Our Florida adventure - Part 5

The day after Discovery Cove we headed to Seaworld - the boys absolutely love it there! Not only did we get lots of great pictures, but we got soaked by Shamu AND came home with TWO MORE MANATEES.

After Seaworld we headed to Tavares to stay with Grandma and Grandpa for a relaxing week - we needed a rest before heading home!

Our Florida adventure - Part 4

Our day at Discovery Cove was really amazing! Not only did we get to swim with a dolphin, but we also got to swim with tropical fish and stingrays, feed tropical birds and float along on the lazy river. The food was amazing and the surroundings were so beautiful that it was so hard to believe that we were still in the middle of Orlando!! At the end of our day we were so tired but so sad to see it end - what a truly wonderful experience!

The sting ray pool.

The sloth came to greet us at the front gate.

One of the waterfalls throughout the park.

Mike and the boys in the lazy river.

Our Florida adventure - Part 3

After leaving Cocoa beach we headed to Orlando for our big day at Discovery Cove. Here we had a dolphin encounter with Lester, the 42 year old dolphin.

Our Florida adventure - Part 2

While in Cocoa Beach we spent one day at the Kennedy Space Center - what a place for two little boys!!

Here is Aidan with the meteor he wanted to buy - I think it was only around $2000!!!

That's the Space Shuttle on the launch pad behind us - twe would have seen the launch if it hadn't been delayed for 4 days

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Our 2009 Florida Adventure - Part 1

Every year, for March Break, we head down to Florida to visit my parents and to get some much needed family relaxation time. This year was no different! For our first week we rented a condo in Cocoa Beach at the Las Olas Vacation Club - what a great place to stay - we highly recommend it.

Every day we spent the morning at the beach, then came back to the resort for a swim in the nice warm pool.

Here is our winning entry in the Sand Sculpture contest- the pyramids of Giza (with a few modifications).

And more Camelot quilts!!

Here are the final few projects that we made for Camelot Cottons. By the end of this job, Nellie and I were like a well oiled machine. We would meet for a couple hours to decide what to do with the fabric, to start cutting and piecing. Usually Nellie would finish piecing the top and then bring it to me for quilting. After quilting each quilt I would deliver it back to Nellie who would sew on the binding and hanging sleeve and then one of us would hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. All of the projects were finished and in the mail by April 22nd - the day before Nellie left for Toronto. Well, we've always said that we work well under pressure!!!

For the second colourway of the Bridgewater line we made a tablerunner, placemats and napkins - they turned out very festive.

This was my favourite quilt of all the projects we made this time - this Medallions fabric also comes in a red colourway as well as a green colourway but I LOVE this blue version - I wanted to keep this quilt!! But luckily we have some leftover fabrics, so I'm making a tablerunner for myself.

More Camelot quilts

After we got three of the Camelot projects made, another package of fabric arrived - only about 20 metres or so - of another three lines of fabric! They needed all of these quilts made and delivered to them by the beginning of May and Nellie and I had to be in Toronto from April 23-26th - so we had our work cut out for us. But we got them all done! Here are a few more of the finished products.

Dancing Bugz II

From the Garden

What I've been up to continued...

So Reason #3 for not posting on my blog for the last few months is that Nellie and I had lots of quilts to make for Camelot Cottons!! At the beginning of February we received a huge box of fabrics from 4 of their new lines - they needed quilts made and patterns written for each. These patterns are offered as free downloads on their website: http://www.camelotcottons.com/ . Here are a couple of the finished quilts.

Aztec Cowboy

Bridgewater

These quilts are now in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to be exhibited in the Camelot Cottons booth at International Quilt Market. We'll have to get Elana at Camelot to take some pictures of their booth so we can see all of our quilts in action!!

What I've been up to...

So, there are a few good reasons that I haven't posted for the last couple months. Reason #1 is that i was in Florida on holidays for 2 weeks in March. Reason #2 is that Nellie and I had to get ready for the CreativFestival in Toronto - we were sharing the booth with A Needle Pulling Thread magazine and had lots to prepare before we went. Here are the two new punchneedle patterns that I debuted there. The first is Frisky Feline and the second is Coneflowers. Both use Valdani's wonderful Three-strand hand overdyed embroidery floss - the patterns aren't up on my website yet, but I do have the Valdani floss as well as other punchneedle supplies - you can find them on: http://www.uppercanadaquiltworks.com/fairfieldroaddesigns/pages/punchneedle.html

OMG I'm 39!!!

Yesterday was my birthday - I've turned 39 - my first year of "39 and holding" I guess. Funny that I don't feel like I am approaching my fourties. I also don't feel like I've been married for 15 years this year, or that my "baby" just turned 8, or that we have been living in our house for 11 years, or that our dear dog Casey died a whole year ago. When you think about it, they are all just a big bunch of numbers! It's funny how one day can seem so long, and then a year can go by in a flash! But I know everyone feels that same way, what's important it what you do with each day. So I have decided to make the most of this year before I turn 40 - I went for a bike ride this morning (only 35 minutes but it felt like hours), and I wrote down everything I ate like a good Weight Watcher (well everything except the last piece of birthday cake - I REALLY shouldn't have to count that). My goal is to lose another 20 pounds before I reach 40 - wish me luck!!!