Christmas, my favourite time of year!

So I must start off by apologizing for the delay in my posts. After all these years I decided to get another degree, so last year I started taking some online courses towards my Bachelors of Health Sciences degree. As of next week I will be completely done all the three courses I am taking this semester and will only have 1 course left to take in January. Thank goodness!! Unfortunately... or I would prefer to say fortunately, Christmas is coming quickly and so all the wonderful tasks that accompany this festive time of year call my name!

This week I baked 16 dozen whipped shortbread cookies, 6 dozen sugar cookies which I let my kids decorate, 12 dozen double chocolate mint chip cookies, and biscotti all in one day. My kitchen was like a baking factory and I loved it. Of course my husband and kids had to "taste test" every batch that came out of the oven so that they could give me their "stamp of approval" and check, check, check I passed! I also baked some mystery appetizers, they were super good, in fact so good that I had to do a second set cause we ended up eating the first round. 

Shortbread!

I enjoyed watching my two little ones decorate the sugar cookies. Kayleigh, my 6 year old slowly iced each cookie and stratgically placed the decoration on the cookies so that they would look elegant. She is my artsy farts girl. Sydney on the other hand is my three year old that would try and put every single sparkle she had in the bowl all on one cookie till I finally took the cookie away and gave her a new one. They are so fun to bake with. 

 Now that the baking had been started I moved onto decorating my house. I didn't decorate to the extreme this year like I do every other year because of my school work load, had I not had that on my mind our house would have been done from top to bottom. My husband says I am like a Christmas Elf, everything has to be perfectly decorated with lights everywhere. I was lucky to come home one day this week with our yard completely decorated. It is beautiful. One of these years I am going to switch all my lights over to being all one colour on the tree however my husband insists that it be multi coloured. I think it was what he was raised with. He is very much a traditional kind of man. Here is a picture of my tree, its not the best picture, but it gives you an idea.

In our family its a tradition to hand make our stockings, so as our family grew I would make a stocking for our house and one for my mom's. Last year I only had the chance to do up one Sydney so I left it at moms knowing that I was going to make up another for our house. Needless to say the year has flown by and I had yet to do it so, last night I started. Here is a sneak preview. I will show you the completed stocking once completed.

 Now that I have pulled out my Christmas quilts we can snuggle up to the fire with a warm cup of coco and watch some of those Christmas classics we so enjoy. I have to say that the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is still one of my favourites. My kids love the movie Elf, and my husband all time classic is the old black and white version of scrooge we watch it every Christmas without fail after the kids are asleep.

Here is one last picture I will leave you with. This was my little one sleeping last night, it was so adorable that I couldn't help but snap a photo.

So as I finish this long winded blog I wish you all happy shopping, baking and wrapping! Have a great week!

~Coleen~

Cloth, Paper, Scissors, Fun, Fun, Fun!

I spent the eventing last night fiddling around with some paper crafts. My goal this year is to give a home made gift to everyone that we need to do a gift exchange with. So.... I decided to make christmas ornaments to add to the top of each of my gifts. 

These ornaments are easy to make, and you can use any paper of your choice. All you need is one 3" styrofoam ball, a 12x12 sheet of paper, and a box of pins. 

I have discovered using wingtip needles and a circular sewer. What fun!! I am currently in the process of making a throw for my mom. The front will consist of a variety of large circles that will contain a mishmash of decorative stitches. This is a great way to use those decorative stitches that your machine comes with that most often go unused. The back of the throw will have long lines of decorative stitches that will either go vertical or horizontal. The sky is the limit. Its so fun to be creative. I will post a pic when I am all done. I currently have lots of blocks to make. Here is a sneak peek at what I currently have done so far.

This next year I will be venturing out and challenging myself to discover new quilting items and different ways of bringing quilted fiber art to our lives. 

I challenge you to join me!

Cheers, 

Coleen 

Okanagan Mountains

As winter quickly approaches in the Okanagan so do the clouds. The other day I was coming back from town and the sun was shining so brilliantly in one spot on the lake I couldn't help but stop and take a picture. I loved the texture of the clouds, the misty illusion over the mountain, while up close you see the intense colour of the leaves. I think that this will be my next fiber art piece. 

A fall morning in Peachland, BC all copyrights reserved

Currently I am working on completing my Bachelors of Health Sciences Degree so my sewing time has been cut drastically. I often say to my husband while I am working on my studies... "Do you hear it... my sewing machine is calling my name..." he always gets a kick out of it. I do try however to quilt or do my fiber art for at least 1-2 hours a day. I find its best after the kids are gone to bed. Its always challenging to balance a persons work and hobby life. Last week I sold a large portion of my postcards, cards and fiber art so I am down to a minimal supply, which is why there is not much on my site at this point. I will however have lots of time over Christmas so you will see lots of fabulous things come January.  Currently I am working on a few pieces for some classes I will be teaching come January. I think that the group will be excited, I know I am.

Here's a post card I did up last night. My goal this year was to send out christmas postcards rather than letters to all my friends and family, this way they had a small piece of me coming through the mail. I know that my relatives will keep what I send them for years.

All of my mom's siblings are incredible at art and music. Some of them carve wood, lime stone etc..., while others paint. Several years ago they did a show called 7 sisters and 2 brothers where each of the siblings displayed their art. The show was a huge success. Since my mom has sold paintings which are all around the world. I often ask her if she would ever like to quilt with me and her response is No way... She spent hours sewing barbie clothes for us and to sell when we were small and since then she has not sat at a sewing machine since. Though I cannot fully understand why anyone would not love to quilt, however she is passionate about painting and I am happy for her.

Now I must get back to the books so that I can spend time with my sewing machine tonight!

Take care,
Coleen