HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year from our house to yours.

Audrey & John

The Quilt Saga

About 3 weeks or so before Christmas my Grandaughter Amanda decided she wanted to make her mother Carolyn a quilt for Christmas. King size would you believe. Since it was to be a surprise she asked if it could be made at my house. Oh sure I say as she assured me she has done the smaller ones in 3 days. So I think it could be done in about two weeks if we both get at it.Well, Miss Amanda has school, a job and exams for college, and her mother has her running here, there and everywhere with her, and Amanda the good girl she is had to go with her. Mean while the squares have been cut and laid out on my living room floor to see if we had enough cut and enough fabric.As it turned out we were a bit short on the one color. There it sat for a good week until she could come back with the extra fabric. Time was ticking closer to Christmas, I had no shopping done,no tree up, and I had to go into The Twelve Days of Christmas at TSF, and nothing done for that. I was stressed to say the least.
The squares finally got stacked into rows and taken to my craft room one row at a time and laid out on the floor again so the rows wouldn't get mixed up.


This next picture is out of turn but here she is clipping.Every square had to be clipped on all four sides.


There were many hours at the sewing machine, sewing the squares together. She had to sneak the sewing machine out of her house and tell many little white lies as to why it wasn't at home when her mom needed it for some design team thing she was doing, along with the cutting mat and cutter. Poor Monty and Amanda took the brunt of that and my ears where ringing as well.



Below she has her happy face on as I am sewing the last of the quilt together. It took two of us to do it as it was getting very heavy to maneuver

Below is the quilt folded in half as it was too large to lay over the sofa.


After this was all done she decided she needed to have two king size pillow shams and two accent pillows for the bed. Oh no, I think, we will never get this done on time,but I am not going to be a spoil sport so here we go again and get that all done too. I was so glad to see all this finished I forgot to take pictures of the shams and accent pillows. Oh well, maybe next time.

The 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop

Welcome to day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop with Two Scrapbook Friends. You should have arrived here from Joanne's blog.

This is the first blog hop I have ever participated in. I hope you enjoyed yesterday's stop at Joanne's blog. Today I am going to show you some gift card holder ideas.

My holders are made from left over patterned paper and cardstock that I have in my scrap paper folders. For the holder below I used a Spellbinder die cut and a cute little stamp that I embossed and then pen stitched around the edge.

On this one I used stretchy gold cord that wraps around the back to help keep the holder closed and the scalloped circle is cut with my Cricut.

This one has many folds to give it a 3D look!

My favourite is this one.

I hope my gift card holders give you some inspiration to create some of your own. Go to your scrap folders and bins and pull out some of your scraps or stop into Two Scrapbook Friends and pick up some of the great Christmas papers and embellishments they have. Either way, have fun!

Your second secret word is YEAR and tomorrow you will visit Avril's blog for the third day of the hop!

Be sure to leave a comment on each of the blogs you visit in order to qualify for a prize. I hope you enjoy the next 10 days of the hop!

Thank you for checking out my blog on The 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Blog Hop With Two Scrapbook Friends

The countdown to Christmas is here and with that in mind, your friends at Two Scrapbook Friends invite you to countdown the 12 Days of Christmas Creations with them. Each day a member of the Two Scrapbook Friends team and a few special friends will share with you some of the projects and inspiration that they have created to celebrate the Season.

Beginning on December 10th at 8 am, you can begin the hop at the first Friend's blog where you can be inspired and leave a comment. That blog will then tell you where you need to hop to on the next day!

You will need to hop from blog to blog leaving a comment on each in order to qualify to be in a draw for a special prize from Two Scrapbook Friends! Also, you will find a SECRET word on each blog which will make a special phrase at the end of the Blog Hop! Once the 12 days of hopping are complete you can email the phrase to us and we will enter you for another ballot to win!

The hop will remain open from December 10th to December 22nd at midnight (EST). Winners will be announced on December 23rd on the Two Scrapbook Friends' blog.

The master blog list is listed below so you don't miss a single inspiring creation!

1st Day of Christmas: Joanne (10th)

2nd Day of Christmas: Audrey (11th)

3rd Day of Christmas: Avril (12th)

4th Day of Christmas: Christa (13th)

5th Day of Christmas: Dee (14th)

6th Day of Christmas: Jan (15th)

7th Day of Christmas: Jayne (16th)

8th Day of Christmas: Sharon (17th)

9th Day of Christmas: Shelby (18th)

10th Day of Christmas: Tammy (19th)

11th Day of Christmas: Carolyn (20th)

12th Day of Christmas: Two Scrapbook Friends Blog (21st)

Have fun celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas Creations with the Two Scrapbook Friends team!

Another Day Trip

Our day trip this time took us to Orangeville Ont.We never know what we will find on our day trips. This time it was Batman's car. As we drove into town I spotted it right away sitting on the street.How could you miss it. It even had fake guns on the front fenders. What a cool car.

Orangeville has carvings all over the town made out of tree trunks.Below are two of the many that we saw.



While in the area, we also took in the Forks of The Credit and the Bad Lands. Several movies have been made here in the Band Lands. This is worth the trip to the Caledon area alone.

We also went to the Rockwood Conservation Area. It is a beautiful park to visit any time of the year.

The old Woollen Mills.







If you are ever looking for something to do, take the drive to Rockwood. You won't be disappointed.

Day Trip

On Friday John and I decided to drive to Grand Bend for something to do. We walked the main street and then along the board walk by the beach. On the left side of the board walk were these vacation homes and their lawns were dotted with these colourful lawn chairs.

It was very hot on Friday and we worked up a thirst and an appetite.


A tall cool one for John ,


And a Pina Colada for me.


and Nachos to share. Yum.


Since we came this far our trip then went to Bayfeild and the above picture is one of the Inn's on the main street.

From there we went to Goderich, and after we have our Fish and Chip dinner that we pick up at the pier we drive down to the beach and watch the Highland Pipers play until sunset. They start about one hour before sunset and play until the sun is gone.

One cannot go to Goderich without staying for the sun to set. This is not one of the better sunsets that I have seen but it is still beautiful just the same.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

Quote Of The Day

A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.

Arabian Proverb

Toronto

On Saturday John and I had the opportunity to see a musical at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts and it was called "next to normal". But before we went, we took a walk up University Ave then over to the Eaton Centre. John used to work on University Ave. so it's been awhile since we have been in that part of the city, so it was nice to go back and see the changes.

This church is right in behind the Eaton Centre. It is surrounded by high rise buildings. There used to be a parking lot behind the church but not any more. The surrounding buildings had to be built in such a way that the sun could still shine on the church and into the stained glass windows.


This photo shows the Eaton Centre steps away.

The next two photos show the gardens in the center of University Ave. Very refreshing to see this in a city such as Toronto.




Entrance way to Canada Life Insurance




This last photo is the theater that we attended. Excellent show.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

Castle Kilbride

There is lots to do around the KW area if you just take the time to look for it, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money to do it. On Thursday we had record breaking temperatures and instead of staying in the air conditioned house we went to Castle Kilbride in Baden for music on the lawn. It was hand clapping toe tappin music, and it turned out that we new the lead singer. Bonus.


I don't know the history behind Castle Kilbride but it is an impresive place.


This is the group that were entertaining us and they are local and call themselves the Hanker Chiefs. A very good group.

We took my grand daughter with us and she had a lot of fun posing for grandma. This one is at the gazebo.

She found money in the wish fountain and since I didn't have any change she reached in and got some then tossed it back in with her wish.




She is such a little sweet heart. Love you P.

Waterloo Central Railway

On Tuesday my dh and I decided to be a tourist and take the local train to St Jacobs. Our trip started at the station (that I forgot to take a picture of), in Waterloo. It takes you past Waterloo Park and a lot of the Rim buildings. You get to see parts of the city that you would never get to see unless you were on the train. It slowly meanders through farmers fields, over creeks and past the Waterloo Market on up to St. Jacobs. At St.Jacobs we could get off and stay there for two hr. and then catch the next train back to the market. Since it was so hot we stayed on the train and came back to the market.

At the market we had our lunch, picked up some fresh veggies and of course some fresh rhubarb and after two hr. headed back to the train for our trip home.













As you can see our train has air conditioning. The windows are all open. These are all antique cars.


Our very friendly ticket taker. I really think he loves what he does in his retirement years.


These trains have a lot of wood in them. The windows are all wood frames and the part above the windows is also wood.


Thanks for looking. Until next time........