Goals for 2010

I never was one to have "New Year's Resolutions". However, I do believe in setting goals. Some may seem realistic at the time, but as the months go on and life takes over, some of those goals get placed on the back burner. One of those goals I chose to challenge myself with is to try out more challenges in the kitchen. For instance, I want to play more with phyllo and puff pastries. I want to try a souffle!!! I actually bought myself a nice size souffle size ramekin at Pier 1 store last weekend. My plan is to try out 2 new recipes a week!!!!!!!! Hey and with the baby coming in April, I hope to make good use out of my slow cooker!!! :) The baby got to sleep some time right!!! :) This week I completed my first two new recipes. I made a Cranberry Steamed Pudding with a vanilla sauce on New Year's Day,


and last night I made a Fresh Tarragon Lime Shrimp Scampi. It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!



I'll have to post my recipes very soon. The other goal is to actually write up and design my foodie blog that I have been procrasting to do since the Fall!!!!!

One thing I started about 3 years ago was a project book to keep myself organized. This spiral black book is made up of several tabbed sections such as "Sewing Projects to Complete (Yearly)", "Christmas Gifts (By Year)", "Scrapbook Ideas", "House Plans/Ideas", etc.






I like to make list each year of all the people I want to make Christmas gifts for during the year. Because I make a majority of my gifts, I need to start the list early. I also have a listing in this book (one/two pages per person), of all the gifts I have made for them in the past so that I don't make a duplicate gift. So far it has worked out fabulously!!!

Tonight, I decided to get a start on my list of projects I want to work on, finish or try out for 2010. The list is not done yet, but I hope by tomorrow to finish it. Mind you, throughout the year I will see something else I want to put my hand to, so of course the list gets bigger. For now though I will post my new 2010 project list on the right side of my blog tomorrow evening.

I managed to clean up some of my fabric drawers and do some organizing. I cleaned out 4 draws in this plastic container and now have a place to put some projects that are ongoing or to be started.


I also thought I would start by pulling out some hand stitching projects that I could work on during my lunch hour at work. With the winter here and snow and ice around the corner (so far we have been lucky with a very very very mild winter.. as in NO snow or ice!!!) I'm very grateful of that this year with me being preggy and all, I want to have a slip free winter season!!! Anyway, I plan to work on some small hand stitching projects over the lunch hours. That should see me complete a few little projects.

I also got a start on cleaning out my UFO cabinet!!!!!!!!! Yep I have a full cabinet BLOCKED with UFOs!!! I would love to see a teeny tiny dent if at all possible there this year.




I also FINALLY managed to get the fabrics pulled and cut for the Fall Mystery Swap that I signed up for back in October!! My due date to get this wallhanging finished and mailed out is January 18th!!! Geeeshh no pressure on me huh!!! Talk about procrastinating!!!!!!!!! I got a nice chunk of it done tonight and will get back at it again full tilt tomorrow evening. I would LOVE to show it to you right now, but in case the recipient is a follower of my blog, or comes to visit from time to time, I would hate to spoil her fun! Once she has received it though I WILL post photos!! I love the fabrics I chose for it so much that I might have to make one for myself!!! LOL !!! Although I think I might turn mine into a cushion!!! :)

Well it is getting close to midnight and I want to look for a nice rib slow cooker recipe for tomorrow's supper. hmm I guess this means I'll be trying out 3 new recipes this first week of January!!!!

Quiltingly Yours at 25 weeks preggy!!! This photo was taken last night. Myself and pooch were relaxin' and reading our book when lil William decided to make himself known. He was kicking enough for me to see my belly make little vibrations.. It was beyond words what I saw and felt!


Andrea

Happy New Year Everyone!

2009 has been a year of many exciting things. I bought my house in March and have loved every second of it so far!




Trevor and I took a great trip to Vancouver to visit our friends Dennis and Lauren who I have to say were AMAZING hosts! We can't thank you enough for your kind hospitality and the enjoyment we shared with you both!






The summer gave us many sunny and warm days on our patio deck where we enjoyed our bit of patio gardening and sipping frozen margaritas while catching a few rays!





We took in some great camping excursions with friends to LaManche Provincial Park with our friends Lisa and Justin




and to Northern Bay Sands.


And the big thing of all, we have a little baby boy to look forward to in April! I can't believe I am 6 months preggy already! Where has the time gone???



Tonight we are hosting our 2nd Annual New Year's Eve Fondue Night! I am spending the hours beforehand cleaning and tidying up the house and getting all the food prepped for tonight's festivities. Trevor and I both love to entertain our friends and share with them our food and our home!

At this time I want to wish one and all out there in Blogland a very Happy and Healthy 2010 to you and your family! May the new year give us all we hope for, that we reach our goals (I don't believe in resolutions LOL), and of course for all us sewers and quilters out there many many wonderful hours of quilting and creating!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Merry Christmas To All!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!!!!!


Wow can you believe Christmas is here again??? Where has the year gone at all?? Last Christmas doesn't seem that long ago, and yet here we are again!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day yesterday. Mine was very nice. Despite some 'growing pains' from baby that prevented me from doing much movement, it was a very nice and relaxing day.

Between visits with family and friends Christmas Eve,

(Lisa and I were matched years ago with the Big Brothers/Sisters program when she was 11 and I was 19... now we are both preggy!!! (2-3 weeks in difference) Too funny!) We are still very close even though we have been out of the program for many many years!

(Baby Bump pose)!


we didn't get home from midnight Mass until after 1:30 as the service went a little longer than usual, but that was okay as it was a beautiful Mass and the choir was just spectacular! I think I crawled into bed around 2am and never got out of bed til 9 the next morning.

Our Christmas Tree!!!

Trevor, Alexi the pooch and I had a nice Christmas unwrapping our gifts. I felt spoiled! I got some beautiful clothes (mostly maternity, but some I can wear after the baby is born too), a beautiful picture frame for the baby's room


some baby clothes, a cute little soft blanket with a puppy dog face on it for baby

a gift certificate for a hair salon, nice smelly stuff for our nebulizer we bought in Vancouver back in April (makes the house smell sooo nice), books, a Kitchen Aid hot red kettle, a new pair of boots, and so much more!!


Trevor got a DVD box set of The Sopranos

a new PS3 game for his system, I made him some knitted socks (my first time knitting with four needles!!! I'm sooo proud of myself!! I loved making them and now I want to make more)!!


He got a book of one of his favourite rock bands, AC/DC, chocolates, loose green tea (he has become a fan of green tea lately), some nice toiletries from The Body Shop, the movie "Borat", a Van Halen watch from his good buddy Jody, and much more!

Alexi got a new winter coat

a purple bikini chicken toy


a Christmas Dog collar, doggy snacks, a new dog tag with her name, and much more! She was in the festive mood yesterday morning and Trevor had her well decorated. I think there was more stuff on her than on the Christmas tree!!! LOL


By 10:30am we three headed downstairs to Mum's apartment for a beautiful Christmas breakfast. After that we had another Christmas gift opening at Mum's place! It took yet another hour or more to unwrap everything down there!!!

Ooh where to begin there!!! Mum gave me a Kitchen Aid Splatter guard attachment for my Kitchen Aid Mixer, maternity pjs, the latest book from one of my favourite authors, Diana Gabeldon


lots of stuff for cake decorating, two books on quilting (a Thimbleberries, and one on Bargello)

a fabric kit to make a soft pretty baby quilt, more baby clothes and toys

a recipe book on brownies (YUM), a new CD full of gorgeous machine embroidery designs

(THANK YOU Theresa)!!!!!!!

and the list goes on and on!

I gave Mum a framed cross stitch of a cross stitch kit of a cat in a sewing room she made some years ago. (she went crazy when she saw that one),

a nice cast iron dutch oven, pjs, quilty stuff including a book on Christmas projects, a fat eighth fabric set from Connecting Threads, smelly stuff for the bath, chocolates and more!

Mum gave Trevor a really nice Black and Decker Jig Saw.

This is a photo of Mum's Christmas tree.


Today, Boxing Day, we had more gift opening ahead of us! About 4 or 5 years ago, Mum and I started the tradition of keeping one gift to open on Boxing Day. We realized and agreed that Christmas morning is so anti climatic. All the gifts are opened, and suddenly you realize after getting in the swing of opening gifts there is nothing left to open til next year... sigh............ soooooo, we keep one gift to open on Boxing Day morning to prolong the whole gift opening fun!

This morning we had a great time doing just that. I gave Mum a nice Sony digital camera with a memory card. I figure with her first grandchild on they way, there are going to be alot of photos!!! She loved it! I gave Trevor a 12" x 12" scrapbook shadow box of photos and memories of his trip to Vegas with one of his best buddies back in August


Mum gave me a Cuisinart Panini Grill!!!

Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All that gift opening just wore us out! Trevor is now spending the afternoon taking a little nap with the pooch on the couch

I'm just lazing around here on the Internet and relaxing, and Mum is downstairs preparing a nice big Turkey Dinner for us tonight! Since we had breakfast at Mum's yesterday morning,then a big turkey dinner at Trevor's parents for supper, and Mum went to her neice's home for a turkey dinner, she wanted to make her turkey dinner for us tonight! wooo hooo more turkey!!!!!!!!! LOL I haven't had to cook a meal for two days.. err well I did make up a big messy breakfast this morning along with a new breakfast dessert of fried apples in cinnamon/cloves/nutmeg sauce along with pecan phyllo pastry triangles!! They were sooooooooooo yummy!!!

And with that, it is now time to have another great Turkey Dinner and then off to a Boxing Day party!!!!

From our home to yours, Happy Holidays everyone!!!!!!!!!



My next post I will show some photos of some of the gifts I made. I can now post them since all gifts have been given out! I have been sooooo busy the last few weeks sewing and quilting and gift wrapping and more. I wanted to post more frequently, but I guess I found every spare moment I had was working on gifts!!!



Quiltingly Yours!

Andrea and Soon to be Baby William Todd Best!! yes we are having a little boy!!!!!!! He is due April 24th!!!!

Alive and Kicking!!! (In More Ways Than One)!! :)

Wow... I've been away from here for a bit, but these days things have just been in a whirl wind. I feel I am Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz being swept around this way and that!!!

Let's see... where to begin.. To start all the 8 tree skirts are FINISHED!!!!!!!! wooooo hooooooo!!! I kept one for myself this year and had 7 to sell. I have 6 sold so far!!! Yippeee!!! They took up alot of time and I had to put some of my Christmas gift making on hold, but it was well worth it!!! Here are some of the skirts!







I also finished the "Snow Days" quilt and I donated to my place of work to put up on tickets. All proceeds will go towards getting Christmas boxes (hampers) together filled with food, turkeys, hams, veggies and other things to some of our much needed tenants. (I work with the provincial government and help to provide housing and housing services to low income families). I love my job and find it very rewarding. So far I hear tickets sales within our organization are going very well. I think the ticket drawing date is December 17th. I'm very curious to find out who will win the quilt in the end!! If this quilt goes over well with ticket sales this year, I think I might make it an annual thing. Hey its a great excuse to try out one of the many million patterns I want to make!!! LOL









I also spent all last weekend handcuffed to my sewing machine making dining room curtains!! Yippeeee FINALLY both the living room AND dining room curtains are finished and the room is really starting to look complete. Hopefully when the Christmas tree goes up this weekend and our bookcases are complete, I will take a final finished photo of the room. I just love my living room and dining room now. In January I'll start the curtains for Trevor's "Man Cave". We picked out the fabric for it ages ago, but I was just up to my eyeballs in so many other things.

Tonight I even got to finish all my Christmas shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hee hee Things are FINALLY starting to come together for me. I have been sooooo late getting shopping and gifts done this year. I still have a pile of gifts to make, but I think I am getting a little better grasp on the whole thing. I managed to cut out 3 sets of placemats last night, and will give myself a time schedule for most nights after work to live out in my sewing room til all my gifts are made. I might be gift wrapping until midnight Christmas Eve, but hey... I WILL reach my goals!!

On a non-sewing/quilting note, some of you might have figured out by some little hints and winks in the last few posts that I am preggo!!! I am 20 weeks today and feeling great! Lil munchkin is starting to kick (well feels more like tickles right now) and I'm LOVIN' IT!!! Tomorrow we have our ultrasound appointment and will get to see the lil munchkin! I can't WAIT!!! We will also know if we have a little boy or a little girl!! Well providing that is lil kiddo is a bit of a flasher or exhibitionist for us for that day. I'm getting sooooo excited!! Less than 12 hours to go.. one more sleep!!!!



Well I'm pooped after a night of Christmas shopping and oogling over all the things I wanted and also bought at Costco. What a wonderful store Costco is. Its just a shame you leave there will less in your wallet than you planned. Ah, but we got enough food and treats to last us into the winter months!!! My freezer is always full. Come January after Christmas is over and we are back to some normal routine, I will spend a couple more days in my kitchen making up more meals to freeze. I'm not sure I'll get much Christmas baking in this year, but that's okay. Mum lives in my basement apartment so I'm sure she will have plenty of yummies to get us through the season!!!!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea