presenting.....

the quilts!!!
yup, we just had the baby shower for Sarah and Mary.
It was a lovely night with lovely ladies and miss Ali shared her heart on what it's like to be a momma (she does have 4 children after all!)
Mary is expecting her first girl (second child) and Sarah is expecting her first baby, a little boy.
How exciting!!
So I actually knit Sarah's baby blanket in January when I was in consolidation, it is from the first stitch and bitch book, the pattern is the big bad baby blanket.
I found the wool in a little store on bank street, which i just recently heard has closed. the pattern took a significant amount of wool as you are knitting with 2 strands the whole way through. I had chosen some wool that i wasn't truly in love with, but the price was reasonable, but then lo and behold, just as i was about to pay i noticed a little bin of clearance wool beside the cash. the most beautiful and perfectly suited to miss sarah richer wool!For some reason it actually looks stripier in the picture than it does in reality. It looks like four panels, but really it is just one big piece.

this was my first big knitting project (well and really it was my third knitting project ever... toot toot!)











I decided to start adding tags to my pieces just in case i decide to start selling them, plus it gave me an excuse to make fun tags!
the tags say:
'K is for kate & krafts & kwilts'



And i made a cute little matching hat. oo baby baby!

this is a long blog entry... however, here is the quilt for Mary's baby girl

this pattern came from a book called quick kids quilts (actually where the rocketship quilt came from) the pattern was altered slightly with a few less birds stitched on)




so, those are the quilts, i am quite proud of them. i love them and i love to make them.

if anyone wants one made for a friend or for themselves, let me know, i have been thinking of trying to sell them.

i'm a real nurse!

It's true kvp readers!! I am have recieved my RN exam results and I am officially a registered nurse!

A large weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I am truly done my nursing degree.

And to celebrate I will be working 3 nights in a row this weekend. ew.

Ah well, it's partially what I signed up for.


on another note, a little celebratory purchase was made. i bought these earrings made by my long time friend Jillian Sue. You can check out her other hand made items here. i love these swirly earrings. Gone are the days of teeny tiny hoops in my ears.

A few summers ago i found a pair of danglies that i love, and I've never gone back. well, except those days in the hospital... but i'm rambling.

ta!

Canada Day!

My lovely Canada Day weekend started with me winning this giant basket at the Hospital. I entered the draw 20 minutes before they pulled a winner... and huzzah! I won! imagine toi.

Then that night Robyn and I stayed up until 4:30 in the morning scrapbooking and giggling away the hours! oy vey!

The next day Thom and I headed to Steve and Sarah's cottage where we went swimming fishing, ate a lot and slept a lot. Perfect things to do at the cottage.

Our next adeventure was to see Ben and Maryann as they have now returned home from their sojourn across the pond. It was so nice to see them and now to be able to see them on a regular basis again.

Sunday, we had a church meeting and then we walked around parliament for a while and then a bbq at Robyn and Noah's and then a plan to go down to the fireworks, but we decided we were too tired, so we walked home ad watched the fireworks from our living room window and then had an early to bed night.

A very nice Canada Day weekend indeed.

ta dah! presenting...

the lovely rocketship quilt!

I made this quilt in January, but Nat and Cat's baby shower was not until this past friday night. This is one of my favourite quilts that I have made.

now for the close ups

The rocket ship is from a book called Quick Kids Quilts, I used it originally in a large quilt, so i shrunk it down this time for a wee little baby quilt.

The Ric Rac is all sewn on by hand.

(for all you none sewy types ric rac
is the zig zaggy ribbon)

And here is the back

A lovely soft and starry flannelette.

oooh I am so in love with this quilt and how hapy I am that little Josué Lisimaque will get to cuddle down in this space quilt once he is born!

study study study!

well, my RN exam is fast approaching! on wednesday June 6th i will write an 8 hour exam testing me on all the info that i've learned in the past 4 (ahem.. 5) years of my nursing degree. so, techinically i have my bachelor of science in nursing, but if i don't pass this exam then i can't practice as a nurse. this is a little intimidating. however, i have been studying most of this month and i believe that i will pass this exam and go on to my exciting career as a post-partum nurse!

LOVELY!!

so back to the studies. i just thought i would give everyone a little update.

introducing... bruce and anne!

well, the time has come to finally tell the tale of my first encounter with Chris and Anne Broten. also referred to as bruce and anna-belle.

nancy and i had known each other for a number of years, but had just become close friends in the months leading up to this enocounter.

i was invited on a trip to outlook to visit the one the only Fern (Nancy's lovely grandmother). there could be a good number of blogs about that lovely lady!

anyway, back to the tale.

we are driving in the beautiful buick (may she rest in peace) and we were eating cinnamon buns. the cinnamon buns quickly disappeared and 3 of us found that napkins were enough to clean our hands, however not all of us were satisfied.

bruce quickly let his wife know how sticky his hands were. anne's suggestion... put some windshield washer fluid on them (i guess really, if it can remove bugs stuck on a windshield, surely it can remove sticky syrup on fingers). so i think this is a little odd, but i imagine that we will pull over and bruce will wash up his hands. oh no. i under estimated the broten's at this point in my life with them. bruce continued to drive with anne holding down the washer fluid button while he stuck his hands waaaaay out of the window to try and catch some washer fluid.

meanwhile i'm in the backseat with the little ninnygoat looking at her in awe and wonder and the two of us are in fits of giggles.

i was amazed and astounded to see this feat attempted and conquered.

when i finally thought te cinnamon bun fiasco was behind us... bruce turns to anne and says: "anne, my hands aren't sticky anymore, but now they smell like windshield washer fluid".

i love chris and anne like my own parents. they have taught me so much and loved me and of course... filled my life with laughter.

i love you chris and anne!! miss you a lot.

boo hoo hoo

well, tonight was the last installment of the amazing race allstars.

i just got into the amazing race last season, when i fell in love with "the blondes".

these lovely ladies are friends who met while rooming together in a miss america beauty pageant.

they were rough tough gals who never fought with each other the whole 2 seasons (well, until this very lst episode when they had a minor breakdown and kandace was a little harsh towards dustin, however kandace quickly apologized and they left it behind). the other three teams in this last episode were well known for their name calling and un-encouraging remarks towards each other.

i was looking forward to seeing the girls win the race. they have been such fun to watch, even thomas has gotten addicted to the show.

sadly though, dustin and kandace came in second tonight, to danielle and eric. boo.

thomas loves to watch these shows with me because i get all worked up and cry. what can i say, i was so rooting for these gals to win.

so we'll see if i am as interested in next seasons race, it won't be the same without the blondes.

oh the weather outside is frightful

blech. today the weather is ghastly. it snowed snowed snowed overnight and then rained rained rained this morning. this is beth and i in a sad state after our swim today.

there was about a foot of slushy thick wet snow on the road and sidewalks. i cleverly wore my boots, beth in her runners. however i soon discovered that my faithful wellies have 2 cracks in my left (your right) boot.
this is now my second pair of boots busted in 2.5 years. what can i say. i wear them pretty much through all four seasons.
i am looking forward to the warmer weather that the weather network is promising for the end of the week.


goodbye faithful flower and heart rainboots. i loved you much.

quilting

well, i have been quilting a lot again. however, i currently cannot post any real pics as most of them are gifts for the upcoming new mommas in our church. this one is olivia helping me with a flannelette ruffle edge quilt, which is now completely finished.
i recently read on someone's quilt blog that they only make quilts for the first born in a family. ouch. that hardly seems fair! Thomas pointed out that maybe it is supposed to become a hand me down. i think every new baby deserves his or her own blankie!
anyway, i have been keeping busy, and being creative. once these baby showers start happening i'll be able to post the quilt pictures. i am so excited to share them. i pretty much fall in love with each and every quilt that i make.
thomas laughs cause he always hears me saying... "oooh, this one is so so nice!"
i love to make these quilts with specific people and babies in mind. maybe i can find a picture of the one i made for Carys. because that one has a backing fabric that is sooo Carys.

anyhoo, i am off to start another quilt. there has been another baby announcement. Mike and Kristen are expecting their first baby in november.

our church will almost double in size this year due to the number of babies we are expecting! lovelyness.

Swimming!

Beth has encouraged me to start swimming. It is lovely! The public pool here is 30 dollars for 3 months if you are a student. So that is awesome.
So the month of april will consist of studying and swimming and spending quality time with people that I haven't seen over the past semester because of all the busy-ness. Starting with Todd and Shannon and James and Keegan this friday. Hurrah!!
I'd also like to maybe join a canoeing club this summer, however it is a little intimidating when there is no one else to do it with. Where are my canoeing buddies?

Also, I really wanted to put a picture of Nancy and I in our matching bathing suits from our LIT days, but alas i have none saved to the computer and no scanner. ah well. Nin you know what i'm talking about. B's and birkenstocks. an ode to Enid.

Love to the SK today.

Kate Anderson, RN

Ok, so techinically, i can't really put RN after my name yet. Techinically, i am only a graduate nurse.
but truly (and not technically) i am done my nursing degree!!!!
i have finished all my placements, all my classes, all my assignments, papers, and care plans.
i am officially (well, as official as i can be before convocation) done university!
and how does it feel? i'm not entirely sure. it feels impossible, like i can't really be done. it seemed like it would take so long. especially after i had to tack an extra year on, that made it seem impossibly long. stupendously long. and yet, here i am. done. finito.

bon voyagee university!!! farewell and good riddance!

the life of an RN here i come.

Olivia is famous!

I am terribly sorry for this long hiatus! I realized the other day that if I did not get my posting act in gear I would have a month with no post in it for the first time since I started posting way back when!

What I really want to announce is that Olivia my lovely cat is famous! I posted a little while ago about the wonderful website www.stuffonmycat.com
well in the fall I submitted a photo of Olivia, and to my sadness it was never ever posted. Then this morning I was doing my daily website checks, and lo and behold!! OLIVIA!!! hurrah.

Here she is in all her glory

I am such a proud momma.

6 weird things about me

Melissa & Maryann both tagged me awhile ago I need to write 6 weird things about myself on my blog.

Here are the rules:
Each player of this game starts with the 'six weird things about me' blog post. People who get tagged need to write their own six weird things post and state the rules clearly. At the end of the post, tag six more people and don’t forget to leave a comment on their blog to tell them they have been tagged and tell them to read your blog.

1. I read Matilda by Roald Dahl at least twice a year, usually during exams to take my mind off all of the studying.
2. I taught myself to knit in four hours on Christmas Day, thus resolving my new years resolution 6 days before the new year started.
3. I love to wake up really early and get 'things' done. Like building shelves before 8 am, finishing a puzzle before 9 am, oh, and I also like to wake up other people when I am up early... Beth can attest to an early morning puppet show to wake her up.
4. I spend my work days looking at vaginas and saying words like fundus and circ. and perineum and it does not seem weird at all.
5. My favourite movie of all time is 'Babe' and I still have the Roebuck's movie which Peter lent to me 4 years ago.
6. I love wearing men's boxer briefs. This started in highschool when Hayley used to be disgusted with me ("do you know what is supposed to go in there?!?"-Hayley), and I thought that the phase was over, until I got married and I discovered a new access to the boxer briefs

I tag….
1. Julie BN
2. Beth K (because she also still has not done one)
3. Stuart N
4. Beth M
5. Pat and Ali M (because they also have not yet done one)
6. Santosh N.

Cam Broten

This morning, I got a pretty neat surprise in my email inbox.

A friend of mine, Cam Broten announced his candidacy for the NDP nomination in Saskatoon Massey Place.

You can read more about it here www.cambroten.ca

If you live in Saskatoon I suggest you check him out.

Here is Cam and his wife Ruth, and their poodle Oscar.

what day is it? and babies babies babies!!!!

this morning, as i was walking home from the bus stop at 8 am, i looked at all the people running around and i thought, 'what are you all doing up? isn't it saturday? ... oh wait... it's tuesday morning, you've just finished a night shift... no wait... saturday, sunday, monday night, tuesday night, okay, so it is tuesday morning... no.... wait... saturday, sunday, (now using my fingers to count) monday night, tuesday night..... oh it's wednesday'. wednesday morning this week is officially my friday night! i came home and slept for four hours (thomas' noisy wake up woke ME up an hour early) and now it is saturday morning (wednesday afternoon) confused? me too.


as for the babies babies babies!!!!, i spent the last 2 nights in the nursery. i went to bed and i could hear all those babies crying still. when i woke up i thought that i had a baby with me! how nice it is to leave them behind right now.


well, i am off to start my most wonderous 5 days off! welcome to the weekend!!

my week begins

Unlike Julie, and her joy for the fact that it is Friday, my work week starts tomorrow. I am leaving the house at 5 minutes after 6 (AM!!!) to meet Beth so she can take me to my very first day of consolidation on the Mother-Baby unit.

I am excited, nervous, happy, (sad about waking up so early!) and truly looking forward to the last leg of my schooling career. On Monday night I will experience my first of two night shifts in a row (oy vey) which remind me of the summer that ninny worked 20 hours a day. yikes bikes!

It has finally dropped below zero here, and the winter fanatics are hoping that the canal will freeze in time for winterlude.

Thomas and I do not like to skate, so we avoid the canal, but since Julie misses snow so much, I've been thinking that if we are ever in a more tropical climate we may regret never skating on the canal. So maybe we will have to go out this winter.

Anyhoo, it is 9:18 pm and my bedtime is approaching. even if i go to bed now I will only just get 8 hours of sleep, but it is fairly likely that I will not be able to fall asleep until later, unlike tomorow after I am at the hospital for 12 hours and then have a work Christmas party to attend.

love!!!

kate