House progress

We spent part of the weekend and this week at our new land. You can see that the new (to us) camper got pressed into service right away!



It was certainly much more comfortable than sleeping in the tent.




On Monday we got a chance to see them pour the foundation for our house... so exciting!



Those poor fellas are working out in the sweltering heat. They had to work really fast because things were drying so quickly. Oldest and I watched this happen from the shade of the camper, as it was almost impossible for us to stand in the sun for more than a few minutes at a time.






Here's the finished pour:




Probably not all that exciting for you non-family members. Really. It's okay, I understand. I probably wouldn't read about someone else's cement pour...





For those of you are still reading...



We're building with ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms). Very cool, very much like giant Lego.






The fella doing the work said that it's as much fun as Lego for big boys...with rebar...but you don't get to choose your colours, they only make the blocks in white - BUT the kits are REALLY BIG!




The day after they poured the foundation they came back and set up two rows of blocks. Once the two rows are in AND the forms are built for the garage foundation, the cement truck will return and pour into these forms - then we'll be able to put the floor in. And the walls should go up quite quickly from there.




Can you believe it? It's begun in earnest, now.


Whew.

Lisa
:)

Now you see it, now you don't

We spent some time in the hospital waiting area this morning....







We waited...

and waited.....

and waited.....

and waited....

and when finally they had time for us...

Check it out! New X-rays, CLEAR X-rays... and one very, very happy boy.


We spent the afternoon at the beach, swimming, fully submerged as often as possible to celebrate.


Summer officially starts today for this young man.

:)

Lisa

A tremendous honour

While I was not looking, Debra awarded me which reminds me how thankful I really am for this online network of wonderful people I've met through blogging. I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to meet Debra in person (she's in Texas and I'm in B.C.), but if I ever do, she'll get a big, big (Texas-sized) hug. If I could give the award back to her, I would. Her work is tremendous, it makes me think...it makes me drool...and most of all, it's a feast for the senses. I really would love to reach right through my monitor and touch what she's working on...maybe someday we'll have feel-o-vision for us fibre nuts.

Who to share this honour with? She's already passed it on to a couple of lovelies that I'd have had on my list...

Here are some inspirational blogs that I read as they are posted:

Rhiannon (over at Toast and Cupcakes). Rhiannon is a lovely, tremendously talented clothing designer who is busy, busy, busy. I've got a couple of her creations in my closet (all the way from Australia) and love reading about her life when she has time to post. I find her work very inspiring.

Bethany (over at Bitter Betty Industries). Bethany is always cooking up something new, whether it's wonderful vintage-styled clothing, cooking, gardening, or puppy rearing. I never know what I'll find with one of her posts, but I always know it'll have style.

Jared (over at Brooklyn Tweed) never fails to amaze me with his knitting, his spinning and his wonderful photography. Drool.

Samantha (over at Diary of a Mad FabriHolic) is always doing something involving her family, her work, her volunteer work, her knitting or her quilting. She combines colours in wonderful ways and has tremendous enthusiasm for crafting. I always open her posts to see what's going on.

Sue (over at Sue Bleiweiss) is always making new surfaces for us fibre junkies to ooh and aah at. I was lucky enough to take a class on multi-media surfaces from her last year (some of you longtime readers might remember) which opened my eyes to all kinds of new possibilities for fibre art and fibre art surfaces. I'm a huge fan of her journals, which she has made into an art form unto themselves.

Now, these are only a few of my daily reads. These are some of the wonderful people that keep my creative juices flowing, even when I can't express my fibre-lust in my own life - I get to live vicariously through theirs...

Yours,
humbly,

Lisa

We're away

In our new (to us, anyway) camper trailer for a couple days. See you soon!

Lisa

There's no school like the OLD school...

As my DH pulled up with the truck, Oldest said, "cool, we got a retro truck!"

Little does he know how NOT retro, but just plain OLDSCHOOL this whole set up is...yup, a beautiful '76 Skylark camper and 80's vintage GMC. Guess where the boys are sleeping tonight? I just took out a flashlight to them, in case they need to come in during the night.

The truck has been dubbed 'Rootbeer', and the boys want to name the camper 'Cappuccino' - I mentioned that we don't have to name all our vehicles after beverages, but was voted out. Sigh. Who am I to argue?

We'll take it down to the land tomorrow, and set up a rather deluxe (well, more so than the van, anyway) domicile so that the boys and I can spend more time down there without having to tent. And this way we'll have an easier way to cook meals and store food.

Life is good.

Lisa

Bad. Bad Blogger. Bad. Sit. Stay. Good Girl!

We've been up to lots of shenanegans over the past 10 days, but somehow I've not been able to get it together to sit down here and log them.

The boys and I spent part of last weekend down at our land, clearing sticks and watching DH get the site ready for the foundation pouring fellas...who apparently got there last night and started their work! Whee! The house is begun!

And now I can better appreciate the basic necessities of life, and just how hard it has been for DH living without them all these months while we waited for this part of the project to begin.


Here is the much celebrated outhouse (in situ), and functioning power pole. Life is good, and a bit more convenient.









We played hard, and worked hard. I 've spent a LOT of my time working on communicating with this guy:

(who would be easier to see if Blogger would stop over-rotating my pictures!!)

We're all pretty lucky that he's such a smart dog (or maybe I'm just close to his intelligence level), and that he's quite laid back. He's just starting to get a little 'adolescent' minded, making things rather interesting.


He's still very affectionate, which can be a lot to handle at 67kilos!

Not far from our new house site in Crescent Valley is an antique shop called 'Rosetown Antiques and Collectibles'. Originally sucked in at the idea of antique sewing machines (because I need more...really... - ahem), and got talking with the owner. It turns out that she is an avid sewer and fibre artist - we had a LOT in common, and she was very friendly and welcoming.
I had a look at some of her machines, her vintage clothing (gulp! - beautiful dresses from the 40's...close to my size...DANGER), and a little shoebox of patterns. This lovely Simplicity pattern had to come home with me! Sadly not all the pattern pieces are in it, but that's okay. I was thinking I might like to frame the envelope and instructions...

Yep, I think I can see myself dropping in to see Rose from time to time to see what other lovelies she has in stock.


And, in preparation for moving, I gave away the rest of my fish and took apart my 200L tank. It's really strange to have it sitting there, empty. Yesterday the power went off for a while and I found myself looking over at the tank to see if the power was back on yet - silly, as the tank was completely empty and dry, not plugged into anything anymore. Old habits really are hard to break.

It was a little bit of a sentimental time, dismantling things, as that tank has been up and running (in one capacity or another) here in our living room for the last 8+ years. Some of the fish we gave away were 5+ years old.


What you can't quite see in this picture is all the boxes that are around the living room right now. There are many open boxes in varying states of organization. It drives me a little bonkers to have things taken apart like this - I guess a little piece of me is compulsive, after all. I just want to put it AWAY. So that I can VACUUM. Then everything will be TIDY. Hrm. The things a girl learns about herself when not expecting it.

BTW...I've done some sewing, but have no pictures to show for it. I couldn't sleep in the wee hours of the morning last week and made the boys 8 pair of pajama bottoms...4 pair each. And a pair for myself. Oh, and I finished knitting a pair of socks. Oh, and submitted another assignment for the course I'm (still) working on.
Plus cooking, cleaning, walking with the dogs, playing with my boys...

Whew. I'm glad I wrote that down. Maybe the days aren't just slipping away on me after all!

Cheers,

Lisa

Happy Canada Day!

I know, I know...it's a day late...


We were too busy having fun yesterday to do anything like posting!


Nakusp has a terrific Canada Day Celebration commencing with a pancake breakfast by the firefighters (they drive around with the sirens on at 6 am to make sure people are up for some flapjacks...) and ending after 10 pm with a big fireworks display over the lake. We were lucky to have company for our day yesterday...cousins, aunt, uncle and grandparents. Life is good. We're rich with family.


Today started with a house showing (the boys, dogs and I just got out of dodge and went for a walk on the waterfront), then I did a total tear down of my smaller aquarium.
I still have my big (50gal) aquarium upstairs -with only 4 fish left in it!

A few days ago we gave away the last of our fish from the small (downstairs) tank, and today was the first chance I've had to look at taking it apart. It's so sad to see all those components drying - temporary, though. Once we're in a new house we'll set up at least one of the tanks again. I love having the fish.

The weather here is crazy hot, and the town is just hopping with tourists. I think we'll head to the beach a little later. Poor youngest has a new cast (that pesky wrist was fractured after all) and still can't get it wet. At least this time he got a fiberglass cast, so hopefully we won't have have to go up and get a retrofit with this cast as we had to with the last one (we learned that Youngest needs more than a plaster cast to get through his days...).

Happy summer,

Lisa

Egyptology robe

Got Youngest's robe done last night, and left it for him at his breakfast spot...he likes it!

It's almost the same size as his brother's with some modifications. This one is padded and lined, a slightly different proportion and more challenging to make, all told. I didn't want to cut any of the panels of Egyptian gods, so had to measure up and piece each of the outer garment pieces. Oldest's robe took about 2 hours to make, this one took about 6. It's worth it, though. He loves it.

Here we go, second last day of school...field trip day. I can't wait to release those tadpoles back into the wild!

Lisa

Origato

Ah -

so last night I finished Oldest's robe and left it folded at his spot at the breakfast table. The boys slept out in the tree fort last night, so it was among the first things he saw when he came in this morning.

He loves it! It's non-traditional as far as proportions go, and somewhat modified to withstand the type of wear it will get from our young grasshopper.

It is made to his measurements, and to his proportions. The tie and collar measurement are based on the width of his closed hand - don't you just love the Japanese aesthetic?

All the seams are all a modified flat-felled seam, so that they are strong and lay flat. I also like top stitching (have I mentioned that?), so everything is top stitched to hold it all in place - You know, just in case he's attacked by Ninjas. Hey - it could happen, couldn't it?

Now to do Youngest's robe...

Happy stitching,

Lisa

the Hanten jacket

I've not run across a better book on Japanese clothing than this one :
Make your Own Japanese Clothes by John Marshall . If you're interested in drafting your own kimonos, yakata, japanese style socks or how to tie an obi, this is the book for you. It has information on how to care for Japanese textiles (such as how to properly fold a Kimono), and many, many ideas of how to modify and modernize the clothes.

Oldest would like a hanten-style jacket that we'll modify a little (okay, a lot). Traditionally, hanten jackets are worn over kimono, are padded, worn without belts, and about 3/4 length. They can be worn both formally and by craftsmen with their family or company emblem on the collar and centre back.

Our hanten's intended use is as a robe, will be unlined and worn with a belt. It will longer, too...

We've measured Oldest and the fabric is in the dryer...I can't wait to get into making this. Oldest can't wait either...

:)
L

A better picture...

I promised...

A better picture of my skirt, taken by my Oldest.

Happy Monday,
Lisa

some sewing

With the final sales of shop fabric being done and the last of the website removed from the internet, I've finally gotten around to starting some of the projects I've been putting off.

On Friday last week I got going on a wrap A-line skirt, drafted and made following Bitter Betty's tutorial, found here.

I've been in love with these Jane Sassaman prints for some time and thought they'd make a great, summery reversible wrap skirt...

I followed Bethany's drafting instructions, but did a little improvising on the construction. *note* Bethany's instructions are GREAT!

Once the whole thing was turned right side out, lined up well and ironed, I topstitched all my edges (except the waistband). I like my fabrics to stay put, darn it!


I made my waistband a little narrower, and only used two widths of fabric for the waistband/ties which I made all in one piece, not in three as Bethany did. I liked her effect, but didn't have much time so did my usual trick of making it up as I went along...not always time saving, but in this case, the winds were blowing in my favour!

And here I am with my finished skirt. (Sorry about the dark, blurry photo...I'll try to get a better one at some point)


This may well become my favorite summer skirt.





Off to draft a pattern for Oldest's robe...he wants a traditional Japanese Hanten jacket...I can't wait to sink my teeth into this one!

:)

Lisa

And the mystery man is....

Youngest!


At first he was so excited about it that he took his own marker to school for his friends to sign it...but last night the itching set in. Not a pretty picture, not a happy fella...

We don't know for sure if his wrist is broken or not, but this is one of those preventative things they do. He may have broken a little bone in his wrist - if so, it would not really show as broken until about 10 days from now, by which time it would be a candidate to cause him problems later down the road. They stabilized his wrist for the 10 days, then he'll get the cast removed and things re-X-rayed (is that even a word?) to see if all is well inside there.

In the meantime, we've got a good conversation piece. Between the new puppy and the big cast, we make friends wherever we go and always have lots to talk about.

here's to hoping to get sewing today,

Lisa

What on earth?

Who is sporting this lovely piece of plaster this new summer season? Ah, tomorrow it will be revealed....

Mom and Dad - Don't worry too much, all is well!

:)
Lisa

Oh, and if you haven't entered this, you should....

A blog giveaway for some lovely jewelry...

Check here. Are these not beautiful?

:)

Lisa

the arrival....

We've had a new friend enter our lives.

He's a sweetheart, a Cane Corso Mastiff...and he's only 6 Months old.
Don't let his cute face and young age fool you, though - he's a big boy already, and getting bigger!

As you can see, he is really lovely with our boys (well, he is only a boy himself, still)...

We were lucky enough to have him given to us by friends of ours who are moving to a smaller piece of land. We're moving to a larger one (and had some extra room in our hearts for a new family member) - so it's a perfect fit!
Helping him to settle in to our household is taking some adjusting. We already have another dog and a few cats, so we've been trying to help the animal population get along (oh! I just realized our pets now outnumber us!).

And although he is still a puppy, this is one of his favorite things to do:

preferably nestled up against someone's feet.

He's snoozing now, so I'm going to take advantage of this bit of time to get some work done downstairs, in the 'dog free' zone.

Yours, in puppy bliss,

Lisa

just to let you know

I'm away camping part of this week with my younger son's school class.

This is the fourth year we've done this - every year it has rained. There's something tremendously charming about 30 wet, happy kids.

Lisa

News from last weekend - some lovely quilty content

As many of you know, last week I was at the Abbotford quilt show, Quilts in the Valley at Tradex.

It was my last show with my shop, Threads in Motion, which is now in the final stages of closing down. It was a great weekend! I got to spend a little time with some of my quilt show friends from The Secret Workshop, To be Quilting, Longarmsupplies.com and others. I finally got a chance to meet Rhonda of Quilt Nut Creations and Quilted Cats Hideaway - We've been corresponding for well over a year, so it was nice to finally meet in person!

The show was busy and fun. Beautifully hung in a great space! The guild had arranged with both the Mission and Abbotsford museum societies to show vintage textiles and quilting/sewing related artifacts...there were countless sewing machines (both those belonging to members' private collections and the museum societies), many lovely quilts, and other related notions, publications, etc. I could have cheerfully spent the whole weekend at that end of the building combing over that display.

The second morning of the show I had a chance to walk around and have a good look at the quilts before things opened. I was really pleased to find a blue ribbon on the above quilt of Lois Brown's! It is a first prize for best in category, Commercially Quilted. How lovely!

Later in the day they announced the winners for the Canadian Quilter's Association ribbons, and Lois's name came over the loudspeaker again! I was thrilled! We got to have our picture taken together in front of her lovely quilt - and she gave me the blue ribbon.

I really can't express what that means to me.

I've been quilting for quite some time now, and this is the first ribbon given to me from a customer. Thanks so much Lois, you touched my heart.

I wish that I hadn't had to close all those beautiful, perfect appliqué stitches into the quilt...Lois is a master at hand appliqué. If you get a chance to see her work, you should take advantage of it!

Happy weekend,

Lisa

House finished, yesterday at noon

I am tremendously glad of two things.

1) The house is done.

2) I did not have to paint it.

:)
Lisa

Today's progress...

Painting - day 2

More changes

We're getting our current house painted in hopes that it might be a little more attractive to prospective buyers....

I'll keep you posted.

:)

Lisa

More privy progress....

Not so private privy....



This could use some walls, wouldn't you say?









View from the inside, as it's going together... (photo by youngest)

















In it's final glory.

With a roof. Don't you just love this door?

:)



Lisa

Photos from last week

I thought I'd share some of our beautiful spring weather....
here's some photos of our apple tree in bloom









Aren't these blossoms just gorgeous?






I had some company as I worked, she followed me from tree to tree, wiggling the branches and making it hard to take photos.

This is her in the crab apple tree.











The crab apple has been amazing. It looked like it was all peppermint frosting or fluffy ice-cream.


And our weather last week was phenomenal.

Wouldn't this be a great colour palette for a quilt?

:)
Lisa