at the cottage!!

Charlie at the cottage!
he is trying out his new lifejacket.
and while he can swim without it, it is nice to take him in the canoe with it on.

Danielle, Thom and I drove with Charlie to Randy and Yvonne's cottage. Also up for the weekend were Poppa and Gramma, Maureen and John, Auntie Pat, and my mom who is now living back in Ontario! Hurrah! we had a few hours of sun, but mostly rain. However, a little rain cannot stop the Van Impe's from having a lot of fun!


Beth and Pat came up for a few hours this afternoon before we all headed back to Ottawa in time for Dani to catch the bus.

here we are swimming! what a cute little doggie!

quilty quilters!

Recently, we had a small baby shower for our friend Marie.
which finally brought back the quilting bug for me...
it's been over a year since i made my last quilt

boo.
but here she is...

it would seem that nobody ever wants to find out what gender of baby
they are having, thus the reason for gender neutral colours.
it can be difficult, there are only so many fabrics in YELLOW and GREEN!!

i was pleased to discover that this pattern only took me an afternoon to cut and piece together... sewing on the ric rac was an entirely different story... done by hand with many frustrated moments, it took up most of my time.

the back of the quilt is a
bubbly little bit of flannelette.
most of my baby quilts are backed
with flannelette as it is unbelievably soft.

and my very favourite thing was this....

a diaper cake!

and while it was much easier and much faster to make than the quilt,
i am almost more proud of it!
a beautiful addition to any shower.


with regards to the quilting, i have been again thinking about selling my quilts, but unless i have a specific person to make them for, i seem to lack all motivation.
this summer my work hours have been put down to part-time, which would (should) give me a perfect opportunity to work on both quilts and cards....
but where is the motivation (or perhaps inspiration)?

how do i take a little hobby and make it more than that?

april showers...

...brought a new addition to the Anderson household.

we brought home a miniature dachshund. his name is Charlie and we are pleased as punch with him. even Olivia loves that little dog.

he tends to be a little chewy and still occasionally *ahem* toilets in the house. the apartment living seems to have confused the little guy.

Charlie is very spirited and jumps all over the place. He is learning to fetch. Charlie's best friend is Casey. She is a australian shepherd crossed with an akita. and while she is at least 5 months younger than Charlie, she has already greatly surpassed him in size and height.

Charlie is very social and will cuddle with anyone. Charlie is slightly envious of his older sister. if anyone picks up Olivia, he jumps and jumps until we put her down, then he bites her cheeks until she flips him over in a body slam. it is quite the comedy!

here is simon, our good friends' baby, loving charlie!

never did i ever think i was a dog person, i was even afraid of most dogs. but after this little guy, i now love to meet all dogs. (although i do still worry that big dogs will think that Charlie is a walking hot dog and eat him all up!!)

he's our little charlie, and we do love him!!

i think i may

begin to blog again

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.