The Stockings Were Hung...

Hooray, I'm done 'necessary' sewing for the year ;)

Walking in a Warp Speed Winter Wonderland

No matter how organized you are it seems the holidays puts things on warp speed regardless. Thankfully dinner has been premade and in the freezer, we're at cookie overflow and the only time the mixer comes out is when I'm stressed and in need of a diversion (cookies never 'fail', you don't have to frog them, they don't jam up and have bobbin issues on the last part of sewing, perfect)

Santa has thankfully been preserved for this year. Three days after the church incident there were presents under the tree that I'd wrapped for some other people and Alex thought Santa had been by while he's been asleep, phew! In just one week we'll be getting ready to head up to Mom and dad's where I can finally relax and just do some crafty stuff with Alex ;)

Stitching has taken a small hit in the last week, I'm plugging away at Knotted Pine's santa from this years JCS slowly but surely but we've had school concerts to go to, inlaw company on the weekend, stockings to sew, cookie exchanges to bake for, parcels and cards to mail and parties to look forward to. Thankfully it's stitchy night tonight :) I can park my worries and veg.

Alex's school concert was wonderful. He looked so GQ up there in his Old Navy plaid button down and CP cords :) Apparently this is probably the last year I'll get to buy him cool clothes for it as he wants to be in the boys choir and they wear plain white shirts, black bowties, an NB plaid scarf and black pants. I suppose I could buy him a funky argyle sweater for when he sings with his class though ;) The concert had the usual frustrations, I showed up 40 minutes before it started to get a decent seat, and they dwindled pretty darn quickly, the SAHM mother's came in early and 'reserved' seats for their lazy a** husbands who waltz out of work 5 minutes before the show to their perfect seats while people that actually make an effort are forced to stand. I mean they had 300 programs printed for the first show and they were gone 20 minutes before the concert. Then there's the morons who rush the center and stand there so no one behind them can see. I had to army crawl and sit on the floor so I could see and get a video of Alex's performance. Matt couldn't make it and when I was telling him about it his opinion was very true, to the point but I don't know how it would ever fly. They need to do something about the 'extra's'. I think banning them is a bit absurd, I mean Alex would love it if my parents could come once in awhile but you see people bringing an 8 person entourage of uncles, aunts, grandparents and it quickly becomes out of control and parents can't even see their own kids. The situation either needs to be addressed or they need to look at having an additional show besides the two that they already do. Oye.

Catch the Spirit

Yes...I'm alive ;)

This past week has been busy++. Alex was off of school for 3 days due to parent teacher meetings and professional development so I had a nice 5 day weekend with lots of mommy son time. We did some crafts (Alex's first use of a glue gun), played some games, baked alot of cookies and continued to decorate for the holidays. We ventured out to an old fashioned christmas tree decorating party at the local independant bookstore and froze our butts off waiting for the parade on Saturday. At the end of our little vacation Alex and I lugged all of the tree decorations upstairs and made up quite a few appetizers to have a family tree decorating party.

The rest of the week went by in a blur. There were stockings to prep for sewing (Alex is getting very anxious for his to be sewn), guests to prepare for and an awesome dinner party/stitch night to look forward to. I had a wonderful time at Faith Ann's, Cathey's account of the evening sums it all up in her blog ;)

Saturday we headed to Alex's Christmas bazarre at the school and were joined by mom and dad there later in the morning. What a great time! Apparently it's quite popular as even the Premier (equivalent to a governor for my friends south of the border) was there for awhile. Alex was really excited, it was the first year he won at the cake walk. Matt was even more excited where it was a black forest cake ;) Saturday afternoon mom and I headed to the coop to do a little shopping and then we had a nice family dinner with Swiss Chalet. We were all kind of zonked so the Jesse Stone tv movie hit the spot.

Sunday we headed off to church where it was the first Sunday in advent. Sunday school was interesting, about 5 minutes before the kids were scheduled to come back one girl came back in wailing, poor dear. When Alex returned he said he didn't really like Sunday school as one kid said 'Santa isn't real'. I reminded him that he was a good boy and asked him if there was ever a year that didn't have presents under the tree and he seemed satisfied with the notion that Santa only comes to good boys and girls and children that make others cry wouldn't be on the list. It's the best I could do in the middle of the service. I know that some day he'll figure it out on his own and probably carry it along with him like I did one day seeking out the confirmation that the physical entity doesn't exist but still have the spirit of giving. I know there are more and more 'realists' in the world that don't start the Santa tradition for a number of reasons (don't believe in lying to their children, or want them to be thankful to the right people). However, imo, kids have to grow up way too fast as it is and deserve that magic. It's nice when people say thank you and are grateful but it's not in the spirit of giving to be looking for it or looking to have it reciprocated. The best thing about Christmas morning for me now is watching Alex get super excited about a present, and the icing on the cake is hearing him call out his thanks to Santa, even though he is no where to be seen.

Mom and I checked out an open house in the afternoon and then did a little bit of shopping. Apparently alot of boys size 6x-7 are getting pj's for Christmas as they were pretty hard to find ;) I also picked up my two Christmas movies I budgetted in for this year, a 'Muppet Christmas Carol' to replace my very worn out VHS and Home Alone 2 where Alex loves the first one. After supper last nigth Alex and I watched that until bedtime and our sides hurt from laughing so much, surprising after his new obsession with Shrek the Halls ;) Needless to say I'm really enjoying being 'done' all of the preparation for Christmas and now just sitting back and enjoying the show (even it it means a little less stitching that usual)

My Daemon

Movin' Right Along

Well this weekend's trip to attend a bowmaking and a centerpiece seminar was pretty fun. Mind you I could invest a whole lot of money in centerpiece making supplies...I could definitely use more tables to display them on first ;) Faith Ann and I also browsed over the hundreds of lovely ornaments and decorations. I settled on a set of three baking themed gingerbread bells, a gingerbread cook for my kitchen, a beautiful glass bon bon and two sparkly ornaments. Another highlight of the weekend? The discovery that the uptown dollar store now takes debit ;)

Sunday was relatively quiet. I started on batch two of the Christmas cookies, brought the non tree decorations upstairs and decorated as well as adding the remaining lights to the trees outside. Even the village made an appearance. I can't wait to light everything up Dec 1st :) Mind you I STILL cannot find the lights I bought 2 years ago to go around our front door. My husband thought we needed some colour so I got a garland set to intertwine with some greenery at an after christmas sale. I haven't seen them in two years of searching! Oye.

Apparently I was a bit pooped from the whole weekend and after about a half hour of listening to nostalgic Christmas tunes and sleepily looking at the decorations Monday night I retired at 8pm.

Tuesday, Faith Ann and I braved the crowds at the annual Coop sale, mind you everywhere you turned there was someone you knew. We even came across Eleni and her DH while we cut through the parking lot. Flats of coke for 3.99, Butter 1.20 off, family blocks of cheese 3.**, how could I pass up that? I normally do my groceries either in advance of that week or elsewhere but I usually pick the best sale items and stock up++. Mind you it wasn't truly that bad, sure it was hard to navigate a cart at times but the main line was moving quite quickly I thought. We were express though. I try to get there before they let the reciprocal shoppers in myself ;)
Again no stitching that night either. I've been attempting to be disciplined and actually sew up my stockings before starting something new. I'm really hoping that I can get it done this weekend when I have a 5 day holiday (Alex is off of school). Speaking of stitching, this was the first official year I put stitching stuff on my christmas list, yippee ;)

Girlie Time

This week has been awesome for getting in some time with friends. Sometimes its just what a girl needs. It's been nice to have someone to walk with at lunch since Eleni moved down the hill. Thursday we checked out the local Christmas craft fair and here's what I got (the first two are for my favorite little boy scout Alex :))

Tomorrow Faith Ann and I and maybe my ta ta tassle twin are heading over to Green Village for a bow making seminar, maybe a centerpiece one, some ice cream and some tax free shopping in their gorgeous ornament section ;). The seminar could suck but it's free and getting together with friends is just good for the soul :)

My pictures of the craft room didn't turn out (some weird ghosting issue) and I need to do a couple touch ups but the initial reno pics are coming soon ;) And just in case you might think I haven't had time to stitch this week here's my latest finish :P

It'll probably be my last finish for another week or two. I'm attempting to be a good girl and finish sewing the stockings, and y'all know how much I love to sew :P

Primed!

Well, almost done. Today was the first day I ever picked up a roller and I must say I'm pretty happy with my craft room so far. For anyone that has seen or heard me b*tch about my craft room they'd know that the 'wonderful' people that lived here before were hockey fans (a sport I abhore...hey, if you're a basketball player you'd understand why). They 'tastfully', right, took red and blue paint and had cheap looking hand painted Go Habs Go! He Shoots He Scores, I love Hockey *vomit* in red and blue all over the room. Do you know how hard it is to prime over 'custom' jobs, oye! Anyway, the offensive words are getting closer to white but I've had to resand a couple of places that the custom jobs paint was a bit thicker and after a couple coats of primer I could see it raised. Depending on how I feel tomorrow I may just head to Home Depot and pick up the paint I picked out Shortgrass Prairie by Behr.

While I wait for the primary coat of primer to dry and the spots I ended up sanding and in one case patching to dry again I'll be taking advantage of the gorgeous weather and putting out our Christmas lights. As for stitching it's been kind of on the backburner while I prepare the glorious room dedicated to crafting ;) It had to be done some time and the three day weekend seemed like an excellent opportunity :)

A Weekend of Happy Dancing

Well, I did spend a good chunk of Saturday shopping ;) However we were without power for a good 7+ hours today thanks to catching the tail end of Hurricane Noel so there was plenty of stitching on top of checking out the 'Bee Movie' to go somewhere with food and heat.

So here's what's been accomplished bringing this year's total to 29:

The Decorator ~ Full Circle Designs JCS Ornament Issue 07

Three Kings ~ Imaginating

Where Does The Time Go?

It feels like eons since I blogged. It really sucks that I no longer have access at break time or lunch to do it but oh well. Life has been hectic. Alex is a Halloween freak! So much that he got in a spot of trouble with his teacher this week that was rather stressful. It's hard to assure someone else that he hasn't joined some satanic cult or something and will be back to himself by monday once the holiday is out of his system. I had some nice phone messages and e-mails expecting me to drop my job and head straight to the school. I've always stood behind the school and whatever means they see fit to discipline the children there, although I do wish they'd get the big picture and take care of ALL parties involved. Anyway, I have medical tests coming up, medical and dental appointments so really my luxury to leave the office just isn't there. I've delegated the task to Matt.

Halloween was fun, although exhausting. I think we trick or treated on and off for just under 3 hours. The first 2'ish were with Alex's friends so there was the mob mentality going on. Otherwise we'd have been home after the first time his costume caused a wedgie ;) Then we had to save face with our neighbors and visit them, I think they buy candy just for him as he always gets an "I was wondering when you'd get here" when he shows up at the door. Although this had me lugging stuff in the cold for all of this time and I passed out pretty much when Alex did. The next day I was exhausted and promptly went to bed at nine only to wake up at 5:30 with some extreme vertigo which I had never experienced before. Needless to say in was quite unnerving and an unneeded addition to my other symptoms that require the tests at the hospital and such. Sigh

However, I did get some stitching in somewhere over the last couple of days. I finished The Decorator today at lunch from this years JCS and will take a picture as soon as I get it ironed. That should give me enough time this weekend to finish off three kings as well. :)

So speaking of pictures, here's some of my little trick or treater (on various nights)

Caveman for the beaver party

A warlock for our sole trick or treaters

Our haunted crayon

Photo Status

Things have been a little hectic with Halloween quickly approaching. Here's some pictures to tide you over until I can write something decent ;)

Progress on Three Kings
Wedding Row back from the framers
and a finish... Robert's Stocking

The Golden Compass

I can hardly wait!!

Picture Day

Hmmm...here's Alex's school pic proofs. I kind of like the smirk myself

What Jane Austen Heroine are you?

:: L I Z Z Y ::

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of silliness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

Take the Quiz here!

Katie - Google Grease Monkey

Hooray! I have gotten rid of my brake light coming on and didn't blow up my van ;) When I moved back to the city I spent 3 years up here with Matt only getting up on weekends (I wasn't' cut out for small town life), and with an older model car it meant learning a bit more about cars in general than your average Joe. Dad found me a very good mechanic in town but I still wanted to be a bit more 'up' on any issues I was experiencing, just in case. Well, at least now I can diagnose most of my problems, although I still look for confirmation from dad or Matt once in awhile and when there is a problem I can get it in faster when I tell them what needs to be done, instead of 'my car is dead help'. Sure I don't have the tools, nor want them, to be completely self sufficient but I can check every fluid in the vehicle and top it off enough to avoid towing it :) Needless to say I'm pretty proud of my ability to patch up my vehicle.

Last night was stitchy night and boy did it feel good. I got to see Faith Ann's Christmas Village and her gorgeous Dragon Dreams Christmas bears. I stitched away at my Three Kings and it felt so good putting some of the upcoming medical tests on the back burner. It was fun just to get some me time and not come home to be immersed right back into Brie Van De Kamp territory. As usual the room was filled with pre-retreat excitement and for once I was indifferent. I love retreat mind you but it just doesn't look in the cards and that's ok by me. I don't have my exchange ornament done, and I've got a craft room calling for a paint job :) Who knows what way the wind will blow in a couple of weeks but as for that weekend, I'm open to whatever direction it takes me :)

A Night With Robert Munsch

Thursday we had a wonderful night. It was a bit busy. I picked up the groceries, then the boy and rushed home to drop off the refrigerated goods. I cleaned Alex up and then we headed to our favorite Fish and Chips spot Williams. Alex is becoming a real seafood junky. He finished his clams and chips in record time and then made a dent in my fish...sigh... After that we headed over to the Playhouse for our Robert Munsch story telling concert. We ran into Faith Ann's family in the lobby where there were a number of books for sale and then we headed in to take our seats with Eleni and her daughter. She scored some awesome seats for us. Mr Munsch is absolutely electric. I've never seen so many children admitting to wetting their pants just to get up on stage with him (I've Gotta Go!). As you've probably guessed from the video Alex got to share some stage time with Canada's best selling author for the story 'No Clean Clothes'. After the show we waited for an hour to get two of Alex's books autographed and it was well worth the wait.

Friday was very quiet, the biggest excitement was Matt and I renting Knocked Up which had us both in stitches. Not for the faint of heart but I loved it ;)

Saturday was the annual Beaver Apple Day and Matt and Alex were stationed at Kent's here in the city. I dropped by at about 11 and they were just about sold out of apples. Apparently Alex is quite the sales man. Other than that we've been staying inside waiting out the rainy weekend.

Here There and Everywhere...Again

Long time no blog. Things are starting to settle down so I guess I'll have a little more time to blog and catch up. :)

300$ after the van fiasco (hooray for towing and also blowing the tensor) we had just enough time to get back on the road and head to the beaver nature walk in Mactaquac. 3 hours with 20 5-7 year olds really was alot. Afterwards we had a really nice visit with Cathey and her DH. Alex was in 7th heaven playing with the dogs. After that it was prep prep prep for Thanksgiving. We were expecting 6 people on top of our three and that week the cushion floors decided to suck in as much dirt as possible which due to their age can't just be mopped, it requires scrubbing.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with mom, dad and Steven up. As if the weekend wasn't busy enough, Alex managed to get a birthday invitation thrown in there too. Mind you that trip to Toys R Us worked out very well. Some of the stocking stuffer toys (Littlest Pet Shop) where on a big sale. All that the boy needs for his sock is a package of underwear (Santa's practical in our house) and a couple sweets. Woo hoo! On Sunday we were briefly joined by Matt's parents and his grandmother and after supper all we did was veg (oh and stitch).

As for the blogless week my stitching report goes as follows, Bent Creek's Wedding Row finally framed, Imaginating's Three Kings restarted after this summer's dyelot fiasco and Robert's Stocking is just waiting for some additional 823 to arrive, sure I could pick it up locally but I honestly don't know when I'll be working on another project that requires perle 5 so I don't need two skeins hanging around. I do plan on stitching up more of the stockings in the new year but that's a while off just yet. For that stocking all I have left is 1.5 reindeer (plus a little butt lift on two of them) and the blackwork band. Needless to say a work night or two and it'll be finished.

This week is also a bit crazy, but not as bad as last week. At least we have a clean house and a fridge full of leftovers! Tomorrow we have tickets to see Robert Munsch so I think I'll take Alex out to our favorite fish and chip spot as a kind of date night, Friday = swimming, Saturday the boys will be at the local Kent's store selling apples for Beaver day + a bottle drive in our community all for beaver's (so if you have any home building needs Alex will gladly sell you an apple to tide you through going through the store). Sunday, yet another birthday party. My goodness...I'm hoping next week is a bit more sane ;)

Boom!

Hooray for Chrysler! For fun google dodge caravan belt...and get a picture of my evening. Yesterday was my first productive day back at work, I was just feeling better and dreading a suddenly overbooked weekend. Task number one, take the boy to swimming on a Friday night I was supposed to have off. So, I packed him up, packed up my stitching and off we went. I got a fair bit of stitching in on SB's Robert's Stocking :) Alex is out in record time, showers in record time and even dries himself properly so I wasn't attempting to unroll pants that stuck to his clammy little butt cheeks. Hop in the van, drive home, get about 2 km away from the house and BOOM! I thought it was me hitting a branch or something as it was quite windy. I pulled over to assess the damage and nothing. I get back in and my power steering is completely shot. I somehow managed to negotiate the left onto my street but left the van on the side of the road. Matt assessed what he could, nada. Called dad and he didn't have a clue. Walked out myself as soon as there was some sunlight and noticed I was missing a belt! Go chick mechanic. Arranged to have it fixed, towed before the boys awoke ;) Apparently the belt tensor went into complete failure and blew apart, like every other person you'll encounter in google. So my trip to Value Village and the dump has been postponed until another weekend. Of course the crap I was looking to get rid of has been waiting this long already. I'll be lucky if I can take Alex to his Beaver outing to Mactaquac, but they assured me I should be back on the road by 11:30 giving me enough time to get to Mctaquac by 1 and maybe a quick trip to Cathey's while I'm in the area ;)

C'est la vie

Birthday's are Killer

Birthday’s are killer! ;) Apparently my body didn’t get the memo that the birthday girl is NOT supposed to come down with the flu the day after the festivities. My birthday itself was great. The boys prepared breakfast for me and presented me with my gifts, Warcraft playing cards, a replacement G ‘n R CD and the Mummy DVD collection, then there was one last gift from Matt, some very sparkly ½ carat earrings. I’ve wanted a nice pair of earrings for soo long, bling is good ;) We had breakfast and headed to market for a cupcake which was fun as usual. Later in the afternoon mom, dad and Jazz arrived for the remainder of the festivities. Alex had fun stuffing leaves in dad’s crocs and pockets while we played outside. We then headed to Boston Pizza for supper, yum! We took a bit of a breather before partaking in the yummy pound cake mom had made. I opened my final gift from mom and dad and was very excited to find a three whicker drawer stand PERFECT for my craft room! Now I have a space to put my in progress projects and not re-sort them to all of the other places in my craft room :) After all that excitement Matt and I unwound at the theatre (our first date in ages). What a birthday :)

Sunday we had a fondue with mom and dad. Alex was on cloud nine! Sadly after lunch they had to return home so I climbed back into bed only to wake up with a killer sore throat. Sigh.

Monday and Tuesday kind of went by in a blur, I was just feeling so yucky and not looking too hot from coughing so much. I had to return to work Wednesday as there’s a thing about how many consecutive days you can be off without a note and I couldn’t get in to my doctor and I think I’d rather be miserable at work than at outpatients. Today I’m taking another day to recoup. I actually got some sleep last night (oh yes, combine having difficulty sleeping with a hubby who happens to be on call this week…arghhh).

Now this week hasn’t been all bad. I did finally pick up my JCS ornament issue, now to figure out which one to do first ;) Also, I finished my sophomore Halloween/Fall SAL that Cathey, Faith Ann, Shannon and I have seemed to gravitate towards. So here it is LK’s Velcome :)

Happy Birthday to Me

Omigosh, where did the last 30 years go? More info later, I have a date ;)

Against The Current

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you're just swimming against the current. Such is mine. We're adjusting to Matt not carpooling. Yesterday it involved him getting up after we're in the swing of getting ready, taking a 15 minute shower while we're waiting to get in and me entering the bathroom to find my flat iron that I'd been waiting to use unplugged, 3 minutes before I had to walk out the door. There was a Scrubs/Alley McBeal kind of moment where I got great satisfaction having my imaginative alter ego beat him with the flat iron but lucky for him, I'm just not that way ;) This morning I got out to do the supper prep and the dishwasher has yet to be unloaded and two piles of dishes were waiting in the sink. My alter ego took a walk down the hall and dumped a couple of dirty pots on him but I was reduced to searching in three spots for every measuring spoon or cup. Needless to say there is a lecture coming.

Last night was Beaver registration and I figured I'd check my facebook account before I went out only to find my 8 year old cordless keyboard dead, no amount of new batteries would revive it. Thankfully after shelling out money hours earlier for basketball and again for beaver's I had some Futureshop giftcards tucked away and went back to a corded keyboard. I really wasn't in the mood to spend 70+ on a keyboard mouse combo (I'm fussy and only buy Logitech) so the 19.99 cord came home with me. I settled in to watch House and goofed on stitching a section over again but meh, I have the one night a month were the stars and moon align for me to get out of the house sans les garcons! I imagine they'll be scrambling to find me a birthday present in my absence ;)

Friday I'm apparently taking the morning off and going on a field trip with Alex's class. Not really how I'd normally spend a vacation period but I'm running out of years he's going to want me tagging along. Then it's off to a fun filled lunch with the girls to celebrate the last day in my twenties.

In other news our annual Thanksgiving dinner has been moved, hooray! We'd been having it on Mondays based on when my brother would be coming back to university here but really...I'd like to have Monday's to relax and eat leftovers. Now that he's at a different school he's actually heading there on Monday so Sunday works out (plus I like having it on the Christian Thanksgiving). I'm hoping it's a sign for change to come. I really want to drop travelling at Easter but that hinges on me convincing people to come to our house for Christmas which is about the only holiday I don't want to be complete isolists on. All of the travel really wears me out, I wouldn't mind rearranging my time off to take more in the summer instead. I'd like to have one easter where Alex still believes in the EB at our house to do an easter egg hunt there. When you're not in your own home you can't get uber creative on your hiding places. It wouldn't be proper at someone else's home to hide them in anything you'd have to open. However dropping a trip to one home means nailing down christmas plans 8-9 months in advance to be 'fair'. Here's hoping 30 is a sign of things to change :)