Busy busy

I did a craft sale the other week at Gord's work and sold a few things (yeah!) and also took some custom orders that I'm slowly getting together. Here is the first custom order from that lot, a bunch of coasters for a girl who sells tea and will now try to sell my coasters along side her tea as a nice gift complement! We (well she) is going to test it out next week at a big Market Collective sale and we will see how successful it is and if it will continue to be an ongoing thing. Since it was so cold here and frankly just to have some fun, we instilled theme party Sunday dinners. This week was our first go and called 'Hawaii'. Our food and our clothes have to match the theme but as a bonus we went swimming during the day too. Then we made pineapple nachos (they weren't bad actually...), had fancy juice drinks and dressed up for the occasion (thank goodness I picked that day to bake all day and the house was very nice and toasty:) Next week: Cats (how are we going to pull that off....?)

Let's try that again.....

Better!

Gord and I have also started planning our trip for Peru in May! I feel so lucky, I get to marry him AND go on a great trip. Yippeeee!

All kinds of things... but mostly just cold.

It has been living in a freezer the last couple of days here. Today was -32 (without the windchill factor). We also got a bit of a dump of snow. The furnace never stops and we had to buy a portable to move around the house to different rooms because there seems to be an uneven insulation job in this house. I typically wear long johns each day (ok for 2 days) and it's tempting to not take off your coat, even inside. It's kinda fun but the driving is not so much because it takes three times as long to get anywhere....but it's Calgary and it's winter and what can you do?! This photo has two purposes; one, this was sooooo delicious we (ok, I) had to take a picture of it. It's rice pilaf with cranberries and roasted hazelnuts. I wish we would have made more. And two, Gord's mustache growth is clearly progressing from hitler to Tom Seleck. He's so dreamy (Gord, not Tom) Sunday was an epic baking day. The morning started off with Chocolate Chip Zucchini bread and mini muffins and things snowballed from there into the afternoon with many hours of cookie baking. The freezer is now well on it's way to being stocked for Christmas fattening!! This weekend we move onto baking bars and bark and chocolate dipped pretzels...mmmmm.

I took a brief break from bags and tried making a fabric basket

Then it was back to bags...

But, I'm kinda bored with making these two types of bags and feel that I've got them pretty well mastered, or as close as they are going to be with their wee flaws:) It's great to have learned a lot of different sewing skills from just one pattern that I was able to manipulate and change so much. I have recently found a couple of bag styles that I love so I am going to try to copy, er, be inspired by so I will start working on those in the next couple of week. First, I will take a break and try to sell some of my stuff this Wednesday at Gord's work during a Christmas sale thingy where I got a table. My first, maybe last!, official sale! And here's a mustachio update: Just for comparison sake I added the first photo again. These were taken Movember 1st and Movember 8th. As you can see, there is a unintentional progression towards looking more and more like hitler. Perhaps it will change again in the coming week. There's still time to donate! Just click here

I know what I said

So I said I wasn't going to make any more bags, I really needed a bag break. But three factors came crashing together this weekend and suddenly, after an emergency trip to the fabric store early Saturday, I had plans for 5 bags. And one rag quilt. You see, Gord went to Vegas for work for 5 days, Anthony went to him moms for the weekend, and I signed up to be part of a Body and Soul Expo at Gord's agency and sell my stuff. That means I need stuff to sell. Which means bags. Which means below was my planning Saturday morning. I made it through two bags and my small quilt. Three more to go and THEN I will stop. For a bit. Maybe. These two bags I made a bit bigger. They measure approximately 3 inches deep, 14inches tall and 14inches wide. They each have a zippered pocked and also an open pouch pocket inside. Ok, so I didn't totally finish the rag quilt, I'm still in the cutting part. But the cats sure did like hanging out on it and keeping me company all weekend:) So Gord signed up to be part of Movember, he grows a mustache for the month of November and raises money that goes to prostate cancer research. It's quite the big thing. You can read more about it here (and also donate to Gord and his team of creepy mustasches too if you so please!). Him and his brother also have a competition going; the one who raises the least amount of money has to keep their mustache for the month of December as well. Oh dear. So this is picture is Movember 1st. Gord with a clean shaven face (he's so dreamy...) Let the mustashio growing begin!!