New Year!

2010, wowee!

Christmas this year with the VP ladies was quite fabulous, it was mom and the gals for about 5 days sans Thom and Alex (we love Alex!!).

(here we are 3 1/2 years ago at my wedding)


with just the girls hanging out, we had lots of fun, we had a lunch visit with my Grandad and Gramma-Mary (my dad's parents), shopping and Rozzaroo and I went to the lovely Stuart. Fabulous as per usual and we were blown away by Matt Andersen, a man with the most phenomenal voice!!

Thom and Alex both arrived in the Hammer on the 23rd.

Thom's arrival coincided with a great tale of Dani patting a taxi drivers hair (decongestants and wine apparently do not mix!), I was a quilting fiend, I finished the baby quilt for baby Samuel, and mostly finished a beautiful ocean quilt for lovely auntie Maureen. It will be completely done when I visit next.

Thom and I also got to spend a few days with his family in C'ford.

Then back to Ottawa to relax and for Thom to head back to work for a few days.

So, it being the New Year, the resolutions are in full swing. While I am not entirely sold on the idea of new year's resolve, I do believe that any opportunity for change and growth is great.
so the resolutions are as follows:

• My lovely friend Amanda A. and I are partaking in a fitness boot camp. 3 times a week for 3 months... at 6:15 am. yikes! Our first morning was this morning, and it was pretty intense. My legs are hurting a bit and my abs get pretty sore when I laugh.

We'll see how much worse it is tomorrow!

• I plan to have more regular updates in the shop and on the blog.

• Thom and I want to be more hospitable, to have people into our home for dinner at least 2-3 times a month

• I also want to be a better journaller, I think making some of my own journals will help with that process. similar to those of ms. Pam Garrison

I'm not sure what else, but I'll let you know if I come up with anymore.

So, it was back to school today, and oh how much I love school and my 15 classmates!

hurray!

What are your new year's resolutions?

let it snow!
let it snow!
let it snow!

well, we had our first real snow today!

i guess we were due, it is november 30th after all!

i've pulled out a few of the decorations, i'll post some pics later this week.

Holy Spirit Essay Done!

some fall canning!

well, Maryann and I had been collecting mason jars of all sizes over the entire summer.

our homes were swimming with them, and we finally had last Saturday set to get those jars filled.

then, Mary came down with the dreaded flu.

So, the plans changed. To my house all the jars arrived and the 3 huge bags of tomatoes that Maryann had bought. Carla came over with all her bean supplies and Robyn met up with us halfway through the day.

Lots of beans, apples and tomatoes cut and peeled and blanched and peeled...
inducing a large mess!


a few mishaps followed, this is me realizing that our canning pot is WAAAAY too small for most of the recipes we had planned on. So off to Canadian Tire went Carla to buy our bigger.... MUCH BIGGER canner.

Then, while sterilizing our jars, we lost a 1L wide mouth guy :(
and then when we were boiling the filled jars we lost another, imagine our surprise when we lifted the lid to reveal a lot of apples swimming around our jars!!


Here is just a small taste of the end product!

There you have some of the many number of canned tomatoes, and some apple pie in a jar,
and not pictured are pickled green beans, strawberry jam and tomato-mango salsa.

Now that I have finally done this, one to cross off the to-do-list, it seems so much easier than anticipated. Next summer we have big plans to can all kinds of fresh fruit and veggies.

Katie Geranium Update

Helloooo lovelies!!

Shop update today, two new quilts.

I have a some baby blankets and a scarf to list as well, but the battery in my camera died mid-shoot.
dang.

Those will be in the shop later today or tomorrow!

toodaloo!

Hello everyone!

Summer is over and I am back to school!
A little bit of a curve ball as I decided a week before classes started.
I am currently attending School of the Word Canada, here in Ottawa, with 15 other lovely folks. And it is soooooo exciting. God really put this in my lap at the perfect time... but more on that later, I'm not quite ready to share this story with the blogging world.

As well as being sooo excited to be in school, I am very very very pleased to announce that I have opened an etsy shop!!

Presenting...


this has been almost a year in the making, with procrastination and worries and slacker attitude.

It is currently a little sparse, but I knew that I had to get something in there, or I would never do it. I have three quilts about to be quilted together that will be appearing in the shop sometime next week, and stay tuned for some tea cozies and some more coasters.

Also, I will be switching over to a new blog sometime in the near future. I'll let you know when that actually happens!

This year is a very exciting one, I have class all morning which gives me my afternoons to do studying and work on some crafty projects, and I have gone down to part time at the hospital, so I am able to work a little, but have it not interfere with school.

I am soooooo stoked for this year!!

lets get ready for.....

SOME RELAXING!!

so, it is wednesday
i will spend tomorrow packing,
i work friday and then...

Beth and I are off to Campbellford for the weekend,
then Muskoka for some cottage time until thursday,
then Bon Echo, where we will join back up with our husbands, for some camping with some lovely friends and church family
then back to Ottawa where I work monday night...
then to Gatineau for more cottaging with family and friends
and to cap it all off the wedding of the most lovely Ashleigh and Mattie.

then back to the real world for about 5 days...

then I'm jetting off to the exciting city of Saskatoon.

may not seem exciting to all, but it is my prairie home and I get to visit with my prairie family, the Brotens!

HURRAH FOR THIS SUMMER!!!