clouds.

6. Take a plastic baggie on a nature walk, and ask your child to find ten different things. Lay out the collection of found nature objects and compare their shapes, colors, textures, and smells.

7. Make sidewalk chalk art. Teach your child how to play hopscotch!

8. Dye eggs. (Who says you have to wait for Easter?)

9. Play "I Spy" with letters of the alphabet and/or household objects ("I spy something that starts with the letter 'W'" or "I spy something that plugs in,")

10. Sort something by color together (clothes, toys, books, etc).

11. Go to a hardware store and pick out a bunch of paint chip strips. Cut out the squares and glue pairs of them back-to-back on a length of string to make a paint chip garland (the string should be between the back-to-back paint chip pieces when you glue them together).

12. Play "Follow the leader."

13. Look at old photos and point out friends and family members. Talk about how they are different now.

14. Eat a spoonful of peanut butter. Or Nutella. Or something else that should probably be forbidden to be eaten by the spoonful. Pretend it's an extra special amazing treat and you're only giving it to them because you're the best mom (or dad) ever.

15. Move the living room furniture, put blankets and pillows on the floor, pop popcorn, and watch a movie.

Find the rest here

To keep our kids busy on a walk

2011-06-08T14:35:00.001-04:00

Nora is 14? months Zeke is 20 months.

Loren and I walk together once a week. This past week it was very hot and on our last lap the kids started to get antsy.

I dont know how it came to me- I have never heard of it before- but I thought about putting water into their trays on their strollers.

It worked for just a little bit- but fun while it lasted.

Some videos of Zeke

2011-06-04T12:38:00.000-04:00

Zeke Driving

Zeke and bubbles

Zeke Spinning

Zeke and N playing footsie

Baby shower gift.

2011-06-03T20:59:00.001-04:00

We moved away from our friends in Toronto when we came down here.

I obviously couldn't make it to Christine and Ryan's baby shower for one of my friends. She doesnt know what she is having but has a nursery theme of "barnyard"

I went online to see what the bedding would look like and then I went to see if I could get fabric that matched.
I think I was successful. Its not exactly the same but I think its close. I had one of my local friends place the order with Fabric.com for the panel and a yard of the print. I had all the rest at home. The yellow and peach were precuts by a LQS (local quilt shop) that is now out of business. I had an issue that they were cut with the V. it was kinda annoying. Its bad enough when I dont cut it true!

I posted this mystery quilt after asking for some input on what design to do.

so I finished it and sent it off the the friend who was hosting the shower.

here are some of the finished pictures and pictures of her opening it at the shower

Without the binding:

close up of some of the quilting. I hand quilted around ALL the circles on the panel.

Signed with initials and year:

I hid 3 little hearts on the front. I wonder if Christine saw them?

Finished!

This is how the back looks like with the circle quilting

More quilting. I hand quilted it.

Memorial day weekend project

2011-05-30T22:16:00.000-04:00

Our backyard backs onto a creek and one section gets flooded out at least once a year. We also have normal erosion from rain washing our yard into the creek.

(Dave's blog Here he has a better story style than I)

We talked to a friend of ours to see what we could do

He suggested to make a berm with a rock spillway thing (I dont know what its called)

so we dug out the edge and filled it in with dirt

Zeke watched from the window when I got him up from his nap.

then he wanted to help

shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow.

The filler we used was this hump in our backyard that we want to flatten.

We followed up with top soil.

digging up the top soil

Dirty!! (and we even cleaned him up a bit)

helping bring the plants

getting mulch

and its done!

I got a bit dirty.

my Holiday weekend

2011-05-29T21:36:00.001-04:00

Its Memorial Day weekend here in the states. Its very odd to me still as a Canadian I still think of May 2-4 more often.
May 24 is when we can plant flowers etc but I have had my plants in for almost 2 months already!

My sister came to visit me with her friends and their 4 month old twin girls for the 24 weekend.

Now its our turn.

We have been doing yard work- post later.

but today we had a blast.

First we went to Church and Sunday School- I love my church family.

Then we came home to change clothes (Zekes overalls came off themselves once he took his arms out!) and head up the mountain to Banner Elk. They were having their 3rd annual Herb Festival.

Now why would we want to go to a Herb Festival? Because our friend John Leland Green (and lead guy in our church's praise band) was preforming on his own up there and we went to support him.

Zeke managed to have fun while we were watching John

We then went to do some geocaching!

And found this:

Zeke wanted to grab some flowers.
I did this with my camera

Love <3

not helping

2011-05-28T20:45:00.000-04:00

for those who love fabric, I saw this link on another blog- sorry I dont remember which one.

I have not bought from them before but The Fabric Quarter is liquidating.

hope you can find some really good deals!

guest post (but not mine)

2011-05-27T09:49:00.000-04:00

Have you ever read my husbands writing? he makes me laugh.

anyway - My friend Kendra posts something she calls the Errant Thought Roundup. She takes the poem:

I love, I love, I hate, I hate
I like, I wish, for goodness sake...
I hope, I hope, I pray, I pray
I will, I won't, and for today...

And fills in a thought for each section.

My husband decided to write a guest post for her. It made me laugh that tears came to my eyes as well as go awwww.

Go check it out! Errant Thought Round Up 31 GUEST POST

Our 3 week Road trip Summery

2011-05-23T19:00:00.000-04:00

As promised, here is a summery of our trip and links to Dave's posts that he wrote each night

Day 1, April 16th:

Left home and arrived in Birmingham, Alabama (about a week before the tornado- God is awesome for small blessings!!)

We had some stops in Tennessee

Dave's Blog: Sweet Home Alabama

Day 2, April 17th:

Birmingham Alabama to Vicksburg Mississippi.

Vicksburg is very pretty- I would go back to that town to explore it some more.

Dave's Blog: The Mighty Mississippi

Day 3, April 18th:

Vicksburg MS to Russellville AR.

We did a stop in Little Rock at the Clinton Library.

Dave's Blog: Clinton with a Suess on Top

Day 4, April 19th:

Russellville Arkansas to Shamrock TX

We went though Oklahoma City and some driving on Route 66. Oklahoma had the most construction that we drove though.

Dave's Blog: Oklahoma, OK!

Day 5, April 20th:

Shamrock TX to Albuquerque NM

We did a lot of Geocaching this day including the Cadillac Ranch and some along Route 66.

Dave's Blog: Route 66

Day 6, April 21st:

Day spent in Albuquerque.

Went to the Very Large Array, saw some Petroglyph's and Old Town

Dave's Blog: Left Turn at Albuquerque

Day 7, April 22nd:

Albuquerque New Mexico to Flagstaff Arizona.

National Parks (Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.) We saw a meteor crater and stood on a corner in Winslow AZ.

Dave's Blog: Desert Rocks

Day 8, April 23rd:

Day spent with a sick baby, laundry, a trip to the ER and Dave getting sick.

Dave's Blog: Illness and Fatigue

Day 9, April 24th:

Day at the Grand Canyon- VERY awesome.

Dave's Blog: Ain't it Grand

Day 10, April 25th:

Day trip to Phoenix AZ for quilting things and Daves most favourite cache

Dave's Blog: Phoenix

Day 11, April 26th:

From Flagstaff, AZ to Las Vegas, NV

A bit of a rant about the Hover Dam pet policy.

Dave's Blog: The Hover Maneuver

Day 12, April 27th:

A day in Vegas.

We explore the strip in the day and Zeke takes a LONG nap and we stay out til 10 pm

Dave's Blog: Viva Rock Vegas

Day 13&14, April 28 & 29:

Las Vegas, NV to Albuquerque, NM to Colorado Springs, CO.

Travel days to get to Colorado Springs

Dave's Blog: Race to Colorado

Day 15&16&17, April 30, May 1 and May 2nd
In Colorado Springs, CO
Visiting my Friend KC and their 3 kids.
Dave's Blog: Garden of the Gods

Day 18, May 3rd:
Colorado Springs, CO to Salina KS
Stops at a HUGE Van Gogh, oldest active geocache, and Cathedral of the Plains
Dave's Blog: Go East Young Man

Day 19 and 20, May 4th and 5th:
Salina KS to O'Fallon MO to Lexington KY
Many geocaches, Multiple states, an arch and soon to be home
Dave's Blog: 100th Meridian

Day 21, May 6th:
Lexington, KY to HOME in NC!!! Asheville
A stop to see Colonel Sanders and a cache in Ashville.
Link to all of Dave's pictures included and the stats of our trip.
Dave's Blog: Homecoming

So there you have it- A quick summery of our vacation.
again- here is the post I did when we got back and how Zeke traveled.