A quiet evening at the fair

The Gloucester Fair came to town. I bought passes for the kids a month and a half ago (a group*n, buy one get one free). We didn't tell them, preferring to surprise them (which almost backfired, sigh, but in the end it was fine).

The day started in typical fashion, with Katie clamouring for the bit kid rides and Jonah happy on the little kids rides, but less than an hour into the trip Jonah began to hint that he might be willing to give a couple of the tamer big kid rides a try. And it was remarkable, each one he tried built his confidence more and he ended up riding all but three (the three that flip upside down, I can't say I blame him on that!)

This was Jonah's favourite ride at the Gloucester Fair. Before one ride, he was strapped in and waiting to start and I was standing on the other side of the fence and he said to me loudly (because Jonah only has one volume level) "Mama you should ride this, it makes you feel like you're hammered', and all of the blood drained from my face and I envisioned visits from CAS, then he continued "like when it spins and I hammer into the person next to me!". Shit my kid says...

For whatever reason, opening day was absolutely dead, the kids never once stood in line to get on the rides and more often than not they were the only people on the ride. For a crowd-hating person like me it was fantastic! It was sunny and warm but not too hot, the absolute perfect day for a spring fair, and yet no one showed up. I'm going to call that a little gift just for me :)

Tulips

Tulips in my garden.

Alone vs lonely

C and I were discussing the difference between alone and lonely. I was often alone as a child, but I never remember being lonely. Here in my cookie cutter cube, in a nondescript building in a dishwater dull complex of nondescript buildings occupied by tens of thousands of workers... Here I feel lonely.

Playing with a new kitchen toy!

Making our first batch of castoreum-free ice cream :)

More trophies for the shelf :)

My two little bits came home from today's bowling banquet with another armload of hardware :)

Princess' team was the bantam division champion. As well she won for girl's high double with a 308. Wookie won for boy's high double at 297, which is even more impressive when you take into consideration that he's one of the youngest bantams and is competing against kids 2+ years older. The both also received perfect attendance awards, which really should go to C and me for schlepping them there every weekend!

And so another year of bowling comes to a close. Just in time for soccer to start Monday. The fun never ends :)

Sewist: The Next Generation

Camp blanket workshop with the Guides.

Beautiful

Princess - Easter morning. Using the lovely 50mm lens that I borrowed from Chris!

(Rolled the counter on my camera :) )

A little quilty for a princess to be

Flying westward to my cousin Samantha who is due any day now...

All stocked up

Though I'm not certain it'll last all year. For my American friends, 4 litres is a little over a US gallon. For my UK friends, 4 litres is a little less than an Imperial gallon.

Me and my guy

Ridiculously unseasonably warm weather... bring on the soft serve!

Finally: a finish long in the making...

Katie's quilt, finally finished! I bought this fabric (well, some of it), in January, 2009! I started piecing the blocks in May of 2009. That's an obscenely long time in the making, and an awfully long time for a little princess to wait for her mama-made bed quilt...

The front is a whirly-giggle pattern, pieced with a couple of kitty cat prints and coordinating prints and solids, all in light pink, fuchsia, aqua, turquoise, black and white. The background it a pale pink with a subtle darker pink pattern. A single border in some of the coordinating black with fuchsia dot fabric, and bound in turquoise (Kona cotton in lagoon actually).

I completely love the back too, more of the black and fuchsia dot fabric, some fuchsia solid and a pale pink strip featuring a few of the leftover blocks from the front (only the blue and black ones). As often happens, I might like the back even better than the front!

Hockey Day in Canada, eh

Hockey Day in Canada - celebrating with a little pond shinny, in Limoges.

Winterlude 2012

Me skating backwards, Dow's Lake, Winterlude 2012.

Our little idol

Katie performing in "Greely Idol", a little singing competition in a small village near our even smaller village :) She didn't win, but she was amazing and I was so very proud.

(She sang 'Hey Soul Sister', loud and strong and without a hint of stage fright)

Simple quilty Bee blocks

Bee blocks for the Flickr 3 x 6 Bee.

Je suis malade

Sucks.

Epiphany

Celebrating Epiphany at mass this morning. Our church is tiny, but has beautiful vaulted ceilings, painted in aqua and gold.

52 Fridays - unplugged (Jan 6, 2012)

I'm a scrapbooker and a story teller, but by always being behind the lens there is so much of the story that I'm not telling. So I've joined the one self portrait a week movement - to add some of myself into my albums and my family's story.

Aaaaand this first one is pretty raw. I have a new computer, and my photo editing software isn't installed yet. Where I would normally photoshop my ruddy complexion and get rid of the mole on my nose that makes me look like the wicked witch this one I'm forced to post unadulterated. Me, unplugged.

In the glow of endless brakelights

Freezing rain for our drive home tonight. Everyone was driving slowly and carefully, but oh so very very slowly, and it made the trip home exhausting.

Back to the grind...

Christmas holidays have officially ended for C and me (the kids still have one more week). Back to work we went, but the days are getting longer and the sun was rising during our drive in. (Blurry sunrise through my dirty car window)

So much for healthy eating...

Good thing it wasn't one of my New Years resolutions :) Out running errands, we stopped at McD's for lunch. Little J really wanted to try a Big Mac. We were surprised when he managed to finish all of it! (The fries, however, did not meet the same fate, but he's not the biggest fry fan anyway so I'm not too shocked that he didn't eat them)

Project 365, 2012

Yeah, I think I'll try this again :)

My darling C, cutting our yummy New Years ham with his new electric knife.

2011 Crafty Finishes

Quilty and crafty finishes for 2011. Not as much as I would have liked to accomplish.

Sunset

The view from my front window. Already I'm noticing that the days are longer, only a week past the solstice.

Merry Christmas to all

and to all a good night...

Glowing

Our shabby little 14 year old fake tree looks downright opulent with the lights all aglow...

Sniffing

Man the cats love the Christmas tree (and sniffing anything I put under it... and untying the tree skirt despite their lack of thumbs...)

We are not amused...