hubby turns 30

Well, it happened. Joel turned 30! We had a great time celebrating this weekend and I thought I would share some pictures with you.

On Friday night we went out for dinner to Charcut. Yum! They are a fairly new roast house type restaurant located in a new boutique hotel downtown called Hotel Le Germain. Decor was a great mix of modern and rustic, with lots of leather and wood and glass everywhere.



We ordered a wide variety of things off their ever changing menu. There were warm soft pretzels with homemade mustard, shaved lamb with grated gruyere, pickled heirloom carrots, cucumbers and beets, roasted chicken and charred vegetables, prawn fetuccini and duck fat fried poutine with truffle gravy. Needless to say, by the time we were done with all that we had no room left for dessert, despite the fact that a friend of ours there is one of the dessert chefs and has an original recipe on the menu.

Saturday was the main event and Joel's actual birthday. I got up and went to the grocery store despite the 10cm of snow on the ground that had fallen the night before, and bought some fresh french bread and lots of fresh fruit. We had a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and fruit and then I spent the rest of the day getting ready for the party.

We decided to host a Gentleman's Evening which if you think too hard sounds a bit like strippers and beer, but trust me, was waaaay better than that! 20 of us gathered at our house, decked out in our finest. The boys played in a poker tournament while the girls provided wait service for the evening. Thank goodness I have girlfriends who are willing to regress a little and spend the evening serving the men while they smoke cigars, drink scotch and play cards! It all felt a little Mad Men.





There was for food than 50 people could have eaten, and a VERY well stocked bar. Joel and I worked together to come up with a drinks menu for the guys to order from, including some signature highballs and martinis.



Since we had to split the group into two to play poker, after both tables had dwindled to 4 people we took a bit of a break. The guys (and Mel!) stepped outside to smoke their cigars, which were Cuban because well, we can have those in Canada. After that we cut the cake (complete with 30 candles) and enjoyed a few pieces. The cake came from Marble Slab Creamery and was beyond delicious! Chocolate Amaretto with Skor, Krispy Krunch, Reese's Pieces and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups mixed in. SO decadent!



We had a blast! And as far as I can tell, so did everyone else. No less than 4 guys at the party said they wanted to repeat the event at their own birthday. Even all the hard working ladies said they had a great time, and it was fun to watch the men "get manly" for the night.



Of course there had to be some birthday kisses too!



I do wish I had been able to snap some pictures before the party instead of after. When it was all set up, the place looked fantastic. Call me crazy, but I ended up disassembling our 110" long sofa with two chaises and moving all the parts to different places in the house all to make room for the second poker table. I hung paper pennants (made for his party last year) in different directions all across the kitchen, living room and dining room.



I also added a Happy Birthday pennant banner on the short wall by the front door.



Like I said above, we made up some drinks menus that we printed back to back and cut in half to make them long and skinny. We hung a full page version with extra info on the cabinet door above the bar counter.



I was so happy to be able to give Joel such a fun party. 30 is definitely a milestone and everyone should get to ring it in with a bang!

There is actually going to be one more part of his party which will come in a month or two. We are planning a white water rafting trip with about a dozen on our friends. We just need to find a date that works for everyone and book it! I have to say, I'm looking forward to that part a lot less than I was looking forward to the party.

a long week

One of the downsides to my super awesome job (feel free to want to set me on fire after I finish this sentence) is that when I work several full days in a row it feels like the longest week of my life.

This week has felt extra long. Of course, that is not to say that I didn't enjoy my days with the kids, I really and truly did, but I just feel exhausted. Here's the kicker: I only worked 3 full days this week. (I should say that a full day for me is usally 9-10 hours instead of the usual 8.) Oh geez, as I write this I realize what a complainer I sound like.

I tend to get kind of whiny and emotional around the time change every year. I don't sleep well, I just feel lazy and un-motivated. It's not a good scene.

The point of all this complaining is this: when I get like this, it's good for me to sit down and think of all the things I have to be proud of or thankful for. So instead of 10 on Tuesday, here is 10 on Thursday.

1. I have an awesome job that means I get paid to play with some of the cutest kids you'll ever meet. It also means I work for people who are kind, generous and great parents who treat me very well. Lucky.

2. I am married to a sweet and hardworking man. He fills my life with laughter (especially when I really need it) supports me in all my endeavors and works his hiney off at school and his internship so he can get a job that will (later in life) support our family.



3. I have the cutest cats in the world! Seriously, at least a couple of times a week, Joel and I marvel at how good it is to have them in our lives. We both had pets throughout our childhood and had to wait 5 and 11 years respectively before getting our own pets, and we couldn't be happier. They are sweet little monkeys who follow us around the house and make us laugh constantly.



4. I live in a great house in a great city in a great country. We are heading into our third year in this house (amazing since I moved 8 times in the 5 years previous) and it feels like home. We may only rent but it makes such a difference to live in a place that I feel comfortable in, and that allows us to live a lifestyle that we love. It has enough space for me to have a dedicated sewing area and 3 extra rooms which we fill with guests and roommates. Also, despite the current silliness going on with the Canadian government (seriously, silly) I love being Canadian. I am happy to say I live in a country of such beauty and vast wilderness, where people from every culture and religion are accepted with open arms and I can live peacefully and safely.

5. I have great friends. I won't bore you with the names of all the people you don't know that I love but I count myself lucky to be friends with such a long list of truly high quality people. A special shout out to my long time dear special friend Krissy. Oh, and also, Candace-bo-bandace who I love spending Sundays with. You two make my heart happy.

6. This week I did some major sewing for once. What's up Doll Quilt Swap! I am so happy to have been chosen to participate, and while I was really stumped for quite some time, I am now finished except for binding. I spent many hours making tiny HST's and while they aren't quite perfect, I am really happy with the result. More on that later.



7. I was super productive in other ways this week too! I cleaned the WHOLE house on Monday. (A really amazing feat for me) and then made sure it was tidied up again on Wednesday. I made dinner TWICE this week which if you know me means that hell might possibly have frozen over. I did a ton of laundry and...yup, that's it. Haha, but seriously, that's a whole lot of domestic goddessness for me to accomplish in one week. And guess what?? I plan on continuing tomorrow!

8. I got back into reading this week! I guess technically I got back into it while in Mexico. I read Jodie Picoult's House Rules, which I do not recommend. I enjoyed it until the very end when I literally though "Really? I wasted over 500 pages just for that weak ending??" This is all beside the point. I started reading The Poisonwood Bible this past week and so far so good. I've had it for a while, but finally picked it up on the recommendation of the aforementioned Krissy. She says it is her favourite book in the entire world and so for her I am giving it a read. And Krissy I promise we will chat about it when I am done. Or maybe I will write you a letter?

9. I got some really positive feedback from one of my families this week. I talked with J's mom today when she got home and I have to say it feels good to know that I am liked and that I am doing a good job. I try to tell them, but I hope they know, I love my job and I love their J. It truly makes my life good to work with them and I look forward to lots more time spent with them.

10. I have a quiet night to myself tonight. Hubby is off playing poker with the boys tonight. Just me and the cats and our roommate having a quiet night to himself elsewhere in the house. This ia a pretty rare thing, and I don't usually look forward to it. Joel and I talk about this sometimes, how we feel like we spend much less time away from each other than many of the other married couples we know. Not that they spend too little, or we spend too much, it's just different. We are best friends and homebodies and love to spend evenings in, eating dinner together and maybe watching our current favourite tv show or working side by side on various projects. But tonight it's just me. I've got a stack of books from my trip to the library today, a cup of tea and a cup of chocolate milk, How I Met Your Mother is queued on the tv and I am in our warm on toasty bed. Life is good.



Wow, writing that out makes me feel good. Oh, and one more thing: as depressing as it was to have to switch back to waking up in the dark, since we are so far north, I have to tell you, we gain almost 4 minutes of daylight each day! Yes!

Thanks for reading through my very long list of ramblings. I'll get back to quilting and sewing related things in the next couple days once my DQS10 package is shipped off.

single girl

I've started a new project. Or rather, I'm finally getting around to a project I have had all the supplies for for 18 months.



This project is particularly special, important and time consuming.

For starters, it the famed "Single Girl" pattern by Denyse Schmidt. How can you go wrong? That woman is inspirational and I love just about every pattern and piece of fabric she has ever made. It is a dream of mine to one day own one of her beautiful collection quilts and to attend a class at her studio in Connecticut. (If there are any generous and wealthy sewers out there who want to help me achieve those dreams let me know.)

I decided to do something I wouldn't normally do and use the recommended fabrics. Actually, I wouldn't normally even use a pattern but I couldn't resist both the wit of the title and the fun design.

The suggested fabrics (Katie Jump Rope) are colourful, fun and a little retro and I love them all. So, I am henceforth attempting to recreate the exact project on the cover. IN KING SIZE! Am I insane? I think I might be. I did some quick calculations and figured out that a king sized quilt will include exactly 804 pieces to be cut and painstakingly, precisely pieced before being quilted. Yikes!

But wait, there is a good reason for me to be so insane as to attempt this. Joel. I love that man and it's going to be a gift for him. He is the one who found the pattern at The Workroom, and he is the one who loved the colours on the cover just as much as I do, and he is the one who suggested it would be the perfect quilt for our bed.  He is the one who spent weeks tracking down every last piece of fabric I would need to make it after I found out it was out of print.

So far, Joel has put more effort into this thing that I have, and it's supposed to be his gift!  Look out for regular updates on this monolith of project and for pleas for motivational comments!

pink patchwork perfection

I've gone back to an old project.  This one has been in the works for at least 6-8 months, I can't quite remember.  I wouldn't normally describe myself as a "pink" person, but it seems that this quilt and the first one I completed for myself would say different.

I love this quilt for a number of reasons.  It's comprised of fabrics purchased mainly at The Workroom which if you ever have the chance you should definitely visit.  My husband and I drove to Ontario for 3 weeks during the Christmas season of 2008, and while we were there took a little trip into Toronto.  I love Toronto and have decided that I could live there (because I am a lover of metropolis') but Joel has lived there before and isn't so thrilled with it even though like me he loves urban centers.  Other than the giant soaker in my UGG boots and the trudging through 13 blocks of melting snow, it was a perfect day.  We went to the Hockey Hall of Fame (because how can you possibly resist it!) and then took a trip to the Workroom where I had a large budget to stock up on fabric with.

Even better than ordering online is the experience of actually handling the fabric before you buy it and I rarely do that because of prices here in Calgary.

So, not only was the experience of buying the fabric great, but the quilt is full of really great fabrics from now out of print collections: (Katie Jump Rope, Mendocino, Cake Rock Beach, Country Fair, etc.) are you jealous yet?

So there is a reason that I think of it as perfectly pink.

Originally, I was apparently trying to make more work for myself by ironing all my seams open.  But after an extremely helpful meeting with the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild I was advised to start ironing the seams to the right and left alternating by row.  (Which, yes, I have seen a dozen times before and for some reason never did it).  Since changing to ironing my seams to the side the whole quilt has been moving along much quicker.  The seams are lining up more easily and I don't want to scream and throw it in a drawer anymore.



So now, this is where I am.  I have finished piecing all the squares into rows (22 in total) and have moved on to sewing the rows together.  I start in pairs and then sew the pairs together and so on and sew forth.  Har har, I am a punny woman.

I don't know if I could love it any more!  I figure I'll knock off the rest of the top tomorrow and then I will move onto worrying about the rest of the quilt which includes finding a great backing fabric and ordering more batting.

Right now I am contemplating Connecting Threads for thread and batting because the prices seem great and the shipping is dirt cheap.  Has anybody used this?  Do you have another recommendation for cheap (100% cotton, 120" wide) batting?  One thing I don't love about Connecting Threads is the arbitrary 7% charge added to all Canadian orders to cover who knows what.  I live in a Province without sales tax (how did I ever live anywhere else and thank goodness we don't have the dreaded HST here!) so it irks me a bit when an extra whatever percent is added to my order.  I don't know, can I do better?  Suggestions and links greatly appreciated!!

the random object: wedding rings

My wedding rings. Before I tell you about them, let me tell you how this picture came about. One of the two families I work for has an adorable set of twins. Occasionally I will go over in the evening, put them to bed and then have several hours to myself before their parents get home. Most often I will read or watch tv or hand sew, but recently I have started taking my computer. I spend time blogging (like now)or getting sucked into Flickr and Facebook, or I bring tv episodes or movies to watch.

A couple of days ago, I brought my camera with the intention of taking some pics of my wedding rings for this post. I was out in the backyard in the last of the late afternoon sun, my rings on the railing, practicing my macro skills. After about 10 photos, I took a step back to look at the composition and fell down the deck stairs! Ouch! Although it was only 3 steps, it was really quite a spectacular fall! I didn't injure anything but was definitely sore after that! As my old joke goes "Grace is my middle name!"

Okay, back to the random object. I decided to start with this because I forgot to take some pics of the things that inspired this meme. (And of course they may be my most important random object.)

For some reason, for a long time, I had an irrational fear that I would never get married or have kids or be loved. Probably because as a teenager I dated a guy for a few years and in my naive teenagery ways thought that we would be high school sweethearts and blah blah, and obviously, most of the time that is not the way it happens.

I'll save the story of how we met and married for another day, (perhaps our 3rd wedding anniversary coming up in September?) Today instead I will tell you about how he picked the rings and proposed.

Joel knows that I am a picky person when it comes to well, everything. When we started talking about getting married, he asked me if I wanted to go ring shopping with him or have him pick the ring himself. Something girly and old fashioned inside me said I should send him on his own (or perhaps with the help of a friend, but I had never so much as been in a ring store before so I was curious and really wanted to go with him.

The actual shopping part wasn't really anything special which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. We stopped on a whim on the way to doing something else and wandered quickly through the store. We went to Spence Diamonds mostly because we had heard all sorts of ads for their better prices and open showcases. (Who said radio advertising wasn't effective?) I was so sure was looking for something simple and classic that I didn't even go over near the modern stuff. I knew I wanted a solitaire and most likely in a classic tiffany style setting.

As soon as I tried one on, I knew it wasn't right. So we kept looking. We looked at 3 stone rings, engagement bands, super sculptural stuff, nothing was right. And then Joel saw it. THE ring, and he made me try it on even though I was skeptical. I fell in love with it as soon as it was on my finger. (Even though the floor model was about 5 sizes too big.) I loved the squareness of the band, the little frame of metal around the diamond and I love that it had an equally modern wedding band that fit right under the engagement setting. Perfection.

So we got someone to right it down and we left, we didn't even buy it right there. That came a little bit later when we went back and picked out a diamond together.

(photo by Brooks Ryenolds)

Joel proposed to me on a bridge overlooking the lagoon in Bowness Park.  The picture above was taken a year after our wedding, at my friend Amanda's wedding (I'm right of centre.)  We had gone to Bowness park on our first date, and Joel brought me back there to ask me to marry him.  We had had a delicious dinner at Mongoli Grill, and were going back to his house to watch a movie when he made an excuse to stop at the park.  Just like shopping for rings, and like most of the other important events in our relationship, it wasn't anything huge and special, it was just us, being ourselves, and I loved it.  We wandered through the park on our way to the bridge, holding hands, joking and smiling.  When we got to the bridge it was peaceful, not another soul in sight.  And then he started saying mushy things (which of course I can't remember now.)  He got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife and I jumped up and down and cried "Of course!"

The first thing I did was take of my other ring (another random object for another day) and let him put my shiny new diamond ring on my finger.

I found out after that, that many people knew that we were getting engaged that night, including a friend who lived just a few blocks away and had agreed to take photos after he proposed.  So off we went.

I could barely hold my hand still long enough to take this photo.  We called my our parents and friends and generally just floated around.

And now this photo hangs in our room more than 3 years later.  The rings are well worn and loved and are certainly not as blindingly bright as they used to be, but I like it that way.  They almost never come off, and I still haven't tired of staring at them as they sparkle in the sun.

For those who are interested, these are the specs:  Engagement ring is platinum, size 3.25, .75 ct Princess cut IF, F colour conflict free diamond in a bezel setting.  Wedding band is platinum, size 3.25 with 8 princess cut diamonds in a channel setting.

yummy

Lunch by Joel.  Delicious.  Need I say more?

windy girl in the mountains

drawn on Facebook for Hubby

washing windows

Hubby is a custodian at our church in Calgary. Every Sunday we show up at an unreasonably early hour to make sure that the building is in tip top shape before people arrive, and there is usually no end to complaining from me. This morning when we arrived, we discovered that one of the part time custodians had accidentally used floor wax as window cleaner across 30 feet of glass doors in our foyer. Oops! Needless to say, it was more than a tad foggy, and that had to be fixed before the 9am service. What's funny, is that just a few weeks ago, Hubby asked me to clean the glass doors and I did the same thing that our part timer did! The Windex and the floor polish look exactly the same, and since I didn't know the official name of the window cleaner, I just assumed it was the one labelled "Buck-Eye Blue".

The point is, that as much as I can complain about being put to work cleaning windows, I can't hate it! In fact, it gives me a good 30 minutes to stare at the glorious sunrise. I am lucky enough that the sunrise I get to stare at is the one that slowly illuminates the Rocky Mountains, and the Springbank valley and the Bow River, and the fields of wheat and so on and so forth.

How could I possibly complain about that? Even if my lungs are being filled with the gentle mist of Windex.

a good night

Dinner with friends tonight. Great company, delicious lamb, lots of laughter and a bit of heated debate. I'm content. Now to snuggle my hubby.

a morning date

This morning my husband and I decided to venture out on Saturday morning date. We decided to head to the Nellie's Cafe in Kensington, but upon arrival discovered an hour long line up to have breakfast! So we went to the Nellies in Marda Loop, which had a much more reasonable 25 minute wait. What can I say? Their breakfast is THAT good!

It was nice to be out and walking around, enjoying great food and yummy coffee in an entirely overcrowded little cafe with him. Hubby even wore that wonderful knitted sweater I love so much!

Early in the afternoon we stopped by some friends house to check out their moving sale and picked up a cute gift for a family member, and on the way home decided it would be fun to wander through the Home Depot. Call me a nerd, but I love that place! It's filled with beautiful tiles, and carpets and appliances for me to lust after and lots of fancy power tools for hubby to drool on. We ended up picking up a couple of more "tools" to go with our Ryobi 1 set. A hand held cannister vaccuum for the car and stairs, and a wet/dry dust buster type vaccuum. And they were a steal of a deal at 90 bucks for the two items!

I thought I'd share a little piece of funny looking inspiration from the day. The dumpster in the back parking lot of Nellies loked like this:

Isn't he cute??

finding inspiration can be frustrating

I would describe myself as a very creative person. But for some reason, for the last few year I haven't done much that I would consider creative. I don't know why, but since I graduated high school (2004) my "creative activities" have all but dwindled away. I used to paint, draw, make slideshows and movies, play the flute, dance (mostly by myself) and now...nothing.

I have been overcome with the urge to be creative again in the last few months. I supposed it started a while ago, or maybe it's always been there, but a few months ago, I started to become interested in sewing. I have a few friends who are avid sewers and incredible quilt makers and their work started to awaken my creative side again. For my birthday, my husband bought me a gorgeous Janome Quilting and Embroidery sewing machine and again, my creative side was woken up a little more. Then, a few weeks before our first anniversary, as I was pondering (again) what to give my hubby, I couldn't ignore it any longer. "BE CREATIVE!" It seemed my soul was actually yelling at me!

Finally, I remembered a painting I had started 4 years ago. My husband is actually the one who asked me to paint it, even though at the time we barely knew each other. (Long story). I decided I would give him the completed painting as an anniversary present.

Since then I have been trying to find the inspiration I so desperately need to be creative. I read blogs and search random things on the internet hoping to find something that will spur me into action. I finally came across it the other day. 100 ideas - a work in progress was created by a woman named Keri Smith, who I now owe dearly for wonderful inspiration.

100 ideas is designed to be used with a journal and to me it is becoming an exercise in creativity. Each day I will pick one of the 100 squares and do what it says. I decided that if I was really going to force myself to learn to be creative everyday I should make a journal instead of buying one. So last night, for 3 hours I sat in front of Scrubs and sewed 120 pages into a book, decorated it and dedicated it to my 100 ideas experiment.

This is a pretty big commitment in my mind, because I'm not the most disciplined person, but I really think that this is just what I need to get out of my creativity slump and back to creating on a daily basis. The thought has even crossed my mind that it would be interesting to do the same 100 things every year in a new journal and watch the progress over time...

Today is day one. "#90. Write about or draw some of the doors in your life."

I've got three so far. The front door, the Yaris door, and the fridge doors. I'll post it when it's done.

For now: THIS IS...What's on my desk.