Just A Little, Puppy, Swapping, Crafty & Quilting Chatter

O.K. I know it's been a while since I have posted. Sorry :-( I have a little catching up to do on some things I was wanting to post about a whiiiiiiiiiiiiiile back.

First: A little puppy, that's not so little anymore. We adopted a black lab cross puppy on January 17th. He was born November 11, 2008. He was one of 6 puppies born under a trailer. The mother and the puppies were rescued by a local animal shelter that fosters animals out until they are adopted. He is a wonderful puppy and smart. At 2 months when we got him he was already almost to heavy for my children to pick up. Now, you can forget it. LOL! I would say at 4 months old he has doubled in size. The picture shown was taken the day we got him, I need to take some new pictures.



Second: I want to show you a wonderful little felt Matryoshka doll that I got from Suzie. She did such a nice job. Unfortunately I did not think to take any pictures of the ones I sent my swap partner. Oh well!

Third: A dollhouse Valentine quilt wall hanging that holds mini Valentine cards. The wall hanging is about 2" x 3" and is the smallest quilt I have ever made. I made it for Susan who made the little puppets for Club Little House that I posted about in January. I also sent a little Valentine picture to hang on the wall. Susan sent me a very cute little pink beaded heart wreath and tiny bear made with pink pipe cleaners. How creative is she! Sorry no picture yet, I can't seem to get a good one. When I do I will add it to this post. We are in the middle of doing an Easter doll house swap right now. I will show you pictures of those when I get them. :-)

Fourth: I am participating in two quilt swaps right now, Doll Quilt Swap 6 and Quilt In A Bag on Flickr. I will be showing you some sneak peaks of the doll quilt I will be making. I have not started it yet because I am trying to finish the one for the Quilt In A Bag Swap. I am really enjoying the Quilt In A Bag Swap. My swap partner sent me a set of 5" charms and I sent her a set of 5" charms. I am supposed to use all the charms in the quilt and provide any other fabrics needed to complete the quilt then send back a finished quilt that is no bigger than 24". This is my first time doing a swap like this and I am really enjoying it. It is meant to challenge you by working with fabrics that someone else as sent you. I will post some sneak peaks of it soon so check back.

Fifth but certainly not least. Look at the great quilts that Amy made for me for a triptych swap. I am still shocked! She did such a wonderful job. I will show you the quilts I sent her this weekend. I don't want to post them before she gets them or it may not be a surprise. She also included a bag (that she made) with sweets and a great little quilting gadget. :-)

I am Back!

I am back from holidays! We had a wonderful time in Florida over Christmas and New Years. I was hoping to have some pictures to show you but my battery exhausted in the middle of trying to load them on my computer. I will post some pictures of my trip another day and tell you about my adventures. In the mean time thought I would show you what it looks like around my place. A far cry from nice sunny Florida. This is the view from my living room window. Isn't it great! It's one of the features that sold us on the house. LOL! We got about a foot and half of snow yesterday. This picture was taken before the big dump. I think going to Florida spoiled me. I long for warm weather right now. I am sure I will like the snow again but for today give me sunshine! :-)

I hope everyone has a Blessed Christmas. Let us not forget amongst all the hustle and the bustle, the presents and the yummy food, the lights and the laughter, the true meaning of Christmas.

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

This will be my last post until January. We are flying out tomorrow to spend Christmas and New Years in Florida. It will be different not to have snow on Christmas day. With all the freezing temperatures we have been having I have to say Florida is a welcome change. When I get back I will post about my trip. Here is an early "Happy New Year!" to you since I will not be around to tell you.


God Bless,
Lisa

I'm Still Here!

Wow, it's been a month since I posted. Hope everyone had a great Christmas. It has been a really fun and exhausting Christmas/New Years. My husbands two sisters and family were here for two weeks from Florida and my parents also came up for a week. It was so much fun getting to visit with everyone. I have been snowmobiling this winter and am having a blast. I was really sore the first couple of times out. My legs felt like rubber. LOL. Along with visiting with everyone, snowmobiling and late nights I managed to upholster my first chair. I have to say I was very impressed with myself. :-) It is a bistro looking chair that I bought at a second hand store for $5. The back and seat are upholstered and the frame is black wrought iron. I will post a picture of it as soon as I find my battery charger for my camera (lost it in the move a couple months ago). Oh about the Walk challenge, I am still doing it. I have one team member who has not given me her stats for a month now. I will post the stats for that as soon as I get hers. Talk to everyone later.

Finally got a picture!

I finally got a picture to go with my earlier post. My husband was so upset over how he turned out. He said he did not get a chance to smile, they snapped the picture so fast. Pictured left to right: My husband, his grandmother, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, my mother-in-law.

Meeting The Prime Minister of Canada

I was waiting to post this with a picture, but who knows how long it will take to get the picture. My husband met Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada this week. He along with my mother-in-law and her mom were invited to a Conservative Party event on Monday. It was by invitation only. My husband said it was a great speech and that Stephen Harper was very friendly and personable. Prime Minister Harper commented on my husbands name because it was the same as his and told him a personal family store that happend years ago. I had known about this event but could not say anything because it was high security. Then earlier the day of the event news came on the radio saying they had unconfirmed reports that the Prime Minister was going to be in the area. Then a while later they come on saying it has been confirmed that he was going to be here. "The word was out!" So needless to say after that I called my mom and told her. LOL. I said "Steve topped you mom!" LOL :-). She laughed. She met Ed McMahon a couple of weeks earlier. I will post a picture when I get one.

Heeeeeere's Ed!

Just had to share this cute picture my mom just sent me of herself and Ed McMahon sitting in his limo. She met him last week when he was in town doing a show called "Ed McMahon: Memories of the Tonight Show" He coined the phrase "Heeeeeere's Johnny" on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.

Alyssa's Pinwheels Quilt

This is a Stack-n-Whack quilt I made for my little girl this year. Well, I should say I started it last year and finished it this year. LOL. The the pinwheels were made from one fabric with rows, each pinwheel is different. The background fabrics were given to me as a birthday gift from Mary Lou Weidman. Thanks Mary Lou! The quilt sashing was machine quilted by my good friend Jerry Vliet and I hand quilted the pinwheels and lettering. I attached little yoyo's with buttons to the center of the A's in her name. My little girl just loves her quilt and that makes mommy very happy :-). She always makes sure she tells everyone "That's my quilt" or "That's Alyssa's quilt". LOL! To my family, Does anyone recognize the night gown she has on? Yes, that was mine when I was little. It always makes me smile when I see her in it. :-) Can you tell it's from the 70's LOL!

Little Cutie!

Thought I would show you a picture of the little cutie I made the baby quilt for. He is so precious and just loves me! LOL.

My Children started school on Tuesday and will be going to their new classes tomorrow. Why so late you ask? Turns out there were over 30 new students show up the first and second day of school and the teachers did not want to place the children in a class and have to change them to accommodate new students like the big fiasco we had a couple of years ago, when they switched my children's classes and teachers 3 times. Absolute chaos! We can thank our wonderful school board for that! They did not want to give our school a full time teacher when we really needed one. Anyway, enough of that. It has been a sunny hot beautiful day today. A great day for hanging laundry out on the line, of which I did a lot of. It's the green way to go! plus, it keeps the house cooler, keeps the utility bill small, keeps the colors bright and keeps the clothes smelling fresh! LOL. Not sure if I can think of anymore keeps right now. LOL!

Hit By A Moose

A couple of weeks ago we (husband, children and I) were driving home at 9:30 at night after a long day at our business, we had just passed the turn off to the ski hill and were coming out of a turn when this huge moose bolted out of the woods and ran right into our truck. I screamed and my husband hit the brakes. We figured it was being chased by a cougar the way it just bolted out of the woods. It was very terrifying. My daughter Breana was screaming and crying, my son Ethan had just started to doze off and sat up trying to figure out what was going on and my 2 year old Alyssa woke up out of a dead sleep screaming. The moose turned her head quickly, if she had not it would have gone through the windshield. We were very lucky that we were in a truck and it was a cow so did not have antlers or we could have been seriously hurt. We are all fine. We are waiting for parts to come in so our truck can be fixed. I could not even open my door. I thank God everyday for keeping us safe.

Ecstatic Over Plane reUpholstery

Just thought I would share this picture. An older German couple had my husband redo their plane interior. I will tell you about my husband after this spill. :-) They were so ecstatic over how everything turned out that they took a picture of my husband next to the seats and sent pictures they took after they put the parts back in. They have told there friends in another province and they are supposed to be flying here to get their seats done. Can you imagine, customers flying thousands of miles to have their seats redone. My husband definitely exceeded there expectations. He's sooooooooo good! LOL. You won't believe now all the plane interiors that have come in, in the last few weeks because people have seen the German couples seats.

About my husband Steve, he is a 3rd generation Upholsterer and has been doing upholstery for 18 years. We are part owners in an upholstery business with my in-laws. There have been other upholstery shops in the area, but non have lasted because of my father-in-law Jim and my husbands excellent reputation and work. They redesign furniture upholster custom made furniture and reupholster everything from antiques to boats, cars, planes, motorcycles and more. My husband has built furniture and really enjoys it. A couple of years ago he upholstered a chair that a student from Selkirk collage built, and he helped her design the arm of the chair. She along with other students took furniture to the big home show in Toronto and she was the only one to get her chair pictured in the Vancouver Sun. Hmmm, I wonder why? LOL. Kootenay School of the Arts approached my husband about teaching an upholstery course, so he did that on the side for 3 school years . The shop has been awarded gold certificate awards every year from our local newspaper and the Kootenay Business magazine. O.K., O.K. I know I am bragging but give me some leeway! I am a proud wife! :-)

Soccer

Just 3 more games then we will have a break for the summer and start back up in the fall. Here are a couple of pictures of my son Ethan that were published in a local newspaper. At one of the games a soccer dad handed me the newspaper to look at, I was shocked when I saw the pictures. I just had to go out and get a whole wack of newspapers after the game. LOL.