Do you sew?

I forgot how much I love sewing. I haven't really sewn much besides a straight line in about ten years, and nothing with a pattern (I've just measured and made up patterns myself...which is easy if you're just sewing curtains or simple aprons), but last week I decided to sit down and sew a couple bags that I had the patterns and fabric for.

They are both sewn with Amy Butler fabrics and even though they are both different I love them both!

This bag is the Birdie Sling. It's so big and comfy to carry. I seriously LOVE it!



This bag was a pattern at my favourite local quilt shop, Satin Moon Quilts. It was so easy to make and only took three hours from the time I started cutting until I had sewn the last stitch. The other one took about 13 hours, but the cutting out was a good chunk of that.



I hope you have a great day!! I joined a Stampin' Up club and we made a super cute mini book at our first get together, so I'll finish it up and share it in a few days.

Back to School

Colin just went off to bed and I realized that I didn't get a photo of him on his first day of high school! He seemed to have a good day and tomorrow he goes to all his classes and finds out what he needs to buy for his classes. He's in art this semester (we thought it would be computers) so I can imagine the fun things we'll have to go buy for that.

I'm having a scrapbook garage sale at my place a week from Saturday (September 13 10-noon for you local girls) and I was going through my kits last night and taking them all apart. I had the paper piled up and then all the embellishments piled up. After I was done I looked at the pile of embellishments and realized that I felt like a kid on Halloween with all my candy dumped out in front of me. There were so many fun chipboard alphabets and packages of buttons and ribbons and other fun stuff.

Anyway, off to finish watching 90210.

And just because I can't do a post without a photo (but I haven't taken many lately), here's Colin with Chloe last winter. She loves cuddling!

Dragon boating

I know it's hard to tell in the photo, but that's me up front. Our drummer dropped out and we were scrambling to find someone ASAP. We needed to have the team roster in by Friday and our team captain managed to get us an extension until today. So I tried it today and had a blast! So it looks like I'm the new drummer for the boat. My throat is a tad sore tonight from shouting so everyone in the boat could hear me, but it was fun. We're racing on August 9th and it's going to be so much fun! Adam is on the team too and it's lots of fun having him there. I's my work team and we needed a few more people, so I asked if he wanted to do it. I'm so glad he did!

Summer

Adam bought me Cirque de Soleil tickets for my birthday in February and this past weekend we finally went! It was such a great day! It was all five of us (Adam, myself and the three kids). The kids didn't fight all day. We were totally happy about that! And Colin didn't ask to bring any video games. He grabbed a notebook and a pen on the way out of the house and he and Quinn spent the day drawing comic books. They each drew a frame or two and then passed it to the other one.

The show we saw was Corteo. It was about a funeral and was awesome. I can't get over how they can move their bodies!

While we were in Vancouver we also went to Science World. That was fun for the kids. Even though they'd all been there before it had been a few years, so it was like the first time for all of them. Even Colin, at 14 had a blast. We pretty much had to drag them all out of there, but not before they all bought Astronaut Ice Cream in the gift shop (yuck!!!).

Colin had the camera for a while at Science World and got this photo of me. My hair dresser moved to Saskatchewan two weeks ago, so I thought I'd get my hair cut off again before she left.



How depressing is this photo? Not the fact that the Olympics are that far away still (or that close), but the fact that I am almost the shortest one now. I think Quinn just has to grow and inch or two and he'll pass me. Colin and Else already have (and Colin keeps calling me shorty now).



Adam took these of Else and I during the intermission at Cirque. The shopping tent had a ton of masks and shirts and fun hats and wings and everything else you could imagine from the show. We managed to not spend a penny there though (except for the licorice that Quinn bought).



When Cirque was over we decided to just head for the ferries and eat dinner there (there's quite the food market there now if you haven't been in a few years). It was kind of a rainy day, but it had cleared up quite a bit by then. So we tossed a ball around and played on the beach for a while. I love this shot I got of Else there!

My poor neglected blog...

I'm going to do a little post a day for the next few days and then I'm going away for the weekend, and then I'm going to catch up with some fun things that we've done over the last month.

I've been finding so many things totally inspiring lately! This site has some fun sewing patterns on it, but I absolutely love the sewing/craft rooms she's posted. Pink Penguin

And we went to Seattle a few weeks ago and here's a peek at one of the photos that Adam took of me. I'm snapping a photo of the bar where Tom Hanks hangs out with his friend in Sleepless in Seatle at Pike Place Market. I loved Seattle SO much!!

Photos for a day

So Shimelle has come up with this great idea. To take photos all day long on the 25th of the month for a year and scrap them. So I'm plugging in my camera battery tonight to make sure it's all charged up and I plan on taking photos all day tomorrow. I'm actually looking forward to when the 25th doesn't fall on a Friday (Fridays are pretty boring for me because I work at two jobs all day long) but I'll make it fun.

- photo taken by Shimelle (this is her Flickr account)



I've started working my way through my list of things to do this spring. I bought Colin a new bike and then Adam and I bought me a new bike (it even has a basket, that Chloe doesn't really like). I took it to work one day this week and it's my plan to start taking it almost every day. It's just been a busy week for me where I had to get home for something. And it's been windy and cold. Where is our spring??

And I figured out why I love that new cleaning stuff so much. It smells like fresh cut grass. I think that's one of my favourite "fresh" smells, so I love using it!

Adam and I went to Sooke last weekend and stayed in a super cute B&B. We stayed in the Garden Spa Room. And then we ate dinner at the Sooke Harbour House, which was totally amazing. The food was like art and tasted amazing! We also biked around and walked out on Whiffen Spit. If you ever get the chance to go there, make sure you do it! We're going to go back for sure!!

Here's a few photos from the weekend (all taken by Adam).

This is the view from our room. The last row of bushes you see has an 80 foot drop on the other side right down to the rocks. And then it's all ocean until you see the mountains. That's Washington.



This is in a huge mirror that was out on the patio in front of the Sooke Harbour House. They have a great "gift shop" (it was really more like an art gallery with all local artists...gorgeous stuff!) that spreads out to the deck (I'm assuming they don't do that in the rainy winter though). If you look closely you can see the whale carving on top of the fence that hides the parking lot. And in the gift shop I bought a super cute candle holder that they had on the tables in the restaurant. It has a little bird perching on it.



When we were walking out on Whiffen Spit we found this great washed up row boat.

Things I want to do this spring

I was thinking today of some things I want to do this spring. Here's a few of them...

- Make aprons.
- Finish Shannon's camera strap (I'm still on the look out).
- Make my first quilt (I bought the fabric today...it's called Celebrate Spring).
- Buy Colin a new bike and go on more bike rides, and maybe put a basket on mine so Chloe can come with us.
- Keep up the spring cleaning. I bought some yummy smelling biodegradable all purpose cleaner at Shoppers that smells good enough that I love cleaning right now. Pear and violet...yummy!
- Take a photo a day (I'm going to try it again).
- Read more. We've been going to the library tons lately and I'm loving all the books. I just walk up and down the fiction section and look for the "fluff" books. If it's pink, purple, yellow, light green or light blue, I'll probably enjoy it as a quick read.

Has anyone read Marley & Me? It's SO good! I'm loving it. And realizing that Chloe is not as bad as I thought she was. She's a smart one though. It's amazing how our pets can manipulate us to get what they want. She knows how to get a treat, every time!

Girls Just Want to Have Fun was delayed until April 29th. Juno came out today though, so I'm sure I can watch that a sufficient amount of times to tide me over.

Hope everyone is enjoying April!!

Five more sleeps

Girls Just Want to Have Fun is coming out on dvd! I'm so excited!! Does anyone remember this movie? It has Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt and Shannon Doherty in it. I remember it being my favourite movie when I was 12. And a week later Juno comes out on dvd. So April is a good month for movies. :)


I was at Old Navy and got the cutest dress. It looks cute over jeans or on it's own.


And then I saw a sweatshirt that is really similar to this that I had to have too. It was only $20 for both though. Not bad, eh? I love getting great deals (and fitting in children's clothes).


I called in sick to work today because I have a yucky cough and am just feeling blah. So after I take Colin to the dentist I plan on coming home and scrapbooking. If I get anything made I'll be sure to share it! Hugs!!

Garage Sale...

at my place on Saturday morning!! If you live in town and want to come by between 8:30 and 10:30, then send me an email, call me or pm me (my user name is Cate) on POTP to get my address. I have a TON of stuff I'm getting rid of (we're talking 9+ boxes). As of right now there is nothing over $7, with most of it between $1 and $3, and I'm not quite done going through my stuff or pricing.

Hope to see you here Saturday morning! And don't forget to watch the video in the post below. She's SO cute!!!!!!

Star Wars according to a 3 year old.

This is seriously my favourite video lately! She is so dang cute!!!!!!

I'm home...

and SO tired!!! I've been sleeping a lot since I got home, trying to make up for what I didn't get when I was gone I guess. I suppose that's what happens when you have six women staying in a hotel room together. It was fun from the time I got dropped off at Tara's last Thursday until I got home this Thursday morning. Here's just kind of a mishmash of fun photos from the trip. Enjoy!! (and apparently iPhoto doesn't like me yet again...argh!!!)

My suitcase with the LAX tag on it. There's a little glare, but I know what it says. :)


Tara, Kim (Moreno) and I in California Adventure. This was the first time I'd met Kim and she had me laughing constantly!


Me and Colin's favourite, Pluto. He is adorable, isn't he? And I noticed that his ear is flipped up like Chloe's get (which drives me nuts and I always have to flip it down). And you can see my newest pink streaks in this photo. I LOVE the colour of them!


Me in my pink jammies getting the press release ready for the press room. We were punching and adding keychains to things late into Saturday night.


Me in my birthday hat from Sandra. Isn't it adorable (maybe not me in it, but the hat)? It totally reminds me of the unbirthday hat from Alice in Wonderland. I'm going to think that every time I see it now.


This is a blurry photo of the eight of us going on on Sunday night (my birthday). It's myself, Natalia, Kim, Holly, Sandra, Tara, Becky and Anna. Sandra and Anna ended up having to leave the Cheesecake Factory because Anna had a migraine, but we had a ton f fun before they left.


The very pretty table in the Pageframes booth. The stuff that the DT made was unbelievable!


And Colin and his friend Nigel picked a number from the posts on my last blog entry, and number 10 wins. That's karenmc. So I'll contact you to see what pattern you want.

Pageframes CHA sneak peek

Pageframes has some cool new products coming out!! Tara is releasing patterned shapes, albums and pages in the same material that you've grown to love, and a super cool thinner material (same thickness as the Hambly Heavy Overlays). I played with them (see the album) and cut it myself with my Tonic trimmer (and it cuts with scissors great also!!). These are going to be available in 12x12 sheets so you can cut it and make your own album or shapes. I cut the 12x12 sheet in half for the 6x12 album.






Tell me what you think and your name will be entered to win a heavy overlay of your choice.

Saltspring

On Saturday Adam and I took the kids and went to Saltspring for the day. I think Saltspring Island is one of my favourite places ever. When you go there you can feel yourself relaxing. Adam's brother, Josh, lives there and had told Adam about a lake there that was frozen. So we decided to head over for the day and check it out. When we got there it was like a winter wonderland. Saltspring itself was green, like Victoria, but once we started driving up the mountain there was snow everywhere.

So we got to the lake and it was still frozen and covered in snow, so the guys used hockey sticks and boards to clean it off. After playing on a smaller section for three hours someone else showed up with shovels and they shoveled and played for another hour. It was just an awesome day!

Chloe trying to stay warm in Adam's bag. My mom knit her this sweater for her birthday this year.


Josh and the kids walking up the mountain after Josh and Adam both got their cars stuck on the way up. Then they rode those crazy carpets all the way back down to the cars when we left.


Colin spent the four hours at the lake playing with Bobby. He absolutely loved him! (and I had my camera on ISO 800 the whole time I was there, so the good ones are shot on automatic...this one obviously wasn't. Live and learn though, right?)


I love Chloe's tongue here!!


Adam and his brother playing hockey together.

More JUNO Love

I could watch this trailer 1000 times and not get bored of it. I think I'm going to go again this weekend. Even if I have to go by myself.

Oh, and seven more sleeps 'til CHA!!

Anyone Else But You

This just makes me happy.

Juno is my new favourite movie. If I could go to the theater every day until it's not in theaters anymore, then I probably would. Sigh...

January 27th

I've been snapping photos, I just haven't been uploading them. :)

Poor Colin was sick all week with the flu. Last Monday (Jan 21st) he turned 14. We went out to dinner, even though I tried talking him out of it because I knew he was feeling lousy, to Montana's. He didn't really eat anything, but it was still a fun night.

Other than that we haven't been up to much. I really, really want to go see Juno, so I'm hoping to do that today. Colin is at his dad's, so today I've been snapping photos of Chloe (what else is new, right??). Even when he's around I've been snapping photos of her, because he always covers up his face. I'm trying to think of what I could
bribe him with to get him to go out and do a fun photo shoot with me.

I've been looking at new lenses for my camera, and am totally torn between two. The 55-250 IS ($349) and the 85mm/1.8 ($599). I went to the store yesterday and tried them both out, and i"m still just as torn as I was before I went to look at them.

iPhoto still hates me. I'm going to leave the photos like this for now because I don't have the energy to try to fix them (ie...I'm lazy).

Adam gave me this tin heart last year for Christmas. Chloe was sitting in one of her favourite spots on the back of the couch, an I thought this photo would be a cute one. I think she's a little too blurry though.



This is just her being cute. Dont' you love the colour of my living room walls? I' going to miss this colour when I move.



My favourite Starbucks drink. Passion Iced Tea Lemonade. Colin said he's going to have a Starbucks intervention and move me somewhere that doesn't have Starbucks. I said "good luck".



My cutie patootie nephew, Logan, with their new puppy, Lola. We went last night to get her. I get to babysit her today!



My dad took this one of me at Montana's on Colin's birthday, with my camera. It's a little blurry, but you get the idea.

Winged Thing...

This was a Poppy Project from Poppy Ink. I can never resist her stuff, especially when she has fabric in the kit. I started it at a crop in September (or was it this summer?) and finished it the next day, but never got around to uploading it. Isn't it beautiful?? I seriously just keep looking at it.




And just because I think it's cute...here's Else and Chloe.

More photos.

So, I've taken a photo a day, but I started using Aperture and I haven't been able to figure out how to upload from there. So tonight I dragged (is that a word...it sounds weird) all the photos back into iPhoto, which apparently likes me again! All these photos were taken today with my new 50mm/1.8 lens. Seriously, I love this lens!

This first photo is Adam's "commuting" bike. I got down low and took the photo. This photo feels like the "artsyist" photo I've ever taken I think, and I like it.



This one is Colin (with that crazy hair that won't do anything but stick up) on Adam's computer. He'll be 14 in just over a week, and won't let me take any photos of him. Although Adam told both the boys today that they really only have a right to complain if we're asking them to pose al the time, so hopefully that will work for a while. Since we both have new cameras, we've both been snapping photos of the kids constantly.



And this is Max. He's my parents Bichon. He's a little bigger than most Bichons (okay...a lot bigger...he's over 30 pounds) and he's not the cutest dog around, but this photo actually makes him look cute, so I like it.



And I have to figure out how to make the banner photo a little smaller, but I think she's so cute that it might stay that way for a while. I love her shiny lower lip and pompom white nose, and the way that her hair will not stay off her face. Even if I cut it, the stuff further back just falls forward.

It's windy out tonight!

I was just blog surfing and was looking at Emily's blog. Last year she did an art journal challenge on her blog, but by the time I found her blog she was more than halfway done and I just didn't jump in and start it. But she's doing another art journal this year, and each week (or two) she's going to give a word to inspire your page. This week's word is commit. So tomorrow I think I'm going to dig out the paint and paper and start my first art journal. This should be fun!!!

Aperture

A friend at work today told me about Aperture. So hopefully my problems with rotating photos is going to be fixed. Except that I can't figure out how to get the photos from Aperture to Blogger yet. So I think today's photo will have to be seen tomorrow (hopefully!).

Today I met Adam at a camera store where he bought a Nikon D80 with a 55-200 zoom lens. The lens is so awesome! I have no idea at all what lens I want to get when I decide to get a lens. I want it to be by summertime probably though.

Hope everyone had a great Monday!!!

January 6th

Last May I won a $1000 shopping spree at Heirloom Linens. I bought Colin a duvet and then gave him $200 to buy whatever he wanted (he picked a camouflage duvet cover and then two queen sized pillows and pillow cases to match his duvet cover and an alarm clock that moos). Then I bought some things...and didn't ever post them. So today my photo is my bed, and the patchwork quilt I bought with the money. And I happened to take the photo in the three minutes that the lazy mutt wasn't sleeping on it. Too bad, because she really spices up photos (but I guess you guys already know I think that *S*).

I took the photo the lengthwise instead of horizontal, so if it is still sideways then Blogger doesn't like me. *S*

January 4th

I've been taking my camera to work with me this year (2008). I've been noticing that since I've had my camera with me, I've seen so many things that would be great photos. We've had really blustery, stormy weather for the last few days (lots of wind warnings) and it's been really cloudy. Yesterday the wind blew the clouds away and the sun was out for a few minutes. I happened to be driving around the corner and saw this church lit up by the sun. You can't really tell how dark the clouds are behind it, but they are dark storm clouds, and I thought it was so cool to see the light shining on the church with the dark clouds behind it.

As a side note...I rotated this in iPhoto and it is still sideways, so until I can get Photoshop for my MacBook, I have no idea how to get it rotated and keep it that way. Sorry!! If anyone has any advice, feel free to share it! I'm still getting use to a Mac. *S*

Happy New Year!!

So, on Boxing Day Adam and I ventured out, early in the morning, to Future Shop. We set the alarm for 4am and were at Future Shop by 4:30. The doors were set to open at 6am, but we were lucky and they opened about 15 minutes before that. Adam went straight to the tv's to get himself a 42' Plasma flat screen while I went straight to the cameras where I was able to get a Canon Rebel XT for only $400! Those things went fast too!! If I hadn't asked the guy in line behind us where the camera section was in that particular store, I probably would have missed out on it. I totally love it and have been dragging it everywhere with me.

So now that I have a fancy new camera I plan on doing the photo a day for the year. I'll post a bunch of them here hopefully. For the first few days that I had the camera, Colin was at his dad's, so can you guess who my subject was?

(oops...sorry...I have to figure out how to rotate the photos)



Once he got home I managed to get a photo of him (I don't remember what I might have bribed him with to get one though!).



And I've picked a word for 2008 (Ali's blog) : SIMPLIFY.

Happy New Year to all! I'm off to watch Notting Hill. Sigh.