Highlight of the Ward Family Christmas

 

There`s going to be a wedding!

Sean`s brother Sheldon surprised Lynsey with a ring in the pocket of the jacket he got her for Christmas.  (And I got a fun engagement photo of them, courtesy of the new lens...  Thanks, Sean!)

**********

 We got to see an itty bitty baby today - our friends had a baby boy on Thursday afternoon & were at church this morning to show him off.  (Well, ok, maybe they were there to worship, but we all sure checked him out!)  Their birth announcement is a little video worth watching - some older sibling celebrating going on there.  Congrats Darren & Christine!!

**********

M has a blog with school - if you want to check it out, you can do that here.  She`s MW if you`re browsing through the class list.

Merry Christmas!

The best shot of the morning: Madeline`s reaction when she opened the last gift and saw a camera.

(This was taken with my new Canon 50mm 1.8 lens!)

A Counter for Christmas!

Sean brought home the counter top today!  It`s not attached yet, but set in place, and I used it to make Butterscotch Treats and Poppycock.  I imagine it`s a very happy counter top, getting a new family for Christmas, and being welcomed with such yummy love.  It`s a dark grey, so it blends nicely with the black and stainless appliances.

I`ve made the Christmas food list, and tomorrow I`ll be making the potatoes for Christmas day at Carla`s, Christmas afternoon I`ll put together the marshmallow salad for Boxing Day at the Wards, and before church on Sunday I`ll make the apple crisp.  Not too bad.  I already made a batch of poppycock this week to take as gifts for my co-workers - today`s batch is for us.  

After Christmas I`ll post photos of some of the stuff I`ve made as gifts.  Don`t want to spoil any surprises just yet!  One more to make, but it`s to go to Winnipeg, so I`ve got an extra day or two for that. 

I will say, though, that I love vinyl!  A friend saw the parent / child aprons I made last year and asked me to make some for her and her two daughters.  No problem - I whipped those up last weekend for her.  She also has a little boy who needed a holster for his gun... so she brought me some brown vinyl when she came with the apron fabric she had picked out.  I impressed myself with my pattern design skills (must have got that from Mom), and I loved working with the vinyl - it`s smooth like butter.  I`m going to have to get me some of that to play around with.  Watch out - next Christmas just may all be decked out in vinyl.

These three are all the same - reversible with pockets on both sides.  M is my always willing model.

Oh, I do have to tell you that I rocked the serger today.  And by rocked I mean that it had a broken thread which I successfully re-threaded, and then when that bobbin promptly ran out of thread, threaded it again.  And, when another thread broke, I re-threaded that one.  And the end one, when it ran out of thread.  And finally the fourth one, when it wasn`t connecting the way it should.  It didn`t even feel like the machine was my enemy, either - we were strange cohorts, in a joint effort to boost my confidence in my serger rocking abilities.  Hooray for me, and thanks, Singer!

Looks Like Christmas

 

The tree went up tonight!  Sold the microwave stand, moved a few things over, and put up the new tree.  I did all the `fluffing`(funny how no one else likes that job), put up the lights and garland, but the actual decorating has to wait till M is home from school tomorrow.

I put on the music station and heard this song - thought it was worth sharing!

Merry Christmas!

 

Happy Gifts

I made the best little gifts yesterday - have a look (except if you're in book club!!!):

Little Book Club Ornaments

With Pictures Of All The Books We Read This Year Inside

And Wrapped So Prettily!

<> <> <> <> <> <> <>

The first screw just went in attaching cabinets to the wall.  This week they should all go in and the plumbing done.  The counter top won't get here till early next week, so I won't have that or a sink until the week before Christmas - the race is on to see if it will be done by Christmas or not!  As soon as the cabinets are in, though, I can put back all the stuff that is currently in the living room and 'move in'.


Madeline is out volunteering - she goes the second Sunday of the month to help with the service our church puts on at the rehab hospital.  She loves being there, and I'm glad for the couple who takes her along (and usually out for lunch after) each month.  Nice for her to have her own serving thing, and the friendship of this great couple, too.


Tonight is her Christmas concert - she is doing a duet at the beginning (which you can watch online if you can't be here to experience it in person... 6:30, westhillchurch.ca).

Fame in the Family

McNally Robinson Booksellers
presents the launch of
Measured Words:
An Anthology
with Editor
Barbara J. Becker

 

Thursday December 9, 7:00 pm
Grant Park in the Travel Alcove

This anthology invites the reader to savour a cultural banquet of stories, poems, photos, illustrations, and recipes Come sit around the table and sample the diverse, authentic voices of Manitoba writers sharing special memories.

Contributors include Barbara J. Becker, Lauren Blue, Ellen Burns, Charlotte Caron, Dana L. Coates, Tracy Gregory, Althea Guiboche, Elizabeth M. Hunter, illustrator Pamela Kat Johnson, Lovern Kindzierski, Leona MacDonald, Glynis C. Morris, Charmaine Johnson Putnam, Andrea Ridgedale, Clayton Schneider, Jennifer Schneider, Judy Stoddart, and Oriole Vane Veldhuis. Editor Barbara J. Becker is a graduate of the University of Winnipeg, a teacher and a writer published in journals local, national and international, as well as in Prairie Writers Volumes One and Three.

 )( )( )( )( )( )( )( )( )( )(

Clayton and Jen are my brother and sister-in-law, and the editor, Barb, is Jen's mom.  We got to have a peek at Thanksgiving, and I'm looking forward to getting my own copy at Christmas.  If you live in the Winnipeg area, go check out the launch and readings this Thursday.  I wish I could.

Christmas Cards & Cookies!

Or, What I Made Today.

I picked up supplies for cards on Saturday (thinking the whole time, I should just buy some...) but I'm glad I didn't.  These are coming together quickly, and I'm working on my list of who to send them to as I go.  I started the assembly line yesterday, and today some are ready to go.  The cards are a box of blank reds & greens, and they all look good with the brown and white.  Hooray for homemade!

Madeline's class is having a bake sale tomorrow to raise money for the Humane Society & I sent the form back last week saying yes, we'd send some goodies - and hoping I'd have a stove at least by now! We do have the stove, but still not much prep room, so these are a roll of Pillsbury dough - they'll do!

 

When I wrote last I said all we had left was a coat of color on the walls... Sean did that while I was at the craft sale on Saturday.  He also moved the fridge and stove and table and chairs back into place, so it's looking great!  Yesterday he put up those lights over the table, and right now he's in the kitchen installing the new pot lights in the kitchen.  It's coming!

Now I'm heading back to the studio to make some more cards, or maybe to write in & address some... or maybe I'll just pick up my book and relax...  Thanks for checking in!

If you want a Christmas card, send me an email to followandlead @ gmail . com with your mailing address - even if I don't know you!  Ha - especially if I don't know you! 

Book Club Party & Sad Anniversary

 

Here are my book club friends!  Last night we met & ate & discussed Animal Farm, and had a book exchange.  Good fun - I enjoy these girls.  We`ve got two little readers on the way - the two in the middle of the back row are both due Dec. 17!  Suzanne`s little one is coming a little sooner, though - (s)he`s breech, so she`s got a C scheduled for Tuesday.   

We set up for the craft sale tonight.  It looks decent - 80 tables and yummy baking...  I`m looking forward to hanging out with Madeline and Carla and Josh and Suzanne tomorrow.  (It`s at WH Ford, 10-4 if you want to come check it out or visit!)  I also wish I was going to be home painting with Sean, but I did get in on some brush action tonight.  We primed the whole kitchen, and painted the kitchen and bathroom ceilings.  All that`s left is the color on the walls.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Today is December 3.  It`s a sad anniversary for us - Neil has been gone 7 years.  Hard to believe.  In so many ways life has moved on, but in so many ways he is still here.  People at the church talk about him, I still see his handwriting in lots of files at work, Madeline is like him in so many ways: she`s got his looks, his musicality, even his teeth!  The dentist said this week that she`ll need braces.  She had the day off today, so we went down to the cemetery.  There was lots of snow, so we shoveled a path and cleared off the stones.  It`s always a reminder, too, of Lucy - she would be 9 now.  I wonder what she`s like.  Something M said right after Neil died was that I was here with her, and Daddy was in Heaven with Lucy.  I don`t know if that just made sense to her, or if it was a comforting thought.  It does take a bit of the edge off, somewhat.  When we saw Carla tonight she asked if we had shoveled - they went out this morning, too, and while they were there Warren and Doug showed up.  M was glad to hear that - she had been asking this morning if I thought anyone else would go.  She likes knowing that other people remember - I think it validates her feelings.

There you go - just some rambling thoughts on day 2555 without him.

Dear Blog World, I`ve missed you.

I`ve been busy creating... although I can`t point to a pile of stuff and say, `Look!`  I have been making a few more things for my craft sale this Saturday - a few more magic bags, some tie-onesies, and more magnets.  Along with the little snowmen and the ribbon rings, I should have enough for a table, nicely spread out.  Carla and Suzanne are joining me, but we got another table next to me that they`ll share.  I hope there`s no blizzard for this one.

While I was waiting for the Jessica Sprague course Inspiration Everywhere to start, I got out my Holidays in Hand album that I did last year, through another one of her courses.  I haven`t looked at it since January, and had lots of fun taping down a bunch of stuff, and getting ready to add to it this year. I figure that it wasn`t something I didn`t complete; it will be an ongoing album of our Christmas memories until it`s too full for more.

Then on Monday the new class started, so I`ve been playing around with some of that stuff, starting an Art Journal...  Today`s assignment was to make a mix CD of songs to inspire creativity.  I rarely listen to anything, so I`m not sure if I`ll skip that one or not.  Maybe I`ll get a mix CD for Christmas.  I know a couple of people who I would love one from...

Off to bed now - I don`t have to stay up late finishing my book for book club tomorrow, because this month is Animal Farm by George Orwell.  A good short one.  Good for us, Ladies - that was well planned.