Happy Birthday!

Happy 85th Birthday to the Pater :). We had a lovely family dinner at my sister's place. I think he enjoyed being made a fuss over (don't we all). The water bottle carriers were a hit, in fact I now have orders for more from the rest of the family ...

What else have I been up to you ask? Well, I finally broke down and
joined the Mug Rug crowd .... I swore I wasn't going to, they're just small place mats, who wants one of those? Then, last week whilst visiting the mater I noticed she was using a folded over place mat on her coffee table for her cuppa. Well .... the light bulb went off - what a perfect Mother's Day gift (shhhhh - don't tell her!). I have enough of these two fabrics left over to make 2 more. I actually think I might just take one to the workplace and use it myself. I may just start a trend there as well ;)

Now who wants the last mug rug?

My Daffodils survived last week's hail!

Today (Sunday) it's a VIKINGS marathon on the History channel. Oh yeah ..... Ragnar - ohhhh yeah .... You know what I'll be doing this afternoon and evening .... watching Ragnar   :)

TTYL

Yeah ! a sunny Sunday :)

I'm so thrilled - it's sunny yeah!! It's been so long since we've seen the sun I was beginning to think we'd never see it! None-the-less, my faith in the sun has been restored :). Last weekend was a long weekend and a couple of friends and I travelled a short way out of town to the first of the season quilt shows. Of course we stopped at the local quilt shop where I bought this beautiful leave fabric. At first I did not have anything in particular in mind, but then the light bulb went off!  The Pater's 85th birthday is this weekend. We had been discussing the idea of having water bottles in the car/with him when he goes travelling/walking.So, I whipped up two quilted water bottle carriers, bought a couple of re-usable water bottles and voila! the perfect birthday gift for someone who has everything!

I somehow managed to finish off the Sunflowers for Meesta , Carol Armstrong's cat name, not mine, I haven't named the cats on this quilt yet. I'm very proud of the Sunflowers and would like to think they had some part in bringing today's sunshine ..... but then again, what would explain yesterday's snow flurries? Now I have to decided which block/cat to do next, and what flowers . Any suggestions?
TTFN

How was your Easter?

So, how was your Easter weekend? Now, I'm not terribly religious, in fact I'm borderline agnostic/atheist, none-the-less I was looking forward to a long Easter weekend. You know, the weekend full of ridiculous 1950's Charlton Heston movies like Ben Hur. My favourite website, Arts & Letters Daily informed me of the background to this book/movie. It was written by an American Civil War general,  Lew Wallace and has lots and lots of history to it before it became the 1959 blockbuster! Who knew!!?! Now maybe you'll watch this hokey movie with a very different perspective.

I was tres expectant to have a glorious 4 days off work ... granted, I knew I  would spend one, maybe two full days or more doing family stuff, but was actually looking forward to cooking a meal for the family. Being the single sister I haven't had much chance over the years to do just that. My sister, who has hosted every family meal in her home for the last 3+ decades, was in Italy travelling on vacation with her hubby. So here was my chance!  Along with a ham, homemade scalloped potatoes, homemade cole slaw and vegies,  I made a new recipe, a pineapple casserole. I know ! Sounds weird right? But it was really good. Click the pic for the recipe from Mennonite Girls can Cook! You can eat it as a side dish, like stuffing, or as a dessert :)

I managed to do a movie with the Pater & step mother on Sat and took them out for a nice restaurant dinner on Monday. My "family" dinner on Sunday went off without too many hitches, given that it was hosted @ the Mater's (she has more space than I do), so I had to truck most of the dinner over there.

In case you think the last 2 weeks were a write-off re stitching, almost but not quite. I have the stems and most of the leaves done, and last night got one of the Sunflowers done. I SOOOOO like the Sunflower and am looking forward to making more :)

TTFN