Monday, March 29, 2010

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

4 comments:

Quilter Going Bananas said...

Wow, so now you're on mat leave and waiting in earnest for baby! Rest as much as you can, okay? My sons both arrived at 37 weeks and my DD at 38 weeks. I was so thankful not to be overdue! I'm so excited for you and Trevor and Alexi :^)))))

Maria said...

wow you sure did do some serious shopping.

Great curtains.

limpingalong said...

What an exciting time for you! Hope you get it all done before William arrives.

Today was the first day of the rest of our lives. Sweetie retired yesterday.

Vivian said...

First...yay you are on maternity leave. I remember when...LOL..my girls are 9 and 11 now. I swear I can still feel them in my arms.

Second...yay again! The quilt made it. And I'm so glad you are a foody type and can use the market fabric. I thought it was way too pretty to leave at the store. Unfortunately the bolt was already sold and all that was left was a couple of fat quarters (I kept one for myself LOL).

Best wishes to you and your family...what a fun time. And good on you for planning ahead with the meals and stuff.

Take care.