Office help

Around the holidays I decided to bring my dog ObiWan to work. Our office is moving and since we'll be under guard at the new place I felt that this year might be my only opportunity to get away with such fun; and fun it was!! I did get some work done but I also took some time putting him in poses for photos.

 He is normally pretty rambunctious but not that day, other than car sickness on the way home he was the perfect dog. Visiting, socializing with my coworkers and happily greeted everyone who came to the door. . . well, except my boss. He barked like crazy at him when he came to the door. My boss had been hunting and gutting the day before, we suspect ObiWan smelled death and was trying to warn me haha.  Having him with me, the day zipped by. It would be nice to be able to bring him everyday. 

A craft sale and my kiln

 My SIL invited me to sell some pieces at her dance studio. So I thought I would fire some stuff to bring with me.  Only, I have been having some technical difficulties with my kiln. (my husband broke a coil) so I had to pull a ring of my kiln out until I have time to put new coils in. Now I have less space in there.  I learned that my kiln is actually sold with two rings and the third was a custom order made by the previous owner. So removing the third ring wasn't an issue. 

I actually like it better this way. It's much easier for me to load and unload and I can crank the power with out worry of tripping the breaker 

Anyway look what I pulled out of my new smaller kiln this Saturday. 

 The sale was fun! I sold an $8 dish, signed my youngest up for jazz class and met some really nice people :) 

" WOW I wish I had all that extra time"

 It often starts out so innocently and simple "look what I finally finished"  and then we hear it. The sentence that sends us crafters (me) into a defensive rage. Followed by "can you please . . ."   The second I share any craft idea or a finished project with someone they wish, out loud, that they too had all this time in their life to make things and often ask if I could please sew something for them, crochet something for them or throw something for them . . . If you are reading this and are not a crafter I want to inform you now that this behaviour is RUDE! Rude rude rude!  the appropriate response is "wow your are so talented" or "lovely" or " how is it even possible with everything else that you do" and never ask that person to do your mending! if none of those suit your fancy a simple "nice" is better than implying we crafters aren't busy and thinking we have "all this time" to sew the armpit hole in your shirt!  Or patch up your sons knee hole . . .  We DO NOT have "all this extra time" on our hands. I for one am a busy mom of three, I have gymnastics and scouts, computer club and laundry and vacuuming and  meals and dusting but I make the time to also do the things I enjoy. In the evening I don't flop on the sofa for Relaxing TV time, I craft . . . I do with out sleep or catch 5 minutes while waiting for the kids to get to the table after I called them for dinner. . . . I never sit still or empty handed. I am creating ever second I get. I have friends who are fellow crafters and they too DO NOT have "extra time".   I know my rant may sound silly but honestly I have stopped telling people I can sew or I can do pottery. Im not normally this grumpy about it but recently I told someone (I wont say who) that I could sew and they showed up at my house with a shopping bag of their mending for me to do! No joke or exaggeration! Another family member has something for me every other week and various other people in my life often ask me to mend their things. Like I said before I do not have a lot of time. So when I'm doing other peoples mending or their orders for which I won't get paid I'am NOT crafting or creating I am very grumpily regretting I ever told that person I can sew and wishing I was doing something I enjoyed. Am I alone in this? Do I just have too many rude people in my life?? How do I say NO?!?

Nothing else to do

When you're sick in bed there is really nothing fun to do but surf the Internet for idea of what to do . . . These are what I came up with. 

I made a couple pair of these for my two girls and a pair for me. 

Now back to the Internet for more ideas 😃

On the go

My husband had some work in PEI and New Brunswick so the kids and I went with him. He had to work but that didn't stop kids and I from having fun at the pools and beaches.  

Along the drive I thought  it would be fun to buy a lottery ticket from each province we drove through and holy wow we actually won $120 from Quebec! Yay! 

Having been away and the kids out of school I haven't had much time  to be blogging or finishing projects. On the go right now are two and a half quilts and a few pots. 

This is one of the quilts I've started for my youngest. The colours are so her. I finished the top before our trip and was able find some fabric for the backing in PEI 

Check it out cozy flannel in the exact colours I needed 

I'm also working on my sons crazy quilt. I have been working on it for over a year.  I'm so pleased with how its coming out. If I ever finish it I've been told that I "have to" enter it in the local fair. I have more embroidery and some little patches I'd like to add to it.  But here's a peek at what I've done so far. 

I've also started another little quilt for my youngest to use at school. I love the little yellow bird I made it at the suggestion of my niece. I drew the bird with a pen on some yellow fabric and used my free motion foot to stitch over my pen lines 

 

I have a big load of pots I need to bisque among them are these, a bird bath I made for my MIL to give as a gift to her friends and a chips and salsa bowl. 

I was reminded today that my kids would be back to school in a week! Yay!! After they all start back I'll have two weeks before I have to go back to work. Two glorious weeks all for me!! No kids for a full 10 days thats 60 hours!!!!  to recover from summer haha I haven't yet decided if I'll be spending it on the sofa napping and watching Netflix with my dog or finish up my projects and starting new ones. Either way I KNOW  I'll so totally enjoy it! 😃

Quick quilt

Last weekend I got around to reading what my youngest will need for when she starts school. She's the first of my children to attend full day kindergarten so I was surprised to read that she would need a blanket that would be "sent home on weekends for washing". The note didn't say if she would be using the blanking to lay on or under but I I'm certain she needs a personalized one made by mama.  So that is exactly what I started yesterday. I tried the free hand motion and love how quickly and easily I got the hang of it. The blanket feels stiff so I have it in the wash and hope that will help soften it. 

I couldn't decide on  colour or fabric so I asked my little one to pick from a couple options.  She had wanted pink but I didn't have any so she settled on the purple. I told her I would get her some pink and make another one. This quilt was so quick and so easy I don't see why I couldn't  make a couple of them just in case I don't feel like doing laundry every weekend :) 

Kids in my kitchen

I'll be honest and admit that I don't play nice with others in my kitchen. I bump or trip over people they get in my way, distract me with talking making me grumpy and when children are involved, there is also that inevitable sneeze going into the food we'll be eating. YUCK!
Recently, I went out of the norm cause I know how much they love it and how good it is for them to learn meal preparation and I invited my 8 and 6 year old to help out with peeling and chopping, I even let them use real sharp knives and a peeler. I was worried about a finger being chopped off the whole time but it was nice to have their company and the pride I heard in their voices when they told daddy they had made dinner was worth abandoning my comfort zone. My 6 year was even proud to show off the little finger cut she got chopping a potato. I think I might have to invited them in to my cooking zone more often. . . Or maybe not . . .  Do you let you kids help out in the kitchen?