Happy New Year!

Wishing this new year will bring you an abundance of
laughter, happiness, and love!

XOXO

Country roads, take me home.

Home after a fantastic week long full of family, friends, good food, shopping, gifts, and good food. My stomach is so full and content with my dad's cooking, I am all sweeted out with sweets, and I am definitely all shopped out (Yes, I was one of those crazy people out there on boxing day). Speaking of shopping, I had no idea that they opened an Anthropologie at West Edmonton Mall. I was so overly happy and excited when I saw the store that I called Darcy on my cell phone. It's very rare where I find a store that I love everything in it. Especially clothes. Now I just got to save up because I am totally in love with this.

(Through-The-Lens Coat ~ Anthropologie)

Ho, ho, ho-lidays!

Yesterday I had a baking palooza and the house smelled so wonderfully good.
Today, packaging up those baked goodies, cleaning the house, a cookie swap party, and tomorrow we will head off to Edmonton for the holidays!

So let the holidays begin!

That'll do, pig. That'll do

The handmade bolero sweater for my mom this year.

You probably noticed that it's not the same color yarn as shown previously here. That's because I got really frustrated with that pattern and time was ticking down too fast to Christmas. So I decided to put it aside, take a deep breath, not freak out, and go to plan B.

I found this really simple crochet bolero pattern at the Lion Brand Yarn site. So simple I made it in two days. It's cute and perfect for my hip mom. After the holidays I will go back to working on that original sweater I had planned to make. I will not be defeated! (pointing fist at pattern)

On another note. Thanks for all the love I've been getting for my Christmas gift tags from last year. Wonderful comments from wonderful peeps!

Love those Masons.

One of the best thing about living out here in the country is you get gifts like these. Canned pasta sauce, apple juice, peaches, pickles. Yum!

There's something special about mason jars and did you know some of them, according to wiki, can fetch up to $30,000? Better start saving those jars!

Frozen

For those that are wondering what -40°c with a wind chill feels like...

It's damn COLD!!

This weekend all we did was stay indoors, drink warm liquids, listen to Yann Tiersen (he composed La Valse D'Amelie, from Amelie), watch DVDs, bake bread, and played. It was a fantastic weekend!

The boys thought this was the greatest thing.

Frozen condensation on their bedroom window.

The little joys of winter! and maybe we should look into getting better windows?!!

Also, I'm so excited to announce that I'll be doing another crafty craft session at the Thrive! Naturally Diva Day in this coming January. Come join us!!

Printable Hot Cocoa Envelopes

So FINALLY a printable. Yes, it's been a while. I really wanted to post this printable before Christmas. I think it would be perfect for gift baskets or with some nice mug sets. Fill the envelopes with your favorite Cocoa Mix. I used this Classic Cocoa Recipe last year and it's Oh so very delicious!

Download the hot cocoa envelopes here

Cut brown packaging paper into 8.5 x 11 sheets to fit into your printer. Set your printer to "fit to printable area" and print.

Cut along the outer lines of each envelopes

Fold and unfold these lines marked by the arrows in this photo.

Place glue on the two side tabs. Make sure you use non-toxic glue.

Fold the top part down towards the gluey tabs. Press firmly to secure.

On the back write your little message.

Place glue on the top glue part.

Fill the envelopes with cocoa mix enough to make one cup of hot cocoa.

Press the top flap down and press firmly to close and secure.
(Gosh, My skin is disgustingly dry in this photo! Winter and my skin don't mix)

And voila! Enjoy!!

*All printables are for personal, non-commercial use only.*

hdc2tog, hdc2tog, hdc2tog...

Feels like I have been really neglecting my blog lately. Just been so darn busy trying too make to many things before Christmas. Right now I'm in the middle of making my mom her Christmas gift. I had the hardest time understanding this pattern correctly which I started over again and again and again, until I realized my problem was not doing the hdc2tog correctly. Ugh! That damn hdc2tog, shame on you!!


Besides making gifts, I've been busy sewing some yoga bags for Thrive Naturally. I should change my description right now "Crocheter by day, sewer by night". Did you ever realize that sewer(one that does sewing) and sewer(the pipes were our poop and pee goes) are spelt the same? Hahaha!

It is super gorgeous outside with all the winter frost. Time to take a breather.

Yarn

Did anyone say yarn? Oh yes, a little slice of yarn heaven here.


I splurged a bit and got these 100% bamboo yarn from a cute, little store called Ewe asked for it. The yarn collection in there is amazing. A little pricey, but great quality stuff. If only there was such a thing as a feel-o-monitor. You got to feel how incredibly soft this stuff is.


I didn't get a chance to hit the fabric store. Too many errands, too many visits. We did get to see the one and only Jeanie, the one that makes the awesome natural deodorants I mentioned a few months ago, well she's making natural lip balm too now. They're amazing! Go get some at the Royal Bison Bison Craft & Art Fair this weekend. She's going to be there with all her amazing stuff!

And the color of the day for today is Orange.

Tis the season for yummy mandarin and clementine oranges!

My friend fall

Dear fall,

Thank you for being so kind to us here!

Luv, Me

We are enjoying every second of this nice weather!

Tomorrow we head off to Edmonton to visit family, friends, and to do a lot of shopping. I am so excited to replenish my fabric and yarn supply/addiction. It's been way too long!

To those that been asking for patterns for my crochet baby hats. Thanks so much for the interest. I will definitely try to post one up when I have some time. I have never written a pattern so it shall be quite interesting.

It's almost 1 am. Off to dream a little dream.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Crochet ear flap hat

Last few days I've been working on some more crochet baby hats for photographers. I knew ear flap hats were a must. There are some pretty cute ones out there and I had to at least try to do my own version.

I am definitely making a bigger one for myself this winter!

Someone turned 2 today

Happy Birthday my little man!

The spell of the pumpkin

I think fall is absolutely beautiful. The leaves all turn orangy-yellow-brown, the crisp cool air, harvest of farming fields and gardens.

I was talking to my friend Michele last week about how the smell of pumpkins brings me back my childhood memories of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and all those wonderful things that fall into fall. For me, you can't have fall without pumpkins or maybe it's you can't have pumpkin without fall. Whatever it is, thank goodness for pumpkin pies!! Ha ha!

("The Pumpkin Spell" - watercolor, ink, pencil)

Happy weekend!

Na, na, na, na,

na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na,

Batman!

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na,

Batman!

Batman,


Batman,


Batman!

I guess to be more accurate it's batboys. It was so hard to decide what to make for them for Halloween this year. For one, I had basically no fabric to work with and I live no where near a fabric store. Two, the boys hate anything covering their faces. So I found an old, black, long skirt I haven't worn in years and thought why not make them batman capes without the mask part. At first I thought what have I gotten myself in because I had no clue where to begin creating this crazy cape, but it turned out so well in the end. Better then I would have imagined.

The boys loved it, especially the shirts. And how did I do those shirts you might ask?! Simply found a batman logo online, printed it on iron-on transfer paper, and ironed the logo on t-shirts turned inside out. I have a feeling they will want to wear that shirt inside out from now on.

Fall, oh fall

So last post was kind of icky poo poo. Since then all the snow has melted and we've been getting above 0°c temperatures. Finally a normal fall again. Yay!

On Saturday we went over to our friend's gorgeous place to celebrate her birthday along with Darcy's which is today. Happy birthday hubby!! With the nice temperatures we enjoyed an outdoor fire, a nice walk, and the kids had fun throwing around all the beautiful, golden leaves. This picture of Aymeric says it all. Haha!

Happy fall everyone!!

What happened to fall?

I am soooo not ready for this white stuff.
Bitybah, humbug!

Oh me oh my, I'm a winner!

So last month I entered my plastic bracelet for a plastic fantastic contest over at Living Creatively. And I won!!! Yay! Yay!! Yay!!!

A garden's tale

An entire week and a bit of no internet. Phew, that was hard! Now back and checking the crazy amount of email and messages I have. Please be patient, I will get to you... someday.

So during this time of no world wide web, I decided to paint an image I had in my head for quite some time. A few weeks ago I was pulling out my garden. I had the most difficult time pulling out my sunflowers and suddenly I was inspired and came up with this crazy idea. I do wonder sometimes, what in the world is going on down there?

("The Sunflower" - ink, watercolor)

My summer find

This summer I checked out so many garage sales. Hoping to find clothes, toys, and books for my boys, but I never in my wildest dream thought I would ever find one of these!

A vintage treadle sewing machine with it's original foldout wooden table. It's a JB series, so I believe it's dated somewhere between 1936-1948. It is not in the best condition. There are scratches and the leather treadle strap is broken which can be replaced. I'm just so happy to have found one, I've always wanted one, and only for $25! Weeee! And yes, the lady selling it must have thought I was a little crazy being so overly happy over an old sewing machine.

Look at it's details, wouldn't you be?!

Crochet mary jane slippers.

Ever since I saw this amazing mary jane slipper pattern at ohmygoodknits!! I've always wanted to make myself a pair. Finally got around to it and here it is.

Love love love them!!

Routine

So we are back into the routine of things...well sort of...Darcy started teaching, early nights, chilly mornings, mom and tots, and piano lesson. So where in the world have I've been and what have I been up to? I've been moving all my art and crafty stuff all in my mud room. I'm planning to turn it into my studio. I have a lot of stuff as you can see. A lot of stuff = a lot of sorting = a lot of time.

Also, it's hardcore potty training in this house. Lucius is three and a half and still not fully potty trained yet. I know when he's ready he'll be ready, but sometimes his no's doesn't sound too convincing. And there's Aymeric, who will be two already this November, busy busy as can be. I'm crossing my finger he'll continue to take naps until he goes to school. Haha!

So I do have a lot of ideas brewing in my head. Just to find time to make it happen is another thing. Thank goodness I can still manage to crochet as I watch the boys. Thank goodness!

And thank goodness for Darcy's homemade multigrain bread. With some butter and local honey, it is to die for!

I ♥ camping!

We came back yesterday from our final camping trip for this summer. We went to Cold Lake Provincial Park and it was absolutely beautiful there. We decided to try to go for a 5k hike with our boys. You never know what to expect with a 3 and a 1 year old, but they absolutely loved every moment of it. It took us a long time to finish the 5k hike having to stop almost every minute to look at every single raspberry bush, pebble, squirrels, and juice and snack breaks. But we did it and it was so much fun.







Summer is definitely wrapping up. Next week we will be in Edmonton and the week after Darcy will be back in school teaching for the new school year. Which means it's time for me to get back into creating. I already have a few projects planned out and I can't wait to show them.