Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas!

There are presents under the tree, the stockings are hung, the cupboards are full of delicious food, guests have arrived... it is time to sit back and enjoy our first Christmas with Parker!








Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 21, 2012

Jolly Old St. Nick

My sister has been on my case about putting up a new post because every time she sees my blog the first image she sees is the chocolate cake from my last post and it is driving her crazy. I don't blame her. Every time I see that cake I want to eat it too. So anyway, besides the fact that it I really should do a little update here, this is for you Kris.

I really find it hard to believe that Christmas is in a mere 4 days! However, I am happy to report that I have finished all my Christmas shopping and I've even got my gifts wrapped. Hopefully Parker doesn't undo any of that wrapping as he as already done with one present! :)

I found this jolly little Santa at the thrift shop the other day for a quarter. He holds a tea light. Isn't he a happy sight?



He reminds me of some Santa candles that my mom has that used to belong to her mother. That is the main reason why I brought him home with me. He is doing an excellent job of bringing a little festivity into our home.

I'll try and get an update in again before Christmas with some pictures of our tree and some decorating around the house!

Monday, November 26, 2012

A Most Festive Weekend

We had a lovely and festive weekend! The only way it could have improved was with snow. However, if it had snowed, I think I would have spontaneously combusted with joy. The weekend started with Patrick's parents, Grandma and Grandpa MacGibbon, arriving on Friday for Patrick's 29th birthday. We had a tasty dinner and I baked him a chocolate cake with custard filling and chocolate icing. I never bake cakes, but I really enjoyed the process and I must say it tasted pretty delicious. It was a recipe from my sister.


Saturday started off nice and mellow with some hanging around the house and working on a few projects here and there. In the afternoon we walked downtown to enjoy our little town's Festival of Light. We watched the parade and then enjoyed some more festivities in the park. My favourite part was taking Parker on a horse-drawn wagon ride. I think the whole thing was a little overwhelming for him!




After the Festival of Light, we walked over to our friends' house for some mulled wine and Christmas cookies. It was such a lovely time and a nice start to the holidays!

Sunday was spent around the house again. Patrick and his Dad put up our Christmas lights, and Dee (Patrick's mom) and I sewed little felt star ornaments. They were Dee's idea and they are so cute. I'm very happy to have them to decorate with this Christmas. We'll be making some more, but we just got six done yesterday.

I am so happy we have lights up this year!
Parker was happy to play around with everyone and he's been working really hard on walking. He's getting pretty close. Every so often he'll take a few steps without holding on to anything. It's very exciting, but hard to imagine him just walking everywhere on his own!




Playing peek-a-boo under the couch!
Grandma and Grandpa MacGibbon left this morning and that concluded our weekend. Now the new week begins and I will be very busy with play practices for our community theatre production. I don't have a big role, but it is the last week before the performances so we'll be practicing a lot! Let's hope I remember my lines!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Oh, Christmas Cactus! Oh, Christmas Cactus!

Patrick brought me home a Christmas cactus from the grocery store the other day. It has found a home on the window sill of our dining room. Christmas cacti are kind of sentimental for me because Patrick gave me one during our first Christmas married. I love their colourful blooms. It is the perfect burst of life during this rather grey time of year.




Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Yard Work

I spent a little time on the weekend getting the yard ready for next spring. I have never really had a yard to work in and I've never really had a successful garden so this is all going to be trial and error for me. If you have any advice, I welcome it! I trimmed away most of the dead stuff, I planted some tulip bulbs and I dug up our front garden. I would like to have small vegetable garden next year, but our yard is quite shady, so I think the front section is where we get the most sun. I actually really like the look of vegetable gardens, plus I'm thinking it would look quite welcoming with some sunflowers and some other flowers (I've been told zinnias are good for vegetable gardens?).

from here
I also really like black eyed susans!

from here.
Here is how my hands looked after digging around for a couple of hours. I love getting my hands all dirty from yard work. It's very satisfying to clean them afterwards!


There is really a lot of garden areas in our yard and I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with it all. I think I'll need to find a way to make things very low maintenance.

Here are a couple more pictures from the weekend just because...


Parker is just eating cheerios, but he looks like he is rather shocked at something!


This is how we roll on Sunday afternoons- just hanging around.

Do you do anything to your yard in the fall to get it ready for the spring? When do you start planning your garden? 




Monday, November 19, 2012

Etsy Finds

My birthday was back in October and I received a few different etsy items as gifts. I love getting gifts from etsy. I can always find such unique things and I love that you get something handmade. The presents I got were all for our new house. I was given two new prints and a beautiful wreath made from dried broom corn.

The first print was from the etsy shop Yumalum. I thought the colours would look great in our new kitchen and the phrase is awesome. Ever since I was pregnant with Parker I became more of a tea drinker. Lately, I really enjoy orange pekoe! Here's the print up in our kitchen/dining room...


The second print is by an artist that my sister found some time ago and we've been admiring her work ever since. I was so happy to get one of her prints. The artist's name is Janet Hill and you can visit her shop here. I have my print hanging in our living room next to our computer desk.


I hung the new the wreath in the living room as well, near our front door. I think it is beautiful and I love its subtle colour. You can visit the shop here.


I have it hanging over our antique baker's stand. I'll have to make sure I get a shot of both! They look great together. 

Here are some other things I've been admiring on etsy as of late...


Both prints found here.


Found here.

Print from here.

From here.

I could keep going because each time I look at something cool it leads me to find something else awesome! 

Do you like to shop on etsy? Have you found any beautiful hand crafted things lately? Next weekend is the craft fair here in town and I'm excited to check out the vendors!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

A Few Things

It's that time of year now where I really get into working on little handmade projects. I get way too excited about cozy-ing up inside with some tea and settling down to do some knitting. It is definitely harder to find the time to do these things with such a busy little 10 month old (is he really that old already!?), but I've managed to complete a few fun and easy projects lately! Not surprisingly, most of my projects have been made for Parker.

First, a while back I sewed Parker some cute, legging type pants out of one of my husband, Patrick's old t-shirts. I loved the stripes and could just imagine them on Parker's chubby legs! To make the pattern I just traced a pair of Parker's pants and made them extra long so that they could fit him for a while. When it came to the bum, I had to make it extra big to make room for the cloth diapers that Parker wears some of the time. My sister helped me figure out to add a semi-circle of extra fabric in the back. For this piece I made the stripes vertical and I love how they look!


The next project I completed was a toque for the little guy. He has outgrown all of the hats I knit for him before he was born and so he needed a new one and I was happy to have a new knitting project. I have been interested in knitting projects that involve colour work and so I found a pattern for a fair isle hat. The pattern is called Simply Fair Isle and you can see it on my Ravelry page. I love how it turned out and I really enjoyed knitting it. However, I think I will add some strings to the ear flaps to keep it on his head. Parker likes to practices taking it off!



Here he is modeling both the toque and the pants...


This last project is still in the works, but I'm working on knitting a bunny for Parker for Christmas. I've actually finished the bunny itself, but now I'm knitting the bunny some clothes- a hoodie, a vest and a jacket to be exact. The pattern for this one is called Well-Dressed Bunny and you can also see it on my Ravelry.


Pretty cute, huh? I can't wait to wrap it up for Parker's first Christmas! Speaking of Christmas, we had our first snowfall here yesterday and it made us feel very festive. We may have even had a few Christmas tunes playing in the background. I took Parker out into the snow and he wasn't really into it. However, he was a little cranky even before we went outside, so I'll have to try again when we have more snow and he's in a better mood.



Are you working on any projects for Christmas? What is your favourite thing to do at this time of the year? Do tell!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Thanksgiving

We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with Grandma and Gramps Cooper (my parents)! We walked around town, strolled through the last farmer's market of the season, did an easy hike to the source of the Nakusp hot springs, drank lots of tea and coffee, baked pies and of course, ate turkey. Here are some pictures from the weekend...

















It has been lovely!

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