I love knitting

My mom knits a lot, and she makes beautiful things. She goes in waves of different hobbies, but it seems like when she's in her knitting wave there isn't a time when she doesn't have the needles in her hands. She can knit a little baby sweater in next to no time at all. Surrounded by all of her talent for so many years, I was never interested in knitting.
Now my sisters-in-law knit a lot too. They learned at Young Women's last year, and basically haven't put it down since. They've each knit a couple of nice looking scarves, and this year I decided I wanted to do the same. It was a very quick decision I made. I said I wanted to learn, then I took Elizabeth to Micheal's, got some yarn and needles, and away I went. That was on Thursday evening. By Saturday evening I had half a ball of wool done, but got it so twisted and has added so many extra stitches that I decided to undo the whole thing and start again. I didn't put it down all weekend. On Tuesday I took it on our road trip to Lacombe, and got a lot done there. By Thursday I was done, and it took me a couple days to remember to take it to mom and dad's to have Elizabeth teach me to cast off and finish it up. By the weekend though I had a brand new scarf, and I love it to pieces. Knitting is so much fun, and if enjoying it makes me an old lady, then I don't want to be young again!

Afternoon Tea

Saturday I got the chance to throw a baby shower for my good friend Laura. This baby shower has been my project for a little while and I've really enjoyed gathering ideas for it.
I think that Laura and I have similar tastes - as far as style and decoration and crafty things - and so I was excited to put my creative energy into this. I knew she would love and appreciate it as much as I loved doing it.
I love having people over to my home, and I love entertaining. This afternoon was such a nice afternoon spent with lovely ladies and celebrating a brand new lovely lady on the way.
It started out as a bit of a mess. Eric spent an hour or more working on a wasp nest we found as we went outside to start setting up. He tackled them, and escaped with only one bite. My poor hero - luckily he didn't swell like his brother did only a couple weeks ago (his foot was twice the size). Just as we settled the wasps and were ready to set up, it started to rain. When Eric came in and told me the news, my heart sank. I was so looking forward to setting up outside and having it all come together the way I wanted. We started to set up inside and it was just not the same. I had planned on using my house as a hiding spot for the mess, and it also got really hot really fast with all those people. A little while later Eric came back and said the rain had passed and it was really nice outside, so with a few minutes of chaos and a couple wonderful helping hands, we were set up outside - just about exactly how I wanted it to be.  We spent some time playing games, eating food and visiting. Just a moment after Laura opened her last present the rain came back full force and everyone grabbed something and we got it all inside. It was a nice way to get a bunch of help cleaning up!

 

These two. These boys were born two days apart, two weeks before Cecelia. They just keep growing and growing getting cuter and cuter. Cecelia was a lucky gal to be surrounded by them. It was a baby parade yesterday - these two, Cecelia and two other little girls.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped - Sarah who came to help set up and brought decorations; Vanessa who brought the wonderful and delicious drinks; Lauren who brought chocolate covered strawberries, because no event is complete without them; and even Laura who brought a couple really great little food items as well. By the end of the afternoon - when all the mini disasters had passed - it was a really great time, and I think people enjoyed it. I know Laura did, and that's really the most important thing.

Crock A Doodle

We were finally in the north of Calgary again today and so we went and picked up another of Eric's Fathers' Day gifts. I went with my prenatal class and painted pottery at Crock a Doodle. They all painted coffee mugs - which Eric would never find a use for - and I debated between either a piggy bank or a butter dish. We've been looking for a butter dish big enough to fit a put brick of butter for as long as I can remember. When I saw one there, I knew we just had to have it. It took me way too long to paint it, and it has none of Cecelia's foot prints or hand prints or anything like that, but I knew my husband would appreciate it. And he did.

Girls Night: A Christmas Special

Saturday night was girls night of December. It really was a great night - good food, a fun and easy craft, an ornament exchange, and most of all a photo booth. It was really just an enjoyable night with some really great ladies - a new faces too.
I don't even have too much to say about it, except that I am very grateful to Laura for these nights she plans and does so well. It's really nice to have them once a month and she puts so much work in to making them fun and exciting and comfortable for everyone involved. I admire her for it. (I'm sure she's reading this at some point too - probably bored at work or something - so I should say that I really do mean it Laura. You're great.)

Update

The the book page canvas project.

I already mentioned that I wasn't a huge fan of how it turned out. It felt like it was missing something, and today I found out what. I decided to personalize it and make it more applicable to Eric and I, so I could hang it somewhere we both could appreciate it. 

These are the supplies I used. 

 Step 1: Print and cut out your design or words.

This is the best part. You don't need a stencil or a predesigned image (unless you want one), you can use your creative energy in this part.
Then print it and cut it out. Place it where you want on the canvas. 

Step 2: Shade the back of each piece.

Use a dark pencil to shade the back of the image. You don't need to cover the whole paper, but make sure you cover the back of the entire design. 

Step 3: Place the design back in place.

After you've shaded all the pieces, put them back in place, face up. Place the shaded side down, against the canvas. Then use a pencil to trace the design or the letters. Just outline and copy it exactly (or what you want to show through).

Step 4: Trace it with a darker or coloured pen or marker.

After you trace over the letters with the pencil, and remove the paper, you will see it in very faint pencil marks on the canvas.
I just chose to make my design black, so that was easy. I used a really thin, but wet ink pen to trace over those faint pencil marks. I did each piece separately; in pencil first, then in this thin pen.
From here you can decide whether you want it to be just an outline, or whether you want to fill it in. I chose to fill it in.

Step 5: Fill it in.

For this part I used three different black markers {that's why it was so convenient that I wanted just black, because I could find three the same colour}. First I filled everything in loosely with a thick chizzled tip marker. I didn't get close to the edges with this one.
Then I used a regular sized Sharpie marker to get closer to the edges, and then to make the edges straight. Finally I used the thinnest point Sharpie. I used this one to shape the corners of each letter, and to fill the edges of my smaller letters.
I may have gone a little overboard on this part, but I want on the phone while I was doing it, and just kept going and going. You may not fell the need to do all these steps, and that's fine. It will still look great to the naked {not-your} eye.

I am very pleased with the way this one turned out. It just amped up the first version, and made it ours. Do the letters look perfect? Of course not. Are they perfectly straight? Unfortunately not. But this is now something that means something to Eric and I and that I do plan to eventually hang in our home.