Let it Snow??

It may be pretty out there, but this snow has caused much havoc. My parents were due to arrive last night, however, the bad weather in St. John's caused so much delay that their flight was cancelled at 1:30am. They are on a flight today to Vancouver and then hopefully they can make the 9:00pm ferry to Victoria. If not, then at least they can catch the 7:ooam ferry on Xmas morning.

We did get some snow last night - but now it is melting as fast as it came.

Everybody keep their fingers crossed that my parents do indeed make the 9:00pm ferry tonight!!

Defeated by Shortbread...

This weekend is baking weekend. Unfortunately I have been defeated... by shortbread. The 3 ingredients in shortbread are out to get me. Every year I try and make shortbread and every year it doesn't turn out. This year it is the worst year ever. I am not sure what goes wrong, but it has this terrible after taste. I use fresh ingredients. I follow the recipe. And no joy. Maybe it is my stupid little hand held mixer. One day I will buy a Kitchen Aid mixer... one day... Maybe that will produce good shortbread.

New Layout

Okay - I was bored with my blog design... so I am in the process of changing it. Any suggestions? What do you think so far??

Well, the results are in... my sister and I got Olympic tickets. We didn't do too badly... we missed out on getting speed skating tickets, so I was slightly disapointed. Oh well, this is what we got:

- 2 tickets to the Pairs Free Skate
- 2 tickets to the Men Free Skate
- 4 tickets to the Ladies Short Program
- 2 tickets to Women's Preliminary hockey
- 8 tickets to the Women's Bronze Medal hockey - will be selling some tickets
- 4 tickets to the Women's Gold Medal hockey
- 2 tickets to the Men's Preliminary hockey
- 2 tickets to the Men's Curling Tournament
- 2 tickets to the Women's Curling Tournament
- 2 tickets to the Aerial Ladies Final

Still in a little shock that we didn't get any speed skating... or any tickets to the aerial men's finals.

Wreath Making Class

On Sunday, I went to the annual wreath making class with my friend. Here is how our wreaths turned out... not bad!

4 Weeks Until X-Mas

Well, my life has been pretty crazy. Since my last post, I have been traveling all over the island for work. I spent a lot of time in Port Alberni, which I loved. If you ever get a chance to stop there, eat at the Crab Bucket... wonderful food and service.

Once I returned home, I have been busy getting ready for X-Mas. I have been making gifts, but don't want to spoil the surprise, so I will post pictures after X-Mas. I also have been making lots of towels and other gifts. My good friend Rowena had a baby shower this past weekend and I made her 2 towels and 3 bibs - all with some Beatrix Potter fabric. Everything turned out beautifully and I was extremely proud to give them to her.




The next couple weeks are going to be a bit nuts... we have a bunch of pre-Xmas parties to attend and getting the house ready for my family's visit. My sister is flying in from London and I have a big to-do list for us. We are going to be redecorating my office. So stayed tuned for posts about how it turns out.

Hope everyone is doing well! I will try and post more of the stuff that I am making and doing over the next couple weeks!

Weekend in Calgary

Anna looking cool in Auntie's sunglasses

I am back in Victoria - it was very hard to leave Calgary! I had a great time visiting all my nieces and nephew. I love them all very much! I posted some pictures on my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arianephillips - go check out how cute all the kids are!

It is going to be hard not to be in Calgary for Christmas... My mother, father and sister will be at our house this year. It's always a good time, but when I have small nieces and now a nephew - I feel like I will be missing out! Oh well - there will be other trips!

All my babies - Madison, Anna and Matthew

Sewing Projects - More Bibs and some frusteration

A weekend full of sewing for me! I made a bunch of bibs for more friends that have had babies last week. I am so very glad to hear that all my friends all had very healthy babies and everybody is doing great!

So, check out the bibs... I have to put the snaps on them (doing them now, but it's noisy so I need to take a break). There are a couple that are missing in the photo because I already wrapped them. I am now giving 3 bibs away to the new families. This is because I have had so many compliments on the bibs and I am not sure about the burp clothes.

I also attempted to make our nephew little booties... it didn't go so well. I think it is because I am a visual learner and I can't quite picture exactly what I am suppose to be doing from the instructions (they are all written - no pretty pictures for me). I screamed and yelled at the booties, but they wouldn't cooperate. This is what happened to one of them last night...

I'll take the booties to my mom's house and she can help me sort it out. I think my problem is that I may have put the velcro strips on incorrectly. Maybe. I'm not too sure.

I'm off to Calgary for a short visit. I have some big plans while I am there:
1. Take Anna to gymnastics - Wednesday
2. Meet Matthew - Wednesday
3. Take Madison swimming or to the zoo - Thursday
4. Hang out with Dave (my best friend and Madison's dad) - Thursday night
5. Finish the booties and baby towel for the baby shower - Friday night?? Unless needing to get wasted with friends?
6. Hang out with my cousin Laura - Saturday
7. Go to Tracy's baby shower with Matthew - Saturday - Have to drag Laura along too
8. Hang out with the Fam-damily - Sunday

Fefff... big plans! See you when I get back! Hopefully I will have successful booties pictures!

Dirty 30...

You guessed it... it was my birthday and I turned 30 this year. db and I had a good weekend. He was playing baseball in Nanaimo, so we ended up staying at this resort. It was spectacular. Lots of wicked views of the ocean from our suite and best of all they had a pool and hot tubs! One hot tub was outside in a waterfall surrounding... it was awesome. We will definitely be going back there!

I was spoiled rotten and will be getting a new computer! Good bye screaming at our old pc... hello learning how to use a mac!

In other news... more friends had babies... that meant more gifts to make. Okay people... can you please slow down! I can't keep up!

On the Road Again

Couple things...

1. I won't be posting as much OR sewing as much because I am traveling all over the island again for work. I tried to take my sewing machine with me this week... I got ZERO sewing done. Booo hooo...

2. MY FIELD! MY BEAAAUUTTIFULLL FIELD! It has been torn up by some darn farmer. I hope he grows something cool like pumpkins!


3. Sears Pictures (see sample below)... Check out my friends at our last ball tournament here. We had a great time and will be back at the tournament again next year.


4. Kayaking photos from our 3 day trip... okay... I didn't take many... here it is! My mom paddling away!


Well - I hope you all have a great weekend! We are off to another ball tournament in Union Bay. Wish us luck!