Blessed by Friends

As I posted a couple days ago, I hosted a stitching party here on Monday. I wanted to share the hostess gifts that I got.

Rhonda gave me these beautiful tulips - and they have opened up even more since I took this picture. Wrapped around the tulips, and then tied with a bow, were these fun pieces of fabric shown in the second picture! Thanks, Rhonda!!


And for several months now, I have admired these adorable strawberries that you will see as decoration on Kim's Etsy page. I've commented on them to her, and now I have a pair of my own!!! I love them - thanks, Kim!!

A Long Weekend Hike

Yesterday, for Victoria Day, we met some friends and went on a family hike up the mountain above Ledgeview... not sure of the actual name of the mountain. Here are a few pics from the day! Thanks for looking :)

Almost to the top... the kids were troopers - they hiked for 2 1/2 hours and never complained!

Most of the time, Elise was trailing the other kids by quite a bit, but she never quit... and she is only 3!!! We saw lots of mountain bikers on the walk up, one guy we saw 3 times... he kept riding up the main path, then taking the trails down!

The view was spectacular!

Our family... the drop-off was a bit freaky with all the kids up there, but we just kept a good hold of them close to the edge!

Ladies who dine....

Since this Ladies Who Lunch Outing was in the evening, it was not lunch at all! We met last Friday night to celebrate 2 May birthdays. My birthday was May 2nd, and Cindy's was May 3rd. So, we got together at Milestones and had 3 hours of great food and even greater laughter! These are funny girls, and I am so happy to call them my friends!

I was one spoiled girl... look at this mountain of presents!!

Cindy got spoiled too!!!

I thought the quote on the napkin summed up our evening pretty well!

l-r... Cindy, Rhonda, Me, Andrea, Jill

Here's my "Portabella Mushroom Chicken" dinner. It was delicious!



My b-day dessert... (which I shared :)

Cindy and her dessert... it was awesome that there were 2 desserts at the table because 2 goes further between 5 people!

Sign of the age we live in... (well, I guess I'm a bit behind!!) At one point they all pulled out their cell phones and made sure everyone's contact info was up to date.

Happy Birthday Boys!

My boys each celebrated a birthday over Spring Break, Todd turned 6 and Scott turned 7 two weeks later. Last night we had a joint party for them. Todd had a hockey theme and Scott went with Wall*E.

This was the scene before the guests arrived... Scott waiting patiently and looking out the front window for his school friends to come!

- 2 Birthday Boys
- 2 cakes
- 2 tables
- 2 sets of friends
- But only ONE party and one shared movie!

The boys each had 4 friends over, and Todd technically had 5 friends because he let Elise join his table - what a guy! I sure noticed a big difference in the kids from Kindergarten to Grade one... wow! Way more energy in Gr. 1, plus they are so much more familiar with each other that they seem to know what the other ones are thinking. It was great to watch my kids interact with their friends.

Here are a few pictures...

The Wall-E cake started like this, with just a black outline - I was tempted to leave it like this for an abstract kind of look. But, I didn't!


All coloured in with icing. This was fun to do, but the next cake was definitely easier!

Todd wanted a hockey cake, and this one was decorated in just a few minutes.


Todd loved it.


Now that the party is over, these posters are going on the wall in Todd's room.

Scott surrounded by Wall-E things on the other side of the dining room.

Sew Much Fun!

Who knew I'd love to sew?! I didn't think I really liked sewing, (except for the odd scrapbook page here and there!) but a few months ago, some friends were getting together to sew and they heard I had a sewing machine, so I got invited!! I went, I sewed, I enjoyed!

We are affectionately known as "the Bag Ladies" (can you see a trend? It makes things more fun when you add a catchy name to them!!). On one such night, I started a messenger bag to add into the Christmas gift for my son's teacher. See that bag here: Purple Messenger Bag. I had some fabric leftover from that bag, so I made Elise a small little purse-on-a-string that she loved the second I gave it to her! Eventually, I will get some pics of her actually using it, but for now, here are a couple pics from last Friday when the Bag Ladies got together to sew at Marcia's house.

The inside of the bag, as shown by my lovely hand model, Marcia :)

If you want to join our Facebook Group, "Bag Ladies Strike Again" please feel free! There are tons of links to FREE online patterns, and members can post photos of their latest projects. A great place to ask sewing questions, too. I won't likely be the one to answer your questions, because I won't likely know the answer!!! But there are lots of qualified sewers on there that would love to give you advice! Happy Sewing :)

Tea for Six, please!

There are six of us that get together on a fairly regular basis for lunch. We have called ourselves "The Ladies Who Lunch." (Lunch Ladies just sounded a bit too cafeteria-ish!!) These gals have become really special friends, and we always share lots of laughs together. I think food just tastes better when you're in good company!

This week we returned to a favourite spot, the quaint "Apeldoorn's" in Chilliwack. Lovely little place (I'm allowed to talk like this because I'm referring to a tea house!).

(l-r) Jill, Me, Andrea, Rhonda, Cindy (holding Andrew - our token male :) and Madelyn is taking the picture.

My tea choice was "Creamy Vanilla" and I must say it was delicious!

I love all the different tea cup and tea pot patterns.

I had a ham and swiss cheese sandwich on sourdough bread... yum! Steve was surprised I picked ham. I like ham. I like swiss cheese. It was a good combination!

And this little number finished it all off for me just right. Pineapple cake. I had to go home and make some sort of pineapple cake after this - so I just made a very simple pineapple upsidedown cake when I got home, and shared some of my teatime joy with my family! But I will be getting some ingredients to make this treat... soon!!

They still had their Christmas decorations out, and these little guys reminded me of the Stampin' Up! stamp called "Dasher." I want to find some to add to my Christmas collection!

Lunch... a little late!

I know I am a bit late with this post, but I'm still going to blog it!


Last week, Sept. 4, a group of gals went out for lunch... aka: "The Ladies Who Lunch." This time, it was Tracycakes in Abbotsford that we chose for our dining pleasure. Yummmmm... I had the chicken wrap and it was wonderful. I had iced tea, which was probably not necessary, because the water was actually quite tasty there. Since we have the BEST water at home (not because of Abbotsford waterworks, but because of our Nikken water filter), I tend to be a bit picky with restaurant water, and that is why I often pick a drink that masks the city water taste! But, whether they use some kind of bottled water, or it's straight from the tap, it was a good water day at Tracycakes!

Enough about the water... let's talk about the food!

Chicken wrap... I would definitely have this again...



... oh yes, I have! (well on Sept. 4th, I did, anyway!!) This is a turtle cheesecake cupcake, and it is a good thing it wasn't any bigger because it was R-I-C-H! (and good!)

I was also fairly intrigued by all the pretty things in there (including all my pretty friends, who aren't pictured here!!)

Bag Ladies Strike Again!

Last night was another bag night... and today I'm bagged!! haha! (so tired that I am making bad jokes). But so worth it because I completed 3 bags.

First I made Todd's piano book bag. He picked this fabric, out of 3 choices. He said he liked the guitars!



Then I made Scott's piano book bag out of his fabric of choice... and it is reversible, so the black fabric can be the outside whenever he decides to change his mind! I had originally thought of just using the black fabric to make a bag for Elise, but since she is probably 2 years away from music lessons, and she got a purse last time the Bag Ladies got together, I thought I could use the fabric for something else.

Plenty of room for his music books and binder.

After the second bag was done, I was going to pack up, but I guess I got my second wind because I made one more bag... it is a 4 patch bag and I saw one that Cindy had, and I loved it... mine is bigger than hers. I wanted to use the leftover music note fabric and make a music book bag for myself, because I am going to take guitar lessons again in the Fall, and I wanted a new bag for my music.

So here it is, the way I will use it....


Close up of the fabric...

And the inside... it is a reversible bag, but I will probably just keep this as the inside. It is made out of a pair of my old jeans! I really wanted to finish my bag, and since I didn't have any lining, or more coordinating fabric, I thought I would use this. Only, it made the bag really thick because I put batting in it, too... maybe with the jeans I didn't need to use batting, but it sure is a nice firm bag! I put this pocket on the inside, it has 3 compartments. 2 that are as tall as the pocket and divided in the middle, and one long one that is only half as tall as the pocket, but is hard to see... I put some Velcro in the centre of it, and will store pencils in there.