Mud, Maple & Fabric

The Maple Open House weekend was as expected... lots of yummy maple and lots of sticky mud. Jed's had their line of tasty product out to sample. We had our sugar-on-snow, warmed up in the sugar house, made our purchases and walked back to Eric's folks house. We even got a little free entertainment by watching the flatlanders try to take a muddy dirt road at 50 mph. hee-hee.

Corie and Zakary trying to chew their sugar-on-snow

The Shop Hop was great. I have already started another project with some of my new fabric. I posted the pictures on a Picasa album in case anyone is interested. Our first stop was Knits and Bolts. We had initially scratched it from the list due to its out of the way location, but a previous promise of a pecan pie to be delivered to my cuz, Sandy, had us reroute our trip. We were rewarded with a wonderful shopping experience. The shop had an amazing selection of fabric (and yarn for you knitter/crocheters), and to top it off they had a long table full of goodies for the shop hoppers (which included hot coffee and Girl Scout cookies). We hit four more shops before the day was over. We arrived home exhausted, hungry and poor, but with our minds buzzing with all the great fabrics and amazing projects we had seen.

Eric & Zakary working on the driveway.... again

While on our shopping trip we listed to The Water Mirror on CD. The story was great but instead of ending it just sort of stopped. A quick check on the internet explained why. It turned out to be the first book of The Dark Reflections trilogy by Kai Meyer, and now we were both hooked. Since then I have read the last two books of the trilogy, and I highly recommend them. They are written for 9-12 year olds but so were the Harry Potter books, and I couldn't put those down either.

SpRinG FEveR

Spring fever has hit Vermont! We are in the middle of mud season and loving it. Corie and Zaky have been outside everyday in the mud and puddles. They come in exhausted and sleep like babies at bed time. It's worth the extra (muddy) laundry to be able to skip that eternal argument, "but I'm not sleepy...". Eric has been doing what he does every year at this time... draining the excess water from the driveway by making little channels everywhere. I caught Zaky doing the same thing with his florescent plastic hoe last Monday. Eric explained that he and Zaky are genetically programed to do that, and if I called his Mom and asked her what his Dad was doing at that exact moment she would say he is draining the driveway.Spring fever hits me a little differently. Usually I'd be planning my garden (even though nothing can go in until mid May), but this year I am celebrating the coming of Spring with my Mom via the Vermont Shop Hop. Nothing says Spring like buying a bunch of fabric! We started last Saturday and will finish up this Saturday. What fun!

This is at the Norton House in Wilmington, Vermont

This is at A Quilter's Garden in Montpelier, Vermont

So what am I doing with all this gorgeous fabric? I made an apron for Cheryl (I forgot to take a picture), some coasters for Pat, and I finally finished my first purse. I found a free tutorial on the blog, Ric-Rac. It gave great step by step instructions. The applique design is from the Piece o' Cake book Applique Delights.

Eric has finished his third year of classes. He hasn't been notified of his final grade yet, but we are sure it is an A. The only question is whether it is the highest in the class. Just one more year of classes!

Another sign of Spring is sugaring season. We will probably head up to Eric's folks house next week to enjoy Jed's open house. I highly recommend his Maple Mudd, Maple Cotton Candy, Maple Apple Chutney and Maple Shakers. In fact, I recommend EVERYTHING that they make! Of course I may have a maple bias as I have been known to sip maple syrup from a shot glass, but that doesn't make me a bad person, does it?!

Post holiday blahs...

We are finally near the end of January, and I couldn't be happier about that. The subfreezing temperatures, gray skies and empty wallets contribute to my feeling of malaise. There is one nice thing about winter, and that is Calcifer, the flame in our new pellet stove. We named him after the character in Howl's Moving Castle, and we love him! We have been up to less than usual lately. Corie celebrated her 10th birthday and has been asserting her 'tweenhood through peace signs and pouting. Aunt Chris called it the beginning of the "payback stage". Zakary has been testing the boundaries lately, and he received his first bare bum spanking from me for his efforts. I can't say he is back to his angelic self, but he is now aware of how far he can push me. Eric has been working every weekend, and on the one weekend he had off one of our pipes froze. He worked his plumbing magic so it wouldn't happen again. He had to rip out part of the ceiling in Manland to get to the pipe, and now he wants to redo the whole basement this summer. I didn't share his enthusiasm for this new project, but he has bribed me with the promise of a laundry room and utility sink... So he has now received project approval. I have been spending most of my time on the computer (which is strategically place directly across from Calcifer). I'm at the tail end of a slides to jpegs project that was started years ago. I have also been on facebook lately catching up with old friends and acquaintances. After hearing about about every ones accomplishments I decided it was time to get my sewing room in order and get back to work. Here are a few of the Christmas presents that I made this year. I try to learn a new sewing technique with each project... mostly I learn what not to do. I should mention that the two guys on the ends were made from sketches from Molly Chicken's Flickr photos. Her blog is so inspiring.

I guess I've inflicted enough boring on you for one day.

What a great Christmas

It's hard to believe after weeks of preparation the holidays have come and gone. What a flurry of fun! We spent Christmas day with Eric's folks, Bob and Cheryl, and my Mom. Our neighbor, Cathy, and her son, Ryan came over for a bit also. Ryan is Zakary's best friend, and they are so cute together. The funnest (I don't care if that's a proper word) gift was the Wii. It is just as much fun to watch others play as it is to play it yourself. Corie got a digital video recorder and spent most of the day recording people and cat butts. The day went by way to fast, and around 5pm Corie's dad came to pick her up, Mom left for home, and Bob & Cheryl took Zakary with them for the weekend. Eric and I decided to take advantage of our child free weekend... He headed down to Manland to play on his Xbox, and I headed up my sewing room to finish making the gifts for my cousins. Every once in a while we would run into each other in the kitchen, and that suited us just fine. The next weekend we had Christmas' at my Mom's. It was hard to get Zakary away from her Christmas displays long enough to get him to open presents. Her place looked great... at least until Zaky started rearranging everything. If you want to see what it looked like prior to a Zak check out her facebook page. Mom spoiled us... especially me. I got lots of great vintage (and new) kitchen and sewing stuff. And just when we thought it couldn't get any better.... my Dad, Pat and Amber came up this last weekend. This was a dual purpose visit (install new pellet stove & rip open Christmas presents). While the boys were hard at work installing the new stove we girls did our part by getting out of their hair. We went to JoAnn's where I spent the gift card that Bob & Cheryl gave me for Christmas. We also hit a Hallmark that was going out of business. Dad and Eric finished the installation our new pellet stove. It's beautiful, and we love it! It almost makes winter bearable.Corie came home from Christmas with her dad's family on Sunday, and we opened our presents. We got spoiled all over again. I got two great new craft books that I can't wait to put to good use! It was a great visit but it went by way to fast. We are going to spend this weekend getting the house back together. It's been non-stop since Christmas and we still have ALL of the gifts in our living room and dining room. My guess is there will be more playing than cleaning, but that's okay. Oh, by the way Pat, you forgot your Bailey's in the 'fridge. Don't worry. We will save it for you. ha-ha.

All they want for Christmas...

We made this video of the kids telling Santa what they want for Christmas. It seemed like a good idea. It took us 5 tries to get this final product. It isn't perfect, but it is perfectly Zak and Corie. BTW - I've never uploaded a video, so if anyone has any problems viewing this just pop me an email.

It's beginning to look a lil' bit like Christmas!

When I was young (insert joke here) December crawled by. Do you remember those days? I am reminded because my kids ask me every single day, "How long 'til Christmas?" We both agonize over the answer... it's too far for them and too close for me. We have just about finished our shopping. We did almost all of it on the internet this year, and I LOVED it. In fact I actually prefer ishopping to actual shopping. No pushing crowds, no whining kids, and the shops actually have what they are advertising. I do have some homemade gifts to complete though. Well, complete is not accurate, because I haven't actually started my sewing projects yet. The kids have finished their homemade gifts though. Here's a picture of them rolling up their lemon soap balls... Grandparents, look surprised when you open them!

We did have some non-holiday activities planned this weekend. Saturday morning we went to a model train show in Winooski. Zakary was the most excited, but we all enjoyed it.After the train show we brought Corie to her first basketball practice. She was actually pretty good, but in the middle of practicing passes she ran off the court in tears. We calmed her down, and she agreed to go back on court and finish the session. Luckily she wasn't the only one that cried, and by the time practice came to an end she was enjoying herself again. Whew!
We put the tree up on Saturday night and then commenced decorating it. Zakary would pick up an ornament and circle the tree several times before finding the perfect branch to hang it on. Apparently we only have two perfect branches on the tree, and they now house about 15 ornaments a piece. Corie spent most of the night telling Zakary not to hang all the ornaments on the same two branches, and when he ignored her she would tell me that Zakary was hanging all the ornaments on the same two branches. Eric would then comment on how all my elves looked demonic and then return to watching television. So basically it was same ol' same ol'.

Demonic?! I don't know what he is talking about.

To late to be early for Christmas

We really tried to start our Christmas shopping early this year, but now it looks like the best we can hope for is to be on time. We finally got the call that our name has reached the top of the Harman pellet stove waiting list, and we are expecting to have one delivered within the next two weeks. We had to move the living room around to accommodate the upcoming addition, and as with everything in life it turned out to be a bigger project than anticipated. You see there is only one spot in our living room that meets the specs for the pellet stove and our two 7-foot bookshelves were there and... there was only one place in the living room where we could fit those two 7-foot bookshelves and... our computer desk was there and... there was only one place to put the computer desk and... we had two 4-foot bookshelves holding two aquariums on top of them, so I guess you know how we spent the last two weekends. We did it right though and went through everything instead of just moving it all. Oh, the things I found on that desk. Three blank wedding cards, several blank birthday cards, a blank Mother's day card, the receipt for Bimbo (my cat who died over 6 years ago and who I acquired almost 18 years ago), and the post office receipt for the package that Amber never received (don't worry, Amber, I'm on it).
We got the Wall-e dvd, and Zakary hasn't wanted to watch anything else (not even Toy Trains). Corie enjoyed it also, but after Zak put it in for the third time she decided to retreat to her room to make things out of our garbage. You should see the lovely Mother's day present that she made out of an old tampon box. The first thing she does when her dad drops her off is go into our recycle bin to see what she can salvage. Oh, the things that girl can do with an egg carton!
Our Saturn has been deposited at the junkyard, and fearing that he would only have two cars to work on every weekend Eric has been on the look out for another car. He and his father, Bob, went to a junk car auction. They actually called it a used car auction, but if you saw what Eric (tried) to bring home you would agree with me. I say tried because it died on it's maiden voyage and will be towed to our mechanics before actually seeing it's new home. You know you are in trouble when the title labels it as an "abandoned" car. I'm sure between Eric & Randy, our mechanic, the new Saturn will be up and running which is good because our Taurus needs to go back to the shop... and now you know why we always need 3 cars!