let it snow!
let it snow!
let it snow!

well, we had our first real snow today!

i guess we were due, it is november 30th after all!

i've pulled out a few of the decorations, i'll post some pics later this week.

Holy Spirit Essay Done!

some fall canning!

well, Maryann and I had been collecting mason jars of all sizes over the entire summer.

our homes were swimming with them, and we finally had last Saturday set to get those jars filled.

then, Mary came down with the dreaded flu.

So, the plans changed. To my house all the jars arrived and the 3 huge bags of tomatoes that Maryann had bought. Carla came over with all her bean supplies and Robyn met up with us halfway through the day.

Lots of beans, apples and tomatoes cut and peeled and blanched and peeled...
inducing a large mess!


a few mishaps followed, this is me realizing that our canning pot is WAAAAY too small for most of the recipes we had planned on. So off to Canadian Tire went Carla to buy our bigger.... MUCH BIGGER canner.

Then, while sterilizing our jars, we lost a 1L wide mouth guy :(
and then when we were boiling the filled jars we lost another, imagine our surprise when we lifted the lid to reveal a lot of apples swimming around our jars!!


Here is just a small taste of the end product!

There you have some of the many number of canned tomatoes, and some apple pie in a jar,
and not pictured are pickled green beans, strawberry jam and tomato-mango salsa.

Now that I have finally done this, one to cross off the to-do-list, it seems so much easier than anticipated. Next summer we have big plans to can all kinds of fresh fruit and veggies.

Katie Geranium Update

Helloooo lovelies!!

Shop update today, two new quilts.

I have a some baby blankets and a scarf to list as well, but the battery in my camera died mid-shoot.
dang.

Those will be in the shop later today or tomorrow!

toodaloo!

Hello everyone!

Summer is over and I am back to school!
A little bit of a curve ball as I decided a week before classes started.
I am currently attending School of the Word Canada, here in Ottawa, with 15 other lovely folks. And it is soooooo exciting. God really put this in my lap at the perfect time... but more on that later, I'm not quite ready to share this story with the blogging world.

As well as being sooo excited to be in school, I am very very very pleased to announce that I have opened an etsy shop!!

Presenting...


this has been almost a year in the making, with procrastination and worries and slacker attitude.

It is currently a little sparse, but I knew that I had to get something in there, or I would never do it. I have three quilts about to be quilted together that will be appearing in the shop sometime next week, and stay tuned for some tea cozies and some more coasters.

Also, I will be switching over to a new blog sometime in the near future. I'll let you know when that actually happens!

This year is a very exciting one, I have class all morning which gives me my afternoons to do studying and work on some crafty projects, and I have gone down to part time at the hospital, so I am able to work a little, but have it not interfere with school.

I am soooooo stoked for this year!!

lets get ready for.....

SOME RELAXING!!

so, it is wednesday
i will spend tomorrow packing,
i work friday and then...

Beth and I are off to Campbellford for the weekend,
then Muskoka for some cottage time until thursday,
then Bon Echo, where we will join back up with our husbands, for some camping with some lovely friends and church family
then back to Ottawa where I work monday night...
then to Gatineau for more cottaging with family and friends
and to cap it all off the wedding of the most lovely Ashleigh and Mattie.

then back to the real world for about 5 days...

then I'm jetting off to the exciting city of Saskatoon.

may not seem exciting to all, but it is my prairie home and I get to visit with my prairie family, the Brotens!

HURRAH FOR THIS SUMMER!!!

the big spring purge!

So, this spring I have been bit by the cleaning bug... I have unloaded a few car loads of our unused belongings at Value Village... which has been making our house a little more clutter free.

After a ridiculous quest to locate a shirt yesterday morning before going to meet with my lovely Church... I decided that I needed to purge some clothes.

Taking my cue from Renovate My Wardrobe and a lot of inspiration from This Young House, I cleared everything out and like RMW, I decided to count all the items I had before and all the items I had left. It was a bit frightening really.

	Before	After
Jeans	10	5
Dress Pants	1	0
Capris	5	3
PJ Pants	4	1
Skirts	14	5
Cardigans	17	11
T-Shirts	23	12
Dressy T's	10	7
Shorts	9	4
3/4 length shirts	6	5
Sweatshirts	19	11
Thin Zips	3	2
Long Sleeve Shirts	5	1
Sleep Shirts	11	3
Tanks	11	6
Dresses	13	8
Sweatpants	3	3
Bras	13	8
Sports Bras	5	5
Socks	61	35
Undertanks	12	10
Sweaters	2	2
Long Undies - Tops	2	1
Long Undies - Bottoms	3	3
Total	262	151

So the big total difference was 111. I just got rid of 111 items of clothing that I either never wore, were too small or so old that they were kind of gross to continue wearing. Some things are heading to Value Village and some things headed straight into the garbage, and some things are being saved for crafty projects.

I would like to get rid of a bit more, but sometimes a little sentimentality will overrule. I figure if I haven't worn any summery items by the end of July, I can get rid of those as well...

sigh.......it's nice to clean house.

whoops

sorry for the long delay between postings! i realized that i have been spending my time reading other blogs and not posting on my own.

a plunge may soon be taken. it's hush hush.

“I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”

-Hugo Cabret
from The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

surprise surprise

*current background noise...project runway canada*
(this cycle filmed in Ottawa!)

so i just recently renewed my library card at the ottawa public library (after i paid off a 2 year old fine of 34 dollars - yikes!)

i've stopped in multiple times over the past few weeks, one of my newest favourite things to do is peruse the cd's and pull out any that look interesting or quaint or really pretty and i take them home to listen to. and so far the results have been fantastic!!

here are the the great new musicians i have fallen in love with:
-forest city lovers-
-ben sollee-
-sandrine-
-kate maki-
-josianne paradis-
-clap your hands say yeah-


i really like kate maki.

i've been driving around the city with her singing in my ears.

this is one line that i kept singing like this...

'is it worth its' weight in scarves?'

i thought to myself... what a lovely and clever line... then i realized it really was
'is it worth its' weight in scars?'

sometimes i like to sing the wrong words.

thom always enjoys car rides with me because i sing along to every song really loud and i keep singing even if i don't know the words. i totally just make them up to fill
in the voids!

Maryann's new quote of the week...

Ben loves to poke fun at the many Maryann quotes...
here is one from last night

Kate: 'Mary! I made a terrarium!'
Mary: 'a what?!?'
Kate: 'A TER-RARE-EE-UM!!' (said very slow and loud)
Mary: 'OH!! I love those!!'

on hindsight it doesn't seem that funny, but it sure seemed like it at the time!