Officially On Maternity Leave

As of Friday, March 26th at 3:30pm I started maternity leave! I am now off work for the next 13 months!! woooooooooooo hoooooooooooo!!!! I'm now in week 37 of my pregnancy and plan to hopefully get in a 2-3 weeks of rest and relaxation before the big day arrives and my sweet little William comes into the world!

As for rest and relaxation, well so far I have been in high gear planning and working away on things at home. Today for instance I took my 3 separate shopping lists I made up for Costco, the grocery store, and Bulk Barn and picked up all the meats, fish, grains, pastas, and groceries I needed and to stock up my pantry. hee hee I guess this is what women call the "nesting" period of the pregnancy.. Some clean house... I buy food LOL

Still in the packaging from Costco .... I looooooooooove that store!

If you have a Costco near you and you like Salmon, I HIGHLY recommend this stuffed salmon!! There is a really yummy filled couscous in the center and it's so tasty with freshly squeezed lemon!

All repackaged and ready to go into my deep freeze!

My well stocked pantry!!! I'm planning to expand my pantry this summer and have another shelf unit built in. I'm already running out of space and I'm only in the house a year LOL


Since I am not able to physically handle my full "kitchen days", I do plan to have "kitchen hours" whether for a few hours in the afternoon or after supper. I want to stock up my deep freeze with ready made casseroles and other meals so meal times will be a bit easier once the baby arrives. If I am busy nursing or attending to the little guy, Trevor can just thaw out supper and stick it in the fridge. The more ready made meals I have prepared, the better it will be.

Yesterday for instance, I made up a big dish of homemade macaroni and cheese. Cut them up into 2 person servings and added them to my freezer. I have another list (have you figured out I'm a list person yet??) of the various meals and casseroles I want to make up. Tomorrow I plan to make up a big crock pot of chili, a couple loaves of bread (in the bread machine) and an apple pie.

So far my list consists of:
Macaroni and Cheese (made, cut up and in the freezer)
Chili
Cod au Gratin
Cod Fish Cakes
Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken/Broccoli casserole
Cheese/herb scones
Quiche
Meatballs
Beef Pot Pie

If it takes me the next couple of weeks to make it all, that's okay. I'll just be content that my freezer is filled and ready!

As for the latest sewing projects, I got back to my crumb quilt and managed to complete the borders.

Here is are two photos of the 3" crumb blocks I made to go around the quilt.




I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the finished quilt top, but I'll do it over the next few days. I've decided on the designs I want to put on it to quilt it. At first I was thinking I would free motion quilt it, but now I'm thinking with so much cream tone on tone areas, I want to hand quilt it. I had on my 2010 sewing list to layer and start hand quilting a quilt. That doesn't mean I plan to finish it this year, but I just miss hand quilting and think this will be a good one to do. I also have a photo here to show you from my EQ6 software of what the quilt looks like.



I completed Trevor's "Man Cave" curtains!!!!!!!!!! They got hung tonight.



They don't look as good as I want them to look right now, as we need more tab rings to make them hang nicer and more even. I will go to Fabricville later this week to buy more. Eventually, out of the extra fabric I have from the curtains I'll make a few throw pillows to add to his nice red couch he has here in the room.

I also want to say a BIG WARM THANK YOU to Vivien for the beautiful winter wallhanging and fat quarter she sent me!





She and I were both involved in the Quilting Gallery Winter Time Mini Quilt Swap. I just love it! Thank you sooo much! I also love the fat quarter she sent me! I'm such a foodie that I plan to make a little shopping bag from this fat quarter to take with me to the farmers market this summer!!!

Well that's all to report for now. I am almost finished a set of formal dining room placemats I was working on yesterday. I just have to hand bind them. So I am off to sit out in the living room to work on those while watching sweetie play his new PS3 video game (he loves his video games). We plan to sit and watch a movie in a little while. hee hee its after 10pm and I don't have to worry about going to bed early due to work the next day, so if I'm up til after midnight WHAT ODDS!!! :)

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

The Nursery and Shower

It took longer than I planned to get this posted here, but better late than never. I'm finding the weeks getting a bit tougher physical wise and I tend to crash more when I do get home from work. Its looking like this coming work week will be my last week before I stop for a year! Yep, here in Canada you get a year off of paid maternity leave!! Yippeeeeeeeeee!!!!

I can't wait to stay home now. I'm now into my 36th week! It is getting sooooo close now! The room is done, err well I never did get to make the crib skirt as I just don't seem to have it in me right now. What sewing I am doing is something that requires next to very little brain cells! But I'll get to that project shortly.

Right now I want to share with you some photos from the Baby shower last Sunday and the nursery itself.

We had a wonderful turnout at the shower with 20 guests! And ooh the food!!!! To start with, the night before myself, Mum and Theresa got to work with setting up the living room and dining room for the shower day. Next Theresa and I got to work on decorating the cake! We started getting the buttercream icing made and icing it around 8:30pm. By midnight we finished it! Yep 3 1/2 hours making the cake look pretty!! Ahhhh but it was worth every minute of it! Look how it turned out!!!!









I received some absolutely gorgeous gifts from everyone and for those of you who follow my blog and was at my shower... THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!! Little William is going to be the happiest well dressed and cleaned baby in the neighbourhood! He received some gorgeous little outfits, sleepers, onesies, a Winnie the Pooh Bath tub with toys and lots of cleaning stuff to make him smell nice! He got some nice little toys and books to entertain him while he is in his car seat or hangin' out with Mommy and Daddy.





He got this great EliteII diaper disposal unit to cut down on the stinky poopy diapers


and his God Mother gave him a FABULOUS Play Pen!

Here is Trevor, his Mum, myself and Alexi

Myself, Trevor's sister Denise and their Mum


As for the Nursery, well its a bit messy right now as I'm still trying to sort through all the gifts we received last week and decide where to put everything. This week I have to cut out the liners for the bureaus, wash the clothes and put them away in the bureaus the way I want them. By then things will start looking a little bit more organized and less chaotic!! The stroller (which Trevor's parents gave us) will be moved out of the room to put my rocking chair in its place.









The Jungle Boogie wallhanging is finally up and I just LOVE how it looks in the room! I'm so happy how it turned out!



As for this week in the sewing room, I mentioned earlier how I decided to work on something completely and utterly mindless... well here it is! Back last year I mentioned on my blog how I decided to get to my scrap fabrics and make a Crumb Quilt. I got the idea from Bonnie's website and blog Quiltville. She has some FABULOUS ideas on how to use up scraps! Well my crumb quilt top is almost complete. The main part is all sewn together I just need to work on the borders. I decided in all my insanity that I would make a crumb border!!!! Yep I told you I was nuts!!!! I need to come up with a name for this crazy quilt I'm working on as I'm sure I'll be heading to the mental institute and admitted to a rubber room once I'm done!! LOL.. Any ideas on what I could call this crazy venture I'm getting myself into????







Well I think on that note, I'm going to head back to my sewing room for the rest of this relaxing Sunday afternoon to work on my crumbs. The day is just beautiful and sunny here and I would rather be outside for a walk, but these days I find my legs are shot and lots of belly pressure so I'm staying in and resting as much as I can. I decided when it came to supper tonight I would pull out the good ole trusty slow cooker and throw everything into one pot to cook itself. Tonight I am trying out a new oriental roast with potatoes and sweet potatoes! If it turns out good, I'll post the recipe!





Til next time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Nursery Almost Done!!!!!!!

Only the crib skirt to complete and the room is READY!! woooo hoooo!!!!! Mum, Future God Mother Theresa, and Trevor's sister Denise are planning the shower for this Sunday!! I can't WAIT!!! It is getting soooo exciting now and with the room so close to being completed, I am just getting more and more anxious! All that will remain is the baby! :) I'll post photos when the room is ready for showing, which will be Sunday.

I'm thinking I will be finishing up work toward the end of this month. My legs are getting very tired and sore and I'm getting alot of heavy pressure on the belly. The little fella is getting more and more cramped for space and when he does move he kicks a good hard punch between my rib cage or under my lungs!! Whew!!!! I think we might have a future David Beckham on our hands!!!

I have kept saying to myself I needed to write another blurb here, but I have been up to my eyeballs in various sewing projects!

First of all, I completed another baby quilt for a friend of mine at work. My co-worker's girlfriend is due close to me so yesterday at work there was a duo baby shower for myself and fellow co-worker Justin. They are also having a baby boy.







The department we work for are just amazing!!! The gifts they gave us were incredible! Again most of the stuff I need to show off in the room for Sunday so I'll post photos then. Our fellow co-workers absolutely spoiled us rotten! Here are a few photos of the shower at work!

No this is NOT Trevor! This is my friend and co-worker Justin. His girlfriend is having a baby so the crew at work gave us a duo baby shower. We are both having boys. We just decided to get silly!

The boardroom where the shower took place. There was a lot more food on this table after the photo was taken! I didn't have to eat another morsel that day I was stuffed!

Justin and I both received the same gifts from our co-workers. It was quite fun and hilarious to see! There was only one gift we each received that was different. He received a nice grooming kit and I received a GORGEOUS Safari animal musical mobile. (I'll post a photo of it once its installed on the crib)

mmmmmmmmmmmm cake!

Cutting the cake!!!


I also made a little something for the Winter Quilt Swap that I'm involved with through Quilting Bloggers. As I have been having major case of baby brain I thought I could make more than just a small quilt and so instead made a Snowflake tote bag. I was a few days late getting it completed but then I was so busy with getting the nursery completed, it sort of got lost in the shuffle. Better late than never. Thanks Michelle so much for letting me have the extra couple days. I hope my swap partner likes her squishy! It will be going out in the mail tomorrow!









Jungle Boogie wallhanging is FINALLY completed! I finished the last of the hand binding this evening after supper. I plan to have it hung in the nursery tomorrow night and will be able to take a better photo of it to share with you later. For now here are a few photos of the wallhanging in the machine quilting stage!



I do know that when the crib skirt is done and the nursery sewing is done, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself! I know I have a pile of other quilting projects to work on, but I feel I'm going to be lost! LOL Tonight for instance I just did a few smaller things such as tidy up the bomb shell that was my sewing room! lol. I also managed to get the remaining 6 sewing motif embroidery squares printed off and ready for embroidery work. I also took a little inventory of the Hot Chocolate Snowman BOM I was involved in last year. I have three more packages to receive and then I'll have all the blocks to work on and make. I would like to make this quilt for Wil when he gets older as a nice winter quilt for my little boy to snuggle under.

Well on that note, its after midnight on Friday and I'm zonked! I took today off of work to have an extra long St. Patrick's Day weekend. I don't return back to work until Tuesday. Today I went out to get some groceries and the ingredients to make my decadent chocolate cake. I am making my baby shower cake and myself and Future God Mother will be decorating it tomorrow night. Theresa is a fabulous cake decorator and she got me interested in taking the Wilton courses back last Fall. I can't wait to tackle the cake decorating. I think there are maybe 25 people attending the shower on Sunday afternoon! It's gonna be fun!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea